D&D religious languages

[Quasqueton]

There is a "common" or "general" Good language: Celestial.

But there are two separate and often opposing Evil languages: Infernal, Abyssal.

That's kind of too bad. I picture Good religions using Celestial in their prayers, chants, ancient texts, etc. But what do Evil religions use? Both Infernal and Abyssal? Or do they choose one over the other, which can give a sense of choosing Law over Chaos (or vice versa). For instance, Nerull is NE. What language would his priests use for their rituals and texts?

Or do/should D&D religions use the Common language, or a racial language, or a regional language?

Quasqueton

 

[Gez]

It depends on the religion. Some use one of the three aligned languages, other use draconic, sylvan, or an elemental language. Or even others, prayers to a god of trade or travel would use common, for example.

For Nerull, I'd say Infernal.

 

[SteelDraco]

I agree that most good religious service usually take place in Celestial (which, in my mind, sounds very much like Latin). Abyssal and Infernal are, as far as I can tell, just the racial languages for the outsiders of those planes. Depending on your view of the cosmology, it might make sense for those languages to be used in religious ritual, or it might not. It would also make a lot of sense to add more languages based on the other planes - for example, in the last Great Wheel campaign I ran, slaadi spoke a language called Discordian.

Often, I think evil religions will pick an alien language and have their rituals in that. It might often be Abyssal or Infernal, or it might be some other old language from your campaign. The current bad guys in my Eberron campaign do their rituals in Druidic, because they're evil Ashbound. It's going to be based on where the religion started, who its members are, and what other groups it's affiliated with.

 

[tarchon]

I normally give different religions or cults special liturgurical languages, since it's a common phenomenon in real life. You would base it off of whatever language was spoken during the founding of the religion or at least its introduction to a particular region. Most real-world religions have some sort of liturgical language, Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Old Church Slavonic, Sanskrit, Classical Arabic, and so on.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I've always been a little surprised that there were four inner plane languages but only three outer plane ones, and Jannti (the genie language from Al-Qadim) was never carried over into 3E.

 

[BOZ]

remember alignment languages? "i speak lawful neutral!"