(Pronounced Scrih – fenn — ee)
(BREAKING NEWS: A Dark Heritage, the first book in the Nighthunter series, is going to be published as an ebook. The publisher is currently editing and formatting the story, and I sent them a mock-up of what the cover could look like a couple of weeks ago.)
Back to our main doodah:
In the world of the Nighthunter, the Scryfennu is an ancient, secret, magical alphabet used to write workings, spells, incantations, and private messages between mages (and elemental beings). Only those with the potential to do magic are able to see the letters of the Scryfennu, understand what they mean, and read whatever is written using them.
An unusual thing about Noran Cadwallader (of which there are quite a few) is that he can see the Scryfennu, but cannot understand it or read it. This is because the presence of the Witch in his mind is giving him some magic, but not enough for him to understand it consciously. This goes against the common knowledge that people who can learn magecraft are born with the innate ability to harness magic in their bloodstream, instead of it being conveyed by another person or learned. (An exception to this rule is if someone — or an animal — has been in contact with enough powerful magic, then the force of it pollutes their body and gives them a strange power or mutation, but this is not often in the victim’s control and doesn’t last for long unless they are in a constant state of exposure, like the animals in Thosea, who can speak and think like humans as a result.)
Before Dal-Rhiatah conquered Ossyan, the Old Tongue was written in the Scryfennu alphabet (or one that was incredibly similar) as almost everyone back then had magic in their blood. Over the years, fewer people have been born with magic. The fact that the Emperor has made magecraft and the usage of magic illegal doesn’t help.
Below is a rough approximation of the Scryfennu and its English letter equivalents.
I shamelessly borrowed the word Scryfennu from the Welsh word for “write” because it contains the word “scry” and it sounds so good. Fun fact: a lot of the Old Tongue is a mix of Welsh, Irish, and Latin.
The latest free gift to email subscribers is a short phrasebook of Old Ossyan – English, should you ever find yourself a tourist in that country (you won’t, not in waking life, but it’s fun to dream…) Here is what the cover of the phrasebook looks like:
There’s a story post I keep updating, The Book of Nighthunting, over here. I add to it every week, though I’m not sure the updates are arriving in people’s inboxes. If they aren’t, let me know in the comments below! Then I can do some tweaking…
Nightwalks 