And, of course, he meant this sincerely and never did anything wrong ever again stop talking about Fierceteeth stop talking about Fierceteeth

I am a big fan of the book series Wings of Fire, especially its great worldbuilding. One of the most intriguing things in said worldbuilding for me was the language of aquatic. It set out to answer a very interesting question, "how would an underwater language work?" and it answers that with bioluminescent scales on the dragons that speak it. We are only given bits and pieces of it in canon, so for fun I decided to expand it further into a proper conlang. At least the closest thing you can get to that with someone who has no clue what they are doing.

Part 0: Canon

Before you look at anything else, please skim over this list of known phrases in aquatic. The author of this series did not attempt to make this an actual conlang, she's no Tolkien, so what I'm about to show you wont be 100% complient with the link above. This could be more accurate then it is right now, but frankly i dont mind it being a little headcanon-y.

Part 1: "Phonology"

Like I said before, Aquatic is spoken with bioluminescent scales across a dragon's body split up like the table below. The language is used primarily underwater where speech is impossible, so it has no audible components like sign language. This also means there is no unique writing system for Aquatic, as dragons can read and write underwater just fine.

Body part	# of scales	Grammatical role*	Abbreviation
Snout scales	4	Interrogatives	ss
Flank scales	3	Pronouns	bs
Talon/Wing/Tail movement	6**	Adjectives	M
Tail scales	8	Nouns	ts
Wing scales	3	General conjugation	ws
Back scales	6	Verbs	us

*This is the main grammatical role of the section, not the only one. For Instance, M can be used for adjectives, adverbs and noun modifiers.

**These do not have scales like the other categories, but for the sake of consistency they have the same notation

To further differentiate, each scale can be in 4 unique states: 0 for off, 1 for short, 2 for regular and 3 for long.

Part 2: Morphology

I want to use an analogy for this part, think of taxonomic rank in zoology. In that, you begin by asking very broad questions("Is it single celled, multi celled or has no cells at all?", "is it a plant, animal or fungus?") before you narrow it down a little more("Does it have a backbone", "Is it a mammal?") and eventually you land on the specific animal. Aquatic has a similar system. You begin by asking very general questions("is it a physical concept or an abstract one?", "is it alive?", "does it move on its own?") before narrowing it down further with ("is it a dragon, plant or animal?", "Is it a mammal?", "Is it found most commonly in the air, land or sea?", "what is its size?" "what is its grammatical gender?"). For every question that you ask, the tree changes. if you instead say the concept is abstract, then the same scales would ask things like "is it postive or negative?" or "is it natural?" for every question you ask, different scales light up. if we follow the first chain, that would be 0112133 which ends up being "whale".

Part 3: Grammar/Syntax

Aquatic is a very unique language, as unlike all spoken and sign language in the world(that i am aware of, anyways), dragons can say multiple words at the same time. There is nothing stopping someone from flashing one thing on their snout and another thing on their back. In fact, it is a very vital part of the whole language*. One instance of these flashes is what I refer to as a "mega word". I am aware that polysynthetic languages usually refer to these as "sentence phrases" but just look past that. Anyways, in one mega word you are allowed one body type each, as you cannot have two words on one body part. For example, the mega word "very fast river" would be valid as it uses three unique kinds of words being an intensifier(ws), an adjective(M) and a noun(ts) which all have seperate body parts. Conversely, the mega word "He hit me" would not be valid, because it uses two of the same word type and therefore body part(bs) at once.

*it is not strictly necessary, you could speak one word at a time if you would like.

Now that we have these fundamentals, we can begin making basic sentances.

[] = mega word

{} = english translation

[ss-2312{are} + bs-130{you} + M-312011{hungry}]
This translates to "are you hungry?"

[bs-310{I} + ws-011{*future tense*} + us-201203{protect}] + [bs-130{you}]
This translates to "I will protect you"

[bs-310{I} + ws-320{*negation*} + us-201322{like} + ts-32012321{sun}] + [M-0323122{in} + ts-2032111]
This translates to "I do not like the sun in my eyes"

If you have been paying attention, you may have noticed...many things wrong with this(please tell me), but i will address one of the biggest ones; ambiguity. For most sentances, this is not much of an issue. In the second example, you assume that the first thing talked about is the subject and the next thing is the topic. That is how you come to the conclusion of "I will protect you" and not "you will protect me". This is all fine and good, but what about the mega word of [ts-2313232{ocean} + ws-011{*future tense*} + us-201203{protect} + bs-130{you}]? this could be interpereted as either "the ocean will protect you" or "you will protect the ocean". My solution to this is case markers. For every word, it has 2 extra "bits" to solve this problem. the example from above turns into [ts-2313232(03){ocean} + ws-011{*future tense*} + us-201203{protect} + bs-130(02){you}]. These markers tell the listener what role the word has in the mega word(and occasionally the sentance as a whole, in which case the first bit is used)

Part 4: Dialectal drift and etymology

Alright, take everything from parts 1 and 2 and throw it out the window. None of it is consistent. What I described to you was one out of dozens of dialects spoken. For instance, one dialect might say that the ocean is grammatically female, while another disagrees and says that it is neutral. as well as that, dialects may have completely different questions altogether. a dragon that lives near the coast would differentiate if something is aquatic or not, while an open ocean dragon would not. Rarely, some dialects can mix and match what body parts mean what(eg: back scales are nouns and tail scales are verbs). On top of that, etymology is also a factor. Take tuna crabs as an example. They look and and act just like crabs, but are actually a kind of lobster. When they were first discovered, the dragons called them crabs. Later on, it was found that they are indeed not a crab but in in fact a lobster. some areas updated this, while others did not.

The best analogy i can think of for all of this is arabic. Someone from Morroco can probably understand someone from Algeria, and the person from Algeria could understand someone from Libya, but the person from Morroco would not be able to understand someone from Libya. likewise in aquatic, even if everyone is under one "country", two dragons from the opposite end of the ocean probably wouldnt understand each other at all.

Conclusion

Thanks a lot if you have read this far. Saying i dont know what im doing would be an understatement, so I invite you to critique this as much as you like to make sure I didnt miss anything. Apparantly in canon most are monolingual in this language, so I want to make sure I have enough for that. Thanks again!

https://preview.redd.it/m3190i2vuidh1.png?width=1000&format=png&auto=webp&s=604486a9ec5f93c9b014da953bb93d5b78643667

If I were to ask someone on this subreddit what the scene that got them closest to crying is, they would likely say the very end of Legends: Darkstalker where Clearsight has to say goodbye to Darkstalker and put him under the mountain. I had a different experience. For me, it was pages 10-20 of book 15, The Flames of Hope. Before reading any further, quickly go and reread that bit if you have it to better understand the rest of this.

A little while ago, I made a post talking about how I personally did not find Legends: Darkstalker entertaining. To cut to the chase, I was incorrect about my reasonings. I still hold that opinion, but now with a better reasoning behind it. Unlike fans of the book, I could never relate to the themes of abuse and manipulation the book had to offer. I did not cry at the end of the book, as I have never had anything similar happen to me. The same cannot be said for Swordtail.

I find a lot of similarities between myself and Swordtail. Without getting too much into my personal life, I have always had a "debt" of sorts to pay, not enforced by anyone but yours truly. I was made aware very early on in my life just how lucky I am, and I do everything in my power not to take it for granted. How do I achieve this, exactly? Self sacrifice. Whenever I see someone who is "less lucky",I do everything in my power to help them. I have volunteered at a local food bank for 5 years now. I have helped several people through very low points in their life, just as others have done for me. I always tip waiters, and I always give change to homeless people. this logic also extends to achievements. let me read you the headline of a video I saw:

>"a 19 year old from virginia beat the best player in the world thrice,all the while across the country in colorado a 14 year old is the youngest in history to win against globally ranked players".

Now, when I read that, there are two thoughts that cross into my mind simultaniously:

1. that is incredible for them, and as someone who also plays that game I admire their dedication and skill to this craft
2. nonono fuck im useless I havent earned my place on this earth I need to be doing better but im not fuck im wasting my luck someone else should be using it fuck

To comprehend this a little better, here is an analogy: think of achievements as a mathematical formula. All of your starting luck goes in, and the things you need to achieve come out. The people in the headline I mentioned? they are good people, as they are not wasting luck that someone else could use. Me? I have a lot of luck...Do I have a headline? No. Because of that, I am failing at being a good person. Those other people are fundamentally better than me. They have worse starting luck then me, and yet they are achieveing better than me. If we swapped places, I would do even worse then I am now while they would do even better. That is, to say, the starting luck is not wasted on them. No one deserves their luck more then them. Me? I just proved that someone could do better things then me, and in me simply existing in this state that i am in other people could use that state better.

now, take everything of what I just said and apply it to art. How do you think I feel seeing people post masterpieces every day? not good, I can tell you that much.

Okay, how does all of this relate to Swordtail? at least in my interperetation, he thinks in the exact same way. What is the most consistent thing about him? he is always, always there for others, no matter how much it hurts him. He fought until he was physically dragged away after the hivewing guards took Luna in the beginning of book 11. He searched for days on end without food or sleep to look for her when she went missing at the end of that same book. Multiple times he has shown acts of selflessness and taken blame for things he did not do, all so the people he cares about wouldnt face punishment. Time and time and time again, he is always there for others. But what happens when he fails?

That is where the scene I quoted comes in. Again, quickly go back and reread it if you havent already. Anyways, thats the same thought process I have. Even after being mind controlled and forced to round up and inevitably kill members of his community, what is his default state? wanting to be helpful. Hell, he even says this himself:

>"no, no, im coming to rescue you. Im helpful! thats what... wait, didnt I already..."

But the thing is, he cant. And he knows he cant. Thats why he is on misbehavers way. In his mind, he failed to help. He let Blue and the Silkwings get mind controlled when he could have been stronger and fought back. He could have fought harder against those Hivewings who found them and caused Luna to be whisked away. Even after giving it everything he has, he failed. So he deserves to be in his version of hell. I hold myself to the same standard. like I said before, I need to be as best as I can be and more. when I fail, I deserve to be sent to hell for being a bad person. thats exactly how swordtail thinks.

Along with this, there is Luna. Again, without getting too much into my personal life, I have had someone like luna in my life. They werent a romantic partner, but rather a best friend. When I went through the worst time in my life, they were there for me. They helped me get out of it and become the person that I am today. They are one of the main reasons I have the mentality that I do. I need to pay that kindness forward somehow. Luna fills a similar role. She sat by swordtail during the worst times in hs life, making sure he wasnt alone.

If you have read this far, thanks. Wish me a happy birthday, will ya? It happens to ring true today.