Solne bini! Ti no konosi ete, nomari Theo. Akriari en pograri Upwards, Rain! Kenkanta ko!
Hi everyone!! If you don't know me, I'm theo. I'm the artist and programmer of Upwards, Rain! Nice to meet you!
If it's not obvious yet… Alchema is the fantasy language used in Upwards, Rain! If you've ever played Monster Hunter and turned on Monster Hunter Language or listened to the dragons speak in Final Fantasy XIV, it's sort of the same concept! I thought I'd talk over a few fun facts about it, as the creator of Alchema speak.
The first (and likely most obvious to some of you!) is that it's primarily based off of Spanish. Konosi is close to conocer, kenkanta ko is encantando. That said, we wanted to make sure it didn't translate directly, so there's some extra rules I gave myself when coming up with some of the phrases. For example: Alchema is a very contextual language, and so it lacks things like plural form.
This isn't unique – Japanese is the same way! Also like Japanese, there are ways to add plurality, it's just not quite the same as in English or Spanish. Sometimes, that ambiguity may be left in on purpose… The same goes for pronouns – there are no gendered or plural pronouns, so using context and descriptors is necessary for clear speech. On the flip side, that makes writing entire sentences really really easy.
Adding excitement and emphasis to words is as simple as adding a simple "ke" to it!
The writing system is fairly direct: it contains a set of letters that are combined to make sounds, like English. There's a couple extra fun facts about that though! Each letter makes only one sound, regardless of other letters around it. That means rather than having C, K, and S to represent different sounds, it simply contains K and S. Also, there's something called "flow" and "stress" symbols!
Alchema (the language and city) is based on the very concept of alchemy. As such, they put a lot of importance on the relationship between letters when writing. A flow symbol tells you to repeat your last vowel, while a stress symbol is the consonant equivalent. They can't repeat themselves, though!
The last, very important part of their writing system, is that often names are signed with each person's very own alchemical sign. Using all the letters used in their name, they connect them!
A signature sign is highly personalized. Rain connects all her letters, signing it with a final flourish of putting the "n" through the center, while Caile gives each letter its own space and takes care to not overlap at all. Fun fact! Caile's name in Alchema writing is "Keil." Some people may take a more artistic approach to their sign, playing with the size and rotation even more to make something unique! Take mine, for example.
I'm sure you're all thinking: aren't all these small letters, details, and circles hard to write with wings? After all, it's not like they have a flexible wrist like we do. How do the galekind manage it all the time? I thought the very same! They use their primary feathers to write – Dipping them in ink and simply drawing. Of course, if we wanted to address the issue of the lettering system being a little unwieldy, that'd be way too much work… So we just shrug it off and say oh well, because coming up with a second alphabet specifically for galekind and feather writing would be kind of insane and – don't look over there.
Here's some words and phrases for you! Go out and speak Alchema today!
| English | Alchema |
|---|---|
| My name is Rain. | Anomari Rain!* |
| I live in the village of Vitae. | Almanka ko vila di Vitae. |
| Good luck! | Virdi trevba! |
| Thank you. | Razi ko. |
| You're welcome. | Ti apola ko, poer ko. |
| Congratulations! | Ke feli ko! |
| Let's get something to eat. | Vamisi kani. |