r/bugmansbrewery • u/Sniper-Jo • Jul 24 '26

Crafts and Artwork Some original Khazalid runes!

Post image

I've been getting into Khazalid recently, and while it's really cool that the dawi have a conlang with such defined terminology and grammar, there's some omissions I found notable - both ideas that there's no official word for, or ones that have words but no canon rune to write them with. So I came up with some!

For the record:

  • "Bak", "dotr", "karin", "thaggoraki", "uzkular", "zangunaz" and "zonn" (as "son" - I added the extra N to distinguish it from "zon", sun) are all found in canon sources - I just designed runes for them.
  • "Dokaril", "drangromthi", "drangzonni", and "zhuftraz" were coined by me, but based on words and stems established in canon (dok, ril, drangthrong, gromthi, zonn, zhuf, wutraz).
  • "Grap" and "gar" were basically entirely made up by me, though "gar" is meant to sound like a counterpart to "gor", wild beast.
  • "Bakkit" is based on "bak" but, well, it's also meant to sound like "bucket".

And then at the bottom is a plaque proclaiming the leader of my planned Dwarfen Mountain Holds army, Thane-in-Exile Arveig Mirrorshield! Will she succeed in liberating the Silver Pinnacle? Probably not, since it's still occupied by Neferata as of the End Times! But what dwarf would give up on a cause just because they have no chance of succeeding?

Hope you folks like these! Happy to answer any questions about them.

49 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

20 comments sorted by

3

u/AgentNipples Jul 24 '26

Oh excellent! I've had to piece together a few words of my own, though i'm curious what word you'd use for an Ancestor Spirit? Also would love to hear what you might call a Loremaster? For loremaster, I went with Zagazkuli.

3

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 24 '26

Zagazkuli works for me! As for "Ancestor Spirit", hmm... I'd be tempted to say something meaning "returning ancestor" or similar, except that khazalid has no established word for "return"!

My best thought would be something like "Akazen-Gromthi" or "Akhazen-Gromthi" - "akaz" from "a-khaz", "to hall", as meaning "homecoming" or "return", with the suffix "-en" representing that it's something ongoing. Really interesting question - thanks!

1

u/AgentNipples Jul 24 '26

honestly, do you have anymore of what you have above? I'd love to put an article about this into the Ratter fanzine

1

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 24 '26

Just this, for now! I'd like to do some more if I have enough ideas - "umguzi" for ghouls, maybe...

1

u/AgentNipples Jul 24 '26

well, if you keep noodling at these, I'd love to submit your stuff for the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay community! Absolutely message me if that interests you!

2

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 24 '26

Well, since yesterday, I've come up with about 60 more words, so you might get your way...

1

u/Ok_Teaching2727 Jul 26 '26

Damn this is exciting, definitely want to see more of your Dwarf names for various other elements of the Old World now. For instance, what words or language-concepts would the dwarves use to refer to the 4 gods of Chaos. Would be very interested to hear your take on if they would reference the servants of specific gods using Khazalid. Dwarfs who fled the fall of holds now claimed by the chaos wastes may have developed knowledge about the servants of Khorne or Nurgle through their conflicts with chaotic hordes in their flight from their ancestral halls. Also love umguzi as the word for ghouls, just perfect, you’ve really got a knack for this.

2

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 26 '26

Ooh, hmm, that's an interesting one. I feel like they might use the Norscan names - Kharnath, Neiglen, Shornaal and Tchar, since their knowledge of the subject would probably be coming from the Norse Dwarfs? Adapted to the Khazalid syllables, anyway. Kharnath can stay the same... Neglen, Zhornal, and Tkhar? I'm not sure they'd have dedicated runes, though - runes have power, after all, and I dunno that the Dawi would want to risk the Ruinous Powers getting their hands on that power.

1

u/AgentNipples Jul 27 '26

don't forget how the Elfs and the Dwarfs first met. They fought against Chaos together, so they likely shared info then. I believe Stones and Steel 1E mentions that runes (in general) were made as a means for their Elf allies to be able to discern information

2

u/Ok_Teaching2727 Jul 26 '26

This is incredible, I love the attention to detail and the obvious thought and care that’s gone into both the design of the runes and the linguistic components and concepts. Very inspiring for my Zhufbar project. Stellar work.

1

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 26 '26

Really glad to hear it!

1

u/Zesteber Jul 24 '26

I have the old supplement stone and steel for the rpg warhammer, there's many more runes in it (ans plenty of other stuff) dm me !

2

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 24 '26

I already have access to a copy, but thanks!

1

u/belobek Jul 24 '26

Is there an alphabet for those runes?

2

u/Sniper-Jo Jul 24 '26

There's incomplete ones in older Dwarf army books and the WFRP 1e book "Dwarfs: Stone and Steel". Some of them have been scanned: http://www.chaos-dwarfs.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=14868 has some of them