Seraphic Speech

> "Do not mistake me for a primitive, Foremost Son of Creation! [Through the blade] I wield, I am able to grasp the Seraph-like speech that which you breathe."
>
> Lazare Rousseau, Supreme-Commander of the Earthly Host

The **Seraphic Speech** (Stanislavan: *Seraficheskeya Rech;* Oratio Ecclesiastica: *Oratio Seraphica*), often referred to as the **Language of the Firstborns**, is the name given by the Association of the Academies of Extraterrestrial Speech to the spoken language of the angelic-like beings known as the Perventseyya, who likely refer to themselves as the Anastari, either meaning "Children of Anā'staresh" or "Servants of the Divine". It is unclear as to what the Anastari call their own language, but it is commonly agreed by Imperial scholars that the word 'Reshamayen' (supposedly meaning *message of life*) is in all likelihood, the proper name for it.

It is believed that among the Anastari, there are multiple variations of the Seraphic Speech which can be categorized into four 'dialect' groups- namely, the Appraisal Form, the Confessional Form, the Thanksgiving Form, and the Supplementary Form. At its core, the Seraphic Speech originates from the Appraisal Form, of which is most commonly found in the Anastari's Archive of Creation, a corrupted body of extra-terrestrial scripture originally found in the Erinyes Vessel Alpha, a light reconnaissance space-ship discovered during the First Epoch on one of Saturn's moons, Enceladus.

The Archive of Creation provided Imperial scholars a wider perspective into the Anastari Pantheon, a collection of the ancient deities worshipped by the Anastari. It is important to note that the Erinyes Vessel Alpha was not known to belong to the Anastari until after Sankt Lazare Rousseau's first contact with the Perventseyyans. From this encounter, Rousseau returned to the Solaris System and dove deep into the remnants of the ancient space-ship, miraculously being able to comprehend the written works contained within it.

Memories of the Anastari's primordial reign over the current Chelovayyan-controlled local group of galaxies named as the Heart of the Universe are present in artifacts, manuscripts, surviving structures, and even oral history passed down by the older extraterrestrial lifeforms whose civilization are ancient enough to remember their existence. It is believed that the united Anastari Realms, the Perventsayya, reigned over territories far larger than the Imperiya Chelovayya currently controls. The mystery that surrounds their 'abandonment' of this portion of the universe is the cause of speculation, and in some cases, the cause of unsanctioned religious cults gathering around the mystical Perventseyya themselves. Furthermore, what limited understanding we have of the Seraphic Speech leaves little room for humanity to be able to uncover the deep history of this terrifyingly ancient civilization which came before them in prominence.

The Seraphic Speech itself cannot be truly spoken by anyone else, except the Anastari themselves. The true nature of the spoken language comes from the commanding voice of the Anastari, which is often likened to that of an angel's, hence the term "Seraphic" is used to describe their way of speaking.

The Anastari, however, rarely use the Seraphic Speech to actually speak, but instead, they are able to communicate to other beings through their minds. This is what is referred to as the Confessional Form, where the minds of the sender and the receiver are linked as one. The limited use of speaking among the Anastari, which is referred to as the Appraisal Form, is due to the sheer amount of authority which is exerted by the speaker on the other surrounding beings. If the Appraisal Form were to be used on non-Anastari beings, they would cower in fear, and the Near-Divine nature of the Anastari would be revealed to them, potentially frightening those on the receiving end to the state of death. As such, the Appraisal Form is both heavily restricted in its usage, and at the same time, considered the most powerful form of the Seraphic Speech.

The Thanksgiving Form of Seraphic Speech involves the use of body language such as bodily gestures, several limb-movements, and even certain poses. Only the Anastari themselves are able to understand this type of communication, although the more 'Enlightened Beings' are able to grasp somewhat even a fraction of the true nature of the Thanksgiving Form. Lastly, the Supplementary Form of Seraphic Speech is more commonly understood as the written form of the Reshamayen. Unlike most Earthly languages, written Reshamayen is solely composed of symbols, not to be understood as letters or even characters, although a few symbols are written similarly to Earth's character-based languages. The symbolic nature of the written form of Reshamayen is due to the Anastari's near-perfect memory, due to how they themselves perceive time differently than other souled beings thus encountered by humanity so far. As such, the Supplementary Form is considered the weakest form of the Seraphic Speech, and is considered by scholars as the primary reason for the scarcity of Anastari written works compared to other civilizations.

## Discovery

The discovery of the Anastari language, Reshamayen, is as puzzling as the discovery of the Anastari themselves. The bulk of our foundational ideas of its unknown history come from the manuscripts contained within the Erinyes Vessel Alpha. This ship was discovered around F.E. 50, where it was miraculously seen floating on the Enceladus, one of Saturn's celestial bodies. The vessel was painstakingly retrieved by the Star System Corps, the predecessor of the Galactic Corps. When it was returned to Earth (Zemelia), it was studied under the once top-secret, later declassified OLGA Program. Under normal circumstances, it would be impossible to conduct any meaningful research on such a highly-advanced ship, much less reverse-engineer and replicate it. When the 1st Swordbearer, Sankt Jagur Barthelemy, Supreme-Commander of the Earthly Host, visited the Alyesha Research Station in Central Stanislava, the Archangel's Sword he wielded granted him a vast quantity of knowledge over the unmarked extra-terrestrial ship duly named E.V.A., and with this he was instated as the Techno-Overseer of the OLGA Program. Although declared a miracle at the time, after the First Contact with the Anastari, it was realized that whoever wields a weapon of near-divine properties shall be able to communicate with the ship itself. It appeared that the E.V.A.'s spirit, potentially recognizing the Swordbearer as an Anastari, was able to communicate with Sankt Barthelemy of Palmyra.

Thousands of years later, the Swordbearer, Sankt Lazare Rousseau, summoned the Great Pilgrimage to the Andromeda to the Andromeda Galaxy, a massive colonization effort directed towards breaking humanity free from the confines of the Milky Way Galaxy. Within a previously unknown enclave of the Anastari Realms located in the Inner Norma Arm of the Milky Way, the Lady of Nëarya, notified one of the Anastari Rulers that Human Civilization had finally ventured out of the Galaxy. The Lady was an Anastari Astute who was left behind to watch over the lifeforms of the Milky Way for an untold amount of millennia ago, and she believed that the Humans were simply not ready to venture out of their own galaxy.

In response, the Anastari abruptly sent an emissary fleet to the human voyagers, which marked the beginning of Chelov-Anastari relations. The emissary fleet descended into the Headquarters of Sankt Rousseau on the Planet Evangelyon, and after many, many warnings from the 1st Andromeda Battalion of the Earthly Host to stay put, they opened fire on the trespassing fleet of extra-terrestrials. The Anastari were not impressed, and shrugged off their 'primitive' attacks. Upon witnessing this, Rousseau ordered his troops to hold their fire, and walked confidently towards the seemingly-hostile species. Rousseau, in his heart, believed that the end of his Pilgrimage had come, and was willing to be martyred for the Empire.

Fortunately, this was not to be.

The chief emissary and leader of the fleet, Eär-thiel, departed from his ship, and revealed himself to Rousseau. To the Supreme-Commander's men, Eär-thiel and his fellowship could not be revealed to them by the naked eye. Only Rousseau was able to discern shape and form from the beings of light that descended on his armies, much to the surprise of the Anastari emissary. Seeing Rousseau as 'worthy of hearing his inner voice', Eär-thiel spoke to Rousseau in the Confessional Form, much to the surprise of the latter. A long conversation was held between the two, with Eär-thiel discussing the Anastari's terms to Rousseau. According to the terms, the Supreme-Commander of the Earthly Host would withdraw his armies from the Andromeda Galaxy, which understandably led to his outrage. Rousseau was also known across the Empire as the "Negotiator of Negotiators" and the "Silver-tongue of Luticia", giving him enough courage to re-negotiate the terms with the extraterrestrial emissary. Eär-thiel was thoroughly impressed at Rousseau's persuasion skills in the Confessional Form, but in the end, he was not convinced. Eär-thiel, despite being amazed at the human being able to be on similar footing with him, began to explain to Rousseau why he cannot be allowed to venture outside of the Milky Way Galaxy. But Eär-thiel, through his tone and mannerisms, made it clear to Rousseau that he saw them not as equals, but as a superior life-form conversing with what he essentially viewed as a somewhat-intelligent primal being.

Rousseau could no longer bear through Eär-thiel's seemingly unfair demands, and drew upon the great powers vested in his sword. Initially being dismissed as a primitive form of melee weaponry, Rousseau's channeling of the Heavenly Bodies above, revealed the true near-divine nature of his sword. Eär-thiel was in sheer awe at the majesty displayed by the Swordbearer. Like him, the sword was a blinding light whose near-visible metaphysical nature was far greater than its almost-invisible physical form. Rousseau thus subjugated Eär-thiel to his will, which the Anastari willingly obliged to, no longer underestimating the power of the Chelovayyans. Eär-thiel later declared to Rousseau his intent to allow the Human Civilization to continue on its path, and thus the emissary fleet returned to their homeland, where they were never to be seen by the Humans again.

This chief encounter led Rousseau to have great interest in the Anastari, which his men referred to as the "Perventseyya", meaning 'The Firstborns' in the Stanislavan language. After successfully conducting the Great Pilgrimage to the Andromeda, the Swordbearer began searching across the Milky Way Galaxy for any sign alluding to the Anastari Civilization. By recalling the aesthetic of the ships of the Perventseyyan emissary fleet, he discerned that the E.V.A. ship belonged to them as well.

After the OLGA Program was shut down, the E.V.A. ship was kept in safe display in the underground complex of the Cathedral of Ironsmith on Mars (Stanislavan: Kresnyekalia), of which was under the authority of the Custodian of the Miraculous Relics, who was Yaroslav Lebedev at the time. Custodian Lebedev accompanied the Supreme-Commander Rousseau inside the Cathedral, and showed to him the ancient ship. Much to the surprise of Rousseau, the ship was in the exact same condition that it had been during Sankt Barthelemy's time on earth. The Custodian explained to the Supreme-Commander that only the 'technological' parts of the ship were tampered with, whilst the rest of the ship, including manuscripts were left untouched. Rousseau, requesting the permission of the Custodian, began to read through the manuscripts within the ship. Due to being able to speak in the Confessional Form with Eär-thiel decades ago, he was able to translate the previously incomprehensible texts and symbols within the E.V.A. ship.

One of these texts contained a brief note about how an Anastari enclave continued to exist 'within the heart of the galaxy', later identified as the Norma Arm, and to this, Rousseau ventured one last time to meet with the Lady of Nëarya. Unfortunately, Rousseau never returned from his journey.

Before his final voyage, the Supreme-Commander of the Earthly Host left behind his sword, retired from his position, and publicized his writings, collectively known as the Treatise of the Seraphic Speech, where he provided a complete translation of all the writings of the Supplementary Form found within the E.V.A. ship.

This Treatise became the foundational work of Human Civilization's understanding of the ancient Anastari species. The Treatise's name also became the scientific name for the language of the Perventseyyans, though the use of the word 'Seraph', a title traditionally ascribed to the angels in Imperial Orthodoxy, was not well-received by the Universal Magisterium.

## **Principles of Reshamayen**

The Supplementary Form of the Anastari language constructs words through agglutinations of other words, which altogether form a "symbol". The Anastari are fond of double-meanings, allegories, and hidden-meanings. Thus, the Anastari can be understood through linguistic context as a witty and highly-intelligent species. The Anastari utilize these symbols to convey meaning, which can usually only be comprehended by their own kind. The reality is, that even if we were able to translate all the symbols of Reshamayen's Supplementary Form into words befitting of the earthly languages, we would still be making vast assumptions on what was actually meant by the writers.

This is due to the fact that there are very little 'in-between words' in Reshamayen, as the symbols themselves are simply words. For example, if we were to take the alleged "Creed of Faith of the Children of Anā'staresh" which we can fully translate, in a literal translation, there would only remain:

*"Anā'staresh; Sight; Protection; Vengeance; Basilisks; Astutes; Authorities".* In comparison to the symbolic translation, which is commonly understood as *"Anā'staresh sees all; all he protects with a vengeance; the Basilisks, the Astutes, and the Authorities"*.

The difference is stark, and it should be clear to any person how difficult it is to truly comprehend the Seraphic Speech. As such, all Anastari written works come in the form of 'poetry', and not even in the sense that human beings understand poetry. It is therefore necessary to breakdown the Anastari language to a simplistic table of categories that conform to human understanding, namely:

1. **Degrees of Command** - the inflection used in speaking Seraphic Speech.
2. **Pronouns** - particles (in linguistics) used to substitute for names and titles.
3. **Adpositions** - an adposition is a category of words used to express a relationship with other words.
4. **Degrees of Time** - the conditions used to differentiate words based on time as perceived by the Anastari.
5. **Degrees of Space** - the conditions used to differentiate words based on distance as perceived by the Anastari.
6. **Degrees of Mathematics** - the counting system used in Reshamayen, which roughly corresponds to base 12 in earthly terms.

One must remember some, or all of these categories to recognize how words in Seraphic Speech are declined. If you are not aware, Declination is the altering of a word, used to express its syntactic function and convey a different meaning.

### **Degrees of Command**

A degree of command in Seraphic Speech is understood in earthly languages as a 'tone', not too similar to the concept of words having a 'positive', 'neutral', and 'negative' version of itself. In some ways, a degree of command is related to the mood of the Anastari speaker. The degrees of command can be subdivided into the primary command, and the secondary command. The amount of primary commands is known, but the amount of secondary commands is far beyond the collective knowledge of the Empire.

#### The Primary Commands

1. **Observer Command** - this is known simply as the 'neutral form'.
2. **Condemning Command** - this is known simply as the 'negative form'.
3. **Commending Command** - this is known simply as the 'positive form'.

#### The Secondary Commands

1. **Persuasive Command** - this is often used by the Anastari to persuade lifeforms of lesser mental fortitude.
2. **Conversational Command** - this is often used by the Anastari to converse among themselves.
3. **Appraisal Command** - this is often used by the Anastari to venerate their pantheon.
4. **Forceful Command** - this is often used by the Anastari to subjugate others to their voice.
5. **Foreseeing Command** - this is often used by the Anastari when predicting the future.

It is believed that other secondary commands exist other than the five aforementioned. As Supreme-Commander Rousseau noted in his treatise, even if we knew about these other commands, perhaps such an emotional state would be so foreign to human behavior that it would be indistinguishable from the others.

### **Pronouns**

A pronoun in Seraphic Speech is similar to the way pronouns are used in earthly languages. Yet, it must be remembered that there is no distinction between the subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive adjective, and possessive forms of Reshamayen pronouns. However there are considered to have reflexive forms, which are often interpreted as a Condemning Command or Commending Command.

## **Pronunciations**

Although there are no actual letters, such as consonants and vowels in Reshamayen, the Anglian transliteration of Reshamayen uses a formal list of letters published by the Association of the Academies of Extraterrestrial Speech for convenience. These list of letters can help speakers of the Anglian language to be able to pronounce the Seraphic Speech at its most basic form.

### Consonants

1. **F** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ph", as in 'For', 'Fur', 'Fan', 'Fire', and the like.
2. **N** - Has the Anglian sound of "N", as in 'No', 'Name', 'Night', and the like.
3. **S** - Has the Anglian sound of "S", as in 'Sand', 'Swim', 'Sour', and the like.
4. **T** - Has the Anglian sound of "T", as in 'Tea', 'Term', 'Table', and the like.
5. **R** - Has the Anglian sound of "R", as in 'Red', 'Rain', 'Rise', and the like.
6. **V** - Has the Anglian sound of "V", as in 'Vase', 'Vain', 'Vacuum', and the like.
7. **G** - Has the Anglian sound of "G". as in 'Get', 'Go', 'Garb', and the like.
8. **D** - Has the Anglian sound of "D", as in 'There', 'Dark', 'Dim', and the like.
9. **M** - Has the Anglian sound of "M", as in 'Milk', 'Mass', 'Meadow', and the like.
10. **P** - Has the Anglian sound of "P", as in 'Pen', 'Pace', 'Package', and the like.
11. **C** - Has the Anglian sound of "K", as in 'Can', 'Chemical', 'King', and the like.
12. **Y** - Has the Anglian sound of "Y", as in 'Yarn', 'Yellow', 'Yesterday', and the like.
13. **TH** - Has the Anglian sound of "Th", always as in 'Then', but never as in 'Thin'.
14. **SH** - Has the Anglian sound of "Sh", as in 'Mesh', 'Session', 'Cash', and the like.
15. **DY** - Has the Anglian sound of "Dy", always as in 'Dystopia', but never as in 'Dynamic'.

### Vowels

1. **E** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ee", as in 'Me', 'Equal', 'Eagle', or has the "I" sound, as in 'Rocket', 'Pretty', and the like.
2. **Ë** - Has the Anglian sound of "Eh", as in 'Men', 'End', Friend', 'Beg', and the like.
3. **Ā** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ae" or "Ey", as in 'Baby', 'Cake', 'Rain', 'Play', and the like.
4. **A/Á** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ah", as in 'Cat', 'Lap', 'Man', and the like. Á is used for a stressed syllable.
5. **Ú** - Has the Anglian sound of "Oo" as in 'You', 'Boot'. 'Student', 'Two', and the like. It is always the stressed syllable.
6. **I** - Has the Anglian sound of "I" or "Y", as in 'Unique', 'Lady', 'Souvenir', and the like.
7. **O** - Has the Anglian sound of "O", as in 'Core', 'Boar', 'Fore', and the like.
8. **UI** - Has the Anglian sound of "Wee", as in 'Ween', 'Wheel', and the like.
9. **AU** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ow", as in 'Bow' (gesture), 'Cow' , 'Allow', and the like.
10. **IE** - Has the Anglian sound of "I-ye", as in 'Sentience', and the like.
11. **EÄ** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ey-ye", as in 'Alien', and the like.
12. **ËA** - Has the Anglian sound of "Ehh", as in 'Bear', 'Snare', 'Care', 'Fair', or has the "Ey-ya" sound when it is the last vowel.

## **Sentences**

 **Anā'sh Arështargoth gaura tyeshel tyesh fuinn.** | Divine. Tyrant. Banish. Himself. His. Darkness. | The Divine Tyrant banished himself in/through his own darkness. | Note, the use of two different variations of the same pronoun used in succession.
No adposition is used to emphasize the dual nature of his banishment, ala, it can be interpreted as either 'himself in his' or 'himself through his'.

## **Names**

 **Anāreshānya** | Archive of Creation | The holy scripture of the Anastari race. Intriguingly, the sub-word 'Resh' is not in a forceful command.