I stand 309th in line to the Throne of Thelbane. I am writing, on our traditional black paper and with silver ink, to tell you, of Amber, of life here in the Courts. Many young princes and princesses of your realm, as well as some of your traders, have the strangest misconceptions of some of the basic aspects of our life. Thus I have been asked to address some of these issues in a series of short, insightful missives.
It would my pleasure to educate you, today, on our language.
Quite the contrary. You speak a dialect of our language. Thari, my correspondent, is the original language of our race, dating back, in one form or another, to the origin of the Courts themselves. Remarkably, the innovations in the language have mainly been in the written, rather than the verbal sense.
Please note the beginning of this document. You will note the fine and handsome characters at the top of this page. That, you see, is the Standard script form of Thari as it is written in the Courts.
There are other forms. The most ancient written form of Thari is one used mainly today by the priests of Amblerash. Besides them, you do occassionally find very old structures that still survive which bear fragments of Hieroglyphic Thari.
The script that you of Amber use is, I will grudgingly admit, seemingly a completely new creation of Dworkin, or perhaps his son. While some documents in the Courts, thanks to Emperor Merlin, use your script, the official standard script is what you will find things written in.
Of course, personages such as myself are more than happy to supply materials to visitors such as yourself in your own form of Thari. However, you might do well to purchase a guide to our written language, for your own enjoyment and use. I would be glad to sell a fine example of that guide to you, for certain considerations, of course...
Sincerely,
Lunaric Baccaran
