The language of Midgard is the most widely spoken language in the world, and it has been reconstructed by linguists to be a combination of Proto-Germanic and Proto-Norse.
The tribes of midgard pets guide is a deep dive into the language used in the game, High Midgardian.
Creating a language is a difficult job, especially when it’s for a multiplayer game in which many players collaborate to achieve the game’s goals. However, the more times a player replays an adventure, the more they will notice its distinct features, and weaving it into Tribes of Midgard set it apart.
Because it’s not a recognized language on Earth, all of the speech lines in the game will be unique if you’ve plunged into the multiplayer adventure with your pals. Instead, it’s a mix of Icelandic and Swedish, giving the game a distinct Viking flavor. Julian Maroda, the CEO and creator of Norsfell, the studio behind Tribes of Midgard, revealed some details regarding the process of developing the High Midgardian language, as well as why the company decided to do it in the first place.
Inspirations from the High Middle Ages
Norsfell Games provided this image.
Tribes of Midgard’s rich playground of Norse Mythology influenced the idea to create a fictitious language called High Midgardian. “We didn’t need to invent lore since Norse Mythology is already rich and alive with existing tales,” Maroda said, “but we wanted to add our own spin on both known and new stories.” “We also wanted to build situations where players could live out their own myths and tales and share their stories over virtual campfires, like the Vikings did.”
Tribes of Midgard doesn’t have a lot of time to tell a tale. When you initially start up the game, there is a short cutscene, but after that, you and your pals will be jumping into the game and protecting your town on a regular basis. Norsfell’s language, on the other hand, is spoken by everyone in the town, including the player characters and hostile NPCs.
As Maroda pointed out, this has been done in other games. “Iconic games like The Sims inspired us, and we wondered, ‘What if we created something similar, but in Viking form?’ We determined that High Midgardian should have the same genuine Viking flavor as the rest of our in-game storytelling.”
Construction of a High Midgardian
Norsfell Games provided this image.
Icelandic and Swedish were selected as the foundation languages for High Midgardian out of all the languages spoken on the planet. But why these two Scandinavian dialects specifically? “The closest thing there is to what the Vikings used to speak — Old Norse — is Icelandic,” Maroda said. “This is due to the fact that the Icelandic people lived in isolation for a long time, securely tucked away on their island and protected from other influences.”
Norsfell required a suitable fertilizer to guarantee that the seeds of Norse were firmly planted within Tribes of Midgard’s High Midgardian, and that it developed into an entity that was heavily used by the dev team. The team chose Swedish since it was not only the language spoken by many of the team members, but it also “helped make the language a little simpler to pronounce and bring it closer to English, making it a bit more comprehensible to our players,” as Maroda said. As a shopkeeper welcomes you with a ‘hiló’ (hello), or when you rush away, you’ll hear a rapid ‘farvul’ (farewell) screamed at you, the mix of the two languages gives it a recognizable ring. Not every translation is simple to learn, such as ‘akkr,’ which means ‘thank you.’
Giving a voice to High Midgardian
Gearbox provided this image.
After laying the groundwork for weaving the High Midgardian language, the next stage was to train the voice actors to properly enunciate the words and phrases. To mention a few, there were terms like Gróppur!, Lykta saltsjön, Harpa u hilsat?, and Meki guar övur ir vakta, all of which had their own syntax and letters in Icelandic.
Although there were some difficulties along the road, several Norsfell developers fell in love with the language. “Our lead sound designer came to love the language and now considers himself ‘fluent,’” Maroda said. Fenrir, the game’s final Saga boss, is spoken by the same sound designer, who uses a strong growling voice evocative of a heavy metal singer.
The High Midgardian future
Norsfell Games provided this image.
High Midgardian has become so common among Tribes of Midgard players that many have utilized it in their Discord conversations or when broadcasting on their Twitch channels. Because of how well the language was received by the community, Maroda and his team will be extending the vocabulary in Tribes of Midgard’s second season, which will include new content in November.
With Tribes of Midgard’s fans hailing the initial attempt at High Midgardian as a success, adding to the language and voice lines in the multiplayer game will only add fuel to the community’s fire. Norsfell’s team does not claim to have invented a language, but their ambition and the passion with which the community embraced it indicates that the hard work was well worth it, and it speaks well for the future of voice work. Meki guar övur ir vakta meki guar övur ir vakta meki guar övur ir va
The tribes of midgard hud is a deep dive into the language that was created for the game, Tribes of Midgard. It includes information about how it was made and what makes it unique.
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