Hewo. I have been busy with stuff but the thought of this post reentered my mind.
Anyhow is just me doing world building ramblings because the question of how Devildom, Humanity and Heaven handle communication is so interesting to me as a bilingual person.
Gentle reminder that I make shit up.
★ Loquar ad vos
Demons do not speak any human language, at least natively. They have their own tongue, the name unpronounceable to mortals. It's very throat-y and the grammar very specific. You will accidentally typo a death threat while trying to say "good morning".
However, because this was an issue back in ye olden days back when demon rituals were just discovered by humanity (and communicating with the demon you just summoned was Kind Of A Big Deal), human sorcerers came up with a "simple" (it actually took a long time to make, but it was purposefully made to be simple to replicate) translation spell to combat the language barrier - Loquar ad vos. The bridge for the language barrier between species.
But the spell is veeeery finicky, and only allows the translation of very specific languages; Amongst that list of translatable languages, is English and Japanese. Think about it like an online translator with a very low language selection.
Loquar Ad Vos also supports the translation from human language to another human language (So both Demon tongue -> Japanese and Japanese -> Spanish are possible while using it), so it is also used by human sorcerers as a normal translator independently from its original purpose of solely translating the demonic language.
The use of Loquar ad vos has become mainstream since its creation and nowadays every single summoning circle - human or demon or otherwise - includes it amongst the micro spells they utilize. You will get the scolding of a century if you write the runes for it wrong.
★ Nulla lingua
Angels, contrary to demons, are born with the knowledge of every single human language that has and will exist - alongside demon tongue - but lack a language of their own and mimic other beings’ instead. They do not require the use of Loquar Ad Vos to communicate with, and are therefore more “approachable” (this approachability with humanity resulted in a relatively amicable relationship between the two realms at the start of human existence, and therefore the extrapolation of theocratic rhetoric and/or angelology as a whole).
This is considered an innate Angel trait, shared through all angels no matter the rank or strength. Older or stronger angels tend to gravitate to older idioms, as they are more accustomed to them due to their age, while younger angels usually prefer newer and/or easier languages. You can very much guess an angel’s age by what language they feel most comfortable with.
Upon falling, innate Angel traits are either entirely lost or muddied greatly, so the beings who knew Everything now only know Few. As a small mercy of their God, demon tongue will remain in the sinner’s language repertoire, no matter the type of fallen angel.
Y’know, I just love how, technically, all the exchange students have the underlying thread/theme of social classes onto them.
Simeon is a high class angel (granted, probably not anymore, but he was), while Luke is implied to be a relatively low ranking one. Meanwhile, Solomon reeks of upperclass or inherited wealth, and MC is just. Some dude(tm) who got sent into anime hell without even their prior knowledge or consent.
I refuse to believe this wasn't, to some degree, on purpose. Diavolo went like “yeah, let's make one of each high class and the other low class,” just so the exchange course can have more different points of view or something.
Idk. It’s my personal hc as to why they have to go through so much trouble to “coddle” MC when they could've, like, just summoned another strong human who wouldn’t immediately die.
Belphegor was actually the one interested in humans…..
how the fuck did you see my blog and went "oh yeah this person cares about canon". bestie what blog did you fucking read lol
allow me to make it clear: I don't care about getting all the lore right. especially if, subjectively, it makes a weaker narrative. moving on · · ·
a bit of a rant below the read more for those who actually care about my personal views and takes on delphegor:
I think Belphegor shouldn't be interested in humans because of the following
It allows him to dehumanize humans as the Wicked Horrible Wretched beings that basically destroyed his life. Why would he hold any interest in their culture, traditions, lives?
The topic would be traumatic as FUCK and he is not the type to put effort in anything “hard”, any less traumatic.
Avoidance and/or isolation - from human culture, in this case - is a common grief response that would make thematic sense for the Avatar of Sloth.
It could even be a cute parallel to Beel, who decided not to hold any grudge and even indulges in human culture rather unashamedly despite feeling the grief all the same.
it creates a more interesting conflict of his views of humans and the views of the other demon brothers, which also helps the whole attic situation feel more. dunno. shrugs vaguely
Belphegor IS angry with humans, and I can view as believable that he would learn about them solely out of spite, but it is fuckin' boring. It is literally what you always see in every goddamn revenge storyline and makes belphie so much flatter for the first half of the story when he fulfills the role of an antagonist/mystery hook, and legitimately gun to my head it also makes him the most boring character on the entire goddamn game because he doesn't even stay an antagonist anyway (despite literally killing mc, yeah wonderful choice for a romanzable, truly).
In my opinion as a writer, you could spin around the age-old trope of a hate boner grief response and bend it to something like the narrative punch of "These people ruined my life and I am angry, but I don't have the energy to enact said anger so I am just drowning in hate until I rot from the inside out. I hate, passionately, and nobody sees it. The world moved on and so did the people who hurt me, and the people who were supposed to be as hurt as me. These feelings inside me will explode alongside me and I have accepted this fate". Putting seasoning on the chicken, as it were.
Belphegor doesn’t have a plan for killing humans, at least not any that will actually work; they are all infantile and entirely misguided. He’s hurt, and he doesn’t know how to process that hurt - specially against the tiredness that took root in his bones - so he has to lash out against something to make the feelings go away. But it will not go away. And he cannot actually do anything. And killing humanity won’t make him happy, either.
So he stays stagnant as he plans nothing at all for an imaginary enemy he has created in his head. What he believes killed his sister. An entire species unknown to him except the fact that they took everything from him, so he doesn't have to blame himself in his grief.
And his brothers moved on so quickly, how could he do the same? It would betray her memory— And they interact with humanity so casually it makes his skin crawl. As if humans didn't take her away.
When the moment comes, when the moment comes, when the moment comes . . .
He rots and he dwells in these horrible feelings - until he gets locked up in the attic for what he believes is justified, because nobody else understands.
Until he meets MC, and they free him, and his delusions reach a boiling point while against something weaker. Something he, despite knowing nothing about this race, fundamentally knows: This that destroyed his life is lesser.
Anger and depression are not mutually exclusive, especially with grief involved, and having that be demonstrated with the avatar of Sloth would be more resonant with the game's narrative/themes of grief AND make each brother have a unique response to their loss. It also gives a bit more juice to his particularly close bond with Satan.
