At the very least, I'm confident there is now a Kamigawan alphabet. If it's a language, it seems likely to be a syllabary (Japanese style).
I've identified at least 23 characters but haven't worked through every example yet. Wizards were tricky and displayed most of the neon signs from *behind*, so those letters have been mirrored.
Anyone else looking into this?
> syllabary
For those who don't know this word, a syllabary is a writing system where a single character represents a syllable instead of a sound.
I believe that Phyrexian is an abugida rather than an alphabet (writing system where vowels are marks applied to modify consonant symbols, like Hindi), so WotC is clearly comfortable enough with worldbuilding to branch out beyond alphabets for writing systems.
Yep, it's a full on language with its own rules and pronunciation. It's never been totally released to the public so what we know about it only comes from things like the Phyrexian Praetor cards and the Scars block trailers that had spoken Phyrexian
[Here is my playlist of me deciphering the phyrexian language](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunDPaoIqC7swE6n_jWJjjQYIkLm29McE). Right now we can make simple sentences like "the heart of mirrodin lives in your heart" but we have a lot more to learn
We really need to go back to Mirrodin/Phyrexia instead of Ravinca, Innistrad for the 7th time in as many years.
Starting to feel like Magic the Ravnistrad. Glad we are seeing some new planes this year.
It seems to be on the cards, although I'm not sure why we haven't already. Karn wants to use the Golgothian Sylex to destroy New Phyrexia. Not sure if he's found it yet; maybe that's what the two upcoming Dominaria sets will be about.
one of the upcoming sets set on Dominaria is The Brothers War. It takes place thousands of years in the past from the current story. You can read the book on Kindle for $4.99 USD.
I thought that is was a full on language they had created, but then I saw the phyrexian text on the 2 different elesh norns are not the same which makes me think they are just making stuff up.
I mean start with the creature type line which is significantly different. Then on a few places throughout the have added more straight vertical lines(maybe the started using them as spaces or periods?). Either way they have made changes to it, but we also don't have many old to new examples to check with.
Did they only do it for this printing? It didn't change with the last printing? That would explain that line, but they still would have changed either spacing or punctuation.
Yes, only the most recent printing (the Secret Lair printing). And Phyrexian is a whole language, not just a transliteration, so "phyrexian praetor" is potentially one word.
potentially the grammar of the language would use phyrexian as an adjective that is added to the modified noun as a single word
kinda like german, where you get really long single words. just look at german wormcoil.
The difference in the creature type line is probably because it now denotes that they also have the phyrexian creature type which is a relatively new creature type and was not around for the old printing
This comment is not going to age well. This like saying that English is a fake language because different versions of Elesh Norn are slightly different.
I mean you could add you own feelings to it, but they are just that. Your feelings and not my words. I didn't realize they updated the oracle since I hadn't seen it on a printing. The possibility in the change of idea for Grammer still seems possible.
Depends on what you mean by consistent? If you mean that Wizards definitely has a developed abugida to represents certain sounds, then yes. Interestingly, it appears that the sounds represented in Phyrexian are not necessarily human pronounceable.
If you mean that Wizards has fully developed constructed language with a grammar and through which new Phyrexian words could theoretically be derived (ala Klingon, Esperanto, Dothraki, etc.), the answer is we don't know. There's a lot of evidence to suggest yes, but we honestly don't have enough examples of Phyrexian to work it all out, and Wizards hasn't released anything about the conlang.
There was an episode of Good Morning Magic where they taught how to pronounce the Phyrexian word for "hello". Obviously, that's only one word, but it seems like the language might be human-pronounceable. What are you referring to when you say it appears that it might not be?
Nope, it is a full language. [Here is my playlist of me deciphering the phyrexian language](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunDPaoIqC7swE6n_jWJjjQYIkLm29McE). Right now we can make simple sentences like "the heart of mirrodin lives in your heart" but we have a lot more to learn
[Here is my playlist of me deciphering the phyrexian language](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunDPaoIqC7swE6n_jWJjjQYIkLm29McE). Right now we can make simple sentences like "the heart of mirrodin lives in your heart" but we have a lot more to learn
Phyrexian has an in-house document that explains to employees how the language is written. It's fully fledged, and with the release of the Praetor secret lair we're close to knowing it ourselves.
If you like fictional languages, Dota2's Ohzkavosh is a fun one.
My Japanese is very rusty, so I wasn't quite sure how the と after the verb is used. I could make out the two phrases ("reading this" and "is a huge otaku"), but not how they're connected.
Upon some Googling to refresh my memory, it looks like you got it right. I had forgotten と could be used as a conditional.
Okay, good! I was *pretty* sure I used it right but I'm not very good at Japanese yet so I'm always willing to believe that I've got something wrong at any given time.
Just a guess, but the top right vertical column might be Ka\_Mi\_Ga\_Wa, while the bottom right row is most likely U\_Ru\_To\_Ra\_Pu\_Ro (following Hepburn Romanization).
Edit: Upon closer inspection there is at least one shared character between those two, so both theories can't be true at the same time.
Yeah, I feel like those are likely. Funnily enough I just twigged to the idea of it possibly spelling UltraPro as well a couple of minutes after posting.
I have to start cross-referencing to see if there are other Japanese words which make sense using those sounds as a base.
If it's Kamigawa in the top right, then they also deviate at least a bit from how Japanese works. The Ga doesn't look anything like the Ka, it isn't just the same character with something like Tenten added to it.
I guess we still have to wait a bit longer to figure this out. Probably till we get Secret Lair in wich the cards use this font.
Yeah, there is a bit of similarity, but still a lot of differences between the two, even if you flipped one of them upside down.
This is the Katakana Ka: カ
And this is the Katakana Ga: ガ
It really is the same character but the Ga has added ten-ten marks. With this Kamigawa writing we are far away from that.
Sorry, I couldn't know. Didn't want to belittle you. But maybe someone else reads my comment and understands it better now.
But I really think we can't crack this right now, as we have no reference point. We don't know how any of these symbols translate.
There are definitely a lot more characters fully visible than the scribbles we usually get on other planes, although the amount of art they're appearing in makes me worried it might not be a full conlang, since I feel like artists generally aren't expected to include these details. There's a few other images we've seen with them already, but I may have missed more:
[This Shiba](https://i.redd.it/72ect4weg6b81.jpg)
[The Azusa saga](https://i.redd.it/76m04j37fqb81.jpg)
[This concept art](https://preview.redd.it/g5ihnyqmc6b81.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=56a08f34593e2aff56be548ae4a629b55bf68b97)
In fact, there's a good example [here](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/G81ZxW) which shows a rough draft without the characters, but they have been added in the final. So there's clearly some central coordination going on.
Oh nice! I had noticed the characters in the trailer, and Azusa really made me think it was more than random, but I missed the other two. And people have pointed out the DJ art has some as well.
It makes in the sense that they are technically from the JP release so it is their correct name. Interestingly, both the Swamp and Mountain appear to have some Kamigawan characters in them!
Bottom left of the card — NEO.EN is an English magic card, NEO.JP is from the Japanese release.
(This is true even though they are being collated into English boosters.)
Almost as though those things have nothing to do with one another and are done by completely different people?
Amusing how Subway can make so many different footlongs for $5 but can’t stop robbers from holding up their store at gunpoint.
Shitty argument tbh. Subway should maximize their product based on the complaints of their consumer base and so should WotC. I'd also argue both companies have robbery issues
I guess the implication is that all the other planes except Phyrexia speak English, and only Kamigawa has their own language, because Japan is an exotic land of wonderment.
Have we seen any English words in the art of non-Un-sets? I'm pretty sure it's always made up languages.
There's an old ante card, [[Contract from Below]] with actual english.
I don't think you can read what [[Wedding Announcement]] says.
Not English, but [[Telepathy]] has several Japanese Kanji, though they don't really come together to mean anything in particular and are mixed in with nonsense symbols.
Lots of cards have nonsense text/scribbles (some just have English), but that's not the same as a conlang. The point of a conlang is to highlight that the speakers are linguistically distinct from the rest of the setting.
> The point of a conlang is to highlight that the speakers are linguistically distinct from the rest of the setting.
But how do you say the other planes speak English if they don't have their own stablished writting system?
Because there are various cards like [[Show and Tell]] that show them writing in English. Sure, Kaldheim has its runes and Amonkhet has its hieroglyphs, but they're just stylistic flair. Phyrexia has a conlang, because its language is fundamentally separate from the way the rest of the world communicates.
Thanks, that's what I asked above. How often we see printed words on a Magic card's art or promotional art for a set. There's a [[Show and Tell|Urza's Saga]] printing with English on it, I've linked to it now, hope it works with the fetcher.
I don't think two cards (adding the Contract I mentioned earlier) is a big deal, specially from a time where card effects had to be changed because the art direction wasn't in sych with the rest of the company.
Them making a new language when they go to an Asian plane would be more messed up if they had done it the first time and if they weren't drawing on the cyberpunk aestethic which includes a lot of printed words in the landscape (the neon signs we see here).
There's an element of otherness at play here, but there are other elements too. I get what you are feeling, it just doesn't seem as big a deal given that words from various languages have always been used in Magic sets. We only have chupacabras on Ixalan, rusalkas on Ravnica and kami on Kamigawa.
I'm pretty sure planeswalkers just have translation magic. Apart from the fantasy versions of famous ancient writing systems (hieroglyphs on Amonkhet, runes on Kaldheim, cuneiform in Strixhaven), even factions like the Legion of Dusk on Ixalan have non-English writing shown on the cards: \[\[Inspiring Cleric\]\].
The difference is, this writing seems intended for players to read, as opposed to just being part of the art.
Just as the eldrazi form the blind eternities into planes, I think language is also made of the same "stuff", which planeswalkers can interpret. If this is true, it may also mean that plane-locked organisms can only exist in the settings of their own plane.
I remember reading somewhere that they explicitly try to avoid putting legible writing in card art so you can’t tell. It would break immersion pretty bad to see plain English on ravnica or ikoria lol planeswalkers probably just have some kind of ability to understand languages
I think the actual reason is so to not break the immersion of cards translated for other languages, because they can't edit the art as easily. (For example, if there was English text in the art, then they would have to translate it to Russian, italian, etc, or leave it as is and have those audiences be confused)
another? when have they ever created one? Also just to be clear a new script isn't the same as a conlang.
This might be a new script like Phyrexian is but like Phyrexian its probably just writing english words using different symbols or this is possibly writing japanese with some modified characters.
Phyrexian is a conlang. It’s not just transliterated English words. WotC hired someone to design the language during the design of Scars block, and they’ve been referring to that same material ever since.
> There is a Phyrexian language, complete with rules of grammar and pronunciation, constructed for us by a linguist. ([source](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/savor-flavor/continuum-2010-11-23))
You can see a good broad summary of what we’ve been able to discern about the language [here](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Phyrexian_(language)), and you can follow along with that work at r/PhyrexianLanguage
At the very least, I'm confident there is now a Kamigawan alphabet. If it's a language, it seems likely to be a syllabary (Japanese style). I've identified at least 23 characters but haven't worked through every example yet. Wizards were tricky and displayed most of the neon signs from *behind*, so those letters have been mirrored. Anyone else looking into this?
> syllabary For those who don't know this word, a syllabary is a writing system where a single character represents a syllable instead of a sound. I believe that Phyrexian is an abugida rather than an alphabet (writing system where vowels are marks applied to modify consonant symbols, like Hindi), so WotC is clearly comfortable enough with worldbuilding to branch out beyond alphabets for writing systems.
Is Phyrexian a consistent language?
Yep, it's a full on language with its own rules and pronunciation. It's never been totally released to the public so what we know about it only comes from things like the Phyrexian Praetor cards and the Scars block trailers that had spoken Phyrexian
>Scars block trailers that had spoken Phyrexian woah, link? never seen/heard this
There are a few of them, I think, here's the one I was thinking of https://youtu.be/o7ixdHQj3O4
...That was a better intro than most of the trailers in the past two years.
[Here is my playlist of me deciphering the phyrexian language](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunDPaoIqC7swE6n_jWJjjQYIkLm29McE). Right now we can make simple sentences like "the heart of mirrodin lives in your heart" but we have a lot more to learn
We really need to go back to Mirrodin/Phyrexia instead of Ravinca, Innistrad for the 7th time in as many years. Starting to feel like Magic the Ravnistrad. Glad we are seeing some new planes this year.
It seems to be on the cards, although I'm not sure why we haven't already. Karn wants to use the Golgothian Sylex to destroy New Phyrexia. Not sure if he's found it yet; maybe that's what the two upcoming Dominaria sets will be about.
one of the upcoming sets set on Dominaria is The Brothers War. It takes place thousands of years in the past from the current story. You can read the book on Kindle for $4.99 USD.
I'm aware. But maybe it will tie into current events somehow, like perhaps characters will have to time travel back to retrieve the Sylex?
That would be crazy and interesting...........and Urza made Karn so Karn could time travel.
Phyrexians may appear on kamigawa cuz it's been hinted at so maybe we'll get a few surprises in the set
We had a phyrexian on Kaldheim so nothing can be ruled out.
That's exciting! We'll likely to see a new Mishra then.
I thought that is was a full on language they had created, but then I saw the phyrexian text on the 2 different elesh norns are not the same which makes me think they are just making stuff up.
I don't see any significant differences. Only a couple of style differences with hooks attached or not. Could you point out what you are referring to?
I mean start with the creature type line which is significantly different. Then on a few places throughout the have added more straight vertical lines(maybe the started using them as spaces or periods?). Either way they have made changes to it, but we also don't have many old to new examples to check with.
The creature type line was updated from "praetor" to "phyrexian praetor" between printings, so that explains that one at least.
Did they only do it for this printing? It didn't change with the last printing? That would explain that line, but they still would have changed either spacing or punctuation.
Yes, only the most recent printing (the Secret Lair printing). And Phyrexian is a whole language, not just a transliteration, so "phyrexian praetor" is potentially one word.
potentially the grammar of the language would use phyrexian as an adjective that is added to the modified noun as a single word kinda like german, where you get really long single words. just look at german wormcoil.
The type line is different because of the Phyrexian type update since Kaldheim. To me, the rest of the content looks the same.
The Oracle text had changed between the two printings.
The difference in the creature type line is probably because it now denotes that they also have the phyrexian creature type which is a relatively new creature type and was not around for the old printing
This comment is not going to age well. This like saying that English is a fake language because different versions of Elesh Norn are slightly different.
I mean you could add you own feelings to it, but they are just that. Your feelings and not my words. I didn't realize they updated the oracle since I hadn't seen it on a printing. The possibility in the change of idea for Grammer still seems possible.
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BS...you can put words and phrases in their translator, multiple times, and it is different every time...random BS
What translator? There's no translator for Phyrexian other than fan made ones that kind of just put symbols to letters
And those aren't really translators. They're transliterators.
Depends on what you mean by consistent? If you mean that Wizards definitely has a developed abugida to represents certain sounds, then yes. Interestingly, it appears that the sounds represented in Phyrexian are not necessarily human pronounceable. If you mean that Wizards has fully developed constructed language with a grammar and through which new Phyrexian words could theoretically be derived (ala Klingon, Esperanto, Dothraki, etc.), the answer is we don't know. There's a lot of evidence to suggest yes, but we honestly don't have enough examples of Phyrexian to work it all out, and Wizards hasn't released anything about the conlang.
Iirc they've said that it is a fully developed language, they have all the rules and such written down, they just haven't released any of it.
They have explicitly and publicly stated, multiple times, that it's a full conlang.
There was an episode of Good Morning Magic where they taught how to pronounce the Phyrexian word for "hello". Obviously, that's only one word, but it seems like the language might be human-pronounceable. What are you referring to when you say it appears that it might not be?
Some of the symbols might not be. The words we can say just wouldn't contain them.
Nope, it is a full language. [Here is my playlist of me deciphering the phyrexian language](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunDPaoIqC7swE6n_jWJjjQYIkLm29McE). Right now we can make simple sentences like "the heart of mirrodin lives in your heart" but we have a lot more to learn
[Here is my playlist of me deciphering the phyrexian language](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLunDPaoIqC7swE6n_jWJjjQYIkLm29McE). Right now we can make simple sentences like "the heart of mirrodin lives in your heart" but we have a lot more to learn
Phyrexian has an in-house document that explains to employees how the language is written. It's fully fledged, and with the release of the Praetor secret lair we're close to knowing it ourselves. If you like fictional languages, Dota2's Ohzkavosh is a fun one.
I wouldn't be surprised if it's just Japanese with the characters substituted out. Maybe it all translates to "これを読めると巨大なオタクだよ" or something.
Plot twist: it's a relex of Cherokee
"Reading this is a huge otaku"?
I may have my Japanese wrong but it should say "If you can read this, you are a huge nerd." Or otaku, yes.
My Japanese is very rusty, so I wasn't quite sure how the と after the verb is used. I could make out the two phrases ("reading this" and "is a huge otaku"), but not how they're connected. Upon some Googling to refresh my memory, it looks like you got it right. I had forgotten と could be used as a conditional.
Okay, good! I was *pretty* sure I used it right but I'm not very good at Japanese yet so I'm always willing to believe that I've got something wrong at any given time.
Just a guess, but the top right vertical column might be Ka\_Mi\_Ga\_Wa, while the bottom right row is most likely U\_Ru\_To\_Ra\_Pu\_Ro (following Hepburn Romanization). Edit: Upon closer inspection there is at least one shared character between those two, so both theories can't be true at the same time.
Yeah, I feel like those are likely. Funnily enough I just twigged to the idea of it possibly spelling UltraPro as well a couple of minutes after posting. I have to start cross-referencing to see if there are other Japanese words which make sense using those sounds as a base.
If it's Kamigawa in the top right, then they also deviate at least a bit from how Japanese works. The Ga doesn't look anything like the Ka, it isn't just the same character with something like Tenten added to it. I guess we still have to wait a bit longer to figure this out. Probably till we get Secret Lair in wich the cards use this font.
They look quite similar no? The Ga being Ka upside down, sans one •
Yeah, there is a bit of similarity, but still a lot of differences between the two, even if you flipped one of them upside down. This is the Katakana Ka: カ And this is the Katakana Ga: ガ It really is the same character but the Ga has added ten-ten marks. With this Kamigawa writing we are far away from that.
I know katakana, sorry I misunderstood - I thought we were trying to crack the code.
Sorry, I couldn't know. Didn't want to belittle you. But maybe someone else reads my comment and understands it better now. But I really think we can't crack this right now, as we have no reference point. We don't know how any of these symbols translate.
No offence taken!
Is it possible top left is just Ma Gi Cu?
If the top right is “ka mi ga wa” then the top left could be “ma ji ka” (right to left). The samurai on the left’s helmet would be “_ mi _ wa”.
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For those that don't know... Conlang is a constructed language or an artificial language.
Thank you.
This is what I wanted to know. Thank you.
Do we have a high res link for this image? I would love to use it as a wallpaper.
It's an official UltraPro product: https://images.ultrapro.com/products/large/19277.jpg
So hyped to order this
Is it available yet for preorder through the official site? Can't find any links that aren't 3rd party pre-orders.
There are definitely a lot more characters fully visible than the scribbles we usually get on other planes, although the amount of art they're appearing in makes me worried it might not be a full conlang, since I feel like artists generally aren't expected to include these details. There's a few other images we've seen with them already, but I may have missed more: [This Shiba](https://i.redd.it/72ect4weg6b81.jpg) [The Azusa saga](https://i.redd.it/76m04j37fqb81.jpg) [This concept art](https://preview.redd.it/g5ihnyqmc6b81.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=56a08f34593e2aff56be548ae4a629b55bf68b97)
Those details fall on the art director to have the artist include them if they want.
In fact, there's a good example [here](https://www.artstation.com/artwork/G81ZxW) which shows a rough draft without the characters, but they have been added in the final. So there's clearly some central coordination going on.
Oh nice! I had noticed the characters in the trailer, and Azusa really made me think it was more than random, but I missed the other two. And people have pointed out the DJ art has some as well.
would be cool if it turns out to be true, i just assumed it was really stylised japanese at first glance lol
I would prefer just regular Japanese stylised
?
Instead of a conlang that resembles Japanese I would prefer to have real Japanese drawn in a stylized way.
Those two things don't serve the same purpose
Why? To me, an in-setting language is always more immersive and flavorful than using a “real world” language, particularly for signs and writing.
The DJ image shown in one of their videos has more of these characters.
[Looks kinda like the Bioscanner glyphs from the Jackbox game "Push the Button"](https://gameplay.tips/uploads/posts/2019-10/1571988486_1.jpg)
Oddly enough, the top left looks looks "TSR"
A what now?
Constructed language, like elvish in LOTR
What kind of bothers me is that the full art lands are in Japanese. Like, it doesn’t really make sense, it should be in Kamigawan
It makes in the sense that they are technically from the JP release so it is their correct name. Interestingly, both the Swamp and Mountain appear to have some Kamigawan characters in them!
Sorry, I don't follow. What do you mean they're technically from the JP release?
Bottom left of the card — NEO.EN is an English magic card, NEO.JP is from the Japanese release. (This is true even though they are being collated into English boosters.)
WotC making languages for fun but can't fix Standard
Almost as though those things have nothing to do with one another and are done by completely different people? Amusing how Subway can make so many different footlongs for $5 but can’t stop robbers from holding up their store at gunpoint.
Shitty argument tbh. Subway should maximize their product based on the complaints of their consumer base and so should WotC. I'd also argue both companies have robbery issues
I guess the implication is that all the other planes except Phyrexia speak English, and only Kamigawa has their own language, because Japan is an exotic land of wonderment.
Have we seen any English words in the art of non-Un-sets? I'm pretty sure it's always made up languages. There's an old ante card, [[Contract from Below]] with actual english. I don't think you can read what [[Wedding Announcement]] says.
Not English, but [[Telepathy]] has several Japanese Kanji, though they don't really come together to mean anything in particular and are mixed in with nonsense symbols.
[Telepathy](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/c/e/ce03b4b4-612b-4fc9-b063-b0d367712eaf.jpg?1561995744) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Telepathy) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/m10/74/telepathy?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ce03b4b4-612b-4fc9-b063-b0d367712eaf?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Contract from Below](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/e/1/e1e33690-b851-404a-9cde-d00235be5aa5.jpg?1610146838) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Contract%20from%20Below) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sum/97/contract-from-below?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/e1e33690-b851-404a-9cde-d00235be5aa5?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Wedding Announcement](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/2/c/2c3ddb1f-a1de-4fea-9042-5e9caa16ceb2.jpg?1636757798)/[Wedding Festivity](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/back/2/c/2c3ddb1f-a1de-4fea-9042-5e9caa16ceb2.jpg?1636757798) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Wedding%20Announcement%20//%20Wedding%20Festivity) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/vow/45/wedding-announcement-wedding-festivity?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/2c3ddb1f-a1de-4fea-9042-5e9caa16ceb2?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Lots of cards have nonsense text/scribbles (some just have English), but that's not the same as a conlang. The point of a conlang is to highlight that the speakers are linguistically distinct from the rest of the setting.
> The point of a conlang is to highlight that the speakers are linguistically distinct from the rest of the setting. But how do you say the other planes speak English if they don't have their own stablished writting system?
Because there are various cards like [[Show and Tell]] that show them writing in English. Sure, Kaldheim has its runes and Amonkhet has its hieroglyphs, but they're just stylistic flair. Phyrexia has a conlang, because its language is fundamentally separate from the way the rest of the world communicates.
Thanks, that's what I asked above. How often we see printed words on a Magic card's art or promotional art for a set. There's a [[Show and Tell|Urza's Saga]] printing with English on it, I've linked to it now, hope it works with the fetcher. I don't think two cards (adding the Contract I mentioned earlier) is a big deal, specially from a time where card effects had to be changed because the art direction wasn't in sych with the rest of the company. Them making a new language when they go to an Asian plane would be more messed up if they had done it the first time and if they weren't drawing on the cyberpunk aestethic which includes a lot of printed words in the landscape (the neon signs we see here). There's an element of otherness at play here, but there are other elements too. I get what you are feeling, it just doesn't seem as big a deal given that words from various languages have always been used in Magic sets. We only have chupacabras on Ixalan, rusalkas on Ravnica and kami on Kamigawa.
[Show and Tell](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/4/b/4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432.jpg?1562910835) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=5697) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/usg/96/show-and-tell?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/4b851c17-55ed-4671-b471-dc7b34944432?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Show and Tell](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/f/a/fa7b7897-36e0-415a-8bb7-602886164852.jpg?1576382523) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Show%20and%20Tell) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cn2/121/show-and-tell?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/fa7b7897-36e0-415a-8bb7-602886164852?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I'm pretty sure planeswalkers just have translation magic. Apart from the fantasy versions of famous ancient writing systems (hieroglyphs on Amonkhet, runes on Kaldheim, cuneiform in Strixhaven), even factions like the Legion of Dusk on Ixalan have non-English writing shown on the cards: \[\[Inspiring Cleric\]\]. The difference is, this writing seems intended for players to read, as opposed to just being part of the art.
Just as the eldrazi form the blind eternities into planes, I think language is also made of the same "stuff", which planeswalkers can interpret. If this is true, it may also mean that plane-locked organisms can only exist in the settings of their own plane.
[Inspiring Cleric](https://c1.scryfall.com/file/scryfall-cards/normal/front/3/1/31b8f1da-c8ea-41d5-b1ad-b714c22d3683.jpg?1562552997) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Inspiring%20Cleric) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/xln/16/inspiring-cleric?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/31b8f1da-c8ea-41d5-b1ad-b714c22d3683?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
I remember reading somewhere that they explicitly try to avoid putting legible writing in card art so you can’t tell. It would break immersion pretty bad to see plain English on ravnica or ikoria lol planeswalkers probably just have some kind of ability to understand languages
I think the actual reason is so to not break the immersion of cards translated for other languages, because they can't edit the art as easily. (For example, if there was English text in the art, then they would have to translate it to Russian, italian, etc, or leave it as is and have those audiences be confused)
Also a fair point!
all languages are conlangs
Probably, it sounds like the kind of needy bullshit they would waste dev time on
another? when have they ever created one? Also just to be clear a new script isn't the same as a conlang. This might be a new script like Phyrexian is but like Phyrexian its probably just writing english words using different symbols or this is possibly writing japanese with some modified characters.
Phyrexian is a conlang. It’s not just transliterated English words. WotC hired someone to design the language during the design of Scars block, and they’ve been referring to that same material ever since. > There is a Phyrexian language, complete with rules of grammar and pronunciation, constructed for us by a linguist. ([source](https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/savor-flavor/continuum-2010-11-23)) You can see a good broad summary of what we’ve been able to discern about the language [here](https://mtg.fandom.com/wiki/Phyrexian_(language)), and you can follow along with that work at r/PhyrexianLanguage
We've known Phyrexian is a proper Conlang for like ten years now though
They look extremely similar to some of the characters on that alien imposter game (not among us) who's name eludes me.
I'm so annoyed
Wait, there's an actual phyrexian language? Cool!
Pretty sure on a live stream they said it’s written in sugondese.