Setting: Kelovea (Here Be Dragons)

[Kaylin]

What if someone believes they're pouring dyed water on a rock where the ritual calls for wine, but actually a Very Confused Thief broke into their house overnight and swapped out wine for their dyed water, so they are in fact pouring wine on the rock? Does the ritual fail (because they expect it to) or succeed (because if they knew all the facts, they would expect it to)?

...
I think it succeeds, unless the ritual is very new. The collective belief about How Magic Works overrides the person's individual belief that they are cheating. If this person then went around loudly (and mistakenly) claiming that the ritual worked even though they used dyed water, that might have interesting effects on the results of future experiments.

[Kaylin]

Moving on from the magic system: Kelovea has a conlang! It is called Vàjo.

Phonology

• Consonants (in order of frequency): l, m, n, r, v, k, h, zh (ʒ), t, j, d, dy, ty, f, s, z, sh, g, ch
• Vowels in order of frequency: u, i, e, á (ə), o, à (æ), a, å (ɑ)
• Diphthongs: ai, au, eá, ei, oi, áu, iá, uá
• Syllables: (C)V(C)
• No consonant clusters except (vowel)r(consonant)
• Words cannot end in d, j, s, sh, or ty
• g only occurs at the end of a word

If anyone wants to help me figure out how to program zompist for this, be my guest.

[Kappa]

Not sure how to get zompist-gen to do it, but I managed one for my language generator!

Sample text: "u chi asu málu kuna nánekaitəu usivu hiishi ikuim eəaiásá vizháem lei kunujá ovil auityi nunuá lotya nilemiát àuude zho u rámuu e dyàvudu ri huauàtå vuəu kilu murotu turoá làlelufu ru dyuzhádai duhehi miike dàshálàj mudyuuim uainause ru urji irioli dyue chiəlue kaijetu arhei rujul eək ti eumi runi"

[Kaylin]

Yup, that's helpful, because it exposed some ambiguities in my explanation. For clarification, "á (ə)" means "a letter which is written as á and represents the sound with the IPA symbol ə", not "á and ə are both sounds this language has".

I think the reason your sample text contains both is because I used ə when I wrote out the diphthongs (now fixed).

[Kappa]

Yes, I copied the diphthongs into the vowel inventory as they were listed. I'll go change it.

edit: New sample text: "hu áàimi kumu já moiá nilo niluná e ueo li låihe loiil luku murudyi holifui uholáu nu áláváá limudo jaishu hurolelo humi kámàmu miku nuk u reju du zezhein dyi renázhoá ri unu chuli fåridutyo dyuuzhude heeu àeku i àdyueo u e je naurátu de fulo åzhiiro lumáloa àn riváveiru"

[Kaylin]

I have discovered what humans' racial magic is! Basically, humans are just slightly luckier than other races. They can defy danger and survive in situations where they really should have died, one in a million chances crop up nine times out of ten, etc. Basically, all humans in Kelovea have protagonist level luck. This has led to a culture of increased risk-taking behaviour relative to other races.

You may now proceed to poke holes in this and help me flesh it out. Also, Kelovea currently has one (1) defined human character. His name is Mak and he can be found here. Ask him stuff!

[Kaylin]

Attempts to get Mak to tell us about himself resulted in this:
"Uh, I live in a city? It doesn't have a name yet, 'cause someone isn't that great at conlanging and hasn't gotten around to making one up yet. But, y'know, it's cool." (why do I let him out...)

how do you feel about all these other kinds of critters running around

Mak: "Uh, well, dragons are pretty cool. I have this great dragon buddy back home - don't tell him this, he'll get a swelled head - and he's...well, he's pretty much the best guy I know."

do you find all these things with more supernatural abilities threatening

"Well, I'm not a wizard, but I think there are more human wizards than any other race, or somethin'. Anyway, 's not like they're threatening just 'cause they're dangerous, y'know? Kel could burn me to a crisp, doesn't mean I'm scared a' him."