Τëξëνι

Kxënt'exo worldbuilding

All images used in this page come from the Minecraft wiki.

This page contains information about the fictional setting in which Kxënt'exo exists.

Once again, a reminder that this is a fan project, so none of this is canon at all, I'm not affiliated with Mojang Studios.

Note that this page is still under construction, since I don't actually have that much progress on the worldbuilding for this conlang yet.

About the language

Setting

The main room of a desert pyramid from older versions, where dyed wool could be found.

Kxënt'exo is a dead language only studied by scholars and people who practice enchanting. It was spoken by a fallen empire that spanned across a fairly vast geographical area (mostly deserts, savannas, badlands and some stony shores and beaches, mostly in areas with lower elevation).

Kxënt'exo used to be many people's native language and a lingua franca of the region where the empire ruled over, so even in areas where other languages were spoken it was common to hear Kxënt'exo.

Name

The full moon and the stars in the night sky

The name of the language is related to the word for firmament, sky or galaxy in the proto-language: *kaxəritˤiwa, which had cultural significance because this empire believed (at least for some time) that there was a big dome which separated the earth from the sun, the moon and all of the stars in the night sky.

They worshipped a deity of the stars and named the city that would eventually become their capital after that deity, eventually the language got named after that city (similarly to how Latin was named after Latium).

So the name Kxënt'exo basically means "of Kxënt'e" or more literally: "of the galaxy; galactic". This is a little easter egg to the Standard Galactic Alphabet which is used as the cipher to represent the enchantment table language in the game.

Writing

The alphabet used to write Kxënt'exo is also probably used with some modifications to write down other languages of the area, in the same way that the roman alphabet is used in real life for most European languages.

Standardization

The council of the emperor is responsible for creating the standardized form of the language, which means that they essentially prescribe what "the right way to speak and write" is, of course, there's no reason why their opinions are correct, this is essentially something arbitrary that they're doing to codify their specific dialect of Kxënt'exo and give it privilege, placing it socially above the rest.

The council is the one that decided the alphabetical order and spelling conventions of the script, before it was standardized people spelled words in all sorts of different ways.

Enchanting

Enchantments

The enchantment table receiving knowledge from nearby bookshelves.

The fallen empire made many advancements in the art of magic, not only did they figure out how to imbue items with magical properties but they also left us with a lot of enchantments in grimoires and engravings on temples.

In order to enchant items you must have 3 things:

  1. Possess the right materials: lapis lazuli for the magic, and obsidian and diamonds to create a space you can enchant in.
  2. Have the necessary energy to enchant an item: this energy is gained through deeds like slaying hostile creatures or performing certain activities like smelting ores or cooking.
  3. Knowledge of how to actually channel that energy: some enchantments require you to chant whole paragraphs out loud while others require you to carve lots of words into items, but this isn't just regular speech, enchantments are structured in a pseudo-poetic style, so you must know which parts of the utterance to emphasize, which ones to say first and how to phrase things so that you can actually channel the magical energy, and maybe even certain accompanying actions like pulverizing the lapis lazuli and spreading it across different surfaces, moving around the room or focusing on certain emotions you feel.

The knowledge of how to craft an original enchantment from scratch is completely separate from the knowledge of how to execute an enchantment, if you possess a set of instructions detailing how to enchant an item all you need is to follow the instructions and you'll be able to imbue magical properties into the item without knowing how to make a new incantation or modifying existing ones.

The bookshelves placed around enchanting tables represent codices that are basically compendiums of pre-made spells, these don't tend to contain any knowledge on how to craft a new enchantment.

Kxënt'exo as a magical language

While it's commonly believed by scholars that Kxënt'exo is an inherently magical language and that it's the only language that can be used to enchant items, that's not actually the case, theoretically any language could be used in the same way as long as you know how to phrase things correctly in order to channel your magical energy.

Even back when it was spoken natively not everyone was able to enchant items, you had to be very knowledgeable on how magic works if you wanted to make a new spell or follow the complex instructions written by someone else, so just speaking Kxënt'exo is not enough to be an enchanter.

The misconception arose because when scholars tried to translate the meaning of the enchantments into other languages they missed all of the little nuances and details that are necessary for actually channeling your energy, so their lack of understanding of this poetic style of text and all the little details of which things are emphasized means that they end up making an imperfect translation which does not possess the same magical qualities, and so they made the assumption that the spells don't work when translated because Kxënt'exo is just a special language.

The surviving books from the ancient civilization are mostly compendiums of enchantments with instructions on how to cast them, most of the codices that actually talked about how to craft a brand new enchantment from scratch have been lost to time, so most scholars are unaware of the fact that the Kxënt'exo spells are phrased in a very meticulously chosen way, they may notice the text is weird but they usually chalk it up to it being flowery prose or some form of artistic expression within the spells.

Even any scholars who know that Kxënt'exo isn't inherently magical and figure out that spells need to be designed don't know all of the rules for how to actually craft a spell, plus you don't need to craft a new spell if you already have one written for you, even if it's in an ancient dead language, so this is the reason why Kxënt'exo is used for enchanting in this setting despite it not actually being inherently magical or unique, it boils down to a misunderstanding or convenience.

Geography

Background

world generation animation in Minecraft

One of the things I'd like to do with this worldbuilding setting is not make an official map of the world, while I enjoy making maps for other worlds I feel like in this case it'd be too concrete and tangible, which doesn't fully align with my goals for the project.

The lack of a physical map means that you have to rely on descriptions of the land and use your imagination, it also means that if someone wanted to create a Minecraft world that is meant to represent this setting they'd have the creative freedom to do it in whatever way they please, or if someone wanted to write a story or make a Minecraft save where they use Kxënt'exo it doesn't contradict any of the geographical features of the setting so it works with the canon I'm coming up with.

The posibilites are endless, similarly to how when you start a new Minecraft world you don't know what you're going to come across because the world is procedurally generated, if you want to make anything based on this setting you are able to mold it however you please like how Minecraft gives you the freedom to shape the world however you please.

That being said I don't have much description to give of the land yet, or even much worldbuilding information in general.

Description

The fallen empire that used Kxënt'exo as a lingua franca ruled over a fairly vast area, mostly made out of deserts, savannas, badlands and some stony shores and beaches, mostly arid biomes in areas with lower elevation, though some other biomes may have also been included at different points in the history of the empire.

Screenshot of savanna and desert biomes in Minecraft

The capital city-state of the empire was called Kxënt'e /k͡xənˈtʼe/ which is named after a deity of the galaxy, the exact location of this city is unclear but it was roughly somewhere on the eastern side of the empire in a fairly arid region.