Desert slang

Probably a lot of things having to do with not having water, or having too much sun.

This assumes you mean traditional fantasy Arabia desert, and not Mongolia desert or something.

>>52360312

Saying someone is wet behind the ears is an acknowledgement of their wealth and status, not an insult.

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>>52360426
Yeah, it's along the lines of not!1,001 Nights, with a bit of the Sahara thrown in for good measure. I had thought of a few like this, but a lot of them ended up being longer than one would expect to see peppered in conversation. More an epithet than an idiom, if that makes sense, like, "Sunflames scorch it/him/her/them" or, to emphasize sincerity, "May I be parched on the sands."

There are of course a few phrases I've been toying with that have to do with the deities of the setting, but I don't want everything to be of the mold, "By [god]'s [symbol associated with god]!"

>>52360462
Hahaha, that's pretty great.

>>52360312
You could look up some of the voice lines for the Khajiit, from the Elder Scroll series.

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>>52361132
Sweet, any idea where I might find those?

>>52361219
First thing to come up when you Google; Khajiit voice lines.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekxHU5cLXbA

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>>52361301
Also more Desert Art.

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>>52361322

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>>52361335

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>>52361357

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>>52361368

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>>52361380

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>>52361402

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>>52361414
Last one for now.

The most common survival threat would probably be running out of water. Desert people might use "drinking piss" or something like that to describe getting in trouble, the way we use "in over our heads" now.

>There's more than twenty guards around the caravan. If they spot us trying to kidnap the Duke, we'd be drinking piss in a hurry.

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>>52361301
... fair point. Also, a lot of this art is awesome. Thanks!

>>52360312
It's important to look at the environment

Your the Tallest Dune- Sand Dunes regularly shift height from wind so its a saying that means your successful now, but that success maybe short lived.

A Mirage of Promises- Someone who lies a lot.

Dew from a Darkling- Darkling Beetles use there shells to collect moisture from the morning air every morning and are often with in seconds eaten by lizards for the water they have collected. Could be a term used for taking advantage of someone

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>>52361480
Can't un-hear Bear Grylls saying this...

Thinking about some of the creatures that might get used metaphorically as either adjectival descriptors or epithets. Something like "jackal-eyed" or "he's a real beetleback" or "don't be a damned lizard-hearted coward!"

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>>52361486
Np.

Also, you could look up the Fremen from Dune. They spit at others, to show respect and gratitude. Since they live in suits that filters and repurpose all bodily fluid, spitting is literally seen as wasting precious water on someone.

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>>52361595
Oh right, I'd forgotten about that bit! I'd thought of the Fremen a bit, but I didn't want to be too obvious in my borrowing, haha.

>>52361568
All good, thanks.

>>52361705
You can get away with a lot of borrowing if you just cover it up a bit. Like with the Fremen bit, you could just make it so that people pour water on the ground in front of others. Both to show others respect (I waste me water on you) and as a symbol of status (I have so much wealth I can literally throw away water in the desert).

>>52361595
He looks bored.
You should never get bored riding a sandworm.
A sandworm is not a peice of industrial farming equipment. You should not attaching a plow to it and using it to till your fields.

>>52361595
they spit at their feet, not in their damn face

sand in your jimmies
sand in your cooter
sand between your ears
sand up your arse

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>>52361595

>>52362032

For a second I thought you were going to have the Sandworm say something given it's dramatic pose.

>muh spice!

>>52361964
Of course at the ground, sorry, english is not my first language so I see that i did not translate that correctly.

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Here are some actual Arabic idioms for you that deal somewhat with a desert setting.

"Every sun has to set" - pretty obvious but still works in fantasy

"Wealth comes like a turtle, and runs away like a gazelle" - It takes a while to build wealth but it can vanish overnight. Change it to whatever desert creatures you desire.

"Soak it and drink its water" - What you say is worthless(formal). For example, when Hassan Naseralah was informed Hezbollah had been included in the European Union's list of terrorist groups, he made a speech where he said "You can soak your list and drink its water". There are similar idioms in Persian and Pashto.

“Do you not even have the smell of blood? - Are you not even human? How could you be so heartless?

And a Persian idiom
"Dirt on Your Head" - Wishing someone to die(grave insult). The concept comes from pouring dirt on someone when you are burying them. You could easily change it to sand if you wanted.

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A vanishing lake with settlement

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Cave settlement

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Massive settlement

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>>52363739
These are amazing, thank you!

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>>52363877
>>52363964
>>52364109
Saved them all.

>>52361480
Something like "wasting sweat" would be a bit less cringy, I think. "Drinking piss" may be a real situation that might arise, but it's just... yuck.

"May you walk under cloudy skies" as a blessing

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>>52364195
no problem. pass it forward

>>52364257
Phrases and slang are often "yuck".

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Fighter

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>>52364429
>serrated sword
just

>>52364469
Yeah, I know. Just use your imagination

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Some Persian flavor here

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>>52364257
I may use both, just with a gradient of severity. "Wasting sweat" might be more acceptable in polite society, whereas "drinking piss" would get you a scolding by your mother.

>>52364323
I was actually thinking that a great deal of travel happens at night, since it would be cooler, so this as well as something like, "Clear moon guide your path" could be a good few!

>>52364529
I kind of wish I didn't know that serrated swords were shit. They look cool, but now I'm autistic about it.

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>>52364569
>I was actually thinking that a great deal of travel happens at night, since it would be cooler, so this as well as something like, "Clear moon guide your path" could be a good few!

Well, it gets super cold in arabian style deserts at night so people usually didn't travel by night AFAIK.

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Undead dinosaurs?