Darth Hater

We've all seen them while questing: signs in a strange language, plastered on everything from buildings to trade terminals. If you’re anything like me, your curiosity was piqued by these mysterious signs floating around, and you just had to know what they meant. Well worry no more, as we’re bringing you a comprehensive guide on not only the Aurebesh language, but also some of the more amusing signs in and around The Old Republic. Hit the jump for my personal favorites.

Used to denote the Basic language in the Star Wars universe, Aurebesh is the alphabet for all Basic-speaking aliens. Believed to have originated from the Rakatan Infinite Empire, this phonetic representation of the language has spread itself throughout the galaxy and can be seen practically everywhere you go.

Now it would’ve been quite easy for the developers of this game to slap these crazy looking characters at random on every surface, figuring that no one would go out of their way to translate them. However, we all know better. In fact, the developers went so far out of their way to include the language into the landscape that it boggles the mind. In many places, it’s something as simple as a road sign or an advisory message on a particularly dangerous chemical container.

In other places, it’s an advertisement for entertainment or fun, such as when you’re visiting Nar Shaddaa. This planet is absolutely covered in signs featuring the Aurebesh, so much so that we’ll cover them in a their own future feature. For the time being, here are a few of my favorites:

With the quality I’ve come to expect from an undertaking of this scale, I shouldn’t have been surprised to find that all iterations of the Aurebesh in the game actually make sense to the surrounding area. Take the GTN terminal from your fleet, for instance:

Or this terminal from the Black Hole Daily questing area:

And finally, in one of my favorite uses of Aurebesh, we have this propaganda poster, straight from the Imperial Fleet. Little in-game touches like this really make me appreciate the effort that the development team went through to make this feel like a really persistent world, complete with its own language.

Do you have any awesome examples of Aurebesh that I might’ve missed in my feature? If you believe that you do, send a mail on over to darth@darthhater.com. Include your name, server and a screenshot of the sign, and we’ll feature it in an upcoming feature.