Every once in a while I have to look up words, which in itself isn’t that bad when I can make out what some of the things mean. But then they give me a sentence like: “no mystery has endured under the discerning gaze of the reliquary” and even when I look up the definitions of the words or translate it on Google it doesn’t even make sense in my own language. Some ancient a$$ words for sure.
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Which words in that sentence are problematic?
Well it’s a fantasy game in which the primary weapons of choice are magic and bodily harming hand held tools and not dakka dakka dakka, of course the writing would be “ancient a$$ words”
And to be fair not even all English native speakers would understand those words.
Does your own primary language not have localisation for this kind of thing?
None of those words are particularly ancient or even that obscure. They not simple words, but they’re hardly difficult.
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Dude, you are complaining about the occasional advanced-difficulty challenge.
You already mentioned you are applying context-based guessing and such.
You simply gotta keep going. I always considered gaming, as an activity that fascinated me, as a great way to learn English. (Sim City 2000 was an early skill boost, and I always had a dictionary next to the computer.)
And WoW, while not perfect of course, has tendentially very refined text content, so it is a good source for learning English.
If Google Translate fails you but you still just want to know, then try parts of the sentence; single words. (It’s what I do with Latin, too - heh. Google Translate has a shocking beer denial there sometimes, while acknowledging wine just fine.)
Practice (ideally through devotion) makes perfect, the saying goes. These days I play with words in several languages, including several mixed.
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I learned English as a child by playing Discworld with a dictionary.
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That’s what I call child’s play.
I speak fluent english and even I have no clue what that means lol
Edit: your name, wth
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The reason you are struggling is cus the statement on its own makes no sense, given that a reliquary is an object or container that holds , maybe, relics. So for a container to have a ‘discerning gaze’ will be translated as nonsense. The important word here is ’ the’ in reference to the reliquary. And therefore no translation will understand the line without first understanding fully what ‘the’ reliquary is.
Unless ‘Reliquary’ was with a capital letter and then it is the name of a specific item , or was earlier desribed as a reliquary, as a term of reference, which may have a given purpose. Reliquary in this context becomes the general term for the ‘thing’ that has the gaze. Like say, I dunno, a stone statue that has stood dormant for years with an all seeing eye that contains within it relics, so making it a reliquary.
This presumes that the ‘all seeing eye’ that has the discerning gaze can evaluate that which it sees so avoiding any mystery. I am intrugued, just who or what is this ‘reliquary’ you talk of.
But as a general term it has been used incorrectly. Well done sir. Have a biscuit… or not.
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They are a blood elf organisation and in that context the sentence makes perfect sense
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The Reliquary is the Horde version of Explorer’s League, so it’s an in-game organisation which google might not be able to help you with. In real life a reliquary is where churchs hold the relics of old saints.
A discerning gaze is just a good examination. Somewhat archaic language but I would have thought google could understand it.
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Not without the capital letter… which is what I said. In the line quoted the word ‘reliquary’ is with a little ‘r’ making it a general term. That is why I say the important word in the line is ‘the’ cus without knowing what that is then the sentence makes no sense. And the query was about the use of the ‘English’. So does the line actually say ‘Reliquary’ with the capital ‘R’ as the Wowpedia refers … The Reliquary, cus without the big ‘R’ the OP has a better understanding of the English than the writers.
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Wouldn’t be the first typo in the game if it were missing.
Google the line and find out, hint the quest says Reliquary.
I agree. The quoted sentence actually makes easy sense, I had to read twice, but so what.
There can be two problems, though:
- Context. The Reliquary is the organisation. So while it’s a simple “we solve everything”, it can break down if the reader isn’t aware. Even understanding the words, it may not add up to mean anything.
- Some races - gnomes, in particular - tend to use gibberish. Coupled with the game twisting some anyway, which is funny when it creeps back to real life (animal names, mostly). It may result in someone discarding words, or expressions as white noise. To someone with excellent English, it may add up. Very similar to how puns work.
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Is there no option to put it into your own language?
Otherwise what else can they do? Dumb the language down to a children’s book lanuage like '‘very hungry caterpillar’
A lot of the language in game is not typical English used by the masses in everyday speech.
Some of the phrasing and words used are either academic or archaic.
Some of it appeals to people who enjoy Olde World affects for the Role Playing Game aspect .
I would definitely not expect the average person in a British pub to easily understand that sentence.
As a Brit, I applaud anybody who does not use English as a first language that plays this game as it doesn’t even use everyday modern English a lot of the time.
These aren’t ancient words, they just aren’t modern conversational words. I have to look up a few now and then. In this case, in conversation you’d say “There isn’t a mystery The Reliquary hasn’t solved yet!” but it doesn’t sound very elven to speak like that.
I sympathise, I can’t speak other languages at all (english person) and I have a learning disability specifically with language!
Well, English is not my native either and I can read that sentence perfectly fine since I am not bad at it.
I think it translates in my native language german to something like “Kein Mysterium hat je den beurteilenden Blick des Reliquiars überstanden”.
But when I just checked now the german meaning is “kein Mysterium hat unter dem scharfen Blick des Reliquienschreins überdauert”, which was close to what I translated myself, but I misinterpreted the kind of gaze meant.
So you are not alone, my friend. 
A bit outdated after reading followups, but for completeness…
You said “fluent”, so I am calling you a liar. 
Besides, fancy language in WoW is not new at all, so words like “gaze” should be extermely familiar.
- A translator can understand an imanimate object as actor just fine, and this should work in many languages. (Although we don’t know OP’s native language to check.)
- “The” also is not relevant. It simply means that not just any reliquary is meant, but a specific one.
- Yes, if OP does not pay attention to capitalization or does not understand its relevance in English (and both can be likely, since even many native English speakers are losing interest in such things), then this would be a bit confusing, especially if previous story content has not been noticed or encountered. Because, and even you are missing lore content here, and since I don’t have DF I cannot say whether through negligence or innocently, …
- The Reliquary is not an object but an archaeological organisation; the Horde equivalent to the Explorer’s League!
And since even the intro story to DF is very heavily exploration-themed, I am wondering whether indeed some story content was missed. On the other hand, a Wowhead search yielded almost no NPC presence in the Dragon Isles from either organisation.
Here’s something funny for Germans: If you switch to Russian audio, every now and then you might hear an NPC say what sounds very much like “Scheiße”. 
Check Wowhead for MON_Broker_Farewells_01_169694 in Russian.
For English speakers there is a line by Khadgar that sounds funny, too:
FILEDATA_4639096