Why do Invidians Speak Balok?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Seeing nothing to suggest such a departure, I'm going to rule IMC that Balok was in fact his native tongue. Given the options, I think it's far more likely that he came from Barovia than from Barovia's homeworld. The mists retreated when Marta cursed Bakholis, so all the information beforehand is open to being false history. Then again, that also includes the act that earned him a domain. Unless he was a ruler under Strahd (but Strahd would have destroyed him) or Gundar (but Gundarak had no record of it when it appeared)....

Okay, I've changed my mind. I think the simplest explanation is that all the domain's history occured on Barovia's homeworld, and it was transported to RL whole cloth.

[Nevermorrow]

I agree that it should be another land from the same world as Barovia. Many languages are spread across more than one country and lots of countries have more than one language and/or ethnic group. It's actually quite realistic.

Let's not forget that the Mists can also reach through time. Invidia could be from centuries before or after Barovia was taken by the Mists.

Invidia is another poorly-named domain, IMHO. Who is going to name their nation "Envious"? I'd think that would be an unflattering nickname at best. Maybe Invidia is what Barovians call the domain.

[Isabella]

Well, we don't know how language developed in the strange world of Ravenloft - maybe the word "Invidia" became synonymous with "envious" based on the behavior of it's inhabitants.

[ewancummins]

Let's see: Azalin learned Barovian before creating Darkon, but Darkonese has been related to his homeworld. Don't know how Soth spoke to Strahd, but they spoke--did he learn a language?

Strahd's been dealing with outlanders since forever, he probably knew to cast Comprehend Languages before they met. The real poser is, how did Soth communicate with Magda or Azrael?

They all spoke Common, I suppose.