Legal for commoners to read and write in Red Storm?

[Grapes]

unlatch bag MUL GANK SQUAD.

[sleepyhead]

unlatch bag MUL GANK SQUAD.

Thank goodness THAT'S fixed. It never happened to me but I heard the horror stories.

[Grapes]

unlatch bag MUL GANK SQUAD.

Thank goodness THAT'S fixed. It never happened to me but I heard the horror stories.

Agreed. I'm glad the crim-code has gotten a much-needed update, I'm sure it wasn't easy, I'm not pointing fingers and trying to say adding new things is bad because it kills people in unexpected ways or anything, as I'm sure it was probably a challenge to fix it. The alternative is to not get shiny new toys, which isn't a good alternative. More detail for law enforcement means more RP opportunities, so the end result is a win-win, despite some hiccups before it became a thing. Anyway, sorry for the slight derail.

[Jihelu]

I have been many a tackled for unlatching my own bag.
Many being like twice.
Staff was nice enough both times to save me.

Thank you staff.


Onto the actual topic...
I don't see why Storm would give a shit about reading and writing. IRC there was a rumor over this a while ago, it was a player rumor so it's not 'canon', but it did mention something like 'well who gives a shit' or something of that nature, which I agreed with.
If I saw someone reading why would I give more of a shit than if I saw some elf crafting a knife at a table? I'm there to keep my head down.

[Boogerbear]

I don't see why Storm would give a shit about reading and writing. IRC there was a rumor over this a while ago, it was a player rumor so it's not 'canon', but it did mention something like 'well who gives a shit' or something of that nature, which I agreed with.
If I saw someone reading why would I give more of a shit than if I saw some elf crafting a knife at a table? I'm there to keep my head down.

In a place like Red Storm where writing to criticize nobility/templarate/the highlord isn't as big of a factor, there might be other concerns.

From a commoner's perspective in Storm, seeing someone reading might invoke ideas of noble houses/the templarate, which are reviled by many in Red Storm.  Is the reading/writing person a spy for a noble/templar?  Since secrecy is a huge part of the written word on ArmageddonMUD, a commoner, especially many Red Stormers, probably would associate it with nobility/templars and be suspicious/concerned as a result.

From an NPC leadership perspective, writing would serve as a means to consolidate dissent or, even worse, spread information like the secrets behind magick.  Also, the counter to city-state espionage thing could be a factor here, too.

Then again, RS is known for the whole "don't fuck with other people, regardless" mentality, but there is a difference between crimes like stealing/attacking/murdering... and publicly displaying something which could be the equivalent to a blueprint for nukes on Arm - or a means to communicate with/spy for entities many RS residents are hiding from.

The "keeping your head down" thing only goes so far, especially when it relates to magick or associations with nobility/the templarate.

Part of Red Storm's culture seems like the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that was previously in place for same-sex relationships in the US military.  As long as a gay person in the military didn't make it known openly, they weren't typically fucked with, even if others suspected.  But cross that line and openly do something overtly gay, like kiss another man on base, and you're 100% fired.

It would be situational for PCs, too.  An escaped slave whose memories of writing are directly linked with templars checking tomes or ledgers would have a vastly different reaction than a Kadian employee just passing through on business.  But since writing *is* so uncommon, it would probably illicit a stronger reaction than murder, which is far, far more common.  Your PC might not say anything because of fear or, if a Red Storm native, ingrained culture, but a dude sitting at the bar in RS casually looking through a book filled with written words would probably be as common as a Borsail Wyvern stopping by at the same place for some spiced ale.  Or even less common, because AFAIK it isn't technically illegal to be a noble/noble employee in RS (though it's certainly asking for it), but, as an imm said, doing so in front of soldiers is a death sentence.  Even the GMHs have a vested interest in keeping the masses illiterate, so, regardless of Sand Lord justifications, Kurac and others with a strong RS presence would be just as motivated to suppress literacy.

I can't recall if literacy is illegal in Luir's.  IN THEORY, Cavilish is supposed to be vastly different from Sirihish, relating mainly to finances, so it would supposedly be harder to, say, write a work of fiction or spy book in Cavilish.  In practice, players tend to use Cavilish just as if it were Sirihish when it comes to recording stories, whether they're right or wrong. So, at least in Luir's, it seems like there would be an attempt to distinguish which language is being written/read by authorities and any scenarios, to me at least, would be wwaaayy more situational and dependent on the PC in questions/who they're working for.

[Cind]

I think the reaction ranges from "I didn't see nothing" to "Let's wait and see if they do it again" to "Hello, stranger. What are you drawing?" but while the docs say people often wait outside the village for troublemakers to leave, you don't really see this from the playerbase itself.

For us players, to see 'The tall, muscular man studies a red leather-bound book' immediately evokes the idea of reading, but to a Zalanthan, who would probably see art and painting and drawing far more than they ever do writing, they would probably think more immediately of pictures. The only book I've ever held in my career in Arm was a sketchbook. If this game were a real place, I doubt anyone would be suspicious enough that it was something besides drawing to actually get worried, but if its someone known to make trouble they'd probably check. Some are escaped slaves too so there's that I guess.

[Inky]

Realistically there are going to be scribes tallying sacks of grain and spice hauls. So I'm doubtful there are any redstormers that don't know what writing is.

And secondly the ban on writing is actually kind of a silly holdover from dark sun. Again, realistically scribes would be relatively common place, though only the elite (nobles merchants etc) would have the resources and time to learn in the first place anyways.

[Cind]

If you go back far enough in history, the vast majority of surviving writing tallies things like that--- payments, shipments and stocks of goods, food, and livestock. It was probably legally wise to write everything down so no one could dispute that a shipment of goats last month was missing ten females. If you could get away with stuff like that, the whole system collapses.

[Boogerbear]

Realistically there are going to be scribes tallying sacks of grain and spice hauls. So I'm doubtful there are any redstormers that don't know what writing is.

And secondly the ban on writing is actually kind of a silly holdover from dark sun. Again, realistically scribes would be relatively common place, though only the elite (nobles merchants etc) would have the resources and time to learn in the first place anyways.

Personally, never really considered written Cavilish extending very far at all beyond GMHs.  Not sure if Red Storm financiers except maybe at the higher levels would have a fully developed written language or just use numbers.

Kurac's a really prominent House there, and the spice business is a huge part of Red Storm's economy.  So, spicers might sometime see Kuraci spice collectors writing things in Cavilish, which is supposed to be a mostly-numbers language?  Or maybe "spice collector" is a shitty job that not many Kuracis (mostly family members) trained to write in a language would have.

Since there's a stigma and legal issues that come along with writing, people involved with inventory/sales/finance might be chosen for their really good memories or ability to keep up with things in ways not involving writing something on a piece of paper.

[Dar]

Having said, all of that, just to make it painfully obvious. The main reason why Red Storm omgwtfpwns you for reading, is because reading is hardcoded as an illegal activity and changing that for 'one' city and not others, is just a significant task. I surmise reading is illegal in blackwing outpost too.