Reading/Writing

[__Torax__]

This was spawned from the post ShaLeah made about the website that I've finally decided to read. Now in the post it stated that it is illegal for a commoner to read and/or write. I wanted to know if that is completely true. Would my commoner be punished for being taught how to read/write by one of the Nobility or Templarate(if its even possible they would teach a commoner how)?

[ashjpd]

Its possilble for a commoner to know how to read and write. I am almost 100% sure that a templar will punish them accordingly if they -find out- that they do.

[Dan]

You'd likely be executed as an example to others.

[Anonymous]

Aren't there commoners and slaves who are taught to read and write?  Scribes, accounting slaves.  Merchant house employees.

[Lasakar]

Aren't there commoners and slaves who are taught to read and write?  Scribes, accounting slaves.  Merchant house employees.

I think Merchant houses aren't allowed to read and write.
But the templars have surely special slaves for that. But they will be very valuable and hidden in some rooms.

[Carnage]

Aren't there commoners and slaves who are taught to read and write?  Scribes, accounting slaves.  Merchant house employees.

Merchant house family members know how to read/write. I believe it's generally known, but it's not the sort of thing that's flagrantly thrown about. Technically, it's illegal, but generally it's overlooked. That means that if you walk up to a templar and say, "HA-HA, I CAN READ AND WRITE!" they still will probably kill you. Merchant house employees, I'm not sure. Keep in mind that most of the important parts of a merchant house are controlled by family members (as there's hundreds of them), so it's unlikely an employee would need to know how to write.

I wanted to know if that is completely true. Would my commoner be punished for being taught how to read/write by one of the Nobility or Templarate(if its even possible they would teach a commoner how)?

More likely than not, if you're taught by a member of the nobility for a semi-important reason (i.e. for the house to record things), then you probably wouldn't be punished. At least, not by any blue-robed templarate, which is what the PC population is. It's generally not smart for a low-level templar to go and openly punish a noble house employee unless they do some very, very, very stupid such as treason and so on. The last thing a templar wants is to earn the anger of an entire noble house. More likely than not, however, you would have to be a slave to learn how to read/write things.

As for smaller things, like if it was just for the noble's fun, then it wouldn't be surprising if you were killed and the noble was put into very deep shit for it. The same generally applies to the templarate. And again, you'd more likely than not need to be a slave.

[Sandlord]

merchants born into certian houses know how to read and write in the merchants tongue, for keeping buissness records.

[John]

Aaaah.... Am I the only one who thinks saying that merchants know how to write (and in what language) is a little IC? Sure, you eventually suspect that's what is going on. But I would have preferred if it were something I was never sure of.

[Impska]

Ha! Edited because John mentioned it being IC info, and I don't want to offend him.

But I will keep my last paragraph -

Please bear in mind, that to be a literate character involves staff approval. To truly know how to read and write any language, you must have adequate justification that the staff approves, and they need to add it to your skill list.

[Morrolan]

From "House Nenyuk Bank" room desc in Allanak

"...the desk in front of him littered with transactions slips written on agafari paper."

In a word, no, it is common knowledge.

Morrolan

[John]

From "House Nenyuk Bank" room desc in Allanak

"...the desk in front of him littered with transactions slips written on agafari paper."

I'd still say family members knwoing how to write isn't common knowledge. I always assumed those people were a sort of slave. After all, I'm pretty sure a Templar would react if a family member wrote or read something in Traders, yet they don't react when the people in the bank do it. Therefore, they're a TYPE of slave.

Is that the case? No idea. But it's waht I've always believed If everyone thinks it's common knowledge, then okay. But I've always had fun trying to OOCly work out if they did :p

[DrunkenSalarr]

Please note that literacy is illegal or unknown for most people on the face of Zalanthas. While nobles and templars are trained in the arts of reading and writing and the Merchant Houses pass along a knowledge of how to write the trade-ciphers associated with Cavilish to their agents and merchants, it is considered treason for common citizens to possess such knowledge within the walls of Allanak.

I would say this is pretty common knowldge.  Please remember that Family Members of Major Merchant Houses, while still "Commoners," hardly count as "common citizens."  These Houses have enough power to be  included in the Alanaki Senate Meetings, I would think that they would be allowed to read and write, as long as they don't start doing stupid things like teaching everyone else.

[Gilvar]

And technically nothing is illegal in Allanak if your not caught.
Being taught to read and write in the private room of some noble, while stupid on their part, would not get you killed, unless you openly flaunted your ability. I think this was the same with speaking Tatlum, any commoner who spoke it would be killed, but obviously if you knew it and just didn't speak it, what would happen?

The same goes for many things, like murder, spice, etc.

Its all okay behind closed doors.


The only real matter is why would a noble teach someone to read and write? The way is much more private then passing notes, dictation isn't really a norm... Plus it even undermines their own power to an extent. Reading and writing is an OBVIOUS privledge, its something thats ILLEGAL for commoners to do, yet they are allowed. It places them a notch above. Teaching their commoners to read and write would be like lowering themselves down a bit the social ladder, I'd say. And unless the person was a long-time servant, and proven to be not only trustworthy with the knowledge gained through reading/writing, but capable of keeping their ability, and teacher a secret, I doubt any noble would even really consider it.

And this is a pretty big one...
Technically it wouldn't exactly be a breeze. How long does it take most children/young-adults to read and write to a point where its not only ledgible, but coherent with a decent vocabulary, etc. Most nobles are taught in their virtual childhood, and coupled with a basic education and a decent vocabulary. I'd say that 5 years to a decade would be a good minimum for a decent reading and writing ability. Considering that most people don't even begin real writing until like 5th grade, and some don't ever get real good until high-school.

Hope that helps.

[Angela Christine]

Technically it wouldn't exactly be a breeze. How long does it take most children/young-adults to read and write to a point where its not only ledgible, but coherent with a decent vocabulary, etc. Most nobles are taught in their virtual childhood, and coupled with a basic education and a decent vocabulary. I'd say that 5 years to a decade would be a good minimum for a decent reading and writing ability. Considering that most people don't even begin real writing until like 5th grade, and some don't ever get real good until high-school.

Reading and writing should almost be seperate skills.  Wasn't it Charlamane who could read but not write?  Not sure, some famous dead guy, anyway.  Usually they are taught together, you learn to recognise letters and then to write letters, you learn to recognise words, and then to write words.  But it is possible to learn to read without learning to write comprehensibly.  

I was able to read by the time I was 5 years old, but the time I was in fifth grade tests indicated I was reading at college level, but if you are really picky about penmanship I _still_ can't write.    My printing looks like it was done by an 8 year old boy and even I often can't read my attempts at script.  I do mean boy, not girl or child.  The girls usually had rounder, less jagged printing than boys, and I was told many times that I wrote like a boy.  Then I learned to type.

I can imagine situations where you might teach someone to read, but not necessarily struggle through years of penmanship classes to allow them to write legibly.  If your servant can read you can leave them instruction, they only have to be able to write well enough to scratch "yes" "no" or "not understand" at the bottem in reply, if needed.  You could even list a few possible responses, and have them circle the appropriate response.  Ok, this wouldn't work code-wise, but that is beside the point.  

AC