>I believe Esrolia is where the Heortlings borrowed most of their literary
>and numerical expertise, such as it is. Id expect the Earth to remember her
>secrets, though in surprising and often mysterious ways. Whispering down
>votive shafts, accompanied by an offering perhaps?
Well, possibly, especially as transmitted through the Argan Argar cult and the Kingdom of the Only Old One. The Pharoah may also have brought ideas that would have influenced the Orlanti who remained in the Holy Country. I imagine that the Bright Empire and the EWF also may have had an influence, although as the Heortlings saw these as enemies, there might be a stigma against using writing technologies and systems that came from them. (If the Heorlings have a non-sacred writing system, I would imagine it was an EWF development.)
>> The Orlanthi, wherever they are found, are mostly illiterate; they
>> have an oral culture. ...Sheets of barks painted with relatively simple
>> ink (probably lamp black)
>
>Don't forget trollkin urine as a source for metallic inks, and other sources
>for more mundane colours. Bistre from burnt beetles. Oak galls. Gum arabic
>and acacia shrubs, buckthorn berries and rose madder. Chalk and powdered
>metals and stones, indigo and lapis lazuli and vermillion and malicite.
>
Oh, sure, there are lots of different pigments that can be used in writing. I was trying to focus on what, if anything, was the main writing medium for the area. Medieval mauscripts were illustrated with many colors of paint, but iron gall ink (which is where your oak galls come in) was the medium used for the bulk of the letters. Lamp black is a very simple ink that was discovered inaependantly all over the RW. It works very well on semi-porous surfaces (i.e. not parchment), is cheap and easy to make, etc.
Writing materials may (should) change over time. I'm working on a more detailed examination of Peloria where I'm trying to consider the effects of the Bright Empire, the EWF, the Carmanians, and the Lunars on writing technology and scripts. I like Nick Brooke's idea of reversing the significance of red and black in Lunar bookkeeping, and I assume that the Lunar pigmants are different from the old Solar ones, which are still used in sacred solar documents but not much outside them. So instead of lamp black and red ochre, the Lunars use iron gall ink (more suitable for parchment) and, perhaps a beetle-based pigment for the red (trade with the Blue Moon Plateau and its Gorakki cults). Similarly, I imagine that the Lunars prefer the codex (from the West through Carmania) to the native Pelorian scroll, at least for longer works. Also, if there is a lettered alphabet in Peloria, it is probably for New Pelorian, adopted by the Lunars from the Carmanian example. Native Pelorian writing is probably hieroglyphic or a refinement of that concept.
I'm somewhat reconsidering my opinions on paper in the Empire. There seems to be more trade with Kraloria than I had initially imagined, so I suppose paper imports could be a possibility. If so, it would be a luxury good, although its possible some hero stole the idea, the Dwarves produce it, or Sheng Solaris brought the techniques with him (although none of these solutions are entirely satisfactory).
>An oral culture *remembers* and learns many memorisation tricks that are
>reflected in storytelling and song.
Indeed; just because the Orlanthi are, for the most part, unlettered does not mean that they have no culture, memories, or thought. I suspect that the Orlanthi have some very sophisticated memory systems. On the other hand, Pelorians probably use the almost universal Heortling illiteracy as proof of their need for conquest. (Solar Man's Burden, anyone?)
>Call me old-fashioned, revisionist and down-right grumpy, but the idea of
>Mostali using paper sits as comfortably with me as Humakti berserkers (i.e
>not at all. Well, hardly ever.)
I don't like the idea of the Mostali being as technologically advanced as most people seem to see them. I like the idea of trying to keep Gloranthan technology to a roughly "ancient world" level. I realize that the Mostali exceed this, but I don't see them as budding Industrial Revolutionaries with steam powered looms and worker's councils. The bronze goats mentioned by Andrew Raphael are not, in my opinion, clockwork -- they are magical metal creatures that mimic life. I may be quite wrong about this, but it feels more right to me than the alternative. I've never really liked the Mostali, though, so perhaps I'm just short sighted.
Peter Larsen
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