Literacy

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Mon, 20 Sep 2004 21:05:14 +0100

> > > They aren't generally a "writing" people. IIRC literacy is a
> > > jealously guarded monopoly of the Lhankor Mhy cult (although I
> > > believe that this is an area where YGMV frequently comes
> into play).
> >
> > There is a problem that RQ rules assumed basic literacy as
> the norm -
> > all initiates learned to read, though not very well. So
> campaigns that
> > started then, and scenarios set then, have literacy built in.
>
> Jane, I didn't realize that. I am not sure about this
> monopoly of the Lhankor Mhy cult
> thing. Literacy seems an odd monopoly here. Now, mathematics
> I can buy in a
> heartbeat. While I can sort of see the LM monopoly in
> Orlanthi culture, I can't see it
> further south, such as Holy Country, even though Lhankor Mhy
> originated in Esrolia (if I
> recall correctly). So that may be a YGMV thing for my game.

The "monopoly" may be purely Orlanthi, I'm not sure. I can quite see them having the idea that writing words down in in some way chaining the wind. We know the Sun County Earth temples keep written records, because "Gaumata's Vision" depends on them, and it's far too good to lose!

Personally I can see an ancient/medieval society being mainly illiterate very easily, because AFAIK all the RW ones were. Literacy was a monopoly of the Church, mainly because no-one else had the time to waste learning to read.

I'd suggest going with the "new" illiteracy idea, though, at least for Orlanthi, because as you can see, it does make a huge difference to the way things work, and it *is* very much built into the new material. (Take a look at the SunSet Leap description for an example).

http://www.glorantha.com/hw/javern_sunsetleap.html

You're starting up a new campaign - make the most of it! Those of us converting old stuff have it much, much harder :(