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yrae
Writing Tools
What do people writeon in your world? Papyrus? Parchment? Paper? Do they have a printing press? Books? Scrolls? Do they have scribes? Illuminators? What do they write with? Reed pens? Feathers? Charcoal? Do they write on clay? In stone?
Not really any point in separating the kingdoms here, since it's much the same for the whole of Tsyllaes. Papyrus is used in the desert regions, and parchment where it's wetter, since papyrus would just turn into a soppy mess pretty quickly in moist air. In the desert regions, parchment is used for the particularly important or permenant documents, because it's more durable and expensive. The palace in Ni-Yana and the Llayan royal courts don't use papyrus at all.
Quills and reed pens are pretty interchangeable, neither is seen to be better than the other, except in Kazin where they use quills exclusively. Feathers are big in Kazin, you may remember, and the more impressive your quill is, the rarer the bird that it came from, and that's teh spiff, that is. Most often the quill/reed will have a metal nib to make the writing more legible--if you're rich enough that you've had reason to learn how to read and write, you're probably rich enough to get a metal nib for your pen.
Charcoal's not a big thing, because it's not as easily legible as ink, nor is it as durable. Raykinians have a certain affinity to it, though, because it can be fairly easily rubbed out and corrected, and can be carried and used anywhere, unlike a quill and ink pot. Obviously never used in official documents, but it's there.
Certain Tsaythi vessels keep the ink from the squids they catch so they can sell it to the kingdoms that need it. Tsaythis aren't really into writing or keeping records of things. What matters to them is the here and now. Last year was last year.
There are two different kinds of scribes in Tsyallaes: those who basically make up what they're writing, and those who just copy things down. The job of the latter is to refresh old and dying documents, or to write down what's said during meetings. They may or may not be literate themselves, so a lot of the 'handwriting' looks like it was drawn rather than written. They're most definitely all literate in Raykin, so that any one of the scribes in the offices can be grabbed to take down notes from a meeting without having to ask if they can write or not. Most of them can in Llayad, and most can't in Kazin. Kazin has dedicated meeting-scribes, the rest just refresh old documents.
The ones who make it up are your sort of academic types, who do research on past wars or rulers, work with the various ministries in the palace/royal court to create official documents, or, and this is a BIG one in Llayad, write poetry and stories. Yamin's a scribe, working to write down all the desert stories and variations of them and hopefully use them as a basis to get rid of the prejudice that the river folk have towards the desert people.
In Raykin, books are exclusively kept at the palace in Ni-Yana. You need the signature(s) of the monarch(s) to take one out of palace grounds. Kazin doesn't have books because the pages would just go mouldy in the humidity, and if the palace in Assiraz can't have them, then Silrona and the other, lesser mountain state-things certainly can't, either. That'd be weird. In Llayad, the size of a castle's bookshelf is indicative of the resident lord's wealth. They're likely to have one or two illuminated manuscripts on display and looking gorgeous. Clearly only a Llayan thingTsayth couldn't give a crap about books. If it's worth writing down at all, a sheet of papyrus will do the trick.
PS. Shannon Noll played no part in inspiring Nolryn's name, I swear. I only just noticed the resemblence typing it in then XD;
What do people writeon in your world? Papyrus? Parchment? Paper? Do they have a printing press? Books? Scrolls? Do they have scribes? Illuminators? What do they write with? Reed pens? Feathers? Charcoal? Do they write on clay? In stone?
Not really any point in separating the kingdoms here, since it's much the same for the whole of Tsyllaes. Papyrus is used in the desert regions, and parchment where it's wetter, since papyrus would just turn into a soppy mess pretty quickly in moist air. In the desert regions, parchment is used for the particularly important or permenant documents, because it's more durable and expensive. The palace in Ni-Yana and the Llayan royal courts don't use papyrus at all.
Quills and reed pens are pretty interchangeable, neither is seen to be better than the other, except in Kazin where they use quills exclusively. Feathers are big in Kazin, you may remember, and the more impressive your quill is, the rarer the bird that it came from, and that's teh spiff, that is. Most often the quill/reed will have a metal nib to make the writing more legible--if you're rich enough that you've had reason to learn how to read and write, you're probably rich enough to get a metal nib for your pen.
Charcoal's not a big thing, because it's not as easily legible as ink, nor is it as durable. Raykinians have a certain affinity to it, though, because it can be fairly easily rubbed out and corrected, and can be carried and used anywhere, unlike a quill and ink pot. Obviously never used in official documents, but it's there.
Certain Tsaythi vessels keep the ink from the squids they catch so they can sell it to the kingdoms that need it. Tsaythis aren't really into writing or keeping records of things. What matters to them is the here and now. Last year was last year.
There are two different kinds of scribes in Tsyallaes: those who basically make up what they're writing, and those who just copy things down. The job of the latter is to refresh old and dying documents, or to write down what's said during meetings. They may or may not be literate themselves, so a lot of the 'handwriting' looks like it was drawn rather than written. They're most definitely all literate in Raykin, so that any one of the scribes in the offices can be grabbed to take down notes from a meeting without having to ask if they can write or not. Most of them can in Llayad, and most can't in Kazin. Kazin has dedicated meeting-scribes, the rest just refresh old documents.
The ones who make it up are your sort of academic types, who do research on past wars or rulers, work with the various ministries in the palace/royal court to create official documents, or, and this is a BIG one in Llayad, write poetry and stories. Yamin's a scribe, working to write down all the desert stories and variations of them and hopefully use them as a basis to get rid of the prejudice that the river folk have towards the desert people.
In Raykin, books are exclusively kept at the palace in Ni-Yana. You need the signature(s) of the monarch(s) to take one out of palace grounds. Kazin doesn't have books because the pages would just go mouldy in the humidity, and if the palace in Assiraz can't have them, then Silrona and the other, lesser mountain state-things certainly can't, either. That'd be weird. In Llayad, the size of a castle's bookshelf is indicative of the resident lord's wealth. They're likely to have one or two illuminated manuscripts on display and looking gorgeous. Clearly only a Llayan thingTsayth couldn't give a crap about books. If it's worth writing down at all, a sheet of papyrus will do the trick.
PS. Shannon Noll played no part in inspiring Nolryn's name, I swear. I only just noticed the resemblence typing it in then XD;