fatal

Schoolmaster
This occupation specializes in teaching students.
A schoolmaster teaches either children at a
religious school or young men at a university. Both
the children and young men are referred to as scholars.
If a schoolmaster teaches at a religious
school, then the schoolmaster must be a proponent
of the god to whom the school is devoted, as well
as knowledgeable about the religion.
If a schoolmaster teaches at a university, then
the schoolmaster is either specialized as a barrister,
doctor, or priest.
Daily wages are typically 5 s.p.
Ability Requirements: Language 100 and
Intelligence (overall) 100.
Gender: Male only.
Race: Any but ogre.
Disposition: Any.
Temperament: Any.
Sociality: Noble.
Religion: Any.
Skills: Teaching + 5, and any skill relative to
the subject matter taught.
Equipment: None.
Magic Points: Inapplicable.
Advancement Points: For each scholar
who graduates with the permission of the schoolmaster,
a schoolmaster acquires 5 AP.
Training: None.
Guild: None.
ET.STANTI.LEGIS.ET.
LEGIS.SEDENTI.
CURRENTI.LEGIS.ET.
LEGIS.CACANTI
You read to me when I’m standing
And when I’m sitting,
When I’m running and
When I’m shitting.
293
Scribe
This occupation specializes in copying written
works and selling the copies to customers. Books
are valuable and rare, so many scribes are backed up
with orders. To be a scribe, a character must have
completed their religious schooling. However, some
scribes attend a university, fail their final examination,
and choose to be a scribe though they once
desired to be a barrister, doctor, or priest.
The number of books is multiplying spectacularly,
even though every book must be copied
by hand. Scholars and universities supply a market
for textbooks, and scribes are therefore often located
in the neighborhood of the school or university.
Scribes do more than copy texts. They also
serve as secretaries, both for the illiterate and for
those who want a particularly fine handwriting in
their correspondence.
A scribe sits in a chair with extended arms
across which his writing board is placed, with the
sheets of parchment held in place by a deerskin
thong. His implements include a razor or sharp knife
for scraping, a pumice, an awl, a long and narrow
parchment ruler, and a boar’s tooth for polishing.
A scribe works near a fire or keeps a basin of coals
handy to dry the ink, which is held in an oxhorn,
into which he dips a well-seasoned quill. The oxhorn
fits into a round hole in the writing board, with a
cover. Scribes are not always accurate.
The greatest number of books consist of
plain, legibly written sheets that are bound in plain
wooden boards. Sometimes the boards are covered
in leather. Scholars often bind several books together
under the same covers. Books are valuable
pieces of property, often pawned and rented as well
as sold. Scholars are the chief renters. Across the
bottom of the last page of many books is written
“For his pen’s labor, may the scribe be given a beautiful
girl.” Books are kept not on open shelves, but
in locked chests. More elaborate books are bound
in ivory and metal covers mounted on wood. Sometimes
they are decorated with enamel. Works are
seldom composed on parchment. Authors usually
write on wax tablets and have their productions copied
by scribes. A scribe writes first on wax and copies
over it, onto parchment.
Chapter 7: Occupation