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Schoolmaster<br />

This occupation specializes in teaching students.<br />

A schoolmaster teaches either children at a<br />

religious school or young men at a university. Both<br />

the children and young men are referred to as scholars.<br />

If a schoolmaster teaches at a religious<br />

school, then the schoolmaster must be a proponent<br />

of the god to whom the school is devoted, as well<br />

as knowledgeable about the religion.<br />

If a schoolmaster teaches at a university, then<br />

the schoolmaster is either specialized as a barrister,<br />

doctor, or priest.<br />

Daily wages are typically 5 s.p.<br />

Ability Requirements: Language 100 and<br />

Intelligence (overall) 100.<br />

Gender: Male only.<br />

Race: Any but ogre.<br />

Disposition: Any.<br />

Temperament: Any.<br />

Sociality: Noble.<br />

Religion: Any.<br />

Skills: Teaching + 5, and any skill relative to<br />

the subject matter taught.<br />

Equipment: None.<br />

Magic Points: Inapplicable.<br />

Advancement Points: For each scholar<br />

who graduates with the permission of the schoolmaster,<br />

a schoolmaster acquires 5 AP.<br />

Training: None.<br />

Guild: None.<br />

ET.STANTI.LEGIS.ET.<br />

LEGIS.SEDENTI.<br />

CURRENTI.LEGIS.ET.<br />

LEGIS.CACANTI<br />

You read to me when I’m standing<br />

And when I’m sitting,<br />

When I’m running and<br />

When I’m shitting.<br />

Scribe<br />

This occupation specializes in copying written<br />

works and selling the copies to customers. Books<br />

are valuable and rare, so many scribes are backed up<br />

with orders. To be a scribe, a character must have<br />

completed their religious schooling. However, some<br />

scribes attend a university, fail their final examination,<br />

and choose to be a scribe though they once<br />

desired to be a barrister, doctor, or priest.<br />

The number of books is multiplying spectacularly,<br />

even though every book must be copied<br />

by hand. Scholars and universities supply a market<br />

for textbooks, and scribes are therefore often located<br />

in the neighborhood of the school or university.<br />

Scribes do more than copy texts. They also<br />

serve as secretaries, both for the illiterate and for<br />

those who want a particularly fine handwriting in<br />

their correspondence.<br />

A scribe sits in a chair with extended arms<br />

across which his writing board is placed, with the<br />

sheets of parchment held in place by a deerskin<br />

thong. His implements include a razor or sharp knife<br />

for scraping, a pumice, an awl, a long and narrow<br />

parchment ruler, and a boar’s tooth for polishing.<br />

A scribe works near a fire or keeps a basin of coals<br />

handy to dry the ink, which is held in an oxhorn,<br />

into which he dips a well-seasoned quill. The oxhorn<br />

fits into a round hole in the writing board, with a<br />

cover. Scribes are not always accurate.<br />

The greatest number of books consist of<br />

plain, legibly written sheets that are bound in plain<br />

wooden boards. Sometimes the boards are covered<br />

in leather. Scholars often bind several books together<br />

under the same covers. Books are valuable<br />

pieces of property, often pawned and rented as well<br />

as sold. Scholars are the chief renters. Across the<br />

bottom of the last page of many books is written<br />

“For his pen’s labor, may the scribe be given a beautiful<br />

girl.” Books are kept not on open shelves, but<br />

in locked chests. More elaborate books are bound<br />

in ivory and metal covers mounted on wood. Sometimes<br />

they are decorated with enamel. Works are<br />

seldom composed on parchment. Authors usually<br />

write on wax tablets and have their productions copied<br />

by scribes. A scribe writes first on wax and copies<br />

over it, onto parchment.<br />

Chapter 7: Occupation<br />

293

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