Lt Murgen?s notes on Khinasi Culture: Eloquence

DM Tips: Khinasi culture: eloquence

The Khinasi people look with favor upon people who can speak well for themselves. Storytellers and poets, orators and politicians are judged by their ability to smoothly persuade people. Even in their cursing, a well crafted insult is favored over a more direct crass one. There are several institutions in Khinasi culture to foster an eloquent population.

There is a far more literate population amongst the Khinasi than other human groups in Cerelia. All but the most destitute are literate to some degree. People are expected to be able to read a simple proclamation and sign their name. While there is little set curriculum, education generally begins after a child?s Awakening ceremony. The mother, wife of the house, or close female relative tutors the poor. Private tutors are used where they are available and can be afforded. In some regions, basic communal schools are run by the Temple, Geirhou, or other charity. For example, the Library of the Swords recently made 100 copies of a basic reading primer available to the poor families of the Thieves Market. Once a week, 6 librarians gather at the gate and teach to the assembled children.

Most Khinasi regions have no formal news services. Even the regents of the area do not have their own system for spreading news to the population. Instead, the tradition of the Hoodje (hood-gee) is accepted practice. The Hoodje are people paid specifically to spread a given piece of information in a given area. In some regions, it is common practice for the unemployed to gather at the local temple. There they make a spectacle of themselves, bragging about their prowess and persuasiveness. . This is the one place where such braggadocio is acceptable. . People wishing to announce an event- a wedding, birth, etc. will go there and listen to these people brag of themselves. They use the eloquence of their words to select their messenger. In other regions, like Ariya, the Hoodje are more formally trained, and under the control of various Geirhou. A family with an announcement would go to a shop and page through books of a particular Hoodje?s recorded efforts, and to see which families pay a retainer to which Geirhou. Patronage by the Prince Paladin, for instance, is highly coveted, and commands higher prices for all their employees.