The message boards of the main cities of Eorzea are always littered with a variety of postings--party invitations, shop advertisements, sales requests and lost animal fliers. One posting, however, seems to stand out among all the rest.
It's a long note, scrawled with immaculately detailed penmanship, with an even longer parchment scroll tacked beneath. Tied to the top of the note is a writing charcoal that hangs idly by, waiting to be used.
The note above the scroll reads as follows:
Greetings, citizens of Eorzea
My name is not important, but my vocation is. I am a scholar of language and writing of this great land, and I am providing this missive as a means to ensure that our common tongue is not lost, and proper diction and speaking is not muddied beneath the blur of these furious days.
Understand my position is not one of levity, but of dire, stoic seriousness. The battles we wage are nothing compared to the battle against proper grammar and clear speech. No orders were ever met and carried when issued by some gobstopped general, and it is the speeches of great leaders that echo across all of time...and these were orated by clear-spoken men and women. For what are we but cretins beneath even the Beastmen if we allow vigilance to waver in the face of the tangled tongue and ruined readership?
Thus, to assuage my concerns, and to ensure that every man, woman and cat-man among us is well-read, well-learned and well-spoken, I propose this test to all of Eorzea's citizenry.
Herein are the instructions.
Below this note, you will notice a scroll, with one sentence written upon it. Using the attached charcoal I have so graciously provided, under good faith that nobody will steal the bloody thing, those who are reading this shall continue the story I have begun, ensuring to write ONLY ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME. The purpose of this test is to gauge the realm's ability to create expressive ideas, to clearly dictate those ideas and to ensure that the realm shares understanding among its citizenry.
It is my fervent hope that this test will yield satisfactory results. Let us begin.
It was a clear, fine day in the forest of the North Shroud.
It's a long note, scrawled with immaculately detailed penmanship, with an even longer parchment scroll tacked beneath. Tied to the top of the note is a writing charcoal that hangs idly by, waiting to be used.
The note above the scroll reads as follows:
Greetings, citizens of Eorzea
My name is not important, but my vocation is. I am a scholar of language and writing of this great land, and I am providing this missive as a means to ensure that our common tongue is not lost, and proper diction and speaking is not muddied beneath the blur of these furious days.
Understand my position is not one of levity, but of dire, stoic seriousness. The battles we wage are nothing compared to the battle against proper grammar and clear speech. No orders were ever met and carried when issued by some gobstopped general, and it is the speeches of great leaders that echo across all of time...and these were orated by clear-spoken men and women. For what are we but cretins beneath even the Beastmen if we allow vigilance to waver in the face of the tangled tongue and ruined readership?
Thus, to assuage my concerns, and to ensure that every man, woman and cat-man among us is well-read, well-learned and well-spoken, I propose this test to all of Eorzea's citizenry.
Herein are the instructions.
Below this note, you will notice a scroll, with one sentence written upon it. Using the attached charcoal I have so graciously provided, under good faith that nobody will steal the bloody thing, those who are reading this shall continue the story I have begun, ensuring to write ONLY ONE SENTENCE AT A TIME. The purpose of this test is to gauge the realm's ability to create expressive ideas, to clearly dictate those ideas and to ensure that the realm shares understanding among its citizenry.
It is my fervent hope that this test will yield satisfactory results. Let us begin.
It was a clear, fine day in the forest of the North Shroud.
