How did your character learn to read/write?

[Seriphyn]

Apparently in the lore, as per the real-life time period Eorzea is roughly analogous to (socially, not technologically), the vast majority of the land's inhabitants are illiterate. Left to the realm of the very highly educated, or some such. IMO, that didn't really need a devpost to be made obvious, since it makes sense if one knows their history. Eorzea doesn't have a public education system let alone an education system, period, for anyone to be able to learn how to become literate. Most RP characters seem to be literate, even if they come from a background where there typically wouldn't be an opportunity to make this possible.

 

So from that, assuming your character is literate, where and how did they learn to read and write? My character is not, since he was born in poverty and professionally is a rank-and-file soldier. There is no need for him to be literate, nor was there an opportunity, I suppose!

[Shoshopu]

Shoshopu and her brothers learned to read from her mother, who is from an Ul'dahn merchant family. Her father is descended from a long line of Dunesfolk who live in the traditional manner as nomads on top of giant animals, so he's completely illiterate. Her four brothers can read a little bit but they weren't as interested in learning.

 

I hope I get to RP as/with her family members someday. That's kind of novel to me, coming from GW2 where the setting is, like... high fantasy, socially progressive, thanks to the Priory's literacy campaign everyone can read, etc

[Melkire]

He rarely confesses this to anyone, but Osric wasn't truly gutterborn. His early childhood saw him a son to a caravan-guard-turned-caravan-master and his wife. That benefit coupled with living in Limsa Lominsa resulted in access to paid tutors from the Arcanist's Guild at Mealvaan's Gate. 

 

That all went south when Cenric Melkire committed suicide. The resulting fallout left his family destitute and drove his eldest son to the streets in order to support the small household.

 

tl;dr: lucky to be born into the right family in the right city at the right time.

[Berrod Armstrong]

Berrod was taught by his mother at a young age. They were from Ala Mhigo proper, and her work required literacy. As he grew up, she taught him everything she knew so that he'd be able to survive in the event of her not making it.

 

Lucky thing.

[Cliodhna Eoghan]

The same people that taught her how to kill properly. c:

[Val]

Val totally taught himself how to write. 

 

And it shows.

[ArmachiA]

Armi was taught by the Priesthood. It was pretty much necessary when she was priestess. She took to it slowly, since she started at 12, and wasn't very good at it till 17.

[Blue]

Jet'a was taught at a rather late age (12 years old) by the alchemist who picked him up from the streets.

 

While Chiara was educated by a personal mentor hired by her family when she was a child, coming from an aristocratic family of goldsmiths in Ul'dah who could afford such expenses.

 

Vincent is also from a mid-upper class Ishgardian family, and since he couldn't become a knight (ineptitude for combat, combined to allergy to chocobos), he was instead raised to become acquainted with political affairs and the like, so reading and writing were due skills.

 

My other five characters are illiterate, and so will my two Au Ras, I think.

[Altitis Acquired]

Adrian can barely read or write. He's more or less self-taught, though a few others have helped him.

[WiredBones]

Mine didn't. He's an illiterate moron.

[Vali]

Vali was taught how to read/write from her dead husband

[Aduu Avagnar]

The priests of The ossuary and the thaunaturges guild, due to the texts he was required to study.

[Kurt S.]

For Kurt and Keil, it's from their parent figures.

 

Kurt's case is a little bit more basic and he's learned to try and be a little more literate on his journey to level 50, mainly by trying to assimilate whatever he can gleam from others.

 

Keil's case requires him to read and write seeing as his adoptive parent had a penchant for gathering stories and riddles(which ties in to how I translate the MSQ to his own storyline) aside from skewering bodies with a spear.

 

As for Alicen, no she can't read or write but I can't bring myself to start sounding like a complete dumbass....even if I'm developing her to be one.

[Dravus]

Graeham's parents funded his education so he's rather well spoken and capable of writing. It also allows him to avoid becoming just another mercenary that kills for coin since there's plenty of odd jobs that he can do to fund his travels.

[Zael Aders]

Ludivine's parents were both fighters and leaders, as were their parents; the knowledge to write and make documents and plans was passed down through the family, and passed to Ludivine too.

[Jack]

Traveling with all sorts of different people since an early age, Jack just kind of picked up bits and pieces here and there from merchants and the like. He felt it might be valuable to know, so he kept studying. Lots of time to study when you lead a largely unproductive lifestyle.

[Sounsyy]

Sounsyy and her little sister, Sophie, were taught the barest education with the Gridanian children after they fled Ala Mhigo. Sounsyy rarely attended her studies and so was not very literate for most of her young adult life. It wasn't until she retired to Limsa Lominsa (and later became an officer for the Knights of the Barracuda) that she actually applied herself to learning to read and write.

 

She is still incredibly poor at both. It takes her forever and a headache to sludge through all of the paperwork and documents and manifests she's been studying and I try to portray that best I can.

[Flickering Ember]

Ember doesn't know how to read. She is blind but she also doesn't know how to read braille. I doubt Eorzea has braille anyway and with most people illiterate, it wouldn't make sense for her to be able to read braille. Considering she grew up as a wild child in the wilds of Thanalan, she is lucky she knows how to talk.

[Coatleque]

Coatleque is still learning how. She has had a smattering of teachers over the past five or six years, but no formal education.

 

The first was a fellow slave, Sapphire, who had to teach her the mannerisms expected by the clientele (and mostly so she could read documents and distinguish gil denominations to steal). Her lessons were only reinforced later by the conjuror's guild. And finally, she's had to self-teach herself the rest as it becomes necessary by her current position.

[Aaron]

Aaron as a kid would study words by looking at them for the longest and memorizing the symbols before asking someone to read it word for word. He'd then link each word with the stuff writing by marking each on his fingers to keep track like so.

 

Example - 

 

I walked a dog.

 

^ Aaron would memorize each single word (he knew the space in between each word would mean a new word was next) and when he asked someone to read he'd memorized how they said it. this also would as a unexpected side effect teach him how to count.

 

"I" would make him raise one finger and think of the first word he saw on paper.  "Walked" would be two fingers and so on.

 

Generally time he was done Aaron could pronounce the words and know how they were written. He learned definitions a little later on.

[Kellach Woods]

The inhabitants of the unnamed island (which a few old Roegadyn who've sailed as far as there refer to as Toeg Isil - lit. Secret Island) are actually fairly literate - There is a culture of minstrels who often carry books to give to young children around the farms, and Kellach, bedridden for many years, had no choice to learn how to read or else die of boredom if not sickness. He was raised on flowery prose.

 

Cwinuwil is the son of a fairly well-known armorer and used to own his own business. While he won't be able to write anything beautiful anytime soon, he can certainly read well and write decently.

[FreelanceWizard]

L'yhta learned quite late (around 18 or so), after she ran away to Limsa Lominsa. She was taught her letters by her master; in order to study and research magic and aethereal manipulation on a professional level, she had to be able to read and write. Learning this late could cause difficulties, but the training regimen was quite aggressive, she's quite intelligent, and she's always loved both stories and solving puzzles.

 

EDIT: Funny enough, only the two characters I have who are tied to the Wizards' Choir (L'yhta and her master's previous apprentice, Cieranaux Aramont) are literate. My other alts, rarely played as they may be, are illiterate; they know that "those squiggly symbols" might mean "don't go in here" and "these squiggly symbols are your mark," but any real literacy is outside their expertise.

[Pumpkinweed]

L'yhta learned quite late (around 18 or so), after she ran away to Limsa Lominsa. She was taught her letters by her master; in order to study and research magic and aethereal manipulation on a professional level, she had to be able to read and write. Learning this late could cause difficulties, but the training regimen was quite aggressive, she's quite intelligent, and she's always loved both stories and solving puzzles.

 

I concur!

 

Gus learned to read and write in his early years seeing as his family business had to invest in their future heir. Instead, Gus decided to make his own pumpkin business.

 

Then L'yhta took Gus as her apprentice, teaching him briefly about simple techniques. Everything else, Gus taught himself from books. Those were fun times lol :geek:

[Crisiet]

Perhaps most roleplayers have their characters able to read and write because there's a misconception that the inability to do so means the character is unintelligent.

 

Crisiet learned from his mother, a runaway noble from house Dzemael. However, it's not something he does incredibly often anyway. He'd much rather be in the garden.

 

Celestaux grew up in poverty, a situation all too common for the duskwight of the shroud. As such, he is illiterate. He doesn't like being illiterate though, and would very much like to learn.

 

Eicha'to is from a small and traditional moon-keeper tribe. He could not read and write as his family's traditions and stories were passed down orally. However, as he wandered he learned some basic literary skills. Enough to get around.

[Gegenji]

Chachan learned his albeit oddball level of literacy from his mother, who was the daughter of an Ul'dahn merchant family. She was also the one who tried to teach him how to work the markets and economics and such, but he spent most of his lecture with her daydreaming. As such, he's literate enough... but big or advanced words can trip him up rather easily.