Harenis, like most cities across
Aestis , is deeply socially divided. The masters of the great scholastic houses live in comfortable circumstances, debating and writing about matters important and trivial.
In Harenis, there are two labouring classes, the scriveners and the householders (scurriers, as they are referred to by arrogant students). Inktown is mainly populated by scriveners, the poor clerks, researchers, scribes and scholars who make up the bulk of the scholastic population of the city.
Most scriveners come from humble backgrounds and were recognised for their intelligence as children. Charity or the thrift of a labouring parent saw them advance their situation but only slightly. No one would argue that a life of writing and reading isn't preferable to one of manual toil, but many of those who live in Inktown are more talented and able than that.
There are few opportunities for advancement for scriveners of humble origin; only those who have been born into wealth in the first place are capable of achieving high office in the great houses of the city. For this reason, Inktown simmers with resentment.
Its taverns are full of bitter young men and women, drinking away their disappointment and knowing that no matter how gifted they are, they will spend their days writing the words that far less gifted men dictate to them.
Inktown is also a place of dissent. Arcane knowings are forbidden in Harenis and there is a paranoid fear among the scholastic elite, Lord Valis and the Aruhvian Church that forbidden lore might start to infiltrate their teachings.
Some of the more rebellious scriveners have started to share knowledge about magical writings and it is rumoured that one or two of them might even have acquired magical abilities.
In the back rooms of the taverns of Inktown, particularly the Scriveners Rest, seditious talk has been encouraged by strangers and newcomers within the district who seem to be fuelling dissent for their own purposes.
It is rumoured even that agents of the Khul have established themselves in Inktown, as Harenis has long been a target of the lady of Mordikhaan.
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