Scriveners

The profession of scriveners is usually taken up by locals who did not study at an academy, and therefore did not have the pedigree required to become a printer or scribe, or those who could not pass, or pay for, the tests given by the Eskarinian Printers Guild (E.P.G.) The primary tasks required of a scrivener, is to translate basic documents from or into Khat for consumption by locals or higher officials respectively. In some cases the scrivener may actually translate letters to Khat for a scrivener in another land to then translate it again into the local language for interregional correspondence.
Scriveners usually do not maintain permanent places of business electing instead to do their work in more convenient locations for the customer. Inks being expensive and seldom contained within smaller locals, a scrivener may often travel with a large wooden pack or cart that both carries their supplies and can function as a writing desk. These scriveners use a variety of hand tools based on region but each uses the Ghalem. Given their station however, a scrivener may never touch, or come near, a printer. With the regulations becoming more strict through the years, transitioning from the field of scrivener to any other field of writing has become neigh impossible.
Due to the cost of their services an implied value is associated with the scrivener. This causes people of higher station to refrain from using them, further preventing a rise in income. Their implied value is only partly due to their prices however, as scribes as well as the E.P.G. have gone to great lengths to develop a sense of superiority in the work of printers and scribes. A previous campaign by the E.P.G. has further discredited the services of scriveners as being less than up to snuff. Despite all the negative influence from the writing community however, they are still the foremost in transcription services used by commoners.

Type

Public Services