[Meme] things that didn't make it into stories

[edenfalling]

I am home and bored and "Secrets" is being frustrating, so... meme time!

Via askerian: Comment with a story I've written, and I will tell you one thing I knew, learned, or wondered about while writing the story that didn't make it onto the page.

Comments

[edenfalling]

The goal of the University is to create, record, preserve, and spread knowledge of all kinds. To this end, it maintains chapterhouses in many different countries and cities, and also employs traveling scholars of many persuasions. The system of communication is slow and somewhat cumbersome, since hard copies of documents must travel by ship or overland, but each chapterhouse has a comprehensive basic library and collection of artifacts, and short messages can be sent to many places via pigeon, heliograph, drum stations, etc.

Chapterhouses offer courses to all in their vicinity, for fairly modest fees. They also employ many specialists and scholars whose services are contracted out for high fees. Those who wish to study full-time must either pay high tuition or swear an oath of service for a certain length of time, during which they are contracted to the University as Scholars.

Ekanu comes to Estara at 15, which is no barrier to the University, since most people officially come of age somewhere between 14 and 18 in Firsthome. She swears to the University and studies music and languages, with the goal of seeing the world. While paying off her pledge, she serves as a sort of traveling trouble-shooter during her service contract, which is how she ends up nominally in charge of starting a new chapterhouse in Shimat-Mek. She also gets time to research music and linguistics in many out-of-the-way places.

Ekanu is valuable to the University because they don't have much hard data on the Domaris before her arrival in Estara. Few Scholars or Masters travel as far north as Mohrad, and none have spent much time on the tundra or the Ice. So her language, Arhadikim, is mostly unrecorded, as are the customs and beliefs of her people. Ekanu becomes the University's primary source.

The University has a muddled authority structure. The Motherhouse in Vinaeo is nominally the seat of authority, but each chapterhouse is largely independent. The Motherhouse is responsible for maintaining contact between the chapterhouses and for keeping track of the general resources of the organization. Each chapterhouse is governed individually, usually by a council of Masters in accordance with charters that are negotiated by University diplomats, local scholars, and the local governments.

When Scholars fulfill their pledged contracts, they become Masters or Mistresses of the University. If they choose to leave the organization, they are Outer Masters, whereas those who stay on as instructors, traveling scholars, or administrators, are Inner Masters. A Master associated with a particular chapterhouse is a Master in Residence, while a traveling one is a Master at Large. Ekanu becomes a Mistress at Large, but isn't always in close contact with the organization; she prefers to travel independently, without official funding, since that frees her of various constraints. (Note, 10/11/08: She does write up some of her experiences when she returns to a chapterhouse, though, and she's usually willing to do flying inspections of chapterhouses and paginariums along her way.)

Denifar Rollesdun is the son of former University employees and has sworn service. He's primarily interested in mathematics, but has interests in music and the properties of sound as well. He also likes to fiddle with mechanical gewgaws, and learns to make instruments along with Ekanu. He spends most of his life in Estara, leaving only to take trips to Gwynorae, with and without Ekanu. (Note: I was wrong about Denifar, which I discovered once I actually began to write him in a story. He's an engineer, or, in Firsthome terms, a mechanist. He cares about math only insofar as it helps him build things, and is a dilettante musician at best.)