[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.

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[edenfalling]

Sunday, 3/6/05
I've been thinking more about the organizational structure of the University, and it occurred to me that there must be a level below the chapterhouses. See, a chapterhouse is like a university campus of our world, which means it takes a fair sized population to support it. But transportation in Firsthome isn't very fast, so what happens to all the people who don't live in cities or near a regional chapterhouse?

So I think that a lot of towns and larger villages have something called a way-house, or a half-house, staffed by one to ten people, which mostly teaches general knowledge and has a small library of books and scrolls on other subjects. The way-houses also serve as public libraries for their areas, for which they charge a small annual fee. Most people who pledge to the University end up teaching in way-houses for the length of their service.

Way-houses are under the jurisdiction of their regional chapterhouses, and are run by communal consensus. Chapterhouses are run by a council -- elected or appointed from the resident Masters -- and headed by a Speaker. The University as a whole is run by the Great Council of the Motherhouse in Vinaeo, which is composed of representatives from the various chapterhouses. Generally the chapterhouses in each region take turns sending Masters to the Great Council.

There are also regional centers which take some of the responsibility of coordination away from the Motherhouse. The Estara chapterhouse is essentially in charge of central and northwestern Arina, just as the Pythas chapterhouse runs the Yanomese University, the Haoshek chapterhouse in Gush runs the Kerabada University, and the Mornach chapterhouse runs the Gwynorae University. These regional centers are sometimes called Sisterhouses.

The Estara chapterhouse is the oldest Sisterhouse, and is the most respected and widely known chapterhouse after the Motherhouse in Vinaeo. (Several Ohiyesan chapterhouses are older, though; they were founded during Vinaeo's political hegemony over the Glass Sea coast, whereas the Estara chapterhouse wasn't founded until several centuries later, once Vinaeo's power declined and the Empire conquered northern Ohiyesa.) The Estara chapterhouse also gets the least challenge from chapterhouses in its area, probably because of its location in the center of the old Estarin Empire. People are used to looking toward Estara as a source of authority, whereas in other regions, national, linguistic, and ethnic tensions can disrupt the chain of authority. Many chapterhouses ignore orders from a Sisterhouse and insist that they only recognize the authority of the Great Council and the Motherhouse in Vinaeo.

This is one reason why the University employs chapterhouse inspectors. They need to make sure that people are listening to each other and working together. That's also why, after spending three years working her way through the Yanomese chapterhouses, Ekanu was ready to avoid the University for three more years.