Script is the ability to write and to read a particular writing system. Languages and scripts are separate things: a tongue may have no written form at all, or several, and one script may serve a number of unrelated languages. To read a text, a character needs both the relevant Language and the relevant Script.
A given piece of work may only be re-attempted once the character’s Script has improved by 10 Mastery Level, for scribing, or their Language by 10, for reading. A second look does not help; a better education does.
Scribing. Legibility is a Script (Language, Drawing) Success Value test. Copying an existing work may instead be attempted as a Drawing Success Value test at −2 SV, on the reasoning that a copyist who cannot read the exemplar is drawing letters rather than writing them. A scribe taking dictation from the author works at −20.
| SV | The hand |
|---|---|
| ≤ 4 | Unclear — a −5 penalty to reading tests for every point of Success Value below 4, to a maximum of −20. |
| 5+ | Clear — no penalty to reading. Each Value Diamond may instead raise the text’s base sale value by 10% through illumination and finer presentation, or, when copying, cut the time by 10%. |
Reading. Reading takes about five minutes per page, often much longer where the reader is working to draw insight out of the text. Comprehension is a Language (Script) Success Value test, modified by the hand it is written in (0 to −20, above) and by the state of the document: −2 SV if damaged, −1 SV if degraded, nothing if pristine.
| SV | Comprehension |
|---|---|
| ≤ 0 | None. The script is recognised as script; nothing is understood. |
| 1–2 | Limited. The general subject of a short missive is grasped, but not that of a longer text. |
| 3–4 | Basic. A simple missive is understood word for word; of a longer missive or a text, only the general subject. |
| 5+ | Advanced. The work is understood. Each Value Diamond may cut reading time by 10%, or — for texts only — roll one d10 against a Target Number equal to the reader’s Index in the subject the author wrote on. Each success uncovers one insight the author left there. |
Gaining each insight beyond the first takes a further d6 days of reflection; a Value Diamond may be traded to remove one of those dice, and a successful Creativity test halves that time on a Marginal Success or quarters it on a Critical Success.