Comment by Obligatonym

Damnit, Sev. I could accept the Hunters knowing more about aberrants than you, or a town guard knowing more about runewriters than you; but when a random innkeeper knows more about magical nonsense than you... it really hurts your credibility.

Reply by Glew

Haha. Wow, when you put it like that :D

Reply by Shazzbaa

severian is an expert at turning into a dragon and Nothing Else

Reply by Jade

It makes sense. I mean, piecing together what I can of his backstory, he hasn't been given much of an opportunity to learn anything outside of either his home country (can't remember the name) or his current home in the village.

Which brings the question: what is the education system like? I've asked about religion, politics, etc. But are there colleges? Elementary schools? A place where Runewriters learn about Runewriting history?

Reply by Ikwig

I second all of these questions!

Reply by Shazzbaa

There are elementary schools -- but not always the state-run, mandatory schooling we're used to in the US. Whether schooling is a special privilege or an assumed starting point depends on the state -- an agrestic state is gonna find schooling less important than one with a lot of commerce.

Colleges might exist, but they'd be rare and probably only crop up in huge city-states like Dhemin. Apprenticeship is more common -- if you want to learn to master something, you find a master of that thing who's willing to teach you and apprentice under them. Or, you stick with the family business, which is even more common.

As Sev has pointed out, there isn't much reason for Runewriters to study their craft, since you can't build off of anyone else's runes, and the usual family business/apprenticeship model of higher learning falls apart a bit there. Though Jonan described Master Loa as "the first and only runewriter to have studied magic," and mentioned studying under him.