Neither of the crugar recognize the writing, and Barragar is impassive, refusing to take a look. But Marik, inspecting the page of text, recognizes it as a note in
Rorch-ko, the language of the ramian. He does not know Rorch-ko well enough to read it himself, but he knows it to see it.
Quote:
Along with the crugar of Temauntro and the heridothians, the ramian of Voligire are one of three realms that have tried to invade and conquer Burdoth in the last hundred years. Ramian are tall, skeletally thin, grey-skinned humanoid sentient creatures. Iscins know that (like humans, thriddle, cleash, corastin and many others) the presence of eyes indicates that ramian are not native to Jorune. Ramian also do not thrive on Jorune. Much as Terran creatures need durlig to digest food, ramian need a limilate called "shirm-eh" to heal from wounds and illnesses. Ramian are respected as dauntless warriors and shrewd merchants, but they are feared because of chiveer. Periodically, an otherwise rational ramian will start to grow horns called "chivs" out of his cheeks. With the chivs comes an extreme bloodlust, a berserk desire for mayhem that results in these crazed ramian being exiled from polite ramian society. This period of a ramian's life is called chiveer, or being "in chiveer." Most ramian have little choice in the matter, though some ramian manage to master a mental discipline of fasting and meditation where they are able to suppress chiveer through force of will; these ramian masters of peace are called "chiven-rachu-eh." Chiv, chiveer, chiven-rachu-eh, and shirm-eh are the four words of Rorch-ko that most people on Jorune know.
Ramian in chiveer
Jates looks uncomfortable.
"My mistress is very concerned about Luce. We all are! But..." clearly he's finding it difficult to continue.
"...I believe she...she is mistaken in sending you to pursue the Heridothians. There! I said it!" He takes a deep breath, shaken at his ability to speak ill of the Keshtia.
"She did not want me to tell you this, I think because she wants you to embarrass Cho Dantto by finding Luce first. But I think that note" (indicating the Rorch-ko scrawl in Marik's hands)
"may mean that chasing the Heridothians is the wrong path. And it is wrong - wrong! - to play such competitive games when Luce's life may be at stake!"
Quote:
Another note, this time about Jorune and jurisprudence: though thousands of years have passed since the civilization started over, in many ways Burdoth remains in a late medieval or early renaissance level of thought. With Iscin there are pockets of near-Enlightenment thinking, but they are rare in the larger society. As a result, guilt is usually determined by accusation and testimony, rather than evidence. Thus it would never have occurred to Jates to leave the letters where he found them; his taking the initiative to read the letters is actually rather forward-thinking. Most people would have heard someone accuse the Heridothians and would have said "That makes sense" and left it at that, assured of the guilt of unknown foreign assailants. Along with some Iscins, however, there are a few people who are known as "yiordeh" (super law men) who have been ritually trained to look for evidence. These yiordeh may or may not understand all the actual principles of cause and effect, but their methods resemble a modern detective's methods, and they get results in finding criminals that are often surprising and astounding to observers. Observers sometimes view them as almost witch-doctors or magicians, for their ability to hunt down crooks.
As PCs, you may approach these things however you like, in whatever level of enlightened fashion/scientific inquiry you wish. I just wanted to let you know what society's standard is for determining guilt.
