Of course the Harmast’s Narrative is not the only classic work of literature in circulation. In Nochet, the Draconic Secrets, a Second Age manuscript from the Shadowlands, is widely known and read. Except for inconsistently referring to gods and goddesses as Kings and Queens, Sorcerers or Demons, it is a mishmash of the mythologies of the Only Old One’s many subject peoples.
Another foundational text of learning is the Stela Corpora, a long parchment of extensive Celestiology notes, whose information is most certainly of Dara Happan origin (possibly even the Glorious Reascent of Yelm). It was originally written in Jrusteli script and language, and with some mistranslations and misunderstandings of the text. Nonetheless, it vastly increased knowledge (and information) about the subject when it was duplicated and spread through the Middle Sea Empire and its neighbors. Ironically, it passed back to Dara Happa through the Empire of the Wyrms Friends and was enthusiastically adopted in the Third Age by the Irrippi Ontor cult.
When we talk about these works, what percentage of an average Sartarite clan can read?Or have heard some of them read out loud? Looking at the Occupations, we can see that Nobles, Merchants, Philosophers, Priests, and Scribes all start with Read/Write of at least +10%. So let’s say that’s about 10% of the total population with a Read/Write of at least 15% – enough to struggle through texts with time and instruction. A much smaller percentage is literate enough to write complex texts (50% or more).Now that sounds really small, but that’s about what the numbers were in Classical Greece, Ancient Rome, etc. I suspect the Lunar Empire has similar numbers as does the Holy Country.
Remember how you learn how to read and write – you pay a Lhankor Mhy initiate or priest to instruct you or your children. Or you apprentice your child to the Lhankor Mhy temple.