K'norian Characters and Academic Skills

Some time ago I drew up guidelines for Save K'norian characters, partly out of dissatisfaction with the published rules. Along the way I had to decide what kind of scholarly life existed in Harn, and came to some conclusions about the body of academic knowledge as it exists in W. Lythia. Naturally, this body of knowledge is primarily in the hands of the Church of Save K'nor, and so I call it the "curriculum Hyn-Aelori". Below I have tried to reproduce my rules. One caveat: I haven't had a chance to investigate the HRT fully, so for all I know this may merely duplicate or even contradict something someone else has come up with.

Manidar (Acolytes) of the Church of Save K'nor

Upon acceptance as a manidar or acolyte of the Hyn-Aelori, characters begin a period of study lasting three to six years: in the pre-game, open K'norian ritual to SB2, both the local and Ayaran scripts, and the Azeri language. The characters receive option points equal to Intelligence and Will averaged and rounded up. These option points are in lieu of apprenticeship skills and ordinary option points and may be spent as follows. One option point is spent to open a skill and another to improve it by SB as normally, but a third may be spent to improve by SB in addition. Option points must be spent on skills from the list of the "curriculum Hyn-Aelori" below. Any skills from the curriculum Hyn-Aelori may be bought with option points in any combination (assuming the skill is available to be taught to the character wherever he is studying), however to qualify for ordination as Haliki (priest or master) the character must meet the following requirements:
Ordination Requirements:
Knorian ritual ML 26+; 2nd foreign language (usually High Azeryani) opened to any ML; Philosophy, Theology, and any other four skills from the curriculum, all at ML 26+. Note that ordination may be attained after pre-game.

The Curriculum Hyn-Aelori


Skill Name              Skill Base              Sunsign Bonus

Alchemy                 per HM

Astrology               per HM

Composition*            Int + Wil + Wil         Hir/Sko +1

Geography*              Int + Int + Wil         Tai/Sko +1

Herblore                per HM

History*                Int + Int + Wil         Tai +2

Languages               per HM

Mathematics             per HM

Numerology              Int + Int + Wil         Tai +2, Tar/Ahn +1

Oratory                 per HM

Philosophy              Int + Int + Wil         Sko +3, Tai/Tar +1

Theology                Int + Int + Wil         Tai +3, Sko/Tar +1

*a new skill, available in Harn only to Hyn-Aelori acolytes and, outside the Temple, a very few of the noble elite; all open to SB1; for descriptions see below.

Shea al-Aecor or Rydequelyn Requirements:
Any character who in pre-game can meet the Hyn-Aelori ordination requirements and also bring at least three of six skills to to ML 40+, may forego ordination in the Order of the Hyn-Aelori in order to apply for admission to one of the two higher orders. If accepted as an accolyte of the higher order (not neccessarily automatic - final decision rests with the hierarchy of the appropriate Order) the character begins another three-to-six year period of study: if still in pre-gamem the character receives option points again equal to the average of Int. and Wil. which if in the Shea al-Aecor may be spent on any skill determined to be available (e.g. lance or metalsmith are extremely unlikely to be available) but if in the Rydequelyn must be spent either on Knorian Ritual, the curriculum Hyn-Aelori or the curriculum Rydequelyni, which consists of the following skills: Rhetoric, Musician, Singing, Acrobatics, Acting, Intrigue, and Legerdemain. The requirements for ordination are the same as the Hyn-Aelori plus, for the Order of the Shea al-Aecor: ML 71+ in Intrigue and Rhetoric and ML 41+ in Knorian Ritual; for the Order of the Rydequelyn: ML 51+ in Composition and Rhetoric and 41+ in Knorian Ritual.

New Save K'norian Skills

The following skills are all essentially academic disciplines, and should not be expected to offer the student scope for practical application, with the possible exception of History's didactic function and, potentially, the persuasive uses of Composition. Together with the rest of the Hyn-Aelori curriculum they might be taken to represent the limits of the Harnic and western Lythian corpus of non-arcane academic knowledge. All these skills are available virtually nowhere except the Temple of Save K'nor, which asks a high price for their transmission to outsiders. All the following have OMLs of SB1.
Composition:
The art of literary eloquence and persuasion. When being used to persuade the (very small) reading public, it is the written equivalent of Oratory skill. Otherwise it is the skill used to determine the artistic merit of a piece of writing. When attempting to write in a foreign language, average with the language ML. May be combined with other skills by averaging the MLs, e.g. for a tract on astrology would use the average of Composition and Astrology MLs, while a tract attempting to persuade the world of the dire and essential connection between astrology and baking written in High Azeryani would average the former two skills with Cooking and High Azeryani language MLs. The value enhancement table may be used to determine quality or merit numerically.
Geography:
A very rudimentary science in Western Lythia, in the absence of accurate measurement of distance or verification of fact. Essentially a quasi-systematic body of lore and rumour about where places are and what one finds there. The best texts of the discipline are part travelogue, part itinerary and part bestiary. The worst are hardly different from fiction. The skill has nothing to do with map-making, except in the sense that distances between points might be known in some degree of accuracy.
History:
The lore of the past. In western Lythia and Harn the discipline is sometimes practiced with real skill as studies of individual character or the behaviour of nations, but more often works of history are essentially lists of kings' reigns or other important dates. Histories are invariably written from the very practical point of view of providing past examples of good and bad behaviour for the moral edification of the present, and usually take political, religious or chivalric conduct as their theme. Written in three forms or modes; the chronicle or annal which records events year by year in a given area or state, the biography or hagiography which tells the life-story of someone important, or a very rare form, the memoires or autobiography which is written by the subject himself to illustrate an important life and often involves real and informed analysis of the times, men and their deeds.
Numerology:
The art of discovering the secrets enclosed within numbers, as well as composing, writing and breaking codes, anagrams and logic puzzles. Since the art is virtually unknown in Western Lythia except in the Temple of Save K'nor and among a few mages, the chance of a code being broken is very small. Within the Temple cryptography is practiced as a kind of quasi-devotional art-form as often as for practical reasons.
Philosophy:
The systematic intellectual pursuit of the nature of men and things in Kelestia. In Harn and western Lythia metaphysics leads the discipline, followed by ethics, and natural or physical philosophy weakly is last. The western Lythian intellectual tradition prizes mysticism and to a lesser degree pure reason far more than it does empirically applied reason.
Theology:
Regarded as the supreme discipline by its practioners, who are almost exclusively K'norian scholars, it is the systematic study of diety, its nature and what in Kelestia pertains thereunto, as opposed to mere initiation to the mysteries of one particular cult. Regarded not just as an intellectual pursuit but as a sacred duty by the Temple of Save K'nor, by virtue of that god's divine role as keeper of the Var-Hyvrak, the Illimitable Tome, and its Concordat by the laws of which the intercourse of all the gods and other things are governed.
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