@JeremyECrawford Hi, hope the beautiful and hot weather we're having is treating you nicely 🙂 I had a question about literacy rates in Faerun. Which I guess is not rules but I'd love some advice 🙂 What percentage of people are literate in Waterdeep vs a small town?
— Joseph Rainwater (@JosephRainwate2) May 28, 2020
Did a GenCon panel on this over 20 years ago!
Waterdeep is a crossroads trading city with a stable, longterm nobility, wealthy successful merchant class, and guilds who run apprenticeships.
Population at any given time is about 20 percent visiting sailors & caravan…#Realmslore2)
…outriders (3/4 illiterate), another 20 percent laborers who are 1/3 illiterate, and all the rest of the Waterdeep's populace can read and write at a basic level, or better. So: 21% struggle with the written word, another 20% get along fine, and the rest read…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 29, 2020
3)
…and write often and for pleasure.
Small rural thorps and hamlets may be very different. If not on a trade-road, they may be 90% illiterate, clergy being the main exceptions. On a trade-road, it's usually closer under 70% illiterate.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) May 29, 2020