Realms of ulterior motives
Department of Humanities
Psychology/Sociology Section
For: Chief Engineer
Subject: Gilded quills
As with all things Gehennim, the Contractor's Academy is well hidden. It is on par with the Hall of the Gilded Tongues as a place for mastery of flowery clauses. Here, one learns how to massage a piece of writing for all the ambiguity it can possibly hold.
Velum and parchment, skin and papyrus, and inks of all colors can be found here. Nearly every student carries armloads of supplies as they bustle about. You can tell teachers from pupils by the ink stains on the apprentices' fingers. Classes can begin at any time and last as long as the instructor likes. This goes to teach the students that they must always be ready.
The most important lesson students must learn is that it's not how much you write, but what you write. A close second to that is to make the reader read into a document to see what they want, while making the parts where they should read into appear to be straightforward. Remember, Gehenna is the plane of hidden truths. The plane is dark for
more than one reason.
As a trophy of sorts, the halls of the Academy are lined with the greatest contracts ever written by Academy alumni. These shining examples of rhetoric and enigmatic clauses are housed behind glass cases magically warded to protect their contents. While no student may copy the contracts and use them as their own for purposes of class assignments, they are encouraged to learn from them.
So, who comprises the staff of instructors and students? Most of them are Arcanoloths. Of course, there are a few humans and other mortals here and there, but few of them can master the techniques needed to write the contracts. Not to mention fewer still possess the stamina needed for most classes.
Neci Peterke, Shaper 2.