Shou Chiang

Shou Chiang was the set of characters used to write the Kao te Shou language of Shou Lung and its many dialects. Variants of it were used to write the languages of other nations of Kara-Tur.

History
Shou legends claimed that the written language was a gift to the early people of Shou Lung from the Celestial Emperor himself. However, the characters themselves were developed and refined over millennia and adopted and adapted by other nations of Kara-Tur.

Description
Shou Chiang was an alphabet with 24 unique characters. It was written from top to bottom and then left to right. Characters were intricate, but could be tailored to give different intonations and meanings to words.

It also had simple numeral system that was easily applied on mathematical tools such as the abacus.

Usage
Writing with the Shou Chiang alphabet was often a practice of artistry, involving calligraphy and color. As a reader would be more affected by a beautifully written piece of text, calligraphic writing was essential for decrees and poetry and a vital skill across Kara-Tur. In this calligraphy, type of paper, choice of color, dilution of ink, precise brush strokes, and speed of brushwork, as well as the purpose of the writing, were all vital. In calligraphy competitions, a more eloquent piece would lose out to a more artistic one. Red ink was reserved for important scrolls, after the red lightning that inscribed the Celestial Emperor's teachings of the Path of Enlightenment in the Cliffs of Tanghai.

Meanwhile, printing presses employing movable Shou Chiang type were used only for dry technical texts and bureaucratic work.

Such was their focus, a master scribe became lost in the act of writing and channeling the words of the Celestial Heavens. In particular, the runepriests known as shan zi ("words of lightning") developed their calligraphy into magical power, combat skill, and even the pursuit of enlightenment.

Education
Shou Chiang was taught in schools and by monks of the Way and of the Path of Enlightenment to any who wished it.