The Seven Great Classics

There are books which every person of consequence claims to have read and few have, and there are books which no person of consequence admits to finding useful and yet all do. Of the former are The Seven Great Classics, which will be a powerful advantage to Your Grace on such occasions as when you must sit across the table from an envoy from Singhapura. The tedium of these works I do not contest, but Your Grace is at disadvantage in being without them.

The Samarskand Commentaries were originally carved in stone, and contains the backbone of what Singhapura aspires to: the glory of ancient Samarskand, with its universal laws and justice and terrible magics. Every household of standing aspires to a copy. This is not born out of a love of ancient history, but perhaps because the Commentaries also contain a great deal of advice for living, from the lowest of positions to the highest, and are considered a profound and authoritative source; Book of X, Chapter Y pronounced with sufficient gravitas may silence most rooms, and many a great bureaucrat or lord has been swayed by such eloquence.

The Singha Chronicle is commissioned propaganda. Everyone who uses it knows that it is. It presents to us a carefully tended account of Singhapura history, written to the satisfaction of the state. However, it remains the authoritative record of approved crests and sigils; in any dispute concerning lineage, precedent, or the legitimacy of a claim, it is the Singha Chronicle that is produced, and the Singha Chronicle that settles the question. I have summarized the history in my own style, so you Your Grace need not dwell on the fictions; however, the ability to identify nobles, their functions and ranking thereof, is paramount to Your Grace’s dealings.

The Himakatu Chronicle covers the affairs that the Singha Chronicle prefers to pass over quickly. It is a tragedy in the full sense - glory, hubris, violence and power; it is the Empire at its worst, and in some sense may explain the shame that the Empire, even today, sees lingering in the ruins of Wattle. It fills the graps polished smooth in the Singha Chronicles, and thus is the source of plentiful theatre and political quotation. Mothers use it to frighten children. Playwrights use it to fill houses. Your Grace should use it to understand what Singhapura’s ruling class fears, since a people’s tragedies will tell you more than their virtues.

The Assembly of Gold and Saffron, maintained by the Haugris Church - your Grace need not read it with pleasure. Nevertheless, to possess knowledge of this is to be able to converse with and convince the people who operate one of the most significant powers within your domain. In the same manner I recommend to you the Reflections of the Moon in Still Water, attributed to the Nameless Sage of the Temple of Eighteen; someone who can produce a passage at the right moment will be taken for a person of the Temple whether she is one or not, and those who are of the Temple will not quickly correct the impression. This is thus worth knowing in both directions.

The Ithihaasa Potha is a sequence of epic poems composed by seventeen philosopher-poets who were exiled from Singhapura. It examines the past and projects the events of a future Singhapura in extraordinarily complicated verse. It is the only known work of prophecy that has consistently proven accurate: every prediction fulfilled, but in the most indirect and perverse manner imaginable. I recommend this to Your Grace so that you may understand what many in Singhapura believe to be their future; even if reality does not align, knowing at least some of the grand dreams of those above you will be useful in calculating your own path.

The Annales Historici, maintained by the Dvorak Elves of Lusia, is a history and geography of the known world: languages, cultures, economies, political structures, habits of trade and governance from the western sea to the eastern limits of what can be verified. Merchants and princes pay generously for fine editions. It is among the few works in this list whose value is straightforward.

Your Grace will note that many of these works are most useful not for what they contain, but for what others believe they contain, or are compelled to perform belief in. I do not include these out of vanity; intellectual authority is a powerful force in Singhapura, and thus in all its dominions. Not for nothing do are the lands beyond its borders ridiculed as barbarians and unsophisticated. To Your Grace, therefore, I give not chores, but new weapons.