Jokku Clays

The Jokka share stories, histories, and truths in clays, events that are often attended as entertainment.

Clay-Keepers
Clay-keepers are among the most honored members of Jokku society, for they guard their history, stories, and knowledge. They are usually emodo or eperu.

Histories
Histories are much longer than most stories so the clay-keepers rarely display them.

Stories
Stories are mostly of the Houses that have helped run the clay-keeper's town, who first began them, who ruled them, what decisions they made.

Knowledge
Dlane acquired her knowledge of anadi poison from a clay-keeper. Also, the clay-keeper was the appropriate place to request House guides.

Attending a Clay
Periodically, clay-keepers set out pieces of our truths with their collections of painted stones and clay bits: stories spelled out, letter by letter, for people to read. Public clays are available to anyone, but Jokka must pay to attend a private clay. Jokka wait for admission into a clay, then find places in a seating area. It is impolite to disturb others by speaking during a reading.

Arrangement
It is traditional that the story is prepared ahead of time and read by the audience upon arrival, though one famous clay-keeper, called Ke Pediná, incorporated arrangement into the performance. Hundreds of stones the size of a Jokkad fist, each painted with a letter, are lined up on swept earth.

Snake Form
In the snake form, there is enough space between each sentence and the next for the readers to walk, and at the end of the line one reverses direction and walks the opposite way to read the next line. The snake form is a favorite for fiction, since reading backwards heightens the suspense.

Stanza Form
In the stanza form, baked clay letters are laid out in lines in multiple stanzas. The letters themselves may be smaller than in other forms, no longer than the smallest of an emodo's claws.

Notable Clay-Keepers

 * Ekkuli

Related Fiction

 * Unspeakable