Despite Skara Brae being a proper city, and a port city at that, it lacks several things that are regularly seen in today's cities. Not fast food (Pompeii had it) or public transportation (taxi equivalents exist), but education. Specifically public education.
This means that while most folks in Skara Brae (and its environs) might speak several languages fluently, they cannot read or write them.
The same goes for PCs.
Most PCs start off unable to read, with exceptions being Wizards, Clerics, Paladins, characters with Noble backgrounds, Elves, and Dwarves. Note that this doesn't mean such characters are literate in all languages they speak, just at least one.
PCs can learn how to read various languages, with an investment of time and money - presuming a willing instructor can be found. This can be an excellent downtime activity for the brutal winter months.
In addition, people can be hired to read and write for PCs - sages, scribes, some bards - but then you have the issue best illustrated in Romeo and Juliet, where the wrong people learn things by the reading of an item.
Books themselves are handwritten, laboriously copied, and beautifully illuminated, including spellbooks. Especially spellbooks.
After all, knowledge is power.
from the Codex Seraphinianus
This design choice means that having someone in the party that can read a specific language (or cop out with the spell Comprehend Languages) is going to either be utterly ignorable in an adventure or of the utmost importance. It's my job as DM to make literacy a worthwhile choice for players to make.
For the greater population, pictures and spoken words are just fine. Signs throughout Skara Brae might have the name of a place printed on it, but will assuredly have a picture indicating what they do or the name of the location.
If nothing else, this will give me a chance to flex my ability to draw.
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