The noble and cleric can’t read? Classes that effectively have to read in 5e and similar systems:
Bard: plays, music, stories
Cleric: holy texts
Monk: holy texts if they are the monastery type of monks
Paladin: if trained w/clerics or in a temple. not if they are wild-sprouted paladins.
Rogue: thieves’ cant, smugglers for manifests, forgery. really just the average cutpurse and enforcer wouldn’t need to
Wizard: a nerd’s nerd
The noble and cleric can’t read? Classes that effectively have to read in 5e and similar systems:
Bard: plays, music, stories Cleric: holy texts Monk: holy texts if they are the monastery type of monks Paladin: if trained w/clerics or in a temple. not if they are wild-sprouted paladins. Rogue: thieves’ cant, smugglers for manifests, forgery. really just the average cutpurse and enforcer wouldn’t need to Wizard: a nerd’s nerd
Artificer: inventor’s notes.
Oral history existed for eons before writing was ever invented.