Literacy (Lorica)

Commoners
The commoners of the world, including soldiers, are generally illiterate. Very little in society requires them to be able to read or write, or do math, and there generally aren't many texts around for them to read. The merchant class would have to be familiar with basic arithmetic, and track information in ledgers, and so know the basics of reading and writing, but only in meager ways (as a method of accounting); they do not know how to write most words, and are generally not familiar with literature.