Ganede: the city-state where the story takes place, at least at the start.

Diaria: The one and only form of Ganedean currency, circulated in coins or special certificate thingies for large amounts. Originally replacing a barter system, one diaria is always equal to one meal, served in a bowl of a particular size so no one's cheating. ^^; Nowadays, however, diaria are (almost) universally traded for all goods.

Guilds: Almost every Ganedean of age is part of one of the guilds - Mining, Shaping, Architecture, Alchemy, Forging, Military, and the Priesthood, which kind of straddles the line of guild status. Each guild except the last has many subclasses that make up the bulk of the labor force for all Ganede (and most of society as a whole). Also, it's not a lifelong designation unless you're in the clergy, and most people study under two or three guilds before sticking to a career. Obviously there are jobs not covered in those seven categories, so many guild members will only be loosely associated with the work done there - merchants, artists, poets and actors are all card-carrying guild members, at least in name. Being guildless (i.e., Vagrant) is basically saying you're willfully unemployed - only with an even creepier social stigma attached. Chayya is currently one of these Vagrants.

Waistcloth: That thing around everyone's waist. ^^; The waistcloth denotes guild designation and time served in said guild by the symbols and length of each colored section. At the bottom is one of the parents' guild symbols, that usually being where the kid starts out school, working up the cloth with embroidery as the wearer progresses through life. Chayya and Ruach are wearing the plain-vanilla, peasant style waistcloth, but they range up into extremely fancy jewel-accented ones. Chayya's also has a blank spot on her waistcloth pattern, you may notice, indicating that she's not hiding her guildless status. c_c

On pages 15 and 16: It's not as apparent as I originally intended 'cause I suck with the visual storytelling, but the guild foreman is being rather abrupt and less than polite to our hapless heroes, and lightens up a bit when Chayya displays a rather subservient, "yes sir" attitude. Both of their behaviors are somewhat alarming to Ruach's tender city sensibilities. ^^;