IC Knowledge: how much should I have?

[Jabari Dreamchaser]

So I wanted to make sure I was doing right by the spirit of the story and found myself wondering...

Just how much basic knowledge of the races, cities, and deities are most characters supposed to have starting off?

I like the idea of playing Jabari as sheltered and naive, but if most children of Mizahar are taught "the basics" (whatever the interpretation of that may be), I don't want him to come off as a simpleton the first time he hears about another race, deity, city, etc...

I was going to go further into a bit of rambling but thought it best to leave my question at that and perhaps ask followup questions as they come up. Thanks everyone.

[Irriari]

I'm personally a huge stickler for my PC not knowing a lot of things IC. As a zith, she only knows about certain things that were near her colony (aka stay away from those blue men), and the stories her slaves told her.

If she meets a new race, it's a whole new experience. Shes called Nuit human, because they look like it. She knows nothing of any other cities than the ones shes been to, and she knows nothing of gods/magic until shes told about it.

But that's me, playing a zith. As far as I know, Vantha learn a lot from their family, so you can assume your PC knows stuff from that. Still, it's fun to meet a different race/culture/whatever and have no idea whats going on. It's memorable, to me.

[Fallon]

I suppose it really does depend on your character and their upbringing, so I will use Fallon as an example here.

Before Fallon started travelling about (all those years ago), she only firstly knew of two cities (those being Syliras and Zeltiva) and knew nothing of the other races with every human (and their subraces) appearing as simply just human to her. God wise she had heard several of the names, but knew little about them (until she bothered to open up the books and read up about them). When she started travelling though, new things of course opened up to her.

For example when Fallon was in Mura for the first time she came across the Konti and the Akalak, and so her sphere of knowledge increased, then when she got to Avanthal she found out about the Vantha and Morwen. And so on and so on.

Ask her about places not in Taldera or Sylira though, then she knows nothing other than some places being a lot hotter and drier.

I suppose really it depends on how you portray the character, I mean if they went and became a book worm and looked up on the races IC, or had foreigners come to the city when younger and share stories then of course you'd begin to know more about them.