Beleg Cúthalion on 25/7/2008 at 11:52
I think Artemus is rather one of the conservative Keepers (meaning that he is not involved in all that modern decadence and faineance which has apparently Orland as its figurehead). Thus, it might indeed be Garrett's technical skill that impressed him who had become surrounded by glyph cheaters.
About that real life, with the Keepers being organised like a monastery I believe there could be a lot of people who have contact to the world around (to buy food if it is not partly cultivated/bred inside etc.), left aside workers to repair buildings and items and so on. This way the compound(s) would not be as isolated as we would assume and thus not force us to invent glyphs of silence and that kind of stuff. I believe you can disguise this whole thing without glyphs in every place (left aside really big buildings for instance). Just give them a usual warehouse to receive deliveries and no one asks silly questions (taking care of certain snoops is of course evident). Plus, this way the people can get out and see the daylight.
And although this is already quite a bit away from topic, we should not think (as I hinted above) that the Keepers only consist of gluttons for books (as well as the assassins were not a group of trained murderers). With a respectable staff there might be use not only for super-talented people. And we have to consider that we're talking about times when not everyone had the desire to see the world and go on holidays.
