Linguist in the Keizon Empire

Linguists are highly regarded in the Keizon Empire. However, the profession has a major drawback, largely only discovered when they have already entered the profession.   State sponsorship is how linguists within the Empire make a living, and as a result, linguists must use their work to support the Empire’s political narrative. The Empire uses subtle manipulation and propaganda to portray itself as a supporter of diversity and a protector of ‘traditional ways of life’. It uses knowledge collected by professionals such as linguists and anthropologists to inform its policies and influence its citizens. Official Language Studies, for instance, published by linguists, are portrayed as descriptive, but are in fact a way of controlling how people speak about the Empire and its people.   Linguists have to toe the line when instructed how to use their skills. Some examples may be inventing slang and neologisms which reflect well on the Empire and subtly introducing them into the public consciousness; keeping a watch out for vocabulary usage within oppressed cultures which indicates too much independent thought; advising how to use word choice in propaganda for encouraging prejudice between people groups while appearing to do the opposite.   If a linguist refuses or otherwise goes against their contract, they are subject to at least their funding being revoked, which for many would also put them deeply in debt. Depending on how severe their disobedience is seen as, they could also be prosecuted under the Diplomatic and Public Goodwill Sensitivity Act, or even charged with treason, which are punished with a prison sentence or execution respectively.   Within the Keizon Empire, certain people groups are banned from formal education; most of these are (meant to be) illiterate. One of these is the K'njer, who, a few generations ago, developed a secret writing system called pictography. While still controversial among them, around half of K'njer are able to read and write it. As a result, the community has learned to be especially careful around visits from linguists, afraid that the "traditional patterns" on pottery, fabrics and stones will be discovered for the illicit texts they actually are. So far, however, pictography has remained undiscovered by the Empire. (Whether any individual linguists identified it as writing and simply chose not to drop the K'njer in it, however, is another question entirely ...)