Law Speaker

In some cases, the Gothi, as a respected member of the group, may be called in to help settle disputes or give general advice on the group's rules. That means you will have to have some skill as a Law Speaker.

Historically, the elders of associated groups would gather occasionally for their Thing and settle disputes and come to decisions on getting along. The wisest and most knowledgeable were asked to provide input or seek answers to difficult issues. Sometimes they would do this based on logic and reasoning. Other times they may have to seek guidance in one of the Other Worlds. There is still call for this today.

You need to know your group's bylaws and history. If there is a dispute, you can rely on your knowledge of these rules, and why they are there, to help settle things. When something new comes up, this knowledge mixed with your knowledge of the religion can help you guide the group to new rules. You must do this without bias and with great fairness.

To help with this, it is recommended that you make a study of formal logic. In particular, you should be aware of logical fallacies. These are statements that sound good at first, but when looked at more formally are shown to be false. Once you have studied this, you will never look at advertising the same way again.

It is also a good idea to look into public speaking. The better you are at talking in front of people, the more likely you are to maintain control when arguing parties get out of hand. You will need to keep the peace during disputes and, when you give your verdict you want both parties to agree that it is a good idea that they stick with it. If you are a weak public speaker, you may not be very convincing. There are plenty of good, publicly accessible groups, such as Toast Masters, that can help improve your public speaking and rhetoric skills.