The Questioners developed from palace scribes who recorded the earliest Naru phenomena. Their authority rested on accumulated cases: which formulations received a return, which produced the sign called formless, and which produced nothing. By c. 900 BCE they had become a distinct institution with training, ranks, archives, and controlled access to consultation.nnThe institution did not remain neutral. By the late period, Questioner status carried housing, education, income, and direct access to the palace. A person who lost the right to ask did not merely lose a task; they lost a social identity. Late regulations state that a Questioner who caused a question to fall silent could lose the “seat of questioning” and be permanently barred from placing questions. If the king’s question fell silent, expulsion from the House was possible.nnThis professional pressure became especially severe when silence increased after c. 870 BCE.