[At the Gates] Professions

When I was in the academy, they didn’t put so much emphasis on what you were going to do with yourself afterward. Discovery was the destination, not the path.

— Regna Eliza Romanelo

In Everend, people have either a trade or a profession. Trades are anything from being a merchant, soldier, sailor, blacksmith, or even politician. People all over Everend ply a trade that they’ve learned through informal study, apprenticeships, natural talent, and family businesses. Professions are more than that. They aren’t just what you do, but what you’re known for, how you make your mark on the world, and how you approach situations. A person can be both a small-town doctor and a diviner, a politician and a warrior, or a farmer and a mage. While they might have started with a trade, their profession now defines their life.

The five recognized professions are:

Diviner: A person devoted to the study of the Soul and mind, who uses magic to heal and support her allies.

Harrier: A person devoted to the study of people and movement, making them subtle manipulators, both on and off the battlefield.

Mage: A person devoted to the study of magic itself, unlocking the secrets of the world and using magic for big and powerful effects.

Warlord: A person devoted to the study of leadership and combat tactics, who uses their knowledge to protect their allies and intimidate their foes.

Warrior: A person dedicated to the study of weapons and combat, using their strength to overcome obstacles both physical and metaphorical.

People train in professions and earn them through work and study. Traditional study occurs in academies specifically designed for professions, but plenty of people learn as they explore the world. Training for all professions can start as early as when a child learns to read and write. There’s no specific time or age folks are expected to learn a profession. Anyone can take the path towards learning one with the right attitude and dedication. A merchant may get fed up with their life and join the mage’s tower. A sailor may apprentice with a harrier, earning his place as an important national ambassador. A child may show promise and join an academy, becoming a warlord before she’s out of her teens.

The following pages explore the five professions recognized in Everend. Following that are advanced professions, which are the pinnacle of a person’s professional career.

Professions and Roles

Each Profession Path has a different role to play within a party. While there is a great deal of overlap between a warlord and a warrior’s fighting ability, a warlord is ultimately a supportive combat character who can take incoming hits, protect their allies, and manipulate the battlefield, where a warrior is a damage dealer in combat using physical might and weapons. Outside of combat, a warlord is a leader and a socializer, whereas a warrior is likely to be a crafter, or strongman for the group. Every Profession has a secondary role they can play, allowing them to fill in gaps, or double up in areas.

As you read through each Profession, you’ll see a callout box explaining exactly what each one is good at. Rather than giving a detailed write-up of every Attribute, Skill, and ability combination, we’ve condensed this information into areas of action we think are pertinent to the game and if the Profession has low, medium, or high capability in the arena based on their Arts, Magic, Skills, and Attribute spread. Of course, these could vary if you focus the character elsewhere through play and earning experience, so this is just a snapshot of what a starting character is going to be good at.

Diviner

There was a time when I thought healing only meant helping. Now I know sometimes you must hurt people to enact greater healing.

Diviners foster an understanding of magic, the Soul, and how people are connected to the world and each other. This knowledge lends itself to people who are philosophical, and often spiritual. Diviners train to administer aid to others, repair, protect, and understand the Soul. They do not seek to understand the nature of magic, in the ways that mages do, but instead seek to understand the place people have within the world. This understanding makes them wiser than their years and helps them to predict not only how someone or something might act, but how the world itself reacts to stimuli.

Abilities

When someone first starts on their path toward becoming a diviner, they must choose between being someone who influences people through Soul or through their minds. Both choices are equally valid. You’ll find just as many diviners who see into people’s innermost secret thoughts and draw forth their emotional resonance as those who manipulate their Soul for healing and protection.

Diviners learn the Art of Succor (p. XX), which is a combination of their ability to manipulate Soul and tap into their emotional connection with others. All diviners are healers through this Art, allowing them to evoke a person’s own natural healing and speed it along with a little encouragement. With the Art of Succor, a diviner learns to bolster her allies, divine the truth of situations and people, command undead, and turn an enemy’s Soul against them.

Diviners who take the path of the Soul learn the Pillar of Anima (p. XX), which allows them to manipulate Soul to bring life, death, and balance between them through preservation. Those who practice Anima often have heated debates about what is more important, Life or Death, though all agree that Preservation is a vital school of Anima’s magic. Those who prefer Life are often spiritualists who believe that helping those in need is the greatest way to help Gaia, and those who prefer Death are more practical who recognize that sometimes you have to cut out offending maladies to even begin a course of treatment.

Diviners who follow the path of the mind learn the Pillar of Cognition (p. XX), and their group is far less polarized. These diviners are all concerned with feelings and thoughts and tend to be empathetic towards anyone attempting to assist allies or sway enemies into submission without force. These diviners tend to be more peaceful, and deal less in extremes, although plenty of Cognition diviners are formidable soldiers in the field of battle. Tricking someone’s mind into believing you aren’t there, or confusing the enemy can be a great tactic to get behind enemy lines.

Diviner Role
Primary Role: Support
Secondary Role: Damage
Physical Might: low
Magical Might: medium
Defensive Ability: medium
Healing Ability: high
Mobility: low
Leadership: high
Intrigue: medium
Investigation: medium

Why Play a Diviner?

Play a diviner if you want to be your party’s healer, become a necromancer who fights with undead soldiers, be a spiritual leader who communes with nature, use your magic to see into the minds of others, or take control of a battlefield by tricking your opponents’ minds and boosting your allies.

Harrier

If you watch, you can tell the exact moment when someone decides to act. You’ll know it by a subtle shift in posture, a facial expression, even a quickening of the breath. Always be ready for it.

People in Everend who are skilled at understanding others, often become harriers. While many use this understanding for political intrigue or criminal gains, others use it to outwit their enemies on the battlefield. Harriers aren’t just skilled in the matter of dealing with others, they attune their magic to that of the mind, giving them an unmatched mastery over trickery, deception, and sleight of hand. Mastering such magic requires someone with a quick wit and hand, making Harriers deadly fast.

Abilities

Harriers master the Art of Motion (p. XX), which allows them to stay light on their feet and gives them a discerning eye. With this art, harriers learn to make swift strikes against enemies, and move out of the way before they can retaliate. Harriers also learn to watch people to anticipate their movements and moods. For this reason, harriers are often forward scouts, or flanking attackers coming in to take advantage of an ally’s distraction.

All harriers learn the Pillar of Cognition, allowing them to cloud their enemies’ minds, read their intentions, and use it against them. While harriers can use this magic to great effect on the battlefield against an enemy, they also have a role within a group as support for their allies. Their control over the mental aspect of magic allows them to soothe their friends, send silent communications, and bolster their allies against enemies.

Harriers in the political arena find their magical aptitude grants them a significant advantage over others. Not all politicians are harriers, as plenty of people never take up professional training, but those who wish to rise to the highest ranks of power must contend with people who can turn their own minds against them.

Harrier Role
Primary Role: Damage
Secondary Role: Social
Physical Might: medium
Magical Might: medium
Defensive Ability: medium
Healing Ability: low
Mobility: high
Leadership: medium
Intrigue: high
Investigation: medium

Why Play a Harrier?

Play a harrier if you want to master the battlefield, traveling from one end to the other in the blink of an eye, be a suave charmer who uses their knowledge of other people to get their way, be a quick-fingered thief with a heart of gold, or gather secrets and information to help your allies.