Abjurers strive to master Protection magic. Such a focus on defensive spells might result from deep-seated paranoia or bitterness over a previous violation. Most who become abjurers are naturally suspicious and discover their deeper understanding of the tradition breeds in them even greater distrust. Many abjurers go to great lengths to protect themselves. They might conceal their appearances, erase their histories, adopt different personas, or simply keep to themselves.

Acrobats include all manner of adventuresome types, from cat burglars to performers who delight crowds with rolls, tumbles, and other acrobatic stunts. Acrobats train to master their movements, build speed, and outmaneuver their opponents. The results of all their practice is the ability to move unfettered, whether scrambling up a wall, somersaulting over an enemy’s head, or moving like water across the most difficult terrain.

Aeromancers strengthen the bond they forge with wind genies to coax even greater power from the beings. A consequence of their increased connection is the restlessness in the air around them. Their clothes and hair are never still. A breeze always stirs the dust around them, scattering unsecured papers and causing unprotected flames to flicker and dance.

Many study Alchemy, learning the secrets of substances to create potent concoctions, potions, and other strange, materials, but true alchemists stand apart thanks to their discovery of the deeper mysteries of the occult art. As proof of their superior alchemical training, alchemists keep company with the tiny servants they fashion from a bit of clay and their own blood. These homunculi are the ultimate helpers, since they know all their creators know.

Alienists have shattered their minds through reckless investigation into magic that no one was meant to learn. Burdened with unusual tics and tendencies toward inappropriate behavior, they tend to make others uncomfortable in their presence. In exchange for the wreckage done to their mental stability, alienists benefit from their connection to powers and forces that exist beyond the barriers of the worlds.

Some of the devout believe that they cannot truly understand the nature of the divine unless they withdraw from the world to get away from distractions and temptations. In seclusion, they pray and meditate, fixing their minds on the infinite to better appreciate their place in the world and how best to serve their patron deity. Many anchorites utterly abandon civilization, spending the rest of their days in isolation, but a few return from the wilderness to bring to bear what they have learned to help fight the forces of darkness.

Embracing the sheer destructiveness of magic, annihilators cast their spells with a near-suicidal recklessness. These casters favor Destruction spells, since they achieve the most direct results. But, not content with what these spells offer, annihilators learn to tap into their life reserves to cast their spells to even greater effect.

Chosen by their gods, the anointed act almost as living avatars of their deities. By means of their unwavering faith, they channel divine power directly from their deity, or so they believe, and use it to advance their god’s causes in the world. The first of the anointed belonged to the Order of Light, but other followers of the path have since appeared among the Cult of the New God and various sects and cults affiliated with it.

The power Forbidden magic offers lures many students of magic to their doom. Apocalyptists delve deep into the dark tradition, heedless of the steep price to their bodies and souls. No good can come from Forbidden magic, so nearly all apocalyptists are figures of staggering evil, dedicated to advancing vile causes in the world. They revel in the horrors their corruption creates.

The Arcana tradition is favored by scholars of magic. Arcanists delve more deeply into the secrets of magic to gain greater command over its power and improve the effects of the spells they cast. Like wizards, arcanists tend to be learned and scholarly.

Telekinesis magic grants those who discover its power the means to affect the world around themselves with mere thoughts. They can move objects, hurl telekinetic force at their foes, and move themselves through the air. Ardents master Telekinesis magic as a way to supplement their fighting prowess. By focusing their thoughts, they can smash through any resistance they might face and deflect incoming attacks.

Astromancers study and master the magic of the celestial realm, calling upon the light of the sun, moon, and stars to obey their commands. They display their unequaled power when they cast Celestial spells, shining like beacons.

Avengers fight injustice wherever they may find it in the world. They derive power from the oaths they swear, using it to push past their limitations and exact vengeance against wrongdoers.

Bards have great skill as performers, but they are no mere minstrels. Their mastery of Song magic gives them many advantages when interacting with others. They can draw from the songs and poems they learn to gain clues about the world around them, and weave magic into their music to manipulate their audiences, whether to inspire them or demoralize them. Bards are highly sought the world over for their skills and expertise, and find welcome almost anywhere they go.

On rare occasions, students of the Primal tradition succumb to the force of their own magic, becoming wild, feral, and dangerous. Repeated castings of these spells break down their self-control and cause them to forget whatever lessons of civility they had learned until they become like the beasts they would control.

Beastmasters master the secrets of Primal magic to forge bonds with animals they charm. Their magic makes their animal companions more powerful and enhances their own bestial transformations.

Standing at the crossroads of the mortal world and the realms of faerie, beguilers master Fey magic, causing mystical energy to well up from within themselves and manifest as an otherworldly presence that makes it easy for beguilers to influence others with nothing more than a thought and a gesture.

Blackguards succumb to temptation, embracing the power darkness offers and surrendering the soul to its corrupting influence. Unholy champions, blackguards might leads cults, serve devils from Hell, or become pawns of the Demon Lord, sowing death and destruction in their dark master’s name. A rare few take this path, believing it to be the only road to the vengeance they so desperately crave.

Blades are master knife-fighters. Quick and precise strikes pierce their enemies’ defenses and deliver painful, bleeding wounds. Many blades have criminal backgrounds, developing their techniques after long use of these concealable weapons.

Blighters are believed to be responsible for the Desolation’s present form. At one time, these magic-users were counted among the mightiest of the Witch-King’s servants. They drained the land of life to raise armies of the dead, constructed magnifi cent monuments to themselves and their master, and loosed destructive power against their enemies. The blighters’ techniques yet await those ambitious and hardy souls willing and able to pry them from the Desolation’s ruins.

Blood magic, an offshoot of the Necromancy tradition, originated with vampires who sought to use spells to supplement their normal methods of feeding. Their methods have since spread, as other magic-users have found ways to draw potency from the blood in their veins to empower their spells. Masters of these techniques are called blood magi. Most have bodies crisscrossed in scars, evidence of the wounds they open on themselves to enhance their magic.

Most students of the Necromancy tradition use their magic to create undead, near-mindless minions that obey their every command. Bone collectors focus their work and research on the bones of the dead, imbuing them with a form of magical life and using these servants to protect themselves from those who would interfere with their work. Bone collectors keep the bones of at least one dead creature always within reach, woven into their clothing, tied to their equipment, or carried in bags.

Brutes become strong and tough through countless hours spent building muscle and vitality. They can shrug off injuries that would drop lesser creatures.

Conjuration magic is most often used to create magical servants to do the spellcaster’s bidding or to manufacture items the caster might need. Builders, in contrast, use their magic to reshape their environments, to transform the world to suit their needs. By using the energy embedded in their Conjuration spells, a builder can construct walls, seal off passages, or fortify a position.

Cat sith are people who have been touched by faerie magic, gained from a bargain with one of the great fey, that grants them the ability to adopt the forms of great black cats. Many cat sith are witches, though they also come from the ranks of druids, rangers, and anyone else who lives in or near the realms of the faerie. Most common folk consider black cats to be ill-omened creatures, and they stave off the bad fortune such creatures bring by leaving off erings of cream on their doorsteps.

Cavaliers exploit every advantage they can from fighting astride their steeds. Although many cavaliers are knights of the realm, they also include horse barbarians, raiders, and anyone else who would fight from the back of a beast.

Discovering the Soul tradition was but the first step on the road to the enlightenment that all cenobites seek. After spending their lives exploring the mysteries of their inner selves and reclaiming memories from their past lives, cenobites become more than what they were born to, attaining a truly enlightened state that enables them to overcome the limits of their bodies and triumph over any challenge they might face.

Champions learn combat techniques to help them fight for causes important to them. Champions defend other people, ideals, or nations.

Chaplains provide spiritual guidance to their allies in battle. Many come from the ranks of priests, though some find religion late in their careers, abandoning their paths to become religious leaders. Chaplains typically carry holy books chained to their belts and wear symbols of their faith on their shields.

Chronomancers delve into the secrets of Time magic to master it. As a result, they learn advanced techniques for manipulating time’s passage and can anticipate the future in all they do.

All forms of magic can wreak havoc on the world. Spells themselves bend and twist reality to suit their casters’ purposes, after all. But Time magic presents a special danger, in that its reckless use can create paradoxes— logical contradictions that cause reality to reorder itself, often with disastrous consequences.

Conjuration magic produces objects and creatures from nothing. Conjurers learn special techniques to let them create more powerful and frightening monsters to do their bidding. Although conjurers decide what forms their monsters take, many prefer common themes. Their monsters might have tentacles, display feathers, steam the air, or have bizarre anatomical structures.

Conquerors take charge in battle. Extensive experience in leading soldiers gives them the tactical expertise to maneuver allies to where they can be most effective. While certainly able to hold their own in a fight, conquerors tend to hang back, assess, and direct as needed, giving their companions an edge against their enemies.

Nimble combatants that rely as much on their wits as they do on weapons, corsairs master trickery to confound their opponents. Corsairs know how to use maneuvers to create openings in defenses and use those openings to deliver punishing wounds. When corsairs see the battle turn against them, they have the dexterity they need to escape to fight another day.

Cryomancers harness the power of Water magic. They use special techniques to shape water into ice and snow through the spells they learn, and they are imbued with a special tolerance against frigid environments. Like hydromancers, cryomancers bond with genies and derive their knowledge and magical might through that connection. The cryomancer’s techniques originated in the Blötland, though nowadays practitioners can be found anywhere in cold, icy climes.

Invocation magic places a strain on the minds and bodies of those who call upon its power, since each casting transforms the caster so that he or she assumes a daemon’s likeness and gains a measure of its abilities. Daemonhosts have become so accustomed to the binding of daemons that they find their bodies open and accepting of these essences, adapting easily to the spell’s demands and thus able to make use of the daemon’s powers more easily.

All who study Celestial magic look to the heavens for answers to the mysteries of reality, but it is the dawnstriders who peer at the sun, blinding themselves with its purifying radiance. By burning out their eyes, dawnstriders gain the ability to see using another form of light and perceive the world through their own inner radiance. Dawnstriders often identify themselves by covering their eyes with a white blindfold that has a red sunburst symbol at the center.

Death dealers favor heavy, cumbersome weapons for the carnage they can create. Whether they are hefting a weighty warhammer or sweeping with a greatsword, their swings and strikes send limbs flying as they carve a bloody swath through their enemies. The great strength required to wield these weapons typically means death dealers come from martial backgrounds, likely beginning their careers as warriors or battle-focused priests.

Defenders develop combat skills to protect the people around them and to withstand the attacks they take on their companions’ behalf. Once drawn into a fight, defenders take positions in the front to lock down their opponents. Since they take the greatest risks, defenders prefer heavy armor and usually carry shields.

Dark magic appeals to a scant few, and is almost never taken up by those who would fight the darkness creeping across the world. Yet, some believe that the best weapon to use against evil is evil itself. These people are practitioners of the Forbidden tradition, debased and degenerate souls that have been tempted by the promise of power, who now bring to bear the fullness of their dread knowledge to turn back the forces that would end all things. The methods they use are not for the faint of heart, for they are grim, disgusting, and despicable.

Demonologists look into places the sane do not dare. Into the Void go these unhinged people, drawn by promises of power, answers to the great mysteries, and escape, perhaps, from the end of all things. For some, the path of the demonologist marks the culmination of a long and sordid career. For others, it is a misstep, a temptation to which one succumbs, inevitably tumbling into a darkness from which there is no escape.

Although anyone can fight with two weapons, dervishes make two-weapon fighting look easy. Quick and nimble, they dance across the battlefield, weapons moving faster than the eye can follow. Dervishes are so good at what they do that they can wield weapons of equal length in each hand, keeping one of those weapons at the ready to knock aside incoming attacks.

Destruction magic is one of the most dangerous traditions since its spells tax anyone who casts them, causing bruises to appear on the flesh and wounds to split open. Mastering this magic helps destroyers cast Destruction spells without risk to themselves by focusing the damaging energies on a place outside of their bodies.

Able to emulate the power of the most dangerous storms, those who are called devastators bring rain, lightning, and thunder down on their enemies. Most devastators see themselves as the vengeful arm of the Old Faith and use their magic to punish those who have wronged them or intruded too far into the wilderness. Most people who have crossed paths with these wild spellcasters speak their names as curses.

Devils freely off er magic, knowledge, and power to mortals willing to sully their souls by dealing with dark forces. Diabolists exploit the devils’ willingness to bargain and forge pacts with them to work as their agents in the world, corrupting and staining mortal souls, and delivering them to Hell. Those who fail to make good on their promise are snatched from the mortal world and dragged screaming to perdition.

Masters of the art of negotiation, diplomats find peaceful solutions to the conflicts they encounter. They can deftly navigate the most difficult social situations, helping others find common ground and overcome their differences.

Divination lays bare the future and makes it possible to look and listen at distant places. Diviners have a gift for Divination magic, a knack possibly born from a latent psychic ability or being touched by the gods. As they explore the power the tradition offers, they learn how to cast their spells to greater effect. More important, they receive visions about the future and can use those visions to escape danger or to achieve success when they would otherwise fail.

Changelings walk many different paths to find their fate in the world, and many go on to become great users of magic, mighty warriors, or cunning scoundrels. Some changelings, however, take a different path, looking within to determine who they should become. Tapping into the magic that granted their existence, they learn to harness its power to use their abilities to greater effect, until they can become almost anyone they encounter.

Dragonslayers have a reputation for being insane, and certainly it is a profession with an enormous body count. In truth, those who seek it are very careful and bring along plenty of help, and they make sure that the thankful villagers pay well for services rendered. Comely daughters, handsome sons, and generous grants of livestock are part of the standard deal, as are land, titles, and inheritances from the local lords. A dragonslayer who survives to retire can live like a king, or even as one.

Heavy armor makes Dreadnaughts nearly invulnerable. Their expertise with wearing armor gives them an edge when donning it, so that they can maximize its protective qualities.

Alchemy magic can produce wonders beyond imagining, including vile toxins, remedies for nearly any ailment, and can even bestow immortality. Much of this tradition deals with physical matters, but dualists, a rare breed among alchemists, use the art to attend to affairs of the soul. Dualists use chemicals augmented by magic to alter the nature of their souls, thereby awakening a new identity within themselves. This new identity is the opposite of the dualist’s normal nature—and whenever it takes control, the dualist’s body transforms to become larger, stronger, and more monstrous.

Duelists develop a fighting style that helps them focus on one enemy at a time. In battle, they single out and challenge foes to duels. Should their targets succumb to the temptation, duelists have the skill and speed to keep their foes pinned down and ultimately defeat them.

Dust walkers learn their techniques from the mad genies of the Desolation’s deep wastes by discovering their names and harnessing their power. The knowledge they gain destabilizes dust walkers’ minds, making them as willful and ruinous as their crazed patrons. Some pursue this path to heal the land, while others seize it to grow their own power.

The ultimate controllers, enchanters master magic that gives them control over others, making their victims dance on eldritch strings like puppets. Many enchanters learn their techniques as a result of practicing witchcraft or discovering Enchantment secrets from faerie they befriend.

A career spent creating wondrous devices earns engineers their renown. The culmination of an engineer’s training is the creation of an eidolon, a mechanical servant of enormous size that obeys its maker’s commands. Engineers go to great lengths to maintain their creations and constantly make small improvements to increase their servants’ functionality.

The Death tradition is the magic of the grave, the cold of the Underworld, and its spells exist to abbreviate the lives of the living. Entropists find something in Death magic they believe will give them power. An entropist might seek to somehow stave off the inevitable, to gain favor from Father Death, or to do the dark god’s work by snuffing out life after life.

Within many living beings resides a soul, the essence that transcends life and death, and thus allows mortals to experience many lives and immortals to live indefinitely. Some who seek to understand the magic of the Soul tradition find themselves transcending their earlier limitations and becoming able to do things that were previously unthinkable.

The eternal guardians are an elite order of faerie warriors established long ago to protect the magicians in the wars against the hated trolls. Eternal guardians have both magical and martial training, making them quite effective at shielding their charges from harm. Although the wars against the trolls are long over, the order persists, and nowadays its members protect the great fey and members of their courts from harm.

Executioners elevate killing to an art form. An extensive study of anatomy reveals how best to make their attacks so that every strike is potentially devastating, strong enough to lay low the mightiest foes. Although many executioners start their training as assassins, others take this path after being headsmen, torturers, or devotees of bizarre death cults. Executioners, regardless of their backgrounds, prefer dark clothing and black hoods to conceal their features.

Demons, wicked faerie, and vengeful spirits make forays into the mortal world to torment the innocent, take possession of their bodies, and coerce them to perform despicable acts of evil. Exorcists declare war against such vile foes and learn specialized magic to drive out and destroy them.

For explorers, no horizon is too far, no expedition too dangerous, no mission too impossible. Explorers have the survival skills needed to withstand the hardships and difficulties they face on their journeys. Many who become explorers have extensive experience in wilderness environments, such as scouts and rangers.

For too long have the faeries meddled with mortal affairs. They steal mortal children for unspeakable ends. They steal, cause mischief, and spread suffering among those who live on their borders. From the faeries come terrible curses, the loss of sanity, livelihood, and loved ones. Darkness might blight the lands, but faeries have always been forces for chaos and wickedness. You have chosen to end their reign of terror and remove their blight from the mortal world.

Adept with daggers, rapiers, and everything in between, fencers pursue mastery in the art of fighting with these swift weapons. Favoring speed and precision over brute force, fencers can slip their weapons through their enemies’ defenses to land telling blows. While so armed, they can make deadly counterstrikes.

Masters of elemental fire can produce flame and shape it into a variety of forms, bind genies to it, or burn to ash anything that gets in their way. Where pyromancers take a measured approach toward mastering Fire magic, the casters known as firebrands revel in flame’s destructive properties, and as a result can be far more dangerous.

The magic of the Metal tradition has a lasting effect on those who access its power. Many students of Metal magic find their bodies changing, assuming a metallic sheen that eventually hardens to protect them. Others, such as the forgeborn, take greater advantage of this change and learn to shape their appendages into useful forms so that they never need fear of being disarmed.

The dwarfs developed the forgehammer techniques in an effort to improve arms and armor used in their near constant fighting against those who would plunder their mountain homes. The best smiths received invitations to join a secret society of magic- using dwarfs who had developed magical seals they could place on weapons and armor. Membership demanded creating exquisite items of priceless quality and, on approval, the artisan gained permission to craft a forgehammer, a magical tool and weapon used to place the mystic seals on dwarfen arms.

Only those who forge bonds with earth genies can wield the power of Earth magic. Geomancers go a step farther, bridging the distance between themselves and their companion to gain even greater control over earth and stone. Such a connection escalates the physical transformation resulting from their bond; geomancers lose all their body hair, and their skin assumes the appearance of stone, whether smooth or pebbled, unbroken or fissured.

Ghoststriders walk the gaps between the mortal world and the spirit world, as comfortable in one realm as they are in the other. Their long association with spirits enables ghostsriders to bind them more easily and to greater effect. Most ghoststriders have extensive tattoos on their bodies as a show of reverence for the spirits they have learned to bind.

In pits and arenas all across the Empire, combatants engage in life-and-death struggles. The best of them become true gladiators, champions willing and able to do anything to survive and fight again. Though capable combatants in their own right, they often resort to underhanded tactics to get the upper hand against their foes.

Among those who have discovered the Rune tradition are spellcasters who call themselves the graven, for they illustrate their bodies with the characters of their magical alphabet. Gaining this adornment is a painstaking and painful process, and few have the endurance to undergo the experience. Those who do, though, find that they can bring forth the magic of their tradition and other spells as well more quickly. Each time a graven casts a spell, the symbols on his or her skin flash with faint light.

Gunslingers know everything there is to know about firearms. Excellent shots and cunning gunsmiths, they tinker with these weapons, modifying them to improve their accuracy and to reduce the time needed to reload them. Gunslingers come from all paths, though they typically have some background in engineering, artifice, or another technical profession.

Before the orc uprising, the emperor relied for protection on an elite cadre of soldiers armed with halberds. It is their distinctive fighting style that other halberdiers emulate, one that exploits the long weapon’s assets to great effect. Although most who come to this path prefer halberds, the techniques can apply to any kind of polearm or staff.

The elusive and mysterious harbingers pour out from the realms of faerie to raid mortal lands, speeding ahead of the main host to prepare the way to victory. Harbingers use the hidden passageways that crisscross the world to strike from the least expected directions and then melt away before their foes can mount a defense. Any faerie might pursue this path, though pixies are best suited to it.

The Life tradition offers spells that enable healing and curing. Thus, the tradition is sought by those who wish to bring aid and comfort to those in need. Healers commit themselves to tending others’ hurts, to the exclusion of other pursuits, and typically come from a background dedicated to helping others. Such is their power that when they walk through a room, wounds close, diseases vanish, and poisons become harmless.

The vile art of Curse magic underpins hexers’ power. Delighting in the misfortune and suffering they create, hexers use spells to warp their enemies and strip away their vitality. Many discovered the Curse tradition as warlocks and witches and exult in the power the tradition offers them.

Developing their bond to water genies allows hydromancers to cast Water spells to greater effect and to gain greater benefits from their connections. Studying the tradition reveals its potential in battle, both in the effects its spells create and the subtle transformations they make. Most hydromancers have nautical backgrounds or spent considerable time on or under the ocean.

The line between reality and illusion blurs around illusionists. These masters of Illusion magic fabricate lifelike simulacra of creatures and intense bursts of energy, or reshape their environments to suit their needs. A great many illusionists come from the ranks of magicians, though a few began as rogues, developing their magical skills to pull off daring schemes.

Indistincts focus their efforts on mastering Alteration magic so they can adjust their bodies to respond to any threat they might face. Like most students of the Alteration tradition, indistincts shed their distinguishing features, becoming utterly inconspicuous so that the eye seems to pass over them.

Order magic opposes the chaos in the world, and its users find themselves drawn to conflicts against creatures and situations that would create uncertainty. Such is their determination that they commit their entire lives to promoting stability and stamping out agents of anarchy and change. These champions of law take the fight to anyone who would threaten the world order, whether those individuals are agitators fighting against tyranny or wild faeries tormenting innocents on the frontier.

Master spies, infiltrators can find ways into the most secure locations. They use a combination of disguise, acting, and instinct to outwit security. Even when spotted, they fail to make a lasting impression—people have a hard time remembering that they ever saw them. And should their ruse be exposed, infiltrators know how to slip away from their pursuers unscathed.

Nearly all inquisitors serve the cult of the New God, working to expose corruption in the religion’s ranks and to flush out the demon-sworn, the damned, and the wicked. Key to their work is the ability to ferret out the truth. Not only do they know when people lie to them, but they also know numerous torture techniques to get their victims to reveal all their secrets.

The invoker lays bare the secrets of Invocation magic, learning how to command the daemons she binds with great efficiency and effect. Having grown accustomed to the mental trauma that comes from invoking daemons, the invoker can deepen her knowledge of the tradition without fear of going mad. In time, invokers can break all the rules for binding daemons, enabling them to adapt to almost any situation.

Ever dabblers, jacks-of-all-trades know a little about everything but not a lot about any one thing. A path attractive to tricksters and adventurers, its talents help them find solutions to almost any problem and find a way to succeed when they should fail.

The elusive and mysterious harbingers pour out from the realms of faerie to raid mortal lands, speeding ahead of the main host to prepare the way to victory. Harbingers use the hidden passageways that crisscross the world to strike from the least expected directions and then melt away before their foes can mount a defense. Any faerie might pursue this path, though pixies are best suited to it.

Students of the Order tradition find that the magic affects their minds, causing them to become rigid and inflexible. Continued study, however, can bring about other changes of a beneficial nature. As the masters of the tradition become steeped in its lore, they find their bodies growing resistant to the ravages of time and injury, as they transform into embodiments of order. The greatest legalists, as they call themselves, become fixtures in the world, eternal champions of the natural order of things.

Those who take up the path of the librarian surround themselves with books, scrolls, and other writings, delving into these works to gain a greater understanding of the world and its nature. Their research inevitably reveals to them knowledge of magic and spells, and librarians keep the spells they learn in their books for easy recall when needed. No librarian goes anywhere without at least a few books in his or her backpack.

Machinists use their knowledge of engineering and their mastery of Technomancy magic to create servants made from cogs and springs. These automatons prove more reliable and capable than other constructs, enhanced as they are by the magic flowing through their bodies.

Magic from the Battle tradition turns casters into deadly warriors. Mage knights use the spells from their preferred tradition to enhance their already formidable combat training and to increase options in a fight. Opponents squaring off against them never know if they’ll face a strike from a weapon or a blast from a spell.

The mages of the tower are a secretive society based in the Tower Arcane that floats above Caecras. Known for the colorful clothing that completely conceals their appearance, they are devoted to the study of magic and the advancement of their understanding and capabilities. Mages of the Tower Arcane do not reveal the inner workings of their organization to outsiders, and add to their numbers with great reluctance only when necessary.

Many forms of magic enhance their users’ combat capabilities, but the Battle tradition was developed especially to transform spellcasters into competent warriors. Most who discover the tradition rely on its spells for their entire careers, and their combat prowess can eventually rival those who have spent their lives mastering weapons and armor. Mageblades pursue a specialized form of Battle magic that lets them fashion weapons from solidified magical energy. Armed with these gleaming blades, they can carve a path through their foes and never fear being caught unprepared.

You study the magnetic fields surrounding metal objects and from your exploration of Metal magic, you discover how to manipulate them through natural means, without having to use magical energy to shape and shift them. Your abilities change you, though. Some people feel sickened in your presence, while others find the hairs on their bodies standing up. Iron fillings and similar objects of the same size and composition might slide toward you of their own accord.

Members of a secret cabal of magic-users, the magi identify their membership by the magical staffs they carry. The order traces its origins to the founding of the Tower Arcane, drifting through the sky above the Empire’s capital, when members broke from the august assembly to forge their own paths in the world. Potential candidates to join the magi must demonstrate their magical knowledge by presenting an argument about the theory of magic, display their ability to cast a spell, and, most important, complete the construction of a magical staff.

Hailing from lands barbaric and brutal, marauders bound into battle, sweeping their weapons before them to lay low their enemies. They fight without regard for their own safety, as many believe they earn their place alongside the gods by finding a glorious death in combat.

Martial artists train to master unarmed combat, fighting with their hands and feet instead of a sword or gun. Quick and strong, martial artists move with great fluidity and land strikes with a deadly precision that sends their enemies reeling. Martial artists learn their techniques from masters, fighting schools, or in the fighting pits of a city’s seediest districts.

Mediums commune with the spirits of the dead and often catch glimpses of such spirits in peripheral vision. From these disembodied entities, mediums learn many great and terrible things. A medium could be a shaman, intimate with spirit magic, or might have come upon Spiritualism as a result of a brush with death.

The greatest users of Metal magic complete their studies when they join the ranks of the metallurgists, a society of master spellcasters. The magic they have studied becomes part of them, suffusing them with the strength of steel. Shiny gray skin and brittle hair betray the true nature of metallurgists, evidence of the effect their knowledge has had on them.

Unlocking the door that releases a flood of telepathic power is the first step mind benders take to being able to shatter the minds of other creatures. Telepathy magic gives mind benders the ability to bash down a creature’s mental defenses and run freely through its mind, sensing its every thought and anticipating its every action.

Mindwitches use Telepathy magic to invade the thoughts of other creatures so they can manipulate their victims. Once their hooks are in, mindwitches can make creatures believe things that aren’t true, experience things that aren’t happening, and act in ways contrary to their nature. Although many mindwitches use their talents for good ends, many find the opportunity for skulduggery too enticing to pass up.

Faith in the gods and their power is sufficient for many mortals to wield magic. Miracle workers possess conviction to such a degree that their miracles go far beyond simple spells, causing their bodies to manifest signs of their religious devotion. Miracle workers come from all religions and from all paths.

The world would still be a dangerous place if so many strange and awful creatures did not crowd its dark and unexplored places, but the abundance of these bizarre threats makes traveling through the wilderness a risky proposition. To help make safe the roads and routes across the land and sea, monster hunters offer their services and expertise.

The morphs constitute a strange society of spellcasters who have focused on Transformation magic. These casters typically find themselves unable to stay in one form for long and exult in the process of transformation. Such extensive use of their magic takes a toll, causing them to shed many of their distinctive characteristics or to randomly gain new ones. Many spellcasters see in the morph a cautionary tale, warning against using magic too much on oneself, but to the morph, their flexibility in form is the culmination of their efforts to master their favored tradition.

When an immortal creature of faerie dies a violent death from unnatural causes, the morrigans spring forth to avenge that death. Morrigans are physical manifestations of grief and hatred, feared for their fury and brutality. Known by the crows that keep their company, morrigans are living omens of doom, their mere presence capable of striking fear in the hearts of their enemies.

Faeries have an enduring interest in mortal creatures. They recognize the potential of mortals, but they pity their short life spans. A muse is a special kind of fey dedicated to helping mortals, and others, realize their capabilities, offering them inspiration and motivation to find success in what they do best. Muses tend to be elves, but can also be fauns, pixies, or any other individual who has a knack for bringing out the best in other people.

Musketeers focus their training on mastering swordplay and firearms to become even more effective and versatile combatants. Most musketeers belong to elite fighting forces in civilized lands, such as the fabled House Guard of Edene or the Royal Order of Musketeers who protected the rulers of the Kingdom of Sails in ancient times. Whether or not they belong to such an order, musketeers use their weaponry to great effect, baffling their enemies with finely honed exploits and maneuvers.

Myrmidons excel when they fight with shields. Learning new fighting maneuvers to enhance their strikes with these weapons and to augment their protective qualities, myrmidons can deflect attacks and smash their foes as they carve a path through their enemies. Nearly all myrmidons have some degree of combat training, and most were fighters.

There are places on Urth where the seas and skies behave strangely, where time and distance distort, where the waters swallow ships and crews entirely. Wise sea captains bound for distant ports set aside coin to hire the services of a mystic navigator, a member of a society of scholars who have learned how to chart a safe course through the strangest of waters.

More than anyone, namers know there is great power in names, power that gives them ultimate authority over the being or thing named. Some began their careers as scholars, researchers into forbidden things, while others happened upon these words of power, discovering the secret language of the cosmos. The ones who turn their attentions fully to the apprehension and mastery of names become namers, masters of the lexicon.

What waits for all mortals beyond death is a subject of great interest and ensures that the various religions have a steady supply of followers seeking meaning and purpose in this world. For the necromancer, the answer to this mystery lies within the dark arts of Necromancy. Mastering its secrets can overcome death’s grip and provide unspeakable power over life and death. Necromancers are shunned the world over, feared for their willingness to peer into the darkest places and consort with forbidden things best left undisturbed.

Creeping through the darkness, unseen and unheard, nightstalkers are masters of the art of stealth. Many nightstalkers use their nearly supernatural talents for criminal pursuits, whether thievery or murder. Others use their abilities to fight creatures of darkness, gathering information about them and then striking with shocking surprise.

Those who take up the path of the orb master distinguish themselves from all other spellcasters in a most obvious way. The only implement an orb master uses is a crystal ball that he or she creates from special sand imbued with magical energy. This magic orb enables its owner to exert greater control over his or her spells, shaping areas to suit their needs, creating pockets of safety within the area, or concentrating magical energy to obliterate a foe.

The most vulnerable in any combat are the archers, riflemen, spell-casters, and others that specialize in ranged weaponry. To protect these units, the pavisers carry large shields or portable walls, pavises, into combat to deploy in front of the ranged combatants for protection.

Students of the Illusion tradition can use their spells to transform their environments, to conceal dangers or invent new ones by weaving threads of magical energy into whatever forms they wish. Those who master the tradition and in doing so find ways to make their illusory creations even more dangerous are called phantasmists. The creatures they create are more ferocious, and the spectral flames they wield burn even hotter, all for the sake of making their illusions more lifelike and thus more threatening.

Teleportation magic makes possible instantaneous transit from one place to another and achieves this by locating and exploiting soft spots in reality. The casters known as phaseshifters specialize in techniques that let them shift their bodies partly into these soft spots and thus become insubstantial. While in this state, they can pass through solid objects and other creatures.

People love their sport. They gather at the arenas to watch gladiators fight wild enemies, or hapless slaves, or each other. People always clamor to see fighters squaring off in a ring, beating each other to a pulp. Of all the violent spectacles that take place, pit fighting might be the most extreme. In a pit fight, two combatants are dropped into a pit—and only one is allowed to leave. Experienced pit fighters, for obvious reasons, are quite rare and are always vicious combatants.

The twisted individuals known as plaguists master Curse magic so they can spread suffering and sorrow wherever they go. Armed with spells that make life decidedly harder for their victims, plaguists delight in the chaos they create and the pain their spells inflict.

There are few trades as disreputable as the manufacture of poisons, so poisoners rarely display honor or virtue in their dealings with others. Commanding extensive knowledge of all things toxic, they can produce the deadliest poisons to deal with almost any kind of creature. Poisoners always have some sort of toxin on hand to protect them when justice comes for them.

Psychokinetics discover how to harness the mind to manipulate and move objects and creatures with thought alone. Rooted firmly in Telekinesis magic, psychokinetics use their thoughts as weapons and their imagination to gird themselves against harm. Many psychokinetics come from combat-focused backgrounds. They draw on their memories of conflict to focus their thoughts into effective attacks.

Enchantment magic enables its casters to manipulate the behavior of their enemies. Whether their spells twist emotions or make people unwitting thralls to their charms, such spellcasters excel at making others do what they want. Puppetmasters develop techniques to maneuver the creatures they have charmed to places where they can be most useful and can even exert full control over their victims when the situation demands it.

With unmatched power over elemental fire, pyromancers create and shape flames to serve their will. Most pyromancers grow their power by developing a stronger connection to the flame genies they have bound. The strength of this bond causes pyromancers to display its influence in the blaze of their eyes, the heat of their skin, and the cinders that fly from their bodies whenever they are struck by weapons.

Rejecting the trappings of civilization, reavers come screaming out of the wilderness, armed with a fearlessness that lets them face any foe, no matter how large or terrible. Those following the reaver path embrace the wild side, becoming savage, deadly, and eager to greet foes with violence. A reaver might have been a bold warrior, cunning thief, or devout priest, but in all cases, a reaver follows a wilder, bloodier, and far more violent path.

Masters of healing, revivers are on the front lines of the fight against death from whatever cause. Like those who choose the path of the healer, they commit themselves to easing suffering and tending to the wounds of others—but where healers focus on living patients, revivers learn to use their art on those that are already dead, thus bringing life to the lifeless and eradicating abominations of undeath.

Runesmiths uncover the secrets of creating runes and imbuing them with magical power. They typically adorn their weapons and armor with such marks, which flare with power when they cast a spell. Most runesmiths learn their techniques from the dwarfs, who it is said developed the tradition from the language of the gods.

Doors, gates, and walls prove to be no obstacle to a well-trained sapper. These experienced engineers study the manufacture and practical use of explosives. As skilled as sappers are in producing and using bombs, they are also accomplished trap makers. A sapper’s traps, when triggered, are loud and deadly.

Rather than specialize in one tradition of magic, savants focus their training on learning additional spells. As a result, they possess a broader understanding of magic at the expense of increasing their Power.

Anyone can be in charge of a ship, but sea captains stand apart from the others thanks to their extensive experience and natural talent. When a sea captain takes control, everything onboard seems to fit into place, almost as if the captain had become an integral part of the vessel. The crew works harder, the ship sails faster and seems to navigate dangerous waters more nimbly than before. For this reason, crews gravitate toward notable sea captains, who give them the best chance to survive a life at sea.

Psychic abilities are uncommon in the lands of Rûl, but those who have such gifts are tireless in finding ways to use them. Seekers are likely to have awakened their abilities during the stress of combat. Upon shedding the shackles restraining the mind, seekers use their mental powers to augment attacks, to ignore the chaos of battle, and to find the best place to strike enemies. In fact, the term seeker comes from the ability to use the third eye to seek weaknesses to exploit.

Some are born with a gift of special sight, able to see the doom that awaits others. This can be an unbearable burden, and some people born with the gift go so far as to gouge out their eyes so they never again see the fl esh melt from their friends’ faces or worms writhing in their eye sockets. Others come to see these visions as blessings from the Dark Gods and accept them as their fate.

Superior senses and a strong sense of duty grant sentinels supernatural detection abilities. Little escapes their attention—not even the gods can take them by surprise. Many sentinels develop their talents by guarding important people, relics, and places. They can come from religious, magical, or martial backgrounds.

Some students of Shadow magic find themselves altered by the darkness they wield, drawn into a world of shadows from which there is no escape. These individuals, called shades, stand between the mortal world and someplace else.

Shapeshifters use their superior knowledge of Transformation magic to adopt more powerful forms and to move from one form to another with greater ease. Most shapeshifters are more comfortable behind the masks they wear and rarely go about in their natural forms.

Sharpshooters master the use of bows and crossbows. Their keen eyes and steady hands let them loose missile after missile with pinpoint accuracy. If they take even more time to line up their shots, they can thread their missiles through the narrowest gaps. Sharpshooters have few rivals when it comes to fighting with their favored weapons.

Some students of Shadow magic find themselves altered by the darkness they wield, drawn into a world of shadows from which there is no escape. These individuals, called shades, stand between the mortal world and someplace else.

The failures of the mortal soul manifest as corruption, stains that weigh down the soul after death to send it tumbling into Hell. The Cult of the New God demands that its faithful live good and noble lives, ever walking in the light lest shadow consume them.

Skalds preserve the lore of their people in tale and poem. Most began their training by learning the old stories, committing them to memory and recounting them to inspire their listeners. Others bind themselves to new heroes, chronicling their exploits as they unfold and immortalizing them in their epics. No simple entertainers, skalds are historians, advisors, seasoned warriors, and leaders in battle. Skalds are common among the jotun and can be found among dwarfs and humans, too.

Using Air spells to lift themselves off the ground, skydancers move with incredible speed and grace, able to swoop, climb, dive, and perform other aerial stunts. Skydancers specialize in a fighting technique devised by the sylphs that gives them a decided advantage in aerial combat. The combination of magic with this fighting style makes them formidable adversaries whenever they take to the air.

Undead are abominations that threaten to spread across the world unless stopped. Certain dedicated men and women take up arms to destroy the living dead wherever they fi nd them. Most slayers of the dead began as crusaders, developing their talents from necessity and nursing a hatred that sends them in pursuit of the foe.

Superior observation skills are the domain of sleuths, who can unravel any mystery and solve almost any puzzle. Although many sleuths use their talents to help maintain law and order, others are driven by personal gain, becoming criminal masterminds adept at staying one step ahead of their enemies.

The ultimate shooter, a sniper is trained to dig into a position and take out targets from afar with deadly precision. They are often used to take out an enemy’s commanding officer, disable aggressors, and even to assassinate political targets. The sniper is typically a loner but is also trained to use their squad as spotters of targets, so they can take on a support role to protect their mates.

Even as powerful as spellcasters can be, death still awaits even the mightiest of them. Most accept their fate, as worrisome as it might be, but some opt to thwart death by making themselves proof against Father Death’s touch. These spellcasters devise a way to anchor their souls to a physical object in the world so that if their body dies, their spirits remain in the world long enough for them to rebuild their bodies once more.

The most reliable spells belong to the Arcana tradition, and for that reason many spellcasters use this tradition as the foundation for their magic. Spellmasters undertake extensive study of the tradition, then use their knowledge to enhance the other spells they cast and to make better use of the less powerful Arcana spells they have learned.

Spellsingers incorporate their singing into the casting of their spells, enabling them to create magical effects without needing to wield an implement and to reach more distant targets using the sound of their voices. Almost all spellsingers were talented in both singing and spellcasting prior to choosing this path, and likely concentrated their studies on Song magic.

Spellsnipers craft magic wands to serve as implements for the spells they cast. The wands are as unique as their makers, each made from materials that reflect its creator’s personality and repertoire of spells. Armed with these wands, spellsnipers use their attack spells with shocking accuracy.

Spellweavers weave threads of magical energy into mundane pieces of ammunition, allowing magical effects to be propelled across great distances. Many spellweavers imbue ammunition with spells and then bestow those projectiles upon keen-eyed allies who are skilled with ranged or thrown weapons.

Elemental magic tends to alter those who discover its techniques, causing casters to gradually assume certain physical characteristics of the element they learn to control. In the case of those who take up the path of the stoneheart, the transformation is far more profound. Their use of Earth magic slowly petrifies stonehearts, causing them to become living statues.

Masters of Storm magic, stormbringers wield the power of the tempest, hurling bolts of lightning, deafening thunder, and the elements themselves against any standing in their way. Many stormbringers develop their techniques as devotees of the Old Faith, though they are common among magicians seeking power over the elements as well.

When death comes to call, few people find the will to cling to life. Survivors, however, have refused death’s advances in the past and are determined to push on no matter how terrible their injuries. A survivor might have come back from a near drowning, withstood the blackest magic, or repelled the claws and teeth of a dreadful beast: whatever a survivor’s story, the common thread is that each stood up to death and said no.

One of the greatest appeals of magic is that there’s a spell to solve almost any problem a caster might face, from levitating an object to constructing a conveyance from threads of magical energy. Taskmasters embrace the versatility of magic and devote their training to amassing an ever larger assortment of useful spells.

Technomancers exploit the merging of magic with technology that’s made possible by the Technomancy tradition to create even more powerful devices to aid them on their expeditions. With a few moments of work, they can fashion useful inventions to help them perform certain activities and can eventually create automata from ordinary objects.

The Shadow tradition, while not technically dark magic, has a sinister reputation for infecting its practitioners with darkness. Undaunted by the risks, tenebrists embrace all that Shadow offers. Its effects typically manifest as a waxy pallor, a darkening of the eyes, and a thinness of the body.

Chaos magic is so unpredictable that many who learn spells avoid the tradition and those who study it. Thaumaturges throw caution to the wind and embrace Chaos for all it offers, heedless of the risks and perils its spells create. Nearly all thaumaturges are a little unhinged.

Found almost exclusively among the ranks of the New God’s followers, theurges claim a direct line to their deity, invoking power from their patron to fight against the Demon Lord and its horrid servants. Most theurges occupy positions of great honor and reverence in their religions, though the Inquisition deems the few renegade theurges at large to be as dangerous as the Demon Lord’s disciples for the heretical positions they hold, foremost of which is a denial that the New God exists at all.

For all their effectiveness in battle, flails demand much from their wielders. The weapons’ construction make them difficult to control and more than one student has cracked themselves upside the head when the weighted end whips back. You, though, have made it your life’s work to make yourself a master of these weapons and in your hands they become as living things.

True terrors on the battlefield, tormentors thrive on filling their enemies with fear and loathing, eroding their courage and sending them fleeing from them. Most tormentors achieve their objective of domination by making threats against those nearest to them and by making their foes suffer before dispatching them. Many festoon their bodies with the skulls of fallen foes, daub their bodies with blood and excrement, and do whatever else they see fit to enhance their frightening appearance.

Transmuters discover the mutable nature of all things through the advanced study of Alteration magic. Like their capabilities, they are changeable in their views and emotions, swinging from love to hate, laughter to tears, with little warning or reason.

Teleportation magic allows instantaneous travel from one point to another. Travelers have studied the tradition so extensively that they can move with even greater speed and arrive with such force that they disturb their surroundings.

Tree shepherds protect primeval forests and woodlands from the axes and flames of trespassers. Staunch enemies of any who would despoil nature, they can awaken the forests they protect, stirring the trees to fight at their sides. The magic that tree shepherds wield, however, transforms them, causing them to forsake their flesh-and-blood bodies to become more like the woods they guard.

Masters of Fey magic, tricksters use their talents to outwit and frustrate their enemies. Like the most mischievous faeries encountered in the wild, tricksters find it hard to pass up the chance to humiliate their enemies. And though their tricks are rarely lethal, their escapades can put people in serious danger.

Trolls and fey have fought since the sun first rose on the world, and their mutual hatred continues to this day. For some among the faerie, this feeling is all-consuming. These troll hunters make it their life’s mission to hunt down and exterminate trolls. They develop and hone special fighting techniques to bring down their ancient foes.

The spellcasters who call themselves the unchained are able to ignore the laws of magic and wield its energy in its rawest form. They can convert the force of their spells into outbursts of destructive energy, blasting their foes to scintillating motes and warping their environments into bizarre landscapes. Theirs is a form of magic to be feared, for they recognize no constraints and revel in the havoc they create.

Slaves to the Void and to the demonic forces that gather there, Void thralls have surrendered themselves to the Demon Lord and become its willing agents of destruction in the world. Such service exacts a terrible price, and their allegiance is apparent from the wreckage of their bodies. Most Void thralls display ghastly, open wounds that reek of the sewer, and others have ridges in their flesh that show disturbing images.

With their concentration on protection and defense, warders make the ultimate bodyguards. From their studies of Protection magic, they learn to harness their spells to shield themselves and people around them. Many warders find employment with archmagi, high priests, and regents.

Almost all traditions of magic offer some offensive capabilities, and for good reason: enemies abound in the lands of Rûl. Warmages, as suggested by their name, focus on excelling in battle and using their magic for destructive ends, learning techniques to defend themselves and blast their foes. Most warmages prefer big, noisy spells to smaller, targeted effects.

On the battlefi eld, when the screams of the dying rise above the clash of steel, when the stench of blood, shit, and death hangs heavy in the air, some fi nd it harder to keep control and maintain their focus. Their minds fracture under the strain, and madness takes over, driving these warriors to acts of appalling violence. The jotun believe that a spirit of battle fills such warriors and lends them power. Mostly drawn from the ranks of berserkers, fighters, and juggernauts, spirit warriors embrace their madness as they shrug off their enemies’ attacks and tear their foes to pieces.

The spellcasters known as watchers see countless possibilities before them and can divine the outcomes of their actions before they occur. They derive this ability from their gift of foresight, which might be a natural characteristic or something they developed through study. In either case, a watcher can adjust his or her tactics based on what the future holds.

Through extensive study of Water magic, wavebenders apply the characteristics of their favored spells to almost everything they do. Mobile and difficult to pin down, wavebenders can move about unfettered in battle, able to position themselves where they can be most useful.

Individuals who become weapon masters achieve their vaunted status by focusing all their training on the use of one favored weapon. Such is their reputation that foolish warriors hunt them down to test their mettle, while wise warriors seek them out to learn from them.

Those who study dark magic, who bargain with devils, or who gather in profane cults to hasten the apocalypse promised by the Demon Lord’s shadow must do their dark deeds in secret lest their activities draw the attention of witch hunters. These individuals, commonly associated with the New God’s cult, search the Empire’s lands for the corrupt. When they find the guilty, witch hunters drag them out from the shadows to face the justice their villainy earned them, which most often involves being tied to a stake and burned alive.

Having vowed to protect the land, woodwoses call upon power from the natural world to carry out their obligations. Woodwoses lose much of the appearance gained from their ancestries, becoming more plantlike over time. Their skin becomes like bark, their eyes shine with emerald light, and new leaves sprout across their bodies.

Zealots wander the lands as itinerant preachers and crusaders of their faith. They lead by example, depriving themselves of all the comforts of civilization in order to become closer to their gods. Often, their zeal manifests as madness, and they exhibit self-destructive behaviors to purify their thoughts.

Your association with air magic allows you to transform yourself into a person-shaped entity of semisolid air. When you grasp the magic, your body sheds its coloration and substance and slip through the smallest cracks to get wherever you wish to go.