Whether by eavesdropping on a conversation or by infiltrating a secure location to make off with crucial information, agents specialize in gathering intelligence without anyone becoming the wiser. Many agents work as freelancers, hiring out their talents to whoever can afford their high price.
The uncomfortable truth few mortals dare face is that the gods play no part in existence. If they are real at all, they are distant figures, unmoved by the suffering in the world or the pleas of their faithful. People from all walks and backgrounds have set aside faith, striving to understand the world in which they live and their place in it.
Artificers push against the boundaries of magical research by merging science and magic into something new. Most artificers begin their careers as magicians or engineers, though anyone with a penchant for making mechanical wonders might pursue this path.
A mysterious order of monastic philosophers claimed one of the rocky islands not far from the Kingdom of Sails and there built for themselves an impregnable fortress in which they train, meditate, and reflect on the nature of existence.
Assassins specialize in the art of murder. They learn the best ways to speed their victims to the grave, whether using a strangling cord, poison in a cup, or a knife slid between the ribs.
Soldiers of the Forlorn Hope, the ones sent first into any battle or siege, are experts at breaching defenses, climbing walls, or flushing enemies out of their trenches or from behind their pavises. Usually armed with a shotgun or two pistols, or both, they move over a battlefield with deadly efficiency.
You return to the well of Forbidden magic again and again. The temptation to learn and cast the most disgusting and gruesome spells ever devised to make your enemies suffer deliciously proves too great for you to resist, thus you have sunk into the quagmire of wickedness.
One merely has to look with open eyes to see the signs, the omens hinting at what’s to come, the dangers ahead. Auspexes have trained their senses to see these warnings and interpret their meanings in an instant.
Although the fey have no true gods, the ancient beings who rule the hidden kingdoms, such as the Faerie Queen and the Goblin King, occupy a similar place in the faeries’ worldview. The great fey protect their subjects and inspire them to great deeds or despicable villainy.
Their impeccable coordination in the usage of razors made these barbers the perfect choice for both surgery and making the officers look good on the battlefield. Where Red Cloaks use their advanced healing arts and Plague Doctors their concoctions, the Barber Surgeon use their razors and hard-learned knowledge of anatomy to treat their patients.
A vital energy for those in the thick of battle, anger enables a combatant to push through extreme pain and injury in order to return it twofold to those who dealt it. For berserkers, anger is more than just an emotion: it is a living thing always raging within them, desperate to be unleashed, always rattling the cage of self-control containing it.
You have made a lifelong study of nature. You have examined animals, discovered new species of plants, and studied all kinds of fungus. You are an expert in the life sciences and can now navigate most wilderness environments without fear. You have also raised a helper to accompany you on your further adventures.
The secrets of elemental magic come from the genies, those crazed and unpredictable entities found haunting the most desolate lands in the world. That knowledge has been passed down through the generations, subtly altered to suit the needs of the magic-users who learn the art.
Nothing can match the spray of hot blood when you strike true. The cries of your enemies, the weeping and begging, and the stink of their fear all have some appeal, but they don’t come close to the satisfying sensation of connecting a weapon with flesh. Your unwholesome desire for killing makes you a monster to some, but as the old saying goes, if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life.
Bounty hunters specialize in finding people who don’t want to be found. Whether chasing down fugitives from justice, runaway slaves, or outlaws, bounty hunters draw upon a range of skills useful for finding their quarry. They know the right questions to ask, the best ways to pressure people into cooperating with their hunt, and how to get inside the heads of the people they track.
One of the essential techniques learned by most alchemists is the art of brewing potions. Although most alchemists treat this skill as a stepping stone toward mastering more potent forms of alchemical magic, the study of potions, elixirs, and tinctures holds a certain appeal to those who delight in the creation of different substances and who always prefer to have something on hand to deal with a raft of situations.
To better defend against the orcs marching against the Holy Kingdom, a new class of warriors has emerged. Called bulwarks, the Cult of the New God relies on these soldiers to bear the brunt of the orc assault and prevent their enemies from gaining territory. To this end, the bulwarks receive advanced training in armor- use and learn how to maximize armor’s protective qualities and modify them to give them a decisive edge on the battlefield.
The god of pirates, known throughout Freeport as One-Eyed Pete, is an unconventional deity by any standard. Most theologians consider the god to be nothing more than a symbol for the debauchery and cruelty one can find among those who live by plunder and robbery.
The Queen of Spiders depends on her priests to carry out her will in the world and, eventually, secure her release from the prison that binds her. The people making up her priesthood tend to be too self-serving, greedy, and cruel to look beyond their own needs, and thus many invariably come to a swift and horrific end after earning their mistress’s enmity.
Dwarfs live in the shadow cast by their ancestors, silent spectators who watch over their descendants until the time comes for them to return to the world once more in the bodies of newborn dwarfs. The faith devoted to the Honored Dead preserves their histories, ensures dwarfs live and act as their ancestors expect, and inspires them through the old tales to reach for heroic heights in all that they do.
Clerics champion the gods’ interests in the mortal world, and through them, mortals speak to the divine. Clerics wear or wield their deities’ symbols to represent their service and to channel magic from their immortal patrons into their spells.
Collectors take body parts from the creatures they kill, wearing them proudly as trophies and drawing strength from them. Many collectors come from primitive cultures, of which their warriors display trophies to show their combat skill or their kill count. Many squadrons of orcs developed unique trophy taking traditions while fighting for the Empire, as have some elite human and dwarfen fighting forces.
You thrive in conflict. In it, you pit your talents against those of your enemies. Once swords leap from sheathes and arrows find themselves nocked on taught bowstrings, you throw yourself into motion, slipping through and around, over and under your opponents. You wrench weapons from fumbling fingers and drive them into nearby assailants even as you twist away to set up your next strike. You’re hard to pin down and no one can predict what you’re going to do next.
The clashing of swords, the whine of bullets zipping through the air, the screams of the dying, the oaths sworn and the angry shouts: the sounds of battle describe the chaos you have faced while fighting for your life. You have fought enemies to the death on blood-soaked fields.
Often found attached to military units, commandos train to conduct quick, brutal, and unexpected raids by striking enemy compounds, encampments, and supply lines. Such tactics require commandos to travel lightly, relying on speed and stealth to get in position and attack their enemies by surprise.
Consumers break the taboo against eating the flesh of the fallen. Eating the body parts of their slain foes lets them gain a measure of their power and knowledge. Some consumers see absorbing the potency of the defeated as the fastest way to power, some are driven by long-ago trauma that manifests as a compulsion to dine upon their enemies, while others simply lack the empathy to understand why such an act repulses most right-thinking people.
Always found in the company of their vile creations, corpse callers study Necromancy to master the art of making undead to serve as their slaves. Such is their skill, they can rouse a corpse without having to rely on their magic; they simply call out the mystic words and the body responds. Most corpse callers use their servants for protection, but some depend on them to lead the other undead they create in battle.
Courtiers wage war in the halls of the nobility. Though they fight with innuendo and gossip instead of sword and dagger, the stakes are no less high. With but a whisper, a courtier can shift the tide of opinion against an enemy and ascend higher in the court’s ranks. At the same time, courtiers must be vigilant against attacks by their rivals, who ply the same talents as they vie for their own space in the highest echelons of civilization.
Those devotees who hear the New God’s call to arms against the growing darkness take up the mantle of crusaders and become merciless slayers of the enemies of their faith. With certainty on their side, with no room for doubt in their minds, they pit themselves against demon and cultist, heretic and necromancer without hesitation. Crusaders know what’s at stake if they should fail, so they never relent in their mission to purge the world of the darkening shadow.
Some warriors prefer to get up close to their opponents, to slip under their reach and carve them up with blades. Cutters study a fighting style that favors knives, daggers, hatchets, and the like. Swift and accurate, they dart and weave through the press, striking with serpent speed to open up their enemies and let the blood flow.
The Maiden in the Moon chooses young women with a talent for magic, welcoming her daughters into her arms and whispering to them the secrets of magic. These priestesses of the Maiden find refuge in secret places where the goddess’s name is not yet spoken in derision.
Death might not be the end of you, even if it does mean the oblivion of your individual self, the utter annihilation of who you were. The prospect of losing everything one has achieved leads many to take incredible steps to preserve themselves against the doom that awaits all mortals and none were better at denying Father Death his due than were the Men of Gog.
Those who traffic with demons find themselves sullied by the experience, their very souls stained by the corrupting influence of these foul beings. The experience destroys some, but those who have shown loyalty to the Void might make use of their inner darkness and manifest demonic traits by harnessing the evil in their hearts.
The demonologists of Gog perfected techniques for summoning and binding demons. When not trapping them in items or fixing their forms into monstrous shapes, they experimented with merging the demons with mortal hosts.
Beyond the edge of reality stretches the infinite Void, littered with the debris of countless destroyed realities. Amid the tumbling wreckage, the fragments of planets, the balls of burning gas, and the frozen bodies, eyes still swiveling in rigid flesh, are countless disembodied demons.
The Goblin King dwells at the center of a great, deadly maze filled with twists and turns, traps, and terrible monsters. Fearing reprisals from his enemy, the Faerie Queen, he hides in the heart of this place, passing his days in a palace of maddening design. Though secluded from the world, he remains interested in the goings-on beyond his realm and relies on his devotees to keep him informed.
By pledging service to an aspect of the Demon Lord, disciples gain tremendous power to weaken the boundary between the world and the Void and thus hasten the end of all things.
A terrible compulsion drives doomseekers to complete a specific quest. They must complete the mission on pain of death. Whether they admit it or not, they earned their fates by crossing someone or something more powerful than themselves. One might have stolen a bauble from the Great Dragon, while another might have given grave offense to the Faerie Queen by killing one of her prized subjects.
Long ago, the god of the seas, Oceanus, commanded a great following on Rûl, but as new religions appeared, offering less violent and destructive paths to salvation, the Sea God lost favor and faded from the land until just a few temples still stood. On the Pirate Isles and on the Kingdom of Sails, Oceanus maintains a greater following, since people there depend on the sea for their livelihood and fear the god’s wrath if he’s not appeased.
The druids belong to the Old Faith, one of the oldest religions in the Empire. With origins going back all the way to the first people to inhabit the lands, it is a religion whose roots are secret, created to honor dark, often violent gods, and steeped in strange practices.
All magic bends the rules, but certain traditions bend them to the point of breaking. Time magic, for example, allows a caster to alter the flow of time and travel through it, while Teleportation spells remove the distance between points to allow speedy and sudden transit.
Elementalists harness the fundamental forces underpinning reality by manifesting them within their bodies. Attuning to air, earth, fire, or water lets elementalists empower spells and enhance abilities with elemental energy. While attuned, elementalists display minor changes to their appearances—air manifests as an everpresent breeze, earth manifests as the flesh becoming like stone, fire as blazing eyes, and water as dripping moisture.
The various faiths found across Rûl deploy a wide range of servants to advance their agendas. From the itinerant clerics who roam the lands as living examples of their faith, to the paladins who take up arms against the enemies of their religions, or the holy wardens who protect the sites sacred to the Old Faith, people from many different backgrounds might be called to serve the gods and wield their divine power.
You understand the necessity of being adaptable in combat. You tailor your strikes and forms to the foe you face. When you square off against a single opponent, you work to counter its attacks and make swift attacks in answer. When faced with multiple foes, you adopt a more reserved approach, deflecting the strikes as they come in and then using your enemies’ numbers against them when you finally hit back.
Students of Death magic embrace the tradition’s sinister trappings, discovering all kinds of ways to abbreviate the lives of living things. Some develop a keen interest in specific methods, whether it be the knife, or a word of power that causes a heart to quit beating. Envenomers favor poisons, venoms, and other toxins, and discover new ways to use their magic to destroy life.
The gods rarely, if ever, show themselves to their worshipers; rather, these deities present themselves through the works of their servants, those priests, clerics, disciples, and other proselytizers who have given their lives to the service of the divine. And though some devoted servants can perform miracles, working wonders of magic, even they rarely encounter their patrons.
Exemplars commit themselves to the highest ideals and see themselves as champions of virtue and order. Like paladins, they travel the world, bringing light into the darkness and crushing those who would disrupt or destroy the world as it is.
In the most remote reaches of time and space, impossible beings exist, alien gods of such size and power that to apprehend them fully is to go mad forever. Some have sought to consult with these beings, to gain insights from them and thus transcend the limits of their own bodies and minds, but most who do find themselves drawn into psychosis.
Some of the greatest warriors to ever walk the world were fighters. Unmatched when it comes to combat training, fighters display incredible excellence at arms, and the tenacity to withstand the worst battle conditions.
The spectrum of devotion to the gods ranges from skepticism to fanaticism, with the outlook of most people falling between those extremes. Flagellants go beyond even the norm for fanatics, having become convinced that their bodies and perceptions occlude the truth of existence and that the temptations of the flesh distract them from their true calling.
Confronting the darkness in the world might be an act worthy of heroes, but even the valiant champions find their efforts come at a cost. Contending with demons, undead, and those spirits freed from the Underworld and Hell can strain the mind to the point of breaking as the true nature of reality and the myriad threats it contains become apparent.
The devils seek to corrupt, the faeries to enslave, and the trolls to destroy: these are all the enemies of any who are mortal, and you have taken up the challenge of destroying them all, even at the cost of your life. Your hatred for the immortals drives you, pushes you ever onward to soak your blade in their blood and cleanse the world of their scourge. Your hatred burns so hot that you can push through their confounding magic and blight their bodies with each strike of your blade. So long as you live, every immortal you meet will die.
The gothi are the exalted servants of the Dark Gods. Fierce, violent, and savage, they lead the fight against weaker peoples, plundering distant lands for riches, slaves, and whatever else they can carry. Though all followers of the Dark Gods believe in the wyrd, the gothi are unique for having seen their doom and knowing the day of their deaths.
The spirits of the Honored Dead demand restitution for every wrong done to the dwarfen people. Their priests exhort their warriors and champions to seek out the enemies of their kind and mete out justice, whether that means slaughtering every one of the chosen enemy, hauling back treasure promised to them, or carrying out some other revenge crucial to settling the score.
Guardians work to slow the tide of civilization to preserve those sites sacred to their beliefs. These devoted men and women acquire their magical abilities from an initiation into the deeper mysteries of the Old Faith, a ritual that strips away their sense of self to enable them to adopt different animal forms. Becoming beasts lets guardians work more closely with their charges, 12 while also conferring the claws and fangs of predators to rend their enemies.
Despite the many advances in ballistics, firearms remain crude and unreliable. Some researchers, however, see the promise of the design and work to develop these weapons beyond their primitive origins. You are a gunsmith, and when you’re not out killing monsters and fighting demons, you’re at your best in your workshop tinkering with designs for new weaponry.
The study of dark magic offers terrifying capabilities, but at the cost of one’s immortal soul. Each spell learned, each tradition discovered sends the student deeper and deeper into darkness until his or her body rebels and displays the hideous marks of darkness. For many, the risks outweigh the rewards, but for a few desperate people, the temptation proves too great to ignore.
The mortal agents of Hell, having been seduced and corrupted by devils, work in the world to drag others into depravity by appealing to their dark impulses and urging them to work wickedness through false promises, gifts, and other enticements. In return for their work, hellions are promised an easier time when they must eventually face perdition and, perhaps, even win a place of standing in Hell’s sordid hierarchy.
In ancient times, the Heralds of Endings would walk among the shuffling corpses, feeding on the necromantic magic flowing through them to bolster themselves against attack. Fearsome and mad, these Heralds preferred the charnel stink of their rotting companions to their own living kin, finding some strange sustenance from being among the dead.
Highlanders live in Rûl’s hills and mountains. These warriors often adopt fighting styles suited to the challenging terrain and wide-open spaces. Such individuals are accustomed to the hardships of their homelands and learn to defend themselves against the many threats that stalk them, from trolls and ogres to drakes and griffons.
The wisest and most devout members of the World Mother’s cult are known as the holy matrons, an elite society of women who have all borne and raised children before giving their lives to the goddess. With their familial obligations at an end, they work on behalf of the World Mother, traveling the lands to ease suffering and nurture the families they encounter, reinforcing the bonds of kinship with the goddess’s blessing.
Leading the savage cult of the Horned King are the Horned Ones, devotees steeped in the traditions of their deity and charged with safeguarding the beasts in their patron’s demesne. Most Horned Ones live little differently than wild animals, surviving in the wilderness and using their magic to give them claws and teeth to defend themselves. Others clad themselves in the gifts taken from the beasts they protect and at least consider giving a warning before calling upon the full power of their faith to rend their foes limb from limb.
Prowling the wastes of the Blasted Lands, the Ice Apostles display their disdain for the wider world, preferring the chill, barren expanse to the comforts found in the north. They believe their faith sustains them and, to some extent, protects them from the biting wind and slashing ice.
Clad in motley and armed with a razor-sharp wit, jesters live by making others feel foolish, telling shocking jokes, and by generally making a mockery of everyone and everything around them. Most jesters find places in noble courts, where they are permitted to speak their minds freely, exposing the foibles and failures of the courtiers and others who have found their way in the noble’s entourage.
Not all warriors fight with weapons. Some, because of their great size, find their bare hands equal to the task of smashing enemies. These juggernauts all have great size and strength and can use these assets to best advantage. They wade in among their foes and use their hands to twist necks and rip off arms. Jotun, ogres, and other large peoples are the most likely to become juggernauts.
Most associate the Seer with oracles, diviners, and fortunetellers, individuals who read the skein of reality to follow the threads of fate and untangle the possible futures. Most priests of the Seer have withdrawn from the world, dwelling in isolation to commune undisturbed with their deity and to consider the information they gain.
Knights have always held an important place in the Empire—in fact, exemplars of their skills and devotion existed in Rûl long before the Kalasans arrived. A breed of combatant bound by certain principles and expectations of behavior, knights were warriors paramount, being true champions of the lords and ladies they served.
The lanzknecht are elite mercenaries with superior versatility in combat and an unmatched style. Originally called Landsknecht, which in some languages means something like “servant of the land”, they’ve become known as lanzknecht due to their long pikes. On the battlefield, a unit of lanzknechte consists of pikemen, zweihänders, halberdiers, riflemen, and crossbowmen working together in a symphonic synergy.
Gangsters, thugs, muggers, and worse, lawbreakers willfully embrace their criminal propensities. Some lawbreakers work as independents, taking what they want, whenever they want it. Others work for crime lords, criminal organizations, street gangs, and the like, lending their muscle to jobs, breaking legs as needed, or carrying out executions when their bosses give the order. Lawbreakers might be a distasteful sort, their actions despicable, but they can handle themselves in a fight, making them useful additions to almost any group.
Lorekeepers gather and preserve esoteric knowledge. They scour the world for lost lore, travel widely to witness the greatest events to capture them in the records they meticulously keep, and keep safe the secrets of old lest they fall into the wrong hands. Considered the most learned of people in the Empire’s lands, lorekeepers can be found in the courts of kings and queens, watching over great libraries and accompanying some of the greatest heroes.
The Order of Magisters came into prominence a century ago in Lij. Although the city shows great tolerance for magic in all its forms, many magicians feared the spread of dark magic in their city and the horrors that its use could unleash. Committing themselves to tracking down and destroying these renegade users, the members devised special techniques to pierce magical defenses, while also protecting themselves from reprisals.
Adventurers in the lands of Rûl have more opportunities to win fortune and fame than do others. Risking life and limb carries a high reward, either from the coffers of desperate villagers or from forgotten treasure vaults discovered as part of fighting against the enemies of all living things. Few adventurers have difficulty finding ways to rid themselves of their wealth: companionship, food, drink, and comfortable living can drain a purse faster than if there was a hole in the bottom.
A mysterious order of monastic philosophers claimed one of the rocky islands not far from the Kingdom of Sails and there built for themselves an impregnable fortress in which they train, meditate, and reflect on the nature of existence. Called ascendants, their methods resemble those of other sequestered mystic warriors, in that the fruits of their labor allow them to transcend the normal limits imposed by their fragile forms.
Although generally considered a benevolent and good religion, witchcraft has a dark side, and those who embrace that aspect manipulate black magic for diabolical ends. Most witches reject the maleficants, witches who follow the left-hand path, seeing them as pariahs and enemies of their faith.
Men-at-arms, despite the name, encompass a variety of capable warriors—of any gender—who are heavily armed and fight from the backs of mighty warhorses. Men-at-arms might be freelancers, mercenaries who sell their arms to the highest bidder, but most belong to the retinues of noble families and, together, form elite cadres to defend their patrons’ interests. Men-at-arms employ brutal tactics: they crash into their enemies ranks and then hack them apart, using every advantage their superior height and power afford them.
Faeries wield magic as old as the world and have generally used their knowledge to deceive and manipulate others. Their methods all prove of great use when they would avoid detection and the angry reprisals that result from their malicious treachery. These techniques might be common to the faeries, but they can be learned by other creatures, and many who have discovered the Enchantment or Fey tradition find that there is much to gain by emulating the immortals.
Every vessel that ventures out across the seas and oceans faces peril. Beyond the waves and wind, the storms that strike with little warning, dark, terrible things lurk beneath the shifting surface and great ships crowded with maniacal and wicked pirates lay in wait to plunder the holds of those boats who fall into their clutches. For this reason, most ships employ marines to protect the goods carried and the sailors whose work defends the craft from the elements.
Expert navigators and sailors, mariners earn the respect of their fellow crewmembers by knowing all there is to know about travel on the seas. Mariners can read charts and instruments to guide a ship to the most far-flung ports, through the nastiest storms, and out of the maddening doldrums that leave ships becalmed.
With extensive accuracy training, few can match the marksman’s skill with ranged weapons. Some are known to hit anything, even those hiding behind cover, by ricocheting their shots. Others take out two targets with a single shot. No one would fault you for thinking they use magic from watching a marksman in action, but it’s all skill.
Why be one person when you can be anyone? You change your appearance as easily as another might change clothes, able to remake yourself at a moment’s notice to keep your identity concealed. The source of your talents could be perfectly mundane, magical, or a combination of both. Your abilities help you become the consummate spy, enabling you to slip into places normally forbidden to you, and to cover your retreat once you’ve gathered the information or materials you sought.
You occupy the center of an enormous web of connections and relationships you have built in the course of your career. Rather than venture out into uncertain places and face unknown dangers, you rely on agents and operatives to undertake missions for you. Often, you do this because other concerns keep you too busy for a jaunt into peril, but your reluctance to leave the safety of your operation might also stem from your importance, position, or obligations. You remain interested in the efforts of the other members of your group, using your connections, influence, and operatives to help them succeed in their missions.
Scoundrels, confidence artists, charlatans, and tricksters, mountebanks use deception and trickery to make their way through the world. Central to their talents is a deep understanding of what people want and what they’ll do to acquire what they want. After a few probing questions, a mountebank discovers a victim’s wishes, and then weaves a deception to manipulate that person.
Whether they realize it or not, all mystics walk a path to enlightenment, a transcendence of the physical into the realms of the spiritual. Mystics discover within themselves a wellspring of power, an energy that comes from the soul called Qi. By harnessing this energy, mystics push past their limitations, moving faster, healing their own injuries, and fighting with preternatural speed and strength.
Anyone trained in the ways of the Old Faith knows of the magic that flows through the natural world. Most who come to study Nature magic worship the old gods or have some other connection to the physical world. Yet there are some academic students of magic who would tap into this vital source of energy and use it to augment their capabilities. Such individuals are called naturalists.
Among those who succumb to the temptation of dark magic, individuals in possession of latent psychic abilities sometimes realize that they can use the secrets of evil magic to augment their mental faculties—often leading to deleterious ends for individuals who cross them. The magic-users known as nightmares are just one example of how such figures might meld the forms of magic they have discovered and use their gifts for sinister ends.
Itchy feet, a preoccupation with what’s over the next hill, an obsession with seeing new lands and meeting people: these are just some of the excuses nomads offer when they pick up and leave. The truth is that it doesn’t matter why they leave. They just do.
Despite the efforts of the inquisitors and witch hunters—and, sometimes, even adventurers—dark magic remains a terrible threat to the world. There are always those willing to sacrifice their souls for the fleeting power it offers, the practice of which is almost always horrifying and corrupting in its effects.
Oracles develop a special connection with supernatural beings, learning to invite them into their bodies to gain a measure of their power and wisdom. These beings might be gods, as many oracles believe, or they might be spirits, the souls of the dead, or something else. Regardless of the true origins of these beings, each possession strains the mind, eroding the oracle’s sanity and mental defenses over time.
People swell the great cities and fill the towns to bursting, but there are always those who prefer the pristine wilderness to the crowded conditions and stink of civilized lands. These wilderness-dwelling folks might have had their choice thrust on them, having been exiled or forced to flee the ruins of their homeland, but most belong to tribal societies or live in primitive conditions.
Holy warriors possessed of great courage and determination, paladins take the fight to darkness, waging war eternal against the forces of wickedness and unrest threatening to upset the foundation on which civilization stands. Most paladins hear their gods calling them to take up arms and join the struggle against demons and foul monsters.
Some warriors have found that the best tactic on a battlefield is to concentrate the enemies’ attacks on a few targets, making it easier for life casters to keep them standing and other warriors to flank them. The ultimate damage sponge, the panzer is an expert in taunting others into attacking them, relying on their heavy armor to absorb their attacks.
Philosophers have done more to advance the understanding of the self, reality, and existence than any other in the lands of Rûl, certainly more than the priests whose own interpretations rely on service and devotion to distant deities. Through introspection and examination of the world around them, philosophers have laid the foundations of science, alchemy, ethics, logic, and more, and they continue to seek truth and wisdom in a world that largely seems to have gone mad.
Firearms might be hard to find, expensive to purchase, and dangerous to use, but you’ve made them your weapon of choice. You know how to build them, to maintain the ones you have, and you’re always carrying one or more somewhere on your person. When you’re headed into danger, you wear a brace of them, so you can draw and shoot, draw and shoot, and on and on until you run out of firearms. When the smoke clears, only the dead and dying remain.
Plague doctors came about during the Shuddering Pox, when the belief was rampant that disease was caused by miasmas, putrid air. Adorned with masks like birds’ heads filled with herbs and fragrances to protect from foul atmosphere, these people used any kind of medicine they could to heal the sick.
The cycle of life and death ensures that a supply of souls will always be available to house the bodies of the newly born. Anything that interrupts this cycle threatens to disrupt this delicate balance and throw all into upheaval. Members of many religions pledge themselves to safeguard this balance, with the chief champions being the Cult of the New God and those devotees of Father Death. But there are some who recognize the importance of this work without having to be convinced by scripture or divine decree.
Vampirism offers great power at a terrible price. Vampires are faster and stronger than ordinary humans, but they suffer from an overpowering thirst for blood. Unable to walk in sunlight, they become creatures of the night, skulking in the shadows to ambush their prey and evade the inquisitors who would consign them to the purifying flames.
In many religions across Rûl, choirs lift up their voices to honor their gods, their music filling the air and reaching the realms of the divine. In temples, these songs contribute to the otherworldly nature of the ceremonies the priests perform, helping to transport the congregants from the misery of their world to a place that stimulates the senses.
Psychics belong to a rare class of individuals born with the ability to harness the power of the mind. This ability allows psychics to use magic without the props and mystic phrases required by other magicians. All a psychic needs to do is focus the mind, exerting will and imagination. Although psychics are uncommon, members of any ancestry might become one.
Beneath the surface of the world flows the hot blood of Urth. Pyroclasts can feel the boiling magma as if it were their own blood and burn with the desire to call it forth. Students of both Earth and Fire magic, they learn to harness these elements, combining them in their bodies to achieve greater command over both. When they tap into these fundamental forces, they transform into beings of superheated rock, eyes blazing and heat radiating from their bodies in punishing waves.
The first line of defense against the darkness outside the civilized lands, rangers prowl the wilderness, always on the move, never staying in one place for too long. Consummate survivors, rangers know how to get along in the wild. They know how to find water, what foods to forage, and how to hunt and trap game. Whether they climb the trackless mountains or stalk through the deepest forests, rangers are no more in their element than when they are in the midst of the wilds.
Size, strength, and ugliness all contributed to the fearsome reputation held by the orc soldiers enslaved to the Alabaster Throne. What really brought rebellions and insurrections to end, conquered more lands to expand the Empire, and decimated the beastmen, pirates, and countless others was the ferocity of the orcs. They might not fight with the most skill or finesse, but their fierce dedication to savagery and mayhem has served them well against some of the best-trained warriors the world has ever known.
The House of Healing has brought hope to places suffering under the weight of sickness and violence. The Red Cloaks, healers of extraordinary ability, travel the land, bringing comfort to those in need and with no expectation of remuneration. Due to their efforts, the Shuddering Pox—the plague that precipitated the founding of the House—has largely disappeared from the land. Now the Red Cloaks continue their good works in other ways.
The Laughing God attracts people who have rid themselves of any sense of propriety, restraint, and responsibility. For these devotees, life is to be enjoyed to the fullest and anything that interferes with the pursuit of pleasure is to be shunned. Although most deride Revel’s followers as unabashed hedonists, people of low character and no control, in truth Revel draws devotees from nearly all walks in life, from courtesans and drunkards to nobles, disgraced priests of other faiths, and artists of all kinds.
The religion of the Dark Gods has little formal structure. The myths and beliefs underpinning it bend to conform to the expectations of their followers. Priests of the faith are as much warriors as they are religious leaders, and they offer the carnage they create as prayers to the mad gods who watch over them. Most priests of the Dark Gods go on to become gothi, religious battle leaders and advisors to the chieftains and thanes. Some priests and other warriors as well, though, the Dark Gods single out for another purpose: to become ruiners, avatars of their destructive impulse.
The practice of painting runes on technological devices originated in Lij and has since slowly spread to the rest of the Nine Cities as the various autarchs seek new ways to protect their holdings from potential aggression. In addition, the few remaining dwarfen holdfasts have experimented with this technique to better fight against the enemies that beset them at all sides. And, there are always those independents who have stumbled across the techniques and have made the study of this magic their life’s work.
A building collapses. A wagon throws a wheel. A champion’s armor fails at the most desperate moment. These events could be a turn of bad luck— or they could be the work of a saboteur.
Sages are scholars, historians, intellectuals, and teachers. They amass information related to their fields of expertise, seeking to know everything about those subjects. Most sages live their lives surrounded by heaps of books and scrolls, but some venture out to find more knowledge in the world. Sages who brave the unknown find they often have the wit to ascertain the best solution to whatever problem they encounter.
Scouts possess a number of talents to help them sneak ahead, gather crucial information, and slip away without risk of being detected. In groups, they shoulder the burden of ranging ahead alone, moving from shadow to shadow, hardly making a sound, as they venture into unknown dangers to find out what lies in wait. As dangerous as their methods can be, scouts rely on their keen senses and good instincts to anticipate trouble before it comes calling. Should they find themselves in a tough spot, they can usually slip away to get help in dealing with the danger they uncovered.
Illusion magic works by tricking the senses. Its spells fool other creatures and confound their efforts to discern reality from fantasy, but there are some students of the tradition who seek to create illusions with more substantive effects. While some focus on their art, others search for solutions within other traditions, such as Shadow.
Shamans stand on the border between the living and the dead. Able to pierce reality’s veil and behold the disembodied spirits trapped between, shamans use magic to bargain with those spirits and gain their assistance. As part of their training, shamans call forth and bind a spirit from the Underworld as a guide and aid. This spirit might be that of an ancestor, an animal, or something else. Normally, such a spirit follows the shaman, unseen and unnoticed, but when the shaman wills it, the spirit manifests and lends its capabilities to its master.
The degree to which the Dark Lady and her followers depend on dark magic has led to innovations in its use, from introducing new and terrible spells into the world to new fighting techniques that incorporate that foul magic. Anticipating the coming struggle, the Dark Lady recruited a number of killers and taught them Death spells to make them more effective killers. She called them silencers and has since sent them out into the Empire to get close to powerful people and eliminate them as a gift to the returning Witch-King.
Although the Shadow tradition does not fall under dark magic, it often attracts those who would exploit magic for diabolical ends. Whether they use spells to mask activities, to keep them concealed from the pure light of day, or to aid them in dealing with fell beings called forth from the Underworld or beyond, the people who practice Shadow magic often walk the narrow path between innocence and corruption, and many of those find themselves tempted to take up even darker expressions of magic.
Skindancers are spellcasters who place special focus on Alteration and Transformation magic. Their studies provide them with ways to cast their spells more quickly and with more versatile effects. Skindancers can become almost anyone they choose by rearranging their features to suit their needs. In time, they can even alter their bodies to repair injuries and rid themselves of toxins.
There’s something broken in you. Your mind rattles like it’s filled with broken glass and you find it difficult to concentrate under most circumstances. Yet, when it comes to fighting, you have near-perfect clarity. All the noise, all the confusion drains away as the killing starts. Blood flies. Enemies scream. And all you can do is laugh.
Father Death attracts peculiar people to his cult. Finding a place there requires a fascination with death and dying, a commitment to the cycle of life and death, and an opposition to anything that would subvert the proper order of things. Most priests of Father Death watch over cemeteries, ease the ends of the sick and dying, and guard against the undead and those who would create them.
Sorcery’s allure comes from the ability to seize even greater amounts of magical energy than most other casters to empower their spells. Spells amplified by sorcery are harder to resist, deal more damage, have greater range, and affect larger areas. However, each time sorcerers tap into this energy, some remains trapped inside their bodies, causing great strain as it tries to escape. If their control slips, the pent-up energy explodes out from them in a destructive wave capable of blowing people and objects apart and leaving craters in the earth.
Invocation spells put a significant strain on the minds of those who cast them, since the magic draws forth the essence of another creature and binds it to the caster’s body. Many have sought ways to mitigate the difficulties of these spells, to keep their sanity intact, but few have found much success. Many of those few individuals are soulcatchers, who use necromantic magic to construct vessels to hold the daemons they summon.
Somehow, Father Death’s domain remains open to you. When your body slumbers, your soul wriggles free from the flesh and begins the long descent into the Underworld, where you encounter the countless shades awaiting their chance at rebirth while having to grapple with the dread incurred by the immortal-inflicted loss of their identities. From time to time, you have managed to lead these souls out from this realm and bring them back to the mortal world, if only for a time. But for as long as they linger, they lend you whatever aid they can.
To even the odds against the iron-wielding trolls, the faeries devised the art of spellbinding, a technique that allowed them to channel magical energy into their weapons. Armed with bronze swords limned in eldritch flames and bows capable of loosing empowered arrows, the spellbinders could cut through their enemies’ defenses, driving back or outright destroying their monstrous creations.
Although many users of magic choose to focus their training in a particular way, some simply want to improve their ability to cast the spells they have already learned and pick up a few new ones along the way. Spellslingers figure out ways to tap into greater reservoirs of magical energy and use that energy to amplify their spells. As their mastery over these techniques grows, their spells can pierce their enemies’ defenses and, eventually, they can sling spells with shocking speed.
The Spider Wood has always been known for its spiders long before the arachne ever settled in the jungle. Here, spiders grow to enormous size and possess capabilities far beyond those of ordinary varieties. While many of these giant spiders are dangerous to people, many avoid humans and their ilk, instead preying on birds, rodents, and even other spiders.
Among the Woad and other peoples living in the wild, there are certain individuals who can peer beyond reality’s veil and see into the spirit world, which is believed to encompass all of creation. These people, called spiritcallers, sometimes bond with the spirits of nature they find in this realm and can call upon them for aid. These magic-users occupy important places in their tribes and serve their people as protectors.
Wherever the spiritsingers roam, they hear the songs of the Firstborne in the rustling of leaves, the babble of creeks, and the calls of animals. Some singers are so attuned with the land and animals that they can hear the hum of the Firstborne in the rocks and dirt, or even in the blood of a fresh kill. These songs not only recount the Woad’s triumphs, but also advice, news, and warnings to the tribes.
The Queen of Summer urges her mortal servants to create and foster beauty in the world, to inspire artists and celebrate their achievements, and to bring out the best in everyone they encounter. Despite their tolerance and acceptance, the cult holds initiates to exacting standards, expecting them to be passionate, creative, and bright people, free from the negative emotions that weigh down so many others.
Swashbucklers bring keen wit, daring, and superior fighting skills to any contest and use these capabilities to great effect when squaring off against foes. What sets swashbucklers apart from others who fight are the tricks and maneuvers they have at their disposal. A swashbuckler can move in such a way as to foil an opponent’s attack, while creating an opening in the same foe’s defenses. Quick slashes and strikes with a weapon drive an enemy back, while the swashbuckler twists away, deftly avoiding the counterstrike.
Flights of arrows soar through the air to rain down around you. You pluck one from the ground, set it to the string, drawback, and release. The distant cry and thud confirm what you already knew: your arrow found its mark. You have become an expert archer, and few can rival your aim, concentration, and precision.
In the last year, a new sort of spellcaster has appeared in the lands of Rûl, one whose skin turned to steel and on whose body lightning danced. This pioneering magic-user spawned more of his kind as he taught the secrets of the power contained in both Metal and Storm magic to his apprentices. Since then, these dangerous individuals, called tempests, have brought to bear a new force in the fight against the growing darkness, one that displays steely resolve and the fury of the most dangerous storms.
Thieves live by taking things that don’t belong to them. They have the skills they need to do so without being caught in the act. They palm objects, lift items from people they brush up against, thwart locks, foil traps, and discover ways into places ordinarily forbidden to them. Although many thieves steal for selfish reasons or because they feel the need to do so, others develop the techniques to explore tombs, scour ruins for lost relics, or hunt down other thieves and bring them to justice.
Conjuration magic creates physical creatures and objects by weaving together threads of magical energy. Normally, the magic responsible for these creations unravels in time, the spell weakening until the conjured items dissipate in a cloud of sparkling energy. Efforts to make these creations persist longer have had mixed results, though Conjuration spells of higher ranks are evidence of successful attempts. Among those who have made a study of the art, the thrallbinders have had the greatest success.
With a set of tools, a few parts, and a light application of magic, you create wondrous devices and objects imbued with magic that are capable of producing a variety of effects. Technomancy is the primary magic tradition that enables you to practice your craft, as the fundamental inner-workings of its spells provide you with the knowledge to construct long-lasting magical devices. At the start of the path, you cannot always predict what properties your creations will have, but with time and experience helps, you can attain mastery of the techniques you’ve learned, allowing you to build with efficiency and precision.
Veteran soldiers, troopers make up the elite fighting force of any army. Disciplined, skilled, and thoroughly dangerous, they march into the thick of battle, overpowering their foes with their superior skill and endurance. Orcs made up the majority of troopers in the Empire, though troopers of all ancestries can be found across the continent and beyond.
You always come back from the dead. Some folks might think this a good thing, a wondrous miracle, but you have learned otherwise. Dying is hard and it’s something you’d prefer to never do again if you can help it. It takes a hard toll, dying does, and you carry the scars on your body and mind from each brush with Father Death. You’re not quite sure what you did to earn this curse, but surely it can’t last forever?
Although the mages of the Tower Arcane are fully capable of protecting themselves from their enemies, they rely on an elite force to guard them so they can direct their attention more fully to their studies and duties. These guards, known as vanguards, are warriors trained in the arts of magic, specifically the Battle and Protection traditions. These combatants use spells to enhance their fighting techniques and safeguard themselves and their charges from counterattacks.
Many wizards, mages, priests, and others of their ilk claim that modern magic began with the establishment of their traditions and institutions. But anyone who has traveled through the gloom of Spiderwood or in the depths of Balgrendia knows better. Magic and its practice have thrived across Rûl for as long as people have lived here. Many of the present-day magical societies owe their insights to these primitive systems and have adapted them to suit their needs. In some parts of the world, however, the old ways hold, and the students of these ancient techniques strive to prove that their methods are the equal of any of those used in the civilized world.
Nature spirits individuals who have shown great respect and care for the natural world to be their champions, investing in them the power to directly channel the magic that permeates the land. Warden, as they are known, become avatars of nature’s fury. Many wardens live in remote places, deep inside primeval forest, atop the highest mountains, or in the center of vast steppes. Such wardens spend years in their chosen home, tending the land and guarding it from despoilers. When the shadow falls, wardens stir from their realms to take the fight to the world’s enemies.
From the traditions of Protection and Rune was born a new method of using magic, one that imbues magical energy into sigils and glyphs to make them produce a specific magical effect when activated. The Banker’s Guild in Kem sponsored the development of wardscribing centuries ago and, until recently, restricted knowledge of the art to those admitted to the Academy of Magic, an institution created by the Vault for the purposes of protecting its interests and creating a cabal of magicians loyal to the powerful financial institution. No matter how guarded a secret might be, however, knowledge has a way of leaking into the world.
Warlocks, called oath-breakers by some, are counted by wizards as the most despicable of the users of magic, for they come by their power by underhanded means. Rather than study ancient texts or pledge their lives to a god or gods, warlocks steal their magic from anyone and everyone they can, be they dread agents of the underworld or from the minds of rival casters. With the talents and techniques to do so, warlocks take whatever power they want from whoever they wish.
You avoid conflict when possible as you hold peaceful outcomes as superior to violent ones. Yet circumstances make some conflicts not only unavoidable but necessary. And when the situation draws you into a fight, you rise to the challenge and do all that you can to bring it to a swift conclusion.
Standing outside the major faiths in the lands of Rûl, witchcraft lacks the orthodoxy one might expect from an established faith. Many different factions separate witches from one another. Some practice their faith alone, while others form covens for fellowship and to grow their understanding of what the Lord and Lady wish for them.
Witchcraft is as old as humanity. With roots in faerie magic, witchcraft represents the first attempts to understand and tame the magic in the world. Early practitioners blended their efforts to control magic with religious belief, and that mingling remains with its practitioners today.
The most scholarly of magic-users, wizards confront magic as a science, believing the field of energy enveloping the world obeys certain laws and principles. Only by rigorous study and practice can one ever hope to attain true mastery over magic.
Wherever world-breakers go, ruin follows. For most spellcasters, becoming a world-breaker is evidence of some sickness of the mind, some fracture in one’s sanity, for no one should willingly become such a force for devastation. Mad they all are, for they dabble in ruinous energies that afflict the minds of these spellcasters even as they can reduce everything around them to rubble.