Each character starts the game with some training in some career, and this could be something they continue to ply and progress as time goes on, or something they are leaving for a new life of adventure.
Available careers are generally dependent on background, but otherwise Players can choose any career they have access to as long as it makes suitable sense and the GM approves.
Careers provide a range of Standard and Professional skills, and some include Magical Skills or Combat Styles as well.
Skills are increased in a similar way to Cultures above:
Select up to three skills from the Professional Skills from the Career’s list.
Distribute 100 points among the Standard Skills listed in the Career, and the three chosen Professional Skills. Unlike before, not every skill needs to be increased, but the same maximum of 15% applies.
There’s a massive list of careers to go through, each with a half dozen Standard or Professional skills attached.
Age
Players can choose their characters age or roll on a range, and depending on the category (Young, Adult, Middle Aged, Senior, or Old), their skill competence and pool will differ.
Characters generally start as adults, barring special scenarios or strange events.
Bonus Skill Points
At this final step of skill improvement each player is given an additional pool of bonus points based on their age to represent the refinement and dabbling that happens between their character’s upbringing and daily life.
This defaults to 150 points, with a maximum limit of 15 points per skill just like previous steps.
At this point Players can choose one new Professional Skill or Combat Style as a personal hobby, and then distribute points to any skill they currently have as they wish.
Starting Equipment
Each character has a starting kit, determined by their culture and social class, and generally decided by the GM according to the setting and campaign.
Players may purchase additional belongings using their starting funds to round out or fill their packs.
Equipment is generally categorized as Clothing, Weapons, or Armor.
Clothing represents simple finery, daily driver clothes, or raggedy rags. Almost every character has some base sets of clothing to wear, though this can radically differ in style and quality between cultures.
Weapons are the sharp pointy bits, often practical and utilitarian for most members of a society, as prestige weapons like swords are usually reserved for well-off and higher-class citizens.
Armor is even more rare, as the lower and working classes both have no need of it, and can’t afford it if they did. Leather jerkins and sturdy padded fabrics may be the extent of it for most, though again a higher-class noble may have inherited a beautiful suit of half plate or the like.
Magic
These are brief overviews of the different types of magic, with a whole chapter describing them at length later.
Folk Magic
Perhaps the most base of the arts, usually the domain of tricksters, magicians, or those in lands abundant in magic.
Connected to the natural world and the emotions of those within it, it has minor effects in general but a variety of them.
Involves by the Folk Magic skill.
Animism
A magic of spirits and supernatural creatures, with the summoner negotiating or enslaving these otherworldly entities into contracts or deals.
In exchange the animist is beholden to binding terms and specific taboos.
Involves the Trance and Binding skills.
Mysticism
Magic drawn from the knowledge of the self and understanding, reaching inside to inner power.
Mystics are like monks, empowering themselves into difficult opponents to tackle head-on, and dealing with problems likewise. Or like Jedi.
Involves the Mysticism and Meditation skills.
Sorcery
Magic dealing with twisting the laws of the world and invoking powerful and modular spell effects.
Very flexible magic that may be unbound or dismissed by the strength of other more profound sources.
Involves the Invocation and Shaping skills.
Theism
Magic sent from the divine, rewarding those chosen by the gods with power from the gods.
Miracles are potent and resemble the strength and power of divinity itself, but require constant and eternal dedication, as no other magic is as reliant on external elements.
Involves the Devotion and Exhort skills
Cult Membership
An optional final step for character creation, each character may have joined a cult or brotherhood as part of their culture or personal free will.
Another main-stay feature that has its own chapter, know for now that these are organizations with their own progressions, ranks, and benefits to a character.
Players will more often join a brotherhood during the game as both their character and the story develops, but having it be a part of character creation can form a more detailed and sturdy context for the character’s identity.