The Greyhawk Travel Guide, Part III |
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| Posted on Thu, August 26, 2004 by Farcluun |
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CruelSummerLord writes "How do the professions and classes we see in the Flanaess influence its events and how it carries on?
The Greyhawk Travel Guide, Part III
By: CruelSummerLord
Used with Permission. Do not repost without obtaining prior permission from the author.
The Subtleties of Class and Profession
Assassins come from all walks of life, from greasy knife-wielding street s***** to clever, eloquent and dangerous aristocrats. Poor bandits or thugs turn to assassination to earn extra coin, make a name for themselves as dangerous men, or become the agent of a powerful group or person, with the high living that comes with it. These are more likely to be the members of street gangs one finds in cities, or the street operatives of an assassin’s guild in large cities. The most proficient killers command high sums for their services, and they can become as rich as any noble, and carry on the same types of missions as they do.
Nobles who turn to assassination often do it out of a desire for excitement, the ability to carry out highly secret and sensitive missions, or for the thrills they get when their alter ego causes terror. Most nobles wish to maintain their reputations; thus they will take up aliases or false identities for themselves while operating, with such fanciful names as Nightfang, Steel Breeze or Mancutter. In any case, if they are discovered, their noble positions and connections often allow them protections poorer folk would not have. These same connections also enable them to gather information and access places no commoner could reach.
Of course, some assassins, rich or poor, take up their profession simply out of a sociopathic love for killing. Assassins who adventure will travel to avoid the authorities in a given area, to earn extra money when business is slow, and to acquire experience and knowledge of distant lands. They strive to keep their professions secret for the most part, as they could easily be beaten or stoned if people discover who they really are.
Elven assassins are uncommon, and are generally perverse individuals who were exiled from their communities, joining human guilds. Dwarven assassins may work for their kings, or are convicted psychopaths who operate as scourges both in human and dwarven society. Few gnomes or halflings are assassins; neither of these races would be taken seriously as killers by most people to begin with.
Barbarians are, as one might expect, rarely from any civilized society. The Nomads, Barbarians, Stonehold, the Rovers of the Barrens, and any number of nomadic Flan societies and nations could give rise to barbarians, some with different kinds of abilities, as opposed to simple berserker rages. Barbarians as civilized men understand them can easily be very intelligent and eloquent people; their expertise is more with nature and spirituality than with mathematics or sorcery.
As with any class of adventurer, many barbarians adventure simply to acquire treasure and fame. They may also be bored with an endless life of hunting and trapping, and desiring some real excitement in their lives. They may be curious about the ways of their civilized neighbors, seeking to learn more about them. Some barbarians may even adventure seeking to improve their status among their own people, using the wealth they acquire to prove their worthiness for marriage to a prospective mate.
Many civilized people hold barbarians in a sort of awe, secretly fascinated by their appearance, mannerisms, language, or general behavior. Some loathe barbarians for their rudeness, lack of table manners, and general filth; these are, quite obviously, stereotypes. Other men feel they can cheat the simple folk they meet, or openly welcome them for the amounts of money they will spend. In any case, barbarians are rarely interested in staying in a given place for a long time, unless they have formed close friendships with others in the area, have pressing business, or decide to retire. In the latter case, however, they often return home-a yearning to return to the wilds of his birthplace tugs at the heart of almost every barbarian at one point or another.
Bards are generally not thought of as great heroes or saviors, as they are in our sister world of Faerun, for instance. Most people assume the traveling minstrels, players and troubadours they encounter are actual bards, when in fact these are simple entertainers. Bards use music as a way to focus magic, and also have some of the talents of thieves. As a result, they are not always trusted in more suspicious communities, although their musical talents are welcome anywhere.
Most wealthy musicians, whether actual bards or simple minstrels, rarely adventure-they will spend their time entertaining at the courts of nobles and kings rather than risking their hides in the wilderness. Bards who adventure are often poor or from the lower social classes, seeking both to advance their song repertoire and make money along the way. Most of them also have a love of traveling and a desire to see other lands. Some bards are great romantics, having a desire to engage in heroic deeds and then write songs about their exploits, while others travel to expand their song repertoires. In any case, bards are entertaining and friendly people to be around-their musical abilities often come with great dramatic or comedic talents, and they make valuable companions on the road, using both song and spell to assist their companions. They may not actually be adventurers, traveling as part of a carnival troupe and adding music to the performances of their colleagues.
The storytelling ability of bards makes them valuable carriers of news and information. In a world where no rapid system of communication exists, bards are often the best and most reliable carriers of news to outlying areas. Some bards stay in one area for a long time, and can use their abilities as parts of theater companies. Some bards also use their skills to write satirical or political songs and paeans, praising some heroes, figures and political policies, and viciously denouncing others. Powerful people may use them to dispense propaganda, or they may be a thorn in the side of the establishment. In the latter case, they often tend to have the authorities angry at them, which is precisely what they want.
There are two types of blackguards. One of these takes care to disguise his identity, and may pose as a paladin, cleric or warrior when he is in areas where his god is disliked or hated. These tend to undertake secret missions for their gods, and will restrain their emotions and personal desires for the greater good of their missions.
The other type openly wears spiked, black armor often adorned with dragon-headed helmets, cracked skulls on their shields, and blood-red lacquer painted in streaks on their armor. These fiends take pleasure in the fear they inspire in others, and love intimidating and bullying lesser beings into giving them what they want when they want. These blackguards operate openly, leading their god’s minions into battle (something which Iuz’s blackguards do on a regular basis) performing acts of terror, or preparing their own plots and schemes, always exploiting their reputation for maximum effect.
Either type of blackguard can be found adventuring. They may join goodly adventuring bands while concealing their true identities, or display their powers and gods as part of evil, feared groups. Their purposes are usually to spread their god’s aims and work its dictates, although they may also simply be spreading general evil and acquiring funds for their church/supporting organization, just as paladins often work for unspecified “good” aims and raise money for their organizations.
Cavaliers tend to be from the upper classes, and so are found as much on the battlefield as they are in the adventuring life. While other adventurers can carve out their own power bases after building up their reputations and renown, cavaliers often come from prominent noble families and have an easy time setting up power bases, if they do not already have these before becoming adventurers. In some lands, cavalier sons will compete as adventurers for their parents’ estates, with the most wealthy and famous of them taking the family inheritance.
Cavaliers are renowned for their codes of honor, which are strict rules of behavior that they must follow if they are to maintain their stature and self-respect. These may be either those of a god (such as the code of Hieroneous) or of a knightly order (such as the Knights of the Watch), or simply a cavalier’s personal beliefs.
The actual strictures of a code vary widely, but they generally center on acquiring personal glory, courtesy to all ladies, acting bravely in battle, and doing things in a noble and forthright manner. Some cavaliers have scorn for the peasants, feeling they can run them over with impunity and abuse them, their actions justified by their code. If one of these should get in the way of the cavalier’s personal advancement, then that is just too bad. Others feel that they must protect those who cannot protect themselves, and are more willing to sacrifice their personal glory and honor if it means protecting the orphaned, weak or innocent. Nobles who do this tend to treat the commoners who live under them, and any serfs they may own, much more kindly and generously than others.
Cavaliers may adventure to increase their own glory or that of the family; to prove their worth of taking over the family estate; to learn more about the lower classes and conditions in other lands; to fight evil and do good deeds; or simply to gain the wealth and fame that motivates so many others. Other cavaliers, however, tend to view adventuring as beneath them, and have contempt for those of their station who “sink to the level of the common s*****”, as they would put it.
Clerics come from any walk of life, and have widely differing agendas depending on the deity they serve. Generally clerics will serve a god whose alignment matches their own, and whose spheres of influence dovetail with their own interests. Thus, strict authoritarians gravitate towards St. Cuthbert; those who defend the poor take up service with Trithereon; nature lovers serve Obad-Hai or Ehlonna; residents of farming communities join Phyton or Wenta; businessmen pledge themselves to Zilchus or Xerbo. Race and gender matters little to most religions, who are happy to accept any converts who want to join them.
Clerics adventure to gain money for their church; act as agents carrying out missions on its behalf; to gain converts; to fight evil or good and promote their deity’s agenda; to act as lines of communication between churches; and act as informants to keep the church up to date on what is going on in the world.
None of these missions are necessary all the time-even the priests of St. Cuthbert and Pholtus are not expected to spend every waking moment badgering potential converts, for instance-but clerics are always expected to obey their deity’s strictures and dictates, and never commit any act contrary to their faith’s teachings. Most clerics worship actual deities, although more vague concepts of good, nature, evil, and so forth can be revered. Natural phenomena such as the sun, the moon, clouds, and mountain ranges can also be revered, and clerical spells can even be granted in these cases. These types of clerics tend to be much rarer, and have their own peculiar rules of behavior and dogma.
Besides adventuring, clerics serve an important function at all levels of society. They provide counseling, spiritual comfort, and guidance to rich and poor alike; they collect food, clothing, and money for poverty-stricken individuals who need it; they act as doctors and medics to all levels of society, purifying water, curing diseases, and assisting in childbirth so even the poorest people often have good health and hygiene, and do not run a great risk of dying in childbirth. The wealthy have clerics to attend to them and take care of their needs and wants, but priests of every ethical bent, from the strict priests of St. Cuthbert to the independent Trithereonites, work to better the lives of the poor and unfortunate who need it.
Druids are not often adventurers in the typical sense-fighting evil and hunting for treasure. When they adventure, they usually seek to gather money for their order, but more importantly carry information between regional branches of the druidical order, settle disputes between druidical circles, oppose the actions of certain druids they consider enemies, and gather information on the progress of civilization in a wide variety of lands.
Those evil druids who are concerned with the destruction of civilization rarely adventure, as do dwarf and gnome druids concerned with the underground; the former will have nothing to do with civilized folk of any sort, and the latter are too tied to their communities to bother with such pursuits. In addition to all the above duties, druids of goodly alignment try to assist in maintaining a balance between the progress of man and dwarf and the wilderness that remains tragically easy to despoil in this development. They may undertake to battle threats to civilization, mainly unnatural creatures such as bulettes, stegocentipedes, gorgons, and beholders, or the more conventional orc and goblin hordes. As guardians of a community or region, these druids provide protection in exchange for the residents showing more respect and reverence for nature and its needs than they would otherwise. Evil druids hate and loathe civilization whether it be good or evil, and always seek to destroy it.
Almost constantly on the move, druids generally have loftier goals as adventurers than to simply become as rich and famous as possible. Few urban types ever join their ranks, except those that make contact with the druids by chance or necessity. More likely, druids will come from those woodland peoples such as the citizens of the Grandwood, the Gamboge Forest, the Adri, etc. Other druids concerned with their terrains could come from the Crystalmist Mountains, the Vast Swamp, the Bright Desert, or other famous examples of highland, swamp, prairie, etc. These are rather less common, obviously, although they are more likely to adventure and become involved in the world.
When druids “retire” from adventuring and begin gathering their own followers, they do not usually carve out their own territories or form schools and guilds. Rather, they will join one of several druidical orders, and may gain ranks within the society, carrying out its aims and desires across the Flanaess, or even elsewhere on Oerth. The most talented druids can rise to be the Great Druid of a region, or even the Grand Druid of their whole order. Not all druidical orders get along peacefully; some are fierce rivals due to opposing philosophies and opinions on matters such as civilized expansion, or something more petty, such as a rivalry between mountain-druids and marsh-druids, for example.
Fighters of every stripe dream of acquiring vast wealth, gaining fame through their heroic deeds, being brave military conquerors, slaying evil in all its forms, or making folk everywhere tremble at the mention of their name. Coming from every social class, fighters are likely the most common type of adventurer, and every community in the Flanaess, large and small, will produce them. Every fishing village has children playing with sticks in the streets, slaying imaginary dragons and rescuing little girls who pretend to be princesses, having the same dreams adult fighters try to realize every day.
Out of all the various professions, theirs has perhaps the greatest camaraderie. Mercenaries who have just met when taking the same assignment often have common experiences and tales to draw on, and camp life is often all the home these people ever need. Gambling and impromptu contests of skill are the popular forms of entertainment.
In spite of this brotherhood and friendship, fighters often have fierce rivalries, passions, and strict codes of honor. A fighter who rejects a challenge or passes up a great reward can be looked on as a coward, scorned by his peers. Two fighters who become rivals can easily fall to blows, each determined to prove his ability by slaying the other. Women warriors can be mocked and scorned by their male counterparts in some circles, as these men view fighting as a “man’s profession”. National and racial rivalries can often manifest themselves between fighters who come from the opposing factions, often to bloody results.
Fighters are the ones most likely to attract fame and renown among the common folk, and these folk are often the ones who flock to a famous warrior if and when he retires to build a stronghold. They will build a village around the warrior’s base, eventually forming a town, city or even a small kingdom. It is fairly common across the Flanaess for warriors to build their own small realms and rule, although the extent of their titles and power often have much more of a reach than a grasp.
Those warriors who declare allegiance to a national ruler, such as the kings of Nyrond or Furyondy, and build their territories in the ruler’s name, may be rewarded with the titles of knight, baron, or even earl. The fighter gets the benefit of belonging to a larger nation, and the prestige of nobility, while the ruler will acquire more territory and tax revenue.
Of course, beyond all the desire for self-advancement, some fighters take up their profession because they love the carnage of battle, and travel for more of the same, always seeking excitement. They may be following a noble self-declared cause of protecting those who cannot defend themselves, or may be self-indulgent bullies who pick on those who cannot fight back. Some are simply travelers, wanting nothing more than to travel the Flanaess and always see what is over the next hill.
Monks are perhaps the rarest adventuring profession in the Flanaess. More common in the Baklunish West or the distant lands of the Scarlet Brotherhood than the Flanaess proper, monks are usually viewed curiously by those they meet on their travels, for their curious weapons, religious beliefs, and fighting techniques. Few peasants can believe a man could smash a rock with his bare hands, unless they see it for themselves. This, naturally, leads to all sorts of questions that most monks put up with, although some become sick and tired of the pestering, and take to avoid cities as much as possible. Because of their exotic appearance and obvious experience as travelers, settled types often ask monks for news of distant lands, assuming that the monks will have been there.
Apart from those of their profession weaving wicked plots for the Scarlet Brotherhood, most monks have no grand goals. Living simply, they have little use for treasure, except the funds they may need to build a monastery once they settle down. Most of them travel simply to gain knowledge and experience of other peoples, places and cultures, and in some cases to test themselves against the best fighters of the region. Some also seek converts to their religion, and may build a monastery if they have the money and enough students.
In the Baklunish West, monks are common; viewed as respected and wise teachers, and brave warriors, they are regarded no differently than a warrior or cleric. Anyone could become a monk, provided the order accepts them and they carry out its dictates and goals faithfully. An important part of life, they carry news as bards do, teach young ones as clerics do, and are often called on to act as judges and mediators in disputes as are judges in Flanaess society. They also travel for the above-stated reasons.
Monks in the Flanaess tend to be loners, social misfits, or those alienated from conventional society. These are the ones that will retreat to the abbeys and temples of monastic orders, to find fulfillment and direction in their lives, or spend time contemplating in peace. They may set out into the world to gain enlightenment or see other lands, or carry out pilgrimages and do heroic or evil deeds to continue along the paths as set out by their faith. Viewed as amiable eccentrics, or being possessed by demons, monks may be tied to a particular monastery, following its spiritual creeds, or may simply live a life of fasting and reflection in the wilderness, having no visitors whatever. They may also join parties of adventurers for any of the reasons cited above. Few demihumans of any sort become monks, and those who do generally act as their human counterparts do.
Paladins also tend to be from the upper classes as are cavaliers, although some can also come from poorer families if they have been taken under the wings of a church, or are apprenticed to older and more established knights as squires. In either case, paladins pray for divine magic as do clerics. They do so either by worshipping actual deities such as Hieroneous or Pelor, or the more abstract concepts of nobility and chivalry. Depending on their outlook, paladins may be concerned with destroying evil and protecting the nobility, while scorning the weak and poor, or may be the classic knight in shining armor to the innocent and the meek. They may espouse very strict codes for living as do some clerics, and are ready with corporal punishment if these are not lived up to, or may be more lenient and forgiving if a person’s heart remains in the right place.
Paladins tend to adventure for the same reasons as clerics; they wish to gain money for their church or knightly order and/or take up the cause of protecting the weak and fighting evil. How much emphasis they place on any of these activities varies from paladin to paladin, of course. Peasant folk tend to view paladins as great and noble heroes, almost too good to be true. In lower-class urban centers or more oppressive and/or evil lands, paladins may be viewed as instruments of oppression by the elites or simply as dangerous troublemakers.
In any case, paladins have their own codes of honor they must abide by. These vary from order to order, and rarely require the paladin to employ stupid or foolish tactics if such would lead to useless death. A paladin is not required to automatically charge in and attack the red dragon, but would be allowed to use the terrain to his benefit and attack by surprise if a frontal attack would get him killed. Acts that may not be chivalrous can be accepted in some circumstances-like using divination magic to capture a cloaked killer, using sleeping drugs or spells to capture rapidly fleeing brigands, deceit and bluff to unmask a mole or spy, or disguises when infiltrating an enemy stronghold. Paladins are lawfully good, but this does not mean they must act lawfully stupid.
When paladins set up their own dominions, they generally create great bastions to watch over or guard against the forces of evil, or act as a base for their order or priesthood. They may otherwise set up territories and claim noble titles as do fighters, but are invariably lawful and good in alignment, although oppressive in some cases. Demihuman paladins rarely adventure, being more concerned with working towards the goals of their races and deities. Non-human paladins always serve their leading god-dwarven paladins serve Moradin, halfling paladins serve Yondalla, etc.
Rangers can and do come from all walks of life, although obviously most of them are from a rural background. Rural gentry may have their children become rangers; elves and half-elves take up the profession to guard their forest homelands; and loggers and foresters have rangers to act as guides and protectors. The wandering nations of aboriginal Flan also have many rangers among their ranks.
They adventure to learn more about nature and all the different forms it takes, gain wealth that can be donated for the benefit of their people, and slay threats to whatever terrain they most favor. Goodly rangers also work to promote understanding between the civilized world and the wilderness, while neutral rangers act to preserve and protect the wilderness itself, usually caring little for the fate of city-dwellers. Evil rangers actively seek to destroy civilization, and are part of the same splinter cults many evil druids form. In a sense, rangers act as do druids of the corresponding alignment.
Every type of ranger generally prefers rural areas to urban ones, and often choose one type of land-forest, swamp, mountain, etc.-that they are most comfortable in. Their wilderness skills may be increased when in these areas as opposed to when they are in another. Usually, this type of terrain is the one they grew up in, or are most familiar with. Rangers who study at the famous school of Stalwart Pines in the Celadon Forest, for example, are going to be familiar with forests.
The common folk of rural areas may bless or curse rangers, depending on what the rangers do for or to their communities. The people of urban centers are likely inclined to treat rangers as another type of fighter, although the perceptive will notice how some rangers become visibly nervous and tense if they stay too long in a city or town. Merchants and lords can bless them for taking care of peasant farmers and keeping the roads safe for caravans; or they may curse them for hindering logging and mining attempts.
Although they do not commonly do this, rangers who retire and establish power bases tend to do so in untamed wilderness areas as independent lords. Those who do not are eagerly seized on by lords who will give them title, serfs and men if they find particularly valuable natural resources in a wilderness, and will claim it for the lord in question. In this case, rangers insist on taking care of the land as much as possible. Rangers who are nobles may also act as liaisons between human civilizations and faeries or other forest creatures, who tend to trust them more than a typical knight bearing his lord’s coat of arms.
Elven and halfling rangers are protectors of their communities, and act as liaisons, explorers, and ambassadors to both civilized men and fey folk of the woods. Elven and half-elven adventurers do set out into the world occasionally, working both for the goals mentioned above and also to act as mediators between rural elves and civilized humans. Dwarf and gnome rangers are generally concerned with the sanctity of their forest, mountain and hill homelands, and when they adventure, tend not to go on extremely long journeys.
Thieves of all races exist across the Flanaess. Any race or class may give rise to a thief; wealthy young nobles who enjoy the roguery of their profession, poor people desperate to climb the social ladder, or angry young thugs and ruffians seeking to avoid anything resembling honest work. As one can expect, thieves act as burglars, robbers, pickpockets, and spies, either for their own benefit or the benefit of whoever they may be serving.
Most thieves become adventurers to keep on the move, so that the authorities do not get a chance to track them down. Some of them have the same romantic notions about the road that bards do, and enjoy seeing new sights and new people. The motivation for many thieves is, of course, money; although some of them have loftier goals in mind. Thieves may act to rob and steal to give to the poor, taking only from the rich. Others might be working for their race, such as a halfling robbing dwarves or humans for his impoverished people; or may travel around for their guild, passing along information and instructions, or acting as spies and informants for other branches of their guild in distant lands.
Most people curse and loathe thieves, except those who are benefited by their robberies. Some view thieves as romantic folk heroes against unpopular rulers, or may simply be charmed by their images as tough thugs and rogues who brook no insult from anyone. However, many people can hire thieves to harass their enemies, steal them a valuable treasure they desire, or discover information they want. Thieves are also valuable customers to innkeepers and toolmakers who can shelter them when they need to hide or sell them ale and lockpicks at excellent prices. Governments also employ thieves as spies and informants, or may hire them to steal items they themselves want or need.
Thieves rarely become nobles when they retire, preferring to enter into politics in cities such as Greyhawk, Irongate or Loftwick, or form a guild. Thieves band together in guilds for mutual protection and to give clout to their threats or wishes. These guilds may work hand in hand with governments and merchants, selling protection or offering their services in dealing with unaffiliated thieves and foreign assassins. Other guilds may actively oppose a government, attempting to loot its mints, openly rob travelers and small towns, or even kill those nobles who prove too great a threat. Obviously, these thieves tend to operate underground in secret cabals, rather than as open guilds allied with a government.
Thieves exist in demihuman societies as much as they do in human ones. Elven thieves are regarded as the lowest kind of s*****, to be exiled as soon as possible, and so many move to human cities, using the mystique of their race to beguile humans and take their belongings. Dwarven thieves can easily be corrupt officials with great power in society, while others remain as the same kind of crooked brigands humans know. Gnome and halfling thieves may be parasites upon their communities or racial heroes who stand up for their people depending on their actions, but are generally much like human thieves in human-ruled areas.
“Sorcerers”, defined as those who can cast spells with force of personality and by innate gifts, as opposed to book learning and research, tend to be viewed as freaks and aberrations. Either beaten and flogged to have their “demons” driven out, or simply shunned by all around them, sorcerers tend to be on the lowest rungs of society, even if they were previously wealthy. Giving birth to a sorcerous child is a mark of shame for a family of almost any race, and such a child is usually killed or abandoned as soon as possible. Those sorcerers who make it to adulthood have often had a hard life on the streets, growing bitter from the experience.
Sorcerers are commonly adventurers, since no village will suffer their presence for more than a night or two at most. Being forced to wander has made many sorcerers either bitter and hateful, or introspective and open-minded; all of them either celebrate or loathe that which sets them apart from “normal” people. Some sorcerers gleefully use their powers to get what they want from people who have wronged them; while others attempt to gain acceptance by using them for the benefit of those they wish to join. Some sorcerers attempt to pose as wizards, hiding the true source of their powers; whether this works or not depends on how good an actor and trickster a sorcerer is. Their great charisma assists sorcerers in this regard.
Those sorcerers who ascend to power are typically famous heroes accepted by all or evil villains reviled by all; they will have either grateful or fearful subjects. Other sorcerers, who have grown used to solitude, will live the rest of their lives in the wilderness as hermits or philosopher monks; remaining untouched by civilization, which all too often mistreats them simply for who they are.
The only race that does not treat sorcerers as dogs is that of the elves. Elven sorcerers are considered to have a special gift, and may become favored members of their society, with even dukes and princes consulting them for advice, or rising to these noble ranks themselves. Great things are expected of them, and they almost always become community leaders and heroes.
Wizards are those mystical people who can cast balls of fire, read a man’s mind, or conjure up fearsome elementals. As a result of their strange and mysterious powers, they are viewed either with great awe, fear or respect by those who do not have the gift, depending on their behavior and who they keep in contact with. Wizards are the most mysterious and most knowledgeable of any profession, knowing secrets that lesser men would not dare to speak of.
Wizards adventure for gold and fame as much as anyone, though many of them also have scholarly purposes in mind in learning more about the magic of other lands. Many wizards hunger for knowledge, and the dusty books they find in far-off libraries and deep dungeons provide excellent sources for this. They may stop in a city for some time to research some questions, and then wander to another locale. Some wish to help people with their power, others seek power and as much of it as they can. The wanderings and researches of magic-users are often difficult for ordinary people to fathom; and so they are avoided and feared, or considered as mysterious beings.
Some wizards deliberately cultivate this image to separate themselves from the “unwashed masses”; the feeling of being in a clique or brotherhood makes many wizards swell with pride and ego, as they speak a language others outside their profession cannot hope to understand. This persona also helps them in dealings with adventurers, merchants and lords and keeps angry peasants from rising against them.
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Wizards form guilds to pool their resources in spell research, share their discoveries, and guard against their rivals and any who would harm them. These guilds are also used as universities for apprentice wizards to study at, places where wizards can research and train, buy materials for their spells and scrolls, and so forth. They will buy magical items from adventurers, and can pay heavy prices for items that can be used in spellcasting, such as octopus ink-a group of sailors who come in with the ink they drain from a dead giant octopus can earn as much as 10,000 silver pieces! To the fishermen, this is an incredible amount of money.
In public life, wizards can be professors, sages and scholars who teach at universities and research on a wide variety of topics, which do not need to be related to magic. Independent wizards and guilds both buy and sell components and magical items, and train apprentices. They may also look after libraries, assist armies with battlefield magic, or sell their spells for money. Every ruler large or small also makes sure to patronize a strong wizards’ guild. In return for money and materials for their projects, the guild will grant magical protection to the ruler and guard him or her from scrying, magical assassination, and other threats. They can also perform scrying, summoning, and other types of spellcasting as they would sell to anyone. Most importantly, these powerful wizards may guard against overbearing adventurers and other renegade wizards who work towards nefarious goals, or simply against the government’s interests.
Wizards may enter into politics as do thieves, set up or join guilds, create territories and become nobles as do warriors, join or found magical academies, and become general professors, researchers and librarians. Many wizards, however, can set up their homes in the wilderness either as protectors and allies of the local townspeople and fairy-folk, or as the classical evil wizard who pursues mad schemes and twisted experiments.
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Average Score: 4
Votes: 6
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