Classes

With the growth of industry comes a new adventuring profession. Artificers are inventors, engineers, and scientists who have the creativity and genius to mix technology with magic. The demand for their talents in various industries is often at odds with the temperamental products of their experiments. To further complicate matters, most universities teach either magic or engineering, and are reluctant to sponsor those who propose to mix the two. As a result of these frustrations, many artificers foreswear work with industries and choose to test their inventions in the field, with adventurers of equally risky dispositions.

As the inexorable progress of industry advances the borders of civilization, those that dwell beyond its reaches face a crisis. Should they preserve their way of life and fight back against the invaders and their technology, or should they join them? Barbarians still exist in the 4th Age of Blimnor. As stubborn remnants of small primitive societies, they are often enslaved or tricked into becoming bodyguards or circus freaks. Those who choose to assimilate into larger cultures can find more dignity, but while they may wear modern clothes and speak eloquently in the local tongue, their savage upbringing is not so easy to conceal.

Bards exist much as they always have; talented entertainers whose performances imbue their audience with extraordinary emotion and ability. With growing societies, the demand for entertainment is greater than ever, with illusionary special effects being necessary to hold their attention. In the 4th Age of Blimnor, nearly all bards are graduates of a Bard College, whose massive institutions are careful to screen their students to ensure compliance with modern magical practices. While generally, bardic magic is protected by law as a form of expression, those amateur bards who perform without the support of a college may find the law less forgiving.

The profession of hunting monsters has a long been stained in blood. However, it has equally been a necessary and profitable one for those courageous or unhinged enough to take it up. The blood hunters far eclipse all other guilds in their dedication, having sacrificed the sanctity of their own bodies to wield volatile and forbidden blood magic against their quarry. Their practice has faded into legend in the 4th Age of Blimnor, being supplanted by the efficiency and ubiquity of the Voidwatch organization. However, the blood hunters still practice their craft in remote areas of the world, far from the security promised by their modern counterparts.

While science may answer many of a person’s questions, there is still a strong desire for spiritual guidance among people of the 4th Age of Blimnor. It has been a long time since the clerics of great faiths have claimed to commune directly with their deities, but their belief in the doctrine is as strong as ever. Most Blimnorian societies still organize around some form of belief too; gods, totems, paradigms, avatars, ancestors, and the singularity. Each of these institutions grant special licenses to their clerics to practice holy magic. Even so, clerics are more pragmatic these days, accepting that the wisdom they impart and healing they deliver is far more an effect of good lifestyle and moral living than of true divinity.

Industry leaves a scar across the landscape with great cities consuming the wilderness around them, coughing factories polluting the air, and monstrous steel machines screaming across the land, sea, and sky. As such, it is a sad reality for druids in the 4th Age of Blimnor. Most of them find that people lack reverence, respect, or even fear of nature, believing it tamed. Therefore many druids find themselves on a path of vengeance and activism, seeking to halt the growth of urban sprawl, sabotage industry, and even ravage those people so audacious as to attempt to exploit nature’s resources. However, some druids find other places in society, often as scientists and teachers seeking to understand the ecology of the world and finding harmony with it.

They say war never changes. In fact, it changes quite a lot, and most fighters will attest to that. In the past century, gunpowder has led to revolving pistols and bolt-action rifles that deliver devastating damage with great accuracy and convenience of use. New materials have led to stronger armor both for infantry and great machines. Combustible fuels have led to self-driven vehicles, hulking metal warships, and even airships. Consequently, fighters of the 4th Age of Blimnor benefit from a greater arsenal of weapons for their job, but must also be knowledgeable of the greater threats these inventions pose. Such warriors are most welcome in the great armies of the nations, but are equally prized as bodyguards, police, and mercenaries.

Ancient martial arts are often treated as exotic superstition, as what could possibly be more dangerous than a bullet or sword. Furthermore, the people who wander into towns and cities claiming to know the ancient secrets of unarmed combat are ridiculed as charlatans. For this reason, monks in the 4th Age of Blimnor are often secretive, careful about who they discuss their martial prowess with, or who they leave alive to describe it. They can often earn a tidy living as bodyguards, enforcers, or combat instructors, while the less scrupulous may be found pulling punches in underground boxing rings. Still, in the privacy of their homes, they keep to their quiet rituals and spiritualism.

Paladins were once the soldiers and protectors of their religion. In the past, these noble warriors sought out evil and sin where it hid and made war with it under the blessing of their deity. However, the increasingly secular societies of the 4th Age of Blimnor have made such drastic actions highly illegal. In fact, being “evil” is no longer a crime in most areas of the world. Now modern paladins lack the unilateral autonomy to fight injustice as they once did. However, their talents of discovering crime, dishonesty, and mal-intent has employed paladins in many new lines of work as detectives, police, exorcists, and combat healers. Still it is hard not to pine for the days of shining armor and simple morality.

As the wilderness of Blimnor recedes, rangers of the 4th Age of Blimnor must travel farther afield to hunt, patrol, and explore. While rangers are accustomed to living in the wild areas of the world, they have always had a careful relationship with the folk of towns and cities. Even today they can earn coin by hunting game and pelts. Rangers often collect on bounties for the monsters that encroach on civilization, or the bandits that seek to hide in the wilderness. Now too, some curious rangers ply their trade in the great cities, prowling the dark alleyways and sewers for the monsters concealed there. Even their affinity for animals serves rangers well in a world full of domesticated wildlife.

Rogues flourish in the 4th Age of Blimnor, to the extent that even legitimate and law-abiding folk aspire to the level of grit and street-smarts they possess. As people pack themselves into ever-denser cities, so too has conflict and poverty arisen, meaning that there is endless demand for thieves and assassins. It is even common for unlicensed magic users to resort to a life of selfish trickery. Streets are littered with aspiring thugs or racketeering gangs, and the roads beyond the cities are infested with bandits. However, it is not any easier being a rogue, as with the rise in great cities and diligent governments comes larger, smarter, and more organized police forces.

Magic was once a dominant force in Blimnor, however in the 4th Age of Blimnor its gradual decline in people with innate magic. While history is rich with people claiming to possess great magical talent coursing through them,, today those who find themselves with such talent are expected to train rigorously and carefully as wizards in institutions of magical learning. However, no such expectations exist in Faeland, where sorcerers are common and celebrated.. Saturated with emotion, imagination, and passion, the inhabitants of and visitors to Faeland may find themselves with powers they hadn’t before. Such people should be careful in Blimnor, as shows of such volatile and unexplained magic are sure to be feared and distrusted.

Long ago, great effort was made to hunt out people who gained magic through pacts with supernatural beings, destroy them, and if possible the enterprising entity as well. Historians question whether or not such exorcisms were real or just, as many may have simply been wizards with untreated madness, sorcerers desperate for an excuse for their magic, or even bards happy to boast of their dubious exploits. However, as more and more Blimnorians are making correspondence with people of the Faeland, there too is the discovery of a peculiar hierarchy of magic, where it is not uncommon to strike a deal with powerful beings in exchange for the power to pursue one's own goals. Warlocks in the 4th Age of Blimnor must be cautious, as to reveal the existence of their patron might bring an inquisition upon them.

Just as the nature of magic became a science, the 4th Age of Blimnor consolidated all forms of magic into that of wizardry. By forcing prospective magic-users to undergo decades of their life in the relentless pursuit of study, greater understanding of magic has been reached, while at the same time ensuring that all of the dangerous, unethical, and inexplicable magical disasters of the past are unlikely to happen again. With the predictable, quantifiable, and accountable use of magical grimoires, wizards are both respected for their studied use of magic, and their wisdom in finding practical solutions as well. As such, all graduated wizards are granted a License to Practice Magic through their Academy.