<aside> <img src="/icons/stars_gray.svg" alt="/icons/stars_gray.svg" width="40px" />
‣ What to do in this Step
Select a past profession for your character, following the guidance below — this can be their most recent profession or the most influential profession from their past. Record the gained benefits (such as skill training, etc) on your Character Sheet, except Past Experience adjustments which can be recorded separately (such as on spare paper).
‣ How profession defines a Character
Along with their background and remembrances, the past profession selected in this chapter shapes what skill training, knowledge and other useful abilities a character has gained over their lifetime (prior to starting their Path). Depending on what profession a character has had, they may also have developed their abilities to use weapons, magic or armor.
‣ What to do Next
Once you have chosen your character’s profession(s), the next step is defining their past (see Remembrances→).
</aside>
Your choice of past profession represents what your character did for a living before the beginning of their new adventure. Along with their background, professions shape their skills, expertise, and knowledge. Were they a blacksmith, honing their craftsmanship and knowledge of materials? A scholar, gathering esoteric lore? Or perhaps a soldier, trained in combat and strategy? This choice will impact the capabilities of your character, the things they may know and ways they can interact with the world.
When selecting a profession, consider how it aligns with your character’s background and ancestry, along with your vision for how they might approach potential challenges to come.
<aside> <img src="/icons/bullseye_gray.svg" alt="/icons/bullseye_gray.svg" width="40px" />
Guidance - What if a character is still working their profession?
Representing a character’s ‘past profession’ as being in the past serves the purpose of differentiating a character’s previous life from their chosen path (discussed in later chapters). There is no reason, however, to treat this choice as a limitation — if your character is still working in their past profession, just make a note as such on their character sheet and inform your Game Master.
For example, there is no reason a chef couldn’t inherit a mysterious book from a relative and begin their path as an acolyte (on the way to becoming a Necromancer), while still working as a chef during their daily lives.
</aside>
Each profession in this chapter provides a list of benefits, including skill training, new Assured Knowledge and signature abilities. Once you have selected a profession, these should all be recorded in their respective areas of your character’s Character Sheet, noting the skill training limits and past experience adjustments discussed further below.
By default, the professions presented in this chapter describe what a character would have learned at the Journeyman level, representing a solid foundation of skills and knowledge acquired through training and experience. Journeymen are proficient in their fields, capable of performing tasks with competence.
Also included in the majority of profession descriptions, however, is the increased capabilities of an Expert in that field. At the cost of Past Experience, characters can have progressed to become Experts in their profession, and in doing so gained additional benefits and bonuses, reflecting their advanced skills and greater capability to tackle related challenges.
Consider your character's age, background and overall concept when deciding whether they might have invested their past experience this way.
<aside> <img src="/icons/bullseye_gray.svg" alt="/icons/bullseye_gray.svg" width="40px" />
Guidance - Creating an Apprentice
While the professions covered in this chapter describe the abilities of a Journeyman or Expert in a given profession, some players — especially those creating a Young Adult character — may feel it is more fitting to create a character with less experience than this (e.g. an apprentice).
To create an apprentice, take the default description and benefits for a Journeyman and customize them as you see fit, confirming the final results with your GM. This generally involves removing one or more areas of Assured Knowledge (depending on how ‘untrained’ your character is) and reducing the number of skill-increases their profession grants (e.g. by halving them or reducing them all by 1 - though reductions that severe are not mandated).
Characters who are only an Apprentice in their profession of choice (and do not have multiple professions), are granted additional Past Experience to represent what the character might have learned in their time spent outside-of (or prior to) their engagement in professional training. The amount of experience given is to be determined by the GM and generally ranges between 5 and 40 depending on how much has been removed from the Journeyman benefits (an average amount of bonus Past Experience being 20). 40 should only be granted to characters that are complete beginners (with almost all of the Journeyman benefits forfeited).
</aside>
The amount of Past Experience granted by a character’s Age→ is treated as a fluid currency, used in various aspects of character creation. A character’s Past Experience can be both gained or spent during this chapter, depending what choices are made. See individual profession descriptions for more information, and the Creating an Apprentice guidance above.
In many cases, a character’s background and profession may add training to the same skill. Other aspects of character creation (such as Past Experiences→) can also also provide the ability to do the same. Regardless of the source, skills cannot be trained above +5 when creating a character. Any additional training can instead be re-allocated to a different skill of the Player’s choice. Any skill training above +5 that is not re-allocated is lost.