“The mythos surrounding classes is colorful and littered with falsehoods, half-truths, and diversions. There are people and interest groups that prefer to keep the power in their own hands away from the Populus trying to hamper the growth of others by spreading their lies. It is thus the just duty of the dukedom to instill every citizen with the knowledge they possess.

This is not a concern to the average citizen. The dukedom has been fighting this fight for a long time and is steadily winning.

It is even less important because most useful class choices have a well-trodden path that can be followed easily. Furthermore, through the advances in technology within the last hundred years classes have faded into the background. A good worker class isn’t strictly necessary to ensure a comfortable standard of living. This is the main reason more people walk the path of classes is to qualify for quality of life classes.

What we do know for certain, is that there are at least four class ranks. Your base class is defined by your blessed and chosen skills as well as traits. The biggest influence however is your blessed skill.

After choosing your first class previously accepted skills will integrate with your class if there is a direct or indirect relationship between them. This very same process can be relied upon for each class evolution.

Most people will be able to pick from a small pool of choices to direct their class in a certain direction. This is guided mostly based on an accomplishment-based system and the previously mentioned baseline.

Advancing in level is fairly straightforward. You can be rewarded with levels in rifts - though that is rare - with many other better benefits available for first-time clears -, as well as through fighting monsters, rift guardians, and rift spawn. The more common worker adjacent classes can also progress through aligning their actions with their class. Advancement in technique is greatly rewarded and even required to continue leveling your class after gaining a third rank class.”

Every type of class can level through combat but crafting classes tend to perform badly at higher levels. The downside of combat classes is that they offer little quality of life Boni.

Excerpt from “Introductory lessons for all Children”, a mandatory lesson taught in the dukedom of Marigash.

—

“Monika,” Tara began while holding her daughter's hand, softly caressing the back of her hand with her thumb. “Could you show us a room where we can have an uninterrupted conversation about what just happened with our daughter? I’d be very much relieved if we could get this over with quickly.”

“You can just stay here Mrs. Tara. Nobody is in here right now besides us and we won’t have any need for the room. Come find us back in the hall once you are done,” the girl responded and left the room with the others.

The woman named Ionis stayed behind, ignoring the prompting by the host.

The cold stare Liana’s parents threw at the woman incited no reaction. With unflinching eyes, she stared at the group until she heard the door close. Her head held high she cleared her throat once and began speaking.

“I don’t have time to follow some sort of proper etiquette, so forgive me. I am willing to take your daughter as my apprentice if she has a good flow value. Which she does, based on my guess. I’m willing to bet that her blessed skill gives at least two flow. Furthermore, no one without at least two flow can manifest spells without the skill, so that is four at least. Sufficient for an apprentice to another flowbringer.

“I’ll get her to one-hundred-twenty within her first twenty years of life and afterward, she’ll be a free woman if she has fulfilled her role as apprentice to me sufficiently well. I’ll pay for her education, livelihood, and trips back home once she is classed. I’m even willing to offer a small stipent for you to be able to afford an apprentice in her place if you have your own shop. Through connections with me, she could even be elevated to nobility through marriage of course. This is a one-time offer,” the woman said, a glint of something in her eye.

“Why would we take that offer? We don’t know you. You haven’t shown us any credentials. You haven’t even introduced yourself. And claiming to get someone to level one-hundred-twenty by their twentieth year is just absurd. I know maybe two people that are of that level,” Liana’s father said, not even bothering to consult the rest of his family. Sure in his conviction that he was doing something good for his family.

While he was speaking his wife was already pulling on his sleeves, trying to attract his attention. The unfamiliar woman on the other hand seemed to be enjoying Nardar’s outburst.

“Nardar, don’t you notice her robes? She is one of the two flowbringers that was hovering over the party,” Tara hushed while her husband was finishing up.

“Well, now you know three. And yes, that might have been my mistake. Excuse my rudeness. I’ve forgotten that I am less well known in your circles,” the with smugness ladled voice responded. “My name is Ionis Rashan, Flowbringer, Delver, and noble. Oh and I forget myself, almost a fourth rank class holder.”

The crescendo of her introduction, the mention of a fourth rank class would have been usually enough to put a hamper on every person in the room, Nardar was just a bit too annoyed and untrusting.

“And next you are gonna tell us you get Flow with each level,” Nardar sneered. “How high is that stat of yours? Five hundred or maybe a thousand? Listen, we asked to be left alone for a moment, to have a custom that is practiced everywhere and you think you are better than that and can keep us from that? Even if you aren’t lying, our daughter still has another three weeks of school remaining so she couldn’t even become your apprentice,” his voice now heavy with something Liana only sheldomly saw, indignation.

He sighed, then stopped. The pressure Tara had been applying to his sleeves had no doubt at least instilled a bit of worry into his attitude. Tara continued in a mellower tone of voice.

“She can’t yet,” Ms. Rashan spoke triumphantly, as though that was all that mattered.

“Listen, I am sorry about the somewhat charged rant my husband went through. I can promise you we want no trouble, but this is an important moment in our daughter's life, and it is even more so important that she makes informed decisions from now on based on her own wished and goals.”

“I’ll accept your ignorance this once. And no, obviously my Flow isn’t remotely as high, that would be utterly ridiculous. I’ll be in the flats for the next couple of weeks, so while haste is in order it is not as dire as I first made it out to be. You may inquire about me all you want but until we meet again, I have a request,” she turned at Liana. “Please don’t pick any skills unless you have talked with me as well. I believe you could become a great flowbringer with my help.”

Having spoken her piece she moved towards the door. As she grabbed for the handle she turned around one last time to address the room.

“You can reach me through Mr. Sanonborough, he will be delighted to introduce us properly no doubt. As long as I am delving in the flats you may get into contact with me. If you should not contact me before I leave you can consider my offer permanently terminated.”

The door closed behind her with a slight bang, and the room was left in silence.

“So that wasn’t very smart was it?” Tara asked Nardar with raised eyebrows, annoyance clear in her tone.

“She just really itched my skin, you know. We will deal with it later if it should become a problem. And if she was being honest we can at least inquire about her and seek her contact. We will decide what we should do later. Liana, what do you have to tell us?”

“So I gained two new traits…” she began, before being promptly interrupted by her mother.

“Oh noo, are they dancing-related, is that what you got? I knew you were too insistent about dancing. Oh well with that other trait… a quality of life class it is. And here I got my hopes up for my daughter to become a flowbringer,” Tara said.

“Come on, let her finish. This is her story to tell,” Nardar said.

“... and I got my blessed skill as well as unlocked two more,” Liana continued as though never interrupted.

“Woow, hold on. Are you not messing with us right now? I have never heard of anything of the sort. I got my second trait some eight years ago, and people who get their second trait early tend to have to wait longer for their blessed skill,” Nardar interrupted.

“Didn’t you just ask me to stop interrupting,” Tara asked with arms crossed in front of her and the left eyebrow raised? She chuckled then, taking another breath before visibly relaxing her facial muscles, and continued, addressing her still waiting daughter. “We are sorry but we are also very excited. Please continue.”

“My two new traits are not dancing-related as far as I can tell,” giving her mother a long hard stare. “One is called Ocean Attuned and it gives me two more flow…”

“Two more flow are you kidding me? You are telling me you have a flow value of six?”

With all her will she kept herself from yelling at her mother. She was nervous enough already, given what her parents had in store for her. Not just her parents, her life itself would become just another footnote somewhere if she couldn’t escape from her parents' life of the petty bourgeoisie.

Her mind made up she continued all the while gathering courage for the big statement she was ramping up to.

“No, I do not have a flow value of six. And you would know by know why if you were to let me finish,” she grew slightly more agitated. Her parents didn’t like quip, even less if the situation was tense. But she was tense too.

I got this, I won’t let them make me angry.

“Ocean Attuned gives me two flow and access to the attunements of Ocean. In brackets, it says, water, air, life, death, and cycle but I am not sure what that means. Mr. Tosien has never mentioned it.”

Both her parents' jaws now slightly gaping she continued.

“The other trait I gained is called Child of the Ocean. It apparently boosts my spells and impressions on the ocean and when in relation to the ocean,” she made a dramatic pause, in a way to pay her parents back for their up to this point frequent interruptions. “It also boosts flow by another two.”

“The skill…”

“Stop right there. Do you have eight flow or does your blessed skill give you another two flow like Ms. Rashan said?” the intense stare from both her parents felt uncomfortable. She knew she should be proud of what her traits said about her but right now, staring at the facial expressions of her parents, she wasn’t.

“No, I have eight flow. My blessed skill is [Panous’ Cycle] but it doesn’t have a description besides saying “Unknown” and it says it doesn’t count for my class. I also have the choice to get two other skills. One is [Dancing] and the other is [Ocean Breeze]. The second is a flow boosting skill and it boosts people around me,” she ended her explanation, wrought with tension all over her body.

Liana began shivering, and a tear came down from her right eye. Even before she had finished the sentence, her mother picking up on at least some of the stress she was experiencing right now.

This is so stupid, why am I so stressed by this? I got everything I ever wanted with the breeze skill and my traits.

She readies herself for the statement she had prepared ever since she knew that her parents were coming. With her mothers’ arms embracing and steadying her, her courage grew.

They will support me, even if we are at odds sometimes. I’ll at least try, I can always become a leathersmith.

“Mom, I can become a flowbringer. I know it and I want to.”

“Yes, you can. But before you do anything else, pick that ocean skill. And if you want to, you can show us.”