Quantifying and Qualifying General Skills

Greetings. This work is intended to give the laymen or those not familiar with the Empire a general overview of the rankings of various skills and how one may test to measure said worth.

Listed below are the eight most basic of skills. Thousands of pages have been dedicated to the careful study of each one; hundreds of years of research have been dedicated to pinpointing the exact measure and worth so that anyone may describe where they stand in relation to their peers, superiors or inferiors. I am listing out initially to the rank of six. If more interest is shown, I will gladly expand where I can upon the further abilities and knowledge of those of higher rank. This is not merely a suggestion of where one should be to obtain the listed rank, but an actual measurable scale one must achieve to be considered that rank. It is also worth noting that an experienced practitioner may have additional skills or insights that are beyond the scope of this document. Where as some orders and guilds may have unique names this work will adhere to a more modest and acceptable numbering system.

 The General Skills

Craft :

rank 1 - Basic repair. With this ability, a character can restore any Broken item to its normal condition with 10 minutes of uninterrupted work.

rank 2 - The Crafts-person gains a specific insight into one "specialty" area and thus begins their journey down a chosen craft.

rank 3 - Intermediate repair. With this ability, a character can restore any Broken item to its normal condition with 5 minutes of uninterrupted work.

rank 4 - The Crafts-person gains a specific insight into one "specialty" area and thus begins or continues (depending if the same specialty is chosen) their journey down a chosen craft.

rank 5 - Advanced Repair. With this ability, a character can restore any Broken item to its normal condition with 1 minute of uninterrupted work.

rank 6 - The Crafts-person gains a specific insight into one "specialty" area and thus begins or continues (depending if the same specialty is chosen) their journey down a chosen craft.

 

Diplomacy:

rank 1 - Etiquette allows a person to ensure they say nothing offensive or potentially damaging to others. This may mean that when they are on the verge of doing so they are able to cover up a potential verbal gaffe, they can recover and even cover this would-be blunder. This requires a lot of concentration and training, thus they may do so up to once per day.

rank 2 - Study of a particular group allows a Diplomat to specialize their insights and influence over that one particular group.

rank 3 - Their level of concentration and training have expanded allowing them to use their Etiquette skill up to twice per day.

rank 4 - Continued study of a particular group or additional study allows a Diplomat to specialize their insights and influence a second time over that one particular group or an additional group.

rank 5 - Their level of concentration and training are truly masterful allowing them to use their Etiquette skill up to thrice per day.

rank 6 - Continued study of a particular group or additional study allows a Diplomat to specialize their insights and influence a third time over that one particular group or an additional group.

 

Healing:

rank 1 - Basic Examination. With this ability, a healer can determine if a character is suffering from a number of the most common conditions, allowing them to begin treatment or Basic aid (also a rank 1 skill) that should allow a person to heal within the hour (if otherwise unaffected).

rank 2 - Lesser Thanatology.  When Investigating a dead body or various forensic items or locations, a healer with Lesser Thanatology is more Learned and Perceptive. 

rank 3 - Improved Aid provides a level of enhanced healing, allowing the patient to fully heal in 30 minutes.

rank 4 - Greater Thanatology. When Investigating a dead body or various forensic items or locations, Greater Thanatology the Learning and Perception of the hearler to a Great level.

rank 5 - Advanced Aid reduces healing time to 15 minutes.

rank 6 - Coax Life. An expert healer can bring a recently slain character back from the edge of death.

 

Mercantile:

rank 1 - Paltry Venture. This allows a merchant to invest money in market speculations, make business contacts, and manage concerns of a "Paltry" or low level.

rank 2 - Specialties in Mercantile are defined as specific market, contact, and business types and at this rank the merchant has studied one type.

rank 3 - Moderate. This set of abilities allows a merchant to invest money in market speculations, make business contacts, and manage concerns of a "Moderate" or medium level.

rank 4 - At this point the merchant has studied a second or improved upon their first market, contact, or business type.

rank 5 -Substantial Venture. This allows a merchant to invest money in market speculations, make business contacts, and manage concerns of a "Substantial" or high level.

rank 6 -At this point the merchant has studied a their or improved upon their first or second  market, contact, or business type.

 

Performance:

rank 1 - A performer may inspire  their audience (allies only) once per day. This will restore a persons physical, mental, or metaphysical well being or traits. This Inspired Performance will typically last about a minute.

rank 2 - The performer’s skill and ability will endear them to a longer performance, usually at least 5 minutes and will restore 2 of a persons physical, mental, or metaphysical traits.

rank 3 - A performer may inspire  their audience (allies only) twice per day (in total).

rank 4 - The performer’s skill and ability will endear them to a truly heroic time of performance, of at least 15 minutes and will restore 3 of a persons physical, mental, or metaphysical traits.

rank 5 -A performer may inspire  their audience (allies only) thrice per day (in total).

rank 6 - Unique Performance. This ability allows a character to undertake a performance with an extremely specific effect. Unique Performances are not generally part of the common "knowledge" of the performing arts; instead, they are the forgotten dances, the most passionate songs, and the enlightened tales of legend

 

Scholarship:

rank 1 -  This is unique in that most recently, this skill level was unmeasurable. In fact it was originally believed that scholarship required such focus, that gaining a specialty proved twice your rank. It has since been proven, that a scholar may in fact learn an additional language from another world and thus an additional unit or ability has been discovered upon Entrance to this Forest. It should be noted that the common language of "Gatespeak" and the ability to read, while not necessarily common to all the other worlds is instantly conferred to all who enter the Forest, so the ability to read or understand Gatespeak is not a measure of Scholarship. 

rank 2 - Scholarship Specialties allow the character to focus their studies to greater effect in one area.

rank 3 - An additional language is the suggested measure for this rank.

rank 4 - Scholarship Specialties allow the character to focus their studies to greater effect in a second area or improve upon their first specialty.

rank 5 - An third language is the suggested measure for this rank

rank 6 - Scholarship Specialties allow the character to focus their studies to greater effect in a second area or improve upon their first or second specialty.

 

Survival:

rank 1 - Forage allows a survivalist to harvest plants, mushrooms, and other ingredients from the land itself. This is not the ability to "Craft" a garden as would be measured under that skill.

rank 2 - One specialty that provides a hunter a greater degree of success on Exploration actions to find a specific type of quarry, location, or foraged item.

rank 3 - Harvest Game allows people to collect skins, food items, and special ingredients off of select monsters or animals.

rank 4 - A second specialty or the improvement upon the first.

rank 5 - Concealment, as the name implies means a survivalist can conceal themselves in the wilderness, in shadow, or somewhere where they are almost entirely covered.

rank 6 - A third specialty or the improvement upon the first or second.

 

Tinkering:

rank 1 - Basic Devices are simply (or not so simply) new and strange mechanical devices

rank 2 - Through sheer, intuitive understanding of machines and complex devices, a Tinker can, once per day "Contrive" to immediately resist or avoid the effects of a trap that goes off in their vicinity.

rank 3 - Intermediate are even more complicated strange mechanical devices

rank 4 - A Tinker can, twice per day (in total) "Contrive" to immediately resist or avoid the effects of a trap that goes off in their vicinity.

rank 5 - Advanced Devices truly complex and often complicated strange mechanical devices

rank 6 - A Tinker can, thrice per day (in total) "Contrive" to immediately resist or avoid the effects of a trap that goes off in their vicinity.

 

 

Penned by the 3rd rank Scholar, Explorer Bai Guey-hu,

called the Ghost Tiger