Blessed with talent from birth, sorcerers are gifted mages with considerable magical skill. As soon as their magical talent is discovered they are sent to a Magical Conservatorium where they are secluded and trained until they have enough of a grasp on their magic so as not to be a danger to the citizens of Verindale. Sorcerers are quick learners and spend no more than a few years training before they either join the Conservatorium as instructors, open their own Conservatorium or take up a position in a castle. Some even choose the life of an adventurer and wander the lands, taking coin for certain services they can provide. 

Warlocks are individuals with varying levels of magical talent who have chosen to pledge themselves to a Patron Soul in order to receive both their blessing and their power. This pledge entails that the candidate will perform ceremonies to worship their chosen deity, perform any and all tasks requested by them and to become one with their Patron Soul upon their death. There are twelve different Patron Souls to whom a Warlock may pledge themselves. Some are genuinely deferential to their Patron Soul while others lust solely for power. The penalty, however, for failing to serve a Patron Soul can be treacherous, so a contract with one should not be entered into lightly. 

Divine healers whose purpose is to heal and protect. Priests must undergo both magical and medical training both at a Conservatorium and at a Hospice before being permitted to venture out into the world. Priests normally fit into one of three categories: hospice workers, wandering healers or exorcists. Some of their more exciting quests involve exorcising angry spirits or skeletons using their divine magic, though this is never done without backup.

Elementalists are those who have become one with the natural elements: fire, water, electricity, earth and wind. They have become so in tune with their chosen element that they can even transform their entire body into said element and even become immune to damage from that element. The very best Elementalists have even taken their craft further, turning fire into magma, water to ice, electricity to magnetism, earth to sand or wind into complete control over the weather. The tests to attain these abilities, however, are fraught with danger and countless Elementalists have died in the pursuit.

Without either a desire for power or a morbid fascination with death, the path of a Necromancer is inadvisable. Though animating the dead and raising angry spirits is not an inherently evil practice, there have been cases where it has been used for less than scrupulous purposes like raising undead armies to take over kingdoms and the like. Budding Necromancers search in secret for knowledge and are mostly self taught using ancient tomes found in hidden crypts and repositories. There are, however, certain cabals who meet in secret to share their knowledge and crafts in order to avert disasters by novice Necromancers dallying with powers they can’t control. 

Also known as Children of the Forests, Druids, despite their fragile bodies, have a very special bond with nature and this is reflected in their magic. Druids command both the plant and animal life of the forests, bending it to their wills and using it to attack, defend and heal. Druids live their entire lives in forests and are seldom seen in cities or settlements, developing their magic naturally from the forests themselves. It is even rumoured they can speak directly to trees.

Steeped in spirituality and reverence for spirits and the departed, Shamans developed their talents in the realm of the spirits. They can summon and command spirits from other planes and use their aid during battle. There are precious few tribes of shamans left and their magic is passed purely from a Shaman to their apprentice through secret rituals to ensure the practices remain in keeping with tradition. Shamans are considered wise beings and rarely venture far from their tribe – preferring to use their knowledge and abilities for the sake of their tribesman. 

Words, phrases and runes are the crafts of the Scholar. These mages are most at home in a library with a book in hand. Unlike other mages, Scholars generally enjoy their confinement in the Conservatorium and often remain there long after mastering their magical talents. As a result, the only Scholars who ever see combat are those delving through dungeons for ancient texts, the rest enjoy lives of research and reading, curating libraries and acting as historical experts.

A Red Mage is to mages what a Mercenary is to warriors. Whether a sorcerer tired of the bureaucracy of Conservatories or a self-taught prodigy who never settled on one school, Red Mages rely on contracts or quests for their gold. By nature, Red Mages are curious dabblers and will learn many different schools of magic, often combining and creating new spells in the process. Some Red Mages become renowned for their developments, however, most are simply adventures or magical hirelings. 

Battlemages and Spellblades are two sides of the same coin. A warrior who has been formally disciplined in the arts of both physical and magical combat. Battlemages are mages with exceptional skill for physical combat arts, while Spellblades begin as knights with an exceptional ability with magic. There are a small number of exchange programmes developed between Castle Militia and Magical Conservatories to accommodate the needs of these exceptional individuals, however, the training is arduous and very few ever truly become masters of both arts.

A skilled archer with magical aptitude may be trained in a similar way to a Spellblade in conjunction with a Conservatorium, or similarly, a mage with an aptitude for archery may be apprenticed to a Hunter or Ranger to enhance their combat ability. Spellbows specialise in disrupting or disabling enemies with either elemental or poison arrows as well as shutting down enemy mages with magic disrupting arrows. They also have their own special spells to increase accuracy of shots not only for themselves, but allied archers as well, making them the centre-piece of a castle’s ranged division.

Shadows are magical assassins with great magical talent and a penchant for subterfuge. They learn shadow magic from the shadows themselves and acquire their other skills through less-than-scrupulous means.