Pact Keeper

Pact keepers act as liaisons between humans and spirits, chasing unpleasant spirits such as Goblins from people's homes and helping people to forge pacts with helpful spirits. While many people can and do make pacts with spirits for personal gain or convenience, the vast majority of pacts made in the modern era are brief and relatively trivial. Whereas these sorts of pacts often last no more than a few hours and usually pertain to minor daily problems, pacts made by professional pact keepers are often longer lasting and more involved in regards to their terms. Spirits and pact keepers that make very long pacts are often deeply involve personally, or else are following up on long held and well understood traditions.
It is primarily the risk of backlash from Pact Breaking that prevents people from making these sorts of pacts. Most spirits do not concern themselves overly with humanity outside of the occasional pact to negotiate for an Ardor source. Likewise, most humans prefer to live their lives without a constant observer. Many laymen consider long term pact keepers to be perverse in their deep association with spirits, though this prejudice is left almost completely unspoken by polite society, as the utility of these individuals and their more-potent pacts is undeniable.
Pacts that are made for long periods and maintained that way become stronger. Pactologists explain this by referring to a pact as something like a neural connection in the brain. When traversed rarely, these connections are easy to break. When used consistently, like a memory one returns to often, a pact develops more robust connections between spirit and pact keeper.
Many pact keepers who are beginning to think long term about their careers will seek out more powerful spirits with which to make their pacts when they are seeking to advance further in their craft. Particularly powerful spirits can often go many decades without needing a new source of Ardor, and usually prefer to be left alone. These spirits often have a long history of making powerful, long term pacts. In fact, at a certain stage, most pact keepers will seek out such a spirit to make a Life Pact. The definition is self explanatory. A Life Pact is a pact that a pact keeper agrees to abide by for the remainder of their life, often in exchange for a spirit's support in extremely desperate times, or for a very dangerous flavor of pact keeping work, such as dealing with Diabolic Spirits. It is speculated that the reason these mighty spirits hide away from human (and sometimes even spirit) society is that they never quite get over the loss of their previous partners.

Career

Qualifications

In order to be considered a pact keeper by their peers, one must generally have made a pact with a greater spirit that lasts at least a few months. In truth, the most well respected pact keepers have often been with the same spirit partner for years of their lives, growing closer and more powerful as the time passes.

Career Progression

Pact keepers progress in their career largely by reputation. When one has kept a pact for a long time, they are more well respected, not just by their peers and by the un-pacted humans they may meet, but also by spirits. If it should become necessary for a long standing pact to end, it is often much easier for more seasoned pact keepers to find a reputable and reliable spirit partner to replace their lost connection. It is generally true, however, that many pact keepers take an extended hiatus from their work after losing their first very long term pact, due to the inevitable emotional connection that forms with spending so much time with another.

Payment & Reimbursement

Pact keepers are most often paid with simple money, though the nature of these individuals does often also lead them to make bargains and barter arrangements for lodging or other similar favors.

Type

Arcane