Windrunners

Windrunners represent the pinnacle of message delivery. Whilst it it is true that skilled magicians can teleport themselves from place to place or send their very thoughts through the ether, it is also true that equally skilled and more nefarious minds can intercept this magical transference and extract the information from the messenger, one way or another.
Thus for truly secure communication, a living vessel must be sent. A message implanted into a mind, only able to be unlocked in the right place and by the right recipient, the message is completely secure. Able to ride any beast, pilot any machine or sail any vessel, the windrunners speed across the land without rest or sleep, and are the most reliable of these messengers on the planet. Most impressively, they are skilled mountaineers, able to climb to the very highest of peaks before using their in-built skin suit, fashioned from the wing membranes of drakes, to glide to the next mountaintop. In this way they can cross the central mountain range of Errilor faster than most could ride the same distance over plains.
The job is not without it's risks. There are many natural dangers that must be overcome, and the slightest fault in a skin suit can send a windrunner plummeting to their deaths. There are also those who would rather that a message never reach it's destination, and many a messanger has been found with their throats slit, buried alive or beaten to death. As such, many windrunners have mastered the monastic arts of self defence, as material weapons would only slow them down.
Many would say that the reward is worth the risk, and the prestige that accompanies each windrunner is enough to gain the respect of citizens across the planet, as well as generals, rulers and crimelords. Those windrunners that live long enough to retire often live in immense comfort for the rest of their lives.

Career

Qualifications

Windrunners often begin as regular messengers, learning to ride fast and developing an innate sense of direction. The very best of these messengers can enrol in the windrunner academy in Barum, where they begin intensive training. Here they learn sailing, beast handling, sand-planing and how to use their skin suits. They can be kicked out at any stage shoul they be deemed unfit for any of their many studies. Once this gruelling regime is completed, usually after one or two years, they are finally deemed worthy to be windrunners.

Career Progression

While there is no strict hierarchy within the windrunners, more experienced and successful members are given more important or high profile jobs. These runners become respected and venerated by their peers, and achieve a status based more on prestige than any actual rank.

Payment & Reimbursement

Payment for each job varies, but is always generous. Usually the payment is collected and kept safe by the Academy, released to the windrunner on their retirement, or to their loved ones on their demise. The integrity of the academy is beyond reproach, and the very idea of misconduct is abhorrent to the administrators in their great halls.