Adventurer
"It's a tradition. For as long as there are records of history, there are folks like us. Outcasts, thrillseekers, sellswords... morons of the highest caliber. This job takes a special kind of insanity, especially if you want to survive to retire."Across Erisdaire there are countless ancient ruins or monstrous threats which invite people to act against them. Official forces such as the Imperial Legion or Zurithan's Hammer are unable to handle all the threats, and local militias are not trained to be more active in their protection. This led to the young and reckless people in the world finding an opportunity to profit. Officials in many nations have mixed reactions to these individuals, but there is little to be done to stop them short of making it a death mark.
Today, adventurers are a common fixture in Erisdaire, and many nations have a variety of ways to respond to their presence. Inside the Rhyliss Empire, adventurers are regulated and need to apply for licenses to operate inside their borders. Myrisia requires a Sage to sponsor adventuring groups, also making that Sage responsible for the actions of adventurers. These two major nations have set the standard in this fashion, so nations with less power on the continent treat adventurers tend to follow these leads. Estebrook has an extreme view, inducting adventurers into a division of their army as opposed to being freelancers. Kivese, on the other hand, has specific places set aside for adventurers within their towns and cities.
As for what an adventurer is, the term is elegantly simple: anyone who primarily goes into the wilderness to seek adventure is an "adventurer". Their style of surviving the odds varies from sellswords who put their trust in steel, to practitioners of arcane magic, even to those who serve gods and call upon divine miracles. Sometimes they organize into groups ranging from a quartet to a larger band which can handle threats on a greater scale. Rarely they may work alone or in pairs, performing smaller deeds which garner more notoriety due to the small number of people involved. However, this way of life is prone to an astonishing mortality rate; more often than not, adventurers perish in the wilderness and ruins with nobody aware of their fate until much later. Adventurers who survive long enough often find a reason to retire from actively seeking trouble, and settle down in communities to pursue other interests. Despite no longer being active, these retired adventurers are often thrust into positions of authority due to the belief they can lead well due to their life experience. The results have been rather mixed, where it has happened.
More notably, there is a large number of noble scions who are attracted to adventuring as a way of alleviating boredom or dissatisfaction with their place in the world. Those who do not stand to inherit titles or wealth have historically been drawn to adventuring as a means of proving their worth and value to the world, followed by using their fame (or infamy) to leverage themselves into positions of authority. These brand of retired adventurers tend to be more successful in their endeavors, having undergone at least some training and education in many subjects. Many frontier towns have had such leadership, growing into larger cities over generations.
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