Academic

Academics use their education and knowledge from extensive studies to make a living and achieve their life's ambitions. Academics are generally held in higher regard than most other backgrounds, as their skills are sought after by the wealthy and powerful. Academics make great researchers, investigators, and versatile problem-solvers.
Skill Proficiencies: Choose one from Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, Nature, and Religion
Languages: Choose one standard and one exotic.
Equipment: Traveller's Clothes, a bottle of black ink, a quill, a letter opener, parchment, and 10 gp.

Antiquarian

Antiquarians are fascinated with history and identifying ancient artefacts and texts. They gather rare and lost items to add to their collections. Antiquarians' skill with identifying the properties of artefacts makes them adept problem solvers, especially when ancient artefacts and languages are involved.
Skill Proficiency: History.
Additional Equipment: A fine brush, a magnifying lens, and a small wooden crate to store relics.

Insightful Discovery

Upon spending an hour observing or examining a subject, and succeeding on a DC15 Intelligence (History) check, you can uncover the purpose and uses of any object, language, cultural practice, or similar subject. The features of magic items you investigate in this manner are revealed to you without you needing to attune to them.

Rank 1 - Museum Scholar

You work in a museum and have spent your time learning about the intricacies of every cultural artefact there. Under the guidance of the head scholar at the museum, you grew into a respectable scholar in your own right.
Holdings:

• A desk within a library, college, or museum with access to common resources.
• A map or letter detailing the location of a hidden treasure or relic.

Progression: Acquire a small collection of antiquities, which fellow antiquarians acknowledge.

Rank 2 - Adept Collector

After spending a considerable amount of time and money, you have started a reasonable collection of antiquities that you wish to one day put on display.
Holdings:

• A small collection of prized antiquities, and a quaint office to display and store them in.
• A hireling scholar who tends to your collection and undertakes research for you.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must build multiple collections dedicated to diverse subjects. Additionally, you must accommodate your collection in a gallery of suitable size and grandeur.

Rank 3 - Senior Professor

You now hold a position of esteem within the world of academia. You have dedicated a large portion of your time and efforts to extracting secrets from each item and sharing these discoveries with others. Students flock from around the world to hear you speak on subjects of your specialisation.
Holdings:

• An array of prized collections, each holding secrets to lost civilisations, forgotten magics, or legends.
• An extravagant gallery that displays and protects your collections.
• A team of assistants and scholars who attend to the collections, conduct research, and explore the world to find more antiques.
• A small following within the world of academia, who seek you out to discuss and learn about your collection.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must create a great museum, with extensive collections spanning many subjects, time periods, and cultures within the world. You must document a great finding about a lost subject, magic item, or tradition, and be cited in others' work regarding the subject.

Rank 4 - Curator

You have become one of the most renowned living antiquarians. Having been referenced in many scholars' books about your studies, and having authored a few yourself, you are now a consulted expert on several subjects relating to your vast collections. You are the curator of your own museum, with scholars and collectors travelling across the world to visit it.
Holdings:

• A great museum, with collections that draw monarchs and common folk alike, inspiring wonder and awe.
• A dedicated team of antiquarians that manage your collections and museum, scouring the world for relics that would make fine additions to your impressive array.
• A position within a prestigious council of academics, who regard you as an esteemed peer and assist you with your studies.

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Archivist

Archivists are dedicated to the recording and preservation of knowledge. Archivists are often tasked with the scouring of tomes for errors and falsehoods, because to an archivist there is no greater sin than the recording of lies. Great Archivists often become well respected scholars, holding great power over the future of a kingdom. Regardless, Archivists are often sought out by other Academics, who collaborate with them to complete their own work in related fields.
Skill Proficiency: Investigation.
Additional Equipment: An ink pen, a bottle of ink, a tin of pounce powder.

Academic References

Upon spending an hour, and succeeding on a DC15 Intelligence (Investigation) check, you can find a contact within a library, academy, or place of knowledge. This contact begins as friendly to you and will answer any questions you have regarding research.

Rank 1 - Scribe's Assistant

You have become a valued member of a library after learning about the art of collecting and storing written materials. Your years of completing bureaucratic tasks have made you an expert in locating information on specific and obscure subjects.
Holdings:

• A desk within a library, college, or museum, with access to common resources.
• A well-regarded text which is suspected to contain falsehoods, with made-up accounts and references.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must fact-check and document your discovery of errors in a fraudulent, plagiarised, or mistaken tome.

Rank 2 - Scribe

You have been appointed the honoured task of transcribing and recreating texts. You are a builder of libraries, a recorder of history, and an entrusted relayer of knowledge for generations to come. As a scribe, it is your job to record the knowledge of the world. Scribes often venture out into the world to find and document information first-hand.
Holdings:

• An office with printing materials, binding equipment, and a dedicated hireling assistant who completes minor tasks for you.
• Access to restricted sections of libraries and other places of collective knowledge.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must complete and restore a catalogue of books or scrolls to be added to a library. Your contribution to the library must be deemed a worthy addition by your superiors.

Rank 3 - Chief Librarian

Your dedication to the acquisition and preservation of knowledge has brought you to great heights within the world of academia. You are responsible for the library you serve, from acquiring and copying new texts, to preserving and reviewing existing ones. A Chief Librarian is expected to go to great lengths to fact-check the contents of their library, preferably in person.
Holdings:

• A great library containing texts collected over centuries.
• A team of hirelings who attend the day-to-day running of the library, such as scribes, assistants, and scholars. Additionally, your name is highly regarded within the world of academia.
• Access to the entire library, including forbidden tomes and the knowledge they contain.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must have made an unprecedented contribution to the world of academia. This may be the uncovering of a great truth, or the invention of a new methodology.

Rank 4 - Grand Loremaster

As a Grand Loremaster, you are the undisputed regional authority on all matters of scholarly concern. For this reason, you are highly revered by figures of prominence for your knowledge and advice. A system of academics looks to you for guidance on obtaining knowledge and spreading enlightenment.
Holdings:

• You have become head of a regional educational or knowledge-based institute, such as a ministry or college.
• You have authority over smaller libraries and educational institutions within your region, including access to their resources and hirelings.
• You have access to sources of knowledge that have otherwise been sworn to secrecy by Imperial order, royal decree, or a warlord's command. These sources of knowledge can include such secrets as forbidden arcane practices, demons' true names, and schematics for powerful artefacts.

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Physician

Your skills in healing the sick and injured have given you a vast knowledge of illnesses and remedies based on the latest science. Your calm bedside manner and natural aptitude for concocting medicines make you an effective healer.
Skill Proficiency: Medicine.
Additional Equipment: A bag filled with medicinal herbs, pestle and mortar, bandages, needle and thread, jar of leeches.

Medical Diagnosis

Upon spending an hour examining a creature, and succeeding on a DC15 Wisdom (Medicine) check, you can find the exact cause of the creature's illness, injury, or death. Additionally, you become aware of how to cure the ailment, if a non magical cure exists. This does not include magical diseases such as the contagion spell or the Weeping Pox.

Rank 1 - Surgeon's Apprentice

Whether your fascination is for the humanoid body, or the conditions that afflict it, your tireless dedication to medicine has earned you the position of Surgeon's Apprentice. As an apprentice, you are expected to attend to the patients of your appointed superior with efficiency and effectiveness.
Holdings:

• Lodging near the medical clinic, hospital, or infirmary where you work.
• A copy of the medical codex Cause and Cures.

Progression: Complete a variety of surgeries successfully, and be considered proficient by a mentor who has attained the rank of Barber Surgeon.

Rank 2 - Barber Surgeon

Armed with healer's kits and medical utensils, you are equipped to tend wounds and perform common medical procedures. However, without a medical licence, you can only treat common folk and low-ranking military personnel.
Holdings:

• A crude medical clinic known as a "Chop Shop", to facilitate the surgeries you perform.
• Up to half a dozen apprentices who follow your commands, assist you where possible, and aspire to become surgeons themselves.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must obtain your medical licence by proving your skill and dedication to a Royal Physician.

Rank 3 - Doctor

You have proven your rank among honoured healers within your region, winning the privilege of a medical licence. You are now permitted to open a medical clinic and treat high society. As a trusted figure, you are invited to rub shoulders with the most prominent of its members.
Holdings:

• A medical clinic, equipped with an infirmary to care for long-term patients with a variety of illnesses.
• A medical licence granted by a Royal Physician, granting you the right to treat individuals of any background.
• A clinic staff of half a dozen Barber Surgeons and a team of apprentices.
• A patient list of influential figures of various backgrounds who employ your practice for their medical needs.

Progression: To progress in this profession, you must build your practice into a Hospital, with multiple Barber Surgeons and Doctors working alongside you. In addition, you must accomplish a great medical achievement, such as discover a cure to a disease or a breakthrough in medical practices.

Rank 4 - Royal Physician

You have received a monarch's patronage and been given the title of Royal Physician, you are a gatekeeper for those who wish to become Doctors. Barber Surgeons will wait at your doorstep for days to prove their devotion and, hopefully, attain a licence. Kings and merchant lords will travel across the land to seek your treatment, and pay anything to be healed by you.
Holdings:

• A Royal Hospital, complete with multiple wards dedicated to various specialisations, reserved for the upper class.
• An experienced team of physicians of all ranks, dedicated to running the Royal Hospital and advancing medical practices.
• A client list, consisting of Monarchs, powerful merchants, and other important individuals.