Skills, Professions & Magic
17.1 Overview
Eldorians are proficient in a wide range of skills tied to forest life, including tracking, foraging, woodworking, and nature magic. They are also known for their excellence in archery and stealth.
Eldorian magic and technology are deeply intertwined. Their magic is used to enhance and guide their crafts, while their technology is designed to work in harmony with nature, not against it.
17.2 Professions and Skills
- Foresters: Skilled at navigating and surviving in the deepest woods.
- Hunters: Expert hunters using enchanted bows to hunt game for food and materials.
- Woodworkers: Master craftsmen capable of shaping wood with both hand and magic.
- Metalsmiths: Renowned for creating weapons and armor of exceptional quality, often enchanted.
- Weavers: Creators of beautiful textiles using spider silk and enchanted thread.
- Herbalists: Skilled in identifying and using the magical properties of plants for healing and other purposes.
- Rangers: Border scouts and guardians who patrol the forests.
- Druids: Spiritual leaders and nature guardians.
- Rune-Scribes: Specialists in the art of runecraft, inscribing runes onto objects and surfaces for enhancement, protection, and warding. Eldorian Rune-Scribes are sought after for cross-regional endeavors requiring arcane expertise.
17.3 Magical Disciplines
Eldorians practice several forms of magic:
- Sylvan Magic: Deeply connected to nature, involving communing with plants and animals, healing, and manipulating growth. This is the primary Eldorian magical discipline, shared with the Sylvan Elves. Key aspects include promoting forest health and restoration, advanced techniques learned through deep forest immersion, and healing by channeling nature's life force. Seasonal changes affect the potency of sylvan magic, with some spells and rituals tied to specific times of year.
- Runecraft: The art of inscribing runes with specific properties onto objects or surfaces for enhancement, protection, and warding. Practiced mainly by the Frostborn and some Eldorians. Key aspects include enhancing weapons, tools, and structures with runic inscriptions, creating runic wards and barriers for magical protection, and inscribing runes for specific spell effects like fire or frost.
- The Harmony Arts: A unique Eldorian form of magic involving attuning oneself to the forces of nature and the wisdom of the divine:
- Elemental Attunement: The ability to sense and align oneself with the elemental forces, calling upon the strength of the earth, the fluidity of water, the swiftness of the wind, and the energy of fire.
- Nature's Healing: The ability to use the power of nature to heal and restore balance, mending wounds, curing illnesses, and cleansing corruption from the land.
- Wisdom's Sight: The ability to tap into the wisdom of the gods and the ancestors for guidance and insight, receiving visions, interpreting dreams, and glimpsing possible futures.
- The Art of Balance: The ability to sense imbalances and restore harmony, calming emotions, settling disputes, and even manipulating probability to create favorable outcomes.
17.4 Magical Artifacts and Practices
Eldorians create a variety of magical artifacts, from enchanted weapons and armor to magical musical instruments. They also use magic in their daily lives, such as using spell-lights for illumination and charms for luck and protection.
17.5 Forbidden and Lost Arts
Not all magical knowledge is openly practiced. The druids maintain a sealed archive in the Grove of Wisdom containing texts on disciplines deemed too dangerous for general use
including techniques for binding sentient spirits against their will, methods of accelerating decay and entropy, and a lost art called Shadowweaving that could turn living wood into a weapon of destruction. The existence of this archive is not secret, but access is restricted to the Archdruid and the Monarch, and its contents are the subject of ongoing ethical debate within the Ministry of Education and Lore.