All professions have their class skills grouped into two types: guild and specialisation. The guild skills you tend to receive with apprenticeship and develop as time goes by. Some additional guild skills exist, like Necromancy, with their own particular means of acquisition. These are exceptional, however.
Specialisations are reserved for those committed to their profession and generally become accessible once you have taken your guild skills to their maximum and remained loyal to the profession for a certain number of Avalon years.
Syntax: SPECIALISTS.
This command lets you view a rollcall of the specialists relevant to your profession. It will be obvious when you are able to specialise since you will be informed, once per Avalon month (as you enter Avalon) that your skillset is sufficiently developed to allow you to make the SPECIALISE request.
Syntax: ACQUIRE <specialisation> e..g. ACQUIRE BURGLARY or ACQUIRE SKYMASTERY.
The ACQUIRE comand is required to declare your wish to specialise. There are a few criteria, such as your Avalon age and status, as additional requirements to be allowed to be specialise but presuming you have the capability your declared wish will be communicated to all of those with the power to grant you access to the specialist field. In the case of the Seers, this is solely the existing specialists; in the case of the Thief, this is largely the decision of the head of the guild. In many instances divine blessing is also required to allow specialisation to take place since these are incredibly powerful, secret abilities and irresponsible, fairweather types are not to be admitted.
If you are one of the chosen few with the privilege of choosing whether individuals are allowed to specialise you will be informed of his/her declaration and be given instructions how to admit or refuse them.
Each profession has its own specialisations and its own particular criteria for their acquisition. Below we go over each profession and detail how the specialisations are attained:
ONE: THE SEER
The fully-developed Seer, with crowned Farsight and Mysticism skills, has the option of selecting between specialising as an ORACLE or a TRUEMYSTIC. The Truemystic is the voodoo-mystic, giver of mystic life and creator of dopplegangers - a quasi-religious fraternity with the unique capacity to absorb the lifeforce of other Avalonians and ultimately, after an arduous and long process, create the opportunity to replicate other players as doppleganger slaves. The Oracle is the wielder of the ethereal wind, the almost invulnerable Farsight specialist - casting aside the physical form to exist largely in the celestion. Whole regions can be affected by the power of the Oracle, their senses reaching into potentially every corner of the land; even into the minds of their fellow Avalonians.
The Seer has the potential to possess both the Oracle and the True Mystic specialisations, but this right of attainment is only apposite once the Seer has passed two hundred years as an active member of the profession.
TWO: THE THIEF
Both of the Thief specialists are developed once the Thief has fully developed the Thievery skill to the crowning point of arrowed Ultimate and the two specialisation are the burglar and the assassin. The burglar gains deepest insight into the covert arts, master lock-kits and the lockmatrix, inevitable theft and most secret subterfuges. The assassin learns the ways of cunning slaughter, lightning fast martial artistry, abilities to maim and decapitate. Both specialisations are equally potent in their own ways and it is up to the character of the individual thief which he or she selects. The choice is irreperable and it is only the truly legendary thief, a mere handful over the centuries of Avalon history, able to practice both the burglar and the asssasin skillsets.
The Thief is able to gain both Burglary and Assassination specialisations concurrently but must begin with one choices; and then after one hundred Avalon years in the profession will gain the right of acquisition - to attain the other, companion specialist skill-set.
THREE: THE RANGER and THE ANIMIST
There are specialist or selective/high-level abilities available to both the animists and the ranger professions but although these require skills to have been developed to their highest potential, it is not a pre-requisite that the SPECIALISE command is used; nor that another individual from the profession be responsible for admission to the profession's greatest powers.
The first phase of the attainment of the paradigm powers for these professions is reached through the presentation of five ceremonial, symbolic mature birds - by five Elders of the profession: the owl, the robin, the carrier pigeon or dove, the falcon and the enigmatic crow. The completion of this presentation ceremony will bestow Ornithology on the animists and Falconry on the rangers.
The possession of Falconry or Ornithology is the gateway to the next stage, the eternal phase of the pinnacle of animism and ranger's sylvan lore: the woodland affinities. Little is known of this outside of the profession save that the forests themselves, ever vigilant, ever remembering, are the foundation.
FOUR: THE KNIGHT and THE MAGE
Avalon's two original professions operate in a more utilitarian fashion to the others, where specialisation is - in effect - available to all those knights and mages of sufficient age and commitment, regardless of whether their brethren accept or deny the progress. Unlike the other professions, there is no ceremony needs completing, no ritual needs building, no support needs garnering to gain what are effectively the specialist abilities of Rituals, Charming, Candescence, Chivalry, Endurance and Weaponry. To gain the crowning abilities the knight or mage must - of course - achieve a maximum spread of professional skills, taken to their furthest possible potential as described in HELP ULTIMATE.
Then, once this full repertoire is achieved, the passing of each Avalon year will provide a visitation describing the necessary steps to acquire whatever specialist ability is next. For the Knights, it is great and glorious Quests; for the Mage, it is the uncovering of arcane, legendary Chants. This continues, year on year; how many years, few have deigned to tell... See also HELP ELEMENTALISM.
FIVE: THE LOREMASTER
There are two specialist skillsets available to the Loremasters: Opalescence and Skymastery. Unlike other professions where one or other of the specialist 'routes' must be selected, to the detriment (unavailability of the other) the loremaster is able to acquire both specialist skillsets as part of his/her reprtoire. There are no inherent limitations imposed on ability acquisition. However, access to the specialist knowledge is controlled by the Council of Lore, a cross-guild, cross-city group blended of lifetime and elected members (mortals) numbering twelve individuals. The Lore Council selects a Head of the Council (the Supreme Loremaster of Avalon) and this individual determines the criteria for each specialisation. Members of the council are independent, semi-permanent and charge with great and unique guardianship of the profession.
Loremasters may type LAWS at any time to review the latest criteria and edicts of the Lore Council. Opalescence and Skymastery are considered as separate entities - the former dealing with the weaving of what is known as the opalescent spectrum, a string of gemstones fifteen-types woven into the fabric of the lore-robes. These gemstones are empowered, they are evolved; they are the source of the Opalescence powers developed by the loremaster par-excellence. Opalescence is historically considered the right of all true and committed loremaster professionals and the Council of Lore tends to adopt a more liberal stance on its acquisition.
Skymastery, on the other hand, is a more broad canvas - centered on a loremaster's ability to communion and command the air element within the sky realm: winds, storms, clouds, rains, lightning, and such like. In the hands of one skilled and wel-versed in the nuances of the skies it is one of the mightiest of powers available to mortal man - for harnessing the might of the tempest, directing the very storm upon one's foes; few more fearsome and widely affecting abilities exist. As a consequence of its extremely potent import, the Skymastery specialisation is far more closely monitored by the Council of Lore; and indeed the fundamental purpose of the council, its raison d'etre, is the sanctity of these abilities - holding the keys, on behalf of all Avalon, to mastery of the skies. It is a responsibility rightly held as precious.
For further information on the Loremaster's specialisation and the illustrious Council of Lore, see HELP LORECOUNCIL, HELP LOREHEAD, LAWS, HELP OPALESCENCE and HELP SKYMASTERY.
SIX: THE SORCERER
Little is known of the mysteries of the Sorcerer specialisation, since the arts are kept firmly within the confines of this most dark of professions. However, it is commonly understood that while the early stage practitioner in the dark arts acquires evocation (dark spiritualism) and powers over the demonic plane, it is only later - when they have proven the lust for blood and thirst for the conquest of souls - that they attain their neophyte specialisation: the art and abilities of Necromancy. Indeed, it is said that no aspirant to the evil ways is complete without Necromancy and it is almost considered a right, a component of the general skillset repertoire.
And this is where knowledge grows hazy for though it is understood there exists great powers beyond the typical reperttoire of Evocation, Demonology and Necromancy - beyond even the crowning of these three sorcerous skills, the method by which a sorcerer unlocks the subsequent steps is a secret known only to them. All that is stated in legend is the full moon and the howling of the werewolf are commonly associated with the mysteries of this deeply enigmatic, disquieting thaumaturgy; and that every exponent of the thaumaturgist's art has been renowned for his or her unholy shrine - a blend of worship to the Dark Gods and blood-altar in the form of a penttagram. Beyond this even myth and legend fall silent.
