Misty Islands character cretion guide
1. Race

1.1 Human
Humans are the majority race in most places around the world; while they are not as individually powerful as many other races, they can call on more help and they are often more adaptive and less reclusive, willing and able to take the advanced other races make and utilize them. However, not always do they uderstand them properly and that can leave them blindsided to dangers. The vast majority of real cities in the world is mostly human and so is the vast majority of what we call civilization. Since we are all intimately familiar with the species, no more description is neccessary.

1.1.1 Dwarf
The dwarves are a subspcecie of humanity, even if they are likely to cut off your legs if you suggest it to them. They diverged from the main body of humanity a long time ago, but unlike the elves and others, they are still capable of interbreeding; for social reasons as well as mutual sense of ugliness, that only happens rarely.
Dwarves live both above and under ground; it is however true that their nobility as well as the cities tend to be underground, with the surface mostly hosting their food production facilities, trade and storage. They are of course good miners and good craftsmen too. They are rumored to be without magic, but that is not true; their mages are very important to them, and therefore very few have seen a dwarven mage outside of their fortified quarters. For that reason, they utilize runic inscriptions; in essence, it is a spell inscribed into an object that the mage makes and charges with power and then anyone could discharge it. The mechanic is widely known, but only the dwarves can employ it with any degree of efficiency; nobody else knows techniques that make the power loss while charging the item bearable (save for full on creating artifacts, but that is a completely different matter).
Their largely underground way of live leads to a strict structuring of dwarven society. It was originally neccessary for survival, and it is still enforced with all the power that can be mustered. From birth, every dwarf belongs in a clan (wide family), and once they achieve majority, they also belong to a guild that promotes one particular craft, from gathering trash to magery and military leadership. The sense of identity with family and guild are so strong that while the dwarves do have personal names, many forgo them in public, simply identifying themselves just by clan and guild. Various clans and guilds have various rules according to which they live, and the Judges (a guild by itself) is charged with dealing with friction between them - something that happens constantly. While the rules differ, their being draconic is a constant. Add ruling gerontocracy and heavy social traditionalism, and you have a society even hitler would find too restrictive. As it is, some young dwarves are beginning to rebel but with every divergence punished so heavily, they are in essence forced to go big or go home - which leads to formation of war bands and civil warfare in the lower tunnels. So far, the more distinguished dwarves manage to play it down as purely a matter of the rabble, but the problem is growing and the standard dwarven response - tighten the screws - is problematic, because they cant really be tightened much more.
The dwarven ability to craft comes with a price; once a dwarf becomes highly proficient in a craft, they can sometimes be taken by what they call Fey Mood. An image of a masterwork creation is stuck firmly in their head and becomes an obsession. Should the dwarf fail to acquire the ingredients/tools/workshop needed to make his vision a reality, they will go mad in a few weeks, typically ending in suicide or killing spree. Only very few dwarves expreience this more than two or three times in their lives, and it is one of the few things their society makes allowances for - partly because the result is worth it, partly because the possible reprecussions should fey mood be overlooked.
>> Note: Such a masterework item could be a table, window, weapon, painting etc. It will be highest quality, but without further enchanting and processing, it usually has no magical properties on its own.


1.2 Sidhe
Sidhe (more properly Aos Sí, Sí Daoine, Daoine Seidhe), literally "people of the earth" are also colloquially known as elves. They are not actually a race, but rather a collection of lesser spirit of nature inhabiting physical bodies. Thanks to that, they can not be killed by normal means; the spirit will merely flee upon the destruction of the host body, although making a new one takes lots of time and effort. The more powerful sidhe rival demigods for power and they all have some kind of a special personal ability - anything from producing colorful flame to knitting, tearing and rebuilding flesh at a whim by a snap of their fingers. However, anyone who lives with them for long enough will eventually be considered one of them and might even start exhibiting their traits. Many fugitives and outcasts eventually find their way to the Sidhe.
Sidhe typically use little technology, but are powerful casters. They live in Burghs ("castle"), in hollow hills bigger from the inside. Their culture spans back a very long time, but they have a primitive outlook to them - they like to sharpen their front teeth and engage in cannibalism, their feasts are often full of drunken revelry and they usually scoff at the idea of good and evil; they consider it both just two sides of the same coin and many sidhe are somewhat unpredictable in their actions. Humans even like to say that magic and sanity are connected - and as the sidhe are so powerful in magic (amongst other feats, they are one of the few who can perform true ressurection), their psyche is fragile. That might not be literally true, but it is true that when wandering cluelessly into their territory, one is as likely to recieve a helping hand, hearty meal and a guide outside as an arrow in the eye and there is no rhyme or reason to who recieves what. They come in all shapes and sizes, from little winged fairies to giants, but they generally fall into one of the two groups:

1.2.1 Seelie
Seelie are the sidhe that belong in the so called summer court. Typically they tend to be physically beautiful and all of them have kind of an allure that makes others well disposed towards them, whether they look like lust inducing image of youth and beauty or respect inducing old sage. They tend to be politically savvy and are prized as advisors. Their looks and aura helps them be welcome with almost any other race as long as they are careful and they tend to be quite refined - from making great art to partaking in  games, plays and processions. Their magic tends to be subtle, and they are often willing to wait centuries to inflict revenge upon a distant descendant of someone who one insulted them. That is not to say they are the good side - but they are more likely to give you a goblet of poison than to tear you to pieces with bare hands.

1.2.2 Unseelie
The unseelie of the winter court have an aura as well, but theirs induces usually dread and fearful obedience or cold respect. Their appearance tends to be rugged and scarred and many have some minor animal traits (eyes, ears, horns, antlers, rarely even functional wings). Many consider them to be the evil version of elves, but that is not true. They tend to be more direct and usually go after simple solutions where possible, but despite appearances, they are not stupid. The Unseelie still maintain the tradition of the Wild Hunt and being nominated to be a Huntsman is a high honor.

1.3 Centaur
Centaur herds are a relatively recent addition to the sapient species club and it is theorized they are pretty much an escaped experiment that worked better than expected, although no hard facts are known, not even by themselves. They are nomadic or semi nomadic people typically unwelcome around other races, not least because of their very limited ability to control where and when they defecate. They posses significant physical strength and endurance, but are also suprisingly dextrous and agile. The kick of their hind legs can certainly break a skull. They have their shamans, but their magic often revolves only around blood, killing and sex. As for technology, they have what they manage to steal; being newcomers and not very appealing ones to boot, they are usually forced to roam the less pleasant areas of the world, and they return any spite they recieve tenfold. They are not stupid, but most have no access to even the most basic education and coupled with hatred towards and from pretty much everyone else, that leaves them very close minded. They are also known for another fact: Their intolerance for alcohol is only rivalled by their love of that stuff, and a sober adult is an unusual sight. There are also rumours of their more powerful version - winged ones who can split and have their pegasus and human parts act independently. There are only very few of this strain, and they are infertile; typically, they keep far away even from their own kind, although they are said to have unrivalled insight into the world of certain spirits and it is uncertain if these even are from the same spcies, or just some other magical effect at work.

1.4 Orc
There is much more to the orcs that meets the eye. At the first sight, they appear to be brutes whose approach to any situation is SMASH. THat is true, but it is not that they are. First of all, it is a little known fact that goblins are just an orc subspecies, and the only orc subspecie capable of reproduction; once they mature into the orc phase, their sexual organs diminish and eventually are almost negligible in favour of extra muscle and protection.
Their maturation process is social and driven by conflict; in essence, the orc that beats up enough other orcs of his league will grow not just in his status, but also in his physique, up to truly gargantuan examples. Battles with other species have simmilar effects.
Orcs employ very little magic, and the little they have is utterly incomprehensible to everyone else. They also employ a wide variety of technology, from a stick to a steam engine. They have an uncanny ability to make anything stolen or looted work, even if they could not build it, and their own creations are usually massive, nonsensical piles of parts that somehow work despite the fact that they really should not. That is caused in large part by faith; orcs have a passive faith field, which allows their strange contraptions to work, simply because they believe they will; at times, it can also make a stick work against plate armor. One orc, no matter how strong, has very little power in this manner, but the more there are grouped, the more power they possess. Luckily for everyone else, the more orcs there are in any one place, the heavier the infighting is, and even unified armies rarely stay unified for too long, their inborn desire for conflict driving orcs against each other eventually. However, if there is a powerful chieftain who can for a time unite many clans, it is a power one would be truly foolish to contend with without serious magical backup. The orcs have no conscious or intentional access to this power and only very few even realize it exists. Should they manage to tap into their full potential, the world should better watch out.

1.5 Lycanthrope
Lycantrhopes can come from both human and sidhe variants, though their symptoms differ. They are shapeshifters with a humanoid and an animal form; sometimes they also have one or multible in-between forms. Typically, they can change whenever they desire, but they have to change under full moon (even if it is not visible, but only at night), and for the duration they are fully controlled by the inner animal; once the Revel, as they tend to call it, ends they have no recollection of what they were doing. Tales of their rampages are however exagerated; if you turn into a wolf and encounter a human, your inner animal will attempt to flee, only turning to fight if cornered.
Most lycantrhopes change into predator species - canines, felines, ursines. However, birds of prey are also known, and there is nothing that would prevent one from being a were-cow in theory. In practice however lycanthropy spreads by bite under certain special conditions, which makes herbivores rare. Weresharks are known in coastal areas.
Coming from vastly varied backgrounds and even species, lycanthropes very little in common with each other. It is said however that they are somewhat blessed by both Gaia and Luna and that they recieve gifts in exchange for their curse. These gifts tend to be highly individualized, though they can fall under one of a few wide groups.
Mostly due to the fact that they are considered dangerous outcasts by others, lycantrhopes tend to look out for each other even if they harbor little personal affection towards the individual in question. Their packs often work like wild animal packs would and they even cull their own, eliminating those that are too absent minded or weak willed to avoid getting the entire local lycantrhope populations into trouble.
An interesting side effect of the curse is that the lycanthrope stops aging. Some are centuries or even millenia old with vast repositories of knowledge to tap into.

1.6 Dragon
Dragons are individually by far the most powerful except perhaps for the few greatest sidhe, but by the same token by far the least numerous. Most of them are elusive individualists and encounters between dragons who are not either unusually calm or ancient often end in bloodhsed, although given their endurance and natural armor, much of what others can see as lethal battles is just posturing. Only young dragons are able to go explore the Mist - flying is not adviseable everywhere at every time and ships usually cannot carry the larger kind without significantly hampering their capabilities in other areas.
A lot happens as dragon age; their life cycle has three distinct phases. Young dragons tend to be quite ferocious but also extremely curious and adventurous and they are also the only group that can procreate. Perhaps because of this they also tend to be collectors; however contrary to popular belief the hoard does not have to be gold and jewels; a curious dragon could just as easily be amassing rare books, statues, specimens of rarer plant species or magically preserved corpses of his/her enemies. They do on occasion eat people; but it has never been recorded that a dragon would care aout social or virginal status of his/her intended prey.
Middle aged dragons usually calm down to a large degree. Their hoard tends to increase significantly, because only now they are settling down for good, having previously lead a semi-nomadic life. Now with a cave system - usually tunneled by liberal use of dragon fire - to call their own, they can realy get going. Dragons of this age in most cases start feeling a pull towards something - sometimes that something is inherited, sometimes acquired through study or personal interest. In any case, such attraction tends to lead to taking on some aspects of one of the many spirits of the natural world - from plants and animals to more abstract ideas such as battle, justice, or correctly filled in tax return form. Yes, the last one happened, and the dragon in question was the most feared tax collector ever to walk the world. Middle age lasts from several hundred years old to several thousand.
If a dragon is still alive after a few thousand years, they go into the last phase of their lives, which is characterized by doing nothing much. Dragons of this age eat a lot, but not often, and spend most of their time sleeping. It is apparent they do something and are somehow important; at least numerous signs and portents suggest that. However, nobody yet figured out what it is, not even the younger dragons. It is curious, however, that no corpse has ever been seen of a dragon who died of old age. That suggests that either they simply do not die of age - possible, but then the world would be buried in dragons - or that they simply go...elsewhere instead of dying.
Despite their power - or perhaps because of it - dragons are not the rulers of the world. They were sometimes hunted even in earlier ages, but the coming of musket and cannon heralds the dawn of their age. The many uses their various body parts have do not help either, and these days the remaining dragons try to adher strictly to pax draconicus: Do not take part in the conflicts of the shorter lived species, but when one is attacked, all are, inviting furious retribution. Naturally, that has lead to the downfall of more than one ruler when an opponent had someone attack a dragon under false colors - but it is the best dragons can do to preserve what is left of them.

1.7 Angel
Originally, angels were not really sentient; the first emerged when some of the more powerful antities took a handful of raw space materia and told it to go do stuff - typically they were messengers or warriors. As long as the deity survives, nothing changes, but it happened many times that a deity died - while lack of faith itself is not lethal to them, gods and pwoerful spirits can, and at times do, kill each other, should one side vastly outpower or outmanever the other. Usually at that point the agents of that particular deity just dissolve, but in a few cases some survived.
Like everyone else, angels can learn as they live, and those that lived amongst mortals tend to acquire some of their traits (think good omens). However, as long as the parent deity exists, it is only mimicry and no true will or sense of self. THose not formed enough die with their god, and even the rest is often killed/harried/driven criminally insane by the shock of suddenly being alone and responsible for themselves - a feeling not encountered ever before.
THeir appearances and abilities differ depending on their deity and purpose, but with many being agents and messengers, usually their true appearance is whatever the god thought would inspire awe, reverence and obedience in their people - or in the case of war angels, whatever would inspire dread. Simmilarly, their personalities and abilities vary depending on the same set of variables, although the do share some traits: They do not age, do not get sick and despise oranges.
It is also - rarely - possible for an angel to separate themselves from their parent deity though will alone, usually if the deity undertakes a shift of focus and/or personality and the angels are left behind to catch up on their own. Such shock is even worse and oven leads to rampaging mad angels massacring their way through wheverever they currently are. Seeing as gods tend to be jealous to a fault, few of such apostates live for any significant amount of time.

1.8 Demon
There is a certain confusion between demons and angels. Dark angels - i.e. angels of the less than benevolent gods, or those who went violently mad - are sometimes called demons, but there is a difference. Outside of the universe, there is the void; the void exists as a counterweight, as the place where that which is not can be, where all the options of time that do not come to pass are stored. It is not just nothingness and cold, although that is a great part, it is also an endless well of potential from which everything ultimately comes, and to which everything ultimately will return. While the void is generally empty as befits its name, it is not entirely so - the endless potential present causes fluctuations, thoughts emerging here, an object forming for a split second there. While the probability of such random movements producing sentience and that sentience surviving for more than a fraction of second are astronomically small, the void has time; in fact, it has literally all the time in the world.
Demons can be formed anyhow, from anything. Their true forms are not physical - nothing physical survives in the void, certainly not for long - and their physical forms often look like a strange body part garbage dump, if it even resembles anything biological at all. Most demons have little understanding of how such things as bodies should work, because that only makes sense in the context of environment - which demons lack.
Most demons, it is estimated, never leave the void, not least because they have no idea how. Some, however, have managed it, often with highly destructive results. They carry a tiny speck of void with them wherever they go, and even if they wanted to be benevolent or had such concept when they first crossed the barrier into the physical world, they have no understanding of the fact that destroying a physical form destroys the being inside - in fact, having existed in nothing so far, even destruction itself is a new concept. Thus the bad rep they get is entirely earned in the sense their desctructive spectacular entrances would make michael bay jealous, but also not entirely just considering most of it is not done on puporse.
A few of them eventually learn how to make themselves a body or at least how to restrict their nature to avoid being a walking WMD. THat said, everyone - or at least every in the know - realizes it is a mere matter of choice for them, and that they could at any time go all in with either the void itself, or the random infinite potential.
Demons typically have no power over their abilities once they are unsleashed. They are merely a conduct to a different plane. A few have learned worlrdly magic as well though. In general, demons hide; nobody wants to go back to literally nothing, but few are willing to openly accept a demon and risk growing a second (and thirteenth, and fifty second) head the second the demons control slips.

1.9 Undead
There are three types of undead in the world, though only one is suitable for a player character. First there are flesh puppets - creatures not different from a golem, except from a bit more grizzly material. While such necromancy is distasteful, there are mages who employ whole armies of these, and even those who prefer skeletons for servants - after all, they never say anything rude.
The second type are ghosts, spectres and variations thereof. There are different types of these, depending on how they come to be: If a person has a particular quest or goal in mind and dies without fulfilling it, sometimes their ghost will linger until it is finished - or if it cannot be, forever. But ghosts can also be created by especially cruel, violent death - especially of children or those mentally unstable - or even on purpose by a necromancer.
Most ghosts are just imprints - an idea, a packet of memories left behind while the actual person is gone. Those tend to have very little power - the best they can achieve is scaring someone or succesfully passing along a warning - which is not as easy as it sounds, considering that they are mute. Some, however, are a result of a split soul. Splitting a soul is one of the few things pretty much every god including those with more tentacles than a hentai convention, agrees is evil. It can come naturally though great suffering, so great is should kill you, but for some reason does not. It can also happen on purpose, done to either self to others, athough the pain of that is nigh unimaginable. Partial souls have some of their old abilities. They can usually talk, they can attack witch a chilling touch, they have more than one desperate thought. If they had magical abilities in life, they can even retain one of them. Such ghosts, however, exist in agony and if they are capable of reasearch, it tends to be focused on getting the fuck out of this realm.
Finally there are the true undead, the most common of which are vampires and liches. The creation of the first original vampire is just a myth; these days they cannot be recreated from scratch, though they can increase their numbers by turning others. Vampires tend to be very strong, fast and so on, and often develop special abilities as well. They are succeptible to sunlight and silver, but neither kills them on the spot; for the older and more powerful, it is more annoyance than anything. Sufficiently hot fire or advanced destructive magic will kill a vampire though, and so will significant damage to his or her poundy, such as taking a grapeshot blast point blank.
Finally, liches are a vile breed of sorcerers who die to cheat death - which is to say, they go through splitting their soul on purpose and store one part in a container, an item. As long as that item exists, the lich can be defeated, but never truly vanquished - although getting back up from the last "death" does take time and effort.

2. Class
2.1 Sailor
Sailors operate everything there is to operate aboard a ship. Ships of the line (i.e. larger warships) have crews in hundreds, with the largest around a thousand souls. There is great diversity in sailors, because they are required for many different jobs and specializations aboard the vessel.
2.2.1 Seaman
Seamen  are the rank and file. THey repair the rigging, clean the floors, help the cook, carry the supplies and do a thousand other jobs there are to do to keep a ship up and running. Contrary to popular belief, they are only rarely present against their will, although some might be on the run from the law or a blood feud - joining the Navy is a tried and true method or leaving everything behind, so some crews can be scary bunches. SOme others are motivated by the prospect of riches: If enemy ship is captured or a treasure discovered, every member of the crew is entitled to a share. The share does depend on rank, but if you capture a treasure ships, there is enough prize money to make every single crewman at least moderately well off, which tends to be an improvement over their original conditions as they tend to come from lower classes. THe job is generally physically demanding and strict discipline is required. THose with less than one year of experience are called Landsmen, then Seamen, then those experienced/skilled can become Able seamen after four years total, which is a prerequisite for getting higher.
2.2.2 Petty officer
Petty officers are the guys who keep the ship floating. THey are usually issued a distinctive cloak to be easily recognizeable and they are the lowest command tier - they command the crews of individual naval guns, the cleaning parties, the work parties - basically if there is a whole bunch of sailors doing some job, there is a petty officer directing their efforts. Many petty officers are career sailors with years and decades of experience and they are promoted form the ranks. THe most senior petty officer on a ship is called the boatswain and is in charge of dealing with minor disciplinary issues (the kind that doesnt require the Captain to get involved), but also often serves as the Captain´s unofficial link down to the crew. Petty officers are outranked by any "real" officer, even those in training, but junior officers are supposed to observe the petties and learn from them. Formality is one thing and having the Captain´s ear is another.
Some petty officers are also specialists - the cook, gunsmiths, quartermaster, caulker and others are petty officers. Most specialist petties are assistants to specialist officers - gunner´s mates, surgeon´s mates, master´s mates and so on.
Historical note: The boatswain eventually became a warrant and armthen commissioned officer rank in the royal navy; the last one retired in 1990 as a Commander with Order of the British Empire.
2.2.3 Warrant officers
Warrant officers are considered "real" officers as in "officer and gentleman" and tend to come from the middle class. THey have to pass examinations for their positions, they are entitled to actual uniforms and courtesy. However, they are typically not command officers, but instead specialists in areas where education is required - the gunner is in charge of instpecting and mainting ship´s weapons, the ropemaker, the sailmaker, chaplain (on large ships only), purser (accountant officer) and carpenter are all warrant officers. The Master at Arms is in charge of martial training for the crew, keeping the order and discipline and is entrusted with the keys to the armory. He is assisted by Corporals (Petty officer). The senior warrant officer on a ship is the ship´s Master. The Master is the chief navigator (on smaller ships, the only one) and is also in charge of all the other petty officers. He has to make sure the ships is functional at all times, deals with minor issues, updates the logs and duty rosters and so on and so forth. Basically his job it to deal with day to day running of things so that the Captain can do the captaining and often nobody knows the ship better. If someone passes the exams for ship´s Master but there is no ship available with that position free, he cain sail as the Second Master of some bigger ship.
2.2.4 Commissioned officers
THe command type of officers. On the top is the Captain whose powers on his ship are nigh endless. If the Captain has command over more than one ship, he is called Commodore. He is assisted by Liutaneants ranked from the most senior to the most junior - 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on, with the first Lt. being also the second in command of the ship. A Lt. that independently commands a smaller ship, but without the rank of Captain, is called Commander. A Liutaneant promoted by the Captain either temporarily or even permanently, but without endorsement of the admirality yet is called Sub-Liutaneant or Acting Liutaneant. Officers in training are called Midshipmen, because their quarters are often around the middle part of the ship. Like warrant officers, commissioned ones must pass official examinations to get their positions.
Even relatively junior officers can be at times in charge of the ship; the ship needs to run 24 hours a day, but the crew cannot, which means that the day is divided into "watches", shifts. Each watch lasts for a given amount of time and is headed by the watch officer who is the officer currently on duty, ready to respond to any issues or emergencies. Liutaneants, Midshipmen and Master´s Mates can be watch officers; the Captain and Master do not stand watch, but they are on call 24/7. Most sailors are part of the watch system, but not all; the carpenter & mates and the gunner & mates for instgance do not. They are called"idlers", but everyone is subject to "all hands on deck" call.
The Captain can also hire civilians to work on the ship; the most common positions are the captain´s clerk who deals with paperwork, steward (personal servant) or even a teacher to help midshipmen with their studies.

2.2 Soldiers
Army hierarchy and system is a bit simpler, because there are not so many specialist positions to fill. Petty officers are called non-commissioned officers here and warrant officers are far fewer, but otherwise it works the same - the company is headed by the Captain who is helped by the Liutaneants and the NCOs.
Soldiers who regularly form the military complement of a ship are called Marines. Even them however can have different specializations:
2.2.1 Line infantry
If you watch a movie about Napoleonic wars, you will see these guys the most - shoulder to shoulder, trading musket salvoes with the enemies. It looks stupid, but there actually is some sense to it; the footsoldiers have bayonets to defend against cavalry, but they have to stand shoulder to shoulder for it to work. In addition, it makes it harder for the unit to rout, as those in front are held in pace by those in the back - unless the entire unit runs. The musket is a heavy, cumbersome weapon that takes serious time to reload, but inflicts horrenderous damage and no armor with protect you from a direct hit. Most soldiers only fire a few shots in training just to get used to the weapon; there is no accurancy training, and units shoot at units - hitting an individual long distance is quite a feat.
2.2.2 Grenadiers
The strongest from the line infantry units tend to be transferred to grenadier units. THe grenades used are heavy, cumbersome bombs that require serious strength to throw at any great distance. Because they are stronger, grenadiers tend to also be used as close combat specialists for taking trenches and fortification; to that effect, they often wear additional hand to hand combat weapons. They are considered elite, but the losses suffered in charges against fortifications can be very substantial.
2.2.3 Skirmisher
SKirmishers are lighly outfitted troops with either longer, more accurate muskets, or shorts, more mobile ones. THey maneuver, use cover and fight in loose formations; they serve as the commander´s eyes and ears, they bother the enemy with sporadic fire, lay ambushes and try to take out important fogures such as officers or flag bearers. Because in ship to ship combat, musket equipped soldiers are up high in the rigging firing at the enemy deck, their marksmanship can be very useful.
2.2.4 Cavalry
The marines do not tend to have much in the terms of cavalry; horses are troublesome to transport and useless in ship to ship combat. Most cavalry is relatively lightly armored and equipped either with sabres (hussars) or firearms (dragoons). Heavily armored lancers, the successors of knights, also exist. Officers in general have a horse, sabre and a pistol.
2.2.5 Artillery
Marines tend not to havy much of this either. In land based armies, the artillery consists of guns (direct fire), mortars (lob a shell high in the air and see where it falls) and howitzers (something in between). Most cannons have to be moved by hand or by oxen, which limits their size and power; ship guns are much more powerful.

2.3. Trader
Traders come in many shapes and sizes, from small time merchants to owners of entire cartels. Some prefer land trade routes, others trade over sea, either by renting transport space in a ship or even having their own. Even military ships need a trader (purser), because they need to restock on things like food, gunpowder and nails, and not always are they in reach of their own port where they could be outfitted for free - for that reason ships take significant amount of money with them to war. Of course, a fat old jerk counting coins would not make a very enticing character, but some are more proactive in their approach. THis class could also be used to model an explorer or treasure raider, just add a bit of adventurous streak.

2.4. Priest
There are many faiths in the world, some mono- and some polytheistic. There are also many types of priests, from die hard zealots to those who try to promote unity over strife. The latter type tends to serve on ships, as the crew can often be a mix of denominations and the ships chaplain needs to minister to them all. The duties, responsibilities and limitations of being a priest vary faith by faith, although in general they are excluded in holding lay positions of power, a lesson painfully learned in the past. In most cases being a priest is a purely social function that requires some empathy and oratory skills (or manipulation). However, some priests are also endowed by power granted by their deities; these "true priests" dont even have to have proper investiture and are often more religious recluses and monks than actual priests. These holy men are viewed with awe, but they are also somewhat isolated - nobody wants to be around a direct conduit to their god, because everyone has something they would prefer to keep private. An angel cannot be a priest, although they can manifest some simmilar powers; if an angel has actual sense of self, he is separated from the deity, whereas the priest has to be connected to it.

2.5. Mage
Mages are generally viewed as specialized scientists; general consensus is that magic can be eventually fully understood by reason, it is just not quite all done yet. Considerable intellect and strength of will are required to become a mage; whether or not there is some innate power some have and some do not is a matter of dispute; some believe powerful mind and will are sufficient. Mages tend to be the most educated people around, because their mode of casting requires them to understand what they are doing; if you want to lifts something into the air, you essentially need to pump potential energy into it or somehow cancel gravity, and you have to know what such energy is. The better your understanding of a particular field of science, the easier your magical manipulations become, as well as potentially more powerful. Magery is often not about brute force - save from throwing fireballs around - but rather abouts its efficient and precise use. After all, if you can manipulate subatomic article, making a magical nuke requires comparatively very little raw power.
Mages are not divided by energy, but rather the type of energy they are good at manipulating - movement, heat, light and so forth. Some also focus on less easily defined fields such as healing. No mage can create matter from energy yet, although the very powerful can achieve the opposite with rather explosive results. There is nothing that stops a mage from being good with multiple types of energy, but in practice specialists are more valued. Mages have to have a specialized education and license, they are quite rare and very useful. Usually even a minor mage is considered a social equivalent of a noble.

2.6. Engineer
Engineers are the inventors and tinkerers, but they are more than that. They have a low amount of magical ability, but they do have some, and that allows them to make creations that defy traditional physics; however, teir power is required for them to run properly, which means only an engineer (or full caster) can use such cretions. Enginees evolved from runesmiths of old and the art of runesmithing is still revered, even if a lot of it was lost over the ages; some even suggest it might have the ultimate, most direct form of magic that existed and that is somewhat spoke to the universe directly on the basic level.
Most engineering creations are relatively minor - better weapons or personal armor, powerful torches, goggles and gadgets. However, in theory there is nothing preventing you from building an entire engineer-ship either, if you could find enough engineers to crew it. In past, there have been violent clashes between engineers and mages, as some engineers resorted to kidnapping mages to power their creations that were too big for them. The mutual distrusts lingers to this tame and hinders general progress.

2.7. Surgeon
There is not much licensing in the field of medicine yet; in the army and navy you need to pass an examination, but otherwise anyone can call themselves doctor. Microorganisms are not yet known and a lot of medicine is trial and error. Good doctors are empathic and try for combination of approaches to a problem, but even then recovering or not is often a matter of luck. Surgeons and dentists are separate specializations (dentists are not even considered doctors), but otherwise medicine is not yet divided into specialized fields and a doctor needs to deal with anything his patients come to him with.

2.8. Shamman
Shammans represent the other approach to magic; the wild, undescribeable path. They range from tribal sorcerers to fortunetellers living in the streets of big towns and are often looked down at - but it is true that some of them produced feats no mage yet could, such as controlling the weather, making trees animate and come to their aid or cursing someone with bad luck for the entirety of the targets life. They often dabble in hazy arts such as telepathy and predicting the future, reading aura and reading the fate. Some even adopt a semi-priest approach, having some powerful spirit-patrons that teach them or grant them powers, although having at least a bit of power of their own is in general necessary. Shamans do not have to be educated, but some of them are and an interesting perk of the job is the ability to percieve magic through their senses - some see colors, some smell scents, but they all have kind of this ability. With practice, they can tell if that particular magic is harmful or beneficial and even figure out who cast what spell. It is this last thing that makes them somewhat socially acceptable - at least some of them - as they are very good at investigating magical crimes; an ability that does not endear them to their mage bretheren.


2.9. Criminal
THe underworld is large and shadowy; some choose this path, others descend here out of desperation; there is very little social security net, and being faced with a choice of death by hunger or thievery is not that uncommon. COmmon criminals are often "rabble" that keeps to itself - gangs that mostly fight each other, little thieves, pickpockets and swindlers. There are those with more professional approach as well though - burglars specialized in noble mansions, even assassins and blades for hire. Good criminal can get very rich, but they constantly have to watch their backs. This class compined with upper class original could also be made to represent a secret service agent.