*System Skeleton for Shine of the Duende/Perseidic Dreams

*Characters have 3 main stats and derivative stats from there.

STAMINA
FINESSE
MIND

Stamina breaks down into TOUGH and POWER
Finesse breaks down into SPEED and PRECISION
Mind breaks down into INTELLECT and SPIRIT.

Stats, derived stats, skills, and Ability ranks work on a scale of 1-15. Rule of thumb:
Skills can be higher then derived stats, but derived stats cannot be higher than base stats.

Two people may have Stamina 5, but one may have Tough 4 and Power 3 while another would have Tough 2 and Power 5. The former may have focus in "Tough: Armor Usage" while the latter could have "Tough: Bleed Resistance"

Someone with a higher amount of skill training in something can beat someone with higher base stats, if the difference isn't vast. Ability usage allows one to effectively boost any one of these by expending Lumin, Mana or life force as a resource. Other classes may unlock other resources derived from other stats.

1-2 Horrible
3-4 Poor
5-6 Fair
7-8 Good
9-10 Excellent
11-12 Masterful
13-14 Legendary
15: Pinnacle

*JOBS, TALENTS, AND JOB SHIFT

All characters begin with the "Tyro" job, representing lack of focus or talent.

Each level, some "Focus" points are received, allowing allocation into stat bonuses, abilities, or skills. However, each job has its own price for stat bonuses, and Tyro has a pretty steep one, requiring at least 2-3 levels worth of investment to raise a single stat. Derived stats are easier to raise, with skills being even easier. It's not uncommon to have a high skill in a mediocre stat and still beat out many who have a higher stat but little to no skill training.

In this system, once you have achieved 10 levels in a class, you may undergo a JOB SHIFT.

One of the more fundamental decisions is made once advancement out of Tyro is made. For the most part, any Tyro who reaches level 10 will be presented with five classes.

Three of the classes are known as the ADVENTURER classes of Scout - Mage - Fighter, while the other two are the LAND classes, being made up of crafters and gatherers.

However, this is not necessarily the case for every Tyro, or even every adventurer.

Due to the way the system works, it is possible by exposure to phenomena in the world, hitting certain achievement, or tutoring by an NPC/Character with special skills to 'unlock' a job on your tree that doesn't follow from your current class.

An example would be unlocking a "Cursed" class tree after being exposed to cursed magic or encountering a cursed creature, utilizing dark and negative energies offensively, or by extensively exploring an area filled with Moss and Fungus to gain access to talents and classes relating to those phenomena.

*Dungeons, Demihumans, Mana Beasts, and Lemegeton

Part of the change brought by the system is the proliferation of MANA in the world, allowing for wonders and terrors to propogate.

All mages, and many non-magical classes, can use spellcraft which uses the pure mana within individuals to activate arcane artifice or trigger prepared spells. This spellcraft utilizes Lumin, the raw non-aspected and unprocessed form of mana generated in living beings.

Combat techniques practiced by advanced Fighter classes utilize Lumin as well, transforming it instead into pure stat and skill bonuses as long as Lumin is expended.

Mana is aspected to HEAVEN, MYSTIC, DEATH, HAVOC, and WILD.

The Heaven aspect is associated with the concepts of devotion, strength, protection, and healing.

The Mystic aspect is associated with the concepts of trickery, wisdom, etherealness, and knowledge.

The Death aspect is associated with the concepts of darkness, disease, corruption, terror, and unholy sacrifice.

The Havoc aspect is associated with the concepts of passion, havoc, conquest, willpower, and destruction.

The Wild aspect is associated with the concepts of strength, determination, savagery, instinct, and community.

Many spells used by Mages of all different kinds require the transformation of STARLIGHT mana within the body into aspected mana, or to use aspected mana from leylines, materials, or environmental generation as a source of power.

Mage training and many spellcraft and combat talents revolve around learning how to more efficiently generate STARLIGHT, transform it into aspected mana, and ensure the balance of different kinds of mana for non-specialist mages.

Mana has a transformative property if not contained or channeled properly. Dungeons are areas that have been influenced and infused with mana, transforming them into caricatures colored by the concepts of their mana.
Objects within Dungeons are often equally suffused and can either become magical items outright or become easily made into magical items by artifice. Mana Beasts work off of a similar concept, being infused animals and plants that take on mystical properties due to mana corruption.

Oddest of all is that while humans are resistant to this process, they are not immune.
Humans exposed to uncontained aspected mana will transform into enhanced and morphed human-like creatures, still fundamentally human but changed physiogically and often reflective of the mana involved.
Wild mutations often manifest as becoming more like a beast, while mystic and havoc aspects would grant mutations resembling mystical sigils or demonic features. Mana Corruption can be purged manually by expending Lumins, but it can also be cultivated by transforming starlight into aspected mana then retaining it in the body.
Mages are most likely to become unintentionally mutated, but it's possible to be mutated by exposure to magic items or locations as any other job.

Lemegeton are creatures purely born of mana, either naturally from intense saturation or powerful dungeons, or via magic. Natural born Lemegeton are often great challenges in combat, but have a great amount of rigidity in their capabilities and weaknesses that are born from being purely made of their aspect.

"Demons", "Angels", and "Gods" that appear now in the world are Lemegeton, both shaped by the collective unconscious of magic-using individuals across the world as they are shaped by the nature of their aspect.

It's speculated that it is possible to endure enough mana corruption to pass beyond being a demihuman into the realm of being a lemegeton, but nobody has succeeded in surviving the process. Past a certain corruption point, it becomes difficult to retain your identity, and it is more common to be fully transformed into a burst of mana in attempting to cultivate to that point.