Warriors

No spell was ever bent to a Warrior’s will, and no potion ever carried one further than their own legs would go. There are no shortcuts on this road - only what a body and a blade can earn between them, and what your health, your gear, and the distance you’ve already climbed can bring to a fight. Eleven Circles stand between a fresh recruit and the finished article, and every one climbed makes the blow struck harder, the leap taken further, and the fall that follows safer.

More Hearts, Greater Ruin

Every Circle climbed adds to your max health, until by the top of the ladder you stand able to shrug off exactly twice the punishment that would have felled you on your very first day. Alongside this, every blow you land - sword, axe, bow, bare fist, even a weapon thrown across a room - carries a flat measure of harm above and beyond its ordinary due, a measure that only grows as you climb. Chat itself will confirm it, the instant the blow lands.

Twice Airborne, From the First Day

Unlike most of what a Warrior comes to know, this gift waits for no Circle at all - you may leap once, and then leap again while still in the air, from the very moment you take up the calling. Sprint into the leap and you will cover real ground, not merely height. No toll is asked for it, no waiting between one leap and the next; only a return to solid earth clears it for use again. It answers anywhere you are not already given the gift of true flight.

Ground Pound (Fourth Circle and Beyond)

Reach the Fourth Circle, and sneaking while airborne turns your next landing into a weapon in its own right. Slam down, and all who stand nearby take harm and are thrown back with it - the closer to where you land, the harder the blow they receive. The fall itself does you no injury, so use the gift freely once it answers to you.

A Fall No Longer Hurts As It Once Did

Every ordinary fall does a Warrior less harm than it would another, not merely those broken by Ground Pound. Modest at the outset, this grace grows with every Circle climbed, until by the top of the ladder you shrug off falls that would leave anyone else broken on the ground.

Knockback (Third Circle and Beyond)

Reach the Third Circle, and every blow you land - sword, fist, thrown steel, whatever comes to hand - carries a shove behind it, asking nothing extra of you to summon. Not a launch, only a firm and certain push, growing stronger still the higher you climb. It pairs well with Ground Pound: one a passive shove behind every swing, the other a burst you call down with purpose.

The Throwing Axe (Third Circle and Beyond)

Forge one from an iron axe and a pair of sticks, and you carry with you a true answer at range - right-click to send it at a target, dealing solid harm on landing, above and beyond your usual measure. No toll stands between one throw and the next, so it is less a tool for special occasions than simply another choice in any fight. Locked away until the Third Circle is reached.

The Throwing Knife (Fifth Circle and Beyond)

Lighter and quicker than the axe, forged from material worth an iron sword, and you come away with a pair struck at once. Each blow lands for less than the axe alone, but flies faster, and grants you two throws where the axe grants but one. Locked away until the Fifth Circle is reached.

Second Wind (Eleventh Circle)

The Eleventh Circle grants a second chance, though only once in the whole of a life. A blow that would otherwise have ended you instead leaves you standing at the barest sliver of health, a surge of regeneration already taking hold. It will not save you from everything, and once spent for that life, it does not return - but here, where death forgives nothing, that is as close to a reprieve as this world offers.

Neither Enchantment Nor Brewing

A Warrior touches neither craft - no enchantment table, no brewing stand. This is by design: everything a Warrior brings to a fight comes from Circle, from steel, from skill honestly earned, never from a magical edge bought or brewed. Armor, notably, knows no restriction at all - wear whatever your hands can claim.

Setting Out

A new Warrior’s life begins with a little coin, a sword (more often stone than iron, though fortune sometimes favors the latter), a single piece of leather armor, a modest chance at a shield besides, and something to eat. Everything beyond that, you will have to earn with your own hands.