Summoner

A human can become a Summoner in only one way: to be found by and linked to a Warden of Dominicus Felinus. The greater question should be, what traits in a human need to be present so that a Warden would notice and link with them.   General theory is that said human is the reincarnated soul of someone who had protected or already had a deep connection with the Warden when the cat was still alive in the living world. This allows the Warden to identify the human faster since a link due to a shared past, is already present. But this doesn't account for Wardens who were isolated and did not have significant human contacts or protections during their lifetime. Nor does it help if Wardens were in contact with multiple humans.   The answer to those concerns, at least given by previous Exarchs, is that for Wardens who did not have significant human connections while alive, usually that there is a destined Summoner who is either a descendent from the first Summoners of the Order. Or it is a reincarnation of a Summoner soul that no longer has a linked Warden (if the Warden's soul has ceased existence), since Summoners' souls usually can reincarnate, while Wardens' souls cannot. For cats who had multiple human contacts, they usually have a choice, and simply choose whom they have the deepest connection with. Lastly, there are rare cases where new Summoners are born, and are usually only identifiable by their stronger spiritual powers, usually able to understand and identify Wardens immediately.

Summoners do not have a straight progression system and no formal system of titles/ranks exist. The closest is the ranking system of Wardens, by which the Summoner inherits the rank of their Warden. While usually higher level Wardens tend to have more powerful Summoners due to the need for power parity for support, this usually is no indication of the power level nor experience of the Summoner in question.   The training of the Summoner is usually left to the Warden involved, since the Summoner usually aids the Warden and many times their magic power is inherited from the Warden. Often times, the recommended path is to allow the Summoner to take brief, intermittant training from the Warden academies, especially for combat related magic. For Summoners strong in healing or ritual magic, often there is aid from the Keepers of the Order. Then the Summoner would gradually learn to adjust their magic to match and assist their Warden.   In the ages when there were more Summoners, there were also informal circles formed by the Summoners, mainly focused on the more esoteric magics that the Wardens did not practice, and for Summoners to help each other when it came to taking care of Wardens and to share intel for missions. However, as the use of Summoners has stopped for the past 300 years, such informal circles have ended. Perhaps the opening of the Serendipity Cafe, making the travel between Dominicus Felinus and the living world easier for Summoners and Wardens alike, such circles might rise again?

Summoners usually have their needs provided for when they enter Dominicus Felinus, housing, food and all other needs covered by the Warden they are linked to. Similar to Wardens and Keepers, Summoners are also well respected, and usually are greeted with warm hospitality wherever they travel in the kingdom. While the food may not be to human tastes or liking, food of various forms suitable for human consumption are also generally provided.

Summoners usually find their magic powers boosted by their link with Wardens, even if their innate capabilities beforehand were already high. In order to accompany their Wardens, Summoners usually have better health after linking compared to normal humans, with many staving off the physical effects of aging well into old age. Many Summoners are able to still maintain combat ready form well into their 60's and even later, serving as advisors to the kingdom of Dominicus Felinus and mentoring new Summoners.   Outside of combat and their general role, there is also the element of "luck." In documents written by Summoners of the past, many describe having a "good luck streak" starting the day they approach their Warden. Artists gaining more inspiration, merchants stumbling upon greater fortune- many Summoners attribute this to their Warden being their muse, their "maneki-neko" beckoning greater wealth and luck towards them. While it's difficult to pinpoint exactly the source of this "luck," some experiments indicate the source could be part of the protective energy that Wardens offer to guard their Summoners from danger.

Summoners have existed informally in early history of the kingdom, mainly functioning as shamans, priests, healers among the human world who served to uphold traditions that involved worshipping cat dieties (or Catus specifically). Their professions already gave them a greater bond to the spirit world, and many already were familiar with cat spirit guardians. However, the official link process between specific cat guardians and humans, the basis of the Warden-Summoner partnership, was only formally established during the First Great War around 100 Eighth Era.   After the Order of the Divine Nepeta was established around 149 Eighth Era, the status of Summoners was formalized under First Summoner Ori, the one partnered with First Seer Asir. Methods allowing for Summoners to support Wardens via allowing power to be siphoned, were experimented with, and the first methodology that formed the basis for the linking ritual between Summoner and Warden was created by Ori. Later systems that allowed Summoners to travel back and forth between the worlds was created roughly 20 years later by Summoner Meira.   Initially the training of Summoners were left to the various temples, shrines and circles the Summoners originated from, and combined with some training from the Warden academies, it was sufficient to train any new Summoners to the system. However, around the year 700 of the Eighth Era, the Summoners started forming their own indepedent circles for mentoring, mainly due to detection of humans tied to the Grimmfell infiltrating the previous shrines, temples and shamanistic circles previously used. The circles for Summoners grew in size and number up until the start of the Ninth Era, after the Second Great War.   Then after the Summoning Seal event in the 310s of the Ninth Era, Summoners could no longer be located and the Circles fell into disuse. While the Wardens have documentation of trainings for Summoners at the academies, the information only covers the basic magic types that are shared between Wardens and Summoners. For more specific and unique magic types that only Summoners can use, there is little information and few archived. Should the seal be broken and Summoners can be called upon again, it's likely that the entire training system will need to be rebuilt from the ground up.