Charter

Chartership. One of the most - if not the most - dangerous professions of the sky. Perfect for adventure-seekers, scientists and scholars with wanderlust, and even artists with a thirst for magical inspiration. I happen to fit most of those descriptions, so it's perfect for me. But it's definitely not a job for the faint of heart. 20% of all charters perish in the field. New recruits wanted, though, so feel free to sign up!   There's not much to say on the subject of charters. Most everyone knows that there's an Inner Realm - where there's the Cities and a few towns and forests on the outskirts - and an Outer Realm, where everything is a ton more dangerous and a bunch of animals are trying to kill you. Exciting, right? In the words of Samuel Wintersplit (the best charter of them all), onward!   The thing is, so much Skydweller history and culture has been lost. Almost none of it was preserved through the skyshattering. Everyone was too busy focusing on the war and the plague to think about things like the identity of their descendants. Not that I can blame them. If I had a 78% chance of dying each day, I wouldn't be giving too much thought into preserving the ancient logbook that's been sitting in my grandmother's attic for ages.   The point is, there are so many old cities and landmarks in the Outer Realm. In hopes of discovering more about both the sky around us and our past knowledge and culture, charters venture into the dangers of the Outer Realm daily in search of places and phenomena to study. It's pretty dangerous, so our training is rigorous. And it's not easy being so far away from home all the time - though to me, the cartography stations are home. A sort of home base. Plus, we get all these cool weapons and powders and dusts to help us in the field.   Chartership has actually been pretty useful, too. If not for the charters, we never would've had proper warning about the Draconic Invasion. We'd still be struggling to discover much about the science of magic and all the skills and tools we have available to us. We've even been able to recover a bunch of history - most of it in the form of stories and tales. I have no doubt that as us charters continue to search the unknown, we will be able to find the most breathtaking and worldchanging discoveries.