Scholarly skills are the skills that pertain most to those who spend their lives thinking. It is nearly impossible to learn these skills without having Scholar, as reading and writing are usually necessary to advance in these skills.
Please note that as no player automatically knows how to read, a skill point must be spent on Scholar to be able to read and write one's own language. Advancement to Proficient Scholar is necessary in order to read and write a language you know other than your mother tongue.
For instance, Shylee the Goblin knows her own tongue and Human. She has Scholar at novice level and so she is able to read and write in Goblin. She will not be able to read and write in Human or in any other language she learns until she has advanced her Scholar to Proficient.
All characters automatically know their race's language, unless they have been 'raised by another race' in which case they do not know their own language, but the language of the race that raised them instead.
Each additional language must be selected using skill points and will require Proficient Scholar in order to be able to read and write them. There is no common language. Characters who travel outside their own kingdoms necessarily must learn that Kingdom's languages. However, since humans are the most populous and trading race, most trade cities have a couple of inns that speak a smattering of Human as well.
ASTROLOGY (Intelligence):
The character has learned to read the constellations for directions and possibly portents. It is said that Dargotten's path can be read in the stars and this leads many astrologers to believe they can predict events. Regardless of the truth of this or not, skilled astrologers can often pinpoint their location with a simple glance at the stars and can track the calendar with ease.
Novice: The character can tell the direction she is headed and knows, due to the constellations, whether she is north or south of the Ahrin Straights. Due to the positions of the moons, she knows what time of month it is.
Proficient: The character can pinpoint her location within a Kingdom. She can tell what day it is within which month.
Advanced: The character can pinpoint her location to within half a Kingdom's area. She can tell the time and the year by looking at the stars.
Expert: The character knows of rare astrological occurences, and can predict how close they are. She can estimate her location to within a few miles of a city or town.
CARTOGRAPHY and NAVIGATION (Intelligence):
The character is able to find his direction and location anywhere in the known world, by making maps or using navigational calculations.
Novice: The character can tell which way is north and can make a crude map. Plotting a navigational course will get her to the right coast.
Proficient: The character's maps are better; she knows the main roads and a good way to get to her destination. On sea, she can find her way to the right port.
Advanced: The character's knowledge of roads and maps means she can plot a land course that takes her to her destination as fast as someone who's travelled that road all his life. Her navigational measurements are precise enough to get her to the right city within two weeks of her time estimate.
Expert: The character's maps are sold to kings; she can direct entire flotillas. She arrives faster over land than any other, and knows secret routes and shortcuts. Her ship will arrive at the right place at the right time, even with a hurricane in the way.
ENGINEERING (Intelligence):
The character is knowledgeable of stresses, building materials, physics, and architecture. He may use his skill to build buildings, war machines, or ships.
Novice: The character's buildings are crude but serviceable. They need frequent repair. His devices are one-shot wonders, but if he's careful they won't hurt anyone they're not supposed to.
Proficient: The character's buildings are solid, if nothing special. They need reasonably regular repairs but are otherwise fine. His devices work a few times before the stresses involved cause them to permanently malfunction. He is able to build boats that do not sink.
Advanced: The character's buildings now use complex structures such as arches and buttresses and a mixture of materials. With care, the building could last generations. His ships do not leak and his devices work fairly reliably.
Expert: The character can build castles that withstand seiges, using metals and stone and structures most have never heard of. Only actively attempting to damage the building, or ignoring it for decades or centuries, will cause harm to the building. It is built to last. His devices are paragons of precision and his ships of a sleek, modern design that is highly sought after.
LINGUIST (Intelligence):
The character has learned one or more languages (in addition to the mother tongue). Unlike other skills, Language skills do not count against your limit of expert-level skills. Note that Proficient Scholar is required to learn to read and write any language that is not the character's own. In addition, starting characters may only spend skill points on the languages of the eight PC races; other languages can be learned later but are too obscure at first.
Novice: The character has learned a smattering of a language, enough to get directions, ask for food, and get proper change.
Proficient: The character has learned the language more thoroughly, enough to get by in many conversations provided the speakers do not talk too fast. He has learned some sayings and swear words but rarely gets jokes.
Advanced: The character has learned the language fluently; his accent is small, and he can comprehend almost all jokes, sayings, and swearing.
Expert: The character can talk as though he were born knowing the language. Only the most technical and specialized words are unknown to him, and he no longer has an accent unless the word relies on body language for body parts he does not have (such as whiskers or a tail).
GEOLOGY (Intelligence):
The character has learned about rocks, mining, gems, and metals. She can find valuable or rare minerals and sometimes can predict earthquakes or volcano eruptions.
Novice: The character knows the basics of strip mining and panning, and can find common metals such as copper and semi-precious stones such as aquamarines.
Proficient: The character has gained knowledge such that she can dig and support mine shafts, find rarer or more useful ores such as silver or iron, has learned to smelt her ores, and can find more precious stones such as topaz or amber.
Advanced: The character's knowledge has improved such that she has found several deep veins of semi-precious ore, and smaller veins of metal such as gold. She can find stones such as sapphires and rubies. She has begun to understand the processes of the earth that shapes metals and gems.
Expert: The character is now very rich if she wishes to be, with advanced mining techniques and having found veins of some of the rarest items, even dwarven mithril. Her knowledge of the processes of the earth now includes the stresses of volcanoes and earthquakes and she can sometimes predict eruptions or quakes.
SCHOLAR (Intelligence):
Scholar is one of the most important skills especially to this group of abilities. It is a general skill that encompasses many different fields including chemistry, mathematics, physics, history, linguistics, heraldry, and communication. It is assumed that a character taking Scholar is able to learn at least a little bit about all of these topics, though the character may specialize later if she so desires. NOTE: Black Powder has never existed in the world of Telgard. Its potential for existence remains unknown, and no character will be permitted to 'discover' black powder by any means. Ever.
Novice: The character can read and write in her mother tongue and begins to learn basic math, history, and heraldry.
Proficient: The character can now read and write in any secondary tongues she knows. Her math skills have progressed to multiplication, division and exponents. She has greater knowledge of history and heraldry, and has begun to learn some chemistry and basic physics.
Advanced: The character is now familiar with algebra, knows a great deal of history and other esoteric material, and has increased her knowledge of physics and chemistry.
Expert: The most complex equations are now playthings; the character knows a great deal about a great many things and can generally be consulted on many topics including religion, history, sociology, math, or science.
