Overview
Your Career defines who you were before Nowhere Land, and who you're becoming now. It provides mechanical bonuses through skills and a signature Boon, balanced by a Burden that grounds you in the world. As you progress, you can advance to more powerful careers that reflect your growth.
How Careers Work
Boons: Your Advantage
Your career grants a mechanical benefit:
- • Reroll benefit: Extra chances on key rolls
- • Bonus dice: +1 or +2 to specific actions
- • Resource: Once-per-session special power
- • Passive effect: Always-on capability (like sensing magic)
Burdens: Your Cost
Every career has a drawback that creates story:
- • Mechanical penalty: -1 or -2 to certain rolls
- • Narrative limitation: You can't own property, for example
- • Compulsion: You must act a certain way
- • Social stigma: NPCs react negatively to you
Career List
Below are the available careers. Click on any to see detailed actions, examples, and advancement paths.
Drifter
FormaWanderers who survive on the fringes of domains.
Signature Skills
✨ Hardened
Ignore the first Wound penalty in any scene. You've learned to push through pain.
⚠️ Rootless
You cannot own property or gain status in settled domains. Stability feels like a cage.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Ranger
Requirements:
- →Complete 3 solo survival missions
- →Survive a domain's awakening without aid
- →Master a specific wilderness (mountains, swamp, etc.)
Scholar
AnimaKeepers of lost knowledge and ancient texts.
Signature Skills
✨ Linguist
Can decipher any written text with a successful Anima test. +1 max Reverie.
⚠️ Sedentary
-2 dice on physical endurance tests (forced marches, holding breath). Books over boots.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Archivist
Requirements:
- →Unlock 5 significant lore secrets
- →Establish a library or knowledge cache
- →Become trusted by an ancient NPC
Sentinel
FormaProtectors, soldiers, and bodyguards.
Signature Skills
✨ Guardian
Once per round, you may take a hit intended for an adjacent ally.
⚠️ Duty Bound
Must test Anima to retreat from a fight or abandon a charge. Your oath has teeth.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Warlord
Requirements:
- →Protect an NPC or faction through 5 crises
- →Win a major battle or siege
- →Command troops of 10+ combatants
Artisan
FormaCreators who shape matter and meaning.
Signature Skills
✨ Masterwork
Items you craft have +1 Durability or +1 Quality. Your hands leave their mark.
⚠️ Perfectionist
Will not use shoddy tools (-1 die if forced to). You know quality work demands quality materials.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Artificer
Requirements:
- →Craft 10 significant items
- →Create something imbued with domain blessing
- →Establish a workshop or forge
Charlatan
UmbraMasters of deception and social engineering.
Signature Skills
✨ Silver Tongue
Reroll one failed social die per session. A smile costs nothing.
⚠️ Infamous
-2 dice on initial trust rolls with authorities. Your reputation precedes you.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Mastermind
Requirements:
- →Successfully run 3 major cons
- →Manipulate a faction's leadership
- →Maintain a false identity for 5+ sessions
Mystic
ReverieThose touched by the raw energy of the Flux.
Signature Skills
✨ Sight
Can sense magical auras automatically. The Flux whispers its secrets to you.
⚠️ Haunted
The Flux whispers to you. GM can impose a hallucination once per session.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Sorcerer
Requirements:
- →Gain 3 Potentials from Flux interaction
- →Survive a domain awakening
- →Complete a dangerous ritual successfully
Ranger
FormaExpert hunters and wilderness guides. A step beyond the Drifter.
Signature Skills
✨ Tracker Supreme
Can track creatures across any terrain, even through magical interference. Once per session, reroll a failed tracking check.
⚠️ Lone Wolf
-1 die on group coordination tests. You're used to working alone.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Beastmaster
Requirements:
- →Hunt 5 domain-specific creatures
- →Tame a wild creature permanently
- →Map out a previously unknown region
Archivist
AnimaCurators of history who preserve and organize knowledge. Scholar's evolution.
Signature Skills
✨ Living Library
You can recall any fact you've learned. +2 max Reverie. Establish a permanent archive location.
⚠️ Obsessive
Must spend at least 1 hour per day recording information. You cannot let knowledge slip away.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Sage
Requirements:
- →Maintain an archive with 50+ documented secrets
- →Have 3+ NPCs rely on your knowledge
- →Solve a major mystery through research
Warlord
FormaMilitary leader and strategist. Sentinel's highest form.
Signature Skills
✨ Command Presence
Allies within 10 hexes gain +1 to physical rolls. You are the heart of your army.
⚠️ Responsible
Take emotional damage (Fractures) when soldiers under your command are killed. Their deaths are your burden.
What You Can Do
Artificer
FormaMaster craftsperson who imbues creations with power. Artisan advanced.
Signature Skills
✨ Enchanted Works
Items you craft can hold minor enchantments or domain blessings. Create objects that tap into magical forces.
⚠️ Demanding Materials
-2 dice to craft without rare or magical materials. Mundane supplies feel limiting.
What You Can Do
Mastermind
UmbraArchitect of grand schemes. Charlatan who thinks bigger.
Signature Skills
✨ Grand Design
Once per arc, orchestrate a plan affecting multiple factions simultaneously. You see moves three steps ahead.
⚠️ Marked
Authorities actively hunt you. Your schemes have cost people dearly.
What You Can Do
Sorcerer
ReverieMaster of the Flux's raw power. Mystic's ultimate form.
Signature Skills
✨ Master of Magic
Reroll failed Occult or Willpower tests 3x per session. Gain additional Potential slots (+2 max Potentials).
⚠️ Flux-Touched
NPCs instinctively fear or mistrust you. Become increasingly alien as you grow in power.
What You Can Do
Doctor
AnimaHealer and medical expert. Savior of lives.
Signature Skills
✨ Hippocratic Oath
Can stabilize dying allies without a test once per session. Gain +2 to Medicine rolls when treating wounds.
⚠️ Oath-bound
Cannot refuse aid to the dying or injured, even enemies. Your oath constrains your freedom.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Sage
Requirements:
- →Heal 20+ individuals
- →Cure a unique domain-specific illness
- →Establish a clinic or hospital
Merchant
UmbraTrader and entrepreneur. The wheels of commerce turn by your hand.
Signature Skills
✨ Business Sense
Always know the fair market price for any item. Negotiate prices down by 20%. Gain contacts in every major settlement.
⚠️ Debt
You owe favors to creditors. You gain an additional Ledger debt point per character creation.
What You Can Do
🎯 Path to Advancement
Advance to: Magnate
Requirements:
- →Conduct 20+ successful trades
- →Establish a trading company
- →Become wealthy enough to own property
Career Advancement & Ladders
As your Traveler grows through play, you can advance to more powerful careers. These represent specialization and mastery. Each advancement requires specific achievements and opens new abilities.
Career Progression Examples
Drifter → Ranger
After 3 solo survival missions and mastering a specific wilderness, the Drifter becomes a Ranger—not just surviving, but thriving and hunting in hostile lands.
Scholar → Archivist
When a Scholar establishes a library, unlocks major lore secrets, and becomes trusted by ancient NPCs, they ascend to Archivist—a living repository of knowledge.
Sentinel → Warlord
The Sentinel who commands armies, wins major battles, and takes responsibility for their troops becomes a Warlord—a true military leader.
Mystic → Sorcerer
When a Mystic gains multiple Potentials, survives domain awakenings, and performs dangerous rituals, they become a Sorcerer—master of the Flux itself.
Creating Custom Careers
Work with your Trickster (GM) to define a career that matches your character concept:
Custom Career Template
1. Name & Concept
What's your career called? What did you do before Nowhere Land?
2. Governing Essence
Which Essence best fits? (Forma for physical, Anima for mental, Umbra for social, Reverie for magical)
3. Two Signature Skills
Choose skills that reinforce your concept. These start at rank 1.
4. Boon (One Mechanical Advantage)
A bonus that feels earned: reroll a specific test once per session, +1 to a skill in certain situations, unique ability, etc.
5. Burden (One Limitation)
A drawback that balances power: -1 to certain rolls, a narrative restriction, a compulsion, social penalty, etc.
6. Advancement Path (Optional)
If designing for long campaigns, define what this career can advance to and what's required.
Related Rules & Advancement
Skills
Full skill list and how skills interact with your career
Character Creation
Complete guide to building your Traveler with careers
Potentials
Supernatural abilities you can gain as you advance
The Count's Ledger
How debt and favors drive your advancement
Combat
How career abilities interact with tactical combat
Domains
How domain blessings enhance your career abilities