The Ink-stained Quills

If knowledge is power, the scholar is king...

There are many paths one can take over the course of their life in pursuit of what they hold dear. For select few scholars, being cloistered in a tower writing and transcribing various texts for the rest of their days is not among them. These scholars valued adventure and a way to apply their knowledge in more direct ways.

As they ventured out into the world, they learned. They follow the example of Bards , and discovered a power unique to them in the process. They discovered a method of projecting the conscious mind into a realm of pure, unbiased knowledge. This knowledge always seems to give them the upper hand in almost any situation. These scholars began in Cordais, spreading among the freeholds as they became famous for their near infinite intelligence. are The Ink-stained Quills

The Way of The Quill

The quills are scholars who have ventured out into the world. They've learned methods of combat and apply their wealth of knowledge when engaging any foe. They are valued allies who support their comrades by offering this knowledge. The quills are known for they're impenetrable minds. When venturing Into The Inkwell they can recall memories with perfect clarity as if they were reliving them.

The memories are impossible to alter end are always perfect accounts of what it is they see. The quills are unique among the many professions that exist in the world due to their ability to project themselves into a what they call The Inkwell, a realm of pure knowledge. They can tap into this other world and store their memories within its constantly shifting form, allowing them to easily collect more information.

When entering a state of Attunement they can shift through "the ink" and recall memories stored. This takes only a moment to achieve, and if it weren't for their eyes going completely black, one could easily confuse it for normal memory recall. The amount of time it takes to properly recall a memory depends on how organized the quills' memory vault is. Most dedicate enormous amounts of time to ensure each memory is easily retrieved. The quills have dedicated their lives to knowing everything they can. They often come off as know-it-alls, though they do try to maintain a polite attitude when dispensing information.

Freedom of knowledge

A quill can memorize anything, but there are always subject that lie beyond their knowledge. This is what The Inkwell is truly for and dictates how they decide what information needs to be stored. Every quill uses The Inkwell as a memory dump so that they don't overfill their mind with information, but this collective catalog of memory can do so much more for them.

The Inkwell is designed to offer information to other quills in the world who can tap into The Inkwell and pull information that they personally have never actually learned. They can experience the pain of an unknown disease in hopes of a diagnosis and finding a cure, without actually gaining the disease itself. They can learn how to kill a creature by analyzing the memory of someone else who managed to kill one themselves.

The Ink

The quills refer to the ink as a spiritual medium. it manifests in the physical plane from The Inkwell. Ink can manifest in many ways, but it's most common form is in a dense fluid. This fluid comes in many colors depending on how the quill has organized their vault. This manifestation of ink is useful for more than writing. The quills use it primarily to ensure they never run out of ink for the various texts that they produce, but it can be weaponized in the form of summoned elementals, and can be given qualities that make a dangerous substance to handle.

The ink also manifests in the eyes when one ventures Into The Inkwell. It seems to flow from the pupil until the entirety of the eye is black. No one is truly sure why this happens, or why it is always black. Oftentimes, a quill can hide this effect due to the speed with which they can recall information stored in The Inkwell, however, there are always floating wisps of ink in the eyes of a quill.

These strands ebb and weave out from the pupil to the edge of the eye, indicating a constant connection to The Inkwell itself. It is always recording the information the quill sees and stores it for review. Quills often find it difficult to sleep if they do not sort through that information and eliminate what is not needed, while storing what is.

Impulsive memory

Just because they have access to all this information, that doesn't mean they know everything. The amount of information we can store is finite, so quills go through enormous pains to eliminate information as well as to store new information over time. Knowledge is power, but it must be applicable to your current situation in order for this to ring true.

The quills only keep information that they deem necessary to remember. Everything else they forget. This is referred to as impulsive memory, and a quill must be careful to make the right choice of what to retain. Traveling into the collective memory of The Inkwell takes considerable time. Unlike recalling information, it is not instantaneous. You cannot take a memory from another Vault and put it in your own. Instead, you must take the memory into your mind and then experience an element of that memory yourself before it can be retained.

Memories in the memory vault are not in the mind and have to be ventured into to remember. There are likely countless pieces of information lost in a memory vault that the quill simply forgot they knew. To assist with this problem quills tend to have a mental database of general topics they have information on.

Playing a quill

Players who choose to become a quill are going to be support focused characters. They deal damage but the party truly relies on their ability to create what the quills referred to as an ink weave or a memory structure. Mechanically speaking, a memory structure is essentially a build for the character in question. Skills are nothing more than the ability to apply one's knowledge and experience. The quills can change that knowledge and experience on the Fly. Once per day a quill can spend 2 hours to rebuild their memory structure (character builds). They can sell elements of their character sheet and rebuild it using the experience. This allows them to cater their skills to the problem at hand. There is a margin of error and it's possible to fail in building that memory structure. This means A quill can reach into the memory vault or venture out into the Inkwell and gain new memories to ascribe to various attributes. The more resources spent on a change to the memory structure, the more vivid the memory and as such the more powerful the benefit. To keep this memory they must utilize the memory of some particular way where the benefits they gained is actively used. If this occurs they can store that memory in their memory fault for recall without spending power points.