Cartographer

Know the World, Show The Way

Vital to the travel of merchants, the logistics and tactics of troops, the insight of adventurers, and decisions of Kings and Queens alike, Cartographers and surveyors provide insight into the world of itself.

Career

Qualifications

Cartography and surveying is a generally unregulated trade. One can claim the job without ever having formal schooling in the trade, and a number of maps have been sold by amateurs, flaws and all. With much of the work of mapmaking and surveying requiring active practice out in the field, it is therefore possible to either learn as one goes, or to receive training via apprenticeship.

Most Cartographers and surveyors gain their vocation this way, by learning the trade from a mentor.This provides those with limited means the opportunity an opportunity to develop a marketable trade, but also will mean the apprentice will commonly inherit the flaws or bad habits as well.
Formal schools of Cartography and Surveying do exist, usually in national academies of a state. Military academies for officer corps, will also frequently train junior officers in surveying and cartography, in order to understand the terrain and manage tactics, strategy, and logistics.

Career Progression

There is often little "progression" in the work of a cartogropher, beyond perhaps who your clientele is. Doing work for the crown is often considered more prestigious than working privately, but the latter can often be more lucrative, depending on what is being surveyed and mapped, and what the demand is.

Payment & Reimbursement

Independants tend to be paid based on the job completed. For those engaging in speculation, the valuation of the survey and the map will be largely dependant on the assessed value of that property. Those working for the government, or otherwise for a permanent employer, will often be salaried. While there is a benefit for consistent pay, it also means that there is no extra benefit for what work is completed.

Perception

Purpose

In short and simple terms, a cartographers job is to relay information via a visual medium. What that is, and how that looks, can vary wildly. In whatever form it takes, the point is fundamentally the same. For the information on the map or survey to be as accurate as possible, and for that information to be conveyed in such a way that it is clearly and easily understood by it's intended audience.
What that could be is also very dependant. One of the most common uses of cartographers is to create maps showing terrain and maps navigating to different settlements, and potentially across country. In areas of complicated ownership or dense private farm ownership, such tools of maps can be used to articulate correct property boundaries, and the sizes thereof.

Some maps can be more specialized. Charts are common in port towns and cities to indicate where the deep and shallow waters are, and any obstacles, so that ships may hopefully avoid running aground or coliding with rocks.

Social Status

Cartographers and surveyors are generally well respected in the community, and valued for their work, even if they rarely get the public acclaim they deserve for it. There's some bad actors in the field, such as any, but deliberate poor work is hard to prove. It is widely understood that truly precise work is impossible in most cases, and so these mapmakers and surveyors are doing the best that they can with what is available to them, both in the tools they possess, and their ability to transpose their data to a visual medium.

Demographics

There is nothing of the task of a cartographer that is eliminating to any of the mortal species, or that inherently suits one or the other. That said, cultures with a high value of the use of tools, as is the case with most of the children of Hjanda, Fourth of Six Sisters, Goddess of Dwarves, Tools, and Families, will find these roles more easily than others. With the tools involved, and the considerable weight that they often carry, as well as creating the maps, Cartographers and surveyors are not found in migratory societies. Those cultures, such as those in the Tribes of Krag'ash, know the land from personal experiencec and can use other skills to know where they are, and where they are going.

History

The first maps attempted were immediately after the Sundering during the Fey Crisis, when the world was violently torn apart into three continents. Nothing was what it was before, and relying on memory and tradition to understand one's place in the world would no longer work, at least in short term.

The early maps were crude and primitive, as the early mortals lacked an effective means to measure properly, and lacked the practice or tradecraft to accurately scale work onto paper or other medium. It was an early work by Cygians who tried to make an educated guess as to what the world looked like in the Lost Age, but copies of such ancient maps are rare, and not seen to be particularly trustworthy, or valuable.

Operations

Tools

A cartographer cannot do their job without the tools at their disposal.

The two most valuable tools are while out in the field, a compass and a cross staff. The former simply allows the user to locate north, which enables the cartographer to accurately display objects and locations on a map in an accurate way relative to one another and the world. A cross staff is a more complex tool, that allows the user to measure distances and angles. Looking at a given reference point through the staff, and alonging a crossbar, the user is able to traingulate positions and can accurately plot positions of locations on maps.

Cartographer Background Character Bonus

Choose Two Attribute Boosts: One must be to Constitution or to Intelligence, and one is a free attribute boost. You're Trained in the Survival Skill and a lore skill pertinent to the area that you've surveyed, such as forests or desert. You also gain the Forager Skill Feet for free.

Alternative Names

Surveyors

Demand

Low - medium, depending on location

A map's purpose is to be a functional document to convey information first. Being a work of art, if possible at all, is a distant concern.