Sailor

A sailor is an individual who works on a sailing ship. While the term properly apply to anyone so employed, landlubbers often use the term to refer topmen, deck hands, and other lower ranking seamen, not the officers and specialists who command them. In coastal cities like Tulwood, sailing is one of the major options for employment for the more adventurous people - few career paths offer as much opportunity to see the world, and the tales many sailors tell are, for many, too enticing to pass up, even when they seem too farfetched to believe.

An Unfortunate Reputation

One downside that those considering a sailor's life cannot ignore is the less-than-savoury reputation they tend to have. Spending long months - sometimes even years - at sea without experiencing the comforts civilization has to offer leads many to overindulge during their brief stays in port. Common seamen often abandon all sense of decorum, drinking and partying deep into the night, taking advantage of lax brawling laws (compared to the harsh discipline one would face at sea) to release pent up aggression or settle scores kept bottled up for too long, and enjoying other vices not available at sea. Officers and specialists generally show greater restraint, though they still tend to be seen as rather roguish by non-sailors of similar social standing.
One aspect of this that is held as near universal is the belief that any sailor, regardless of rank, cannot be trusted to give an honest account of their time at sea. People spending years at sea are all-but guaranteed to encounter rarities that most would consider impossible. Some of these, such as the early stories of mysterious floating islands have since been proven true, but the prejudice that stories of adventure will be exaggerated cannot be so easily dispelled.