Character Progression: Growth, Character Level and Rank

In SORC, a character advances along three separate tracks that move at different speeds, Growth, Character LVL, and Rank. This section is a summary of each; see the GM Codex, Ch. II, for the full tables, schedules, and procedures.

Growth

Companion Development Through Growth

Companions develop and mature alongside the Character through the Growth system. Every Companion exists in three development stages (Young, Adult, and Elder), representing different points in the Companion's maturity. As a Character ages through Growth milestones, they may choose to transition their bonded Companion to a more mature stage, or retire an aging Companion and bond with a younger version of that type.

Stage Transitions: A Companion's development stage is separate from the Character's Growth progression, but tied to it narratively. A Character may keep their Young Companion through their entire adventuring life, or upgrade to an Adult stage at any Growth milestone to reflect that Companion's maturation. At advanced Growth milestones (Growth 5 and beyond), Characters may bond with Elder stage Companions, who have enhanced stats and abilities reflecting decades of experience. Each stage carries different stat values, size categories, and visual appearance, but the same Companion identity across all three.

Stage Mechanics: When a Character transitions a Companion to a new stage, the Companion's stats update to the new stage's values immediately. Life totals, Primary and Secondary Ability values, and any Performance Tier bonuses adjust to the stage's specifications. The Mood system continues uninterrupted; a Companion transitioning to a new stage retains its current Mood and all bonding progress. Only the mechanical stats change; the relationship does not reset.

Lifespan and Retirement: Companion lifespans vary by rank and type. Young Companions have shorter potential lifespans, particularly Common and Uncommon ranks, which cannot be resurrected and may pass during a Character's earlier years. Adult Companions have moderate lifespans spanning decades. Elder Companions are often significantly longer-lived, and higher-rank Companions (Rare and above) can be extraordinarily long-lived, potentially outlasting the Character. A Character may retire an aging Companion at their safe keep with a caretaker, allowing them to live out their natural lifespan in comfort, while the Character bonds with a fresh Young Companion to continue their adventures.

Companion Succession: As Characters advance through Growth and near Retirement Age, they may establish succession plans for their Companions. A Companion bonded to a retiring Character can be inherited by that Character's descendants or passed to another party member, carrying with them the history and bonds developed over years of adventuring. Rare and higher-rank Companions may even survive multiple generations of Characters, becoming living legends passed down through families.

Retirement

Every character retires. Starting Age varies by race, roughly a quarter of a race's natural lifespan, or an effective 400 years for Immortal races (see each race's entry, pg. 2, and Time, above), but the adventuring window itself is the same 40 years for every character regardless of race. Retirement Age is simply Starting Age plus 40, and when a character reaches it, their story as a played character ends.

Complex Rule Set only.

A character retires at whatever Rank they've reached the moment they hit the Retirement Age, nothing is granted retroactively, and there is no rushing it. A character who has climbed all the way to Legend retires a Legend, and the world treats them like one: monuments raised, statues carved, and songs written of the Character they became, the journey they took to get there, and the retirement itself. A character who never reached Legend still retires, just without that same recognition. Legend is not handed out for showing up; it is earned exactly the way it always was, through Rank PTS, and most characters who retire will not have reached it.

Retirement removes the Character from active play for good, there is no unretiring. What happens to them afterward depends on their nature. Immortal characters carry on in the world as living legend NPCs, encounterable, though never again playable, in future campaigns. Mortal characters eventually pass on after retirement and live on only in the world's memory: the monuments, statues, and songs above, or simply the stories other Players' characters hear told of them. Either way, a retired character isn't erased. They become part of Essentia's history, and the Player's next character starts their own story from there.

Character Level

Character LVL (LVL) is where a build actually takes shape, it governs Remnant (REM) PTS spending on ATTR SCRs, Talents, Skills, and Traits (TST), and grants Ability (Nature/Spell) picks from a character's Class Tree(s), one pick at each LVL and a second at the midpoint toward the next LVL (see Slots and Prerequisites, Basic Rules pg. 3, and Character LVL Experience (XP) Progression, GM Codex Ch. II, for the exact midpoint XP math). Apex and Spirit are independent Vitality scores that grow through age and Growth progression, not through Character LVL. They need no separate spending on their own. A new character reaches LVL 1 almost immediately, and each Class Tree offers exactly 30 Slots worth of Abilities, ending at LVL 30 (see When the Class Tree Runs Out, below). Table talk will often shorten this to just "LVL," but it always means LVL unless Growth is specified. Note: Retirement is determined by Growth (aging), not Character LVL. See the GM Codex, Ch. II, for the full XP table.

Rank

Rank is measured by Rank PTS (RP) and reflects a hero's reputation and achievements, advancing through Pauper, Peasant, Commoner, Adventurer, Hero, Uber, Elite, and Legend. NPCs, Companions, and armaments carry matching ranks (Common through Divine), and characters cannot access content or equip items above their own Rank, higher-ranked threats and areas aren't secret, but they block off as obstacles (guards, sealed gates, terrain too dangerous to cross) rather than content a character can engage or loot, and they can still turn dangerous if they challenge the Character first. Advancing to each Rank tier requires two Prerequisites, met independently of RP and of each other: a minimum LVL, and a minimum age (measured by the character's current age since their Beginning Age was chosen at creation). The Character's own chosen Beginning Age (see Age, above) plus a fixed number of years for that tier sets the threshold. Because Beginning Age is itself a 5-year range chosen at creation, every rank's actual age requirement is a range too, not a single number, see the Human and Yawnie examples below. Neither Prerequisite shares any progression with Growth's own Vitality/Ability track or with LVL's build-out, they are just gates a character's numbers have to clear. A GM may simulate a character's LVL and age to start a campaign partway in, but Rank must always be earned, it can never be simulated. Retirement Age doesn't move for a simulated character either, so advancing a character's age forward spends real time out of that character's 40-year adventuring window rather than buying any. See the GM Codex, Ch. II, for the full RP tables, Rank Prerequisites, worked examples, and the full Character Simulation procedure.

Archetypes

There are three, and none of them touch a Character's Traits or Stats. What each one changes is what a character does between adventures, what they carry, and what the world offers them when they pass through it.

• Hobbyist, keeps a pastime and returns to it whenever there is an hour free.
• Hermit, keeps to their own company, apart from settlement and crowd.
• Wanderer, keeps moving, and settles nowhere long enough to be from there.

Hobbyist

Hobbies define a character outside of their Class, Reputation, Profession, and other systems. A hobbyist is never paid for their hobby, full stop, they pursue it purely for self-gratification, relaxation, and the chance to work in their own personal style, not for coin or commission. A character can still hold the same subject as an actual paid Profession, a Blacksmith who also hammers out trinkets on the side for no one but themselves is both at once, but the hobby side of that never earns a wage; the moment coin changes hands, it's the Profession doing the work, not the hobby. A hobby can come from a character's own background or culture, or be picked up from someone else's entirely, and it can come up during downtime while the Player isn't the one at the table, or get woven directly into play itself. Like an archetype, a hobby says something about who a character is, and many carry a small, thematically appropriate benefit tied to what the hobby actually trains, though never as significant as a Talent, Skill, or dedicated Profession.

For example, a Card Player used to running a bluff at the table may find that same instinct sharpens their Deceit outside of it too. A Collector who has spent years cataloguing curiosities may be quicker to Appraise an item's true worth. A GM is free to grant a small, situational bonus like this when a character's hobby genuinely applies, it's a narrative hook first and a mechanical nudge second.

Many hobbyists travel with a memento or two related to their hobby, even mid-adventure. A pipe collector rarely goes anywhere without at least one pipe in their pack, a card Player without a deck, and so on, small, personal items that take up little room but say a lot about who's carrying them.

A hobby's advantage isn't always a quiet one. A Pipe Smoker can blow a lungful of smoke into a rival's face to catch them off guard, outside of combat, of course, no different in spirit than the Deceit a Card Player leans on when bluffing. A Knitter who spins their own clothes from raw materials may turn out something genuinely fine, but the rules forbid selling it, the moment a hobby-made piece is sold for coin, it stops being a hobby and starts being a Profession, and that's not what the hobby was for.

Hobbies vs. Professions

Hobbies and Professions may share a subject, a Blacksmith and a Hobby Blacksmith hammer the same anvil, but the rules treat them very differently. The distinctions below are absolute:

• Combat: Neither Hobbies nor Professions can ever be used during combat. No exceptions.
• Actions: Both require actions to perform, but Hobby work begins at double the action time of the equivalent Profession work. A hobbyist takes their time, that's the point.
• Expertise: Profession action time can be decreased with Expertise. Hobby action time can never be decreased, no amount of practice turns a pastime into a trade.
• Crafted Value: Items crafted as a Hobby lose half of the product's default value.
• Discovery: Characters who work at their craft as a Hobby gain Discovery bonuses, the hobbyist's wandering, unhurried eye catches what a working professional walks right past.

Hobby Growth

Fisherman

Collecting

A Collector gathers a particular category of object obsessively, cataloguing and comparing pieces for the sheer love of the set. Years spent at it sharpens their eye for a thing's true worth when Appraising. A real collection needs somewhere to live, a home, a wagon, a vault, or a hiding place the collector marks themselves (a Wayfarer's Mark Spot Ability works well for this), beyond what a character can carry on their person within their encumbrance limit. The category is the Character, a few examples:

• Stein Collector
• Tobacco Pipe Collector
• Watch Collector
• Trophy Collector
• Coin Collector
• Curio Collector
• Bottle Collector
• Map Collector
• Key Collector
• Gemstone Collector
• Feather Collector
• Seashell Collector
• Arrowhead Collector
• Medal Collector
• Mask Collector
• Doll Collector
• Miniature Collector
• Stamp Collector
• Book Collector
• Button Collector
• Weapon Replica Collector

Crafting and Making

• Carver - whittles wood into small trinkets, toys, or figures, purely for the craft of it, no coin involved.
• Knitter
• Whittler
• Basket Weaver
• Quilter
• Origami Folder
• Model Builder
• Candle Maker
• Soap Maker
• Rope Worker
• Embroiderer
• Calligrapher
• Hobby Potter
• Hobby Leatherworker
• Hobby Glassblower
• Gadgeteer
• Weaver
• Bookbinder
• Hobby Jeweler
• Toy Maker

Games and Wagering

• Card Player - always carries a deck, always up for a hand, win or lose.
• Gambler - can't resist a wager, cards, dice, or a bet on which raindrop reaches the sill first.
• Dice Player
• Riddler - collects riddles and puzzles the way others collect coins, and can't resist posing one mid-conversation.
• Board Gamer
• Arm Wrestler
• Knife Thrower
• Darts Player
• Sporting Wrestler

Outdoor and Nature

• Stone Skipper - can't pass still water without testing it, an old habit of finding the flattest stone and counting the skips.
• Stargazer - can name constellations most people have never noticed, and always knows which way is north.
• Birdwatcher - can identify a bird from a call alone, and has strong, mostly unwelcome opinions about which are the best.
• Gardener
• Hobby Beekeeper
• Hobby Forager
• Mountain Climber
• Cave Explorer
• Tide-Pooler
• Tree Climber
• Camper

Social and Storytelling

• Storyteller - never tells a tale the same way twice, and never lets the truth get in the way of a good one.
• Tavern Regular - knows every barkeep's name in a five-town radius, and every barkeep knows theirs.
• Singer
• Dancer
• Joke Teller
• Poet
• Toastmaster
• Matchmaker

Intellectual and Lore

• Book Worm - reads everything they can get their hands on, whether or not it's useful.
• Cartographer - sketches every place they've been into a personal map, useless to anyone but them, priceless all the same.
• Curio Hunter - hunts oddities, cursed trinkets, strange mechanisms, anything nobody can explain, for the thrill of finding it, not the profit of selling it.
• Amateur Historian
• Hobby Linguist
• Genealogist
• Cipher Enthusiast
• Debater

Habits and Small Vices

• Pipe Smoker - rarely without a pipe, real or unlit, the ritual matters as much as the smoke.
• Snuff Taker
• Tattoo Collector
• Tea Ceremony Keeper

Physical and Competitive

• Racer - can't resist a footrace, a wagon race, a dare to reach the tree line first.
• Juggler
• Tumbler
• Recreational Swimmer
• Sporting Archer
• Stone Lifter
• Tug-of-War Enthusiast

Animals

• Pet Keeper
• Hobby Falconer
• Insect Collector
• Hobby Horse Groomer

Odds and Ends

• Pack Rat - can't walk past something interesting without pocketing it, junk to anyone else, treasure to them.
• Doodler - sketches whatever's in front of them, a face, a building, a battle plan, mostly on scraps no one else will see.
• Graffiti Artist
• Ghost Story Collector
• Superstition Keeper
• Weather Predictor

For a full version of Hobbies and how they work, refer to The Wanderer's Almanac.

Hermit

A Hermit keeps their own company. Between adventures they return to somewhere quiet and out of the way, a hut on a ridge, a cell cut into rock, a boat moored well off the harbour, and they are content there in a way most characters are not. Solitude is the point of it, not a punishment or a penance, and a Hermit who is forced into a crowded season is the one who suffers for it.

What a Hermit gains from the years is what nobody watching would have taught them. Left alone with a problem long enough, they arrive at their own answer for it, and it is rarely the answer a guild would give. What a Hermit gives up is everything a settlement provides freely, current news, a market's going rate, a name people recognise at the gate.

Exactly how Growth applies to a Hermit, what improves, at what pace, and what it looks like at the table, is still under development and will be detailed in a future update.

Wanderer

A Wanderer never settles. Between adventures they are already moving, and the year passes on a road, a deck, a caravan track or a stretch of open country rather than in any one place. A Wanderer has been almost everywhere once and nowhere twice, and holds no home to return to, which is a freedom and a cost in equal measure.

What a Wanderer gains from the years is breadth. Roads, borders, seasons, prices, customs and rumours accumulate in a way they cannot for anyone who stays put. What a Wanderer gives up is depth and standing, no guild counts them a member, no town counts them a local, and nothing they own is stored anywhere but on their back.

Exactly how Growth applies to a Wanderer, what improves, at what pace, and what it looks like at the table, is still under development and will be detailed in a future update.

Leveling and Advancement

Trait Aura System

How Growth Accrues

Growth is not earned, it accrues, automatically, from years lived. There's no Experience (XP) threshold to cross and nothing for the GM to announce or negotiate: a Character gains 1 year for every Eon of Adoria of in-fiction time they live through while being played (whether that time is spent in combat, downtime, travel, or rest), and Growth itself lands on the escalating schedule established under Growth, above, one more year required each time (see Growth and Age, above).

A Character's Next Growth

There's no hidden threshold and nothing to reveal, years tick forward on their own as in-fiction time passes, at the exact same rate for every character, and Growth lands whenever the current escalating wait is met. See Growth and Age, above, for the formula.

The Road Between Levels

The road between LVLs is never empty. While a character's Growth climbs slowly, everything else moves every session: LVL advancement, Rank PTS and Rank, armaments and gear, professions, Companions, Titles, and Prestige all advance through regular play. Growth is the slowest wheel of many turning.

Growth, Character Level, and Rank: Three Separate Systems

Why three progressions? SORC separates what naturally changes with age, what you choose to do with Experience (XP), and what the world lets you access. This creates three independent advancement tracks, each governing different aspects of a character's growth.

Growth is what naturally happens to your body as you age, constrained by your Health. Growth measures years lived and automatically increases Vitality (Life, Mana, Stamina, Endurance), people get stronger as they age. Growth also advances your Aura and Innate Aptitude (one pick every year, regardless of Growth tier). This creates an important design boundary: Growth doesn't govern your Vitality choices (different people build differently), but it does increase your Vitality totals because aging makes people physically stronger. A 40-year retirement cap means characters don't wither in old age; they reach peak strength in their prime and then retire while still vital. Wellness directly affects Growth's benefit, high Wellness accelerates Vitality growth from aging, low Wellness slows or prevents it, because unhealthy characters don't gain the benefits of their years.

Character LVL is where you make choices via XP. Every XP you earn advances only Character LVL, and Character LVL governs only your player agency: Remnant (REM) PTS spending (which you consciously choose to allocate), Ability picks from your Class Tree (which you consciously choose to learn), and Trait/Skill/Talent customization (which you consciously choose as your build). Reaching a LVL that grants an Ability pick only makes that pick available; it isn't learned automatically, you must find the matching Class Trainer and pay the fee before it's actually yours (see Class Trainer Requirements & Fees, Appendix, and Playable Classes, pg. 3). This is why Character LVL exists as a separate system: it's about player agency and decision-making, not automatic progression.

Rank is what the world lets you access, based on achievement and story. Rank PTS (RP) advance only Rank, and Rank governs only access: equipment above your Rank is off-limits, NPCs treat you differently based on Rank, story gates and content are locked by Rank threshold, and dangerous areas aren't secret but are blocked by obstacles (guards, sealed gates, terrain) that match Rank. Leveling up never raises Rank, and no amount of XP counts toward RP; Rank must be earned through achievements, exceptional actions, and exploration. Rank is gated by two separate prerequisites, a minimum LVL and a minimum age, but meeting those gates does nothing; you still must have earned the required RP. This keeps story progression separate from mechanical progression.

All three together: A character might be Character LVL 30 (very experienced, fully built) but only Rank Hero (not yet a legend), and Growth 6 (only middle-aged). Each number tells a different story about who your character is. Growth represents your physical journey and age, Character LVL represents your skill and the choices you've made, and Rank represents your place in the world and what you've achieved. Confusing them leads to confusion about what governs what. See Rank LVL Prerequisites above and the GM Codex, Ch. II, for the full prerequisite tables.

Note: Characters devoted to a Higher Power may experience Fallen or Risen mechanics if they neglect devotion or betray their patron's values. This process begins at the Path level and escalates over time if unaddressed, potentially leading to a complete Path change at Growth 20 or beyond. See Fallen and Risen (Appendix) and Fallen and Risen Classes (Page 3) for full mechanics and tracking details.

Time-Skip Option

If a campaign prefers a faster climb, the GM may narrate larger stretches of in-fiction time between sessions, months or years passing in a single scene instead of tracking every day, to speed up how quickly characters reach each Growth. This has no effect on Rank PTS, which are still earned only through achievements, exceptional actions, and exploration.

When the Class Tree Runs Out

A class's Ability tree is finite. Once a character has chosen everything their Class Tree offers, LVL stops granting new class Abilities, ATTR SCRs and TST keep advancing normally through Remnant (REM) PTS spending, and Apex and Spirit keep advancing through age and Growth progression, regardless. This has no effect on Innate Aptitude, which continues advancing one pick every year of age lived for as long as the Character is played, tied to Growth progression. Exact thresholds are in the GM Codex.

Starting Equipment

Starting equipment is dictated by several factors together, not any single one: Race, Background, Alignment, Class, Rank, Trait/ATTR Prerequisites, and rarity based on where the campaign is set. A race can choose any of its own cultural equipment or Armaments, provided the Character meets the item's Prerequisites. Rank caps every starting character at Common-rank Armaments, with no exceptions. No Armament is ever off-limits to carry or wear. Class and Alignment decide which Abilities a character may perform with what they hold, never what they may hold. Some Armaments are tied to a Path at the source, through the Higher Power that Path is bound to: blessed Armaments belong to Paths bound to a Lawful Higher Power, profane Armaments to Paths bound to an Evil one. A Class holds no alignment of its own. A Tyrant may carry an Avenger's blessed blunt weapon and an Avenger may carry a Tyrant's rage-fueled twin blades. Neither can perform the other's Path or Branch Abilities while holding it, and either may still use that Armament for any Path or Branch of their own whose requirements it meets. Items are the exception to all of this. A holy symbol, a cursed symbol, a reagent and their like may require a particular alignment to use at all, and that requirement comes from the Higher Power, the religion or the class the Item serves. Gear never carries such a requirement. See the Starter Set Store, below, for what's actually available to buy.

Basic Attacks and Available Equipment

Characters have basic weapon attacks available from character creation, before any Class Tier Abilities are selected. These basic attacks use the same hit and damage mechanics as any other attack (see Combat, pg. 5), targeting an opponent's Protection Score (PROTS) with d100 + applicable modifiers. No special Ability is required to make a basic weapon attack; any weapon a character can carry and is proficient with (determined by their Class choice and Traits) can be used for basic attacks.

The specific weapons and armor a character can carry and use at creation is determined by combining several factors: race size (which establishes base carry capacity), Strength Trait score (which adds to carry capacity), Class choice (which determines weapon proficiencies), and starting Gold (which determines what they can afford). A character's total carry capacity at creation - determined by their race size plus Strength - directly limits what equipment they can physically carry and have available to use. For example, a Standard-sized Human with Strength +2 has a carry capacity of 130 lbs (100 base + 15 per Strength point). Any Common-rank weapon or armor within this 130 lb limit can be selected and carried. Equipment that would exceed this carry capacity cannot be taken, even if the character has enough Gold to afford it. See Encumbrance, pg. 5, for carry capacity calculations and Item Rank Requirements.

Starting Gold

Every character begins with 100 Gold to spend on all starting equipment: armor, weapons, accessories, Adventuring Gear, and Talent Tree/Profession kits. Characters choose their starting armor and weapon from available options, but all armaments carry a price and are purchased from this 100 Gold budget. Some races begin with more or less, reflecting their culture's relationship with wealth, Glimmerstone Dwarves, treasure hunters by nature, begin with 150 Gold instead. Any modifier to a race's starting Gold is noted on that race's entry.

Free Starting Attire and Rations

Every character receives their starting clothing and basic attire (non-stat wear) free at character creation. This includes everyday wear, underclothing, and simple garments appropriate to their culture and background. Additionally, every character receives one week's worth of rations (7 days) at no cost. This is the only item not purchased from Starting Gold, all other equipment has a cost.

Background and Cultural Equipment

A character's race grants default access to their own cultural equipment and their homeworld's item table (see Planetary Markets, pg. 4). Background can grant access to a different culture's equipment on top of that, but only for characters created on Zailister. Zailister is the only world diverse enough to raise a character outside their own race's native culture, so only a Zailister-born (or Zailister-raised) character can, for instance, be a Human raised with Orcus cultural upbringing and start with Orcus cultural gear. Off Zailister, background stays tied to the Character's native culture, there is no cross-cultural mixing to draw from.

Rarity

What's actually available to buy depends on more than eligibility. Rarity is dictated first by planet, an item common on one world is rare, expensive, or simply absent on another (see Planetary Markets, pg. 4), and second by geography within a single world. A campaign set in one hemisphere of Zailister is less likely to stock goods native to the opposite hemisphere, the same way a Nordian recipe is rarer outside Glaciera even on Zailister itself. A character eligible for an item by race, background, alignment, and class may still need to travel, order it specially, or pay an import price to actually obtain it, at the GM's discretion.

Makeshift and Professional Tools

Talent Tree Kits/Backpacks and Profession tool kits can be acquired two ways: bought ready-made from a vendor, or crafted by a Character with the matching Profession. Either way, once a character carries the genuine kit, they gain its bonus, a makeshift substitute, improvised in the field without the real thing, lets a character attempt the task but grants no bonus.

Crafted kits follow the same proficiency LVL structure as Talents and Skills (see Proficiency Levels, above), a kit's recipe carries its own proficiency LVL Prerequisite, and a character can only craft a kit at or below their current proficiency LVL in that Profession. The kit's bonus is determined by the outcome of the Crafting Resolution check (see Crafting Resolution, above), not simply by owning it, a higher proficiency LVL recipe naturally allows for a better outcome. A Grandmaster recipe lets a character craft a Grandmaster-LVL kit and the tools inside it, carrying the best bonuses available through crafting.