Zizeeria
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Callings

Two sides, six Callings each

A character is born to one side and chooses one of its six Callings. Both sides are playable today, from level one. Every Calling is designed to touch the simulation: a role that cannot change the world is a role this game does not need.

The Weavers' six

  • A broad figure in hide and green-patinated bronze, shield held low, one hand open in a gesture of calming.Concept art

    Warden

    TankStamina

    Holds the line, and the line is not always a fight. A Warden can calm and redirect beasts instead of killing them.

    Hold on the ecosystem

    Partly in

    Redirecting a herd changes where it grazes, which changes the region.

    Today: Calm Beast sends a calmed creature off into the neighbouring region, and the simulation counts it there. Moving a whole herd is the design.

  • A lean hooded figure crouched with fingertips on the ground, bow slung across the back, reading something in the earth.Concept art

    Pathfinder

    Ranged damageFocus

    Reads the land at a distance and strikes from it.

    Hold on the ecosystem

    Planned

    Sees migration patterns and tracks that nobody else can read.

    Today: No ability reads migrations or tracks yet.

  • A figure in pale cloth standing knee-deep in still water, hands open above the surface as green light rises toward them.Concept art

    Reedsinger

    HealerWeave

    Mends by singing the Weave back together.

    Hold on the ecosystem

    Planned

    Healing scales with the health of the surrounding biome. A dying region makes for a weaker healer.

    Today: Healing does not yet change with the health of the region.

  • A figure in scorched robes with hands wreathed in low orange fire, the grass at the frame's edge curling away from them.Concept art

    Ashbearer

    Magic damageWeave

    The strongest damage in the game, and the most expensive.

    Hold on the ecosystem

    Partly in

    Burns the ecosystem where it fights. Guilds have to negotiate where an Ashbearer is allowed to operate — that is designed friction, not a bug.

    Today: A kill made with an Ashbearer's ability adds pressure to the region's populations, by a value in the balance configuration. What guilds make of that is up to them.

  • A figure with violet cord wound around both forearms, one hand extended, a large calm beast standing behind traced in the same violet.Concept art

    Binder

    ControlWeave

    Binds creatures temporarily into service.

    Hold on the ecosystem

    Planned

    A bound creature is removed from its population for the duration.

    Today: Bind holds a creature for a few seconds; taking it out of its population is not built.

  • A figure in travelling clothes holding an open bound volume against the forearm, pages faintly lit, ink-stained fingers mid-gesture.Concept art

    Chronicler

    SupportFocus

    Writes events into the Chronicle, and is strengthened by deeds already written there.

    Hold on the ecosystem

    Planned

    Records what the world became, which is how a server gets a history.

    Today: Players do not write to the Chronicle yet.

The other side: the Tearers

Two sides. The six above are the Weavers'. These six are the Tearers': the same six roles, chosen and played the same way, by those who came apart when the Weave tore.

  • A hulking horned beast, low and broad, frayed cord and rusted bronze grown into its shoulders and a drover's goad grown from one forelimb, a herd blurring away behind it.Concept art

    Goader

    TankStaminaMirrors the Warden

    A hulking horned stampede-beast with a drover's goad grown out of its own forelimb. Where a Warden calms a herd, a Goader drives it, and takes its blows from behind the panic.

    What it does to the ecosystem

    Partly in

    A stampede changes where a herd grazes and where it dies, which changes the region.

    Today: Stampede drives a creature off into the neighbouring region, and the simulation counts it there. Moving a whole herd is the design.

  • A lean long-limbed hooded creature crouched over the soil, planting a bent-reed marker with one hand while a cord of false markers hangs from the other; a hollow where the face should be.Concept art

    Misleader

    Ranged damageFocusMirrors the Pathfinder

    A lean, long-limbed hooded thing with a lure of false trail-markers on a cord and a hollow where a face should be. It writes lies into the ground the Pathfinder reads.

    What it does to the ecosystem

    Planned

    A migration led astray is a population that starves in the wrong place.

    Today: No ability leads a migration astray yet.

  • A stooped reed-thin creature knee-deep in black water among dead reeds, throat open in a soundless song, dark rot rising from the surface toward its open hands.Concept art

    Rotsinger

    HealerWeaveMirrors the Reedsinger

    A stooped, reed-thin creature standing in black water among dead reeds, throat open in a soundless song. What the Reedsinger draws up as light, it draws up as rot.

    What it does to the ecosystem

    Planned

    Sustains itself by draining local biome health; strongest where the marsh is dying.

    Today: Healing does not yet change with the decay of the region.

  • A gaunt scorched creature scattering cold grey cinders from an open hand over ground burnt flat to the horizon, with no flame anywhere.Concept art

    Ashsower

    Magic damageWeaveMirrors the Ashbearer

    A gaunt, scorched creature scattering cold cinders from an open hand, standing on ground already burnt to the horizon. As strong as the Ashbearer, and paying none of its cost.

    What it does to the ecosystem

    Partly in

    Burns the region it fights in for nothing; the friction the Ashbearer carries, inverted.

    Today: A kill made with an Ashsower's ability adds the same pressure to the region's populations as an Ashbearer's.

  • A creature with hooked blades grown from both forearms and severed leashes hanging from them, a large beast bolting away behind it with its outline breaking up.Concept art

    Unbinder

    ControlWeaveMirrors the Binder

    A cord-cutter with hooked blades grown from both forearms and severed leashes hanging from them. A creature it frees is not returned to the wild; it is loosed on whatever is nearest.

    What it does to the ecosystem

    Planned

    A bound creature released feral rejoins no population; it is a predator with no place.

    Today: Loosing a bound creature feral is not built.

  • A hunched creature made of torn pages and running black ink, eating a bound volume, loose pages scattered at its feet.Concept art

    Unwriter

    SupportFocusMirrors the Chronicler

    A hunched thing of torn pages and running black ink, eating a bound volume. It reads the Chronicle the way a Chronicler does, and tears out the page.

    What it does to the ecosystem

    Planned

    Removes events from the Chronicle, which is how a server loses its history.

    Today: Nothing removes an entry from the Chronicle.

The Ashbearer is designed friction

Partly in

It is designed as the strongest solo damage in the game, and to burn the ecosystem of whatever region it fights in. That is not an oversight waiting for a balance pass. A guild that wants an Ashbearer will have to decide where one is allowed to operate, and then hold that decision against the members who would rather clear faster. No script produces that conversation; a cost that lands on somebody else does.

Today: A kill made with an Ashbearer's ability adds pressure to the region's populations, by a value in the balance configuration. What guilds make of that is up to them.

The Weave: change your Calling, keep your character

Reweaving is meant to be a choice you make, not a second character you level.

Planned

Progression in Zizeeria is designed to be horizontal. The level ceiling is meant to arrive after forty to sixty hours, and everything after it to grow sideways: new specialisations, new biomes, new crafting branches, rather than a patch that adds ten levels and quietly retires your equipment.

Because progression is horizontal, switching Callings is to cost nothing that was hard to earn: you keep every level, every recipe and every reputation, and what changes is the weave you have active. Nothing in the game offers a change of Calling yet; today a character keeps the Calling it was created with.