Delver

Overview

Delvers are the rogues, adventurers and explorers who make their work their riches exploring for and delving into the lost ruins of Old Andash. While a great many people explore the lost ruins, those that call themselves delvers make it their life's work and their greatest challenge.

For some delvers it is the challenge, others are drawn by the promise of riches, even more see it as a chance to learn more of the past. But all delvers are united by a sense of competition, both against each other and against the dangers of the past. Delvers will often meet after successful expeditions, showing off unique treasures, sketching diagrams of traps and catacombs or simply gloating of their prowess.

Well respected in Andash for their essential role in reclaiming the past and for their dedication to ambition, delvers are nonetheless a rough-and-tumble type. The transferable nature of their skills to petty thievery drags down their greediest members, while their most honourable and skilled are lauded in the halls of power and learning for their dedication to expanding the knowledge of the past.

Need:

None

Delvers make use of a wide variety of skill sets and experiences to bring home their pay. Provided you’re cunning, durable and stubborn, you’ll fit in.

Recomended:

Mender

When things go wrong and someone gets crushed by a falling boulder, punctured by poison darts or passes out from heat exhaustion, delvers can often be relied upon to give medical aid, provided there isn’t something weird or shiny within their eyeline.

Shouldn't:

None

It's possible to bring every skill to the forefront on an expedition, Delvers will rarely turn someone away.

Costume Marker:

Delvers Belt

Originating from the habit of delvers to never be caught without spare sections of rope, a Delvers Belt is a section or good hauling rope wrapped around the waist for style but also use. More practical delvers will have a whole twenty meters of well-used cable wrapped time and time again around them, whereas a delver who has made it big and now lectures at the Andashi School of Gifts might have a fine single loop, dyed a bright colour and backed on a leather belt. All styles are valid and delvers are more likely to use their belt to show off their style and proficiency as a sort of resume rather than compare and critique each other's belts.

History:

Delvers trace the history of their profession back to the Acrobatists of old Andash, a group of performing thieves who would challenge themselves against everything from simple sleight of handwork through to complex obstacle courses of death. Now they resurrect these traditions to explore, learn and plunder the buried cities of the past.

The various nomad tribes of Andash would normally lower down their teenagers into buried structures when they came across them. This mixture of juvenile confidence and slight frames made them perfect delvers. Over time some of these teens wouldn’t grow out of the practice, making up for the larger stature of an adult with complex skills and equipment. These delvers would wander the desert in their own bands, looking for the next big expedition.

With the founding of the Concord some delvers have begun to cast their glances further afield. What might they find and learn in the lost towns of the Greenweald? The sewers of Lerona Mere? The Cairns of the Iron Valley? Or the abandoned manors of Bordevar?

Becoming a Delver:

Only the most curious or competitive Andashi seek to explore the ruins hidden amidst the sand. It is this spark to explore, this drive to find something new, that draws in those that would one day become a Delver. But even the most foolish of people know that to delve unprepared and with no understanding is to never see the sun again. And so, after a great many years and far too many losses in the early days of Andash, the more experienced Delver’s created customs that any fledgling must follow before they may proudly wear their Belt. These customs are still proudly followed today.

To become a Delver, one must first learn of their land. A Delver may one day be tasked to carry within their minds a great treasure, and what better way to practise such a thing than to be able to recall home to a great detail. Some fledgling Delvers spend many years truly memorising their homes and surrounds, broadening their knowledge to better serve them when they must call upon it. Once a fledgling believes they know their home better than anyone, they are expected to find or craft their Delver’s Belt in preparation for the next step.

Delver’s are a busy profession, and so there is no expectation that a fledgling must prove themselves to another before crafting their Belt. After all, the hard work and proof that they belong is yet to come, and a lack of knowing only hurts the fledgling themselves.

With Belt made, a fledgling is expected to find an experienced Delver and request to follow them on their next delve. To watch with keen eyes and a sharp mind is to learn, and brings far more reward than simply following instructions. It is tradition that the fledgling take no reward from the delve, but a kind Delver will share wealth or knowledge with the fledgling that followed them. Following an experienced Delver seems a simple task, but the true danger hides in the lack of taught experience. If a fledgling can survive a delve, even if not leading one, then they are at least ready for what may come in their future. Some fledgling Delvers spend many years following the more experienced and learn many things, while others feel confident after a single delve.

The final task, and one that truly creates a Delver in the eyes of Andash, requires some small amount of luck. While a fledgling is encouraged to take no reward from a delve, there are times when the fledgling will come across something the leading Delver did not. There are times when wealth is missed and collected instead by a keener eye and a swifter hand. A fledgling who has succeeded where an experienced Delver has not, can present themselves as a fledgling no longer. Success beneath the sands, with one's own hand or luck, is the sign of a Delver.

It is customary for the leading Delver to grant a gift to a fledgling that has succeeded where they have not, rather than to hold it against them in ill will. However, from that point on the competition must begin in earnest, as a new competitor makes themselves known. Great smiles and warmth follows the making of a new Delver, for their future lies in uncertainty.

Three Things Delvers Are:

Competetive

The competitive nature of delvers serves a variety of purposes. It keeps them pushing further and further into the past, which is beneficial for all. By boasting of their last expedition and the hurdle they overcame to other Delvers, they communicate experiences, improving all. Delvers are not ones for exaggeration for this method, the best way for a delver to impress another is to lay out a clear description of the challenges they overcame. A well-understood danger can make that danger all the more tangible and impressive.

Durable

No expedition ever goes to plan. Supplies will spoil, boulders will chase you down corridors and bandits will try to take your treasure. Delvers learn to take this in stride or they find a new profession. These disasters will always happen, so you dust yourself off, pick up your rope, and shrug, that's the way it is.

Weirdly Knowledgeable

The same thing that makes Delvers durable can make them quite weird. Delvers have experienced all sorts of weird things and are often full of odd information. How ropes do you need to haul a corpse up a fifteen-meter drop based on how old it is in months? What kind of scarabs can be roasted and what kind always tastes bad? What were the average grain production of Corvarrias between the years 225 and 300 BE? These are the sorts of weird knowledge burnt into Delvers brains.

One Thing Delvers Aren't:

Of One Mind

While they are all dedicated to their craft, every delver pursues it for a different reason. For some it's greed, for others it is knowledge. All are valid in the Delvers trade, as long as you watch where you step.