Trial of Discipline: they must prove they can follow orders and a routine of exercise and study.
Trial of Power: they must prove themselves strong enough to survive the energies they will wield and the dragon’s demands.
Trial of Majesty: they must prove they have a sense of authority and the ability to lead.
Trial of Territory: they must prove they know and respect the dragon’s territory.
Trial of Accumulation: they must prove they know all of the previous trials again.
Mercators have magical haggling powers. The more they haggle over the value of something, the more magic they generate and can draw from. To do this, they must be aware of the magic (something they usually gain via a contract with a mentor mercator) and capture it with magical pen and paper into a contact.
The contract of initiation is the tool by which someone becomes a mercator. To do this, they must find a mercator who will make a deal with them. This deal must exchange a quality or characteristic of the mercator for the ability to make mercatorial contracts. This contract can run out of magic and must be restored with new contracts with other mercators, selling off qualities of the mercator or other qualities they have acquired. Usually, they engage in an act of mutual exchange in order to preserve themselves - strength for strength, for example.
Once a mercator is contracted and fulfills their contracts, they gain the power to engage in similar contracts. Mercators need a reader glass, a special writing utensil, and special paper for contracts. They also need special vials to hold unused qualities. A mercator travels the world, seeking people with qualities, characteristics, skills, powers, and other properties they might want to trade to others or use for themselves. They make a deal with those who agree to their terms and provide them with the qualities or skills, etc., that they seek in exchange.
The contractee will agree to terms, then sign the contract. The mercator will receive the quality as a metallic grey liquid, which will coalesce before them. They use their pen to guide it into a vial, which they then label and store, or drink for themselves. The person will be given a vial containing the essence of what they seek, which they must drink within the hour, or it will spoil now that it is out of the mercator's possession. The terms in the contract will specify when the exchange will happen - there is always a delay, usually until the next time the person sleeps and awakens. At that time, the stat change will take effect for them and, if the mercator has partaken of the vial, for them as well.
The rate of exchange between qualities varies. Base stats are worth more than common skills, but less than supernatural abilities, for example. The ranking of value is as follows, from lowest to highest:
The rarity of something also affects it. They can be common, uncommon, rare, extremely rare, or unique. If something is vital to a person's existence or survival, it is more valuable than something that isn't (an appendix is worth less than a heartbeat). So a vital, rare mundane memory may be worth more than a common, non-vital amount of a base stat.
A mercator cannot take the life of someone via contract if they are unwilling or have not signed a contract.
A mercator cannot sell what they don't have, so they have to preserve what they buy and not use it in order to have qualities they do not themselves possess to sell. For instance, a mercator who cannot dance cannot sell that skill unless they have acquired its essence elsewhere and kept it in a vial.
A mercator PC will start with five contracts.
PRO -1 ATH -1 STR / AWA +3 WIL +2 PRS +3 STH +1
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