Every player possesses a class, or "guild" that represents his or her area of expertise and training. This class will determine what skills and abilities the player can use, each class being unique in its combination of skills and or spells.
A guild is a brotherhood, union, or association of people with similar interests for mutual support and assistance. Each class has a guild hall in Midgaard to which they can go for relative safety, as each guild is heavily guarded against entry by all but members of the same guild.
In each guildhall is a guildmaster, from whom the player learns the skills and/or spells of his or her trade. Most guilds also contain a bar at which the members can relax, hoist a few, and tell tall tales to others of their ilk..
The following classes have guild halls in Midgaard:
Anti-Palidin
Bard
Cleric
Commando
Magic-User
Ninja
Nomad
Paladin
Thief
Warrior
Anti-Paladin
Anti-paladins are the servants of the Lords of Darkness, given power in order to oppose the strength of the paladins, the champions of the Lords of Light. Anti-paladins use the skills of skullduggery and subterfuge to accomplish their aims, rather than base skill at arms like the paladins. They thus possess many of the talents of the thief.
In addition to these talents, anti-paladins also possess the power to wield spells of great power and malevolence to destroy all that opposes them. Woe betide the anti-paladin that reconsiders his soul-bargain with the Lords of Darkness, however; should an anti-paladin become good, he or she will lose all their mystical powers until they bend to the will of the Great Evil Ones and become foul, evil, and twisted once more.
Bard
Down through the millennia and across the length and breadth of the world, there have always been those whose mission it is to preserve the wisdom of the ages through song and story. Wandering from place to place, these spinners of tales and singers of song have gathered knowledge to weave into a single vast tapestry of power.
Be they fierce northern skalds with their sweeping sagas, wandering minstrels with voices raised sweet in song, or buffoonish jesters masking the sting of truth with ringing laughter, they all wield the power of the bard: the wisdom of beauty.
With the magic of song, bards may aid, influence, or harm whole crowds of listeners at a time. Their years of wandering and seeking give them great knowledge and useful skills. The enemy of a bard is likely to perish with the music of Truth still ringing in his or her ears.
Cleric
These warrior-priests of the gods possess formidable fighting skill, trained by their order in combat, to better defend the True Faith. By ancient decree of the gods, however, they are forbidden to spill blood - the sacred and pristine water of the heavens - upon the earth. Thus they may wield only bludgeoning weapons, killing without shedding the blood of their foes.
To their faithful and fanatic servants, the gods have granted the power to wreak miracles in their names, normally of the kind most likely to convert the spiritually lost to their cause - namely healing and protective spells - that those saved might gratefully devote their lives to the gods who saved them. Not all their spells are so gentle, however. When the need arises, the wrath of the gods can be terrible indeed, the fist of heaven smiting the unfaithful with powerful, violent spells.
Commando
Commandos are a close-knit brotherhood of warrior-mages. These highly specialized warriors that possess not only considerable skill at arms, but are also trained in the mystic arts. Their power lies in their unique ability to combine martial prowess with wizardry for a result greater than the sum of its parts.
They are of a decidedly military bent, and are primarily men and women of action. They have little patience with the finer points of either combat or wizardry, and employ their knowledge of spells for destructive effect, the better to slay their foes. The subtler skills and spells are of no interest to the commando.
Magic-User
"Double, Double, toil and trouble;
Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
Fillet of fenny snake,
In the couldron boil and bake;
Eye of newt and toe of frog,
Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
Adder's fork and blindworm's sting,
Lizard's leg and owlet's wing,
For a charm of powerful trouble,
Like a hell-broth boil and bubble."
Macbeth, act IV, scene I
The wizard is the master of that, the most powerful of all the forces of the universe: magic. Where the warrior studies the art of warfare, the wizard studies the science of magic. Though weak in any physical combat, the mage wields his or her knowledge of magic to weave potent spells of dire and terrible power. A highly trained wizard can rock the very heavens themselves with the strength of his or her spells. Those who mistake the wizard's lack of physical training with weakness are in grave danger indeed.
Ninja
These dark, mystic warriors of the night from the Orient are famed and feared for their power, and for good reason. Combining the magical prowess of the wujen, the stealth of the yakuza, and the martial skill of the samurai, the ninja makes for a very strong character class.
The ninja possesses great agility and endurance, and may use skills like sneak, hide, throw, and dodge. They may wield one weapon in each hand, but their knowledge of bare-hand martial arts makes them deadly unarmed combatants as well. Ninjas need never use boats, as they are skilled swimmers.Nomad
"Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandaled feet."
Nomads are grim, barbaric warriors from the untamed wilds of the world, with great strength and agility honed by their lives in a rough and unforgiving environment. Their endurance is almost supernatural, and their ability to withstand damage that would fell a dozen normal men is legendary.
Distrustful of magic, nomads lack any magical ability whatsoever, but possess such skills as pick locks, throw, dodge, peek, butcher, trap, disarm, and subdue. They also possess the special "commune" ability that allows them to gain benefits from the animal spirits, such as the puma, the falcon, and the raven.
Paladin
These holy knights have dedicated their lives and their swords to serving their gods of justice and light. Sworn to bring goodness to the land by the strength of their faith and their swords, these warriors combine skill at arms with the ability to perform miracles in the name of their god.
Should a paladin stray from the path of light or lose his or her faith by becoming evil in alignment, the paladin will by denied the power to wreak miracles until such time as they have atoned for their sins by once more becoming good.
Thief
Since the first time anyone ever owned something that someone else wanted, thieves have plied their unsavoury trade. It is said they are the third-oldest profession in the world, immediately following harlots and politicians.
Fleet of foot, nimble of finger, and keen of mind, they pit their skills of stealth against those who would keep their goods away from them. Living by their wits, thieves soon acquire the highly specialized skills of their trade or perish.
When filching without noise or notice is impossible, however, thieves must needs sometimes eliminate an enemy altogether. Honour means nothing, and a foe face-down with a stiletto in the back, or a ragged smile slashed from ear to ear is the only safe foe to the thief - the master of the shadows!
Warrior
The warrior is the backbone of any army or fighting organization, their skill at arms unparalleled by any other class. These are the men and women whose maxim is "Live by the sword and die by the sword". Varied in outlook and alignment, they are all linked by a common mastery of the arts of warfare and inflicting death on their fellow men.
While magic, stealth, and miracles are flashy and effective, the success of any battle eventually comes down to a bunch of sweaty, hardened fighting men and women with a sword in hand, visiting death on their foes in a close and personal way, then taking a piece of ground and holding it against all comers.
Their rough and ready lives give them great physical strength, much greater than that of the average person. They possess fighting prowess unequalled by any other class, and are masters of all the fighting skills.