Not everyone in Aerynth is born to lead a life of grueling quest and high adventure. There are some industrious folk who, armed with skill and determination, manage to work their way through arduous apprenticeships and master a trade. Tradesmen are the lifeblood of any successful city. The dour Blacksmith who forges keen steel blades, the retired soldier who musters and commands the Town militia, and the eccentric Alchemist who distills wondrous magical potions: in a very real way, their labors make the exploits of Adventurers and Questers possible.

Without the proper Tradesmen to work in them, most buildings are little more than shelters. Conversely, without the proper store, workshop, or headquarters, a Tradesman is nothing more than a commoner. When the two are brought together, however, an new world of political and economic opportunity becomes available to your character and Guild.

Like any other character or monster, a Tradesman will have a set of attributes, statistics, and skills. Most of these are relatively unimportant in the course of standard game play, with one exception. Tradesmen can be classified by Rank, and this statistic is important to their work for many different reasons. For Tradesmen, Rank is not a measure of levels achieved through adventure, but rather an indication of professional aptitude and skill. The items a craft-oriented Tradesman can produce, the final quality of those items, the speed at which the items are produced, and the number of projects a Tradesman can manage at once ,all depend upon their Rank. A Tradesman's Rank also is a key factor in determining the cost of their employment contract, as well as their wages. Characters can spend gold to upgrade their Tradesmen to higher Ranks, as detailed below.

No matter their Rank, each Tradesman assigned to a building occupies one of that building's slots. A Tradesman's performance is limited by the Rank of the building they work in: a player is free to assign a highly Ranked Tradesman to a low Rank building, but the Tradesman will not function at full efficiency until the building's Rank can be increased through upgrades.

The following Tradesmen are well-known throughout the Realm:

The lowest tier of Hirelings that can be found in a Town or City, Minions are recruited and trained by Tradesmen, following their orders to the letter. Most Minions serve in their City's Militia, where they enforce the law, keep the peace, and defend against invasion.