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Demographics
When it comes to the supernatural, the world of Enlightened is crowded. Magic hides in every hallway, and monsters lurk behind the shadows. Because of the relative ease of learning most great powers, it is not uncommon for many people to develop powers of one sort or another, as follows.
Thaumaturgy
Thaumaturges are, overall, the most common practitioners of the supernatural in Creation. Overall, classification of thaumaturges is divided into three categories. Note that these categories are an entirely artificial construct of the thaumaturges themselves, used to roughly and quickly divide people by layers of skill.
Dabblers: Dabblers are those people who have learned a tiny number of thaumaturgical skills, and have never bothered to advance further. Frequently, they are peasants with student rituals that are passed down through families, farmers who have learned a technique to improve their crops, merchants who can sense whether gold is pure, and so on. Most dabblers don’t consider themselves to be thaumaturges at all, although they are often proud of their techniques. In general, one in four people know one or two simple Procedures, usually basic Alchemy, Geomancy, or Husbandry procedures.
Adepts: Adepts are the standard bulk of thaumaturges, representing town alchemists, village wise-women, and aspiring court magicians. Most adepts have a single Art at the Adept Degree, and a handful of others at the Student level, and they rarely raise their Essence scores past 2 or 3. Almost every decently-sized town has an adept, and cities often teem with them; usually, about one in 1,000 people is an adept.
Sorcerer: Sorcerers are the cream of the crop, the best thaumaturges, and they keep track of one another almost religiously. In order to be accepted as a sorcerer, one must attain mastery of a single Art, and have reached the Adept level of at least two other Arts. Sorcerers are always Essence 4 or greater, and generally never stop their quest for increasing magical power and knowledge. They are also quite rare; around one in 25,000 people is a sorcerer, and they rarely travel outside larger cities.
Martial Arts
Like thaumaturgy, the Martial Arts are easily taught and learned, and many basic warriors or people who wish to improve their skills develop the basics. Few, however, have the time or inclination needed to develop their skills further than the simplest levels.
Apprentice: Around 1 in 100 people subscribe to the basics of the Martial Arts, learning the Student Form and perhaps one or two other Charms. Their ranks come disproportionately from the nobility, who have time for that kind of intense training, and they rarely advance past the basics. However, they have enough skill to surprise their opponents.
Martial Artist: Skilled martial artists are those who have attained the Adept Form of a martial art. They have an Essence score of 2 or 3, and have expanded their understanding. Because of the relative dedication required, they are much more rare than simple students; around one in 2,500 people can be considered an Enlightened martial artist.
Sensei: The masters of the Martial Arts, senseis are those who have attained a Master Form, and frequently have practice in more than one martial art, perhaps even having developed their own style. Any artist capable of being called such is a powerful and skilled individual, with Essence ranging from 4 to 6 and many Techniques at their disposal. About one in 25,000 people is a sensei.
The Fated
Heroes are not uncommon in Creation; those who have the will to strive find themselves in places of power or importance, even if only in a small region. In addition, whether or not a person has the power to bend destiny can change; as people become engulfed in great events, fate tends to gradually grant them the ability to change their destinies. Thus, as a region becomes less stable, the number of Fated within it tends to increase.
On average, about one in 5,000 people is Fated, although the number can vary wildly from area to area. Most Fated tend to stay fairly low-key (or at least, relatively low-key), having Kismet scores of only 1 to 2, and two to four Knacks. Powerful members of the other groups are usually Fated.
Avatars
The number of Avatars in the world is relatively low; few people wish to become both more and less than human, preferring to worship their gods at a distance. About nine in ten Avatars are priests of a single god, knowing a small amount of thaumaturgy in additon to their innate powers. The rest are the roving power-seekers that people frequently think of, serving whatever gods they need to to gain the powers they desire. In total, around 1 in 5,000 people is an Avatar; only 1 in 25,000 seek out more power than a single god offers.
Savants
The rarest of the five breeds of rare human, savants tend to change areas as they pass through them. Sometimes, they move in the guise of simple tinkers, not wishing to draw more attention to themselves than necessary, but more often they rampage across the countryside, leaving strange devices and alternately gleeful and furious villagers in their wakes. At any given time, no more than one savant exists for every 150,000 people in the area, but this number is misleading; fully a quarter of savants wind up dead within a week of their first invention, usually due to accidents, while a third of the remainder tend to be destroyed by angry crowds, gods, or accidents within a year. Savants are always Fated individuals, for as long as they last.
