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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 9573668" data-attributes="member: 11">RogueEvery town or city has its share of rogues. Most of them live up to the worst stereotypes of the class, making a living as burglars, assassins, cutpurses, and con artists. Often, these scoundrels are organized into thieves' guilds or crime families. Plenty of rogues operate independently, but even they sometimes recruit apprentices to help them in their scams and heists. A few rogues make an honest living as locksmiths, investigators, or exterminators, which can be a dangerous job in a world where dire rats—and ratfolk—haunt the sewers.As adventurers, rogues fall on both sides of the law. Some are hardened criminals who decide to seek their fortune in treasure hoards, while others take up a life of adventure to escape from the law. Others still, have perfected their skills with the explicit purpose of infiltrating ancient ruins and hidden crypts in search of treasure.Rogues devote as much effort to mastering the use of a variety of skills as they do to perfecting their opportunistic combat techniques. They may not fight as well as martial classes like the fighter or the ranger, but they have a broad expertise that few other characters can match. Many rogues focus on stealth and deception, while others refine the skills that help them in a dungeon environment, such as climbing, finding and disarming traps, and opening locks.When it comes to combat, rogues prioritize cunning over brute strength. A rogue would rather make one precise strike, placing it exactly where the attack will hurt the target most, than wear an opponent down with a barrage of attacks. Rogues have an almost supernatural knack for avoiding danger, and a few learn magical tricks to supplement their other abilities.Rogue AlignmentWhile rogues are frequently seen as Agents of Chaos, who undermine the rule of Law through their assumption that the world owes them a living, most don’t take a side in the cosmic battle of law versus chaos unless they have deeply seated personal experiences and beliefs that leads them to support the rights of the individual freedom above all other concerns of living in a society.In terms of ethics, most rogues are not known for their altruism, and if they have a general reputation, it’d be for maleficent selfishness and an undervaluing of life that is not their own, but many rogues, especially the adventuring type, tends more towards a neutral outlook, weighing the stakes and their personal connection to the ethical choices they are forced to make.Rogues in the Inchoate EmpiresThere is no shortage of rogues in the Empires. The many kakistocracies among the constant rising and falling kingdoms and satellite states, means that in many places crime syndicates and guilds thrive or even run the government. In other places, rogues represent a necessary effort to resist the oppressive and invasive governments that have taken over various cities and settlements. As such, the rogues of these lands are used to either complex, unpredictable, and dangerous customs for navigating corruption or extreme clandestine activity meant to avoid a lost hand or a hangman’s noose. Of course, some few rogues also serve a city or nation as investigators or law enforcement themselves, having learned the skills of the trade in an effort to better catch them.Rogues in the Republic of MakrinosThere are rogues of all sorts to be found in Makrinos, from coastal smugglers, brigands and pirates to treasure-hunters and archeologists, from extortionists and assassins to investigators. Some cities, like Caldera and Hesperos have a culture of swashbuckler duels and instruction, for example. Or growing towns, like Brackwater Styes, have a strong enough thieves guild, as to own corrupt town guards. Not all Makrinod rogues are criminals, it is not unusual for a bailiff in an urban area to have some expertise in roguish ways. Others use their social acumen and connections to profit from the loopholes in the complex laws and traditions of the Republic without explicitly violating them.</blockquote>

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