Elite Backgrounds     Elite Backgrounds are Study Backgrounds which are not recommended for PCs in their first campaign. For one, they require characters who take them to adhere to a certain philosophy, which cannot occur until 5th depth tier. Even if your GM is doing an advanced start, Elite Backgrounds can also disrupt a campaign unless the GM and players agree it is appropriate. Elite Backgrounds provide outsized benefits to a single character without a higher LP cost to match, while threatening to bring down philosophical conflict onto the entire party. Finally, they are held by only a tiny minority of adventurers in Lur-Asko, and including them in every campaign would not accurately represent this fact. In most campaigns, they exist to allow GMs to create powerful NPCs with a philosophical theme.
    If your GM does allow Elite Backgrounds, the one matching your philosophy will likely be an excellent choice if you enter its Study. The most successful campaigns which allow Elite Backgrounds for PCs take care to allow them for each PC. Ideally, they might be characters in a matching-philosophy party who can all access the same Background, or at least a party that doesn't combine the most diametrically-opposed philosophies.
    The details of Elite Backgrounds are listed in this chapter to avoid cluttering the Study chapters with likely-unavailable choices. The requirements for training or switching Elite Backgrounds are still found in the relevant Study chapter.
Appeal Demagogue (Costs 8 LP)
    Although Methodianism is essentially a philosophy of altruistic pragmatism, there's no denying that it is also deeply political, both in origin and in practice. You have spent several years in training as a Methodian noble, elected official, or political aspirant, which by practical necessity included extensive education in communicating to the masses. A Methodian is concerned for the good of all, but deep down you know that sometimes a decent amount of populist manipulation is necessary to rally allies against evil. To this end, you are also likely to enter the Study of Culture, and are trained in how to pull convincing examples from history or the modern world to advance your point of view. Holding the many, varied, and sometimes-conflicting lessons of your education in balance requires continuous devotion to your philosophy, but offers versatility that other Backgrounds would struggle to match.
    Demagogues must adhere to Methodian philosophy.
    Demagogues gain the Social Competence Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier, and immediately gain an extra tier in Appeal. You also receive 1 extra tier in Culture upon gaining 4 base tiers in Appeal. You have no favoredness restrictions.
    Suggested Abilities: Debate Tactics, Expert Argumentation, Fundraising
Arcana Aterr (Costs 2 LP)
    Yours is the most unique, powerful, and widely hated of all the Arcana paths. To use this Background, you must adhere to Dark Path philosophy - an ideology born in war and created specifically to become compatible with arcane adamant over mere days or seasons, compared to the 5 years of the Orthodox. Your initial Abilities will likely be violent, born out of the philosophical travail that produces your kind. Soon, however, you will be able to diversify your arcane powers into anything available... or continue focusing on fearsome destruction.
    Unlike those of every other Background, you became an arcanist not through training and discipline, but by internal honesty. You may have had a Dark Master - the term for an Aterr able to train apprentices. Or, far less commonly, you may be a Masterless, having taught yourself the Dark Path from books. In any case, by simplifying your mind, admitting your desires, and abandoning the comfortable lies of culture and morality, you became compatible with the adamant. Now, you are fully Aterr - "Darkened," or "Dark-One," an Alacrian name given to your kind by your enemies and embraced out of defiance and spite.
    Aterr must always adhere to Dark Path philosophy.
    Aterr gain the Technology Competence - Shade Ability, as well as an extra Destroyer-favored Ability of your choice, as extra benefits at 1st tier. You gain an extra Ability or Ability emphasis of your choice at 8th tier. You have no favoredness restrictions. You take no trauma from arcane visions or breaching.
    Suggested Abilities: Energy Ranged Attack, Energy Shielding - Basic, Silence Æther
Culture Revivalist (Costs 10 LP)
    You have the same education as a Historian, but obtained it through the optimistic lens of Rationalism. Lur-Asko is full of people of all professions and beliefs seeking to recover ancient secrets for the good of themselves and others, but those historians dubbed "Revivalists" harbor a borderline-religious belief in reviving the glory of the Alacris. To you, the Golden Age was the near-perfection of sentient civilization, unfairly accosted and sabotaged in the Draconic Wars and the corruption of the Third Era. Of all the perspectives across philosophy, yours is the least likely to entertain the idea that the Alacris "had it coming." Even if you do, you believe that the Fall surely could have been prevented had they stuck to the principles of the earlier utopian era of their culture - the same era that modern culture must now revive for the future.
     Although the Golden Age was distinguished by the reign of Rationalist philosophy and Alacrian cultural domination, the impact of technology was obviously a major feature as well. Given the inextricable link between Rationalist history and technological progress, the thoughts of your Background often incline to the Study of Technology as well.
    Revivalists must always adhere to Rationalist philosophy.
    Revivalists gain the Foreign Language Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier, associated with the Alacrian language. You immediately receive 1 extra Culture tier. You also receive an extra tier in Technology upon reaching 2 base tiers in Culture. Revivalists count Historian-favored Abilities as favored.
    Suggested Abilities: Ruin Lore, Ruin Looting, Ruin Documentation
Profiteer (Costs 10 LP)
    You have the same education as an Economist, but obtained it through the optimistic lens of Preamblianism. Although free-market economics dominate most of modern Lur-Asko, those economists dubbed "Profiteers" harbor a borderline-religious belief in its ability to raise civilization to the stars and beyond. To you, the invisible forces of pricing, supply, and demand are beautiful causes for celebration, as is the opportunity a person like yourself has in the Adventuring Age. To a true Preamblian, the choices voluntarily made by free people are sacrosanct, and turning a profit in a free-choice economy is undeniable evidence that you have served your fellow sentients exactly as they wanted and needed. Even if they disagree.
    Although your faith that profit is righteous gives motivation to your studies, philosophical conviction of any sort is always a source of enemies. Preamblianism's feud with Methodianism is usually peaceable, but there are existential threats to the ideology of the market: ancient anathemas such as the Aterr, along with new and unpredictable movements like the Opened Hand. Just like your philosophical forbears at the end of the Imperial Age, you take the principles of self-defense and bearing arms to heart.
    Profiteers must always adhere to Preamblian philosophy.
    Profiteers gain the Bargain Hunting Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier. You immediately receive 1 extra Culture tier. You also receive an extra tier in either Close Combat or Marksmanship upon reaching 2 base tiers in Culture. Profiteers count Economist-favored Abilities as favored.
    Suggested Abilities: Sales Mastery, Bank Loans, Ruin Documentation
Uniter (Costs 10 LP)
    You have the same education as a Diplomat, but obtained it through the open-minded lens of Prismatic Unity. Contrary to popular belief, Prismatics do not need to be "so open-minded that their brains fall out" - rather, your willingness to accept multiple points of view gives you remarkable insight into the cultures you study. Unlike those who primarily use diplomacy to coerce others, you view your role as positive and beneficial to all - Prismatics believe that unity which respects diversity is the only Unity worth pursuing. Because your philosophy is skeptical of all attempts to form a singular overriding "truth," and critical of the many power structures that promote such grand narratives, you find yourself motivated to educate yourself far more broadly than the average student of Culture.
    Although your education consisted of many intellectual and academic facts about culture, the need to actually open dialog with the people one studies is never far from the mind of a true Prismatic. And, fortunately, the honest respect afforded to other cultures by your philosophy tends to (usually) win friends, making this Background an even more natural match to the Study of Appeal.
    Uniters must always adhere to Prismatic philosophy.
    Uniters gain the Foreign Language Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier, associated with either Hal'Tayatic, High Wynthian, Koh-Trr-Goh, Chthonian, Skretan, Adlet, Neodraconic, Therbolgi, or Cevelkian. You immediately receive 1 extra Culture tier. You also receive an extra tier in Appeal upon reaching 2 base tiers in Culture (in addition to the extra tier at 4 base tiers). Uniters count Diplomat-favored Abilities as favored.
    Suggested Abilities: Modern Cultural Literacy, Streetwise, Village Lore
MarksmanshipRevolutionary (Costs 4 LP)
    The Opened Hand and its descendant philosophy of Post-Declarationism are, in a curious coincidence of history, closely tied to the ranged martial arts of Hal'Tayat. Although Preamblianism and Methodianism both promote ownership of weapons and the justice of self-defense, Opened Hand doctrine promotes a particularly community-centered vision of armament. If a post-dec revolution is ever to succeed in any realm, it can only be via solidarity between communities actually capable of holding their own - or so the teaching goes. As a student of these teachings and a potential revolutionary, you enjoy a superior education in marksmanship and greater versatility in your training. In addition, as the importance of the community is fully integrated into the drills of post-dec training camps, you may find your skills oddly adaptable to leadership, or at least the influence of others.
    Revolutionaries must always adhere to Post-Declarationist philosophy.
    Revolutionaries gain the Ranged Competency Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier, and the Ranged HMA Mastery Ability at 8th tier. You have no favoredness restrictions. You also receive 1 extra tier in Appeal upon gaining 4 base tiers in Marksmanship.
    Suggested Abilities: Shooting Stances, Basic Ranged Defense, Expert Aiming
Nature Hellpriest (Costs 7 LP)
    For a variety of reasons, Eer'Kalla maintains a contingent of nature specialists known colloquially as hellpriests. Each such individual may have one or more tasks, from training and leading dracomorphs into battle, to using elixir thaumaturgy to revive captives and Hellborn that have been tortured to death, to operating organic Under-World technology, to assisting acolytes in traversing wilderness areas. Usually, hellpriests display minor mutilations where small pieces of draconic technology have been grafted into the body to shorten their Sylvan training and assist in their Abilities, making their identities obvious. As such, they are far more likely to be encountered in or near Eer'Kalla, assisting the covert actions of acolytes elsewhere only in dire circumstances. Usually, hellpriests have a middling rank amongst white acolytes - lower than Vicars, but higher than those less directly touched by the dragons.
    Hellpriests must always adhere to White Draconic philosophy.
    Hellpriests gain the Sylvan Elixir Usage Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier. You have no favoredness restrictions. If you have at least 1 tier in Technology, you obtain Technology Competency - Acoluthics as an extra Ability and count it as favored, regardless of your Technology Background.
    Suggested Abilities: Elixir Thaumaturgy - Major Healing, Wild Animal Taming, Technology Competence - Corallurgy
Technology Seraph (Costs 8 LP)
    White acolytes tend to use acoluthic devices via normal Inventor or Operative training, or impart the knowledge into Hellpriests' implants. Reds, however, combine these disciplines into a single program of elite instruction, often in the largest abbeys of the Ones of Justice, Valor, or Struggle. Though they are capable of using a wide variety of conventional technology, they are required under Red Synod law to carry at least one acoluthic. They are called seraphs, or "burning ones," in reference to the glowing red script displayed on acoluthic devices when consecrated. Seraphs who specialize in this "pure" form of draconic tech usually enjoy prestige and respect in Red circles far outpacing even the most devoted of Red arcanists. High-tier seraphs eventually attain the office of Archseraph; technically, this rank is immediately beneath a Vicar, but in practice even Vicars often defer to their Archseraphs on military matters.
    Seraphs must always adhere to Red Draconic philosophy.
    Seraphs gain the Technology Competency - Acoluthics Ability as an extra benefit at 1st tier.
    Suggested Abilities: Invention - Acoluthics, Advanced Invention, Simple Devotion