Avendar

The School of Heroes is an ancient human institution located in a remote part of the Yagash mountains. Created by the hand of Jolinn with the influence of Dolgrael and Lilune after the War of Fire, the School of Heroes is the sole way by which one may become an adventurer.

The School famously accepts anyone who has reached the age of majority for their lineage, and it is semi-common in populated areas for rebellious youth to "join" the School only to immediately wash out and return home. To access the School of Heroes, one performs a simple rite at their soulbonded altar, at which time a portal will take them directly to the School. These portals remain open for some time after graduation but cease to function once the adventurer is strong enough.

History

Jolinn desired a proving ground for the many god-backed lineages that sprang up in the wake of the Sundering. The school also serves as a way for people to self-select into and prepare for the often difficult and isolating life of an immortal divine, which is the fate of many adventurers. Because Jolinn prizes choice and free will, any of the sapient lineages may enroll, regardless of resonance or personal morality.

Administration of the School of Heroes has passed through many, many varied hands over the millennia, and attitudes towards its graduates change with the era and the culture. Jolinn seems content to allow its stewardship to remain in the hands of mortals regardless provided it continues producing adventurers. It is currently in possession of Zebenar Kinest, a fire scholar with an infamously vicious desire to see every adventurer dead.

Adventurers

Every player character is a graduate of the School of Heroes and therefore a licensed adventurer by default. When a player character reaches level 51, they have reached the end of their advancement and become known colloquially as a hero, though that title may or may not technically be accurate.

Adventurers exist in a dubious legal grey area in most places, and many regions such as Daphoa and Harrud ban the presence of adventurers entirely and will kill, imprison, or forcibly exile them on sight. In most places adventurers are allowed, they exist under an entirely separate legal code that permits a wide range of antisocial behaviors even within the boundaries of lawful cities. Legal codes also near-unanimously place restrictions on the amount of political power an adventurer may wield, though exceptions have existed. Conflicts in those places between adventurers are adjudicated through direct and extreme violence by the Guardians of Law under the hand of Iandir, but other acts of violence or destruction frequently are not.

Together, this means adventurers thus enjoy and suffer reputations of being agents of wild instability and incredible and often random violence and social upheaval, even when good-intentioned. It also makes them prime targets for the attentions (and manipulations) of the gods -- all in accordance with Jolinn's will.