Classes in the Setting

For the most part, I am of the view that most characters in the fictional world that is a D&D setting would be largely unaware of the mechanics of the game, and the terminology that goes with them. For that reason, the old "level titles" never really made much sense to me (because most knights and lords wouldn't have any class at all, never mind a specific class at a specific level), and asking someone their alignment should always have been met by blank looks. (That said, there was always a certain amount of convenience to this - in much the same way as nobody in the Star Wars galaxy would actually speak English, but the characters in the movies do. So the DM translate a few things from in-world speak to mechanical speak just for convenience.)

The upshot of this is that I tend to avoid tying character classes into the structure of my setting - a character described as a "wizard" in the setting may in fact be a Wizard (class), Sorcerer, Warlock... or even a Bard, a Rogue playing a part, or something else entirely. And that is a decision that has served me well over the years as the mechanics of the game have changed - whereas the 2nd Edition version of Terafa had no Sorcerer class, it might well have had sorcerers that may or may not have then become Sorcerers when 3e was released. And, likewise, although 5e has things like named Bardic colleges and Monastic traditions, the exact set available in 5e is unlikely to be the same in 6e, or indeed in 5e once all the rulebooks have been published. Consequently, although you'll find Bards of the College of Valour in the current version of Terafa, you won't actually find a "College of Valour" in the setting - the player chooses how they want to mechanically express their character in the game, we'll work together to determine how the character fits within the setting, and we'll then massage any rough edges to suit.

And that's true... mostly.

Despite this, there are a few places where the mechanics of the game do tie up pretty neatly with some aspects of the setting. For instance, there is an order of rangers within the setting, and the title Paladin does mean something to characters in the setting. And, of course, there are monks, and clerics, and wizards, and sorcerers, and so on. Where most, and in some cases perhaps all, members of the in-setting organisation are also members of the in-game class. Basically, it's all a little fuzzy.

The reason I mention this now is that in the next couple of weeks I'll have something to say about Monasteries and Nunneries in Terafa, and it's worth noting that in that case a character being a 'monk' in the setting doesn't mean that they're a Monk in the game, or vice versa... though there is significant overlap...