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 is not required until 4th depth tier. Even if you are willing to define a philosophy for a starting character, 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, often 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.
Arcana Aterr (Costs 2 LP, requires 6 bWILL)
    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. You receive 1 extra tier in any other Study upon gaining 4 base tiers in Arcana.
    Suggested Abilities: Energy Ranged Attack, Energy Shielding - Basic, Silence Æther
Lore Chivalric Scholar (Costs 10 LP, requires 5 bINT)
    You have studied for many years according to the Manusian chivalric codes. You may be a current or former knight, or simply someone fascinated with the battle-tested and thoroughly Methodian teachings of humanity's martial nobility. The knightly codes emphasize not only formal studies in diplomacy and tactics, but cross-training in the fighting arts and in the maintenance of one's warhorse or other mount. Now released from your school to continue your education in the field, the pragmatic nature of your Methodian foundation allows for many options in adapting your skills further.
    Chivalric Scholars must always adhere to Methodian philosophy.
    Chivalric Scholars gain the Animal Bonding and Advanced Animal Training Abilities as extra benefits at 1st tier, and these Abilities count as favored for you. You consider any Diplomat- or Tactician-favored Ability as favored. If you have the Rider Close Combat Background, you receive 1 extra tier in Close Combat upon reaching 3 base tiers in Lore, and another upon reaching 6 base tiers in Lore.
    Suggested Abilities: Streetwise, Village Lore, Tactical Analysis - Piracy & Banditry
Sylvan Librarian (Costs 10 LP, requires 5 bINT)
    You are either a current or former member of the Sylvan Enclaves, and you were trained extensively in the literature available in their famous libraries. Unlike the more conventional historians of Lur-Asko academia, your book-knowledge is balanced by abundant time spent out in nature; unlike more conventional outdoorsmen, you approach nature through the dispassionate and analytic lens of Rationalism. A pristine wilderness and a storied Alacrian ruin are equally familiar territory. Although you are not required to remain a Sylvan, and although not all Sylvans are Rationalists, the ancient disciplines of their famous Librarians will serve you well in the adventuring scene.
    Sylvan Librarians must always adhere to Rationalist philosophy.
    Sylvan Librarians gain the Animal Bonding and Ruin Research Abilities as extra benefits at 1st tier. You gain an extra Ability or Ability emphasis of your choice at 8th tier. You consider any Biologist- or Historian-favored Ability as favored. You receive 1 extra tier in Athletics upon gaining 4 base tiers in Lore.
    Suggested Abilities: Advanced Animal Training, Bonding Lore, Ruin Lore
Marksmanship Kin-Militant (Costs 5 LP, requires 4 bINT)
    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 devoted student of these teachings, you were awarded the Opened Hand rank of Kin-Militant. You benefit from 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. If you have the Devotee Appeal Background, you receive 1 extra tier in Appeal upon reaching 3 base tiers in Marksmanship, and another upon reaching 6 base tiers in Marksmanship.
    Suggested Abilities: Shooting Stances, Basic Ranged Defense, Expert Aiming
Technology Hellpriest (Costs 7 LP, requires 5 bCON and 5 bWILL)
    For a variety of reasons, Eer'Kalla maintains a contingent of bio-technologists known colloquially as hellpriests. Each such individual may have one or more tasks, from training and leading dracomorphs into battle, to using elixir injectors to revive captives and Hellborn that have been tortured to death, to operating Under-World acoluthics, 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 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 Technology Competence - Acoluthics and Technology Competence - Corallurgy Abilities as extra benefits at 1st tier. You consider any Corallurgist-favored Ability as favored, as well as any Ability that mentions acoluthics. If you have the Biologist Lore Background, you receive 1 extra tier in Lore upon reaching 3 base tiers in Technology, and another upon reaching 6 base tiers in Technology.
    Suggested Abilities: Advanced Injection, Device Creation, Simple Devotion
Seraph (Costs 8 LP, requires 5 bWILL)
    White acolytes tend to use acoluthic devices via rudimentary Technician training, or impart the knowledge into Hellpriests' implants. Reds, however, use a distinguished 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 and Simple Devotion Abilities as extra benefits at 1st tier. You receive 1 extra tier in either Close Combat or Marksmanship upon gaining 3 base tiers in Technology, and another in the same Study upon reaching 6 base tiers in Technology.
    Suggested Abilities: Device Creation, Technology Competence - Mechanical, Device Affinity