Inquisitor
The Sovereign was an Inquisitor within the state church before the Cataclysm and his rise to power.
Bonus to Fire and Life magic. Starts with a minor unique fire spell.

Bureaucrat
The Sovereign was a bureaucrat before the Cataclysm and that has carried over to his new career.
Everything is 5% cheaper and taxes are always counted as being 5% higher for the purpose of determining effective income.

Slaver
The Sovereign was a successful slaver before the Cataclysm and have continued the tradition.
First city starts with 50% more workers and a Slave Market that increases trade income and population growth by 5-10%. All subsequent cities may build a Slave Market. Population produced by Slave Market will not partake in the city defense and may not be used to produce troops.

False Prophet

It is time to use your preaching skills once again, but this time you're your own prophet.

Prestige or morale bonus.

more combos from Moi

Slaver-(slave market courtesy of Luckmann) -> Plantation Owner - Farms and Orchards gain increased food yields

Slaver- "" "" -> Warlord-can train slave soldiers (decreased HP and morale, much cheaper)

Slaver- "" "" -> Minister- can build Colliseums, prestige bonus for city, large.

Slaver- "" "" -> Merchant- can build an improved Slavers Market (Slavers Forum) that increases trade income and static monetary gain (keeps former bonuses as well).

Slaver- "" "" -> Mason- cities with a Slave Market can build improvements 30% faster.

Royalty- loyalty bonus for troops and Champions -> Warlord- increased morale for troops, Heroic victories gain more prestige, Champions gain experience faster

Royalty - "" "" -> Soldier- high prestige cities are known for their Military Rigor, in honor of the Soverign ... cheaper/faster training-> able to get better troops for less training.

Royalty- "" "" -> Plantion Owner- Farms and Orchards are larger, more expensive, and grant prestige. (famous foods). Slight food increase as well.

Royalty- "" "" -> King- Prestige bonus for all cities

Royalty- "" "" -> GodKing- large prestige bonus, and moderate food bonus, in Capital City. Capital Keep is a Palace(holds more people, larger), trading defenses for prestige and granduer. All other cities have a normal defensive keep however.

Royalty- "" "" -> Merchant- trade routes increase prestige, if your prestige level is higher than AI X, you will get a favorable trade deal.

Governing- decreased Upkeep costs for cities -> Warlord- decreased upkeep for armies

Governing- "" "" -> Merchant- trade routes are more efficient, roads cost less upkeep and grant more profits, in both gold and raw materials (from your cities).

Governing- "" "" -> Mason- increased prestige for all buildings (the architect)

Governing- "" "" -> Populist- increased housing capacity, increased population growth

Governing- "" ""-> Elitist- slower population growth, citizens produce more taxes and research

In every profession, I wasn't saying that every suggestion was connected within the same profession simultaneously you don't have to pick every suggestion, I was just throwing out ideas within the profession that you can pick.

Dragon Slayer: Improved damage to dragons, improved detection of dragons, improved dragon loot.  Just throwing out alternatives in there.

Dragon Breeder/Tamer: Get your very own pet dragon and have the ability to tame other dragons.

Mercenary Captain: Hiring neutral units costs less, hired units get increased stats and damage, you can lead more neutral units then normal

Professor: Your research takes less time, you get bonus tech at the start of the game, you get bonus tech every so many turns.

Archaeologist: Find more loot every time there's an event that gives you loot.  Uncover hidden dungeons when nearby.  Uncover secret portions of dungeons, uncover more loot within dungeons.  Uncover hidden items on the cloth map when within enough radius of them.

Tax Collector: Receive higher tax income

Explorer: Gain a increased line of sight for all units and buildings

Knight: Receive bonuses to damage, defense, increased leadership, and light or dark power depending on what race you are.

Scout: Receive improved and more detailed tooltip information on units, buildings and landmarks when you mouse over them.

Sapper: Gain the ability to create traps on squares and detect enemy traps as well.

Clown: Increased happiness in cities, faction due to better entertainment.

Mortician/Gravedigger: Gain the gravedigger ability to increase your necromancer's supply of bodies for creating legions of undead minions.

That's all for now, gotta run.

• Animal Tamer - Mounted Fighters produced faster - starts with a horse resource
• Aristocrat - Gain additional gold per turn for each family-member in play
• Bard - Taverns and Theaters operate more efficiently - people are more prone to joining your cities
• Baron - Gain additional gold per turn per house owned
• Enchanter - Enchanted Jewelery produced faster or has better effects - starts with a crystal node nearby
• Guildmaster - Loyalty and Prestige bonus
• Miner - Collects ore faster, starts with a mine
• Rake - Produces offspring more frequently
• Shaper - Spells that alter the world are less expensive to cast and easier to research
• Tyrant - friendly troops are less likely to flee from battle, Enemy troops are more likely.

Nomadic Herdsman/Warrior Animal tamer- Mounted Fighters *trained* faster, starts with horse resources, Diplo Bonus to NPC magial creatures (at least the magical mounts like Wyverns, UmberDroths, and Dragonflys) ... probably extra wild animal resources to harvest.

See when you said Animal Tamer... I was thinking.... Well. You know when people say they "Tamed" a woman?

Yeah.

... Im confused. Rephrase please? It sounds like you are making corrections for some post you have posted in this thread previously, yet I see no such post.

The later part of the sentence makes more sense, its just the "every suggestion connected with same profession simultaneously" bit which is confusing.

On the latter note, im sure the Dev team will cherry pick among our Profession Suggestions, I only hope that they pick up on the MultiStage Origin->Profession ideas. Royalty->profession, Artisan-> Profession, Slaver-> Profession, Business/Corporate-> Profession, Govening-> Profession.

**not sure of a good name for Business/Corporate though, perhaps Mercantile, or even the generic "Merchant" although merchant is perhaps too generic. Well, I will try to make a list of professions with Merchant as the origin.

Merchant- all cities make more gold -> Investor- extra income equalling 5-10% of current Vault treasury

Merchant- "" "" -> Trade Master- Effeciency of Raw goods increased 50% on Routes, Gold income from routes doubled

Merchant- "" "" -> Vendor- Gold Producing Buildings (like Markets) give more gold for the City. Trade routes (slightly) increased efficiency

Merchant- "" "" -> Plantation Owner- Farms and Orchards are slightly more expensive, increase Commerce/Gold for the city, bonus increases with more trade routes. Bonus increases if those trade routes are connected to large cities.

Merchant- "" "" -> Mercenary Captain- cheaper Mercenaries, increased Mercenary loyalty, Can sell off troops as Mercenaries to NPCs (and other players)

Merchant- "" "" -> Warlord- can spend gold to speed the production of Military Units

Tasunke-> mounted units recieve +2 attack, +2 movement, and +4 morale

Cerevox-> Necromantic spells cost 20% less mana, Undead soldiers cost 20% less upkeep

thats awesome and I totally get where your coming from, but I would rather pick from descriptions like these rather than professions. Because in all reality, knowing that my Channeler was a farmer in the life before the Cataclysm doesn't add anything, doesn't provide more immersion, it just gives an excuse to provide % gains and allow more individuality. If it does anything at all, it lessens the "awesomeness" of your mighty channeler by saying he used to be completely normal. I'm all for histories of our Channeler, that's important. Professions? not so much. If this were a game about a modern post-apocalyptic scenario, where the main character was just a normal dude/dudette then sure I'd be all for it. It's just the fact that I am a powerful being of awesome magical capabilities that no one really understands.. So why am I so normal??

Prophet
The Sovereign was a prophet of a major faith before his ascension, but has since the Cataclysm become disillusionised with his own beliefs, which can now take the form of everything from new-age adventism to theocratic megalomania.
Recieves bonus to morale and loyalty.

Edit: Originally wrote theologic, meant theocratic. Fixed.

Those professions can come not just with the game effect they have (+10% to food production for example) but also with  a story like the ones I used (but serious and with monitored language ). Frogboy already said they can change interfaces quite easily. Surely many of us enjoy some good flavor on our professions, traits...

Every profession should have a name, a small (or large) description (pref. w/ an icon), and an effect. Anything less would make me a sad panda.

Arsonist: Fire magic is more powerful, but there is a chance that some buildings in your towns burn down.

I like this idea a lot, they could use it to both determine bonus values and some special abilities and to write your background.

Better still how about a short of branching background story writer, giving you different options at each stage depending on previous choices, writing your background story, giving bonuses and being a sort of interactive prelude for your monarch.

CON ARTIST

You spent your younger days plying your trade with the shell game among others, You've found that other rulers are just as easy to convince to give you more than they think they've given.

(Trades sometimes provide you with more than was agreed upon, and the other person will never know it)

Honestly, I've not read all of what's been posted here, so forgive me if something similar was already suggested.

Marksman:

You take it as an imperative to pass on your exceptional skills as a Marksman to the chosen leader of your ranged attack troups (bolt- and/or arrow slingers) who in return teaches the troops. This provides those troops with a remarkable to-hit bonus and additional damage done. Even raised critical or crippling hit probability. Those bonuses apply for all ranges within the physical boundries of the weapon used (X-Bow, Short Bow, Long Bow).

I also like the idea of a personality test. But let's face it. A questionnaire to figure out that you were of any of the professions mentioned afore would be impossible to implement.

I think that proffision must affect more tha that just +10% fire damage...

Zb, Mayor

"You was ruler of town , but it is not like rule the empire."

1. Big unique bonus:

Your city of choice is alot more better, and can be even bigger than maximum cap

2. Small bonus to your channeler

When you are present in the city , city got +20% to all production, if it is city of choice then +30%

3. Small bonus to all empire

Your centrelized rule makes caravns +50% speed , if caavan goes into\out main city

4. Penalty

Your other cities are not contolled so well as capital, so all cities geting minuses if at big distance with main city, up to -50%.

Or othe zb Assassin

1. You know many tricks to deal with your enemies, so you can pay money for killing key characters of enemy. You can kill any child\hero\champion(but not channeller) for solid payment. Also you can eliminate enemy governor, and enemy city will revolt.

2. You channeler is skilled in sneking and playing dirty games, so you have free sneky\stelthy(dunno what name of perk that make your channeler hide) perk, and you have small discount(5-10%) on dimesional spells(teleporatitions,invisibility, etc.)

3. Your army often perform dirty tricks too, so your soldiers can use posison for free\with discount and are something like stealthed, or can be easily stealthed.

4. Holding a large guild of assassins in your empire is not an good thing for your people. While any idiot can pay for death of his foe, it can be not too good. So your cities get -20% morale and -5% population growth.

I can write more proffesions, but it is not so important, just think about idea

Footpad-

Your nefarious past as a robber of the walking masses has certain advantages pertaining to contacts in the underworld. You gain a bonus to city order but suffer increased corruption.

'My good sir, your claim of my resemblance to a common thief who did rob your person in your youth I find insulting and frankly ridiculous'

Labourer-

Your caloused hands and tanned skin bespeak of a previous life as a labourer in the outdoors. You understand the working man like few others, yet your brusque manners and lack of what some call refinement can cause the moneid classes to sneer at your new-found authority. You gain advantages to agricultural production and building but gain less money from trade.

'In my day we worked from dawn till dusk with ne'er a break to stretch our backs. By 'eck it were an 'ard life.'

Artisan-

A crafter of items from inumerable materials have left you an appreciator of the hands of craftsmen. You gain an bonus to item creation and equipping troops, but your disdain for mass-manufacture gives a penalty to high-tier production buildings.

'A well-crafted Pearl necklace is like a beautiful woman that dances in... no, it's like a string of moons on silvery... no, actually it's more like a milky swirl of... oh to hell with this simile'.

Poet-

Whether the rough-hewn sagas of bloody battles or the flowing sonnets of courtly romance, this Soveriegn was once a composer of rhyme and stanza. Such skills rarely leave the soul, causing the Sovereign to occasionally indulge in his previous interests and inflict it upon his people. Gains a bonus to diplomacy with Kingdoms but a penalty to Empires.

'Shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? No? I am hardly surprised, you Urxen have a notorious resilience to my sublime poetry'

Woodsman-

Ranger, Marksmen, even bandit have been used by the common folk to describe you as you walked into the fearful villages and towns. You were just a woodsman, though; a hunter, a walker of the wilds and a master of the bow. Your solitary nature makes you rather enigmatic, but a nightmare for your bodyguards. You gain a bonus to public order but a penalty to personal security.

'I find a well-placed arrow is worth a hundred words so be sure to keep your accusations brief'

Gamer: + tactics, strategy; - gold/money

There was an excelent episode of stargate atlantis, the only really good one, that presents the profession question quite elegantly. A scientist and a military leader find a room in atlantis that has two computer terminals. They each are connected to two actual races on a far away planet, unbeknownst to the two expeditonaries. They proceed to use the room as an Elemental type game for several months before realizing the game is not a game at all.

The scientist used his advanced knowledge to build well crafted tools and technology, about rennaisance level with a few zepplins and bio-weapons. His soldiers had better weapons, like crossbows and fine-tuned siege weapons, while the soldier had a very well organized army and efficient but crude weapons. Both had the basic knowledge an early civilization might benefit from, clean water, food safety, democratic governing, but the knowledge and abilities of the leader greatly shaped how things were developed and what was emphasized in society.

Given that our soverns will come from different walks of life, I think this option should profoundly affect one's kingdom or empire. Perhaps one profession should have at least three traits that affect the sovergn as a unit, the party/city the sovergn is in and the civilization the sovergn creates, instead of only one of these areas.

hehe, for once, seanw3, I completely agree with you

That said, I agree that the choice of earlier profession should be long-term. I believe this would be best achieved by giving strong starting bonuses, small civilization bonuses, and unique ever-relevant city-by-city bonuses.

For example, a Slaver profession giving a big initial worker boost, a small civilization bonus (+5% Morale, Loyalty, Economics, Whateritics, etc) and a unique building once per city that does something that is unique to that building (or at least unique to professions, if not only one).

sorry for any duplicates:

1. teacher = learning bonus

2. child/teen  (come on, how many books have your read where a young boy must grow up before his time) = agility bonus, luck bonus

3. bard = charisma bonus

4. prostitute = charisma bonus, luck bonus

5. game designer (I mean architect) - god like abilities all around

To clarify, the basic knowlegde from our civilization that a primitive civilization might benefit from. No need to palm any face.