The term “nomad” can be a misnomer, as - though Jaernian nomads usually do travel about in small groups, not all do, and the majority of Cahyalian nomads settle down in villages, towns, or cities. Nomads are experts in herbology and the study of small magick, as well as the arts of music, dance, and tattooing. Adventuring nomads follow one of four Missions, which guides their goal in the world as well as their skills.

Nomads use magic in a slow and methodical manner, drawing it from the spiritual realm of the Kurago via the assistance of a guardian: the spirit of an animal or person that stays with the nomad and guides them. In the Jaernian tradition, the consciousness of a dead nomad merges with their guardian spirit, creating a history of past lives that can stretch back centuries.

Village doctors, herbal healers, witches, and cunning-folk. They know the medicinal natural world in and out, capable of brewing concoctions that can both heal and harm. The name of their mission comes from the fact that, in antiquated times, preservers would venture out from their homes to preserve life and health in the world.

Seekers are skilled in the unique art of mystical inkwork, able to draw body art that can lure in and use spirits of the world; this makes them capable of feats thought impossible for regular people, such as flying without wings and moving like the wind. Seekers also employ items intended to assist them in their exploits on the world. The name of their mission stems from a history of Seekers striking deals with their guardian spirits to seek out and complete unfinished business.

Able to summon the spirits of the Kurago into physical form, granting them power to battle foes and carry out tasks on the material world. They exercise an impressive mastery over manipulating and controlling spirits, being able to exorcise and dismiss them from the material world as well as summon them. In adventuring, they employ these skills to the fullest; the world of spirits is vast and wild, and one who can tame this wild can do most anything.

Artists, tasked with passing on stories of the past in Jaernian tradition. They can be wandering bards, dancers, or even poets - drawing power from art and its impact on others. Through their magically-powered songs and words, they are able to boost the morale of their allies and demoralize their foes.

While nomads of Cahyali are a very diverse group of practically any spiritualists, who hold views and traditions as diverse as Cahyalian culture itself, the term “nomad” on Jaern refers to a specific cultural and religious group tracing their origins back to the destroyed planet of Torandor. Jaernian nomads live in groups called “rondos”, often consisting of one or two extended families. These rondos travel around the world, some making seasonal treks across landmasses and others sailing the oceans for months at a time.

Though this tension has faded in recent decades, nomads have had a longstanding feud with priests and their gods, tracing back to an incident thousands of years ago when Torandor was about to be destroyed. The whole world knew of the threat the rogue planet Jaern posed, and prepared to evacuate to the inbound planet on a ship, crafted by the gods, named the Kaaren of Destruction.

Nomads at the time hailed from a place named Alborn, simple folk who paid for passage onto the Kaaren with all of their worldly possessions - but were betrayed by a Neptunian priest at the last moment, and the ship left without them. As Jaern crashed into and destroyed their world, the Albornians cursed the gods for abandoning them to such a fate, rejecting the divine afterlife and the gods as a whole. Their spirits entered the Kurago, and there they remained…

…until some time later, when Jaern had stabilized itself in its orbit and people had spread out over the face of the new planet. The Albornians, searching for a way back to the world, found the spirit of a magician named Llan of the Five. He showed them a way to contact the living and walk in their footsteps, and the Albornians became the first nomadic guardian spirits.

For centuries, the nomads eschewed society at large, believing that followers of the gods offered nothing to their people except suffering and harm. Only in recent years, after calamity striking the gods over and over again, have the nomads of Jaern begun to reenter from the edge of the world. The gods themselves pay little heed, and seem rather content with a sizable chunk of mortals refusing to venerate them.

As a nomad's life goes on, memories of their guardian spirit begin to surface in their minds, and the two grow closer and closer over the course of their life. When the nomad dies, their consciousness, personality, and memory merge with that of their spirit, and a new life is added to the long string of lives this spirit may have lived. This sequence is broken in the case of second-lifers, who overpower the mind of the nomad and take their body over. This practice is highly frowned upon by other nomads and guardian spirits, and second-lifers may often find themselves on the business end of an exorcism.

Nomads following the Jaernian tradition cannot wield divine magic.

While the vast majority of nomads are part of the Jaernian tradition, the Albornians are not the only inhabitants of the Kurago. Other spirits exist: some born from the mists of the Kurago itself, some being animal spirits, and some being spirits of other people who have come to the Kurago independently of the Albornians and Jaernian tradition.