My interest has been piqued, concerning sages in pathfinder and from there, I suppose, other fantasy games. This isn’t really a new interest for me, just something I haven’t really considered for many years. Right back in the days of AD&D I/II, I designed a sage ‘class’ to use as an active NPC in a game – the class wasn’t much good for adventuring, but it gave me the basis for a field worker assistant to an AD&D I sage. If you are interested, you can find the class here. Ironically, the NPC designed to those guidelines when on to play in another game, as a PC – although it was a Skills & Powers game, and he was rewritten for those rules, but have (basically) the same stats and abilities. Eventually he was written as an NPC for 3.5 and PF games. While moving between systems, and keeping commensurate skills at each change – however, he has gathered XP in a series of games and advanced in level for about 20 (RL) years. He finished up as an Expert, with a bit of Adept thrown in for good measure.
He started out, knowing a bit about mapping, plants and farming.
For much of the time between adventures, he published written papers on a range of subjects, served as Chief Herald maintaining list of Coats or Arms, noble patents etc – and has been associated with libraries, temples and universities. He is, undoubtedly, one of the most knowledgeable people – in just about any game setting.
In Real Life
In the modern world, the equivalent might be a research scientist, or perhaps, and archaeologist. As far as I am aware, the majority of them are employed by wealthy universities, research establishments or corporations, who pay their research costs. Even then, those who wish to choose their own area of study, often have to apply for grants and funds before they can do anything useful. The same is true historically, as well. Even Howard Carter, who excavated Tutankhamun’s Tomb was funded by Lord Carnarvon – and just about ever other successful scientist or archaeologist from that period was either independently wealthy or, more likely, has a wealthy patron. Even Merlin, that great mage/sage from mythology, had King Arthur as a patron.
Most of those Victorian researchers were ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’ as well. I think three different people invented the light bulb at about the same time – based on earlier research published by a number of other scientists. Even Darwin can trace his ancestory back to someone who held national office under Oliver Cromwell, and his grandfather was also interested in evolutionary theory. Now-a-days, next to no serious research gets anywhere without meticulous study of previous research – and that needs years of academic study as well as financial support while you do it.
Long and short of it is that you need a good education, the right job and the right employer to even be able to set out on projects that are anything more than basic. Even many things like herbals were researched and written (as amateurs) by doctors and clerics, who had a good living from their primary trade. But when you look atb those today – you see all the gaps in them. The drawings are often very accurate, as are descriptions of the habitat in which the plant is found Culinary uses are interesting – but beyond that there is a lot of guess work, old wives tales and even some mythology. Some of the information accurate – but you have to have done the higher level research to know which bits :] Without that, you have a less than 50% chance of finding anything really useful – and for many of them, much less than 50%.
Then there are field workers. Most field work, that I read about, is carried out by junior staff under the supervision of a senior academic, however, they are rarely credited as an important part of the research. In many cases they are fairly closely supervised, with results being checked by the regularly – then analysed leisurely at the end of the research, using resources available to whoever is funding the research. The field workers are generally junior employees of the research project, who are there to gain experience, in the hope that they will eventually become senior academics in their own right. However, there are also many examples of the basic field work being undertaken by unskilled volunteers or labourers – especially in the field of modern archaeology or popular science.
The information sources used by modern researchers all appear to be held in commercially sensitive business data bases, with an overview paper published in a peer-reviewed magazine. Fuller details are often published by basic research projects, along with detailed observations, figures and analysis. However, these are also subject to peer review, and can be the cause of long debates in the research community, as methods and techniques are discussed, dissected, or simply ridiculed. To a lesser extent, that is true historically as well. Finds and locations were often kept secret until all of the value had been taken from them – and then published in a blaze of glory. Others, however, were done in the glare of publicity, sometimes even taking a journalist or newspaper correspondent along with them. However, historically, there weren’t all that many people who read the newspapers who were publishing the items – and they were sensationalised, to some extent or another, because that is what sold newspapers. Ironically, the same is true today …
In a fantasy setting
Serious research projects should have wealthy patrons – be they individuals, governments or universities, and should be led by someone who already has academic recognition in the subject. Probably a recognised and well published sage, with a number of publications that are respected by the majority of his/her peers. The libraries of those institutions, which contain the research, will be jealously guarded, much like a modern research DB, and will only be opened up to recognised academics – who are seen as sympathetic to the organisation. Or for a large fee. Everyone else sees the ’published’ paper, which will contain some figures, some sketches, observations and the opinions of the senior researcher – the Sage – who wrote the paper. At this level, it is all politics. It might be national politics, or it might just be the politics of professional rivalry between competing colleges or sages. And the colleges and universities are in commercial competition with each other. There are no free courses at this level and fees will be expensive. Students here either have wealthy parents or a sponsor who have paid the fees or called in favours on your behalf. Students are not, generally, the children of commoners, experts or even low-level adventurers. You need some clout to get in.
That leaves local libraries as a source of information – and there aren’t any free to use public libraries. Books are expensive – or at least books that contain any useful information, are expensive, and the more specialist or esoteric the information, the more expensive the books are. Historically, books were so expensive that some of them were, literally, chained to the shelf that they sat on. Much of the piecemeal information will be on scrolls, and may even be included in a personal letter from an sage-colleague.
In a local sage’s library you are liable to find books that play to the sage’s knowledge ranks. In a church library, you will find books on that faith’s religion. And a noble’s library may have household accounts, heroic myths & legends, family history and perhaps a penny dreadful or a basic religious book of the faith the noble worships.
Technology
My understanding of the pathfinder world is that printing is available – but that will only be in cities, and probably only for small documents. Without magic, it will involve a hand press and individually printed pages. Good for leaflets and flyers and, perhaps, short ‘penny dreadful’ type novels. Cheaper than hand or magical copying – but still expensive. Even newspapers will be printed on one large sheet of paper, if they can manage it. That way, you only set the print once, but can produce a lot of copies.
Hand copying of books often takes years. Each page is written separately, and each letter has to be formed carefully using a poor quality ink and a quill – which has to be sharpened regularly. Magic copying, also isn’t as easy as it sounds. You either need specialist spells (which are not generally available) or a spell that summons something intelligent enough to know how words are spelled, even for guided transcription. Just as important, reading speeds are probably much slower than we expect today. There is a lovely passage in one of the early D&D books describing a literate person reading a scroll, and struggling over the spelling, meaning and pronunciation of words. Even now, I struggle with some British dialects from just a few hundred miles away. For people who speak English as a second language, word and sentence structures are even more difficult to work out (I spent a few years marking and assessing exam papers from around the world. After a while I could tell the country of origin from the way the sentences were structured)
To complicate matters further, there isn’t any standardised spelling. Historically, standard spelling came about when the first dictionary was published and was distributed widely. William Shakespeare (that great writer) is known to have spelled his own name in three different ways.
Note: Transcribing translations would be even more difficult.