Oh, great & wonderful... Hosts... & everyone else!

[DuchessPariah]

Can you give me estimates for the "youngest possible" Master age for the main crafts?

If you want, you can even throw in estimates for the other ones.

Like, I know that Starsmith had THE LONGEST apprentice/journeymanship.

[Piyer]

Generally speaking, apprenticeships start at age 12 with the apprentice walking the table somewhere around 18 to 20. Not all journeymen become masters -- arguably, most journeymen probably never become masters. A master under 30 is, by broad definition of a mastery, unlikely as it shouldn't be that easy to become a master. The average master probably doesn't earn his knots until his 40's after 20-odd Turns of practicing, learning, and studying his or her craft as a journeyman.

That's my :2cent:

[DuchessPariah]

Thank you. :)

Does anyone want to expound upon this statement?

*is creating an RP character, age 34, and trying to decide whether to make him a Master or when to have him walk the tables*

[ChrisG]

I suspect that what I have here are a bunch of exceptions, but the way I figure it, Robinton attained his mastery sometime between the ages of twenty-two and twenty-five. I figure Jancis is about the same age as Piemur though it's never actually given, and she was a MasterSmith in the beginning of AtWoP, so about twenty-two-ish. Menolly was also a Master at the beginning of AtWoP, a few Turns older than Piemur, so that makes her twenty-five. Alemi was a MasterFisher by the start of DoP, which starts at the nineteenth Turn, Menolly would be twenty-seven and was the youngest child, so figure Alemi has several Turns on her ... mid-thirties?

But, as I said, I suspect these are mostly the exceptions to the rule, and do feel that the forties are a bit more plausible ... especially if you accept the 100+ Turn lifespans the Pernese are said to have. :2cent:

[Hans]

I agree with Chris and I think it is good to remember that the persons he mentioned being masters at relatively young ages are all, more or less, major characters, the super-doopers :) who all attain their mastery at an early age.

That having been said I do think that 34 is a reasonable age for someone to be a master.

There's also masters and masters in my opinion. Being a master means having attained the "degree" but those who taught tend -- of course -- to be "older" masters...

As for differences between crafts. Hmm.. maybe the more progressive crafts, like the Harpers will tend to have more enthusiastic young masters than the more "parochial" and/or scientific crafts like beast, smith and farmercraft?

[Mausey]

You might get to Master status faster if you're born to the craft. You have to admit that Jancis was probably exposed to the smith craft at an early age and was playing with her grandpa's tools when she was little. She might have been an official apprentice at age 12 but there's a good chance she already knew most of the first and second year stuff. The same with Robinton and the harper craft. He had masters teaching him from the time he could walk. Somebody coming to the craft cold at 12 has a lot of learning to do.

[Lily]

Nothing like the natural talent born in you either,look at Robinton and Menolly, musicians to the very core

[B`dgyr]

Hi! Just couldn't resist sticking my cold nose in, heehee. I'm with Hans on this one, 34 gives you twenty plus years at the craft, so even if you weren't born to it, you've had plenty of experience. And, like Mausey said, if said character was born into a family of that kind of crafter, you'd have even more experience. Bye now!