Whoa, that's a pretty cheerful-yet-heavy backstory.
Add to that the subtle implication that using magic taps into his mental disorder, and thus eating away his sanity bit by bit, which won't affect him until it's too late and turns him into a blood-crazed monster, and you've got a happy story.
Given her history with the scarlets(a fact I touched upon earlier), and the fact that she's trying to learn from Sakuya herself, would it make sense for her to start with Lv3 or so in Cooking?
Yeah, it does. In fact, I'm just gonna do this right now.
SKILLS
Skills aren't passive abilities or spells or techniques, but rather your character's ability at doing mundane things like drawing, tailoring, cooking, etc.
There is multiple levels of skills, and they are grouped into categories, each of them bringing bonuses.
You create your character with 5 skill levels to distribute, while the maximum level you can reach with this method is 3.
0 - 1 Novice: Gives no bonus to your rolls.
2 - 3 Apprentice: Gives a +2 bonus to your rolls related to that domain.
4 - 6 Journeyman: Gives a +3 bonus to your rolls, and allows more complicated things to be made, as well as increasing the quality by a noticeable amount.
7 - 9 Expert: Gives a +4 bonus to your rolls and reduces the time it requires you to accomplish something to 66%, as well as GREATLY increasing the quality of your accomplishments.
10 Master: Gives a +5 bonus to your rolls and allows insanely hard or complicated things to be made or accomplished. Also makes the time required to accomplish your tasks become 33%.
DomainsDomains are different kinds of skills. Each domains are part of a Domain Set, which has 3 skill domains.
Art
- Creative: Drawing things out of nothing but your imagination and expressing yourself. Can be sold.
- Copying: Drawing things out of things you see or remember, allowing them to be sold AND act as map/proof/picture of something.
- Building: Creating art out of any material. Harder to learn than the two aforementioned domains.
Nourishment
- Gourmet Food: Your ability to make high-class recipes that are sure to tickle the fancy of the rich and pretentious.
- Nutritive Food: Your ability to make food that, while not high-class, are sure to fill an empty stomach and give energy to keep up with Gensokyo's crazy antics.
- Drinks: Your ability to make and mix any drinks with the purpose of enjoying the taste or getting smashed. Unrelated to alchemy.
Social
- Lying: Your ability to make up a convincing lie on the spot without even thinking about it or having a prepared alibi.
- Charming: Your ability to butter up your words to manipulate others and make them appreciate you more.
- Presence: Your ability to look good and noble, making those around you believe you are part of a royal family and treat you as their superior without getting to know you.
Nature
- Taming: Your knowledge in how to calm down animals and turn them into your loyal pets. Takes a long time.
- Gardening: Your knowledge on how to plant things and take care of them to grow some great harvests.
- Herbology: Your ability to recognize specific plants and mushrooms, knowing how to gather them and use them for other purposes.
Magical
- Alchemy: Your ability to mix ingredients and potions to create potent liquids or powders with specific effects.
- Lore: Your ability to recognize specific spells and types of magic while knowing their strengths and their weaknesses.
- Enchanting: Your ability to make and seal enchants on items and weapons while detecting pre-existing enchants.
Literature
- Writing: Your ability to write texts and make them good in whatever genre you're writing.
- Reading: Your reading speed and ability to comprehend and remember specific aspects of a book that some may miss.
- Deciphering: Your ability to pierce through a code and understand encrypted messages.
Stealth
- Sneaking: Your ability to hide in the shadows so that no one notices you, or to escape and hide from a threat.
- Quick Hands: Pick-pocketing people without them noticing, grabbing a nearby object without getting caught or even slipping something in someone's drink when they look away...
- Agility: Your reflexes and ability to avoid and prevent traps from activating or hurting you, or to recognize them before they even activate.
Creation
Tailoring: Your ability to make clothes and such out of specific materials.
Forging: Your blacksmithing abilities. Pretty simple, right?
Working: Building things out of your own hands, like chairs, tables, a house, etc.
NEW: Medical
Pharmacology: Making medicines of all kinds, knowing witch ones to prescribe and how to identify them.
Physiology: First aid, setting broken bones, closing wounds, doing surgeries and diagnosing physical problems.
Psychology: Counselling, diagnosing mental health issues and providing therapy.