The bond formed between a Mentor and his Student is a life-long one, even if the time spent in each other's company is brief. A good Mentor will find his Students developing a life-long loyalty towards them that can be stronger than blood; an inept Mentor will quickly find himself deserted for a better one; a Mentor that exploits or abuses his Students will find he has a new life-long enemy.
Good Mentors can be hard to spot. A Mentor should provide his Student with knowledge enough to walk their Path, and perhaps even help them with equipment and items required to learn their Secrets and Skills, but he doesn't have to walk with them every step of the way. Indeed, he should provide enough information in the beginning for their Student to walk their Path alone, and then occasionally check in with the Student, and be available to them to provide help and answer questions when needed. Doing everything for them makes for weak Students, too reliant on their Mentors to successfully function when they're not available.
Inept Mentors are easily spotted, but unfortunately, usually not until after the Mentoring relationship has begun. These are the Mentors that hand their student their first-circle armor, a few thousand coins, and send them on their merry way, while the Mentor returns to his hunting, or political campaigning, or other activities. Letters and whispers to the Mentor go unanswered, and before long, the Student grows frustrated and disappointed with his choice of a teacher, and seeks help elsewhere.
Bad Mentors are easy to spot from the beginning. As evidence, I'll relate an anecdote recently told to me by one of my own Students. Just after he had reached the second circle, he was walking through Mileth when he was approached by a third-circle Aisling who requested that my Student "allow" the Aisling to Mentor him. My Student replied that he already had a Mentor, at which point the Aisling offered my Student an outrageous sum of money to leave my tutelage and join his. He wanted to run for political office, he explained to my Student, and needed to Mentor someone before he could do so. But no amount of money, my Student later told me, could replace the knowledge and aid that I had already given him, so he promptly refused and walked away. Unfortunately, it is not always easy for younger Aislings to spot such traps, and they find themselves with a great deal of money, but no idea of what to do with it, nor any idea of how to walk their Path.
The purpose of this treatise, then, is not to teach you the basics of your Path; I'm assuming you already have that knowledge. It is my intention, though, to provide you with the information your Students will need to begin their journey on their respective Path. The infromation here is relatively basic, however, and Mentoring is, indeed, a life-long proposition. And while you may not be able to help your student with direct knowledge of what lies ahead of him on his Path, you undoubtedly know others who do; if you are training a Monk, and you are of a different Path, don't hesitate to ask your friends about things your student will need to know. This is not intended as a comprehensive guide to every Path, but is intended to help you Mentor your Student through his first and second circle.
It has long been tradition in Temuair to provide one's Students with their first-circle armor, and a sum of money to begin their adventures. While I am not against this practice, I feel that this is but the beginning of one's obligation to one's Student, and that the knowledge, advice, and aid passed from Mentor to student is beyond mere financial value. Indeed, I am more likely to show a student how to earn money for himself than I am to give him money; in this way, he can raise whatever funds he needs even when I am unavailable, and learns a sense of self-reliance.
While I am somewhat ambivalent about providing money and basic equipment for my Students, I am strongly in favor of providing them with the special components required by the Mundanes in order for them to learn their Secrets and Skills. In fact, before you begin Mentoring, it is probably a good idea to begin building up a supply of such components, so you will have them ready when your Students need them. I'm not advocating picking up every bit of refuse creatures drop, but it is certainly a good idea to have a few extra Centipede Glands, Mantis Eyes, Bat's Wings, and so on. The reason for this is twofold: the sooner your Students learn their Secrets and Skills, the sooner they can begin practicing them; and it is better that they have the item they need when they need it, rather than risking a visit to Sgrios while searching for it.
And while these investments in your Student are important, I cannot stress this point enough: the most valuable asset you can give your Student is your time. If you find that you are going to be busy with political activities, or church functions, or hunting, do not hesitate to turn a prospective Student down. If you accept a Student and later become too busy to Mentor him, I feel it is the Mentor's duty to help that Student find a new teacher.
I have recently had occasion to Mentor students of various Paths, and struggled at first to provide them with the information they needed to successfully follow their Path. I've done a great deal of research, mostly through speaking to higher-insight Aislings of each Path, and what follows is information needed by first-circle Aislings of each Path, along with knowledge that needs to be passed to every Aisling. It is not intended to serve as a guide to Mentoring someone of your own Path ... if you are a Monk, you likely know, and will be able to relate, the knowledge a first-circle Monk needs to survive in Temuair. Rather, it is intended to serve as an aid to those who Mentor Aislings of Paths other than their own. If you are a Monk serving as a Priest's Mentor, you can use this treatise as a guide to information your Student will need to know; or you can travel about and ask various Priests the basic information about their Path, as I did.
This information is intended for use by permanent residents of Temuair, and may not accurately apply to our guests.
((Unregistered characters will find their choice of Skills, Secrets, and even Quests limited, but these will open up once they register.))
However, it is the opinion of this author that one should not Guide a guest unless one is also willing to act as that Aisling's de facto Mentor, even though the Mentoring relationship may not be official.
((In other words, many people make their decision of whether or not to register based on their treatment at the hands of other players. Treat them like an unwanted guest, and they'll leave, probably never to return. Treat them like a welcome new addition to Temuair, and they very well may decide to stay.))
Finally, throughout this treatise, I use the singluar masculane pronoun "he" to refer to hypothetical Students, but only in the interests of convenience and brevity; all of the Quests, Secrets, and Skills discussed herein are available to Aislings of both genders.
Swordsman of Suomi