I'm thinking arcane magic is the only kind of applicable magic in this- The gods, if they even actually exist, are distant and unknowable. Due to the dangerous and volatile nature of magic in this setting, even someone who specialized in trying to heal people with magic would still be more likely to injure them than cure them.

Strangelander, I like your ideas but I'm not sure how well they fit this setting, it's a bit more low-tech than that. Think literal dark ages Europe, somewhere in 600-800 ad as far as tech level goes. There would be some idea of alchemy, in this setting mostly influenced from the strange and often spoiled mixtures found in ancient ruins, but it would be poorly understood and there would certainly be no black powder yet. A charismatic and mysterious duellist could work, but I doubt there's a swordsmith alive who could forge a rapier or even knows what a rapier is- remember that such things evolved as a sort of gentleman's weapon / court sword, and there's not really any gentlemen or courts in this setting. When you say Duellist, I assume you mean fencer. The most delicate sword you're probably going to be able to have anyone make in this setting is a short sword, and if there are any rapiers they are lost among ruins. Also keep in mind that basically nobody would know how to properly use one if they did find one- there's no current history of fighting with them, so anyone that did find and choose to use one would have to be figuring out how to use this oddly lightweight sword that doesn't seem to have the mass to do much. Don't get me wrong, I love the fencing style and honestly hope to learn it IRL someday, but that style of swordplay isn't particularly well suited to this.

Detts, I'd like to start out with just one character each- if people drop or we end up otherwise being low on players I may change that, but for now I figure it's easier to start small and make more characters than start huge and have too much going on to follow. I'll be posting character skeletons in the OOC thread when I put it up.