Mining
mineWork an ore node with a pick. What comes out is banded on the node, and gems come per stroke rather than per node - so a long seam is worth staying at.
The World
Trades & Crafting
Seven trades, none of them tied to your class. Anyone can learn any of them, and every one of them improves by doing the work.
Woodcutting
chopFell timber with an axe. Wood quality is banded the same way ore is, and better wood makes better hafts, bows and furniture.
Skinning
skinTake the hide from something you killed. The corpse decides what is available, banded on the creature's level, and you get one attempt at it - so bring a blade before you start the fight.
Fishing
fishNeeds water and a rod. Slower than the other gathering trades and better company - it is the one you do while talking.
Foraging
harvestGather what grows. The cheapest trade to start, and the one that keeps a low-level character fed.
Cooking
cookTurn raw ingredients into food that actually restores something. Hunger is a real clock, so a cook is genuinely useful to a group.
Craftsmanship
craftRecipes that turn gathered materials into equipment. Quality of the result tracks your proficiency, so a well-made blade is visibly better than a poor one.
Proficiency decides everything
Each trade carries its own proficiency, and that number is what decides whether an attempt succeeds. There is no level gate and no class gate - a Mage can be the best miner on the server, and the only thing standing between you and that is the number of swings you have taken.
Gathering leaves you exposed
Working a node occupies you. You are not helpless, but you are busy, and something that wanders in while you are chopping will find you mid-swing. Gathering in dangerous places is a real decision rather than a safe grind.
What you make is worth something
Crafted goods carry a quality that tracks the proficiency of whoever made them, and quality feeds straight into how much damage a weapon does and how much a piece of armour stops. That makes a skilled crafter genuinely worth finding, and it gives the economy something to move other than loot.