Gu Masters

Appearance

On Gu Yue village streets, Gu Masters wear a blue uniform with a headband and a waist belt, looking clean and spirited. Gu Masters at rank one wear a blue belt with a bronze plate showing the number 1. Gu Masters at rank two wear a red belt with a steel plate showing the number 2. ^{ch. 31}

Talent and awakening

Not everyone has talent to become a Gu Master. Generally about five in ten people have talent; in the Gu clan the ratio reaches about six in ten because the Gu Yue clan ancestor’s bloodline raises average quality. Talent is graded A through D. A D grade youth raised for three years can become a rank one senior Gu Master and form the family foundation; a C grade usually reaches rank two in about two years as clan backbone; a B grade is often a future clan elder and rank three after six or seven years; an A grade, with about ten years of care, can become rank four and compete for clan head. ^{ch. 4}

At the Awakening Ceremony, youths who lack talent are recorded as having no talent to become a Gu Master and return to ordinary clan life at the lowest position. ^{ch. 4} Those who succeed enter as rank one Gu Masters once the aperture holds a working primeval sea. ^{ch. 6 ch. 7}

Ranks

Academy teaching places humans above all creatures and Gu as the essence of heaven and earth. Gu Masters have nine ranks from rank one to rank nine. Each rank divides into four small realms: initial stage, middle stage, upper stage, and peak stage. Fresh graduates of that ceremony sit at rank one initial stage. ^{ch. 7}

Aperture fill tracks talent grade in that same lesson: D grade about two to three layers and usually stops at rank two; C grade four to five layers, usually rank two with a small chance of rank three initial stage; B grade six to seven layers, able to reach rank three or rank four; A grade eight to nine layers, suited to reach rank five. That early Gu Yue classroom treats rank six and above as legend; the clan has had rank four and rank five Gu Masters, but never a rank six. ^{ch. 7}