Istaria is not a static world. The developers see to that. To keep this world alive and vibrant, sometimes changes occur. I'm rather excited to bring to you information about a revamp of an entire CLASS in Istaria, the Scholar. Scholars deal in stone and essence. In the early days, scholars were only around until they had the skills to be able to go on into prestige schools like spellcrafter or enchanter or alchemist. Their use was primarily only for a jump off point to get a person's feet wet in those resources. However, that narrow view of them is changing. In a summary, scholars and spellcrafters are going to be more distinct by the creation of spell scrolls. These scrolls will not overlap the current myriad of spells that a spellcrafter makes on spell shards of stone and essence. Instead, scrolls will be made from different types of papyrus. Lead developer Amon has posted a proposed writeup here with the changes:

http://community.istaria.com/news/?id=360

Of course, player feedback on the changes proposed is already ongoing, to hammer out details and to get a better idea of how this will revitalize an entire class.

For more information on Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted or for a trial or free account, please visit http://www.istaria.com.