My initial thought was to have an apprenticeship program, for lack of a better term. At level 10 (which is the level you begin to receive cabal skills/powers), there should be a prompt given, much like that for spheres and descriptions and whatever else, that asks you if you want to become an apprentice to a particular cabal. This could work a lot like Bloodoath status. It'd give you a title, allow you to hear cabal tells and cabal raids, let you know when you've lost an item or regained an item. However, you couldn't talk on the cabal channel, or fully retrieve a cabal item, and you wouldn't have any cabal powers.

The idea would be similar to being a village applicant, except without gaining any powers. The title would give people in your group/pk range an idea of who you are and what you're seeking. Plus, having that title makes it so you are scrutinized by the other players more. For instance, if you're an Outlander seeker and you have a temporary title that reflect that, and people see you picking up gold coins, selling green emeralds to the jeweler, and buying potions of return, then they obviously know you aren't following your role. And players tend to make the difference. Maybe another applicant saw this and might make mention of it to the cabal leader? I think it'd police itself.

Plus, members of those particular cabals could see lowbies who are interested in joining the same cabal. They could spark up roleplay easier. They could call upon them to defend against other lowbies easier (instead of checking note list, and searching through 100 notes).

This would be a one time decision. If you don't make the decision at level 10, and you level up to 11, then the opportunity to become an "apprentice" will be gone, and you'll have to follow the current routine for joining a cabal.

As a side note, it'd also sort of force people to flesh out their character concept by making this decision early in life, instead of just being faceless warrior until level 25 or 30, or whatever class you're playing.

Thoughts?