Battle application process is broken. Short version: too few mages, too many areas, too much invisibility. People seem to be confused about it, too, thinking an applicant can level to 25 and get detect invis so they can get their first kill, but that's reversed, they need the first kill to get to be an official applicant, and then they can get detect invis. But it's extremely difficult now for any class that doesn't see invis to get that kill. It's just a broken system.

But there's good news! There is a simple fix: make it a two step process. It would work like this.

Character that wants to be battle goes to Tahren. Character pledges to battle. Can make it that Tahren asks if they want to dedicate themselves to fighting magic, blah blah blah. Applicant says yes. They then get that temp title "Village Applicant". This does what it already does, which is give them access to truesight at level 25. So if you want to try and wait it out to find your mage kill in the teens, ok, great, but that's on you. If not, you can level up to 25, get detect invis, and level the playing field to give you a decent chance to get your mage kill.

Once you do get a mage kill, you go back to Tahren, he senses the blood (like he does now), and poof! (mechanics) your temp title is now changed to "Blooded Village Applicant". Nothing else changes. All this does is alert leadership (commander, drillmaster, imms) and the world that the char has killed a mage and now is eligible for induction.

This way, you can get that very public "Village Applicant" title, and detect invis, but you can't get in - you can't lie about having a mage kill because you don't have the "Blooded" title. You can try to tough it out in the pre-25 levels to get your kill, or you can get to 25 and use truesight. Up to you.

I see no downside to this, or way to abuse it. If someone decides they want to go and get that "Village Applicant" title with access to detect invis at level 25 - which damages you every time you use it by the way - knock yourself out. Village applicants, in my opinion, are literally the weakest and most vulnerable of all pcs in the game. Doing this gives you all the restrictions of being in the battle cabal - applicants can't use magic, can't use healers, can't use mercs, etc. - but with none of the balancing benefits of being an actual member of battle. And with the title everyone knows you're hunting, and are likewise a target for everyone who fights battle, again, with you having no ability to get damage reduction or other abilities beyond your basic class. And no potions and healers.

Hell, if someone wants to roll up a character that does it, gets the temp title and self-injuring detect invis, but then somehow betrays battle, so they are now the warrior who can never use magic, never use healing, and gets no battle powers, that sounds like an awesome RP challenge for someone far better than me.

I think this is a great idea because it permits people to get the barrier to battle, a mage kill, somewhat within their control, without giving any way to game the system or overpower anyone. All that needs to be done is code the one step process to a two step process with the additional "Blooded Village Applicant" title.

Hopefully you consider, and implement.