When you first get 10 ranks in mechanical lore, you can carve a simple talisman in order to be able to summon a familiar. You can buy these talismans for a little under a gold in Crossing. Your possibilities at this point are turtles, lizards, guinea-pigs, and gerbils. You are unable to pick which you get - you will find out as you carve the talisman. Rub talisman twice to attune it to you and then begin to carve. I have heard that using any knife will work, but I think it is likely best to stick to using carving knives. When you have carved enough times to bring out the fine details, your talisman is finished. The talisman may snap while you are carving it.

Once the talisman is carved, type summon to call your familiar. If you type tell familiar, you will see a list of commands. One that is not listed is "perform." Different animals perform differently.

Your first familiar will be quite slow in performing actions, but be patient. Part of it depends on your own concentration, but lower familiars are slower than higher ones. Watch this familiar closely around the fir familiars as these can eat your familiar if left unattended too long. It may be best to simply tell your familiar to leave rather than risk this. If your familiar dies, the talisman connected to it will break. This familiar is, I believe, the only one who can be eaten.

When you are at least circle 10 and have 20 ranks in mechanical lore, you can carve a large talisman. You will need a large talisman from either the artificer shop in Shard for a little over 1.2 plat dokoras or the one in Haven for about 1.5 plat lirums. Rub and carve your new talisman, as you did with the small talisman, before attempting to summon.

The familiars available here are crows, bats, rats, rabbits, piglets, and squirrels. Winged familiars have the additional commands of fly and land, but cannot go indoors

This third type of familiar may be gotten when you are circle 20 and have 50 ranks of mech lore. You have to solve a puzzle in order to earn a talisman for this familiar.

The familiars available here are cats, dogs, ravens, falcons, and geese. Again, winged familiars can fly and land, but cannot go inside buildings.

Note: The quest below has been updated so that it now requires a kort potion, instead of 5 plat.

Quest puzzle:

Quest solution:

You have to buy a woodcutter's hatchet in Kaerna Village's general store for 500 kronars. Next you find the sanrisi tree in Riverhaven (in wildland goblins) or the one on the side road to Dirge or the tree near the death sprites in Leth Deriel's Forest of Night. When you find a sanrisi tree, cut sanrisi tree with my hatchet - you may need to cut more than once. Pick up your new branch and carve it until it becomes a dark talisman. (It should only take one time to carve it from a branch into a talisman.) Find a pool of holy water such as in the Riverhaven temple and dip my talisman in water. You then need to return to Crossing and go out the west gate until you see a small mound. While holding your dark talisman in one hand, you must offer 50000 kronars to mound.
You will see the following messaging after offering the 5 plat to the mound: As you place the 50,000 kronars on the mound you notice it begin to pulsate as if something underneath was trying to get out. Suddenly you notice a small hole appear in the mound. You feel the urge to run but are transfixed by the events occurring. A red light arcs from the hole to the talisman that you're holding.
Moments later you shake your head and stare at the mound in wonder while feeling pleased with yourself for some reason. Your kronars and the hole have both disappeared. You also notice that you are kneeling for some unexplained reason.

Rub your talisman to attune it to you and then carve it until you have brought out the fine details. Your talisman is now complete.

The fir familiar becomes available to warrior mages once they have reached 50th circle and 100 ranks in mechanical lore.

The fir familiars are bears, leopards, lynxes, owls, and panthers.

Unlike the first three sets of familiars, your fir familiar can help with the preparation of spells. Currently, there is no fir familiar to help with aether spells.

• Lynxes help Electricity spells.
• Bears help Earth spells.
• Owls help Air spells.
• Panthers help Water spells.
• Leopards help Fire spells.

A fir fam can drag its owner should the warrior mage become stunned in battle. It is a percentage-based chance that the familiar will drag you; more charisma will raise the likelihood of this occurring. With enough charisma, it is virtually 100%.

Fir fams can carry up to 5 coins. They can carry items and are able to carry more than any of the smaller fams. Also, a bear can carry more than an owl. I have not done any comparisons on how much the lynxes, panthers, and leopards can carry as compared to bears and owls. An example of what a bear can carry is a pack containing a couple of spare armors or some boxes. If you do not get the pack back from the bear before dismissing it, you will lose the pack and anything it may contain. This is true for anything any familiar may be holding prior to dismissal.

How to get a fir familiar:

1. Go to tree in front of the burned warrior mage guild. (To get there from the Northeast Gate of Crossing, go southwest, west, west, door.)
2. PULL TREE to obtain bark.
3. Go to area near Shard. (Dead animal trail.)
4. Enter at the wall.
5. Free up both of your hands and then PUT RIGHT HAND IN FIRST HOLE.
6. Get the bark with your right hand and then PUT LEFT HAND IN SECOND HOLE.
7. Put the bark away and put the holy water (just the water, not water in a container) in your left hand and PUT RIGHT HAND IN THIRD HOLE.
8. Go west and past the stairs, GIVE BARK TO MAN.
9. Get the talisman and get out of the area entirely. Once you have done so, rub the talisman once, and then carve it until you see fine details. Now summon your new familiar.

-- Thank you to Sinah MacGreine for putting together this information and to Xavain Gramorham for contributing the fir familiar section.