Talents are one of the primary means of customizing a character. Some Talents are innate to a race, but most are selected personally. Talents are what grant a character augmentation above and beyond the introductory rules and really assist in determining the path a character takes. If you want to be a potent mage, then you might take Talents like Arcane Affinity to increase the amount of mana you have to spend. Perhaps you prefer to be a non-combative type, and like to try and persuade guards to get yourself out of trouble, or to try and diplomatically resolve a situation, you might take a Talent like Charismatic Presence to improve the quality of this sort of behavior.

There are a wide variety of Talents, and new ones are added as the game continues to grow and expand. Some Talents will require you to have others as pre-requisites, and still some will merely require you to have a specific level.