Most skills are very broad categories. It may suit your character to excel in one or more area of that skill.

For Example: A doctor would be a Natural Studies expert who specializes in medicine. An assassin would be a Natural Studies expert who specializes in poisons. A zookeeper would be a Natural Studies expert who specializes in wild animals.

Taking a specialization costs 1 additional XP. If you are using your skill in a situation appropriate for your specialization, you will have a slightly greater chance of success. Mechanically speaking, you will be granted an additional edge one degree less than your skill. Being specialized is never a penalty.

Taking a specialization for a skill at level 1 will not give you an edge. It is merely for flavour purposes.

Skill Level	Max Specs	Specialization Bonus
1	3	No Bonus. Flavor only
2	4	Additional Minor Edge
3	5	Additional Significant edge

Specializations are part of training your skills. The 'Max Specs' represents how many specializations you will need to get a broad understanding of the skill. If you have this many specializations, you may trade them in to increase you skill level. You will lose the specializations, but have a higher skill level.

For Example: Godam is an expert architect, at Level 2. He is specialized in Bridge construction, Irrigation Systems and Storm Defenses. After some hard study, he has a broad knowledge in Anti-Piracy measures. With all this special knowledge, he is practically a master architect. He turnsheets to trade in his 4 specializations, and become an unspecialized level 3 Architect.

Therefore, even level 1 specializations have value.