A title bestowed upon a master of martial, athletic, or manual arts literally translated as Higher Physical, the conjugated al-ga having a uniquely Iskan linguistic function as a Titular Adjective, an adjective that is not modified into or modifying a noun, used only in Title Case.
In the Early Iskan Age, the title referred to all of those who have mastered and possess disciples in any physical disciplines including not only sport and warfare, but the manual occupations such as builders, land planners (agricultural and urban), cartographers (major and minor), smiths, jacks, miners, and at the time, alchemists.
From the Middle Age to the Modern Age, the title has since been used only to refer to masters of martial and military skills and masters of atheletic and ludic skills. Ironically, as the term's definitional berth shrank, it came to include both the physical and intellectual aspects of both professions, despite the literal translation of al-ga to "physical."
In Middle and Modern Iska al-gar typically reside in a schoolhouse or residential training facility of varying sizes and degrees of oppulence called an al-trosk in which the master, or al-gar, resides alongside his disciples. While many al-gar are associated with if not direclty in service of the Wu-xiette, not all are, though in the contemporary late Modern era, secular al-gar have become rarer and rarer and possess the lowest social prestige of any al-gar.
Despite this, all al-gar possess some level of social prestige within Iska and their al-trosk supplemented by the Imperial coffers. However, following the patriarchal nature of Iskan society, both al-gar and their protege, al-gan, are male, either originarily or synthetically.
In the West, including the Castian Empire, Moss, and even Hovard, al-gar possess a particularly mythic and exoticized status that often provides both benefits and hindrances for al-gar looking to share their practices with non-Iskan students. However, despite this, following the prostelytic teaching of the Wu-xiette, they are encouraged to establish foreign al-trosk, though with little material incentive to do so, very, very few do.