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[Geoffrey]

I don't know if it's still used among anthropologists, but for a while there was a technical distinction between a witch and a sorcerer based on Evans-Pritchard's Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande. Witches are people who are born with supernatural talents that they inherit from one or the other parent, and who may be completely unaware that they're witches. Sorcerers are people who study under another sorcerer to learn similar abilities. He was writing about specific cases in one part of Africa, however, so even then the terms can't be applied universally.

-g....

[Geoffrey]

This depends on what you mean by "Hermetic," which can be as hard to pin down as "Gnostic." The main problem is that the definition started with the small body of literature ascribed to Hermes Trismegistus or one of his pupils (Tat, Asclepius), then expanded to other works in which Hermes Trismegistus features or is referenced, then to anything that looks similar to one of the first two types. Hermetism, the philosophy and set of alchemical and astrological texts that develop from the early material, is much more Egyptian than Greek- or Roman-influenced. Most of the sources...

[Geoffrey]

Well, no need to catch the plague to satisfy my idle curiosity. Thanks for the quick answer.

-g....

[Geoffrey]

Oh, it's a valid preference. I just wonder how much it will influence what happens with them in Scion, which otherwise doesn't spend too much time on Neoplatonism.



I agree with the second sentence, but I'm curious about the first for the sake of my own education. Can you point me to other mythologies that include the idea that an inherent spark of divinity empowers magic?

-g....

[Geoffrey]

That's a good set of distinctions, Dataweaver.

It seems likely to me that sorcerers in Scion are going to end up more like their counterparts in myth and folklore than in any real-world esoteric tradition. They're probably less "I have unlocked the mysteries of the cosmos through years of uninterrupted contemplation of the ineffable" and more "I'm going to hide my soul in this egg, which has never ended badly for anybody, ever."

Given the general multiple-choice metaphysics of the game, there's probably room for all sorts, but for anyone guessing what...

[Geoffrey]

Now that the Tarot question has been definitively resolved, other things you might do with esotericism* in Scion:

- A Cult devoted to an obscure Mantle of a God, allowing its members to ask for miracles that the exoteric religion does not. Anyone can ask Dionysus for a moment of ecstatic clarity, but only a few know the right prayers to ask him to retrieve a shade from Hades with a good chance of success. The Cult is led by your typical Scion who picked the absolute minimum number of crossover Callings and Purviews as their divine parent, then went off to do their own thing.
...

[Geoffrey]

I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Tell me if this helps:

1. At Origin, your character gets 1 Knack (from the Origin book). Choose it from the general Knack list or the one for your Calling.
1a. If the effect of the Knack mentions your Calling dots, you are assumed to have 1 dot in your Calling.
2. You can add 2 more Knacks in the Finishing Touches part of character creation (Origin, p.98), but remember that you can only have 1 active at a time (i.e., during a session).
3. You can later spend 10 XP to buy another Knack (still from the Origin book), but can still...

[Geoffrey]

No. A little confusingly, Heroic Knacks are Knacks that take up only one active Knack "slot." There are also Immortal Knacks in Hero, which take up two....

[Geoffrey]

Correct. At Origin, your character has one Calling and one active Knack from either that Calling or the General Knack list. Callings cannot be bought with experience (ever). Knacks can be bought with experience, but the number of active Knacks you can have is fixed.

[Geoffrey]

Note: vast generalizations ahead that will not stand up to academic scrutiny

I'm going to start with some basic premises:

1. People are drawn to these movements because they feel powerless politically, socially, or economically.
2. They look at an idealized, imaginary version of history to prove to themselves that they were once strong.
3. They blame outside influences for "corrupting" their society and causing it to lose that past strength.
4. They believe that if they remove those influences, they will become strong again.

Because...

[Geoffrey]

Complete one Short-term Deed, one Long-term Deed, and one Band Deed to increase in Legend. This makes calculating the minimum number of sessions difficult.