Hold on. This might be a vocabulary thing. Children (non-adults) have not gone through clan initiation. Once that happens you are an adult, and you can use magic for the first time. You are pretty much going to be a lay member (GL term) at this point.
The implication is that non-adults are like pre-Hogwarts kids in the HP series: maybe funny things happen around them, but they can't control it. They certainly can't focus the power enough to be useful.
> To me Rune Magic is NOT common magic. Neither is initiation to Orlanthi lay
> member necessary to learn the Heat Forge spell or to gain the Sharpen Knife
> charm that was passed down to you from your Grandfather when he died. And
> you could have the innate magical trait of Glowing Eyes. These are all
> common magic, the lowest tier of magic, and it does not require Otherworld
> experience to acquire.
As written, you use your uninitiated runes as passive abilities (yes, that term is not used in HQ2) that pump up mundane skills. That sharpen Knife charm isn't used by itself, but augments a combat ability, a weapon maintenance ability, or something like that. But it cannot be used on its own.
> The first level of Otherworld magic for Theists (at least, for Sartarite
> Orlanthi) is initiation to lay member, which awakens your three "best" runes
> as Affinities, which get specific numbers. Also according to the rules for
> character creation. While the phrase is not used in S:KoH, I feel that this
> is the first step beyond Common Magic.
A charm or spell just count against your "10 other abilities". Is that all you mean by common magic: something that you just "get" without a religious/magical tie in?
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