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> This may be silly, as we are getting HQ2 in a few weeks, but I want to ask anyway.
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> If I've understood the HQ2 paradigm right, what magic a character knows is mostly shown by his possession of / connection to a number of core runes. An Orlanthi male could have Storm and mastery, for instance.
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> I love this idea, and have actually been using a very similar one for the past few years for my heortlings. They are pantheists, so it's easy for me to keep track of any special relationships with specific gods by looking at the runes on a character sheet.
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> A Sorcerer looks for abstract sources of power, I think. I'm not sure if they can also be diabolists, who do deal / tie themselves to any useful entities they find in their quest for power.
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> But what about Church wizards, and people venerating a saint. Is the saint mechanically speaking a route to the primal powers of a rune like a theists god? If a wizard wants to learn fire magic, does he then initiate into the mysteries of St. Gerlant to gain access to the rune of fire?
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> -Adept
>From what I deduced from Jeff's seminar at Tentacles, it is rather a matter of learning how to use a grimoire connected to that rune. And, as Trotsky remarked, the spells contained in the grimoire are much narrower in scope than the feats a theist gains from his or her affinities.
However, I suppose that the runes used by Malkioni are not exactly the same as the theist ones. For instance, St. Gerlant is connected to the Flaming Sword rather than to fire. And the Book of Bardan could be connected to the Rune of Valor rather than Death (the usual rune for theist war cults). And so on.