> I'm confused. I always thought you couldn't know both Sorcery and
> Spirit Magic or Sorcery and Rune Magic (I'm sure it says so
> somewhere in the RQ3 box).
Yeah. And in Gods of Glorantha we learn about Stygians worshipping pagan gods with the Invisible God, and Easterners using (some sort of) sorcery with their divine magic.
> under what circumstances can ordinary PCs know Sorcery and
> Spirit Magic or Sorcery and Rune Magic or all three ?
First of all they need a cultural environment which offers all the systems involved while they get attuned to their magic - usually during their initiation phase, but maybe later during a conversion.
The character has to be sufficiently rootless or openminded. Arkati and Lunars qualify for both, often blamed on illumination. Orlanthi willing to embrace foreign ways (as some of their numbers have done during each of the bygone ages) and risking outlawry (unless imposed on them anyway) might. Wolf Pirates might, since all kinds of magicians are available to them.
It has often been stated that hybrid magic is necessarily weaker than the pure form of the magic. That's sort of true - for instance the Grazers (prior to the FHQ) or Char-un have better horse magic than most Pentans. This doesn't make them more successful, though - the Lunar combination of all the incompatible ways of Peloria makes them vastly successful, and the Arkati were overcome when the Jrusteli had not only mastered their ways of combining cross-cultural myths magics but exceeded the Arkati exploits.
Ruleswise, the character who follows more than one way has to invest valuable training time and booty on the different approaches, while the specialist advances in his own branch more quickly. It does take considerable effort to convince a shaman to teach you. It takes a lot more effort if you insist on maintaining your sorcerous/theist ways.
Same for the other traditions. You need to find a priest willing to tolerate a sorcerer's or shaman's pupil while still allowing the character to worship in his congregation, and you need the sorcerer or shaman willing to instruct the temple kid. See the practical problem?
There are places where some of these requirements may be present - the Lunar Empire, multi-cultural places like Nochet or Refuge, bi-cultural places like the many Stygian regions, or e.g. the Pol Joni who combine Orlanthi and Praxian (i.e. more shamanic) magics.
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