> >Note that not all comman
> >magic religions allow this! There might be other variants on Self-Rock
in,
> >say, the far East or West, or Pameltela...
>
> Allow what? Allow someone to concentrate in common magic? Or allow
Self-Rock
> individuals to learn their magic? By variants on Self-Rock, are you
refering
> to other ways to concetrate in common magic?
The "Not all common magic" sentence refers to the two examples. Put a paragraph between that sentence and "There might be variants": there might be other systems that, like Self-Rock, allow you to concentrate all CM abilities.
> Part of the confusion seems to stem from the fact that in other areas of
> magic, there's no philosopy to which you "concentrate". That is, in
Animism
> you concentrate to animism. For common magic, you learn Self-rock, and
this
> allows one to concentrate in common magic. Basically, the other forms of
> magic don't seem to have a similar philosophy that has to be aquired
first.
? Not sure I follow you - you normally concentrate in "Theism" or "Sorcery" rather than "Orlanthi Pantheon" or "Seshnelan Malkionisim". Things like the Lunar, Donander and Lanbril concentrations are outside the normal rules.
> Again, this could just be that I don't understand how Concentration works
in
> general. If, indeed, when concentrating you are limited to the religion to
> which you currently belong, then that would clear things up a lot (If I've
> missed that in the book then I apollogize for the hullabaloo). But if it
> works the way that I think it does, then there's still a lot of questions.
Nope, that is not the way it works under normal conditions. You concentrate on a specific type of Otherworld magic.
An analogy we've used (HQ page 110) is that of locks and keys: A specific Otherworld (God Plane, Spirit Plane, Essence Plane) is like a lock. A worship style (Animism/Ecstatic, Theistic/Sacrificial,Wizardry/Veneration) are like keys. To get the most out of your worship, you need to match the right key with the right lock. If you don't get the correct matchup, then you've got misapplied worship and concentration is impossible
> I'm still confused about common magic religions and how they work,
actually.
> I don't remember that we ever cleared any of that up. Can a person take a
> common magic religion keyword as part of their common magic? Or is it a
> separate keyword? If you take one as a separate keyword, then does it
count
> as a "Specialized Religion Keyword"? If not limited in this way, how many
> common magic keywords can a character have?
You have access to all the "Common Religions" of your homeland (Frex, Heortlings only have access to the Flesh Man Religion, while Dara Happans have access to the People Talents, League Magic and Great Parents "religions"). Lanbril is basically a "Common religion" tied to the "Thief" occupation, rather than to a particular homeland. You don't really need to list any of these as a common magic provider; "Common Magic" is usually good enough as the keyword. If you're (planning on) concentrating, then just count "Common Magic" as your Magic keyword.
> Part of the problem that I have with this is that so few of the common
magic
> religions are defined (as opposed to how many are presented) that you'd
have
> to do a lot of work to create the keywords for them if someone declared
> themselves a member? Or do those without enumeration fail to provide more
> than just the common magic abilities themselves (this is what I've always
> thought to be the case)?
This is, basically, the case. Sure, there are ceremonies, etc. that everyone does; count it as your 10% "Commmunity worship" requirement (BTW, No-one with any magic gotten from a religion has less than a 10% requirement...), but there aren't any sort of religious hierarchies or the like.
Why have I never seen a sample character with a
> common magic religion listed?
Because we (authors) don't bother to list it - especially if the hero is concentrated, when he has to give up common magic anyway. But even if he's not concentrated, we don't bother to list all the abilities he might have - a "Keyword 19" listing is assumed to take care of piddling little "+1 or +2 to base" abilities. We only list abilities that are important for the narrator to run the character, and common magic usually isn't important.
> Is my confusion clear? That is, do you see where I'm confused? I'm afraid
in
> not being clear here that I won't get answers that address my concens.
Hopefully I've helped rather than hurt...
RR
It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has
done what he has done.
- Richelieu
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