Introduction

Welcome to Rival Magic! In this book you will find described four complete magical traditions who pose a threat to the hegemony of the Order of Hermes. Unlike most hedge magicians, the traditions described here possess powers and abilities that are the match of those of the Order, despite lacking the flexibility of Hermetic magic. The Amazons and the Muspelli offer a physical threat. The Amazons harbor an ancient hatred for the Order that extends back to the days of the Founders. The Muspelli brood in the extreme north, working hard to bring about the end of this world and the birth of one where their giant masters rule. The Sorcerers of Soqotra pose a more subtle threat, since they are clearly powerful yet offer no excuse to the Order for an all-out war. Finally, the Augustan Brotherhood poses a social threat; emerging from the very heartland of the Order, its wizards perform magical tasks on behalf of mundane lords that magi will not do for fear of breaking the Code.

The Hermetic Opening of the Arts is the Order of Hermes' equivalent of Opening The Gift. Rules for this are given in ArM5 (page 106) and again in Houses of Hermes: Societates (page 128), but they do not address the possibility of the apprentice's Gift being already Opened by another tradition. If a magus attempts to Open the Arts of an apprentice whose Gift has already been Opened by a non-Hermetic tradition, add 30 to the Intellego Vim Lab Total required by the magus.

These are common rules for non-Hermetic magic, although the traditions detailed in this book do not follow all of them. However, these rules apply unless the chapter explicitly says otherwise.

The traditions described in this book all require The Gift of any practitioner.

A Gifted wizard has to undergo a ritual, similar to the Hermetic Opening of the Arts, before he can fully utilize the powers of his magical tradition. The particulars of the ritual are unique to the magical tradition, but the following general rules apply. In these rules, the wizard whose Gift is being Opened is referred to as the apprentice, and the wizard who is Opening the apprentice's Gift is referred to as the master. Obviously, particular traditions may use different titles for these roles.

It takes one season to Open The Gift, which occupies both the apprentice and the master for the whole season. Usually this happens near the beginning of some sort of apprenticeship, but this depends on the particular tradition.

Both master and apprentice must have The Gift. The master must also have had his Gift Opened to the tradition, previously. This means that unGifted wizards cannot Open The Gift of their Gifted colleagues, and a Gifted wizard cannot Open his own Gift.

If the apprentice has no existing Supernatural Ability or Art Scores, his Gift is automatically Opened at the end of the season. Usually this gives him a score of 0 in the magical Arts associated with the tradition, or makes a certain set of Supernatural Abilities favored (see later). It may also grant one or more Virtues. For details of precisely what Opening The Gift achieves, see each individual tradition. If the master is not fully competent in the Supernatural Abilities and Arts of the tradition, then the Opening of The Gift may be flawed (see later).

If the apprentice already has Supernatural Ability or Art Scores, these may be lost in the Opening process or it may not be possible for his Gift to be Opened at all. In this case an Opening Total is calculated for the master and compared to an Opening Ease Factor. See the individual traditions for details of precisely how the Opening Total is calculated.

The Opening Ease Factor is equal to twice the sum of the apprentice's existing Supernatural Ability and Art scores of the apprentice, with an additional +12 if the character's Gift has already been Opened by another tradition (including the Order of Hermes). Treat each Supernatural Ability or Art derived from a Minor Virtue as if it has a score of at least 2, and treat each derived from a Major Virtue as if it has a score of at least 6.

Opening Ease Factor: twice apprentice's Supernatural Ability + Art scores (+12 if Gift already Open).

If the master's Opening Total is less than the Opening Ease Factor, it is not possible for him to Open The Gift of the apprentice. If the master's Opening Total is greater than or equal to the Opening Ease Factor then the apprentice's Gift is Opened, however unless the Opening Total exceeds twice the Opening Ease Factor the apprentice loses his existing Supernatural Ability and Art Scores. If his Supernatural Ability and Arts Scores are lost, he also loses any Virtues (or Flaws) associated with them. Even if the master is able to Open The Gift of the apprentice, the Opening may still be flawed as described later.

A character whose Gift has been Opened must subtract at least 15 from the source quality when attempting to learn a new Supernatural Ability, just as for Hermetic magi. If the sum of his Abilities and Arts is higher, he must subtract the higher total instead.

To be a fully competent master the character must have a score of at least 2 in each Supernatural Ability and Art of the tradition. For every Supernatural Ability or Art that the master fails to meet this criterion, the apprentice gains a Flaw that affects his magic use. Usually this is something like Deficient Art, but the troupe may substitute other Flaws as appropriate.

The Gift imposes a heavy social penalty on a character when he attempts to interact socially with other characters (see ArM5, page 75), including when he interacts with other Gifted characters. Hermetic magi have overcome this difficulty through the innovation of Parma Magica; one of its functions is to shield magi from the social effect of each other's Gift. Some traditions who have Gifted members have found other ways to overcome this social penalty, while other traditions, for example the Muspelli, have not solved the social problems of the Gift and consequently their Gifted members only interact in small, factious, paranoid groups.

As previously expressed in ArM5, people do not get used to The Gift. They can get used to a Gifted individual, however, and regular positive interactions eventually allow a person to ignore the negative social consequences generated by that character's Gift. The type, frequency, and length of such interactions have never been addressed in Ars Magica. Covenants implies that it takes fifteen years for an average covenfolk to ignore the social penalty of the Gift (see Familiarity, page 40), although altruism and rewards might shorten this to seven years.

This supplement introduces Gifted individuals who do not have an instantaneous magical way to mitigate the negative effects of their Gift like Parma Magica provides. These characters may have retainers and might form temporary associates with members of the same tradition for various ends. The Gift restricts such alliances, but does not absolutely prohibit them. Gifted wizards may work together if the greater goal or reward outweighs distrust and suspicions they feel for each other. Debt has a certain social currency as well. A wizard might help a fellow so that he is owed a debt of service or repayment in kind. Such alliances will be fraught with distrust, and storyguides should impose a –3 penalty for any sort of situation roll that involves loyalty. Characters with the Blatant Gift should receive a –6 penalty to loyalty rolls.

Over time, a wizard may gather supporters who get used to his Gift. This group is never large; a group size of the wizard's Leadership Ability score times two is a good

rule of thumb. It takes a number of years to form such bonds, fifteen for casual, dayto-day relationships and fewer for wizards who are overly friendly and heavily reward their supporters. Triple the amount of time if the Gifted character has the Blatant Gift.

Interactions between two Gifted wizards are more complicated, and can be likened to two poisonous snakes sizing each other up. Both are powerful, both distrust the other, and yet both realize that their power could increase with the other's help. Reputation becomes paramount in these encounters. A more powerful wizard who undeniably knows he is more powerful will almost certainly kill the other wizard and take his possessions. Mystery can be an advantage.

Ultimately, the adventure designed by the storyguide should determine the result of such encounters. Most likely the wizards in this supplement will be antagonists. If it serves the storyguide to have a pair of Muspelli working together, then they can be assumed to have made some type of alliance. If the wizards are player characters, as in the case of two players wanting to play Amazonian sorceress and who want the characters to be friends, they should either include mistrust and suspicion in their early stories, or be assumed to have been associates for several years. While the social consequences of The Gift should penalize teaching totals and loyalty rolls, it should not penalize storytelling.

Finally, wizards take apprentices to enhance their abilities and continue their traditions of magic. While the length of any individual tradition's apprenticeship varies, it is sometimes long enough for the wizard and his apprentice to get used to each other. This does not mean they like each other, but it also doesn't mean they don't. The relationship depends on the Personality Traits, and actions, of the parties involved. If the master and apprentice both take active steps to build a good teaching relationship (which need not involve actually liking each other), the penalty imposed on teaching by The Gift may be reduced, and eventually eliminated.

The Gift expresses itself in a very individual fashion, and one manifestation of this is as a casting sigil. All characters with The Gift and a supernatural Ability, Art, or power produce a sigil when they use their magic, which is akin to a signature. Like the sigils of Hermetic magi (ArM5, page 86), these sigils might affect the environment in which the spell was cast, the wizard herself, or the target of the spell; but they always allow the identification of a cast spell to a specific individual, although it may require magical investigation to reveal a sigil once a spell has been cast.

The Limits of Magic are Hermetic theories that describe the boundaries of Hermetic magic, although some Hermetic theorists believe that a few of the limits are merely errors in Bonisagus' theory. The Limits of Magic are described in detail in ArM5 (pages 79-80).

Rival magic is likewise normally bound by the Limits of Magic, which adds credence to the theories of Bonisagus, although a wizard might not conceive of his limitations in precisely the same systematic way magi do. Despite this, Hermetic theorists have noted that there are odd bits and pieces of some magical traditions that do appear to break the Limits of Magic. The discovery of these oddities is very exciting for the Order of Hermes, as it indicates possible errors in (and possible corrections to) Bonisagus' theory.

It is recommended that traditions devised by the troupe break no more than one of the Lesser Limits of Magic and do not break the Greater Limits of Magic at all. Rival traditions should also not break the new Limit of Magic Resistance (see insert), unless the troupe wants the extremely prejudiced persecution of the tradition by the Order of Hermes to form a significant part of the saga.

Some magical traditions produce effects via combinations of Arts in a manner similar to how Hermetic effects are produced via combinations of Technique and Form Arts. Other magical traditions produce effects via Supernatural Abilities. Finally, some traditions use both Arts and Supernatural Abilities (although for separate effects).

Magical Arts are not normally compatible with Hermetic Arts (or with the magical Arts of other traditions), so if a character somehow learns Arts from several traditions, they may not be combined to produce exotic effects. However, this could be a fruitful avenue for integration research projects (see later).

No non-Hermetic tradition of wizards has a general resistance to magic.

This is obviously not a true Limit of Magic, as clearly a Hermetic magus has a general magic resistance from his Form Art Scores (augmented even further by his Parma Magica). However, Hermetic theorists have noted that non-Hermetic traditions are constrained by this apparent limit. It is unclear why this should be so, but it is undeniably convenient for the Order of Hermes. In fact, if a magical tradition did develop a method of breaking the Limit of Magic Resistance, its members would be ruthlessly eliminated by the Order of Hermes. This is because the wider Order fully understands that its hegemony over the magical traditions relies on magi's ability to resist the magical effects of wizards, and the wizard's corresponding inability to resist the magic of magi. Perhaps the historic efficiency of the Order of Hermes in identifying and destroying such challenges to their power is sufficient to explain the apparent Limit of Magic Resistance.

Some magical traditions are underdeveloped, or have theoretical shortcomings, so the wizards find it difficult to improve some (or even all) of their magical Arts. Other Arts are difficult to improve because they encompass very wide and disparate effects. In either case, such Arts are noted as being Difficult Arts in their description. This means that when generating a character, scores in these Difficult Arts are purchased as if they were Abilities (it costs 5 experience points for a score of 1, 15 experience points for a score of 2, etc). A Difficult Art also uses the Ability Advancement Table (ArM5, page 31) when the character studies or otherwise earns experience points during play. This is the only difference between a Difficult Art and a normal Art; the Difficult Art may be improved through the study of vis (if this is a possibility for the tradition), the Difficult Art is affected normally by Virtues that affect Arts (such as Magical Foci), and it is not affected by Virtues that affect Abilities.

Original research (either by the rival wizards themselves, or by helpful Hermetic allies) could improve a magical tradition and convert some of its Difficult Arts to normal Arts. This should be at least as difficult as an Hermetic breakthrough, and may not be possible at all for some theoretically naive traditions. Many magi would frown upon such research, as it could reduce the Order of Hermes' position of dominance over wizards.

Accelerated Abilities are the counterpart to Difficult Arts, and were introduced in Houses of Hermes: Societates. They advance in the same way as Arts, costing one experience point for a score of 1, but are otherwise treated as Abilities in all respects.

Some traditions have a set of favored Supernatural Abilities. Gifted characters who belong to these traditions do not have to subtract the total of their Supernatural Ability scores from the source quality to learn other Abilities that are favored by that tradition. Usually, the character has to undergo some sort of ritual — Opening The Gift — before he gains this benefit of the tradition. Favored Abilities have no meaning for unGifted characters as they cannot learn Supernatural Abilities at all. Characters with favored Abilities must subtract the total of all their Supernatural Abilities, including favored Abilities, from the source quality when learning Supernatural Abilities that are not favored.

As noted above, no wizard can resist magic, but some wizards do have limited magical defenses that reduce the effect of magic.

Magical defenses apply either a numerical bonus to the wizard, or a penalty to an attacking caster, in an area of the wizard's specialty. If the specialty is a magical Art, the bonus is equal to the wizard's Score in the Art divided by 5 (round up). If the specialty is a Supernatural Ability, the bonus is equal to the wizard's Score in the Ability. Difficult Arts are treated as Arts, so for them the bonus is equal to Score divided by 5 (round up), and Accelerated Abilities are treated as Abilities.

Magical Defense Bonus: Art divided by 5 (round up) or Ability Score.

Magical defenses usually only assist the wizard, and any companions are unaffected. So if the wizard is part of a Group or large Target then the magic effect may be reduced for him, but any others within range are affected normally.

Magical defenses are not cumulative. So, if a wizard has several possible defenses against an effect, use only the best available defense. If the troupe is in doubt as to which defense is the "best," then the storyguide should adjudicate.

Magical defenses are not optional or under the control of the wizard, and work even if he is unconscious. Note that this means that magical defenses apply to friendly effects, too.

Magical defenses do not apply to effects that have a Personal Range.

Each magical Art or Supernatural Ability grants the wizard a maximum of one defense. For example, the Muspelli Wildfire Ability gives the wizard a Magical Fortitude defense against Ignem effects, and her Spadomur Ability gives her a Veil of Secrecy defense against effects with a Corpus or Imaginem Form.

Note that it is the training of the tradition that grants these defenses, so an untrained character with the appropriate Supernatural Virtues for one or more of the powers of a tradition would not normally acquire the associated defenses.

Some magical defenses are listed below, and a particular tradition may have access to none, some, or all of these options:

Accelerated Expiry: Spells cast on the wizard, in his area of specialty, expire unexpectedly quickly. Diameter Duration spells expire a number of rounds too early equal to the wizard's Magical Defense Bonus, but last at least one round. Sun Duration spells expire a number of hours too early, but last at least Diameter. Moon Duration spells expire a number of days too early, but last at least Sun. Year Duration spells expire a number of weeks too early, but last at least Moon. Spells with a Momentary, Concentration, or Ring Duration are unaffected. If other characters are affected by the same spell, the spell lasts its usual duration on them.

Alacritous Fortune: The wizard adds his Magical Defense Bonus to his Defense Total when spells are aimed at him.

Confounding Magics: Add the wizard's Magical Defense Bonus to the Ease Factor of Concentration rolls made by the casters of effects with Concentration Duration that target the wizard, and are in an area of the wizard's specialty. Note that if the wizard is part of a Group or large Target effect, only a single Concentration roll is made by the caster. If several wizards with Confounding Magics defenses are in the Group, then only the best Magic Defense Bonus is used to modify the Ease Factor of the Concentration roll. This is an instance where the effect of

the wizard's Magic Defenses can indirectly benefit other characters.

Immovable Object: If the wizard is affected by an effect in his area of specialty that physically or mentally controls him (usually a Rego effect), then a roll is made for the wizard to resist the effect, each round, of Strength + Magical Defense Bonus – Magnitude of Effect + simple die against an Ease Factor of 9. If the effect is still active next round, he is still affected by it but another roll is made for him to resist. This defense could be disastrous if the wizard resists a friendly effect that allows him to fly, for example.

Magical Fortitude: If the wizard is affected by an effect in his area of specialty that causes damage, then he receives a Magical Defense Bonus to his Soak Total.

Strength of Form: If the wizard is affected by an effect in his area of specialty that changes his form (usually a Muto effect), then he may make a Stamina + Magical Defense Bonus + simple die roll against an Ease Factor of 9 to return to his natural form. The Bjornaer Heartbeast Ability grants a similar defense that has been retained from the House's pre-Hermetic tradition.

Veil of Secrecy: If the wizard is targeted by any effect in the area of the wizard's specialty that tries to discover information about him, the player can make a Perception + Magical Defense Bonus simple roll against an Ease Factor of (6 + spell's magnitude). If successful, the information that the spell provides is somehow reduced. It might produce only a blurred image of his face, locate the general area in which he can be found rather than the exact location, or pluck only a partial answer from his mind. The spell always results in some useful information; if it cannot be reduced in scope (e.g. a spell to determine whether the wizard is dead or alive) then it works as intended.

A rival wizard, like most characters, accumulates Warping Points, which contribute to his Warping Score. The wizard gains Warping Points via the usual methods (see ArM5, page 167), but as these wizards draw their power from the Magic Realm, he does not accumulate Warping points due to living in a strong magic aura.

The response of each magic tradition to Warping is unique. Wizard's Twilight is the response of the Order of Hermes, and no non-Hermetic tradition has this particular response. Usually, unGifted wizards react similarly to mundane characters, gaining Flaws and Virtues (see ArM5, page 168), but Gifted wizards react more uniquely and unpredictably (see individual chapters).

Some magical traditions use vis as described in the tradition chapters. Of course, even these wizards might use a different word to describe vis or may only recognize vis of specific Forms. However, this invites an important question: how do wizards detect vis?

• Any character with the Supernatural Ability Magic Sensitivity (ArM5, page 66) can detect whether an object contains vis; make a roll of Perception + Magic Sensitivity against an Ease Factor of (12 – the number of pawns of vis contained in the object). Some tra-

• ditions have alternative supernatural methods of detecting vis.
• If the character does not have supernatural means of detecting vis, then he may still have an understanding of the types of objects that might contain vis. If the character is presented with an array of objects that might contain vis (for example, he is searching a magus' Laboratory) make a Perception + (Rival Magic) Theory or Magic Lore roll against an Ease Factor of 12. If the roll is successful then the character has successfully identified which objects are most likely to be vis, but whether the objects really do contain vis or not is unknown (to him) until he tries to use the vis.
• Alternatively, a character can use his understanding of magic to predict where vis might be found. In this case, make a roll for the character of Intelligence + (Rival Magic) Theory or Magic Lore against an Ease Factor of 15. If this roll is successful, the character has successfully figured out that, for example, the first fruit of the season is likely to contain vis. However, actually finding the first fruit is a trial-and-error process for the character, and may be a significant adventure in and of itself. See Covenants (page 72) for examples of the types of objects and places that the character might suppose contain vis.

Note that some Story Flaws seem obligatory for rival magicians (such as Pagan for Amazons and Muspelli, and Known Wizard where there are both Hermetic and non-Hermetic player characters). This does not restrict one's choice of Story Flaw. For example, there is nothing to forbid a character with the Feud Story Flaw from also being a pagan; but by choosing Feud over Pagan as a Story Flaw, the player has indicated to her storyguide that she is more interested in being involved in stories having to do with her character's enemies than she is with his faith. In this case, her pagan nature becomes background color and a roleplaying opportunity instead.

The character's magic is particularly potent in a fairly limited area. This area must be smaller in scope than a single Supernatural Ability, but may be spread over several Supernatural Abilities — such as the type of target that can be affected, or a situation in which an Ability is used. When the character uses his Supernatural Ability within his potency, the Casting Total receives a +3 bonus. Furthermore, the character can increase this bonus further by employing casting tools that have Shape or Material Bonuses. Whenever both the potency and a Shape or Material effect applies, the character receives a bonus to his Casting Total equal to 3 + Shape or Material Bonus. Only one bonus can be used to enhance an Ability at a time. The Shape or Material Bonus cannot be gained outside the focus. Like a Magical Focus, a character may only ever have one version of this Virtue, regardless of its source (such as a Virtue granted by Lesser Craft Magic).

Example: Gunnvara has Potent Sorcery with the focus of Men. When using her Entrancement Ability on a man she gets a +3 bonus. If she uses this Ability to make a man turn against his liege lord, she can get a bonus of +6 by brandishing a dagger (which has a +3 bonus for betrayal) when she entrances him. She would not get any bonus, not even from the dagger, if she was trying to make a woman betray her husband.

This Virtue is available to any character with one or more Supernatural Abilities or Hedge Arts, but it cannot affect Hermetic Magic; instead use the Potent Magic Virtue (The Mysteries Revised Edition, pages 31–32).

The wizard is unusually difficult to affect with magic; double his Magical Defense Bonuses. This is only useful for a wizard whose tradition includes Magical Defenses. If the wizard acquires a Magic Resistance (he learns Parma Magica, for example) it is not affected by this Virtue.

The character may craft objects that already contain raw vis into magical devices with lesser enchantments (see ArM5 page 96). He can instill any effect of a Supernatural Ability he himself possesses; this Virtue is useless unless the character has some other magical ability. The vis needed must already be part of the raw material, which is then crafted into a physical object from it; this takes the normal amount of time to make (see City and Guild, page 68) — generally speaking, the more durable the object, the more time it requires. During this time, the character must avoid distractions and maintain concentration whenever he is working on the object, and the character can only work on a single object at a time.

Use the character's Casting Total in place of his Lab Total, but this result only needs to be greater than or equal to the Ease Factor, not twice that value as with Lesser Enchantments. The effect imbued can only be one possible with the Supernatural Ability; use the Ease Factor as the base level, and alter the base Range, Duration, and Target of the effect by adding 5 levels for each magnitude of change needed. The usual effect modifications such as uses per day and Penetration can also be included. A character with a Virtue that only affects himself (e.g. Greater Immunity to Fire, Puissant Single Weapon) can craft an item that other characters can use for the same effect, though only if the activity requires the crafted item to perform. Use an appropriate Craft Total instead of the Casting Total, and the base level of the effect is 5; it has default parameters of R: Per, D: Mom, T: Ind. The Casting Total receives appropriate Shape and Material bonuses just like a Lab Total, with a maximum bonus equal to the Supernatural Ability used (or (Rival Magic) Theory if a Virtue is invested).

If the effect normally requires the magician to roll a stress die (such as part of the Casting Total), he must still roll when he makes the item to see if he botches, but he does not add the die result to his Lab Total. The level of the invested effect cannot exceed five times the number of pawns of vis in the object. Once invested, this vis

cannot be used for any other purpose even if it was not all needed for the enchantment. A character cannot invest more pawns of vis in a season than his score in the appropriate Supernatural Ability; use the highest score if he employs more than one in a season through this Virtue.

A Muspelli cannot use this Virtue to enchant an utiseta ritual effect.

Example: A character with this Virtue and the Shapeshifter Virtue makes a cloak that will allow its wearer to become a wolf. This is a level-14 effect (Base 9, +5 Touch), and will need the pelt of a magical wolf that contains at least 3 pawns of vis. His Lab Total is 3 (Stamina) + 6 (Shapeshifter) + 4 (aura) +4 (Shape and Material bonus for the cloak), or 17; easily enough for success.

Example: A character with this Virtue makes a shield that he imbues with the Tough Virtue (which he also possesses). This is a level-17 effect (Base 5, +5 Touch, +5 Diam; +2 3/day), meaning he must have a Dexterity + Craft: Shields total of 17. Since he is making the item in a Magic aura of 4, and a shield has a +5 Shape and Material bonus for protection effects, this is within his ability as long he can find wood with which to make the shield that has at least four pawns of vis within it.

(This is a Minor version of the Craft Magic Major Virtue, Houses of Hermes: Societates, page 131.)

The character is known to be a wizard by many in the Order of Hermes. The approximate location of his home is well known as is something of his capabilities. The wizard is carefully watched by the Order, and if he begins to demonstrate great power he may be required to either "Join or Die."

Some wizards are pagans — they do not follow the teachings of the Church and have never been baptized. This upsets those in authority in Mythic Europe, and frightens common people who learn of it. The character does not observe Christian holidays and he tries to avoid churchmen and the Dominion. The character cannot pretend to go along with society, as he believes that this would displease his gods and incur their wrath — he might suffer supernatural consequences if he takes communion or appears to worship gods other than his own. The character may be correct in this belief. The character may begin with either Magic Lore or Faerie Lore depending on the specifics of his faith. Note that this Flaw should only be taken for the character if the troupe wishes to tell significant stories about the character's pagan religion. This Flaw is not appropriate for a character who is a "nonpracticing" pagan, or for a saga set in predominantly non-Christian lands.

There is something flawed in the way the wizard's Supernatural Abilities and Arts were developed. He has no Magical Defense Bonuses. This is only appropriate if the magical tradition has magic defenses. This might be a suitable Flaw for a Gifted wizard whose Opening The Gift ritual was flawed.

The following Hermetic Virtues can be taken by non-Hermetic Gifted characters:

Gentle Gift, Mythic Blood*; Cautious Sorcerer, Cyclic Magic (positive), Enduring Magic, Free Study, Harnessed Magic, Inoffensive to Animals, Personal Vis Source, Side Effect, Special Circumstances, Study Bonus.

Mythic Blood is permitted if the Minor Magical Focus that is intrinsic to this Virtue is exchanged with a similar Minor Virtue, such as Special Circumstances.

The following Hermetic Flaws can be taken by non-Hermetic Gifted characters:

Blatant Gift, Necessary Condition, Painful Magic, Restriction, Short-Ranged

Other Hermetic Virtues and Flaws may be suitable for individual traditions of magic; those are noted in the appropriate chapter.

Magic, Weak Magic, Weird Magic.

Some Hermetic magi, particularly those of House Bonisagus, eagerly hunt down rumors of exotic traditions so that they may gain insights into magic theory. This is because some exotic traditions accomplish unusual effects that could, with considerable difficulty, be integrated into the Hermetic theory of magic, and thus duplicated by Hermetic magi. A new effect might even break a limit of magic, and much prestige would accrue to the Seeker responsible for extending the power of Hermetic magic in this way.

Since Hermetic encounters with the traditions mentioned in this book are likely to be hostile — at least at first — the probability that a magus could have a meaningful dialog with a rival magician regarding the differences between their magical traditions is slim. However, should a détente be reached, suggestions for the Hermetic integration of aspects of the rival magic traditions are given in their respective chapters. The process for the integration of exotic magic into Hermetic theory is given extensive treatment in Ancient Magic pages 7–9, and Hedge Magic Revised Edition pages 14–16.