If that makes you feel better, I'm waiting, too. And I just heard from the postman that there had been strikes (for a change 
) lately. So I'm not holding my breath. Maybe next week, with a bit of luck.
Seconded. Furion, it is your duty to raise your post count to never-before reached heights. 8)
Yes, but I was on sick leave (flu) till Monday, and slowly digesting AnM would have been the perfect way to kill some time in bed, instead I'll get to read the book next week in quick cat-nap reads amind the mad rush to catch up with the accumulated stuff at job. Oh well, it can't be helped. 
Happy Birthday, you!
Sadly, you are rapidly approaching the dreaded "Aging" threshold. I hope you have your longevity potion ready. It's rather brutal without one.
Damn stop the chatting... more spoilers please 
I looked at Defixio magic long enough to glance at the two breakthroughs that it could theretically provide.
The first was a duration of "event" which is sort of the flip side of the faerie duration of "until". The spell will happen when the triggering event comes to pass (In fact it is a bit like the faerie duration of bargain but without the bargain).
The second is a range of unlimited. If you can get two points of sympathetic connections (such as a nickname and a daily horoscope, such as a symbolic representation, such as a birth name and a blood relative) then you can target anything no matter where it is Arcane connection or not.
Many thanx for the spoiler. Am I the only one that immediately realizes that Defixio magic would make the perfect "sympathetic magic" mystery if combined with theurgic magic and some virtues from the Folk and Glamour Merinita mysteries ??
Also, what are the possible links between Defixio and Hyperborean magics ? Could they be mingled in a "ancient pagan secrets" tradition ?
I don't think so. Hyperborean magic is not something I think would work with Defixio magic.
From a Background point of view defeixio magic comes from Ceres, Juno , Pluto, Hades and Hecate while Hyperborean magic comes from Apollo so their sources are seperate.
The mechanics of Hyperborean hymns seem to be more about giving yourself abilities and powers and those powers seem to be of a sort which would not be as useful when used via Defixio magic.
A hermetic integration of both could probably be combined effectively , but a combination of pretty much any two ancient magics could be
Well ancient pagan religions were big on the concept of the Godhead being divided in "olympian", sky, day, light, rational deities/forces, and "cthonic", night, earth, dark ones, and the fact that while deserving of different approaches, they still belonged to the same realm. So these magics might be separate in focus but strongly linked in nature.
These magics should indeed be probably separate (as in, bestowed by different hermetic/supernatural virtues) since their focus is different (curse/harm vs. heal/create), but I would expect them to be related in that lore sources that give hints to one could/should also teach the other.
In pretty much the same way I would also expect Adamite magic and grigori magic to be related: sources that give light to one should also hint about the other. They are both about the "early times" of the Genesis, even if their scope is separate (naming and arcane connections vs. vis manipulation).
Clumping thematically-related ancient magics together this way might be a tool to put different lores in a saga without cluttering it too much with a quest for all nine secret lores.
In this way, I think that other ancient lores might maybe be clumped together, eg. Canaanite stuff with the other Bible lores, fertility magics (highly mindful of Dionisian ecstasy cults) with the other pagan mystic lores, and maybe Heron and the Hesperides together (they have that Hellenistic ancient "techno-magical" feel). Rune magic is the odd man out, but then again, so far it's the secret I'd be most reluctnat to add to a chronicle, for its Parma-bypassing game balance concerns. Bypassing magic reisistance is far more severe in consequences, than breaking the Limit of Creation or the Limit of Arcane Connection.
Really ? Are hyperborean magics essentially focused on boosting and improving the self ? That's very interesting (please elaborate) but how this reconciles with the alleged ability of hyperborean mages to heal, create goods, and enchant items without vis ?
Indeed, see my notes above.
I'm not sure that I agree with this, learning Adamic will give the character a 2 multiplier arcane connection to everything that exisits. Learning Rune magic will more or less mess with the limit of creation allowing the caster to create real things that bypass MR. The power of Rune magic can be blunted with defensive spells like ward against heat and flames, shreik of the impending shafts and so on. Adamic is going to allow a caster to use un-aimed effects that have sufficent penetration to punch through MR rather than sneak around it. I think that Adamic as an arcane connection breakthrough would be harder to deal with than Rune magic.
Well, then I retract my stance and clump Adamic along with Rune magics in the "handle with caution" category. Then I would just clump Grigori and Canaanite lores together for quest and research. However, Rune IMO does not regard the limit of creation at all, it just messes with the Limit of Magic Resistance in a reverse way (instead of a universal shield, a partial universal shield-breaker). As a matter of fact, from what I know so far, Defixio seems to be a much more balanced way than Adamic to dispatch the Limit of Arcane Connection. The other lores seem to me (again, from what I know; the devil is in the cruchy details) "tame" enough to be eventually quested for, researched and put in game. If you wish my opinion, it is high time that the Limits of Arcane Connections, Creation, and Vis were broken and surpassed by hermetic magic, just like Aging has been with the Mysteries. They are the limits less justified by the logic of the hermetic system, the paradigm, flavour of classic magic feats, or game balance concerns.
Really ? Are hyperborean magics essentially focused on boosting and improving the self ? That's very interesting (please elaborate) but how this reconciles with the alleged ability of hyperborean mages to heal, create goods, and enchant items without vis ?
The Hypaborean magic chapter is one of the crunchier bits of the book , and one I have looked at less than some of the others as it does not seem to fit my current Saga so take what I say with a pinch of salt.
There are a number of suggested Hymn powers which effect others , it is more my impression that they would not work well with Defixio magic . The hymns powers are all based on aspects of appollo and seem to be inherent to the user (even if they effect others ) rather than something which could be linked into a Defixio item , although I suppose it will come down to interpretation by the individual SG.
The artefacts seem to be sacred vessels of power and are very different from the way I see Defixio items
Looking at the chapters again it may be possible to create some sort of overarching pagan magic from them, but it is not somethign I would think of doing so I find it hard to judge if you could or not
I know they would not work well together (they focus on different areas), it's just that I would have lore items (books, magical objects, tools, etc.) that teach them to be found in the same places. E.g. ancient library stashes or the ruins of pagan temples might tell info about the mystic secrets of the Apollo and Pluto cults. Likewise maybe for the fertility cults. Even the suggested (from the TOC) places where one can find them seem similar (well the Hesperides, too, but magical coordinates have more of a "scientific" technomagic feel, more akin to automata and the alchemy/astrology mysteries, than to the blessing/cursing powers of ancient pagan mystics). Just the way that an hermetic library might hold books about Aquam and Mentem spells and Arts.
It is just my personal opinion, but I don't see a Cult of Pluto sharing a temple site with Apollo. I also don't think you would find someone who was versed in the Cult of Apollo and his magic who was also versed in the magic of the Cult of Hades, or any of the chthonic cults for that matter. Without some over arching system of magic, priests and priestesses were forced to focus on their particular area of magic. Bonisagus created the Hermetic framework that allowed practitioners of these disparate magic systems to communicate using a common magic system/language. Before him, they were speaking different languages. But, you can, of course, run your saga how ever you want.
Yes, but pagan religion was an inclusive worship system, temples were often side-to-side in the same areas, priest and priestesses often tended to different deities in different times and sites and occasions (the concept of the career priest of a single divinity was the rare exception, such as the vestal virgins, which fantasy RPG systems have elevated to rule), and even when specialist mystics of different deities in the same pantheons did exist, they recognized they all belonged to the same "family", so it does not seem farfetched to me to find clues about the mystic secrets of the various cults in the same libraries or ruins.
Moreover, as I said, putting all nine lores in play in the same chronicle seems excessive, sending PCs to an extended Seeker quest just to rediscover a single lore seems wasteful for the likely sustained effort, so pulling together 2-3 thematically affine lores as "ancient pagan secrets" or "the secrets of Hebrew patriarchs" seems the best solution to me. The clues would be found in the same or nearby places, or the clues for the one might lead them to the other (such as ancient texts of the Cult of Apollo might have hints about the obscure secrets of the chtonic cults) they would be nearby or related but separate, sewing them together and with the rest of the Bonisagus system would be the job of PC magicians in the lab.
Dn't mistake me, I'm pretty much persuaded that even one chapter is a treasuretrove of ideas and all of you made a good job on your respective slice, it's just that buying the book to use only 1/9 of it in a single chronicle seems well wasteful.
Hmm... I think that would go for many of my purchases, yet I still find them a very interesting read in itself. But in the end what matters most to me is what story is to tell and what setting I prefer than any consideration of rentability of a purchase. In any case the book is already bought, and thus a sunk cost, no matter to what degree it is used ingame.
Conserning the cross-over of the different Ancient Magic, I see several limitations against it, but in terms of rules and in terms of story. First of all the rules on Insight, how you use ancient secrets to forward a Breakthrough, limits any cause for an Insight to be used only once and only for one Insight. In other words, a source helping you to gain an Insight into Defixio cannot also be used to gain Insight into Adamite magic - in fact it cannot even be used to gain further Insight into Defixio when used once. This makes the quest to unravel an ancient secret more epic and necessitates that the PC leaves their laboratories and venture into the world - the kind of journeys that make stories.
What if making the opponents and/or NPCs involved with these secrets know or use more than one of these? Well, first of all the nature of the secrets signifies that very few if any living practicioners live. Concerning the Hyperboreans discussed above, well their magic is divided into Hymns, representing different facets of Apollo, and as individuals they cant even mix the different Hymns in their own Powers, which makes me doubt they should then be able to do it with the powers from other secrets no matter whether they share a common Hellenic root. As a sidenote the secrets are mostly only fragments of what there where - which hints at their past splendour but also limits the insight they might grant. Alas some amazing magic is dead or gone, and the discovery of those remnants still traceable is lingered with the sorrow of yet larger things passed away.
Basically the only sphere for mixing the ancient secrets is, by Breakthroughs, within the frame of Hermetic Theory. Which seems very appropriate.
The debate here has so far been on the crunch and personally, though I am only halfway through the book, I have to add that to me the most striking aspect of the book is the elaborate fluff and not the enticing crunchy parts! The book is filled with treats of backgrounds, history, setting and story potential. These set the scene for the seperate secrets, but also give great inspiration on how to pursue them, and most importantly what ramifications they might have on the Order if researched (including a plentitude of plots derived from them).
The possible rewards of the secrets might be the lure of the magi (and their players alike), but it is the roots of the secrets that make them grand and fantastic. Perhaps it is that grandness more than the crunchy consequences for the OoH and the ME at a larger scale that makes them deserve to be focus of single plots and grand stories in favour of diluting it by attempting to box several of them into the scope of one plot.
EDIT: Ohh, I completely forgot to mention that Ancient Magic is truely a work of forbidden fruit(s)!! 
Hermetic Theory often gets a bum rap from players because of the things it can't do, but the amazing thing it DOES do is combine various types of magic into one group of rules that the Gifted can study.
I would be wary of creating any other type of Magic Theory that combined multiple traditions of magic, that would dilute what makes Hermetic Theory unique.
I don't have my author's copy yet, but a comment on Hyperborean Magic:
While Hyperborean magic primarily revolves around the practitioner (or hymnist) infusing himself/herself with the essence of Apollo Phoebus, both Apollo and his Hyperborean followers regularly deal with the chthonic aspects of magic. For example, many of the spirits allied or bound by the Hyperboreans are chthonic spirits. Likewise, the Hyperboreans were well known in the ancient world for being amongst the most powerful necromancers, for dealing with underworld daimons and ghosts, and for reanimating mouldering corpses.
I doubt that the Hyperboreans themselves would use the defixio powers as written, but would use similar powers that derive from the essence of Apollo. After all, the Hyperboreans know about synthemata and sympathetic magic; their use of it would be very different and not compatible with defixio magic.
Hyperborean magic is very inflexible, and the XP cost for learning additional supernatural powers/abilities would convince most Hyperborean magicians to not pursue that path (although Hermetic wizards are a different matter, since Hermetic magic's schtick is that it can merge different forms of magic with one another).
Incidentally, although the Hyperborean hymns in Ancient Magic revolve around the Seven Beautiful Names of Apollo, a Hyperborean hymnist could easily use the principles of Hyperborean magic to infuse themselves with the essence/aspect of another powerful spirit.
Yep, as a matter of fact, that was my main point. Not that Hyperborean mages should necessary use defixio as written, indeed that would be contrary to the setting core assumption that Bonisagus is the first to creat and inclusive magic systrem, just that pagan mysticism as a rule mixed Olympian and Chtonic aspects as necessary for the feat at hand, so I would expect it would be possible to find sources for both types of magics in the same places, and that pagan magical lores should freely mix aspects of synthemata and sympathetic magic.
I definitely plan to extensively explore in game the obvious themetic links between name magic and sympathetic magic, but that does not mean that some ancient tradition should necessarily be twisted into proto-hermetics.
I've just received my copy. Yummy!
yea - congrats Fruny!
I'm sure you'll enjoy it! I just finished mine, quite fast since it more or less read itself and me being incapable off putting it down!