(Setting these apart from my other Mysterious questions, so not to confuse even further...)
I have ARM & the Mystery Houses book. I have a player who wants to play a Merinita. By the FAW (Fluff as Written), could I tell him: "These are all the "cults" within Merinita; you can choose one of them or make up your own," akin to, say, in House Guernicus' case, "there are 2 currents within Guernicus right now, the Traditionalists & the Transitionalists; your PC can be of either or you can eschew both." Or is it more like: "Here are some of the (myriad) cults within Merinita you can choose, or make one up for your character"?
In other words: Are the cults described in the Merinita chapter of the Mystery Houses' book the totality of the current Merinita cults (all of 'em) or are they just a sampling of the many varied cults within (there are many others, per the FAW )?
With less than 100 members in a mystery house, how many cults you think you can have before it gets ridiculous? It is already ridiculous with the subdivisions of bjornaer, so guess
I would say that the ones currently presented are the normal ones. Still, if you want something else, you can always go for exmisecellanea or invent your own as a smaller cult in the house. I see no problems here.
To the best of my recollection, the schools lean more towards a comprehensive-catalog of Merinitia mysteries than "a few examples". Both options are fine, and I'm sure would be fine by the FAW too, but my sense of the House leans towards the first. Of course - your saga, your rules.
Hi, don't forget that there are the Wayfiners in the House, whose whole purpose is to find the winding paths between the Mysteries, and take a hodgepodge of them from different strains.
Just as long as the underlying concept makes sense.
For example, one Wayfinder might be interested in travel. Over the course of her long saga, she initiates Arcadian Travel, Forest Lore, Charms and Story Magic.
Another is interested in the mutability of the world from the real to the unread - believing that faeries represent the cusp between the real and the imagined; between the material in time and the imagined beyond time. Over the course of his search for this truth, he initiates Spell Timing, Glamour, Anima and, eventually, Becoming.
Remember, what matters is a unifying story or theme.
Yup. Though it might be a good idea to add that "makes sense" doesn´t have to be optimal or follow a specific theme(like your examples), or it could follow an odd or contradictory theme. Sometimes very suboptimal and insanely sounding combinations can be very interesting or fun.
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