I'm not sure; Mystery secrets do leak all the time, despite "never betray your Cult's secrets to outsiders" being the first Vow of nearly every Cult.
I would rule that the Vow is separate from the magic unless otherwise stated. If you swear a Vow and then break it, you're going against your own nature and suffer penalties in general (usually to gaining XP). Also, you're likely to be Plagued by Faerie (even if you break a Vow sanctified by a Magic Realm mystery, because enforcing oaths and the value of one's sworn word are primarily a Faerie thing).
If the mystery itself doesn't require you to keep it secret, then not keeping it secret might bring down the wrath of the Supreme Mugwump, but not distort or cut you off from your power.
And I must point out, some "Mysteries" aren't meant to be secret in canon. Both Crimon and Merinita seem very open to Magi learning to think the "right" way.....
grin Oh yes. I can imagine Criamon publishing their Mysteries, say, summae for Criamon Cult Lore called "Be Excellent to Each Other" or "The Wheel of Time." (William and Theodore's Excellent Adventure as a guide for Criamon... Actually, that can work.)
Betraying a Vow or failing to rp a personality trait gained through initiation might not cost you a power. It might distort that power instead, thematically. That is often more interesting to see in play.
The interesting thing there is that Criamon himself was very keen on keeping his mysteries a secret. Which suggests that either House Criamon have lost some part of his teachings, or there's some path within the house that wouldn't be willing to share.
I thought the House wanted to keep their secrets from "Mundanes", and that Magi were special and needed to learn as much Enigmatic Wisdom as possible, lest they turn into Demons.
Houses of Hermes - True Lineages specifically mentions that Criamon was worried about the privacy of his mystery being threatened, and wanted restrictions placed on magi so they couldn't discover his secrets, specifically the rules about sancti and the prohibition on scrying.
It may be that Criamon had mysteries that he didn't pass on to the house he founded; after all he had the power to change what happened when Magi got warped, creating Twilight, so Enigmatic Wisdom may merely be a tiny part of what he was hiding.
Yes, but would Merinitia be open to Faerie Magic being integrated into Hermetic theory so that it can be learned without initiation into the Mystery?
The way I see it, most mystery cults that aren't secret for some pragmatic reason (Titanoi, for example) are fairly open to admitting any outsider who can learn the Mystery through the cult practices, but they're not so thrilled with the idea of an outsider learning the mojo without joining and progressing through the cult.
Likewise, I imagine the Criamon would be horrified at the thought that someone might study or develop the Enigma as a skill independently of Criamon philosophy and metaphysics. Mysteries in general are like that, in that they can only be understood by the initiated. Distilling the Criamon understanding of the Hypostasis into a practical science of understanding, studying, controlling and benefitting from Twilight would call the value of the Criamon mystery cult into question. Why bother acting aptly if you can instead approach the study of Twilight as amorally as anything else you do?
Both Fairy Magic and Enigmatic Wisdom can be learned without initiation into the Mystery. Heck, you can be "forced" to learn Enigmatic Wisdom by a Twilight episode. It's why I have wondered about this. Once you are "Inside the Mystery" (Quite, quite possible without changing houses), do you have access to more, if you are curious, or are they going to blow you off. Just doesn't seem like something either house would do. (Heck, I'm surprised the Crimon don't pass out copies of the "Crimon Watchtower" for one of their ordeals......)
No. We tried that and ran it into the ground, so we tried something new this edition.
House Tremere is based on a variety of historical models. Culturally the main one is the reconstruction in Australia after the First World War, but they also draw very heavily on the American sphere in the Pacific during the period before the Second World War.
The Tremere do want to rule the world, and they'll tell you as much, but they are about as sneaky about it as the Americans were during the US's continental expansion, which is to say, not at all. Some of them really do see their current state, as the largest military force in Europe, as a historical accident.
I recall watching the Obama / Romney Debate and seeing them say something like "We run the world." "Yes, we run the world." The Tremere are like that: they don't see any point in pretending they are less influential than they are. They don't run the world in quite the way modern American administrations do: the Order is more effectively multipolar, but they aren't creepy and insidious with it. They don't need or want to be.
I think they'd find it interesting. If someone can, in a single jump, do better in terms of their mission (finding a way to escape the cycle of time) that their entire House in its entire history, that's kind of gravy for them.
I'd argue that it probably doesn't work like that. Let me argue using the parallel of the mystery cult everyone knows: Christianity.
(Yes, it's a mystery cult: you just know its mysteries because it's evangelical).
If a guy said "Good news everyone! I've found a way into Heaven that doesn't require you to accept Jesus, be penitent and die!" there's a good chance that he's wrong, because the Universe isn't a wish-granting machine. Just because you want the Universe to allow a thing, doesn't mean it does. The things Criamons do are not arbitrary, any more than the things Christians do are arbitrary. The behaviour reflects deep truths embedded in reality.
Now, in Mythic Europe you could argue that this is where Islam comes from, but let's not make that argument. I'd like to point out, in the more general sense, that the idea that someone will have a great breakthrough in terms of the Empodoclean theology is both possible (in the sense that the Criamon magi are building their own messiah, and many believe that they know how many more Primi it will take) and unlikely (they've been doing this for a while...) That being noted: Criamon's strength -must- eventually fail and the path to Twilight must close. If someone else finds a better way, that's kind of a win. The Cult exists for the mission, not for the perpetuation of the cult.
I'm pretty sure Heartbeast can also be picked up without Initiation. It just requires teaching a Supernatural Ability. I'd have to check to see if the loss of access to a familiar is a result of the Ritual of Twelve Years or a result of having Heartbeast.
I'm not sure I buy into that entirely, and I think St. Thomas Aquinas in particular would disagree - in fact, Thomism is in some sense an attempt to make a breakthrough of this nature, to analyze and develop an understanding of God that's not inherently predicated on prior belief (the "believe, then you will understand" credo) - for example, his compilation of the five proofs of the existence of God. I think (this is my own headcanon, so take it as you will) that the latter concept is what largely defines a Mystery in ArM: that it's not truly explicable except to an initiate.
Alas, Callen, "Undergoing the Ritual of TwelveYears is the only way to gain the Heartbeast Virtue (and Ability), and is synonymous with joining House Bjornaer." Houses of Hermes, Mystery Cults, page 18. And their canon reads as them being very, very jealous as well.