I was pondering upon a Companion character that would be part of an [size=50]infernal[/size] tradition : the Witch-Hammers.
The tradition, like many others, have 4 associated supernatural abilities. Each of these ability is associated with a major virtue.
Note that the character pondered upon would be a Companion, not a Mythic Companion.
From what I understand, it is not possible to make such a companion with knowledge of the 4 supernatural abilities, at least one of which would have to be learned in play or ignored. Is this correct, or being part of a tradition, the access to the supernatural abilities is "free"? This alternative seems odd to me.
By the RAW: On the one hand, a Divine or Infernal tradition allows access to its four abilities for free, but you're not allowed to do that prior to play - you have to buy the advantages to learn them. Your troupe may houserule this.
Personally, I think that having opened abilities like this makes you a Mythic character right there - if you have just Summoning, for example, that's not an unusual kind of thing for a Companion-level character to have. If you have the whole Ars Goetia, then you're a Summoner and an infernal sorcerer, not a mundane or extraordinary mundane by any means. If a Mythic Companion wants to take a tradition however, I'd be happy to let them - it's the Divine/Infernal equivalent of Opening the Gift.
(Having a Divine or Infernal and a Magical tradition, such as in the case of the Holy Societates, is possible but gets into the area of hybrid characters - troupe approval only.)
Characters can learn infernal Supernatural Abilities after character creation through play (once having been exposed to infernal Warping at some point), or take them as Virtues during character creation. This means that you can't make a non-Mythic companion that starts the game with all four infernal Supernatural Abilities, but you can make one that starts with one or two of them and then learns the others over time.
Infernalists certainly don't have to have The Gift, though.
