Technically, all of them save a couple Divine ones, have access to infernal familiars.
The Celtic Druids have Tortoiseshell Lineage
This lineage of cats has been associated with Celtic spellcasters since before the formation of the Order.
The Egyptians have Black Lineage
The Black Lineage of cats is descended from the Founder Jerbiton’s familiar, a prince of the Egyptian cats, descended from the great queens of ancient Bubastis.
The Vitkir can for a bond with animals via E, Ehwaz Rune
The target receives a bonus or penalty equal to the magnitude of the effect to all rolls that involve trust and loyalty between two individuals, creating a bond similar to that of horse and rider. This is similar to the effects of the True Friend Virtue.
Half Taltós bind their spiritual weapons - The half taltós may affect spirits with his personal armaments. These are usually a sword or whip, with a smaller weapon for emergencies. These are physical weapons with a spiritual nature.
Nightwalkers & SleepWalkers can have a Hamr - The hamr may vanish as the character dies. Or the hamr may remain on the battlefield until the battle is over, fulfilling the ghost’s last wish. Most hamr are able to remain in the world only until the flesh of their decaying body falls from the bones. But occasionally the hamr remains on Earth indefinitely, single-mindedly seeking out those who killed the magician. Nightwalkers seems to represent a dozen hedge tradition that can take the Mamr virtue.
Gruagach have Fetches - The fetch is a magical spirit that is an aspect of the character’s personality and an extension of his soul.
Holy traditions have it easy as they do not need Vis - Level 4: Bind a supernatural creature to the terms of a contract. (Invocation) Create a temporary holy connection to a person or thing within range of this effect. (Purity)
Seems it might be more than "most magical traditions"...
Most of those I would not count as a "familiar". Not just any being working with you is a familiar, not even all types of bonded creatures are familiars.
Folk Witches have familiars. A khaddim of a Sahir is a kind of familiar.
Demonic so-called familiars are doubtful if they can really be considered familiars. They have no loyalty to the caster and only help when it is in their own interest to do so.
The rest you have listed? No. They are not familiars any more than your average Magic Animal Companion is a familiar.
You are free to discriminate against non-hermetic traditions and diss as much as you their best attempts at forming a familiar bond but I personally, as a SG, would allow a Major Hermetic Magical Focus Familiars to cover all of those.
And as a player, If a met a Vitkir's "True friend" I'd respect him as his familiar. Night walkers pay a merit to gain access to their familiar. That is more commitment than Hermetic Magi. Gruagash underdo an initiation to secure theirs.
I mean, these are all traditions that get limited "screen time" to have their whole tradition explained. We can't expect to see stories such as Holy Hedge Wizard's courting a creature for years before they finally agreed to establish their permanent bond and lived happily together for the next century. The core thing of divine magic is that it does not require vis but it does not diminish it's power or the importance of the bond created.
I feel I would allow most of these for a major focus, but I'd suggest it should be phrased as "focus in familiars and other magical companions".
I think the moral is talk over what you expect a focus to cover and not cover at character generation. (Or when you gain the virtue, he added, remembering initiations.)
Muses - A&A p.129 Muses are supernatural entities from the four realms that seek prominent artists to promote their fortune. Once a supernatural creature becomes a character’s muse, a supernatural bond is created between the two.
Gwiber - RoP:F p.70 A human who has shared milk with a gwiber does not normally acquire Faerie Blood from this contact, but does gain the ability to understand the language of animals (Animal Ken Virtue). Further, the bond between the gwiber and human manifests as the Faerie Friend Flaw, and the milk-brother is often the only human who can approach the gwiber safely.
Homunculi Wizards RoP:F p.118 The person to whom a homunculus is bound effectively has a faerie version of The Gift. He can learn Supernatural Abilities, and even become opened to the Hermetic Arts
Faerie Bonding RoP:F p.132 If the Bonding succeeds, the summoner forges a special connection between himself and the faerie, or between the faerie and something he is touching. This bond acts as an Arcane Connection between the faerie and the bearer for as long as it endures. Through this bond, the bearer gains access to one of the following effects, chosen by the summoner at the time the bond is formed
That there is some kind of bond does not make it a familiar. Most of those you have listed are not even close to being or having familiars, and you have given no reasons as to why you think they should be.
Now, I could certainly see a Magical Focus in "supernatural bindings to humans" or something like that, of which Familiars would be just one of many, being much more likely to require being a Major Magical Focus. That could potentially hit a lot of things.
I think your definition of Familiar would be a mMF called Hermetic Familiar. Non-Hermetic Familiar could also be a mMF while the MMF Familiar covers them both.
Supernatural Bindings to humans is a mMF and does not apply to lab totals when enchanting the bond. I would allow it to apply to the lab total of the initial bond total. It would also cover a number of spells that bind things to humans. Would also apply to spells to that break a talisman bond for exemple. It would no apply to affect any familiar directly.
At this point, has the discussion got to the "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?" point.
It seems we are talking about a focus that will hardly ever show up in most sagas, and asking how it interacts with fringe magical traditions that will hardly ever show up in a saga.
If this fringe event ever happens, I am sure the story guide can work it out at the time.
Read what I wrote again. I said Familiars would be a subset of it. That means it's broader than Familiars. Since Familiars definitely applies in the lab, then this does, too. If you think this is Minor, as Familiars is a subset, then you must also consider Familiars valid as Minor.
Huh? You said right after this, in response to my suggestion of both and including more, that it would be Minor.
Or you're just doing silly semantics games, but I wrote "or something like that" specifically to avoid needing to come up with just the right term so people would have no reason to start playing silly semantic games. If you're going to play so fast and loose with the term "Familiar," you might consider what these semantic games look like.
Well... if your intent is for "Supernatural Binding to humans" to be a subset of "Familiars", you'll need to re-name it as Bindings refer to a thing that unites two or more things together but not the actual things. For exemple is would not be applied to target Familiars directly if the Supernatural Binding were binding a Human & a Familiar. As such it is a significantly narrower definition than simply "Familiars"
As I understand it, you were probably trying to go for something like "Supernatural Bonded Things processing a level of independent will that are bonded to Humans Things which include Humans with or without might and Humans in Spirit forms, of any realm, any traditions, permanent or temporary. Also covers the actual Bond that ties the entities together"
My answer to that is that the MMF would be called Familiars and the above would be its definition.
Keep in mind that in order for the foci to apply when investing effects in the bond, it needs to apply for the familiar wholesomely: "Foci that cover the familiar apply to the investment of all powers, no matter what they do. Foci that cover the power apply as normal." By that, RAW means that a Wolf foci applies to lab totals to invest a power in the bond if your Familiar is a Wolf. A Canine foci also would cover all that a wolf is, so would "Animal" if it was allowed & so does "Familiar". "Supernatural Binding to humans" does not and as such removes a significant use of the foci as it does not apply to lab totals when investing powers in the bond of any Familiar. Also, a foci that only targets "Bonds" would not apply when targeting the Familiars of others to transform them to mice. The foci Familiars would.
Read again, please, as somehow you've read it exactly backward:
How is it that you can be so super-picky about the wording I use and simultaneously take a canonical term and just throw it about so incredibly loosely and claim any sort of validity. I even explicitly told you "Familiars" would be a subset and explicitly told you I said "or something like that" to avoid these semantics games. Basically you're just ignoring what the books say and what we say, saying you have total control of what all terms mean, whether we present them or they're canonically defined, and so we just need to do as you say. That's not discussion. I wish you'd said all you wanted to do was play semantics games from the start. I thought you were honestly debating things presented in canon. Bye.
Sorry. I did write it backwards but the rest of the text is fine... not my best writing I admit.
Typically, a foci that is not your Familiar Thing (Wolf, Cat, etc.) does not get to add to the lab total of powers invested in the bond unless the Foci applies to the effect. This is as per the corebook quote I gave a bit earlier.
Lets says we have a proper, sufficiently lose, term that would cover all Familiars and called it "Supernatural Binding to Humans". You have a cat familiar and want to allow it to be invisible. Clearly, if you have a foci called "Familiar" you can apply foci. Can you say the same with your definition? Does invisibility have anything to do with "Supernatural Binding to Humans"?
Now, your friend Magi has a cat Familiar too and you'd like to cast invisibility on it. Clearly, if your foci is called "Familiar" then it applies. Can you say the same with your definition?
I agree that "Familiar" as a Major Hermetic Magical Focus needs to be clearly defined with the Troupe in order to not cause grief as the concept of Familiar is vague. Hermetic Familiar is somewhat clearer but we want all types of Familiars. I think my above definition gets us close. I think your Foci "Supernatural Binding to Humans" still needs a bit of work if it is to include all that Familiar covers and more? I could see it cover Geas type bindings & Infernal/Faerie bargains. Might also apply to Talismans? Might be a cool focus but it takes it seems to stray from the "Familiar" concept.
I have come to this late, as it is degenerating towards a flame-fest.
Still I will add my thoughts which may or may not add perspective..
For the longest time I thought the Magical Focus in Familiars was Minor, until someone of the forums corrected me as to the canonical description.
My reasoning:
Magical Focii can not be limited to purely Lab activities.
Hence there must be Formulaic and/or Ritual spells that specifically target Familiars. As it turns out, I think there is one that the Quaesitores use that severs the Familiar Bond.
The target of such spells while at first seeming like it covers an entire Form (or more), is in fact a lot more limited - the spells will only affect a creature with a specific enchantment that produces a "Familiar Bond". Which does not cover all Magi, so perhaps less than a 1000 valid targets at most?
Whether any other magical tradition has something sufficiently close to a Hermetic Familiar Bond that Hermetic spells that target Familiars would affect them has not been canonically defined to the best of my knowledge..ie did Merinita make a Breakthrough, or did she adapt an obscure ability from a Hedge Tradition unknown to the other Founders.
From a spell-casting POV, it would seem to be a Minor Magical Focus.
The reason a Magical Focus in Familiars is canonically considered Major seems to be the broad breadth of enchanting bonuses.
The range of Lab Activities that this MF affects includes making a Familiar, and hence increasing valid spell-casting targets.
But still valid spell-casting targets seems extremely limited.
And yet it could be argued that in every other MF the Major/Minor status seems to be determined by the count of Technique/Arts used in spell-casting and the subset of spell-casting valid targets covered by those Arts.
Corebook p.111 "This chapter contains a selection of example spells, and guidelines for what can be achieved with a formulaic or spontaneous spell of a given level."
Corebook p.95 "When you invent a completely new spell you must describe it fully, both in terms of its mechanics (range, duration, and target) and how it fits into the medieval paradigm. You must make sure that it takes into account the limits of magic (see page 79)."
HoH:TL p.26 "A Minor Breakthrough is something that is immediately usable and teachable in the existing framework of Hermetic magic. A new spell Range or Duration is a good example of a Minor Breakthrough."
Major & Hermetic BT attack Magic Limits themselves. Many new guidelines have been introduced and added to the selection given in the core book and unless they break or bend a magical limit, the do not require any research to have access to. The file below has a few hundred of them that have been added in supplements over the years to help us create new effects within the bounds of hermetic magic & without research: https://atlas-games.com/pdf_storage/ArM5Guidelines.pdf
Still think guidelines are just that guidelines & establishing "new" ones is just to enhance the framework and does not require research. If the effect pushes hermetic magical limits, then you need to do research. Also, side note to clarify the quote where new duration requires a minor BT, as per RAW, they don't really. A +1 Mag will usually do the trick. The research will just make it so you don't need the extra mag anymore...
A minor BT will do more than just ensure that you don't need to pay +1 mag for it, it will allow other Magi who are taught by you, or who read a MT tractatus you write to describe the effect to be able to use that new Duration in new spells they invent without requiring that +1 mag.
Note that while it is noted that some guidelines can be used for other Forms, like how it's noted that some An or Co and Me guidelines can be used for the other, or how Teleport guidelines can be ported to other Forms, or such. But generally, a new guideline does require a research. There's nowhere in the rules that say that you don't need research to add a new guideline, unless you, as the ST decides to add one.
There is that, but the important part of adding a new RDT through a minor BT is that you can then use the new parameter even when casting spontaneous spells.
There is also nowhere in the rules that say you do need research to use some unpublished guideline (in practice, adding a guideline) when inventing a spell.
The published guidelines are just examples, and in no way an exhaustive listing of what you can invent spells to do.
If you are trying to create a spell, and there is no published guideline covering the desired effect, the troupe will simply need to decide on:
a) Is the effect at all possible with Hermetic Magic? Unless there is some rule saying you can't do the effect, it is most likely possible.
b) Which Technique(s) and Form(s) does the effect require?
c) What is the base level of the effect?
And, he may bind a demon as his familiar if he so chooses. (RoP:TI p124)
This page refers to a practioner of the Ars Goetia using Summoning--and the familiar may not be as fond of the master imagines--but it is a real familiar bond. The most common examples are of magi using Cthonic Magic or outright diabolism, but it is possible for an unGifted person to accomplish the task on their own. (RoP:TI p119)
Oddly, a spirit bound with Binding can also have effects, including maleficia, enchanted into the bond. Which means that a Bound familiar may also be an invested item. (The familiar bond is already opened, precluding using the familiar as a talisman. Which would be unbelievably ridiculous, and any magus attempting it should be immediately struck down by saints and angels for the sheer arrogance.)
Not only is this correct, but it can be taken further. The rules do say you can use some unpublished guidelines. They don't say you can just use any, but they do say there are some you can use. The most obvious one to me is the ReTe Base 4 guideline used by Wielding the Invisible Sling. Since the book says you're allowed to change all the parameters of Wielding in the Invisible Sling, you can use this guideline to invent many other spells.