I have a player in my game who's interested in having Mythic Blood from Conciata (Legends of Hermes). Conciata is the one who made the breakthrough research regarding the four Realms and Vim. We're thinking of the power/spell that he'd get as well as the focus. Balance is becoming an issue.
For example, the spell Piercing the Faerie Glen seems like a decent base for a spell, but it only works against one realm, which kind of goes against the breakthrough. It's a level 20 spell, would it be too much if being able to use it for all four realms and have to use the full 30 levels to accommodate?
Would a focus in Vim, for foreign auras be too much?
I read that section of LoH as such: at first there were arts of Vim-magic , Vim-faerie, Vim-divine, Vim-infernal. Then Conciata fused them in Vim. Thus, one score in place of 4. But the guidelines still need to be aligned to a realm (at the exception of... I think there is one but not sure).
I used the +1 additional effect magnitude to affect more realms in one spell. This is not a big change: each spell exist individually, the magnitude only allows one casting to do multiple things, by a higher level spell. No breaking in balanced power.
A major breakthrough would be needed to fuse the guidelines IMO.
By the way, all intellego spells would have trouble with the infernal. Normally powers of demon are not pierced by hermetic magic. So aura and regiones may be pierced through... or not if you decide they are the result of a demonic power (Satan work?).
I would give a spell "Piercing the Veils" with no big trouble as the free power from mythic blood, but would not allow it to pierce infernal regiones (and say it to the player), but because it's in the nature of the infernal to lie and deceive, some infernal regio would pretend to be faerie or magical regio. (Thus +2 magnitude for magic and divine for a level 30 effect.)
For Vim focus, I always thought that: "magic (as in supernatural effect, not an effect from the magic realm especially)" or "supernatural being" were good major focus when used for the vim art, and that "changing magic" (muto vim with guideline on spells), "destroying magical being" (perdo vim with guideline to affect beings and destroy/suppress their might), "investigating magic" (InVi with guideline on spells) would be correct minor focuses. But "interrogating auras and regiones" (intellego vim on auras, regiones) seems a bit weak.
Almost- Intelligo cannot penetrate what demons have decided to hide. However infernal auras can arise from purely human activity, and there may be some cases where the infernal realm decides not to hide...
I don't think it would: it falls under "multiple related effects" similar to the ability to use the same MuCo effect to cause both growth and shrinking. If one magnitude allows two closely related effects, two magnitudes allowing four makes perfect sense
Could the infernal decide not to lie? Can the infernal be honest? I have not my book by me, but I'm not sure it can because lying and deception are in its essential nature, aren't they?
I'd have to go with the idea that Demons lie, but not the Infernal auras. If so the auras would be undetectable to magic and that's not the case; Without getting into a metaphysical debate of "Maybe the auras aren't trying to hide themselves."
"The devil can quote scripture to his own ends"
given that scripture is, for the purposes of mythic Europe, truth incarnate it then follows that demons can tell the truth, if it serves their purposes.
All demons are infernal. All infernal things are not demons, some are people or animals. Infernal <> Demon.
So while it starts off with useless against the infernal, it then specifies that it is because demons reveal only what they want you to believe. It suggest an active, demonic intelligence is necessary for there to be a lie. [strike]Otherwise, detecting any single thing is infernal[/strike]. Edit: Otherwise, detecting any single thing as infernal is impossible. Heck, even magic auras could be infernal, why couldn't they lie perfectly and fix the mechanics such that the provide a bonus exactly like a magic aura? No, it's much easier to limit the Limit of the Infernal to an active and demonic intelligence. If a demon created an infernal aura, or perhaps controls it somehow, then it's reasonable to conclude that the results of Intellego magic are false. Infernal creatures with intelligence can lie about their nature. Without intelligence, they can't, unless under the Aegis of a demon hiding their true nature...
Basically what I say. An aura might have tempers, flaws, side effects, etc. But the aura itself can't lie. Now, demons can though, and there's even a low powered specific Maleificia that's only purpose is to hide the traces of the Infernal. So if you need to hide an Infernal aura, you still can.
On demons and intellego (since this thread has been slightly derailed):
I've always run that demons can hide their nature, but other infernal things can't unless explicitly stated they can by their own nature. Infernal auras show up infernal. Magics of diabolists show up infernal. Even the magics of demons would show up infernal if the demon wasn't explicitly hiding it.
This makes spotting the infernal relatively easy (especially with sense holiness/unholiness), but pinpointing the cause or ringleader hard.
IMO the Infernal actually makes a more interesting threat when it is relatively overt. It also helps further mask those rare instances where it is being exceptionally covert.
It's a more interesting story when the players know a demon is involved but can't find it, as opposed to not even knowing if a demon is involved. The former breeds potentially violent paranoia (and all kinds of sins), the latter means half the time the players won't even notice!
What demon wouldn't want the players to know its in the area, anyway? After all... Pride.
