These are the kind of things left for each SG to decide, I think. If you want Regios to be rare/ hard to figure out, you set a high EF, and conversely.
I think it is safe to assume the books do not include an example of every possible use of every ability.
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This has been now clearly spelled out in ArMDE 05-Abilities Magic Theory:
Magic Theory deals with the technical details of Hermetic magic; Magic Lore covers knowledge of magical things in general.
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The metagame reason for this might be that otherwise Magic Theory becomes even more of an uber-stat for magi than it already is! Got to spread out those xp somehow.
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This is true, but making thinggs a little more explicit would be nice too.
If there is a choice for putting something in Magic Theory or another Ability, it is normally best to always pick the other Ability. There is already far to much tied to Magic Theory that is important to Magi.
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Not exactly what you are looking for but a caracter interested in Lores might find this information interesting from LoH p.15
Insight of the Realms Minor
Hermetic Characters with this Virtue draw upon their knowledge of the supernatural realms to support magic typically used outside of the laboratory. Magi with this Virtue may substitute the appropriate Realm Lore Ability for either Artes Liberales or Philosophiae in any ritual or ceremonial spell totals cast within or related to the matching realm. This Virtue also allows the Dominion Lore, Faerie Lore, Infernal Lore, and Magic Lore Abilities to be used to detect and see through a target regio boundary, as described in ArM5, page 189. These abilities are used in place of Second Sight or Sense Holiness & Unholiness as appropriate to the aura. The use of the Realm Lore ability for this purpose is treated as aligned to the current aura, being a deep understanding provided by arcane knowledge, and so is modified as normal.
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Thank you for reminding me! I'd forgotten all about this one, and was looking into creating a character for whom this should save an absolute ton of XPs! 
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I was under the impression this virtue was a suggested 'to be discovered' virtue rather than one that characters could just take. Was I misunderstanding?
There is an adventure in 'Legends of Hermes' where you can research (or otherwise learn) several related virtues; at the end of the adventure there is a brief blurb about 'completely changing the way Vim magic works' which is a step beyond and is either a Hermetic or Major breakthrough. |
There is someone you meet who has them as Hermetic Virtues, and should be able to teach them within the rules in 'Apprentices' for teaching Hermetic Virtues.
I have a related question for the forum: how do you handle which lore to roll when it's not clear to the characters (as opposed to the players) what they're investigating? For example, when trying to establish what realm a talking wolf is associated with?
So it depends, if I want to keep the mystery, I just ask my players to roll one (or three..) stress die and then i jnow what their unt+lore is/are and based on that i may or may not tell them.
I do it almost systematically with the supernatural perception rolls (sense X, second sight) since they tend to have multiple people with supernatural sense when it is relevant, i might ask wveryone to roll a stress die, even people who have no relevant skill to obscure things.
I generally do not care for "you failed a spot check".
Otherwise, i might let people with non relevant lores check to eliminate it. One mage has magic lore and another infernal, so if they can each rule out one realm, that generally gives a solution.
Steal an idea from D&D (4th edition, maybe 5th too) of the "passive check." If their Ability score +3 (or so) meets the Ease Factor, they notice the relevant detail without needing to explicitly state that they're looking for it each time.
... I may have once gone a little bonkers over endless "I check for secret doors!" in a D&D game years ago. In which I'd put no secret doors anywhere. Passive checks were a useful tool.
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