The subsidiary paths of magic

In the French version, subsequent editions after the first introduced the idea of sub-skills and sub-paths within the occult sciences. You had paths associated with the various Dominant Ka, and you had various skills which determined the exact applications, and the paths and skills within an occult science may or may not have been associated with each other. It was all very complicated and varied across editions.

Sorcery

For Sorcery ("Magic" in French), the paths were:

  • The Central path of the stray Principle (Pyrim)
  • The primal path of the Rising Spiral (Hydrim)
  • The Natural Path of the Winding Trail (Faerim)
  • The Torturous path of the Schematic Labyrinth (Eolim)
  • The path of the Maze of the soul (Onirim)

The skills were: Perceive (mundane phenomena), Feel (magical phenomena), Modify at First Circle; Commune, Transform, Move at Second; Create and Destroy at Third.

Summoning

For Summoning ("Kabbalah" in French), the paths were:

  • Aresh, world of conflict (Pyrim)
  • Meborack, world of Equilibrium (Faerim)
  • Pachad, world of Oppression (Onirim)
  • Zakai, the Pure world (Hydrim)
  • Sohar, world of Splendor (Eolim)

The skills were the 10 Sefira.

Alchemy

For Alchemy, the paths and skills were... I explained this in a prior post. There were Substances, associated with particular Tools and Processes, sometimes specific Elements depending on the edition and circle. You picked 3 per circle.

Others

The Selenim's occult sciences had 3 skills per circle, then 2 skills in the third. There were no paths for them, since they only had one element. Anamorphosis was very customizable, however.

The Ar-Kaim already had a dozen Houses each with their own Talents, so they had plenty of equivalents to paths.

The US version

The US version was based on the first edition before these additional skills and paths were added, so it didn't have them. Subsequent books didn't add anything comparable. Quite frankly I don't think sub-skills and sub-paths are really necessary, either.

I'm not going to introduce these into my campaigns any time soon...

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