Interesting.
Trying to work out the metaphysics of how natures and stuff work in universe. I suspect things are muddled and I'm trying to see what sense I can make of things.
List of quotes from searching for talk of natures in beta 3 combined with the occasional tangent and/or question
Page 7
Natures (basic attributes enhanced by magic)
Page 23
Nature scores are numerical ratings that
represent the degree to which your
character harmonizes with certain facets of
humanity.
Page 36
Whereas Nature scores represent inborn
proclivities and mystical enhancement
There's also Chakra Occlusion. Enchantment on page 121 means the personal power portion of a nature can be lent to other people. Shapeshifting is demanding enough on ones personal power to reduce all natures by 1.
Page 122 has a weird bit I'm not sure I've understood that talks about a filter upon ones nature. What's the point of enchanting somebody with access to a fount? Were I to attempt to define a tradition, it would be… A tradition is a set of techniques used as a mental focusing aid to get results from a fount. Does enchanting somebody with a fount turn the hypothetical enchantees Earthpower techniques into Glory techniques while they use the same path?
It is possible to enchant someone with
access to a Fount rather than with a
specific magical effect. This is an
enchantment of the Self, wherein the
enchanted can use magic up to the level of
the enchantment as if they were using the
enchanter's Fount. It is effectively a filter
upon one's Nature. Theurge and Scholar
are appropriate Professions.
However, Enchantment cannot grant
access to a Path. Paths are skills and
understandings. They can be relayed via
Rapport but not via Enchantment.
Page 141 Establishes nature depth has Psychological Effects(The Terror Blurb).
Per page 210 and the Burning Dream Blurb on page 116, One needs specialized techniques for natures besides Communion, Mystery, or Trickery, to matter in the Dream Realms.
Page 227
Nature: The six components of one's identity
that shape how magic is created. The natures
are Communion, Industry, Mystery, Self,
Trickery, and War. Some supernatural beings
have idiosyncratic seventh natures that are
connected to their unique identities.
In which I attempt to explain and Muse on what natures are in universe, mixed with stuff I've seen on this board
A Nature is a nebulous mix of personal power/metaphysical health(fueling reserve) and skills applicable to a given category of magical techniques within a tradition. The personal power angle gets weird with separate nature scores for each tradition unless each individual tradition uses different mechanisms in somebody's metaphysical corpus(Everything about them, body, mind, soul, the effects they make on other dimensions by existing, etc. Everything). I can see the skills side being tradition dependent though.
The personal power could be subsections of whatever metaphysical organs generate flow within a sapient body and handle the conceptual aspects of interacting with the world. They could be distinct flow generating metaphysical organs. These subsections/organs may or may not be connected to the natures as cosmic principles of the multiverse. They could just be conceptually tinged with each nature as a thing unrelated to anything in the multiverse, and disconnecting removes or cripples that particular metaphysical organ as opposed to severing your link to a cosmic principle. Becoming enlarges and/or strengthens the metaphysical organs.
Alternatively, the natures are cosmic principles. Through using the right techniques in becoming, ones metaphysical self becomes deeper inside the nature. Depth becomes progressively harder to attain as one goes deeper, necessitating specialized training routines and/or transhumanism. The side effects of the process of attaining depth enables one to transcend human limits as the line between human and concept becomes blurred. Disconnecting from a nature means one leaves the cosmic principle completely. The War and Industry cosmic principles have no sway in Dream Realms without specialized techniques(The Burning Dream).
As for how to make the cosmic principle route work with different traditions having different natures assuming one wanted to make the personal power part of natures a distinct thing separate from the skills side of a nature? You'd have to have the founts as intermediaries with the natures, with subcomponents acting as adapters. And the nature knows if you disconnected on one adapter and disconnects you on any other ports you're using. If the nature existed to the access of sapients without a fount as intermediary, one could potentially gain depth in it directly.
I have no idea what to call this bit of musings things got kind of disorganized
Natures are described in terms of depth, possibly even in Universe(Deep in the War nature)
Becoming is used to raise the personal power side of nature depth like some kind of Xianxia cultivation technique or something. The peak depth reachable by a baseline human from scratch is stage 3(having 3 in a nature, it may be called stage 2 if baseline humanity isn't counted).
You need some combination of magitechnological enhancements(tattoos, soul wards, surgically implanted augs, etc), specialized training from experts, etc to attain a depth stage beyond 3. Having the right equipment and/or magical favors on hand can give you an effective/in practice depth exceeding 3 without exceeding 3 on a metaphysical level yourself. The existence of the sixth sense and disconnection means other peoples depths are measurable in universe things.
How becoming being sufficient to raise peoples natures interacts with discipline paths has the potential to be interesting. Becoming is what provides actual depth in a nature metaphysically speaking assuming I understand. So depth loss from lack of training would be pseudo depth loss. Rusty skills.
Tangentially as an afterthought, I saw dreamshaping and it has the potential for nature 6 techniques in dreamworlds. That would, were it defined instead of a homebrew subject for a GM, be farking awesome.
Edit: But since it isn't, there may be need for refinement there if you haven't done that already.
