A few things...tie into JesseNonmagicianDisciplineSpellcasting

spheres are a group of rituals on  a similar area and ways they're ties together, more like a field of knowledge than a charm.  They're also not explicitly adept, although they are explicity threadweaving--countless other gribbles in the ED setting have picked up some disciplined magic tricks over the ages.  It also doesn't explicitly use matrix charms, although those are pretty optimal--anything you can do threadweaving on and channel essence through will do if needbe.  Where are you going to get essence?  Names, Spirits, True Elements, and possibly the organs of mystical creatures (like namegiver or adept blood) are probably the best bet for a mundane alchemist.

Spheres actually seem to mimic the Threadweaving tallent well.  Mages are assumed to concentrate, others pick up some as they go along.  Each discipline has a different type of threadweaving, and that allows them to understand how magic interacts with that facet of reality.

Preliminary layout, based on the 14 spheres we have now (I'm counting alchemy as a sphere with most of the enchanting in the second level, and assuming there's a SphereSenses that holds light/darkness, sound/silence, smell/taste/the lack theref, and touch/heat/cold/pressure).  I'm also guessing that the unknown sphere belongs to the 5th spellcaster, not a well known discipline.  I'm also going to go out on a limb, and rename Weather "Chaos"--the weather effects, predicting and controlling, are in the first level, but at higher levels it branches out into other chaotic, area effect phenomina like traffic patterns, the forming of trade routs, the wear on peices of equipment in a lab...voting patters and emotional effects at the highest levels.  Anything that's not under the control of any single (or even few) influences and has a large element of random chance.  Not too good for affecting individuals, but helps in some small ways guide the fate of nations...

Wizardry:  Divination, Metamagic, and Blast (they get all the unthemed missile spells, like mind dagger without influence and lightning bold without weather)

Nethermancy:  Necromancy, Summoning, and Life (for biothaumaturgy)

Illusion:  Illusion, Senses, Karma

Elementalism:  Elements, Alchemy (they seem to be the premere magician enchanters and alchemists), and either Weather or Movement, probably Movement (unaided flight, guildhouse in the sky, and moving things around seems elemental to me.  Wizards get their force walls from Blast.)

The 5th school of spellcasting is obviously not particularly well known, but if they'er behind the bubbles, they do seem to have good mind magic (influence 3?) and might have Chaos--it's the only sphere unclaimed by one of the other schools of magic.  They probably have a sphere that has something to do with funny bubbles that's their special sphere which noone else gets, except perhaps in drips and drabs.


Now, for the other disciplines, starting with the 5 artists.

 Seeker Weaving is Necromancy and Metamagic.  Necromancy for their links with the past and tomb raiding (speaking to the dead, dealing with mummified temple guardians, understanding and working around ancient magics and corruption), and metamagic for protection and warding, as well as understanding artifacts created for different mana levels and systems.  They are accademic types, and a fine control over such things seems in character.  Also note that the "seeker" archetype in most horror (usually an older man or woman whose scholarly work occasionaly brings them in contact with eldritch horrors) is the one pulling out the "ancient assirian amulets of protection," "unravelling the riddle to open the wards ove the tomb," and "this is how we break this ancient curse."


Beast Weaving has Life and Chaos (mostly for the weather effects at the bottom, but also for herd movement and the like--also makes beastmaster extensable into something interesting in the modern era, though decidedly warped)

Stroy Weavingg is Karma (karmic bonds, legend building, troubadors have legendary fool's luck, curses and blessings of the Bards) and Influence (emotional rapport, empathy).

Theif Weaving seems like it'd get Illusions (all sorts of deception, opening gates in walls at high levels) and probably Movement (climbing, deft motion, psychokinetic pickpocketing and traps...)

Thread Smithing obviously has access to Alchemy for all their enchanting schticks and association with items, and Metamagic for that deep, matrix-building work and warding against the nasty magics they work with on a regular basis.  There's a reason they outartifice even elementalists.  They might also pick up elemental spheres, but are highly unlikely to collect the whole set.


For the 5 warriors:

 War Weaving probably gives access to the five elemental spheres (their martial arts is higly 5-element based, and for being in tune with natural forces and keeping in balance) and Life (vitality, understanding of living things, being one with the Great Wheel of Life).

Sky Weaving would have Chaos and Movement...not really much debate on that.  Tell iago that if he wants weather-magic for his skyraider, this is the way to do it?  Modern Raiders probably want to focus more on the higher levels of Chaos.

Cavalry Weaving has Karma and Summoning.  Calvarymen are huge on oathbonds and binding you fate to that of your mount and comrades, which would be in karma.  I can also see a traveling cavelryman, like an itinerant knight, wandering the roads--those who give him shelter recieve a blessing, those who spurn him are cursed.  Summong for bonding with called creatures (like (spirit) mounts), knowing the proper protocol for greating the warrior spirits of Asgard or wherever, circling the horses to protect from othernatural gribbles, the like.  At higher levels...can't you just imagine a cavalryman opening a shadowroad to a place behind enemy lines, and leading the Charge of the Light Brigade through it...and a charging calvaryman in "avatar" form from the 3rd level would be fearsome indeed. 

Arrow Weaving gives access to Senses and Blast.  Blast should be obvious--I tihnk most magical bows would be woven together with Blast.  Sense mostly for the acuity of sense, but also for sending up signal flares, making your voice reverberate through the whole fortress, "seeing" through extended touch (fazz sense) and the like.  Might also make "seeing arrows" that can sense their targets.

Blade Weaving has Influence (for all the hearty boasting and friendly banter, as well as the deep rapport with one's comrades), and..ummm...Divination?  "Guide my sword, father, guide my sword..."


That last one probably gave it away--I was keeping in mind links as I wrote this.  Thinking in terms of spheres, the linking was different that I expected for the warriors (not a huge suprise, they seemed a little kludgy first putting them together.  Now they seem a little less kludgy).  Magicians have 3 spheres they're likely to climb to the top, other disciplines have about 2 that they might.

The rings are thus:

 Wizard (shares metamagic with) Smith (shares alchemy/enchantment with) Elementalist (shares movement with) theif (shares illusion with) Illusionist (shares karma with) troubador (shares influence with) 5th School??? (shares chaos with) beastmaster (shares life with) Nethermancer (shares necromancy with) Seeker (shares metamagic with) Wizard.

Wizard (shares blast with) archer (shares senses with) Illusionist (shares karma with) cavalrymen (shares summoning with) Nethermancer (shares life with) warrior (shares elements with) Elementalist (shares movement with) raider (shares weather with) 5th School??? (shares influence with) swordmasters (shares...divination? with) Wizard.


And to reiterate, the projected spheres are (with changes in *italics*)

 1 Divination (3 levels) (wizard and swordmaster?)

 2 Blast (3 levels) (archer and wizard)

 3 Metamagic (3 levels) (smith, seeker, and wizard)

 4 Necromancy *(3 levels--includes dealing not only with undead but other forms of bodies, corruption, and curses)* (nether and seeker)

 5 Summoning (3 levels) (nether and warrior)

 6 Life (3 levels) (nether, beastmaster, cavalryman)

 7 Illusion (3 levels) (illusionist, theif)

 8 Karma *(3 levels, not explicily stated before)* (illusionist, troubador, cavalryman)

 9 *Senses (new, collection of 4 spheres--Light (& darkness), Sound (& silence), Taste (& odors), and Touch (temperature, pressure, etc.), covers sharpening, deadening, creating, or altering sense or phenomena, sense-shifting with multiple spheres)* (illusionist, archer)

 10 Elements (collection of 5 spheres) (elementalist, warrior)

 11 Movement (3 levels) (elementalist, theif)

 12 *Alchemy (also called enchantment, has 2 or 3 levels adn generally deals with imbuement and artifacts)* (elementalist, smith)

 13 *Chaos (weather control and prediction at level 1.  At higher levels, controlling other chaotic area effects, like traffic patterns, converstations, herd migrations, forming of trade routs, or voting patterns.  Might actually be a collaction, like Senses and Elements)* (raider, beastmaster, 5th spellcaster)

 14 Influence (has 2 levels currently.  The mindblocks we encountered might come from a 3rd level of that sphere--the person who first wrote them was considering splitting off a third level if he found enough stuff to go in it, iirc) (troubador, swordmaster, 5th spellcaster)

 15 *Bubbles!!*  We know next to nothing about Bubbles, but I'd guess it has 3 levels like most other things...

So that's 13 spheres with 3 levels each in every to nearly every case, and two collections, one of 5ish spheres and one of 4ish (Chaos might also be a collection, with very cool effects you can only pull off with all the spheres).  The only sphere that's not shared between at least two disciplines is Bubbles!!, which we don't know about, but I could imagine one of the ones sharing with the 5th school (troubador, beastmaster, swordmaster, or raider) discovering a heretofor unnoticed apptitide.  Few people have any knowledge of the higher Weather spheres, becasue the ony people around who still could use them are raiders and beastmasters, never much known for their brains or spellcasting ability.

Wizardry is still awfully namey, nethermancy has a lot to do with spirits and bodies, elementalist with substances and forces, and High Conjury might even hold some of the effects associated with nature spirits (manipulating the environment with high "Weather", affecting people's emotions and thoughts with Influence...and, uh, Bubbles?  The true magic of places? no clue...)  The school of Illusion also seems to hold a fair number of invae tricks (mostly senses (fazz, 360-degree vision) and karma, I'd think...would hollowing out the life-essence of an individual and merging something else's essence with the husk be considered a karma III effect with a big ritual?).

I realize that wizards think in terms of true names, elementalists in terms of true elements and elementals, and nethermancers are the only ones to really think in terms of spirits.  But when threadweaving and disciplines were first designed, spirits and feeling magic probably existed in relatively similar configurations to the ones they exist in now, and make an excellent model to start hanging words on and you attempt to name new things into existance.  There's not a direct connection, but the five schools of threadweaving magic might be considered "inspired by" the four obvious types of spirit, and deep-level hacking for wizardry (what happens if we make words that describe words?  What happens when we just transcribe a bunch of specific effects together, without the usual surrounding context?  Ah, it's a bunch of unrelated effects all strung together, without the usual context.  Now that we've written eveything down, why don't we try compiling an index?  It'd make looking for things later gobs easier...)

ExaltedHackingSphereRequirements for some tangents on how to tie sphere to discipline, and other possible requirement.

--zebediah

another very loose binding...bugs--conviction--illusion--dexterity--mettle, humanity--temperance--nethermancy--stamina--wisdom/cunning, genus loci--compassion--???--perception---succor, elementals--valor--elementalism--strength--glory, adepts--(passion)--wizardry--questing--Q?  I should never go into numeromancy...--zebediah