What makes a thaumaturge?

[lvk]

As @fluffydino2000 recently mentioned what can be found on the About page regarding thaumaturgy, from what we can gather it seems to be a latent power of the mind that only thaumaturges can really tap into. The power can be strengthened through absorption from others - fluffydino2000 speculated that this could include non-thaumaturges as well, which seemed legitimate - it can also be strengthened through other sources of knowledge and learning, which I presume include books and being taught by other thaumaturges.

However, it remains unclear what really 'makes' a thaumaturge, and when they stop being regular people, as the latent power seems to be present in non-thaumaturges as well. Is it something anyone can learn, given enough time and/or training, or do they really have to be 'born' with the ability? Is the thaumaturgic power of an NPC a way to measure how many other thaumaturges they've killed, or can they solely become skilled through being taught by other thaumaturges?

The thread summary is "when and how does a non-thaumaturge become capable of thaumaturgy", basically. Any speculation is welcome!

(I'm also secretly wondering what the general game world population's consensus is on thaumaturgy - whether they're approving, throw thaumaturges on the stake and burn them, or downright fear it, but that might be better saved for another thread. I'm mainly putting it here in case we get an official answer on the first half. However, as this would mostly be spoiler material, and BM has been careful in intentionally keeping the world lore hidden in all phases of development - for which their motivations have been explained on Kickstarter - this will probably be a speculatory thread.)

 

[fluffydino2000]

Interesting thread. I'd like to imagine that a thaumaturges potential to cast spells outside their aptitude/discipline is equal to that of any peasant. However, I'd imagine that they are much more likely to do so, given their understanding of another form of thaumaturgy. I'd also like to imagine that non-thaumaturges simply have no innate form, and that's what separates them.

With these assumptions (which are based on nothing, really), anyone should be able to use some thaumaturgic powers, after extensive training and teaching from an actual thaumaturge.

Of course, there is the question of who can absorb the transcendent mind. Only thaumaturges have been described to be able to absorb the player's power if they witness the player's death. This could mean that it is the ability to absorb power is what makes a thaumaturge. If this is the case, it doesn't seem like something that could be learned.