<Descriptive text and perspective>
Initiation:
Advancement and Ordeals: <The peer and familiar must go through some ordeal together which helps define and build their mutual connection. At least one month must pass between each advancement. Faster than this risks permanent damage to the familiar spirit’s pattern as they don’t have time to adjust to and be comfortable with their new strength.>
Familiar powers and talents are learned through the Familiar Power knacks, a subset of knacks to the Familiar Spirit talent. This is the only way for a familiar spirit to gain familiar powers. Familiar spirits can learn up to seven powers and they are divied into three tiers. There are far more powers and talents than a familiar spirit can hope to learn, so you must be careful regarding what you select.
Your familiar could enhance your current abilities, compliment your current abilities, or fill in a gap the peer's group has. However, the familiar shouldn't be used to perform the same function as another character in the group unless there's value in having two characters with those abilities. The cost to invest in a familiar is too high to replicate these abilities without a good reason.
All references to “rank” in Familiar powers and talents use the adept's Familiar Spirit rank. The Familiar Spirit talent establishes the general strength of a familiar and is analogous to (but not the same as) the Strength Rating of a “free” spirit.
Improving the peer's Familiar Spirit talent rank improves their advancement characteristics, allows them to learn another knack, may increase an Attribute Step, and potentially opens up a new tier of powers. See Familiar Advancement for full details.
Familiars must possess Speak Language and/or Read and Write Language to communicate effectively with non-spirits, unless the non-spirit possesses Elemental Tongues or Spirit Talk as appropriate. Peers can communicate telepathically with their familiar (see the Familiar talent) and vice versa, but cannot speak to each other outside of that without a shared language.
These Familiar Spirit knacks allow the peer to purchase a talent. Familiar Connection knacks are still Familiar Spirit knacks and count towards the total number of knacks the charatcer can learn for a particular talent. The peer can spend Karma Points on talents learned through Familiar Connection knacks and learn knacks as well. However, if their familiar dies, all these talents are lost and cannot be regained.
None.