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Questions/Question 52

From looking around, It seems magic and science are pretty well integrated here. For a wizard whose whole life has been studying magic through a scientific lens, how much work will it be for her to start picking up this new branch? How restricted is the general knowledge base, and how restricted is the more... specific to their situation science? (I.E, Natural souls and augmenting are apparently pretty new and experimental, but how much of the basics can a very smart character start to piece together given the time to think about it)

Much of the native "magic" that any Karterian is capable of, and the very same places citizens would steer characters, is toward a magic they call Calling (more about that here, right underneath the Karteria Primer). Augmented characters could learn how to do it if they possess an aptitude for magic themselves. This magic works only on animals, and works like suggestion rather than physically puppeteering a critter.

Characters who wish to study magic & science in Karteria will find that the reason they're so strongly interlinked is because technology is often relied upon in order to facilitate other magic. Karterian transit, the ServiTons in their city, Syntrofos, computers... All of those have a magical component to them that give these devices something of "instruction", all which borrows from the original magic of Pathos: Calling.

Natural Souls will be happily explained by Patho-Gen scientists. There isn't much they won't say about it. They are souls of animals captured, implanted in an Augmenter, then placed in a host. There's magic, but no technique involved in it, they will say. Much of the magic used by Karterians in general is facilitated by technology, after all. The most magical aspect of it is how it blesses the Augmented One with incredible resilience and power, and grants them great protection from Katalyth! They don't know why, but animals seem to (mostly) get on just fine around Katalyth—and besides, the theory has proven correct that having a second soul at all is necessary to bolster one's "defenses" against the arcane radiation, preventing them from arcane radiation toxicity.

Katalyth itself... There isn't any present in the city, so it won't be easy for characters to get the hang of what it's like, but it is very magical. Any documents about it, and arcane radiation, acknowledge this. A magic that works both as a potent source of power, but that destroys anything it comes into contact with... The barrier around the city protects Karteria from arcane radiation, so it won't be easy to "feel" any sort of ambient charge from Katalyth from within the city. For the sake of the TDM, entrances around the city will be guarded by security: though Karterian citizens are eager for characters to get to work on helping with their situation, Patho-Gen has instructed them to give their conditions time to settle before venturing out into the dangers of the world. (Our first log will include much more about Katalyth!)

I hope this helps; it's a very broad answer, but at this point in time a lot of the accessible materials will point toward much of the same things Georges/Patho-Gen has described, as well as the long-standing Karterian art of Calling.