Sorcery. Should I learn it?

Sorcery is an identity. It's not something you do casually. Sorcery, if you choose to learn it, will follow you for the rest of your life... in ways that extend far beyond the sacrifice that must be offered to initiate.

It's common knowledge that all Sorcerers summon demons. Those who say they don't... probably lie. If you are a Sorcerer, chances are, most of the people you interact with will assume that you summon Yozi on a regular basis... and this will color the way they behave towards you accordingly. Note: This will occur even if you take great care to assure them that this is not the case.

Sorcerers are also known for doing other unpleasant and very dramatic things, like making you barf maggots if you displease them, or turning themselves into big metal robots somehow, or stealing your shadow, or making big skeleton lions that track you anywhere and eat you. Regularly, in the course of research, experimentation, development or just boredom... Sorcerers do stupid and unnecessary things that can kill many hundreds or thousands of people accidentally, for reasons that people who are 'normal' have a hard time understanding. An inordinately large number of Akuma begin service to the Yozi as Sorcerers.

Because of facts like these, sorcerers often live very solitary lives, outside of the political sphere, excluded from polite company and tolerated only because of the utility they offer. Unfortunately, the sorcerer community -itself- shares many of the same prejudices that outsiders do, so no real social support structure exists for the sorcerer outside of rare circumstances; they don't really have 'sorcerer nightclubs'. For most, once out of school, they will live on the outside looking in.

Why does this happen? Why are people so 'uncool'? Can't they understand that not all Sorcerers summon demons, and not all Sorcerers are evil? Sometimes, Sorcery is useful for war, or infrastructure creation? Can't they see it can be used for good?

In short, no.

This is because they have been taught, by example. Many famous sorcerers have been total dicks. Very few have been nice people. More relevant, most sorcerers -do- summon demons: the suite of demonic summoning spells is famous for being the most potent and useful a Sorcerer can learn, and this is very public knowledge amongst anybody who learns Sorcery, as per the White + Black Treatise.

If your PC is a good, pure sorcerer, who won't summon hot Neomah to bang and Puppateers to strip free heroin off of?... you must accept that you are in a sufficiently small minority to be insignificant. Of Sorcerers who are -allowed- to do these things, most do... and many of those who do not are simply held back by legal or social pressures. They'd leap at any opportunity to escape those confines and start calling up Demonic helpers, but licensing concerns or other issues hold them back. Who wouldn't want that power?

And, finally and perhaps most importantly, many famous Sorcerers have loudly and publicly claimed that they don't engage in Yozi summoning... only to be later exposed as frauds. If you want to escape this stigma, you must keep your -sorcery- secret... not just the fact you summon demons. You can't be 'one of the good ones'. It's all or nothing. The wonderful community of assholes you have joined, as a sorcerer, has ensured that people are very hesitant to give you the benefit of the doubt.

Add it all up together? And you have an environment that considers Sorcerers to be very scary people, and is exceptionally skeptical if these scary people claim they don't regularly do Horrible Things. Sorcery is likewise a well-understood element from the 'Mother Culture' of the First Age, so nearly all societies... no matter how isolated... have some vague knowledge or understanding of it.

So, if you're thinking of picking up the charms necessary to invoke these spells, keep this stuff in mind! Becoming a Sorcerer will change your whole life; the way people see you, interact with you, the opportunities that emerge and vanish with that decision. It's tempting to treat it casually, but in reality, it's a very big deal. Plan accordingly.