with only "Arcane" being:
Raw Essence - Caster - Spell
no filter at all.
OTOH the "arcane" element of innate casting would seem to suggest they have something like an organ in their brain that does the filter work for them. (since innate is proto-arcane, but seems about as safe as essence.)
I agree that Arcane as written in RoCo I did not seem to represent the danger involved. I hope that the new RoCo I will fix that. I did in my games.
somehow hybrids can not only use both inputs, they can freely change it between their flavors. (This is also I think why hybrids dont have 2 distinct power pools.)
I ran a low magic game where hybrids did have to have two pools of power and their base list needed double power points (one from each realm) while open lists did not, but did need the correct type of power. You should have seen how many players chose Pure or semi-users in that game.
There is definitely a filter effect, and a change of "Flavor" in that you cannot channel power between realms. . .although you can transform it. ...
The flavor element is also seen in adders and multipliers.
There are no armor mods I know of to the channeling skill, so you can trade around the filtered/flavored power freely regardless of armor or equipment.
It's only at the stage of spell weaving that metal problems pop up.
Yet, what I am saying is that it is not the weaving that makes metal inherently problematic, but wholly the flavor added from the filter. All transfers/acquisitions of power are unaffected by any type of barrier as they are during weaving. Acquiring power from a deity or the essence fields/flows and channeling the skill are unaffected by metals. Nevertheless, the more subtle controlled application of power through spell creation/weaving are affected by metal depending on the realm of power and the flavor of that realm as colored by the filter (wow, what a passive voice sentence).
I feel that if were attempt to divide casting down it looks more like this:
Source - Fliter-Caster-weaving-effect
Chan: Raw Essence - Diety – (the transfer applies flavor) Caster – weaving (limitations due to flavor applied (Metal, inherent limitations due to realm) - effect
or
Ment: Raw Essence - Mind - (the transfer applies flavor) Caster- weaving (limitations due to flavor applied (Metal, inherent limitations due to realm) -effect
or
Esse: Raw Essence - Aura - (the transfer applies flavor) Caster – weaving (limitations due to flavor applied (Metal, inherent limitations due to realm) -effect
(Ignoring Arcane for the time being)
What I am positing is that it is not how the aura is used to weave the spell (which seems clumsy to me), but the flavor added to the power during the transfer.
Our ideas seem valid in view of the canonical rules and LM, I understand your opinion, but for reasons of clarity and elegance, I disagree. Nonetheless, we seem to be debating how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. However, I am enjoying myself doing it.