Yes and you are weaving that loom over the campaign quite effectively, Will stated a fairly succinct explanation of why so many high level fantasy things are about. I'd like to be completely clear on this, I really like the world you have here Brian, I'm not bashing it, it's really cool.
I agree completely about the magic system and personally would go farther and extend your sentiment to the whole system. It functions for what it is being used for (a system that encourages role play) and that's about the best I can say for it.
With the possible exception of about 40% of the life paths. Having certain life paths just give you nothing seems like it would discourage almost anyone from taking them, and other (young lady, city born student) just give you so much it's hard to pass them up. lol
It is by no means the worst system I've played. That is and has been reserved for the marvel role playing system. Close second Iron Claw is a little closer to burning wheel in it's combat, but it makes it more annoying and it is a furry themed system/world. Both of these not only were easy to break but they had as much role play incentive as D&D. Both had the added failing of not working smoothly and having simple options you could take at start to just one shot everything without even trying specifically to break a character.
The largest problem I have with this system is actually the way you improve things, it literally makes it impossible for you to ever improve some things because you don't roll them. And the task of keeping track of how it works means for the most part people won't do it.
I have considered making systems where the times you actually do something are counted like this. It always came back to the same realization; this level of micro management does nothing to add to the enjoyment of the game and is best left to video games.
