Traditions:

Unaffiliated dissolvers are common, and take may forms, from aphrodisiac-peddlers to .
Vagabonds subscribe to an informal philosophy: trade fairly with others, and be prepared for anything. Many (but not all) are rootless wanderers.
Sacrificial Menageries exist near most large towns, breeding animals for sacrificial slaughter; they function mainly as hospitals, but many also act as military armories, or trading-posts for more exotic animals.
Crafter Communes are rare experiments; the intention is to harness mass intimacy in order to enable co-operative artefact production. Rumours of omnigamy and projects of epic power mask the fact that they've never yet accomplished much.
Military Traditions are one of the oldest uses of dissolution; among the more sinister of the recent crop are the Shadow Guard of Arrona, crucial in Arrona's recent defeat of Catela (but now officially disbanded). Although less critical to warfare then formerly, dissolution remains an issue that no military leader can afford to ignore.

The animal consumption of Dissolution of Life - mostly for warfare and medicine - has greatly depleted wild populations near civilised regions, and driven the price of livestock up - together with its economic importance.

Heumonics
Player: Matthew
Summary: Colour magic, divided into common Primary disciplines (red, yellow, blue) less common Secondary disciplines (orange, violet, green) and the extremely rare White and Black disciplines. Each has its own area of expertise - for instance, red has power over fire, destruction and madness - but all require good light and clear vision.
History: Heumonics is about 750 years old, emerging in the twilight years of the Etter culture. The social influence of heumonics, beyond the Institute's territory, is mostly made up of isolated individuals making big splashes; in particular, the violent emergence of Dark Mages has played a large part in the inter-Altak wars. The tentative contact with the afterlife made by orange heumonicists has been critical in the development of Altak monotheism.
Traditions: Heumonics study has only appeared once in history, and is only taught by a single entity - the Heumonics Institute, a sovereign nation which does its best to preserve its ivory-tower neutrality, but permits great individualism in its members. Links: public draft

Karmacy
Player: Dan_Wood
Summary: Ethically significant actions grant a player karma, spiritual tokens dependent on their religious and moral loyalties. Karmacists are sophisticated scapegoats; they can take on other people's karma, and trade it to followers of other gods - hopefully at a net profit. What karma can be converted to in earthly terms largely depends on the god in question, but it's mostly a repository of luck; since even lowly deities don't deign to speak with karmacists, a great deal of practical karmacy involves theological and philosophical research.
History: Ancient; heavily tied up in the development of religions.
Links:mechanics notes

Malediction
Player: baf
Summary: Maledictors unleash colourful and nasty curses, but to avoid disproportionate karmic backlash they need Resentment - easiest when it is generated by direct personal injury, but also refined and redirected from other sources. Maintaining and managing all this hatred does not get maledictors invited to many parties. History: The more powerful maledictors have a tendency to remove themselves - by suicide, hermitage or mental breakdown. Sometimes a nation or politician will employ one as a deterrent, but it's a risky strategy. Maledictor organisations suffer the same problems. Their historical influence is not so much one of great trends as of occasional catastrophes, although the risk of curses has made the occasional warlord moderate his ruthlessness. Cursed individuals are taboo in most Altak societies, and maledictors are hated and feared as much for their ability to ostracise someone as for the actual effects of curses.
Traditions: For the most part maledictors are self-taught, and only learn vague general principles from their forebears; instinctive and highly emotionally charged, malediction has advanced little since the birth of civilisation. Professional maledictors tend to fall into two main camps, however.

Avengers: Offensive maledictors, they intentionally provoke abuse in order to build up power for devastating retaliation. Universally reviled, but occasionally too useful not to use. As a convenient side-effect, random people can often unleash streams of abuse against the high and the mighty and escape retaliation.
Defenders: Maledictors endowed with strong personal loyalty or patriotism are highly useful as a deterrent; nobles generally try to keep one around. (More than that generally leads to volatile rivalry). Usually they're used with restraint, as an incentive to stay within the rules of honourable engagement.

Microgating
Player: two-star (not playing)
Summary: An ancient civilisation constructed small teleportals from rings of unobtainium, a metal now rare. Though even the largest are too small to admit people, they can be used to transmit sound, light, liquids, small objects, gas etc.
History: Microgating was the most powerful tool of the Olgad empire; instant communications made for vastly superior strategy, although there are wilder claims about its uses - for instance, as an unbreakable supply chain, feeding whole armies with soup. When the unobtainium ran out, the empire's strategic core and administrative base was crippled, and it fell. For over a thousand years, microgating has been a myth to most.
Links: first draft

Psychometry
Player: Fang
Summary: Psychometrists can tap into the residues of people's memories, which are stored by association in normal objects; they can do so even to the point of gaining their abilities. This can enable them to replicate skills, or access centuries-old knowledge.
History: Psychometry is a relatively young art, about a hundred years old; most people have heard of it but few have seen it practised, and it's still fairly rare - particularly outside Altak nations. Its social impact has yet to fully emerge.
Links: first draft