Although strength in drucraft is most commonly measured by skill in the three disciplines, there are two other ways in which drucrafters can be ranked:  essentia capacity and branch affinity.  When combined with discipline skill, these give a fairly comprehensive measurement of a drucrafter’s abilities.

Skill, capacity, and affinity have little correlation.  It’s possible to have great skill while having very poor essentia capacity, and vice versa.  While training or talent in one can affect the others, the three measurements can be plotted on entirely different axes.

The First Axis:  Skill

Drucraft skill is the first and most important measurement of strength, and reflects which of the disciplines a drucrafter has achieved mastery over.  This mastery is reflected in their title:  tyro, novice, channeller, shaper, manifester.

Skill is universally considered the most important axis.  The other two can be a very valuable supplement to a drucrafter’s skill, but they can’t substitute for it.  No matter how great a drucrafter’s essentia capacity, or how good their affinities, none of if will be much use if they can’t sense or channel.

The Second Axis:  Capacity

A drucrafter’s essentia capacity is a measurement of how quickly they can process ambient essentia into personal essentia.  It is a physiological trait that is for the most part determined by a drucrafter’s size.

Essentia capacity effectively functions as a drucrafter’s ‘budget’ for active sigls.  A higher essentia capacity allows them to use more sigls at once.

The Third Axis:  Affinity

Drucrafters are almost never equally skilled with all the branches.  In virtually all cases they will have at least one branch that they find particularly easy to use, and at least one that they find particularly difficult.

Branch affinities become more important the further a drucrafter advances in skill.  When learning to sense, a drucrafter’s affinities are more or less irrelevant.  For shapers and manifesters, however, they can be very important indeed.

The Three Measurements In Practice

A good way to understand these three measurements is to compare them to human ability in physical fields such as athletics and sports.

Drucraft skill is equivalent to skill:  training, technique, experience.Essentia capacity is equivalent to physical condition:  strength, fitness, reflexes.Branch affinity is equivalent to body type:  how well matched someone’s build, body shape, and characteristics are to the sport/activity in question.

So to take the example of, say, basketball, drucraft skill equates to skill in dribbling, passing, and shooting.  Essentia capacity is the equivalent of fitness, muscle strength, and reaction speed.  And branch affinity is the equivalent of just being tall.  A skilled player will always beat an unskilled one, but at higher levels, where everyone is skilled, being fitter or taller can make the difference, and the very best players are typically going to excel at all three.