I for one, disagree.  I just can't conceive of how a champion could have knowledge of magical spells yet not be able to cast any.  Some champions who have magical spell knowledge should be part of that special elite who still have the ability to channel as described in the game background.

Magic can still be rare.  I don't see removing imbuing as undermining that notion.  I'd like to see many champions who only have fighting or assassin skills, of course, and magic using champions less common.  Maybe a 60%-40% split?

Cheers,

Sword

Perhaps magic is just beginning to return to the world, and the sovereigns are the ones that have the closest link with it (ie, can draw more, understand more) and those that follow a sovereigns benefit from a greater pool of magic to drawn from, if not being able to expand and understand the magic as mcuh as a sovereign can.

I don't see any problems with the lore.

I didn't mind imbue, although I did think it was silly that so many Champions had magic skills. I would also like to see a better split between 'classes.' you could keep imbue around, but now you would generally want to imbue characters based on potential. Some would have great potential for magic based on their intelligence. Then you could build them up as magic users. This would make more sense than having a character that already has fire spells, but cant use them until you imbue.

At the end of the day, imbue is not critical. I think they can fix it without removing it, but it won't kill the game to remove it.