Shiny

Question: Can something like Rust/Shine be used to affect Relics?

Yes! Or at least, yes in the case of Rust/Shine, which you can use on your relic sword as easily as you could on a normal piece of iron. Because I'm sure that opens up a bunch of fiddly questions for those that are into fiddly questions, a quick bulleted list to head them off at the pass:

• Yes, that means you can spent a point of permanent Willpower to permanently Shine your own relic.
• Yes, if you do that it will add one dot to the relic's rating.
• Yes, that means that if you permanently Shine a mundane weapon, it becomes a one-dot relic, though it isn't bound to anyone as a Birthright.
• No, you can't use Shine to make something a relic only temporarily; it doesn't turn into a relic unless you spend the permanent Willpower.
• No, that doesn't step on Trusted Tool's toes, because Trusted Tool doesn't cost permanent Willpower to make relics.
• Yes, you can try to Rust an opponent's relic weapon, but you'll have to roll against the relic as if you were trying to use it, and if you fail the boon will have no effect.
• Yes, if you want to spend a permanent Willpower on truly being a dick, you could permanently Rust someone else's relic if you won the roll against it.
• Yes, that would drop the unlucky relic's rating by one.

Did I miss any?

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "something like" Rust/Shine, but most other boons that enhance weapons and items can be used on relics when appropriate. Blazing Weapon, Flamin' Bullets, Hrimthurssar's Touch, Silver Blessing, Storm Augmentation, Starfire, Flare Missile, Solar Shield, Mortal Stroke and Blessing of Ammunition may be used to give bonuses to any appropriate item, relic or otherwise.

Fire in the Sky

Question: Would you consider it acceptable to have magma based powers to be in the Fire purview? I mean, I understand that magma is ultimately molten rock, but just like ice and water are scientifically the same substance, but mythologically representative of different things, thus necessitating two different purviews, it just seems more likely that an ancient culture looking at a volcanic eruption would go "Fire!", not "Earth!".

Actually, yes, and thank you for asking about it so we can be excited about it on the blog! We've been discussing moving Magma Control over to Fire for a while now; it's almost universal that gods of volcanoes and eruptions are considered gods of fire in most cultures, and while they sometimes do have Earth connotations as well (usually for the rumbling and the shaking that often precedes or follows a volcanic eruption), those are never attached to the idea of the lava itself. To most cultures, lava raining down from the sky or swimming malevolently toward your village has nothing to do with Earth and everything to do with liquid fire that is coming to kill you.

The original rules place it in Earth because, of course, modern science understands that magma is just rock that has been melted down until it's liquid and dangerous, but this is one of the many places where that scientific knowledge doesn't match up with mythic ideas, so we're planning to move it soon. Just as Eclipse belonged in Darkness, not Moon, and boons having to do with freezing belong in Frost, not Water, so Magma Control clearly belongs in Fire instead of Earth. (Of course, Earth gods could still totally legitimately cause volcanoes to erupt by getting down there and shaking shit up until they caused one to blow, but I'm just saying that that is probably a one-way ticket to Firey Fatebond Town.)

The only reasons we haven't moved it yet are A) we haven't had a chance to work on APP boons in quite a while, but it's definitely on the list for as soon as we do, and B) we're still looking for something to replace it with in Earth. Earth does have Seismic Disruption, so the dirt-aligned gods among us won't be left entirely out in the cold, but we're still hoping to come up with something cool (but not so cool that it belongs in The Shaper) to take the sting out of Magma Control's defection.

It may not change on the site for a little while as we continue to feverishly work through projects on our way to it, but I'd say considering Magma Control to belong to the realm of Fire is an obvious choice. Run with it, and you kids try not to despotically control too many island cultures with your reigns of terror.