So I am a new player with a battle mage build, but I’m wondering about taking a point in magic lore to be able to do ritual stuff when not on the field, is it worth doing?? Are you able to make an IC income doing this for people or not really?
If so what is the difference between the different lores (spring summer etc?) Is there one that would benefit battlemage more than others??
Sorry for my ignorance.
I mean, my question back to you is: what would fit the character, their story, and their future goals?
Are they looking at getting involved in their Nation’s covens (thus adding extra social dimension to your game)?
Do they want to assist the Empire’s lover military strategy?
Are they wanting to do Conclave politics?
IC income from ritual magic is very, very hit miss and depends on Realm, focus, and how you market yourself
EDIT
The Wiki has good summary (see link), but end of the day, the choice is yours on the play
You are unlikely to make much of an IC income joining in covens (groups of ritual mages). They tend to share out what they get paid for big rituals (not much), and want to keep to coven together so that they can predictably do big rituals.
A couple of points in a lore would allow you to solo-cast some of the smaller rituals. And it’s possible that some of them would be lucrative to cast, on a “mana cost + a little extra” level.
As a rule, I’d say that ritual magics aren’t something that folk go into for the cash return. It’s something that brings you lots of game. Even on a large scale… (“that magical fortress that held off the barbarian army? I helped cast that!”)
The difference between the various lores is almost entirely flavour and application. If I had to pick out one for a battlemage, I’d go for Summer, which has a few cheap buff rituals.
But you then have to balance between casting buffing rituals on others, or having the crystal mana available to throw out lots of spells…
Tricky, isn’t it 
Do you have a coven you know you’ll be joining? If you’re going solo, or none of the people you’ll be in a group with are going to be ritualists, I would probably recommend leaving the XP unspent for now and seeing if there are any covens you want to join. Covens usually specialize in one or two Realms, and if you go in locked in on a single one, you might not end up finding anyone to do rituals with.
With the XP unspent, you can see if any coven you might want to join will want an extra point of this lore or that lore, and can grab that and join in. If not, you can decide to put that XP into more battle mage stuff, or hang onto it for later if you want to.
If it’s of interest to you, my opinion is that it’s worth giving a try. If it doesn’t turn out how you hoped/expected then you can drop the skill for an XP refund and spend it elsewhere.
To check out the rituals available, I use this page https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Formulaic_ritual and use the links to the ritual lists.
For a shorter read, there’s a list of specific battlefield rituals which don’t need to be witnessed directly by a referee; https://www.profounddecisions.co.uk/empire-wiki/Battlefield_ritual
And here’s a long-winded bunch of comments that I hope are useful:
Summer lore is the most immediately thematic choice for a battle mage, as it focusses on combat. It has three rituals that can be cast with one point of realm lore if Mastered (which lets you spend one mana crystal and count it as two) and you can master two rituals per rank of Lore skill. Your effective rank gets boosted when stood in the imperial regio, via potions and/or magic items so it isn’t impossible to cast some of the others, just less cost effective. Those 3 spells let you remove Weakness (which stops the victim casting spells, using hero points and performing priestly ceremonies), gives a target one use of a heroic call determined by weapon, or grants a rank of Fortitude to survive longer if bleeding out while venomed.
Spring has two solo-cast (when mastered) healing rituals of use on the battlefield; one mends crippled limbs from Cleave and Impale calls, the other heals all hits. There’s a third Magnitude 2 ritual but that’s for boosting farms and I would assume you’d take a mana site for your resource if doing rituals, so you’d need to go touting for business.
Autumn has 5 rituals to choose from, one of which is useful on the battlefield to repair Shattered items. Potentially really useful but wouldn’t see guaranteed use every battle so far as I know. The other four are more services for others, how much you can charge would be a matter of bartering in the field.
Winter has four rituals available, one with battlefield application as it grants a rank of Fortitude.
Day has three rituals available, one for the battlefield that removes the Venom condition, one that could see use mid-combat as a coven thing if a magical shroud was encountered and the last for learning about the person bonded to a magic item in your possession.
Night’s two starting rituals are for intensifying a target’s emotions and sending messages to one specific eternal. Nothing for the battlefield there but with another rank in Night Lore there is a ritual for sharing item knowledge between two characters with the Artisan skill, which you might be able to barter into a discount on a magic item for yourself (no promises, not tried that myself) and could maybe get you a niche market that’s combat-adjacent.
Sorry I havent checked on here for a while.
Thank you all for the info, I might hang fire for now and see where things take me at the next event, I like the idea of it but wondering if I should focus on more battley stuff first