When is it a reasonable time spent for a character to try and bypass mortal leadership for induction? A couple of days or perhaps 20, 30, 50, 100 hours of gameplay where leaders might be playing alts or not able to log in for awhile?

This is always going to be an "it depends" things.

We do a decent job of making sure leaders are not neglecting their leaders in favor of alts, but at the same time we're unlikely to step in unless there's a good replacement candidate.

There is one scenario that won't play, and that's someone who plays a ton of hours and gets impatient with a leader who plays enough but not as much as them. Generally speaking, we want to defer inductions to mortal leaders and are looking for some element of hardship before we step in.

In your specific character's case, you have quite a while to go before I'd want to see an Immortal step in.

If you're playing 6 hours a day - and the leader is only logging a couple hours every other day - it might seem like you're waiting a really long time to get an audience. But, it's really not and I'll admit it's hard to keep that in mind, sometimes.

Do what your character would do.

I usually find that sending a personal note and arranging for a time to meet works best. If you play in the different hours than a leader, it may be tough. But I and probably most other leaders can come out at other times in the day if it's prearranged.

Asking imms for induction is somewhat frowned upon. It's been my experience that I either find a leader or some RP-related NPC interviews and inducts me eventually. They do seem to keep a tab on applicants most of the time. With that said, about 20-30 hours is what I'd consider a bit too long to wait for an interview if you have normal sessions. That's about a week or two IRL with two-hour sessions, depending on how many days a week you log in.

Asking around IC what times the mortal leader is seen can also be useful.

There's no set limit at which imms will step in, but if someone is having a hard time they'll sometimes be inducted (or promoted) by an immortal associated with that cabal. Asking an imm directly is probably not a great way to have that happen.

I usually send a note, then just play as if I'm in the cabal. Granted, without any powers. And that's harder for some cabals, e.g. battle and outlander, than others. But eventually you'll either cross paths with a mortal leader or some imm will take pity on you.

It's a balance. I've seen people not get inducted for a month because they don't play tons of hours and miss the leader, and I've seen people not get inducted for 100 hours of gameplay because they played for 12 hrs a day for a week and the leader was gone until a weekend.

I personally tend not to step in until an applicant has gone a week real time, and reasonable hours of gameplay. What's "reasonable" is hard to define, but as an example - I'm not going to feel bad if someone's got 10 hours of gameplay since applicant.

On that note, if you're at the point of wondering, I certainly wouldn't take offense (as a cabal imm) to receive a note saying "I have faithfully sought X cabal, yet cannot find Leaderdude. Would it be presumptuous of me to seek you Gods in this?"

It gives me the opportunity to at least check on the situation and respond with "No, you should find the mortal leader" or "I'll look for you".

Just personal answer, YMMV w/ other Imms.

Assuming you've pledged and sent a note to the cabal, I'd give it a 5-7 days (or 20 hours, whichever comes first) before seeking alternative means of induction.