Ask Luna #24

From: Thomas

I would really love to be a Mage but unfortunately I’m not but could you tell me the different types of Mage anyway?

The most common magic types are:

Elemental mages:  Fire, Earth, Water, Air, Force, Ice
Living mages:  Life, Death, Mind, Charm
Universal mages:  Divination, Chance, Time, Space

Oh, and don’t worry too much about not being a mage.  You’ll probably live longer not being one.

From: Anton

Hey Luna,

Can you go over some of the things Alex can do magical that don’t involve his divination? All he seems to talk about is how mages are can ONLY do whatever is in there particular wheelhouse, but if that is the case how are they any different than adepts? Can he/does he make ANY of the items he uses (ie gatestones) or does he just get it all second hand? If he does make some does he he use and Envelopment Focus?

Ugh, this is going to take a while . . .

Okay, first off, yes, basically everything Alex does is divination.  That doesn’t make him an adept.  Adepts can do one spell, mages can do one type.  Just because every fire magic spell involves heat or fire in some way doesn’t mean that they’re all the SAME spell.  They channel it in different ways for different results.  What you’re saying is like saying that a dog and a gorilla and a bird are all basically the same thing, because they’ve all got warm blood.

Now, that said, Alex can do some stuff that isn’t directly divination-based, like his magesight and using focus items.  Even if he didn’t, though, he’d still qualify as a mage, because ‘looking into the future’ isn’t just one spell any more than ‘moving energy about’ is just one spell.  The path-walking he does and the short-range combat sense he uses both involve divination, but they’re useful for totally different things.

Now if you’re saying that you should call someone a mage rather than an adept based on how many different EFFECTS they can produce, that I’d be on board with.

From: Anton

Hey Luna,

3 questions:

1. Alex mentioned that Council Security uses Magical Items, do you know the kind of items they generally use?

2. Alex uses One-Shots and Imbued Items, why not any Foci? and finally, he mentions “One-Shots” often, but are there such a thing as “Multi-Shots” (one off spells that can be used multiple times, like a roman candle)?

Thanks

1. The Keepers use much everything as far as I know.  Binding items, gate stones, protective wards, the lot.  They also have communicator focuses that they use for sharing info.  Or did you mean the mercenary guys?

2. Alex uses foci all the time.  What do you think gate stones are?

3. Yeah, there are multi-shot items as well as one-shot ones, but they’re not very common.  It’s kind of difficult to get them to stay stable, because once the first spell goes off it tends to make a mess of the housing.  Main reason mages don’t use them is, what’s the point?  Sure you could go to the extra effort to make the same item work two or three times . . . or you could just make two or three copies instead, which is less effort.  It’s the same reason you don’t try to make a bomb that explodes more than once.

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