Ask Luna #120

From: Derek

Do you know if radiation, lightning sound, and light/darkness magic types can use gate magic? I know death mages can use it but for some reason life mages cannot so do you need range magic that you can create beams and shields of elemental energy in order to use it? Also do you know if Vihaela can use gate magic or not? Being a hybrid with one type that can but another that can’t, I don’t know how that would affect it one way or the other although she is scary enough even if she can’t use it.

Lightning and sound mages can. Radiation and light/darkness mages (which are basically the same thing) usually can too, but I think it’s a little more variable (you get a few who can’t). I might be misremembering though, they’re not one of the types I have much experience with.

I’m pretty sure Vihaela can use gate magic, but for obvious reasons I’ve never gotten close enough to check.

From: Kevin

So here’s one thing that has always baffled me, is when Richard imprisoned Alex after he tried to rescue Katherine is that right before Richard had Tobruk take him away, he said that giving her up was Alex’s last chance and when he didn’t Richard shook his head and said Alex wasn’t strong enough to be a Dark mage. But during his imprisonment apparently Richard and some of the others (I guess Shireen because I doubt Rachel or Onyx would make the effort) tried to convince him to come back and Richard seemed convinced that he was still a candidate for his Chosen when Alex looked back on Rachel’s memories. Now I know Richard is a master manipulator but what is up with all of this contradictory behavior? Maybe I misremember whether or not Richard visited him during that time but for someone who claims to want willing people under his employment telling them that they are to weak in body, mind, and soul to be his Chosen seems to be the worst way to do so.

To be honest, I’ve never known exactly what’s up with Richard and Alex. Sometimes it’s like you say, he seems like he’s just waiting for Alex to take up his old position as Chosen again. And sometimes it’s like Alex is his enemy and he’s just keeping him around until the time comes to settle things for good. Maybe the real answer is that he’s just holding his options open and he won’t make a final decision until he has to.

From: Mitchell

So I don’t know if this means anything in Light/Dark Council politics but do you think Morden and Richard resent who ended up as their Chosen? By that I mean do you think they are taking a hit politically for having, for lack of a better term, uncontrollable and overall inefficient Chosen. Onyx and Deleo may be strong battle mages, but Onyx is a brutal thug who’s proclivity towards violence prevents him thinking long term which is why Morden ended up imprisoned and Deleo is too erratic to know if she can do a job right without attacking Alex.

And a quick follow up to that, has Richard taken any flak for not succeeding in making Alex a Dark Mage? Even if he did not become his Chosen, Alex has publicly opposed and even prevented some of Richard’s plans from happening which in my humble opinion would indicate failure on the teacher’s part.

I think you’re probably onto something as far as that goes. I’m pretty sure that a big part of the reason that Onyx and Deleo hate Alex so much is that they’ve got the feeling that Richard and Morden would much rather have had Alex as their Chosen instead. Of course, like you say, the whole reason they got passed over is because they’re so damn psychotic they can’t be trusted to walk down the street without murdering someone, but it doesn’t seem like self-awareness is one of their strong suits.

As for the second question, no idea. Maybe he’s taken some sort of status hit among Dark mages, but I’m not plugged into that community so I wouldn’t know.

From: Kevin

So a few questions about universal magic since you and Alex are so awesome at using it.

1. I was curious if Chance and Divination magic are interconnected with each other? Alex was a really effective teacher for you until you met Chalice and was very proficient with the Fateweaver which seems be advanced/alternate Chance magic. I don’t if there is a hybrid type between diviners and chance mages but they seem to have a similar skillset.

2. On a similar note, I know that time magic can see the past and divination the future which makes sort of like mirror magic types. Do you think Chance and Space magic mirror each other as well? By that I mean Space magic can indirectly affect reality using by using one method, while Chance magic can in theory use an infinite amount of methods to indirectly affect reality. It would make for a nice duality/interconnected use for the main types of universal magic and it would be great to hear your thoughts this!

1. Kind of, yeah. I do feel that as far as magic goes, Alex and I get each other on some sort of instinctive level that other mages don’t. Back when he was my teacher and I was struggling with something he couldn’t always help, but when I tried to explain what that problem was, he always seemed to get it. It wasn’t until I joined the apprentice programme that I realised how rare that was – when I’d do the same thing with the average elemental or living mage, I’d just get a blank look. Obviously Chalice is best of all, but out of all the non-chance mage teachers I’ve had, Alex would come in at the top. And it works the same in reverse – it always seems kind of obvious to me how his divination works, when lots of other mages seem to find it really confusing.

2. No, not even close. I don’t have the first idea how space magic works, and space mages don’t seem to have a clue how I do things either. I actually feel like I’ve got less in common with them than I do with elementalists.

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