From: Lauren
Hi Luna! I wanted to ask about the Order of the Shield.
Do you know what magic type that Keeper with the cowboy hat Tobias has? I want to say Air Mage because of Animorphs, and I read that you liked it as well! Did you have a favorite Animorph? Mine was Rachel because she always took charge of the situation.
Also are the Keepers in the Order of the Shield mainly Fire mages or are there a fair number of Water, Air, Force, Earth and Death mages in them?
And in the mission to Syria was a mage named Elandis and from the description he seemed like he resembled our Landis kinda of like a cousin or something. Are there such things as mages who are related to each more distantly rather than parent to child lines?
Thanks again you rock!
I don’t know his magic type, no. I don’t meet many Keepers and when I do it’s usually not for good reasons.
Keepers in the Order of the Shield are a pretty varied bunch as I remember, so I don’t think there’s an especially big number of fire mages.
And I don’t think Elandis and Landis are related, but who knows.
PS – yes, I did, and my favourite was either Marco or Axe.
From: Lincoln
1. Alex mentioned that he used tarot cards for divination did he ever tell you how they worked and what he used them for. He also said he did not use crystal balls or the tea leaf method, did he tell you how they worked, and is the reason he does not use these methods because he does not like to use focuses for his divination?
2. When he was using a gatestone to go to Helikion Alex said that he spoke in the Old Tongue to do so. Was that a precursor language or was it his mother’s native tongue because some of my friends sometimes call their home language that, similar when they call their land of birth the old country.
3. Do you think Richard made sure Alex specialized in short term/combat divination to weaken and strengthen him at the same time, to make him easy to manipulate and resourceful enough to get out of trouble and win battles?
1. No clue about any of those, sorry. Honestly, why would anyone care about tarot cards?
2. I think it was the language that precursor mages used. A lot of really old magic books use it.
3. It’s an interesting idea, but I don’t think so. The way I understand it, you can’t really ‘make’ a mage or an adept specialise in a type of magic – it’s too personal. I guess you can encourage them, but what they’re good at is what they’re good at. If someone’s going to suck at a type of magic, trying to push them into specialising in it is a waste of time.
From: Brian
Hello Mage Vesta I hope you are doing well, I just have a few questions about the various forms of divination.
I was looking at the Encyclopaedia Arcana at advanced divination, and with Dionysian divination it seems they have two abilities, Fortune Telling, and Auguries which seems to be variations of path walking/long term divinations. I was curious if Alex ever told you what the short term precognition/danger sense ability they had? My own thought was this ability was what precognition linked them together, a common ancestor if you would and they diverge in that Apollonian diviners can predict overall general events while Dionysian diviners can predict specific events if that makes sense.
Do you think the Apollonian side of divination is how time magic works it being analytical and Dionysian is like chance magic with a go with the flow attitude?
Or is divination just a mindset that overlaps with them both for whatever reason?
Lastly, do you think the reason it is hard to shroud divinations is that unlike time, and space, the future/free will is too chaotic to control? Or is it because diviners are just super rare and it is hard for by nature of scarcity to get them to put in shrouds?
No, Alex never really taught me much about that, and I never asked. Maybe if I’d known how interested people seem to be in the whole Dionysian thing I’d have paid more attention and asked more questions, but at the time it just seemed like yet another obscure magic sub-type that I had zero reason to care about. Actually, it still kind of does.
I think the reason shrouds don’t work well on divination is that they’re shielding against different things. Or it might be perspective – diviners start from themselves and look out, time mages start from outside and look back. Or something? I don’t really know much about the theory.
From: Kevin
1. Alex mentions several times that he has two imbued items, the pale green egg that defies gravity, and three darts clamped into a metal holder with a lock on them. Now most likely there is operational security that you don’t want their abilities getting out, but has Alex ever told you what he called them? Do imbued items get named or is it a case by case basis?
2. What is Maradox’s magic type? When Alex divined him his actions didn’t shift and flicker like most people, but they formed from one set of actions to another, was this his magic speaking or just his own unique trait?
3. What exactly does a Minkowski box do? Sorry if this is a stupid question but is it just a fancy word for magical container or does it have other magical applications?
1. He’s told me about them, yeah. Probably as a failsafe in case something happens to him, which always worries me a bit. Neither of them are world-shaking threats or anything, but let’s just say there are good reasons he keeps them locked up.
2. No clue. Sounds more like a personality trait than magic type though. Apparently you can tell a lot about someone that way.
3. They’re stasis boxes. They get used for high-instability magic items, or anything that’s too dangerous to be handled.