Ask Luna #4

From: Hugh Lorrie

Hi Luna

Do mages recognise any form if religion? Do they have their own or do they belong to normal religions?

Normal religions, as far as I know.  I’ve never asked our teachers about it but Anne’s Christian and Vari’s Sikh.  

Apparently the Light mages used to have some kind of religion of their own, back in the Precursor time.  It was covered in a couple of our classes.  I wasn’t paying that much attention, but I got the impression it used to be a big thing for them.  It’s kind of faded away now, but a lot of the language still gets used in our rituals and stuff.  

From: peter jay

Luna

What can death and life mages do?

Also do mages have gods?

I think I did life mages last time, and I’m pretty sure there’s an Encyclopaedia article on that, so I’ll pass.  

The way I understand it, death mages are the combat nuts of the mage world.  Absolutely every spell they have is designed either to kill someone or get into a position to kill someone or keep yourself alive so you can kill someone.  Lots of elementalists can do combat, but they have some utility as well.  Death mages don’t, they kill things and they don’t do ANYTHING else.  They have kind of a bad reputation and there are definitely some who deserve it, but I’ve met a couple of death apprentices who seemed like decent guys.  I kind of liked them, actually, though I wouldn’t want to get on their bad side.  

Not sure what you mean about the gods thing.  If you mean are mages religious then yes, some of them.  If you mean do they have actual real gods that they talk to, then I hope not.  

From: Joe

Does the ability to work magic have any relation to ‘dark matter’?

I have no idea what dark matter is.  Okay, according to Wikipedia it’s “a type of matter in astronomy and cosmology hypothesised to account for a large part of the total mass in the universe”.  Okay then.

Honestly, I have no clue how that would relate to magic.  I’m going to say maybe?  

From: Lucy Kohan

Dear Luna,

Is life magic a part of living magic?

Also what are some other kinds of universal magic?? 

Yup, it’s a part of living magic.  Life and mind are the two really well-known ones

Other kinds of universal magic – divination, chance, space, and time are the ones that usually get named.  Force sometimes gets called universal but I think it’s supposed to be elemental.  I’m pretty sure gravity and magnetism are in there too, and there are a couple of light- and illusion-related ones.  Those are just the ones I know, though, there are dozens, but they start getting really obscure and there are some that are so rare that there are probably about six people in the whole world who can use them.  

From: Orion

Dear Luna,

What is a matter mage? And what are the limits on shapeshifting, does there have to be an equivalent of size when shapeshifting and can a mage transform into non biological things or mythical creatures?

Your name sounds kind of familiar.  Have you written in before?

Matter mages are supposed to be able to mess around with nonliving physical objects, but I’m not sure if they’re actually a type or if it’s a kind of subfamily.  I’ve heard people talk about ‘matter magic’ but all of the apprentices I’ve met who go in for it called themselves earth mages, not matter mages (I think there was one guy who was supposed to be a metal mage, whatever that is, but I never got the chance to talk to him).   

Shapeshifters are really rare and I’ve never met one – there are supposed to be some mental issues with keeping your identity.  I’ve never heard of them turning into giant dragons or anything like that so I guess there probably is some sort of size limit on it.  

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