Ask Luna #25

From: Josh

Hi Luna,

So the Encyclopaedia says that fire magic is just the manipulation of heat. If that’s so, then why are fire and ice magic separate things?

The best way to think of it is to remember that the magic that can use is an extension of your personality.  If you can use fire magic, that says one thing about you, if you can use ice magic that says something else, and so on and so on.   

Well, a lot of personality traits are on an axis.  You can be more or less sociable, more or less logical, that kind of thing.  So a really introverted person and a really extroverted person are still on the same axis.  But does that mean they’re the same kind of person?  The answer’s obviously no, right?   

Well, magic types work the same way.  Fire mages and ice mages can both manipulate heat, but they do it in different ways and for different reasons.  For instance, fire mages are MUCH better at heating something up than cooling it down.  They can kind of cool something off a little bit by redirecting the heat somewhere else, but it’s not really what they’re good at – they’re much better at burning things.  Fire magic isn’t just ‘heat’, it’s action and passion and power.  So a fire mage couldn’t freeze a pool of water into ice – yes, technically it’s heat manipulation, but it goes completely against how their magic works.  They’re about movement and fire, not stillness and cold.  

From: Josh

Sorry for not putting these in the same message. 

How far does a light mage’s control extend? Can they shield? Can they make lasers?

Their control range is pretty similar to most mages, I think.  Long enough that it doesn’t matter unless you’re out on a prairie or a football field or something.  

And yes, they can shield, and yes, they can make lasers.  They’re better at the lasering part than the shielding part, though.  They’re kind of like fire and lightning mages that way – they’re good at frying things, not so good at stopping physical objects.  Though they can do some neat tricks with light manipulation that go a long way towards making up for that.  

From: Cyberjaeger

Hey luna I wonder what other wars have light and dark mages fought also what was the dark wars all about

Dunno which ones the ‘other wars’ are.  Other than what?  

The Dark Wars were this huge set of wars a couple of thousand years back.  Back then the links to Alata were still around, and mages were split between there and Earth.  Mages call it the Precursor society, nowadays.  I don’t know what started it, but it was something to do with this city called Syriathis and it turned into a big war between the Light mages and the Dark ones.  I don’t think there were Light and Dark mages before that, not exactly anyway – that was when they got codified.   

Anyway, the wars went on for ages and got really complicated – it wasn’t just Light and Dark mages, there were normals and nonhuman factions too.  It ended up with the Precursor society getting completely trashed, and somewhere along the line the portals to Alata got cut, too.  There are still bubbles and shadow realms, but nowadays gates on Earth mostly just link to Earth.