Ask Luna #61

From: TrueNorth

Hey Luna what do you know about the magical side of Canada, like any different discipline there also are the Cryptids of Canada Real like Bigfoot or ogopogo

PS has Alex ever been to Canada I would Hazard to guess he may have but that’s just a guest.

Hope to hear your reponse an forgive me if my questions violate your rules or piss you off.

Well, Canada has mages like anywhere else, if that’s what you mean. I don’t think they’ve got access to any different magic types from everyone else, but then you wouldn’t really expect them to.

Canada’s supposed to have a much higher proportion of magical creatures than the norm, just because it’s got a lot more space and a lot less humans than most other countries, which is supposed to be where the Bigfoot stories come from (Bigfoot-types aren’t the biggest or the most important magical creatures from North America, they’re just the ones everyone’s heard of). Though I have to admit I’ve never heard of an ogopogo.

And yes, Alex has been to Canada, though I don’t know exactly when.

From: vance freed

Harvesting has awful mental health effects on the practitioner as we’ve seen, but are there other techniques that have some of the same benefits, adding to magical power, without the deleterious effects. Or could a life practitioner reshape Alex’s body to make him more durable or fast. I have real concerns with Alex’s survivability!

Kind of. The trouble with anything that boosts your magical power is that the demand’s way higher than the supply. Every mage wants to be more powerful than they are already, so the low-hanging fruit gets picked fast.

As for life magic, that can work . . . kind of. This is actually something I’ve spoken to Anne about. The main problem with it, from the way she explains it, is that you don’t get something for nothing. If you want to be stronger or faster then a life mage can help you get that way a lot quicker than you otherwise could, but you’ll have to change your lifestyle to match, or else it won’t stick. And if you really want to mess around with a body then that has side effects of its own. There’s a reason Anne doesn’t like it.

From: John D

Hi Luna,

I’m not sure if this has been asked yet, and I apologize if I’m covering old ground, but with regards to Harvesting, could it be used by a sensitive or Adept to… well, for lack of a better term, increase their power to the next tier (i.e. an Adept Harvests a mage and becomes a mage themselves, or a Sensitive has someone use a Harvesting ritual to give them actual magical power)? For that matter, can someone set up a Harvesting ritual for another person and force the benefits upon them without their permission (i.e. Harvesting one enemy to drive another mad, or as an experiment), or does the beneficiary have to cast the ritual?

On a separate note, does shapeshifting magic cast upon others affect their mental state? In a number of works of fantasy and fantasy games, being in a different shape has a number of risks for the person’s consciousness, and it’s recommended, if not against the magical law, that you don’t cast a spell on someone else that changes their shape drastically. I’m guessing that changing a face doesn’t have the same consequences (though I could be wrong about that), but if you had the magic to turn someone into a frog, would it fuck with their head as well?

Thank you for your time!

What is this, Harvesting day?

For the first question, yes, you can do that, and yes, it works exactly like you’re saying. There’s a reason the Council comes down so hard on anyone they catch doing that. As for doing it to someone else . . . I mean, I guess it’s possible, but if you’re willing to go that far, what would you get for doing it to someone else?

And yes, shapeshifting magic can REALLY mess with someone’s head. Actual shifter mages can work around it by doing some on-the-fly brain modification, but even so it’s risky, and apparently a lot of shapeshift mages end their careers by shapeshifting a bit too well and forgetting that they’re supposed to be a human. Doing it to someone else . . . yeah, I think that’s basically a slower, more reversible way of killing them. Unless they get help then they’re going to go insane or lose their identity pretty fast.

From: Gabriel

Hi Luna,

Long time reader. It’s nice to finally write in.

I know that mages and some magical creatures can make imbued items and that those items possess a form of consciousness and will.

Mages can also make constructs, but those are guided by simple programming.

Would it be possible to combine the two disciplines? Could a dedicated enough individual create an imbued construct with a consciousness and will of its own?

Frankenstein’s ice cat, if you will?

It is possible, but it’s supposed to be difficult. I don’t know enough about item creation to explain it in detail, but the rituals for creating an imbued item and the ones for creating a construct are supposed to work in really different ways, so it’s not just a matter of making an imbued item and then adding arms and legs. Light mages don’t do it because it’s too expensive, but there are rumours that some master mages go in for that kind of stuff (though they usually keep the results a secret).