Ask Luna #83

From: Justin

Hello Luna!

I was wondering if Wish magic, or any magic for that matter, can bring back or contact the dead?

Thank you!

Don’t think so. There are plenty of stories about some magic type or other bringing back the dead, but usually what it ends up being is some sort of construct made to look like the dead person. The stories never seem to go away though, maybe because people want to believe them.

From: Hrok

Hi Luna its me again,

I was wondering what you could tell us about Richards magic type. The description of it reminded me of how the Monkey Paws power was described when deflecting bullets, ie. as black threads. Did Richard get his hands on a weaker jinn at some point or is the description of it just coincidence?

I hadn’t thought of that connection, but it does make sense. I don’t know much more about it than you though. Richard doesn’t exactly give interviews, and as far as I know no-one’s picked a fight with him and survived, so there aren’t many eyewitness accounts. So we can make guesses, but it doesn’t really achieve very much.

From: Adam

Hi Luna,

I have enjoyed reading about your adventures with Alex and the others. The most recent installment raised some questions about “universal magic”. Could you answer the following for me:

1) Could Alex, Anne or yourself learn the sorts of untyped magical spells Richard uses? Speculation about his magic type seems to indicate you could…
2) What else can untyped magic achieve?

I’ll sign off with my own speculation as to Richards magic type – While his fighting style clearly reminds Alex of a Diviner could he be a time mage? Lots of time to react, aim and prep his spells, seriously rapid movement at critical moments could all be a function of time magic.

Thanks,

Adam

. . . And the time mage thing’s a possibility too. This is what tends to happen when we discuss Richard, we just keep saying ‘maybe’. Alex couldn’t actually detect any time auras any of the times he ran into Richard, but that doesn’t prove anything, he could just have some way to shroud himself.

As for whether we could use the untyped spells Richard does – short answer is no, because as far as I know, doing that kind of stuff with untyped magic isn’t supposed to be possible. Untyped spells are ‘gateway’ ones which are very general and universal, usually magic that works on other magic. So magesight, focus item use, construct creation, that sort of thing. It’s not supposed to be any use for combat at all, so god only knows how Richard can make it work that way. But that’s the problem with mages. There are so many weird niche uses for magic that no-one knows about, because the few mages who find out about them keep them secret to get an advantage over everyone else.

From: Randy

Dear Luna, was the monkey’s paw destroyed along with Alex’s shop.
Thanks!

Nope. It was in his safe room and Alex picked it up the next day, along with everything else in there. Though honestly, I’m not sure it would have been harmed even if it hadn’t been. I think burning that thing wouldn’t do much except annoy it.

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4 Responses to Ask Luna #83

  1. Adam Jennings says:

    Hi Luna or should I say Vesta. (Cool name)
    I love to see how you’ve grown throughout your time with Alex. You have turned into a pretty awesome mage!
    A couple of questions.

    Starbreeze. Can’t Arachne make an item/focus for Alex to use to make contact with Starbreeze again. Alex hasn’t​ tried, but he found her once why can’t he do it again?

    You have been to Elsewhere on two occasions, second time using the dreamstone.
    Each time you have met a beast like creature what represents your curse.
    Does this mean you could travel to Elsewhere to understand your curse and maybe control it more?

    I believe Richard is a Diviner. He is smart, he knows what to say (probing different futures for the best outcome), he uses items like Alex, he says things like he knows the future in which someone was to attack him, Alex can’t detect a magic type aura ( Because divination is hard to detect), and he fights like a Diviner. I mean no other mage uses a gun apart from Alex, who is a Diviner.
    Richard used a world gate, maybe to travel to a different world or an alternative one. Which could mean how is is able to use an unknown magic type. Will we ever know where he went?

    Anyway, keep up the good work. Can’t wait for the next adventure.

    Take care,

    Adam Jennings

  2. Jack says:

    Hi Luna,

    Do Dream Stones get their imbued item “tendencies” from an inherent characteristic or because of their connection to Elsewhere?
    In the deep Shadow Realm, their seemed to be a somewhat intelligent force guiding Anne and Alex to the stones. Elsewhere has also been described as something similarly unstable, almost as if areas of it have a mind of their own. Does a Dream Stone’s “personality” and ability reflect some aspect of Elsewhere it is tied to, or is it an innate characteristic of the object? I guess what I’m asking is whether they’re an half-aware object, or a conduit that connects the user to a part of Elsewhere that has a sort of consciousness of it’s own.

    On the subject of Shadow Realms, do they have a connection to Elsewhere, hence why mind stones can be found in deep, unstable Shadow Realms? Or does the instability of a deep Shadow Realm allow it to be influenced by elsewhere, like ripples reaching the end of a pond or how (hypothetically) something unstable, like if you had a needle balanced on one end, even something minor like a neighbor slamming their door hard across the street or a minor earthquake a few miles away might still cause just enough disturbance to knock over the needle?

    I also got the impression in this latest book that any mage with the resources and inclination could “grow” a Shadow Realm if they were willing to wait to see how it would turn out. Is that part of non-specialized magic or something you need a focus for? In something like a newly formed Shadow Realm, wouldn’t it be controlled and isolated enough for a diviner to see how it would turn out, or are they unstable in the beginning?

    Also, assuming that Dream Stones were connected to a specific part of Elsewhere(ignore the following if not the case), would the fact that they need to be handled for years to become stable imply that that part of Elsewhere is growing or being shaped by the mage using it? And if so, wouldn’t that make them function a bit like a Shadow Realm that exists in Elsewhere. A pocket of metaphysical space or a sort of summer house or personal gate/road in Elsewhere rather than a pocket dimension?

  3. Jack says:

    Hi Luna, Jack again, sorry about the over-involved questions, but not that really all that sorry, because here are some more:

    It’s been implied that “created” imbued items are only created by powerful magical creatures like Arachne, or ancient, powerful mages who used some lost technique and generally did something really nasty in the process, like trapping their own mind or the mind of a creature like a Jinn in the object.

    On that note, were ancient mages more powerful or just really knowledgeable about creating magical objects? Or is it that every couple of decades or centuries, a really powerful mage pops up with powers from multiple branches (like the evil lady with death/life magic except on steroids, with powers from totally unrelated branches)

    Back to the objects. I can’t seem to remember if the ordinary Fate Weavers (the ones that were less stable/durable than the possessed one) were considered extremely powerful focuses or limited imbued items. In light of those fate weavers and the dream stones, I was wondering: Can a focus (obviously not a one-shot) become an imbued item if it is powerful enough (or the right kind) to begin with and the right conditions are met?

    Like, if someone had a reusable focus, and used it constantly, imbuing it with a trace of their leftover power ever time, would it eventually leave a sort of “imprint” of their user. Even if it didn’t become a imbued object, is it possible it would become more powerful or gain additional abilities? What if the mage used it regularly, then got into a fight and channeled all of their power into the focus, killing themselves in the process, or doing something else of metaphysical significance, leaving some definite imprint of their personality onto the object, would it become an imbued object?

    Are all imbued objects given their personality through their creator or whatever traumatic event that causes an intelligence like a mage’s mind or a Jinn to become attached to it?

    Are their any imbued objects that occur spontaneously, or for that matter, Shadow Realms? Can any other unusual objects be found in Deep Shadow realms, and are there objects related to Dream Stones?

  4. Jordan says:

    Have you considered that Richard might be a Sound mage? From the way he’s described I get the impression that he was born with a relatively weak type of magic and that his goal has been to overcome that through planning, use of items and eventually somehow Iron Man-ing his way into being able to use other types. Sound mage would fit the bill, and Alex has mentioned more than once that his most memorable and noticeable feature is his voice. Plus it would fit with Alex hearing Richard’s voice when Morden was being elevated to the Council.

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