Ask Luna #141

From: Kurt Von Bosse

Hi Luna!

This may be an odd question, but have you or Alex; as far as you know, thought about how Richard Drakh originally found Alex and his other apprentices?

Even when Alex got in Rachel/Deleo’s head, her memory had Shireen telling Rachel that Richard found her first and starting asking Shireen what she wanted. (By the way, that seems to be a question both Richard Drakh and Mage Mordan like to ask, but perhaps it’s a topic best left for another time.)

You have stated in an answer to someone else’s question that diviners can’t really be spotted using Mage Sight. I’m trying to think of other ways Richard might have used and I can only come up with two and both are questionable.

I suppose Richard may have built a database of every known mage; whether Light, Dark or Independent, who lived within the UK in the past few hundred years and then tracked down all their descendants and then narrowed down that list to those descendants within the UK who were teenagers and had them watched for signs of magical ability. Morden once told Alex that Richard had expended a considerable effort to recruit him and doing what I described would take a considerable effort, but it doesn’t feel right to me. It is too mundane a solution. I suppose Richard could have also used a chance mage or several chance mages to help him search for the kind of budding young mages who would serve his purposes, or perhaps Richard Drakh is a chance mage. That feels to me like a better solution, but still a questionable one. What do you think, or has Alex had any ideas on this question?

If I had to guess, I’d put my money on it being less about magic and more about psychology. Alex has told me about what his magic was like for him in the early days, and from the sounds of it, divination’s the most traumatic magic to learn on your own by a LONG way. You’re constantly getting flashes of future sight at the worst times and with no control at all. It takes years to learn how to manage it properly, and quite a few diviners just go raving mad and never manage it at all.

So if you want to find a diviner, you just need to look for the kid who’s switching between being creepily prescient and totally insane. Still a tall order, but if you’re willing to comb through enough schools . . .

From: Kevin

1. Do you know if summoning magic was an advanced form of space magic sort of like how Fate magic is a specific form of divination?

2. Do you think Wish magic and Fate magic overlap in some way? They both seem to grant it’s bearer whatever they want, or am I just overthinking it?

3. Do you think chance magic is a lesser form of wish magic? Or do you think it has more in common with Fate magic?

1. I know there’s an overlap, though I don’t know much more than that. Summoning’s its own thing and it tends to be done via ritual magic instead of with on-the-fly spells.

2. Kinda. From what I understand, fate magic is still limited by possibility – it’s more like divination or chance in that it works with what’s already there, while wish magic can just make stuff out of nowhere. Wish magic seems a lot more powerful in theory, though I’m not sure how it works out in practice.

3. Chance is a lot closer to fate, though from what I understand the mindsets are really different. Chance is all about riding luck and steering it, fate is about directing and making orders. Or something like that. It doesn’t translate very well into words.

From: Warren

Has Arachne ever met Richard? She seems to know a lot about how he operates, what his worldview is, and possibly what makes him tick so to speak. Have they ever worked together or does she have a really good intelligence network?

Good spot. Yeah, they’ve met. Arachne didn’t seem keen on talking about the specifics. Richard would probably be willing to say more, but for obvious reasons I’m not going to ask.

From: Eric

1. Is there a reason the Light Council has not attacked Richard at his mansion? Or even Onyx at Morden’s mansion, seems like it is too tempting to pass up or am I missing something?

2. How has Onyx been handling Morden’s escape? I don’t think it is going to be good considering how bad his has been as a Chosen.

3. How has the rest of the magical world been reacting to this conflict? Do you think the British Light Council might call on the other Light Councils for help if things get worse?

1. You’re assuming they haven’t.

2. Stayed put in his mansion, basically daring Morden to come take it back. He hasn’t yet.

3. I don’t know how the rest of the world’s been reacting, though a few individuals have gotten involved. The British Council might call on the other Councils, but they’d have to be REALLY desperate. They’d be massively humiliated, and whichever Council they asked would want major concessions. They’d basically have to be facing total annihilation before they’d do it.

From: Izzy

Have you guys ever thought about Richard invading your shadow realm? I know it is supposed to be really difficult but he had no problem getting into Sagash’s realm or out of the Vault. Are there any precautions Alex could take like alarms, constructs or mines? Kinda of awful I have to think that but whatever helps right?

Oh, trust me, we’ve thought about it. We’ve got some pretty thorough defence plans, but for security reasons I don’t really want to talk about the details. Basically, you can assume that if it’s something that’s happened before, or something we’ve got good reason to think is likely to happen soon, we’ve probably planned for it.

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