Ask Luna #147

From: Warren

1. So magic types usually have personality traits that go with them but this doesn’t seem to apply with Richard. By that I mean that he seems to have a level of confidence/being at ease that I have never seen in any other mage, he’s not boastful, he’s not aggressive, or even particular cold, it’s like threats to him are just like talking about the weather calm and casual that couldn’t possibly be a concern to him.

The closest I have seen this level of confidence are in other master mages like Levistus or Druss the Red, and even then they have traits that show that they are a mind and a fire mage respectively. The only other mage who comes close is Morden and with him it feels like it’s partly a performance since he is the public face of Drakh’s Cabal. Do you think for Richard that this is just Dark Mage thinking to the extreme, his weird black threads of magic affecting him, or could it be something else that I am missing?

2. Does Morden have any specific personality traits that makes him a Death Mage? He is just so for lack of a better word, very social that I can’t tell what traits are just him being a powerful Dark Mage vs how a typical Death Mage would act if that makes sense.

1. Judging from recent events, I think he’s got some abilities that let him back up that confidence. Though that was always what we suspected.

2. Death mages aren’t especially anti-social from what I’ve seen. Actually, they can be a lot of fun. You might not want to be alone with one in a dark alley, but they never seem to have much trouble getting invited to parties. You do get the blatantly sociopathic ones, and they give the rest a bad name, but they’re a pretty small minority.

From: Michael

1. I was kinda surprised that diviners were colder and more calculating than Alex, I they would be more like Sonder, bookish and curious, not uncaring that they would view you like an insect. Is there a reason diviners aren’t Dark Mages since they seem not to care about others, or are they just more aloof and want to be left alone types?

And a side question have you met any diviners who did not see you as an insect on a cardboard? Or to paraphrase be an okay person to hang out with?

2. Have you or Alex met/heard of female diviners? I only ask because it seems all the other magic types are more or less evenly distributed among the sexes. Is this just because they are so few diviners that it only seems that way and is just luck of the draw for this time period, or is it just an information vacuum and there are female diviners we just haven’t met them.

3. Do you think Richard and Morden haven’t recruited you because it is more trouble than it is worth? One because of your curse/you being awesome, and two because it would antagonize Alex and Anne unnecessarily? Not that they wouldn’t in principle but getting them to be a Chosen or Jinn host is different from getting a competent adept.

1. That’s about three questions in one, so I’m honestly not sure how to answer.

2. Some, but not many. It does seem to be a much more male-skewed magic type, just as you get more female chance mages. I’m not sure why.

3. Um, I think they haven’t recruited me because I don’t like either of them and have zero interest in helping out with their plans.

From: Clark

1. Do you know what members of the Junior Council duties are? I get the feeling that the Senior Council are head of the Keeper Orders and various bureaucracies but I can’t figure out what the Junior Council does. As far as I can tell they seem to do nothing but listen to Alex and the Senior Council, are they just glorified aides and is Alex just unusually good at this?

2. So I heard that Morden was stronger than all of the Junior Council combined when he was still on it. Was he at the time before he was arrested, as strong as the Senior Council members? And are the Senior Council members relatively equal in power, or are some vastly stronger than the others?

3. Come to think of it, does Undaaris have any real power? I just can’t see how he got to the Senior Council everyone else even Sal Sarque (albeit in his case barely) seems to be ruthless political operators. Undaaris seems less influential than a Junior Council member and we don’t even no any aside from Alex. Is it just a case of him failing upwards or is it just Light Council politics make no sense.

4. Do you know how Isolationists maintain any power? I only ask because ostensibly it seems by their very nature they are not people inclined, so how can they maintain significant power if they can’t network very well?

1. What’s with all the political questions these days? No, I don’t know what Junior Council duties are. I assume it’s the kind of stuff Alex got up to.

2. (and 3. And come to think of it, this really goes for 4.) Look, you’re really asking the wrong girl. I could make guesses at this stuff, but . . . come on, guys. I run a shop. I don’t hang out with high-ranking politicians and I don’t have backroom meetings with people who give me the inside scoop on which Senior Council members are the strongest. Sure, I’ve picked up a bit from Alex, but honestly, you remember when Alex was asking if I wanted to be his aide? There was a reason I said no.

From: Owen

Hey Luna how are you doing just have a few questions about universal magic.

1. Do you know why diviners seems to overlap with Chance and Time magic when they by themselves Chance and Time seem to have little to do with each other? With Alex it seems like he got what you were going through even he if did not understand the nuts and bolts of Chance magic, and with Sonder it was the exact opposite, he got how Sonder did his magic but less with what drove his personality if that makes sense?

2. Are there any magic types that mirror Chance magic? Or in other words have there been any magic types that could understand you and your magic kinda of like Alex has and you him?

3. With Arachne being a magical creature does she have different paths/divinations from regular humans when Alex divines her? Has he ever described in general what is different or similar when he divines magical creatures compared to humans?

4. Do you think Alex could use his divination to see draconic prophecies without the actual consequences either for himself or having other people go to them and then tell him what they saw?

Thanks again you are an awesome person!

1. I don’t really know, sorry.

2. Alex seems able to understand it pretty well. Other than that, for whatever reason, I tend to get on best with the more active elementalist sorts. We might do different things, but the way Vari and I use our magic is actually kind of similar.

3. No idea, I’m afraid.

4. Still no idea.

I’m having to say ‘no idea’ a lot today. Maybe everyone’s run out of the sorts of questions I know how to answer.

From: floppytilleyhat

Luna,

If Anne ever reconciles with her darker half, would you suggest the mage-name: Equinox? I think it’d fit really well.

Okay, finally one I know something about. I don’t know if you thought that one up yourself or talked to someone, but it’s a scarily good guess either way. I can’t remember who first suggested it, but I actually talked to Anne about picking a mage name a while back and that was one of the suggestions that got floated. She shot it down in that nice, polite way of hers, basically saying that she didn’t want a mage name, full stop. And given what’s happened lately, it seems further away than ever. It’s a nice idea, though . . .

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