Ask Luna #180

From: Celia

Hi Luna! I was wondering, back when Alex and Anne were having their little issue with Zilean and Lightbringer, did Alex ever tell Morden about the problem? If he didn’t, why not? If he did, what was Morden’s response to the information? Not sure if this would fall under what Morden would have regarded as a “personal problem” for Alex to solve. Or perhaps Alex telling Morden would have made Alex seem weak?

I don’t know if Alex brought it up to Morden specifically, but Morden absolutely knew that Alex and Anne were going to be getting that kind of attention – the way I heard it, he pretty much spelled it out to them on their first day.  So Alex would have had to have been REALLY desperate to go to Morden for help, given that Morden had made it pretty clear that (a) he was expecting this to happen, (b) he didn’t care much, and (c) he thought it was Alex and Anne’s problem, not his.

From: Oliver

Dear Luna,
Will you still talk to us on Ask Luna after the events of Risen are published? If not, I hope it’s not because someone manages to get past the luck curse.

Sure, now and then.  I’m a lot busier now, though, so it’s harder and harder to find the time.  Maybe I ought to get my own assistant.

From: Alex

Hello Luna,
I was wondering if you maybe know how Lyle and Alex became friends back when they were apprentices? It always surprised me that a Light mage apprentice like Lyle who had a clear career plan would become friends with a Dark Mages apprentices and it was never really stated in the books, how they met and grew close to each other.

No clue, sorry.  I never cared much about Lyle and I never found him interesting enough to ask Alex questions about him.  He just seemed like such a standard Council stick-in-the-mud.

From: Dave

Hello, Luna.

I’d like to know how rare some forms of magic actually are. I know that in terms of magic families it goes Elemental -> Living -> Universal, from common to rare.

Since magic is in part determined by personality, the statistics of magic distribution are really fascinating to me. Do you happen to know roughly what are the most common and most rare magic types within each family?

I think the proportions are something like 55%-60% elemental, 25%-30% living, and 10%-15% universal.  The exact numbers vary by country and on how you count them (a lot of mages are sort of in-between the families, so there’s a lot of argument about where you draw the line).

Fire mages are the most common elementalists, in living it’s a close race between three or four different types, and the most common universal ones are time and then space.

From: Koldo

Hello Luna,

I know you have complained about the political questions you are asked but I hope this one is not so obscure. What are the politics like for adepts? Do they follow the Dark and Light divide or focus on other issues? Do they have organized political groups like the mundane world?

Thank you again for your time in reading this and answering all of our questions.

It works very differently for adepts – they don’t have the political parties that mages do.  Much looser and less formal, and they’re less politically engaged than mages are.  With adepts it tends to come down more to what movement they sympathise with, or what organisation they’re a member of, or what company they keep.