Benedict Jacka

From: Kevin

Okay kinda of a silly question but what House in Hogwarts do you think you would be sorted into?
Ditto for Alex, Vari, Anne, and Sonder. And just for the heck of it Arachne and Hermes.

I always used to imagine myself as being in Gryffindor, but that might just be wishful thinking. It’s not like anyone reads the books and comes away thinking ‘wow, I wish I was in Hufflepuff’. Variam would definitely get Gryffindor, though. Not sure about Alex or Anne, and I don’t think Arachne would be taking that kind of test.

From: Nathan

Hey Luna just have a few questions about the Keepers thanks for answering these you are very helpful Alex is lucky to have you as a friend!
1. Do you know anything about Elandis, the other Captain in the mission to Syria, like his magic type, what Order he is in, or if he is connected to Landis in anyway? It may be a coincidence that they have similar names but it is a small world.
2. Do you know how many Keepers they are in the Orders of the Star, Shield and Cloak? Not looking for exact numbers but like a rough guess.
3. Also would it be accurate that about eighty percent are in the Star, fifteen percent are in the Cloak and the remainder five percent are in the Shield?
4. Does Landis have a rank in the Order of the Shield? Or is a rank system only limited to the other orders.
Thanks again!

1. Nope, don’t know anything about him. I think the name’s a coincidence.
2. A few hundred I think? I dunno, never really cared enough to count.
3. Probably more like 60/30/10, but again that’s kind of a rough guess.
4. He does, but he never uses it. They seem to do authority on a different basis, judging from the few times I’ve seen them.

From: Connor

Forgot to include this in the last post but are Precursor artifacts in a different category from regular magical items such as one-shots focus, and imbued items? Have you Alex, Anne, or Vari ever seen any other Precursor items aside from the Fateweaver?

And last question is the Dreamstone an imbued item or is it some other classification.

Thanks for answering these questions hope the shop is running well!

‘Precursor’ is just a fancy way of saying ‘really old’. There’s supposed to be some technical qualification for it (it has to be X hundred/thousand years old) but I don’t think most people care, they just slap the name on anything they think is old enough.

Dreamstone . . . jury’s out. We were told that it was a focus, but it acts pretty weird for a focus. Alex’s theory is that it’s some fourth kind of category that you only get when something’s tied into Elsewhere.

From: Callum

Do you think the jinn in the Monkey’s Paw is on the same level as the jinn in the box that Anne had? I only ask because someone might come looking for it as a power up to use in the Light-Dark conflict that is going on.

Also what do you think would happen if someone tried to use both of them at the same time? I know that this is a very bad idea but do you think they might cancel each other out by fighting over the host?

It’s really hard to tell, as the only way you can find that kind of thing out is to test them, which isn’t exactly safe. Richard would probably know, but as you can guess, we aren’t going to ask him.

As for trying to use both at the same time, that’s . . . creative. I haven’t got the slightest idea what would happen, but it’s hard to see how it’d work out well for the person trying.

From: Lisa

Is there a reason Elementalists can create/use gate magic? That type of magic seems more universal, is there a layman’s explanation for why the most direct/physical use of magic can create them?

I asked in one of my classes once and got told that it was because elementalists are the ones who are best at directly affecting the physical world, which gate magic counts for. I never thought it was a very good explanation, honestly. I think they don’t know themselves.

From: Joshua

Hey, In the first Chapter of Chosen you and the crew were sitting around the coffee table playing an interesting sounding board game but the name of the game never seamed to come up. what game were you guys playing I think i might like playing it.

If it’s the one I think you mean, it was Settlers of Catan. Fun game, haven’t played it in a while.

From: Isaac

Do you know the extent of what Vihaela’s hybrid magic can do? It seems she can do most of what regular life and death mages can do individually, is this normal or is it just because she is a really powerful mage?

It’s not normal, she’s just really powerful. I’ve never gotten close enough to get a good look myself, but Alex has and he thinks she can do about 90% of what your average death mage can and about 50% of what your average life mage can as well. So she can heal, and weaken, and kill, and she can do it at range. The one saving grace is that she doesn’t have the ability that pure life mages do of being able to go through defensive magic like shields, but that’s not much consolation if you can’t make shields (like most people).

From: Connor

Have you heard anything about the Precursor artifacts Richard supposedly has? As far as I can tell the Dark Cabal has only been using the imbued items, do you think that Richard is lying about having them? They seem too powerful not to use at least a few of them by now.

On a side not does Richard and Morden’s group of dark mages have an official name by mage society? I used Dark Cabal as a placeholder seems to be fit them perfectly.

I don’t actually know what these Precursor artifacts are supposed to be. I don’t think the Council does either, it’s just their way of saying ‘he can do some stuff that we can’t explain’. It might not be anything to do with artifacts at all.

Dark cabals are usually named after their leader, so it just gets referred to as Drakh’s cabal (by the Council) or Richard’s cabal (by us).

From: Austin

These are questions that have to do with the jinn so I thought I would divide them into numbered questions to make them easier to answer
1. Do you know anything about the different types of Jinn, Arachne mentioned? Do the jann, jinn, shaitans, marids and Ifrits have different levels of wish magic or is that only the ifrits and they each can do something different?
2. And this might get a bit complicated but do you know why all of the different types of Jinn are called the class jinn. I don’t know if that is technically accurate but I did my best.
3. Do you think that the Shaitans might have contributed to the idea of Satan dealing in souls. Like magical creatures being viewed as gods, perhaps the Jinn tricking mages into ruin could be something similar.

Sorry if these are stupid questions, I know jinns are really rare and knowledge is limited about them but I thought I would just ask to be certain.

Thanks for answering and have a nice day!

1. I think from what Arachne said, only marids and ifrits could use true wish magic. The lesser classes had their own magic, but it wasn’t as powerful.

2. You’d have to ask a historian. It’s probably like how people say ‘bread’ to mean anything from the sliced stuff in a loaf to anything you get in a bakery.

3. Probably. From how I understand it, a lot of those bound jinn trickled down into the hands of sensitives and normals, which generally ended about as badly as you’d expect. Wouldn’t have been much of a stretch for stories about that to recast them as demons.

From: Kevin

Do adepts or sensitives who work for the Light Council get protections that they normally would not get under the Concord?

Yup.

From: Kurt Von Bosse

Hello Luna!

I was thinking about Richard Drakh and Mage Morden and what an odd couple they make. From the way Alex has talked about Dark cabals it seems that for the cabal to work well, someone has to be the boss. There must be one Dark mage that everyone else takes orders from and is afraid to cross otherwise chaos would ensue. Each Dark mage would scramble to assert themself as the leader or would attempt to doublecross their fellow cabal members and not much could be accomplished and not for very long. Even Dark cabals that have strong leadership can still have problems as we saw when Onyx disobeyed orders and openly joined the raid on the Light Council’s vault which resulted in Morden’s fall from power on the Light Council.

Everytime Alex has seen Mage Morden working with other Dark mages or been forced to work with him, Morden has been the unchallenged leader of those Dark mages. Morden is gregarious or pretends to be. He is seen at social gatherings and is often a center of attention.

Richard Drakh rarely openly works with other Dark mages. It was an unusual occasion when he showed up at the Tiger’s Palace with an entourage and they were there for their firepower and not their social skills. When he helped raid the Council’s security vault in disguise, even his fellow Dark mages didn’t know he was Archon. He no longer uses human servants at his mansion. He wasn’t known for taking apprentices before taking on Alex, Tobruk, Rachel and Shireen.

It seems to me that Morden and Drakh have worked well together because they haven’t had to physically work together. Each of them has acted as the boss of their own domain. I wonder that now that Morden is no longer a member of the Light Council if that working relationship will continue to run as smoothly as before. Between the two of them I think of Richard Drakh as being the leader, but I’ve never seen Morden defer to anyone else before.

Finally, there is a wildcard in Vihaela. She has a habit of double crossing her bosses and taking their places of authority. She’s probably not as strong as Drakh or Morden, though we have no way to measure that. My guess is both of Drakh and Morden think they can control Vihaela or deal with her more forcefully if the need arose. Then again, I bet her former employers thought exactly the same thing.

I’m wondering if Alex has said anything about Mages Drakh and Morden and if he thought their working relationship was unusual or out of the ordinary?

This is actually a good question, and it’s something I hadn’t really thought about. Because usually it’s like you say, in a Dark cabal there’s one very definite leader and they’re pretty brutal about maintaining authority.

Now that still kind of applies with Vihaela since Richard and Morden seem to have mostly kept her at arm’s length and every time they’ve worked together it’s been obvious what each side is getting out of it. But when it comes to Richard and Morden it just falls apart. There have been a good couple of times where one of them could easily have gotten rid of the other and taken over as the boss. But they haven’t, and I’m not sure why.

Maybe one of them is definitely in charge and we just don’t know it? Or maybe they’re just friends? (Weird concept, I know, but Dark mages are still people.) I dunno. I think I’ll talk about it with Alex.

From: Alexandus

Hi Luna. So, it’s been established that Vampires were wiped out in our reality. It’s also established that many magical creatures survived by escaping into other worlds. Do you think it’s plausible Richard’s interdimensional sojourn was to secure power / alliances with them?
Leading an army of them from a world portal does sound appropriately villainous for a villain of his scope. And Richard hasn’t aged, either…

I think that takes the record for weirdest theory about Richard’s plans/magic type/whatever that I’ve heard so far.

From: Thomas

Are there Dark Mage factions similar to the ones on the Dark Council? I remember Chalice discussing it with Alex but it was mainly about the ones who wanted to join the Light Council, do you know of any other groups?

Yeah, Chalice has told me a bit about it. They aren’t as organised as the ones on the Council but they do fall into vague groups. You get the reconciler types, like you say, who want the Light and Dark mages to unite, but they aren’t very common. Then you’ve got warrior-code types who are all strength-and-honour, anarchists who are about personal freedom, and a bunch who try to get Dark mages to work together. And then there are a good number who are just totally self-centered and don’t give a rat’s ass about anything except themselves.

From: Jonathan

Have you read anything from Ask Luna that has helped you guys out in general? I think that all of the Richard questions you have gotten recently might be the fandom for lack of a better word, trying to help you and the gang out since you are so busy dealing with mage politics. By that I mean having others look at it from a different perspective might bring up something you might have missed. The internet can be helpful some of the time at least.

It happens, but it’s rare. I do get that people are trying to help, but the problem is that they just don’t have the context. For every bit of information that’s public knowledge, there are about five or ten other relevant details, and those details tend to be quite small ones that you have to have been paying really close attention to spot. So when the people who write in start coming up with theories, they start off about ten steps behind.

The most useful questions from my point of view tend to be perspective, rather than suggestions – looking at things from an angle that we usually don’t do, either because it’s related to old stuff, or because it requires taking a step back and we’re too busy (e.g. Kurt’s question above).

From: Kevin

1. Is Richard Drakh known internationally or is it just limited to the Great Britain Isles?
2. Do you think there are any similar Dark Mage counterparts in France, Germany or the United States that we might have to worry about?

1. He’s known internationally, but people don’t necessarily care about him very much. It’s sort of like how people from other countries would view the prime minister of Spain.

2. There definitely are, but most people don’t want to get involved in other countries’ problems unless they have to (though they love to talk about them).

From: Alex

Okay this might be a completely obvious and redundant question but do you know what exactly the Gate Rune did? Most likely it had something to do with transportation but do you know any more specifics? It must have been quite useful to cause the equivalent of a Mage World War

I didn’t pay that much attention in the classes where they were covering it, but I got the impression it was more of a spark that set things off than anything else – the Light and Dark mages really didn’t like each other and were just looking for an excuse to start a fight. Though the Gate Rune was supposed to be really powerful too – it was some kind of imbued item that could open up portals to other worlds.

From: James

Do you think Alex is letting his personal biases get in the way of viewing Richard as a potential diviner? Granted the implications that he might be similar to his former teacher would unsettle anyone in the same position, but there have been quite a few times when Alex has bluffed his way through dangerous situations acting confident and unconcerned. Plus I remember Alex saying how little he knows about Richard personally and this could be an older diviner’s way of hiding his magic type from others along with creating a certain mystique that makes Senior Council members terrified of you. I don’t think this makes Alex anything like Richard in terms how he is as a person or the choices he will make in the future, but you know how you said in the past how Anne and Vihaela are sorta alike since they share a life magic connection? I think this could be something similar, and yeah I know this is like the hundredth Richard is a diviner theory post by now but I don’t see how it could anything else.

Maybe. If I had to put money on it, I’d probably say that the diviner theory makes more sense than the others I’ve heard – it’s just a feeling. But Alex is the one who knows the most about being a diviner, so if he says that something’s off, he’s probably right. Maybe Richard’s got some power set that’s close to being a diviner but which is a lot more combat-capable, or something. He does seem to be able to do a lot of stuff that a pure diviner couldn’t. I dunno.

From: Kevin

1. So do you know anything about how Spire manages to maintain power/respect on the Senior Council even though he never votes on anything?

Nope.

From: Kevin

So this is an ominous thought but do you think Crystal could be working with Richard? I thought about their five minute conversation in Hidden and a recruitment pitch is the only thing I could come up with. She fits the profile for a Dark Mage at any rate.

I’m almost sure she is, yeah.

From: Derek

Do you know if radiation, lightning sound, and light/darkness magic types can use gate magic? I know death mages can use it but for some reason life mages cannot so do you need range magic that you can create beams and shields of elemental energy in order to use it? Also do you know if Vihaela can use gate magic or not? Being a hybrid with one type that can but another that can’t, I don’t know how that would affect it one way or the other although she is scary enough even if she can’t use it.

Lightning and sound mages can. Radiation and light/darkness mages (which are basically the same thing) usually can too, but I think it’s a little more variable (you get a few who can’t). I might be misremembering though, they’re not one of the types I have much experience with.

I’m pretty sure Vihaela can use gate magic, but for obvious reasons I’ve never gotten close enough to check.

From: Kevin

So here’s one thing that has always baffled me, is when Richard imprisoned Alex after he tried to rescue Katherine is that right before Richard had Tobruk take him away, he said that giving her up was Alex’s last chance and when he didn’t Richard shook his head and said Alex wasn’t strong enough to be a Dark mage. But during his imprisonment apparently Richard and some of the others (I guess Shireen because I doubt Rachel or Onyx would make the effort) tried to convince him to come back and Richard seemed convinced that he was still a candidate for his Chosen when Alex looked back on Rachel’s memories. Now I know Richard is a master manipulator but what is up with all of this contradictory behavior? Maybe I misremember whether or not Richard visited him during that time but for someone who claims to want willing people under his employment telling them that they are to weak in body, mind, and soul to be his Chosen seems to be the worst way to do so.

To be honest, I’ve never known exactly what’s up with Richard and Alex. Sometimes it’s like you say, he seems like he’s just waiting for Alex to take up his old position as Chosen again. And sometimes it’s like Alex is his enemy and he’s just keeping him around until the time comes to settle things for good. Maybe the real answer is that he’s just holding his options open and he won’t make a final decision until he has to.

From: Mitchell

So I don’t know if this means anything in Light/Dark Council politics but do you think Morden and Richard resent who ended up as their Chosen? By that I mean do you think they are taking a hit politically for having, for lack of a better term, uncontrollable and overall inefficient Chosen. Onyx and Deleo may be strong battle mages, but Onyx is a brutal thug who’s proclivity towards violence prevents him thinking long term which is why Morden ended up imprisoned and Deleo is too erratic to know if she can do a job right without attacking Alex.

And a quick follow up to that, has Richard taken any flak for not succeeding in making Alex a Dark Mage? Even if he did not become his Chosen, Alex has publicly opposed and even prevented some of Richard’s plans from happening which in my humble opinion would indicate failure on the teacher’s part.

I think you’re probably onto something as far as that goes. I’m pretty sure that a big part of the reason that Onyx and Deleo hate Alex so much is that they’ve got the feeling that Richard and Morden would much rather have had Alex as their Chosen instead. Of course, like you say, the whole reason they got passed over is because they’re so damn psychotic they can’t be trusted to walk down the street without murdering someone, but it doesn’t seem like self-awareness is one of their strong suits.

As for the second question, no idea. Maybe he’s taken some sort of status hit among Dark mages, but I’m not plugged into that community so I wouldn’t know.

From: Kevin

So a few questions about universal magic since you and Alex are so awesome at using it.

1. I was curious if Chance and Divination magic are interconnected with each other? Alex was a really effective teacher for you until you met Chalice and was very proficient with the Fateweaver which seems be advanced/alternate Chance magic. I don’t if there is a hybrid type between diviners and chance mages but they seem to have a similar skillset.

2. On a similar note, I know that time magic can see the past and divination the future which makes sort of like mirror magic types. Do you think Chance and Space magic mirror each other as well? By that I mean Space magic can indirectly affect reality using by using one method, while Chance magic can in theory use an infinite amount of methods to indirectly affect reality. It would make for a nice duality/interconnected use for the main types of universal magic and it would be great to hear your thoughts this!

1. Kind of, yeah. I do feel that as far as magic goes, Alex and I get each other on some sort of instinctive level that other mages don’t. Back when he was my teacher and I was struggling with something he couldn’t always help, but when I tried to explain what that problem was, he always seemed to get it. It wasn’t until I joined the apprentice programme that I realised how rare that was – when I’d do the same thing with the average elemental or living mage, I’d just get a blank look. Obviously Chalice is best of all, but out of all the non-chance mage teachers I’ve had, Alex would come in at the top. And it works the same in reverse – it always seems kind of obvious to me how his divination works, when lots of other mages seem to find it really confusing.

2. No, not even close. I don’t have the first idea how space magic works, and space mages don’t seem to have a clue how I do things either. I actually feel like I’ve got less in common with them than I do with elementalists.

From: Alan

So I was wondering since Landis is rather eccentric do you think his mage name is actually one of his birth names? I could see him simply not bothering with one and everyone would just assume it was him being strange without realizing it was his actually his real name. Seems like something he would do, he may be odd but I think we need more people like Levistus or Sarque.

Good guess. It’s his family name, Vari told me a while ago. I’ve no idea why he picked it, but probably it’s the whole eccentricity thing.

From: William

1. What exactly is a xen? I read that they were some of the magical creatures you met but I could not find anything else about them.
2. I also read in an older Ask Luna about different types of elemental systems aside from the Western system, with the one in South America being a weird mix of elements and something else. Is that something else similar to being spirit based for lack of a better term or something else? I know it’s been awhile but I was curious about how other mages around the world use magic.

1. I don’t know much about them. They’re supposed to be named after the place they came from, which was some weird alternate reality that mages used to access a long long time ago. Never seen one, or heard of one still being around, so maybe they’re all gone now.

2. I think it’s vaguely spirit-based, yeah. I don’t know much about it, though, so that might be way off base. I get the impression that it’s a sort of hybrid of European traditions and some older ones.

From: Kevin

So Chalice seems to be a really effective Chance mage, do you know how she manages to not get used by Richard or Morden or stay off the notice of the Light Council? I know she mainly keeps to herself but everyone seems to want to use the services of rare magic types regardless of said mage feelings as Alex can attest to.

So just because a magic type is rare doesn’t mean it’s sought-after. Time magic is rare and sought-after, space magic is rare and sought after. Chance magic is . . . just rare. It comes down to how useful a magic type is, or to be more specific, how much certain powerful mages want wielders of that particular magic type around. The Council love space and time mages because they can move stuff around and they can turn up evidence. They’re fifty-fifty on diviners because when diviners turn up evidence they might turn up the wrong kind. And they don’t like chance mages at all, because chance magic is all about chaos and randomness, which are two things the Council hates.

So that’s why Chalice doesn’t get bothered by the Council. As for Richard and Morden, that’s a good question. Chalice doesn’t say anything about it, but I’ve got a feeling she probably takes quite a few precautions that she doesn’t tell other people about.

From: Sam

Okay I apologize in advance if this is a stupid question but I wondering how exactly you would discover the magic of a diviner if it is so hard to detect? In theory couldn’t Alex or other diviners claim that they are mind or enchanter mages and use divination to duplicate those effects? I only ask because Richard seemed to know Alex was a diviner but I thought that was just Richard using some advanced magic items or are there other methods?

Generally you don’t. Diviners get identified because they say they’re diviners and they do diviner things. So yes, there’s nothing actually stopping a diviner from pretending to be an enchanter, or a mind mage, or vice versa. The funny thing is, though, they would actually stand out. Diviners, enchanters, and mind mages all have really distinctive personalities. Not enough that you can guess it just from getting to know them – at least I can’t – but enough that once you find out what they can do, you go ‘oh, that makes sense’. I can’t imagine Alex being an enchanter, it just wouldn’t fit.

From: Charles

So what exactly going on with this Benedict Jacka character who writes the books and manages this website? Is he an adept, sensitive, or normal you guys made a deal with, or is it just a fictional pseudonym you guys use to throw of your enemies with?

Don’t know who you’re talking about.