There were a few posts about the Red Moon and the Glowline in the last few weeks. That got me thinking about how the Glowline effect works. How do the Lunars manage to get the effect of the Full Moon at all times inside the Glowline?
A possibility would be that the Glowline is a partial reflector of Lunar light. Imagine it as a dome that surrounds the moon, the Glowline on the ground is the intersection of that dome with the earth. (Okay it is an irregular shape, not a hemisphere or hemi-ovoid , but call it a dome anyway.)
This barrier reflects some of the Lunar light that impinges upon it back into the Empire rather than letting it escape into the wider world. This raises the concentration of Lunar energy inside the Glowline regardless of the moon's phase.
Consider yourself standing in Glamour on the day of the Black Moon. All the light of the moon is being directed up and outward, none of it is coming down towards you. However there is this huge reflector behind it that gathers that energy and bounces it back down to you. This is visible as a corona of red light in the sky that surrounds the black moon. So even with the black moon above you there is still a high enough concentration of Lunar light to allow magic to work as if the moon were full.
This theory, if true, suggests that the MoonSon's creation is a two-edged sword. It has allowed the concentration of lunar energy inside the Glowline to circumvent some of the limitations of cyclic magic, but at the cost of reducing the amount of lunar energy in the surrounding world. So Lunar magic is actually weaker in the outside world than it used to be before the Glowline. This might not be apparent in the magic of individual lunar magicians but it may be apparent in the power of regimental magic.
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