>> They do not usually use magic anyway in battle, and at least that avoids >> the enemies use of same. Prayers before battle, the priest's blessings >> and the Saints protection. Who needs anything else?
Peter Metcalfe:
> I disagree, mainly because unenchanted iron would work against all
> magic. Thus the prayers, the blessings and the Saintly protections
> would all go down the gurgler.
In one of his earliest articles about using the West in RuneQuest (possibly a *very* old Son of Sartar piece), Greg mentioned that *some* Western knights do wear unenchanted iron armour, so as to be pretty much immune to sorcerous and pagan magics. This is also one of the symptoms of the age-old rivalry between Knights and Sorcerers: when the King says "Who will rid me of this turbulent Wizard?", he has some boot-boys clad in 20 ENC+ of magic-resisting iron armour to go round and sort the bugger out. (Possibly their unenchanted Iron swords should slice through a wizard's protective magic more easily, too?).
> I think that all iron equipment has been sanctified by somebody in
> the church but I confess that I'm not too happy about the mechanics
> for doing so in Elder Secrets.
I'd concur; maybe "sanctified" armour in the West is enchanted to resist non-Malkioni magic only? So pagan and heathen spirit and rune magics (and perhaps atheist sorceries?) would be resisted at whatever the going rate is (5% per ENC?), but pious wizardly prayers and Saints' blessings would be unaffected.
Seems to fit the Western worldview and modus operandi ("Suppress Paganism", etc.); and such "sanctified" iron might be an expensive and rare subset of normal enchanted iron, if anyone fears imbalance. Remember that the Iron Mountains of Seshnela are the biggest source of iron in Genertela: the Seshnegi and other Westerners have easier access to this metal (and more of it by far) than any other nation.
The "sense" usually associated with the Lunar element is Balance.
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