Lunar Sorcery from peter metcalfe on 1998-01-03 (Glorantha Digest Vol 05)

From: peter metcalfe <metcalph_at_voyager.co.nz>
Date: Sun, 4 Jan 1998 01:02:43 +1300 (NZDT)

John Constable:

>My question
>(s) to the Illuminated of the list :-) is that sandy mentions Lunar
>sorcery as having different saints and/or techniques. Before I make
>anything up, has anyone done any work on this, or got any ideas?

Greg has done heaps of work on the Lunar Cosmology. I dunno whether anybody has anything rules wise tho.

>Also, is there any knowledge as to what the Lunar Colleges of magic
>are like, what they teach (I am thinking Illumination, Lunar Spirit
>magic to the Red Goddess Initiates and Sorcery to the rest), and what
>are the credentials for entry?

The Lunars have three philosophies of magic: Materialism (related to sorcery RQ3 style), Theism (worship of the Gods) and Asceticism (related to illumination). I don't know if some schools are exclusively devoted to one philosophy or what. My guess is that they use a mixture of styles with one dude being a sorcerer with minor illumination, another a Jakaleeli witch sans marbles etc.

Being in the Lunar College of Magic is like joining the army. Your actions are pretty much state-controlled and it's only at the higher ranks that you end up with lattitude to engage on personal projects (like trying to talk to dragons). People can be kicked out of the College but the causes and additional penalties must be very high IMO.

There are Seven Lunar Collges, the Spell Archers, the Comet Seers, the Crater Makers and the Blue Moon School. There may be others as yet unheard off.

The Seven Lunar Colleges are the Major and Minor Class Magicans mentioned in Dragon Pass. Another source (Lunar Wane Chronicles) has them described as the Cresent Go School, the Full Moon School etc. Yet another (unpublished) source describes them as the Nathic School, the Orogeric School, the Gerran School etc.

Tarsh War describes the basic Lunar magician in these colleges.

        'A Priestess enters one of the Minor Classes and must
        serve a four year course before being awarded the star-
        covered graduation robes.  The course includes battle 
        magic, ritual magic and Lunar Sorcery.  They are taught 
        to use compatible magic power, acting together as a
        single unit and directing their spells together.  Within
        each class, however, each Sorority has its own speciality
        Rune Spell or technique.'  
                        Tarsh War p50.

The key feature of these schools is that their most devastating spell cannot be used alone, it requires the presence of others in their school. Thus a Lunar Magician would have 5-10 POW (or more) worth of magic that is completely useless to him by himself but combined with six or seven others makes him something to be feared. Another point is that the magician would be illuminated as a result of his training to allow him to master the tasks expected of him.

That leaves the personal magics which are generally side-arms and knick-knacks the magician has picked up in the course of his studies. What this would be depends, I think, on what philosophy the magician follows:

The Materialist would be a standard sorcerer with the speciality of Lunar Sorcery if you use Sandy's rules. Some of his Saints would be standard Malkioni Saints garbled by New Pelorian (Malkion is known as Malakinus frex) whereas others are exotic saints known to the Lunars (like important Magi, Karsdevanic Clarifiers and Lunar Heroes). Some of these would mimic the more traditional malkioni saints but be slighly different.
The Theist would be a standard RQ3 priestess with rune magics and lunar sorcery as described in Gods of Glorantha. I think they would know similarly exotic tricks when it comes to Divine Magic but these would be heavily ritualized and not something that one could cast on the fly.
The Ascetic would have a whole raft of geases which confer upon him abilities that should be freaky. The more important the gift, the more severe the geas. He might be immune to certain types of magic, have the ability to kill people with a special touch, speak in tongues etc and he might be forbidden to cast magic on certain days etc.

No magician would follow exclusively one philosophy. In most cases, their magics would be geared towards mindblasts, glamours, blessings, charms and healings.

On the other schools:

The Blue Moon School worships Annilla as a Patron and is involved in assasination, espionage and making people forget.

The Spell Archers are, according to Tarsh War, illuminated Dara Happan Priests. I think their attack is a massive Sunspear and they are the unit defeated at the battle of Pennel Ford in King of Sartar. Their other magics are heavily fire orientated IMO.

The Crater Makers summon chunks of Moonrock from the surface of the Moon. They can make it fall anywhere. A magician of this school would also know how to summon Lunes.

The Comet Seers, IMO, are Yuthuppan Starseers with a talent for sending stellar spirits against their foes.

--Peter Metcalfe