>How much energy in mana would it take to open such a Moongate to a moon?

The following post is just a guestimate..

The distance from the Earth to the moon is about 280,000 miles. Comparing Elanthia to Earth is usually not a good idea but for comparison's sake let's assume Elanthia is at least in the same ballpark as Earth-sized. Zoluren is about the size of New Mexico, 120,000 square miles. New Mexico is about 370 miles wide but it's nice and square. Without doing pretty serious research into tidbits of geographic lore posts or doing much math I'd guess a moon mage can gate around 1600ish miles with 600ish ranks. We don't have anywhere close to enough range to get us anywhere extraplanetary.

When Grazhir shattered some shards probably settled onto the other moons and still others are adrift in space. Astral travel would be the way to reach farther distances because in the astral plane distance on this plane is meaningless. However, without a naming ritual set upon the Grazhir Shard on another moon or in space you wouldn't be able to travel there with the techniques we use currently. The 'pathway' out of the Astral plane wouldn't exist without the naming ritual to 'orient' the Grazhir shard at the end of our path.

If we're talking fantasies it would be much more feasible to have Feast of Eluned 3 on the sea bottom. A partnership with the Merelew to explore the depths of the sea and 'name' a Grazhir shard resting on the floor of the Reshal sea. You'd have to come up with some way to protect and secure the shard, supply breathable air and shield against the massive atmospheric pressure but I'm sure the Merelew could put their fishy heads to the problem.

Generally Grazhir shards are placed in places significant to the moon mage guild and/or for political reasons so it would be more likely that any shards recovered with the help of the Merelew would be utilized elsewhere by the Moon Mage 'Council' - Taramaine Braun.

This post includes a short discussion of the implications of a Grazhir shard naming ritual that makes astral travel to the named shard possible.
http://elanthipedia.org/w/index.php/Post:Grazhir_shard_Vellano_and_moon_mage_philosophy_-_03/24/2013_-_23:16

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I've been thinking about an idea too. It would be cool if all of the moonmages participated which is realistic and through the discovery or invention of a new spell, device, or other magical actuator they harness the untapped powers of lunar energy.

They could open a gigantic moon gate with the goal of exploring the universe - so similar idea...but...

But something goes very wrong. When they collectively think 'CAST!' (because I'm not sure what the magic words are and they're probably advanced enough to be able to think 'CAST!' like in Harry Potter which a lot of thought went into) something that resembles a moon gate opens but it's different this time; it looks more like the kind of whirlpool you see in a toilet when you flush it - it's less lunar and more liquid. So it's familiar yet everyone stares at it with this bovine sort of wonder struckedness and dropping jaws and wild wide eyedness. What the HELL is this (everyone is asking themselves).

And then after a while the head moonmage takes one step towards the vortex (who should take that first step is an event puzzle - probably decided with a spar). The moment he/she takes that step the vortex STOPS turning and a great BLAST of toilet-type water KERPLUNKS forwards towards the head moonmage and lurches so closely to him that he is instantly incinerated (so winning that earlier puzzle was actually the WRONG thing to do - thus we find out that person actually FAILED to complete that puzzle correctly). Then the vortex subsides and recedes and leaves behind a smooth circular surface that ripples, but no longer incinerates flesh and bone (and likely anything else that got in the vortex's path).

Presently during the event, four humanoids emerge from the now stable, rippling event horizon. Three men and one woman step forward as if to greet the runner-up in the 'head moonmage' puzzle (whose disappointment in being runner-up becomes more and more evident). One of the men is black and has a golden brand stamped upon his forehead (no one understands the meaning or significance of the brand's symbol); the woman looks to be the perfect mix of soldier, scholar, and woman (with ample sex-appeal); the two other men are whites dudes - players get the feeling they want to pound the little nerdy white dude and unexpectedly willing to take orders from the other one who, though seemingly teaming with charisma, is really sarcastic, unlearned, uncouth, snarky, and whiny.

Okay, so then they explain that they come in peace as explorers - they brush off questions about the purpose and function of their machine guns, camo gear, and the one dude's 'staff of lightening' whose destructive power he demonstrates as an act of friendly cooperation and information sharing.

So anyway, the moonmages take the explorers at their word and give them shelter and food. At this point the players decide whether or not to poison their food and see what boxes or gems they drop.

If the moonmages decide to NOT* poison the visitors they receive messaging that they made the wrong decision because, albeit with good intentions, the visitors bring trouble everywhere they go, endangering indigenous populations with recklessness, temporal disturbances, tech snatching, and relentless ethnocentricity.

The messaging proves prescient as the moongate is reawakened and, after incinerating the NPC which had been editorializing so everyone knew what was happening in the event, two columns of grossly over-accessorized, make-up wearing humanoids march out from within; each dressed in a gold skirt and carrying the now familiar staffs of lightening.

A great battle ensues.

Not sure what comes next.

its nothing like star wars

> A Moon Mage on the moons is a fun theoretical issue that comes down to "the Moon Mage would die, and even if he didn't die he'd probably be trapped there."

I'm pretty sure the possibility of that happening is somewhere in the documents you sign when joining the guild.

- Miskton

>>2) What makes Yavash, Xibar, and Katamba so special beyond being just moons? Why wouldn't you be able to place an Elanthian Moonbeam on Katamba?

Same reason you can't plant planetbeams right now. The spell just doesn't have the resolution to do that, if it's achievable at all.

>>3) If there is nothing inherently magical about Elanthia's three moons, but there's some rule saying "lunar magic only works with moons!", could the moon from another planet be used if the light from it was strong enough to work with?

There's no Law of Magic that says planetary light and symbolism can't be used in Lunar Magic (see: IOTS) but at the same time, a spell that only uses the moons is designed only to use the moon. It's simply not in the Moon Mage arsenal.

There's a lot of room between the current existing Moon Mage spells and the theoretical limits of what they can do, but bear in mind that modern Moon Magery is the youngest magical discipline by a long shot. A few more millennia of Lunar magic research might produce an entirely different looking guild.

-Armifer
"In our days truth is taken to result from the effacing of the living man behind the mathematical structures that think themselves out in him, rather than he be thinking them." - Emmanuel Levinas

>A Moon Mage on the moons is a fun theoretical issue that comes down to "the Moon Mage would die, and even if he didn't die he'd probably be trapped there."

This assumes that the atmosphere of any of the three moons are inhospitable, which makes me wonder, does or would anybody on Elanthia understand this concept with their current level of science and magic knowledge that's available? I think we make that assumption based on how our real world works, but it doesn't necessarily have to be the same in Elanthia's universe. Perhaps I just don't know Elanthia lore well enough though, perhaps that has already been discovered.

>Same reason you can't plant planetbeams right now. The spell just doesn't have the resolution to do that, if it's achievable at all.

That's a perfectly valid explanation I think, and I can understand why the current magic spells wouldn't work to get there. But would that stop an aspiring or inquisitive mage from researching ways in which to either increase the spells resolution in order to achieve the goal or creating an entirely new spell which achieves that goal.


>There's a lot of room between the current existing Moon Mage spells and the theoretical limits of what they can do, but bear in mind that modern Moon Magery is the youngest magical discipline by a long shot. A few more millennia of Lunar magic research might produce an entirely different looking guild.

I think that in a 'realistic' Elanthia, somebody has to be asking the questions and doing the experiments that push the boundaries of what's possible in order to get them to that 'entirely different looking guild' though. If no one ever tries, how do they know it's not possible? From my perspective on how new spells come into existence, a lone mage or a team of mages researched and experimented in order to achieve a specific goal, the spell didn't just poof into existence and suddenly all the mages of that guild knew the spell. Herein is the crux of this suggestion, that the attempt is made, the story could end in failure,sure, maybe even hilariously so, but it's the story itself that I think could be interesting if played out. Alternatively, the attempt is successful but something unseen results from it, be it good or bad.

Perhaps even, some of the outcomes of this sort of event could give a source for some of the new Trader magic, yet to be discovered :)

Blackguard Danoryiel

"Sogan udazama umbunor fau arrazoi inishatu seiremisai. (Only the fallen have nothing to despair)"

>>This assumes that the atmosphere of any of the three moons are inhospitable, which makes me wonder, does or would anybody on Elanthia understand this concept with their current level of science and magic knowledge that's available?

They have a basic understanding of atmospheres due to observation. Xibar has none, Katamba has a thin one, Yavash is covered in storms and violence.

>>From my perspective on how new spells come into existence, a lone mage or a team of mages researched and experimented in order to achieve a specific goal, the spell didn't just poof into existence and suddenly all the mages of that guild knew the spell.

Spell research is exceedingly dangerous, because collapsing spell patterns have a tendency to discharge violently if not outright explode. This isn't strictly against your point, just to emphasize that spell research is a very slow, sometimes painstakingly methodical process because even slight deviations on a pattern can go boom.

-Armifer
"In our days truth is taken to result from the effacing of the living man behind the mathematical structures that think themselves out in him, rather than he be thinking them." - Emmanuel Levinas

We (briefly and not too seriously) discussed the plot for Traders getting magic being essentially a team of Moon Mages traveling to one of the moons (I think Yavash was the one we used...) and bringing back a magical mcguffin boulder.

... that's not the plot we're going with.

-Raesh

"Ever notice that B.A.'s flavor text swells in direct proportion to how much one of our characters is getting screwed?" - Brian Van Hoose

The problem with tying Trader Magic into the Moon Mage Guild is the question of why Spell X isn't also a Moon Mage spell now.

It's reasonable that once the Trader Guild has established a magical tradition they'll try to poach researchers of whatever sort is relevant to their new knowledge (no spoilers there!), though.

-Armifer
"In our days truth is taken to result from the effacing of the living man behind the mathematical structures that think themselves out in him, rather than he be thinking them." - Emmanuel Levinas

>>Would be funny if Traders, after poaching expert researchers from various magical fields and deciding they liked all mana types but lunar magic the most, were able to bribe their way into legalizing their lunar-based sorcery spells, but extra-illegalize all others

While the Traders are ridiculously wealthy and influential, there are limits to that influence. The other guilds and the Temple are all aligned very tightly against sorcery (even if, in the Moon Mage Guild's case, this is largely a case of formalities).

Given that Lyras is still in recent memory, there's not likely to be any change in the legality of sorcery and necromancy in the near future.

-Armifer
"In our days truth is taken to result from the effacing of the living man behind the mathematical structures that think themselves out in him, rather than he be thinking them." - Emmanuel Levinas