Interactions of The Lunar Realm

Games Discussion Ars Magica
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So Dires Irae introduces a new Realm (exciting!), that being the Lunar Realm.
And I was musing about its nature and I've come up with two fun questions to
think about.

First, why does the Lunar Realm hate the Realms of Magic and Faerie?

So the realm interaction chart is a decent indicator of how each of the Realms
feels about eachother, given most of them have an overarching ego behind them
this is basically the case.

So Magic and Faerie get along decently well and they each get + (1/2 aura) to
eachother. I view this as a sort of sibling relationship.

Infernal hates everyone but the Divine stand up on high unaffected by the goings
on below it. Faerie get a -(2 x aura) rather than Magic's -aura due to being
very sensitive to the depredations of the infernal rather than specific action
on Hells part. In my opinion that is.

The Divine is interesting, unaffected by the other Realms and also quite harsh
on them. A -(3 x aura) or Magic, a -(4 x aura) for Faerie and a -(5 x aura) for
Infernal.

The last one is obvious, no explanation needed there.
I view Faerie having a -(4 x aura) as not being due to the Divine being harder on
the fae but due to Faeries innate weakness to the Moral Realms. This view would
mean that Magic and Faerie have the same malus from the Divine and Infernal but
Faerie just suffers an extra -aura than Magic does. (This isn't canon but I think it
works well.)

The -(3 x aura) for Magic is interesting, the presented explanation in RoP: TD is
that Magic is prone to pride and the -(3 x aura) is there to remind Magic to be
humble. I think this is a pretty decent explanation but it does seem a bit harsh
to me. It's probably due to the Divine being all powerful and this IS it's version
of a -aura modifier, it's just too strong for the other Realms.

Faerie really does have it rough, a -(2 x aura) a -(4 x aura) and a -(5 x aura),
Faerie really is treated as the other Realms punching bag lol. Even the Infernal
only has one -(5 x aura), otherwise it's all just -aura.

Now we get to the Lunar Realm.

Lunar Powers get a +aura in it's own aura obviously and a -aura in all other Realms
save the Divine where it gets -(3 x aura).
Infernal Powers get -aura.
Divine Powers are unnaffected as usual.
Magic and Faerie Powers though get a whopping -(5 x aura) each!

Why does the Lunar Realm hate the Magic and Faerie Realms? Seriously! The only other
-(5 x aura) is Infernal powers in a Divine Aura! And the Lunar Realm hates Magic and
Faerie as much as the Divine hates capital E Evil?

Or perhaps it isn't that the Lunar Realm hates Magic and Faerie as much as that
something about Magic and Faerie is just very susceptible to the Lunar Realm.

Or maybe it's due to the Lunar Realm lashing out due to the whole apocalypse thing
which has completely ruined the Lunar Realm?

One thought I had is that the Lunar Realm is the crotchety old man Realm, doing the
whole 'Get off mah lawn!' thing.

The Lunar Realm could be said to be deeply tied to time, the procession of the heavens
and all, so maybe that's part of why Faerie suffers a -(5 x aura) as Faerie disrespects
time pretty routinely. But that doesn't exlain Magic's -(5 x aura).

Magic and Faerie giving Lunar Powers a -aura just makes sense as a retaliation to
Lunar's -(5 x aura).
The Infernal hates everyone, no explanation needed there.

But now we have another mystery.
Why does the Divine dislike the Lunar Realm?

Now one has to remember the circumstances this realm interaction table is made in.
An apocalypse has just happened and the Lunar Realm is (unintentially) causing a
heck of a Ruckus. So it'd make sense that all the other Realms are kinda Peeved
at it.

Is the Divines -(3 x aura) towards the Lunar due to the Ruckus?

So my two main questions here are why does the Lunar Realm give Magic and Faerie a
-(5 x aura) and why does the Divine give Lunar a -(3 x aura)?

Oh and I should say, I don't have any desire to change this. I quite like having this
new Realm really punish Magic and Faerie Powers as it is an apocalypse and it encourages
fun stories and for players to have to resort to mundane means of clearing areas of lunar
material to get rid of pesky Lunar auras if they don't have access to the Form of Aether.
And Magic and Faerie are the types of Powers most often used by players and if only Magic
was affected then Merinita magi would be WAY more powerful in comparison.*
I just like pondering the metaphysics of Mythic Europe.
The current Realm interactions work great mechanically, but I want to pick apart the lore
of it all!

*(Hmm, would this mean Cthonic Magic was even better? Although I just checked and I had
thought that virtues that aligned you with multiple realms let you pick whichever Realm
interatction was most beneficial but I can't find where it say that atm.)

Now the second question (This one's shorter I promise!)

Is the Lunar Realm just the Moon or does it include all the other planets? Is there a Solar
Realm and a Mercurian Realm?

In my opinion it'd make more sense if they're all unified under the Lunar Realm, or more
accurately under this interpretation, the Superlunar Realm.

This would have it similar to the Magic Realm, where each of the Forms has it's own Province.
These 'Superlunar Provinces' would be each of the planets we see with the final one being
the Superlunar 'province' of the Fixed Stars.

I've no clue how this would mechanically manifest but it's cool to think about.

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Strictly, there should be a new realm each sphere, but IMC I nicked some stiuff from the Nephilim RPG said that the elemental planets are aligned ot the magic realm, they just give bonuses and subtractions on the elemental interaction. So, in the sphere of mars, fire's a lot easier, but water is virtually impossible.

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Yep. The (p.37) New Realm Interaction Table is for Lunar Auras caused by lunar material on Earth, and Lunar Powers working on Earth in a new way. Both are possible only after changes in cosmology underlying the Realms.

The nearby Replacement Realm Interaction Table shows the power of the Lunar Realm as an outside and foreign force imposing itself upon the Earth. The aura is beyond the experience and nature of the Earthly powers and they experience large penalties when operating within a Lunar aura.

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The Realms don't feel anything about each other - they just are.
Individuals aligned to one of the Realms may well have opinions about the various Realms (and those opinions can vary wildly), but the Realms themselves won't.

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Yes. Wet wood doesn't hate fire.

What magi call faerie / magic is Earth-bound. After all, "we" are at a special place at thre center of the universe.

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I had forgotten that part!

That neatly explains a large portion of my question. The reason the Magic Realm and the Faerie Realm respond so badly to the newly sublunar Lunar Realm is that they have absolutely no experience interacting with it and it's perhaps more powerful than than either of them.

There's also that part of the chapter with Selene the spirit of the Moon, who explained that her connection to it had always been tenuous. Super rare interactions like that were probably the extent of it, not enough to prepare the Magic Realm for this change in cosmology.

And the explanations for the Moral Realms is easy enough, the Divine Realm gives Lunar Powers a -(3 x aura) because it's causing a Ruckus and the Divine acts as a moderating force for the other Realms.

And the Infernal hates everything, as usual.

However this brings another question to mind.

In the following millenia how would the interaction table change? Afterall the current version we're speaking of is when the Lunar Realm is newly introduced foreign force and 'beyond the experience and nature of the Earthly powers.'

Now the uninteresting answer is that it wouldn't, due to the 'beyond the ... nature of the Earthly powers' part. But that's not an answer I care much for as I want to explore the nature of Realm interactions and how they might change.

Eventually the Lunar Realm would cease being foreign and just be part of the world, the Earthly powers would get experience and the interaction table would change right? How would that look?

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...and yet Faeries who ally with one of the other realms can have the penalty from the table suspended.

I think perhaps the Divine has quite Big Feelings about the other Realms.

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That gives me an idea for a Flambeau researcher, who just goes on, making hotter and bigger Ritual fires, surrounded by items related to the Divinity, hoping to somehow open a doorway to Mars :crazy_face: :exploding_head:

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Speaking as someone who was playing Gloranthan RPGs before there even was an ArM, I am disappointed to find the Lunar realm interactions don't vary with the day of the week.

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That's a great idea, could potentially open up a gateway to Hell, some fire aspect part of the Magic or Faerie Realm, depending.

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