From: Simon Hibbs (simonh@msi-uk.com)
Date: Fri 13 Nov 1998 - 19:36:08 EET
A month or so ago I posted some questions about the Black moon, what it
is and what it means. Here are my thoughts on this so far.
We now know that the moon is not half black and half red. The 'dark
side' is dark because a 'shadow' is projected on to it by a small
satelite called destyx (destix?).
So is there any such thing as the Black Moon? Perhaps blackness isn't an
attribute of the moon itself, but is instead thrust upon it by it's
satelite. Perhaps destyx is in fact the Black Moon. Is is an entirely
separate entity, or is it in fact an aspect of the goddess too?
Perhaps the goddess seperated the 'dark' side of her nature from her
light side and put all that nasty stuff into the Black Moon, which
remained hovering around her.
Both moon rock and lunes glow. Does their radiance wax and wane with the
cycles of the moon? If so then they still incorporate their dark nature,
because it has not been externalised yet.
How about this - Moon rock is moon stuff and so does not fade cyclicly
because it is weakening the goddess' ability to resist her own dark
any more than the moon does. Outside the glowline it is away from the
influence of destyx and so merrily glows away, radiating moon magic.
This is why it's used for things like powering moon boats, to keep them
working during black moon phases outside the glowline. This makes moon
rock incredibly usefull because you're effectively carrying your own
little glow spot around with you. Unfortunately this is also a bad thing
nature, manifest in destyx. That's why even lunar heroes don't routinely
carry moon rocks aroudn with them, and why recapturing lost bits of moon
rock is such a priority (apart from the need to give PCs something to
do). It's also one reason why the lunars are so interested in bits of
blue moon rock, such as the big chunk sitting in the sea near Seapolis.
Lunes are independently alive, but are still made of moon stuff. They
have not externalised their dark nature and so wax and wane with the
phases of the moon.
When the goddess' nature is dominated by destyx she has to use her power
to stay sane and resist the temptations of the dark side. This is why
her magic is weakest (outside the glowline) when destyx is prominent in
the sky. She's busy keeping a firm grip on her marbles. When destyx is
hidden behind her she can radiate her magical influence across the
world. However destyx is still there and so some of this magical power
manifests itself in sinister ways such as mind blast, where the victim's
conciousness is exposed to it's own dark side.
The above is probably tosh and may well contradict written material
about moon rock and lunes, but in the absence of authoritative
refutation expect me to rave about this for a while.
Simon
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End of The Glorantha Digest V6 #316
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