Lunar Stretch Penalties

[Bohemond]

I am trying to make sense of the HQ (now QW) rules about Lunar magic and I cannot figure out how the Lunar phases/stretch penalties work. It says in HQ p. 182 that "A Lunar magician can use her Lunar Phase to create glamours mimicking the runes that Phase can replace. The direct use of the Lunar Phase incurs a Stretch penalty of -6 (see page 103) – unless: (1) the Lunar is an initiate of a Lunar New God cult and is creating glamours in accordance with the teachings of that New God; or (2) is using a Lunar grimoire. The use of the Lunar Phase as an augment does not incur a Stretch penalty."

Point 2 is clear--grimoires aren't affected by the phase of the moon. But point 1 has me stumped. The Seven Mothers are Immortals not New Gods, so that seems to say that an initiate of one of the 7M is at a greater penalty than an initiate of one of the New Gods. Irripi Ontor is the Mother of the Full Moon, while the Red Emperor is the New God of the Full Moon (among a couple others), so this seems to say that the Emperor's magic is more powerful than IO's because the Emperor's magic isn't subject to stretch penalties. 

And what does any of this have to do with the actual phase of the Moon? 

To make things more confusing, in the Highwall Inn scenario it says (on page 7), "The Phase of the Moon is important to any Lunar magician. This episode begins on Wild Day, and there is a Full Moon. This means the Lunar magicians can act without stretch penalties when using Glamours. This will change, at nightfall, as the day changes to Empty Half and glamours will receive stretch penalties." But if I'm reading HQ p. 184 correctly, there are no Stretch penalties on Empty Half day--stretch penalties are only applied on Crescent Come and Crescent Go. 

So under what circumstances are stretch penalties actually applied to Lunar magic? If they are only applied on Crescent Come and Crescent Go, why is it supposed to be beneficial that all stretch penalties are cancelled on Full Moon day? And the quote from p. 182 I mention above seems to say that the 7M cults ALWAYS have a stretch penalty, apparently regardless of the Moon phase. Is that what's getting cancelled on Full Moon day. 

 

[David Scott]

On 10/10/2022 at 4:55 AM, Bohemond said:

The Seven Mothers are Immortals not New Gods

see

Quote

Here is a list of some of the more widely known New Gods of the Lunar Empire:

Seven Mothers:

New Gods, page 185

On 10/10/2022 at 4:55 AM, Bohemond said:

And what does any of this have to do with the actual phase of the Moon? 

See the The Lunar Cycle on page 184:

Quote

• Full Moon: All stretch penalties are cancelled. Praise the Goddess!
• Full Half, Empty Half: All glamours work normally as described in these rules.
• Crescent Come, Crescent Go: All glamours are treated as stretches. If a glamour is already a stretch then it may not be cast. Augments may be used as normal.
• Dying Moon, Black Moon: Only augments may be used.

 

On 10/10/2022 at 4:55 AM, Bohemond said:

This will change, at nightfall,

The new day starts at Dawn, so the phase changes at Dawn. The new day does not begin at sunset.

On 10/10/2022 at 4:55 AM, Bohemond said:

So under what circumstances are stretch penalties actually applied to Lunar magic?

Full Half, Empty Half: All glamours work normally as described in these rules.