No, Magic is CONTROLLED by belief but it is powered by magical sources (gaïasphere, pattern, life magic and bloodmagic, deathmagic). Belief only give it shapes and way to control it but the flow of magic obey rules.

Druidic and Wicca traditions use moon and sun cycles to structure their ritual and calendar, but they dont generate more magic at thoses times by their sheer belief. They generate more magic at thoses times because of the magical sacrifice they perform at thoses times. If Belief would generate magic then the Catholic Church and all other religions would have produced magic to generate power for their priest and create their gods, but that wont happen. But Magician from Catholic tradition controll spirit and magic by refering to their beliefs.

You could believe all you want that some peculiar place or time would generate more magic, but if there is no manaspike there nor bloodmagic involved you wont produce more magic. So I am sorry but the Moon Eclipse would be a reason for your tradition to plan the ritual at this time, but it wont provide you with any benefit nor will it strenghten your ritual.

And about the IE, what I said is that some genic therapy wont be enough because they are not mere Elves with some genes, they are a totally different species that share from both Elves and Dragon and thus you cant alter someone to produce a IE just by activating/Adding some genes. You have to totally transform him to a new specie wich is out of the scope of simple genic therapy.

Longevity-wise, I don't see any point in tinkering with your genes for the longevity of an immortal elf - you already have a few centuries of healthy and fit life in front of you as a regular elf. Just wait another century and leonization will be cheap enough to afford unless you go completely broke.

Oh and about my comments on the hours in the days : with that sort of heavily loaded agenda, I don't think even 24 hours a day will be enough - You're cramming at least the equivalent of four full-time jobs together, with at least one of them (high-end magic research) likely to be of the 12-hours a day sort. A 36 hours a days schedule doesn't seem far fetched, it migh be even more. At that point, drugs or spells are a moot point.

IKerensky, I think the reason he's able to use as eclipse to help fuel his sorcery is because it sounds cool. You're right, there's no RAW basis (to my knowledge) to it, but I don't think RAW really matters in his game. He came up with a plan and the GM thought it sounded awesome, so they went with it. ^_^ They're having fun, which is what's important, right?

eh I'm over it. Staying a standard elf will probably not effect my plans any major way.
Who knows? Maybe a GD will take pity on my plight and deus ex machina me into being a IE (But I'm not holdin my breath)



Yeah this is a non standard Shadowrun game. Munchkining is not only allowed but encouraged. We have a another shadowrun game we play on the side that is more standard, in which I play a mystic adept (a chinese assassin). We call it the "Standalone Campaign" and the epic one the "Main Campaign".



Why wouldn't it? In real life the ancients would practice rituals during a full moon or at the equinox. Eclipses themselves were looked upon with great awe and superstition. From my understanding Shadowrun (and Earthdawn?) has it's magic system based off the real world ancient (and medieval) concepts of magic and not the more fantastic elements of magic from D&D. That would mean the Sun and Moon (stars and planets too) would have an enormous impact on magic done while under their light (or lack thereof).



So one small celestial object (a quite insignificant one IRL) can affect magic done in the world, but the two most important heavenly bodies to Earth can't? Sorry but I don't see the logic in that.



I like your idea here. All I need is the powaa of faith!


Pretty much. It's the same reason we can have magic guns that can shoot Black Holes at people

You want your Mentor Spirit to be Bugs Bunny?
YOUR MENTOR SPIRIT IS NOW BUGS BUNNY!

Yes, it is powered by your belief in what you want the world to be like.

Yet you still HAVE to choose a Mentor Spirit ? you're believe aren't powering or controlling the magic rule, your belief is shaping it. Your belief in Bugs Bunny shape your mentor spirit as a way for you to subconsiously interract with the magic as a giant furry rabit with a bad accent and sense of humour... That's the way your tradition choose to interract with magic, but it doesnt modify the way the magic work.

You are even still trapped in the way other believes the magic work as you had to choose a Mentor Spirit.

Magic rule is that spirits exists and can be interracted with in order to provide effect. That is the way magic work and you wont be able to change that, no matter how strongly you believe.

Some believe and choose to interract with them as cooperative, disciple or master but that doesnt change the magical way of things, just the way they subconsiously play by the magic rules. If Spirits haven't existed in the first place you wont have been able to shape one and submit to one as your mentor spirit.

The Eclipse is just the same, it is by no way magical and wont provide any magical bonus to any magician nor magic-user that doesn't believe in it as a tool to enfore ritual magic. And the Dragons wont believe that. The Eclipse is just a tool your tradition choose as a symbol in their ritual practice, and probably it will help you generate a bit more because you will be wanting to tax a bit more on yourself or use sacrifice ritual magic at this time, but if the Eclipse doesn't synchronise with a Mana Spike nor a rift then the level of magic in this area nor the domain count will be affected by this event.

For the Comet and the Surge I need to check the books to see if this was a coincidence of it that was something that the comet was or is trapped in that produce this effect.

No you don't need a Mentor-Spirit.
But it makes things easier on you.

You need one if your tradition believe you need one. That is why I said beliefs shape the way you practice magic but doesnt control how magic work.

But since your tradition is chosen by how you think magic works, we're on the path of a nice circular argument.

Yes we are

And that is because the term "Shape" or "Design" could be so closely related to "Use" or "Control" that the difference is as much ideological than semantical

I think my position is more GM related than other thing. I just cant see a player-created tradition generate massive magic from an eclipse just because he want it so without some backing up of this by magic rules and "official" justification. All I know about how the magic work and behave in SR and ED told me that the eclipse wont interract with magic power, as astrology have no impact on SR/ED magic system (contrary to other games system where it is much more involved).

For me, as a GM, the belief of a single (very recent) tradition wont be enough to sustain a magical effect. Now if they make heavy magical ritual tied to eclipse and their tradition for a long time (very long time) that would be entirely another thing... That or if this eclipse is important for one of the dragon or such.

Except of course for the tidal forces the moon generates which affect seas/oceans and the movement/behaviour of the organisms within them - which affects the manasphere. Oh and the moons light which affects various critters mating habits and such - which means things would be different with a full moon.