Arcane versus prison

Cúangol

Artisan
“Arcane: The Arcane qualifier represents the pinnacle of magical might upon Fortannis, avoiding the majority of defensive abilities. There are no protective spells that work against the Arcane qualifier; the target must hope they have a defense against the specific effect or its Effect Group or some way to avoid the attack entirely like a Dodge.” (ARB 2, P. 99)

“Any creature sealed within a Prison will call “No effect” to all effects (except Dispel and the Massive carrier), nor will they take any damage from physical attacks or traps.” (P. 137)

The description for prison seems to say that it protects against arcane. The description for arcane seems to say that it will go through a prison. Can someone clarify?
 
Arcane does not go through Prison.

While it gets used that way frequently, Prison isn’t a protective.
 
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"Protective spells" refers to the various <qualifier> Shield spells. There is no "Arcane Shield" spell, so no such spell can prevent Arcane qualifier attacks. Similarly, any racial Resist skills that protect against a specific qualifier would also be ineffective, so Resist Poison, Element, and Spell do not protect from the Arcane Qualifier. Resists that target an effect group would still be effective if they would be otherwise, so a Resist Command works on Arcane Sleep and Resist Curse works on Arcane Doom, etc. High Magic Cloak effects also function in this way.

If a character happens to be completely immune to a specific effect, the Arcane qualifier does not overcome that. So Arcane Sleep will not affect an undead creature. Prison's effect makes the target immune to all effects, with the exceptions of Dispel and Massive damage. This is why Prison (and the High Magic Protective Reflex) work against Arcane qualifier effects, except, of course, for Arcane Dispel.
 
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