The Azure

**The** **Azure** known as **Çíañ** b the Anjo'nians was the ancient side of the Cosmius practised by the Anjo'nian Zêirí aligned with honesty, compassion, mercy, self-sacrifice, and other positive emotions. It was commonly said to be the rival of the Shadows.

## Definition

The largest group of proponents and teachers of the Azure were the Zêirí, who strove to maintain peace and justice throughout the galaxy. The Zêirí were well aware of the dangers of the Shadows and were dedicated opponents of its use, as it represented corruption and a disregard for the natural order of the universe. The Shadows was considered the domain of the No'med, whom the Zêirí attempted to destroy in order to keep the Cosmius in balance. The Cosmius played a large part in the Zêirí use of a combat weapon, giving them the ability to foresee events in the future, giving the impression of heightened awareness, amazingly quick reflexes that kept them from accidentally injuring themselves in combat and allowing them to perform other feats, such as supernatural healing. With experience, there were a seemingly infinite number of things a Zêirí could achieve through use of the Azure. This did not only apply to Zêirí, of course, but indeed any Cosmius-sensitive. The Zêirí used their powers to gain greater knowledge and protect, in contrast to their ancient enemies, the No'med. Whereas the No'med would use their powers to try to rule the galaxy, the Zêirí would use their power to fight in its defence and to guide its direction, although this difference did not always appear so clear-cut.

## Nature of the Azure

The Azure was aligned with happiness, joy, love, and benevolence, or alternatively simply calmness, which some believed nurtured the Azure and provided insight into its ethical uses. It was generally concerned with the ideas of good, generosity, healing, and wisdom, as opposed to evil, harm, and hasty judgement. In order to achieve harmony with the Azure, its practitioners would often meditate to clear themselves of emotion; particularly negative emotions such as aggression, anger, and hatred, since these were shown to open a Zêirí to the possibility of acceptance of the Shadows. Predictably, this offered several contradictory instances, with some works favouring a calm, emotionless and sometimes even out-rightly unfeeling view of the Azure, while others aligned it with positive emotions.

The Azure was treated as being both a form of impersonal intelligence and an essence of good. According to the self-aware interpretation, the Azure was held to actively influence events to the degree that some Zêirí thought of themselves as mere "tools" of the Cosmius. Though this implied a lack of choice regarding an individual's fate, the Zêirí, as leading proponents of the Azure, insisted that it was, rather, "the ultimate free will." This they explained as being because the Cosmius (at least the Azure) did not compel anyone. A destiny could be accepted or spurned. And all choices along the way were free to make.

While some No'med acknowledged the benevolent qualities of the Azure, most did not view it as a aspect of good, seeing it as either weak and ineffective or as an unnatural repression of emotions and restricting to free will; these often served as their justifications for embracing the Shadows. Several of the Graye attempted to balance usage of both sides of the Cosmius, believing that wholly submitting oneself to either the Azure or Shadows was harmful to the individual Cosmius-user.

## Known Azure Cosmius powers and techniques

The Azure was generally harder to use than the Shadows, because Shadow Cosmius powers were all aggressive and easily fuelled by anger or hatred. This allowed No'med to advance faster, but they were not inherently more powerful than the Zêirí. Azure Cosmius abilities were virtually all defensive and passive in nature. While there were Azure abilities for increasing one's strength or courage, or incapacitating an enemy, none of them were truly aggressive (with the notable exceptions of Telekinesis).

* Revitalise
* Pain restraint
* Cosmius healing
* Power immunity
* Cosmius barrier
* Danger intuition
* Fire immunity
* Cosmius hearing

*For a possibly fuller list see Cosmius power*

## Characteristics of Zêirí

Most beings who have used the Azure have known its calming abilities. The Zêirí try to maintain calm at all times, even in situations which would normally cause intense stress. They had the ability to calm animals, including people, and increase morale using only their minds. Almost every Zêirí felt the tempting call of the Shadows or the Underworld at some time or another, but most used the Zêirí abilities to restore their normal tranquillity.