Celestials

Information
Known Celestials
**Celestials** are god-like creatures worshiped by the inhabitants of Kalon. Although not immortal, they hold a vast amount of magical energy, allowing them to bestow humans with the gift of **Benediction** or the curse of **Malediction**.

About
Celestials are mortal creatures that gained power and magic over a long period of time, in which they focused on a specific field and mastered their knowledge or environment.

### Creation

Currently, it is unknown how Celestials come to be. However, there are notable differences between ancient Celestials and the more recent Celestials native to Kalon, notably the fact that all of Kalon's Celestials seem to have been formed by a source of nature, lacking a humanoid resemblance often found in their older counterparts.

Variants
### Offspring

Celestial offspring refers to any living organism that serves the purpose of setting a Celestial's legacy into stone to surpass them after their death, including those maledicted by a Celestial or those under the effect of a Divine Benison. As a Benediction's effect will die with their Celestial, blessed individuals are not considered a Celestial's child. Like in humanoid family tradition, the offspring will be referred to as "children", "son", and "daughter" respectively, while offspring of the same Celestial can call each other "siblings", even if they are connected to their parent Celestial under different circumstances.

### Telobeasts

Telobeasts are the what is known as the final stage before making the full transition from Celestial offspring into a Celestial.

### Ancients

The Ancients are Celestials that wandered the world even before the era of Angelou. These beings possess powers even greater than regular Celestials.

Magic
Magic is a mysterious power that can occur within nature and creatures with a low chance. Magic differentiates between Benediction and Malediction. While certain magic may be learned from books or teaching, it always requires a pre-established celestial connection to exist, meaning it cannot be learned unintentionally. Magical abilities are often associated with curses and are rarely considered to be positive by those who wield magical power. Society often treats mages with caution. Magic can be bestowed by Celestials.

Only one Benediction or Malediction can be active at the same time, though both of them can be applied to a person at once.

Benediction
Benediction is a divine blessing bestowed by a Celestial that allows a person to draw magic from their source, which is usually described as "borrowing magic". Borrowing enables a person to cast spells without holding the magic in their own body and is a more common practice in relation to lesser magic, as it is free from corruption. This trade does, however, not come without a price and the severity of a demand varies between Celestials. Some may require offerings, while others find loyalty to suffice. Others may ask for certain tasks to be completed in return for receiving their blessing.

Malediction
Malediction, also known as a "curse", is a punishment declared onto a person after they have committed a sin great enough to insult a Celestial, or after causing major harm to the environment. Some Celestials are known to curse out of pure malice. Maledictions revolve around a single variation of magic and will expose the user to an abundance of raw power, which may result in eventual death if not learned how to tame. Once cursed, a body is considered ruined and cannot be cured naturally, leading to an inevitable death that can come swiftly, or not until several years later. If, for example, a user is cursed with fire magic, they have to find a way to contain the growing flames, or will inevitably be consumed by fire.

Curses may be dampened through specific gear or artifacts, but can only be fully lifted by the Celestial who spoke the judgement or through the use of an ancient phylactery.

### Hereditary Malediction

Hereditary Maledictions are curses affecting a victim's bloodline, passing a curse and its effects down to all descendants of the original recipient. In the case of such an event, a curse does not become undone by death and continues until a bloodline has been terminated. As not all Maledictions are automatically passed on to a successor, a Celestial has to specialize in afflicting curses with the intention of spreading it to more than one victim, resulting in less initial victims, though a likely satisfying amount over the course of several years.

Divine Benison
*To be added.*

Artifacts
Specific artifacts may be blessed or cursed by Celestials, including weapons and pieces of gear.