Astral Magic

## Overview

Also known as Arcane Magic, Astral Magic is regarded as the youngest form of casting in Aevonhold, Astral Magic is a broad class of magic devoted to the practice of casting only the purest form of Arcane energy.

While it is feared in many places due to it's great power, many scholars and great minds regard the magic with admiration and respect. Practitioners of Astral Magic spend many years honing their craft, dedicating a majority of their life to perfecting their casting.

Due to the nature and age of Astral Magic, many advances in its uses throughout Aevonhold have been seen in recent years, and with this there have been many breakthroughs in the understanding of the origins of Aevonhold, its inhabitants and magic itself.

## Constellations

Throughout mortalkind's history, its relationship with the Astral Plane and the ways it manifests has been tumultuous, problematic, and at times, downright foggy. Yet despite its wishes to maintain itself secret, curiosity and the thirst for knowledge has prevailed. Revelations, willingly given or not, have offered patterns in the night's sky that cast a bright light onto the fabric of reality. Symbols have been extracted from the way the stars align, and their meaning used to channel magic into a more tangible and practical form.

A constellation's name is something only used as index, since the way it is referenced or even drawn can vary depending on the Branch of Magic practised, the method or culture that is used as context, and even a particular spell. Its aliases vary wildly depending on the magic user asked and their education in the Gift.

### The Anvil

#### *The Altar, Aeddom's Window*

The Anvil symbolises protection, fortitude and the strength of a solid foundation. Often times it can be found in writing as the Altar, taking on a meaning of solid faith and belief in something or someone, or even in reference to the Divines. The Anvil is associated with warding, guarding, or even forbiddance.

### The Beast

#### *The Companion, The Dog, The Jackal, The Leopard, The Lion*

The Beast is present often in association to natural magic, used as the basis for most of its manifestations. It shows the concept of wilderness, instinct, and untamed emotion. Feral intimidation, It is also the source of meaning for unity, companionship and loyalty.

### The Chalice

#### *The Amulet, The Horn, The Necklace, Kantsak's Goblet*

The Chalice stands for a blessing, a boon or reward. It is the giving of a source, its transport and process. It is found to contain the essence of continuity, development and even change. Some have used its nature to flip it on its head, instead manifesting destruction, finality, and a finite end.

### The Crown

#### *The Cage, The Court, The Viridian Empress, The Pale King, The Throne*

The Crown is the essence of command. It is the source of influence and its manipulation, of control and dominion over oneself or others. Suggestion and performance, the power of the spoken word and an imposing of will all fall under its domain. However, it also shows willful obedience and a pledge of service, kinship and responsibility over a task or action.

### The Galley

#### *Lord of Storms, The Whale, the Gateway*

The Galley symbolises hope and expectation. It is the constellation that better represents transitory periods, but also the beginning of something new. It can denote travel, yet it avoids the concept of movement, rather better fits the arrival of something wished for or unexpected. It houses several other constellations, and therefore also can represent parenthood, leadership, or presiding over something.

### The Harp

#### *The Archer, Hristos' Bow, The Lyre*

The Harp is the embodiment of bravery, of standing against one's own fears, and overcoming them as a weakness. It represents security in the self and all it stands for, self-confidence and in some cases, perspicacity.

### The Jester

#### *The Fool, Mask of Betrüger, The Trickster*

The Jester is a constellation of fluidity and dynamism, avoidance and evasion. It sends a message of not confronting a problem directly, but rather using lateral thinking to solve it. Its symbols offer visual displacement, non-detection and illusion, often used for the latter's same Branch. It stands with childlike patterns of behaviour such as wickedness, genuinity, innocence and naivete.

### The Lovers

#### *The Count, The Mistress, The Incubus, The Sun and Moon*

The Lovers are mirrors of each other, found right next to one another that make a larger set. Together, they symbolise wholeness, cycles of natural progression, and even time itself. When one is in the abscence of another, however, their meaning is split. One half stands for order, growth, sprouting life and the creation of new material, ideas or plans coming into fruition. Those same stars, yet inverted, conceptualise entropy, decay, the destruction and ripening of the entity past its cycle, and chaotic existence.

### The Magus

#### *Azikiwe's Shadow, The Archmage, The Robe, Mother Latvka*

The Magus represents knowledge, or rather, its pursuit. It encompasses learning and record-keeping, understanding and even finding a new identity or self through such an act. It is the very base of magic, and as such acts as a seed. It can be attributed to a fixed position, and therefore, stability, a prime entitity, and hierarchy. The Magus is the self, or the source, in many symbols of spells.

### The Serpent

#### *The Kris, Traitor's Tongue, The Endless Bridge, Reflection*

The Serpent is a trick in itself, as it evokes duplicity, trickery and yet through its reflected actions, the very opposite of its nature. It is deceit and guidance, honesty and corruption, maintenance or the state of disrepair.

### The Stranger

#### *Cowl of the Unknown, Death, Themakhet's Veil*

The Stranger is absence. Lack of existence, and that which can be found in a state of limbo. It is associated with risk, that which comes at a price, and failure. The Stranger glows with both unpleasantness and acceptance, associated with the spectrum of comfort that can only be achieved through grief.

### The Sword

#### *Taaret's Belt, The First's Tear, Frithosdyr's Girdle, The Soldier, The Blessed Warrior*

The Sword represents raw strength and its use, the physical representation of energy, and the interaction of impact in all its stages. It is the expression of corporeal form, the structure and backbone of an entitity or concept, or its context. Its portfolio contains surface layers, an outward-facing covering, or that which has cemented itself on behalf of another. The Sword is replacement, conquering, and extraction.

### The Traveler

#### *Pipe Smoke, The Road, The Thieves Prophets*

The Traveler holds the concepts of movement and pathways, choice and elective action. Decisionmaking and through it the realisation of an entity's fate, the ramifications of such a journey and the branching paths that such a development may hold. It is the most complex of constellations, consisting of four times the number of nodes and stars as a regular astral chart would. It also can symbolise superiority, experience or advice.

### The Triplets

#### *Foundation of the World, The Children, The Crusade, The Mountains*

The Triplets stand for stability, symmetry and perfection. They hold that which is the most accurate, the most truthful, and the most axiomatic. It represents factual truth, unbiased by its interpretation, and yet also the instruments which lead to it, such as changes of perspective, logic, reasoning and opinion. It is incredibly fickle as a point of study, and many swear its structure is ever-changing, despite such a rigid nature.

### The Watcher

#### *The Dual Daggers, The Eyes*

The Watcher represents humility, connection and an open self. It is tied to the learning of information beyond oneself's capabilities, supernaturally given details through divination and the esoteric. Given such an apt name for a description, its inverse can be conjured to deprive cognition, reduce something or disregard it.