Day 18 of my Adventure Calendar. For 24 days, up until Christmas, I plan to release a lil bit of RPG content. Want to join as well? Join the jam!
Image: Astral Aberration by Erskine
These are rumors, whispers and possibly facts about the Starlight Sages. Some might be false. Some might hide a darker truth.
- The order of Starlight Sages study the stars, in which they see premonitions of the future. They often carry the weight of prophecy.
- Not only that; the night sky is alive. The stars aren’t what they seem. They perform an ever-shifting dance, and it is only the Starlight Sages that can make sense of the steps.
- Or at least, that’s what they want people to believe.
- Nobody knows what moves the stars.
- Starlight Sages are prized naval navigators, as they are the only ones that can follow a set course under the ever-shifting sky.
- They are also often seen in high courts, advising lords and nobles.
- There are worries that their true allegiance will always lie with their order, though.
- In combat, a Starlight Sage wields a crystal-tipped staff, and will launch glittering shards of starlight at their foes.
- They often dazzle and confuse with illusions and tricks of the light.
- There is said to be more to the stars than just premonitions, though; magic itself springs from the celestial beyond.
- Starlight Sages can prepare new spells by gazing at ever-shifting constellations.
- The stars are alive, and they shape spells with their patterns. By observing the stars, a spell gets written into the very mind of a Sage, ready to be unleashed.
- Simple spells can easily be found at night, staring up, with simple equipment.
- A Starlight Sage doesn’t keep a spellbook, but extensive notes on patterns and how to recognize spells in the sky.
- More complex spells require more extensive tools.
- Complex and dangerous spells rewrite the very brain that absorbs them.
- The most powerful spells can near-consume a mind that has absorbed it. These Starlight Sages are bound, gagged and locked into lead caskets, only to be released when desperate times call for desperate measures.
- The Starlight Sages have a home; the Starlight Citadel, a towering complex built high up in the mountains.
- The Starlight Citadel consists of numerous domed towers, each equipped with powerful telescopes with which to gaze at the sky.
- Entry is only granted to those that have something of value to offer to the order.
- The highest towers feature the largest telescopes, where the most senior sages spent months studying complex star patterns.
- The stars can look back. A secret order roams the halls of the Starlight Citadel, and stands guard during these month-long observations. At the slightest sign of corruption from beyond, they will execute the Sage.
- Or at least, that’s what the junior Sages tell each other. In fact, corrupted Sages are taken deep into the mountain, into the dungeons, to be dissected and studied, or perhaps simply stored for when they are needed.
- Gaze long enough at the stars, and the stars gaze back.