Magic

Magic in the world of Stellarchs of the Tarnished Skies is a reliable and predictable force of nature deeply tied to the Zodiac, a set of primary constellations that divide up colmaris's night sky, along with the Moons, a collection of natural satellites that orbit Colmeris and whose location relative to the Zodiac produces different effects. The use of magic typically requires intensive study and specialization in one or more skillsets, most of which are discussed below as "disciplines". In this way, magic tends to touch the lives of every person living in Colmaris. Most magical disciplines and terminology originate with the [[[pre-Break Trevultines]].

Role of the Zodiac and Moons

The Zodiac and the current position of the Moons within the houses of the Zodiac have a powerful influence on the abilities of spellcasters and the strength of existing magical effects. During certain astrological and astronomical events, for example, a spellcaster born under the sign of the Crab may suddenly find themselves extremely constrained in their ability to work Blue Magic effects or perhaps at great advantage in Red Magic spellcasting. This effect can be more or less pronounced and modified by other factors, such as the relative positions of the moons toward each other.

"Come on, gentlemen, lead your shots, this isn't hard. We have math for this!"

- Almost every Trevultine Gunnery Officer

This article or section alludes to information that is under active development and subject to change.

These influences need to be computed and tracked by the Gamemaster, who is ultimately responsible for making sure the mages know the state of the cosmos.

Discipline of the Sorcerer

See also: List of Stock Spells, Spellcasting

The Sorcery Skill determines the proficiency a magic user has in learning and casting spells that have direct and material effects - usually subdivided into damage, healing, buff, and debuff spells.

These spells are best thought of as being coloured, divided up into one of five colors based on the types of stars in the sky which most strongly influence their effects. These colors are:

• Blue Magic, governed by stars of the same color, which is most strongly associated with effects of wind or air, feelings of wakefulness or drowsiness, and physical or mental agility.
• White Magic, governed by stars of the same color, which concerns itself chiefly with life and death effects.
• Yellow Magic, governed by stars of the same color (not to include the Sun), which deals with the manipulation of electricity, alacrity, and combat prowess.
• Orange Magic, governed by stars of the same color, which deals with the manipulation of sand, stone, and mud, and with concepts like stamina and endurance.
• Red Magic, governed by stars of the same color, which deals with the manipulation of fire, of passions, emotions, and hostility.

While a single skill, Sorcery, governs all spellcasting of these kinds, many mages choose to specialize in just a few colors of magic based on what resources are available to them.

Discipline of the Astrologer

The Astrology skill governs both the use of the appropriate instruments and references to compute or interpret Horoscopic Graphs, useful for historical purposes or for understanding the current conditions effecting other efforts, such as Sorcery or Magical Artifice. While not quite as glamorous a form of magic as those enacted by sorcerers, Astrologers of reasonable proficiency are valued experts, welcome on just about any ship (and, by some captains, considered downright essential to have around). Astrology can also use such disciplines to perform Divination, a special kind of forecasting.

The Cartographers Guild, the Unversity of Trevultum, and Shui School all grant certifications of proficiency for Astrologers, and these credentials are highly respected.

Discipline of Artifice

Artifice involves the synthesis of the Magical Artifice skill with another crafting skill in order to create an item with a permanent magical effect. This can largely be reduced to two main areas of study:

• Enchanting, which is the discipline of coupling Magical Artifice with the craft of permanent or transitive objects, such as weapons, armour, pyxes, ammunition, or even entire airships, or;
• Alchemical Pharmacology, which is the discipline of coupling Magical Artifice with pharmacology and herbalism skills in order to create single-use magical concoctions, usually for medical purposes.

Such magical endeavours are much more stable than Sorcery in terms of the impact of astrology on the created products, usually fixing the magical potency of the item to the moment of its creation. When done appropriately with attention paid to Astrology, this can potentially turn short-lived moments of advantage into long-term benefits. The downside, of course, is that such artifice is necessarily expensive: while alchemical pharmacology only requires relatively readily-available alchemical ingredients, enchanting almost always incurs a high material cost due to the indispensability of certain valuable materials - cheifly various forms of phosphorite - in the creative process.