Astral Plane¶
"Celestial objects (stars and constellations) in the sky are a visual representation of Astral Shards from the Material Plane." — the Cosmology Revision (S001)
The Astral Plane is the home of the gods: not one country but "a series of subplanes carved apart", each an Astral Shard with its own entryway, floating in the Astral Sea. It is an outer plane, with no correlation in space to the Material Plane, and yet it is the plane mortals see most often, because every star is a shard or a thing floating beside one. The Revision also calls it Heaven, and the older cosmology called it the Spirit World.
Also called: Heaven, the Heavenly Planes, the Spirit World (older usage; see Earlier accounts), the Astral Sea (strictly the space the shards float in).
Structure¶
"They are truly a standalone 'plane'. These planes have specific entryways which are the only way of reaching them." Astral domains connect to one another chiefly through the Shadow Realm, along the Asomatus Lines that empower them, and astral beings "often empower local shades to protect these entrances to their demesne." The domains "seem to operate in a space apart as far as scholars can tell." Theologians suspect that the great shrines and temples of the Material stand where the Shadow Realm lies adjacent to an Asomatus connection feeding a shard.
The lines run both ways. They "anchor Astral Shards/Domains with the Material. They are bound to the fabric of the material and feed energies in both directions." For a shard-holder, the points where the lines touch the Material are "a beachhead for their power"; a stronger shard has more lines over greater distances, "which is why some demigods and lesser gods with smaller shards are known as 'local' deities."
What a shard is, how it is owned, and the contracts (Bound, Ordained, Covenant, Ascended, Fallen) that grant access to one, are told on Astral Shards and Astral Contracts. The shards are not all alike: the newest account calls each one "a living thing with its own will", an intelligence from the Throne of Law dedicated to a part of creation's purpose, and sorts them into five Astral Domains (Matter, Creation, Life, Thought and Union) (S420).
The Astral Sea¶
The older cosmology describes what floats here besides shards. "The astral demesnes (shards) float in the astral sea. Beings must be in material or projection here." But "not all islands in the Astral Sea are Shards/Demesnes. Some are discarded objects and creations of various kinds. Others may be dead or sleeping Gods (Einar) or other Astral beings. Many of these objects appear on the material plane as comets, meteors or stars" (S421). A shard's power on the Material depends on where it stands in the sky: strong shards reach the whole world but are stronger overhead, weak ones may be "nearly non-existent when they are not overhead", and "at the north and south poles the stars are fixed. The rest rotate with the seasons as the sun moves through the Astral Sea" (S013, S421).
The sea is also where the dead end their journey. A spirit freed from its body forms an astral projection and makes its way across the Astral Sea to the shard of its god, "assuming the holder of the shard allows them in" (S421). A bound spirit forms "just outside the place of its binding"; an unbound one "will form in a random place in the astral sea and may roam for an extended period of time before making its way to an astral shard" (S018). The newest cosmology relocates the first stage of this journey to the Netherworld, whose shard-aligned subplanes are the heavens of the various faiths. The apparitions of the dead that linger between worlds are said to exist "partially on the material, shadow and astral planes" (S296), and a spirit that loses its anchor on the Material "escapes to the astral plane".
Where life began¶
"It is in the Astral Plane where life began. Intelligences separated themselves from the Void and in the process created the Astral Plane. These intelligences formed the Astral Forms of the First Ones, the Einar" (S421). The history of the earlier ages instead has the Einar forge "the Astral, Shadow and Ethereal Planes" after the Primordial War "so that they could control and make use of the intelligences that would drift in from the Void" (S386). Both accounts are weighed on Creation. It was into this plane that Izhtari barred the Younger Gods, and into it that Kalar's faction broke to shatter the Throne of Law (S386); the plane as it exists now is "the remnants of the great divine city", shattered into shards of sovereign matter (S013).
City of the Gods¶
The Compendium records that Astryssil was the old name of the plane of the gods "when it was smaller and only contained the city of the Gods", and that Izhtari's power over it was nearly absolute (S372, S384); the Compendium places Astryssil on the Ethereal, and the Netherworld page keeps that reading. In the Fifth Age the city is in the sky again. After the fall of Sanctorum in 904 of the Sancturi calendar (904 SM) a "very bright blue star" appeared, the Divine Star, which is the City of the Gods. "The God, known simply as the Divine has remade much of the City of the Gods. No one is sure how, but (heretical) religious scholars surmise the Divine was able to take over most of Kalar's old shards which held back doors into many of the other shards." The Divine displaced Arcantus and killed Arya, who "shattered her shard rather than lose it", and his stated aim is "to fully reassemble the City of the Gods at any cost" (S112). The city's politics belong to The Divine.
Dias of Algahanni¶
The Dias of Algahanni is "a tiny astral speck which connects to a surprising number of shards across the Kalari pantheon. It has been a meeting place for gods and ascendants for countless millennia." It is "a small place, no larger than the interior of a small temple. It is eternally night here, and the stars shine brightly and seem undimmed by the small lit braziers surrounding the circle of chairs." A visitor's seat springs from the floor to suit them: a chair of living vines for an ascendant of Arya, a curved bronze stool for one of Khardas, an alabaster throne for one of Kalar. Kalar's presence can still be felt there even while he sleeps.
The dias is neutral ground. When Aion, steward of the domain for Kalar, tried to dismiss a council of ascendants, Khemeia answered: "You may be a steward for Kalar, but this is neutral ground where you have no dominion." That council, the Council of the Quad, is where Inwe, Khemeia, Aion and Monan debated the Hollowing of Denitrus (S031, S071); see Mithis Plane.
Comet of Origination¶
A part of Kalar's shard "which is still locked (no one yet possesses it). In lore it is known only as the Comet of Origination. It was where Kalar forged most of the mortal races, and where Tamariel created the Primal Dragons." Pravustiratel seeks it, because to alter the fabric of her being she needs a piece of it (S143). A related rumour places a Well of Souls, "the place where Kalar created the souls of all the greatest beings", in the Rift (S076).
Travel and magic¶
"An astral form is required to visit the astral plane. Note that because of a lack of a connection to the Mithis Plane, that arcane magic does not function in this plane" (S421). Divine energy is available here, as the Astral is one of the planes Astral Law governs (S205). Ascendants travel between the Material and their domains by "an astral transition portal" (S031), and a primal dragon has been known to "seal the plane" over an area to block such an escape (S031). A monk's power is said to come from "their connection to the Spirit World (Outer Planes)" through a deity's shard (S368).
Earlier accounts¶
The archive cosmology (S421, S389) names this plane the Spirit World and treats it as a Transitory Plane bordering the Void; the Revision gives the name Spirit World to the Netherworld instead. The Compendium (S372, S384) lists "Heaven (Five Tiers)" and the Astral Domains among the Outer Planes and the Astral Plane (the Astral Sea) among the Transitive Planes. The Acadian notes call the Astral Plane "the outer plane crossroads", connected to the Material, the shards, the Void and the Shadow Realms and fed by the energies of Shadow and Ether (S358). The older cosmology also says the gods were able to keep the demons out of the Astral Plane during their invasion (S386).
Gap
The name of the "great divine city" whose remnants the plane is made of is left as "??" in the source. Nothing describes what the five tiers of Heaven are, what an entryway to a shard looks like, or where the Dias of Algahanni stands in relation to any shard.