When a sorcerer meditates, their mind can leave the body and travel the Astral Planes. There they gather the energies of the elements, train in the arcane forces, and now and then learn something of magic itself.
You must be an Awakened sorcerer to go. Type meditate. If you keep your concentration, your spirit is drawn to the Nexus of Elements, a crossroads also called the Eye of the Horizon.
The Astral Prompt & Aura
In the astral your prompt changes to show your state there. The main thing it shows is your Astral Aura. A Blazing Aura means you have all your spiritual energy. As you spend it, or take harm, your Aura dims. If it fades out, you are pulled back to your body and the meditation ends.
Your Aura is spent by:
- Time. It fades slowly on its own.
- Traveling between planes, or to a deeper layer.
- Gathering energies.
- The creatures of the planes, when they strike you.
Your aura and your everyday strain are the same thing. You enter the astral carrying whatever strain you already have, and you come back with that same strain. If you are too worn, you cannot leave your body at all until you rest. Type wake or meditate halt to come back on your own. Anything that wakes your body brings you back as well.
The Nexus and Elemental Planes
The Nexus is the gateway. To gather and to learn you go on into one of the four Elemental Planes joined to it, with meditate travel [plane name] [layer #]. Each plane is made of its own element and has its own dangers and rewards.
Layers
Each plane has several layers, each deeper and stronger than the one before. Your first journey takes you to the first layer of the plane you choose. As your attunement grows you can reach the layers below it. The deeper layers hold stronger energies, stronger creatures and more to learn, and they ask more of you. What each layer asks is set out under Attunement, below.
| Plane | Primary Element | Associated Arcane Focus | Defensive Element |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zephyr Aerie | Air | Aether | Earth |
| Crystal Jungle | Earth | Spirits | Air |
| Incendiary Sea | Fire | Flow | Water |
| Tidewater Deep | Water | Luna | Fire |
Attunement
Attunement is how deep into a plane you can reach. The first layer is open to every traveller. Mastery of a plane's arcane focus opens its second layer, and mastery of its element as well opens the third. The deepest layers ask for still more of both, and for an attunement device to carry your mind there. A sorcerer can buy one with quest points: type qp device.
Elemental Shields
In a plane you can gather its energies. Gathering gives you things to take back, and it also strengthens the matching Elemental Shield, which protects you from hostile creatures. The second line of your prompt shows how strong each shield is.
- Your Air Shield (Cyan) defends against entities of Earth.
- Your Earth Shield (Green) defends against entities of Air.
- Your Fire Shield (Red) defends against entities of Water.
- Your Water Shield (Blue) defends against entities of Fire.
Gathering also trains you. What you gather goes into your pool for the plane's element, and for its arcane focus, as you gather it. Your shields show only what you have gathered on this visit, and they start empty each time you enter. Waking adds nothing more: once you are back in your body, your pools turn into ranks over time, as they always do. A shield's strength counts only this visit's gathering, so even an Invincible shield may be a small part of one rank.
Astral Encounters & Combat
The planes are not empty. Creatures of the elements live there, of every strength and temper.
Some entities only circle and watch, then drift away. Some keep their distance. Some turn hostile, either at once or after looking you over. A hostile entity draws itself up before it strikes, so you always see a blow coming. When something faces you, you choose what to do:
In the game: when something faces you
mattack <element> <emote>- Strikes it.
mdefend <element> <emote>- Braces a ward against its next blow.
meditate travel- Takes you elsewhere and leaves it behind. If it is already drawn up to strike, it hits you as you go.
meditate halt- Returns you to your body.
look- Shows where you are and what faces you.
Your strike is shaped by your mastery of the plane's own arcane focus, shown in the table above, and carried by the element you name. From best to worst: the element of the plane's shield, then Void, then the other two elements, then the plane's own element. Unmaking a stronger creature can teach you something, or leave you a piece of old lore.
When an entity strikes, a braced ward meets the blow first, then your Elemental Shield of the opposing element, and whatever is left hurts your Astral Aura. A ward of the shield's element takes the blow fully. A ward of any other element, Void included, takes a third of it.
Striking a creature that meant you no harm makes it attack you, and its plane will think less of you. Gathering draws attention too: the more you take from a layer, the more likely the next thing that comes is hostile. On the deeper layers, something hostile is sometimes hunting something weaker: strike the hunter and it turns on you, and a quarry that lives through the hunt thanks you. A quarry killed in front of you costs you a little with its plane, and one you save mends what the plane holds against you. Type meditate regard to see how each plane regards you.
Puzzles and Tides
Sometimes a plane sets you a puzzle instead. The rules are told when the puzzle begins, and look shows where you stand. You have a few minutes for the whole puzzle and no clock between moves.
| Plane | The puzzle | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Zephyr Aerie | A storm's eye to reach | meditate drift |
| Crystal Jungle | A chord to find | meditate tune |
| Incendiary Sea | Embers to cool | meditate quench |
| Tidewater Deep | A pearl to find by its echo | meditate dive |
The deepest trials of the Zephyr Aerie, the Incendiary Sea and the Tidewater Deep are harder forms of the same puzzles.
Each plane also follows the tide of its own force, the same tide time shows. When the force is at its height, what lives there is calmer and gathering gives more; when it is at its ebb, the reverse.
Walking Together
You can walk the astral with others. Those of your group who reach the same layer of the same plane meet the same creatures and the same puzzles: any of you can strike, ward or calm what you face, a creature's blow may fall on any one of you, and a puzzle's moves are shared, as is what comes of solving or failing it. Your aura, shields and wards stay your own.
What You Carry
Some of what the astral leaves you can be used while you walk, with meditate use <item>. Try it on the plane the thing came from.
The other Paths each have a way of their own here. Those on the Path of Music can play to what they meet, those on the Path of Words can recall what the libraries say of it, and those on the Path of Nature can draw on the herbs they carry. Each Path's help says how.
The Void
Beyond the planes lies the Void, which has no shape and consumes whatever it takes hold of. Its tentacles sometimes reach into the astral. A tentacle gropes for a while before it takes hold. Only Void turns it, as a ward or a strike, or you can leave. Meeting the Void is dangerous, but it can teach something of Arcanum.
Advice
To stay in the astral for long, look after your Aura and your shields. A shield is used up as it absorbs blows, and if all your shields are gone you have little to show for what you gathered. A new traveller does well to gather on the shallower layers and come back often. An experienced sorcerer can go deeper, where there is more to gain and more to lose. The deeper you go, the stronger the creatures and the faster your Aura is spent.