▣ LEGENDARY SORCERYFounding Rain of Stars
The eldest primeval sorcery, an astrologer's vision made weather
Founding Rain of Stars
'The eldest primeval sorcery, said to have been discovered by an ancient astrologer. A sorcery of legendary status.' Every school of magic in the Lands Between claims a deep past ; only one spell claims the beginning itself. The Founding Rain of Stars is 'thought to be the founding glintstone sorcery', the first drop of the river every academy sorcerer still drinks from. Its text records the moment of discovery like scripture : 'The glimpse of the primeval current that the astrologer saw became real, and the stars' amber rained down on this land.' No name is given, no school, no crown. Just an ancient stargazer, a vision, and a sky that answered, 'a dark cloud of stars overhead' releasing 'a violent deluge of star rain.' The oldest sorcery on record is not an invention. It is a sighting.
What the astrologer glimpsed has a name : the primeval current. Comet Azur points to its source, 'the distant starry expanse, the place said to be the origin of glintstone', and to its price : 'When Azur glimpsed into the primeval current, he saw darkness. He was left both bewitched and fearful of the abyss.' Azur and Lusat, the two primeval sorcerers, went back to the headwater the founding astrologer drank from, and neither truly returned. And by the present age, the wellspring of the entire art has become contraband : 'The primeval current is a forbidden tradition of glintstone sorcery,' states the Graven-Mass Talisman, and Sellen names it as the very reason for her exile, 'It was for attempting to restore the primeval current of glintstone sorcery.' The stream that founded the academy is, to the academy, heresy.
The lineage, however, is not disputed, it is uniform doctrine, stitched into court dress. 'Glintstone sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers, a fact that the Carians remain aware of. Even if their fate has been long severed from the stars.' The Preceptor's Big Hat, worn by the magic tutors of the Carian royals, hides 'the movements of the stars drawn on the inside of the brim', the old sky folded into the working uniform of modern sorcery. Even the humble Astrologer's Staff, 'staff of the astrologers' with a glintstone embedded at its tip, still opens the whole art to any wanderer. Astrologers first, sorcerers after ; the rain of stars first, the academy after.
One astrologer's story is told almost in full. 'The young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked. She had always chased the stars every step of her journey. Then she met the full moon, and, in time, the astrologer became a queen.' The queen of the Stargazer Heirloom is Rennala, Queen of the Full Moon, who 'encountered this enchanting moon when she was young' and whose lunar magic would later 'bewitch the academy' she came to master. The founding gesture repeats, generations on : an astrologer looks up, something in the sky looks back, and a power is born. Her daughter Ranni inherits the gesture in a colder key, 'Ranni's sigil is a full moon, cold and leaden', steering House Caria's star-lineage toward the dark of night.
But the sky has rained on this land twice. Once as amber, the founding deluge the astrologer called down. And once as ill omen : Astel, 'a malformed star born in the lightless void far away,' which 'destroyed an Eternal City and took away their sky', a 'falling star of ill omen.' Its power still manifests as 'a hail of meteorites,' and Meteorite of Astel is counted among the glintstone sorceries, the same family the founding rain began. No text ties Astel to the ancient astrologer, this is a reading, not a record, yet the symmetry is written into the wording : both are rains of stars, and both fell upon people who watched the sky. The gift and the catastrophe wear the same shape. Perhaps that is why those who stare longest into the primeval current, like Azur, report seeing only darkness.
The eldest primeval sorcery, said to have been discovered by an ancient astrologer. A sorcery of legendary status. Summons a dark cloud of stars overhead. Shortly after, the cloud will release a violent deluge of star rain. Thought to be the founding glintstone sorcery. The glimpse of the primeval current that the astrologer saw became real, and the stars' amber rained down on this land.
A talisman engraved with the legend of a queen. Raises intelligence. The young astrologer gazed at the night sky as she walked. She had always chased the stars every step of her journey. Then she met the full moon—and, in time, the astrologer became a queen.
Large hat with the movements of the stars drawn on the inside of the brim. Worn by the magic preceptors who served the Carian royals. Glintstone sorcerers are the descendants of astrologers, a fact that the Carians remain aware of. Even if their fate has been long severed from the stars.
Meteorite of AstelOne of the glintstone sorceries that manipulates gravitational forces. Summons a void that emits a hail of meteorites. A manifestation of the power with which Astel leveled the Eternal City.
