Aelesh

1. I can see an argument that follows from this that applications needn't be made for a character, but rather, for a player. You don't apply for a TA for your necromancer, you yourself, the player, apply to be interviewed about whether or not you know enough about necromancy to guide people through learning it, yourself or otherwise. 2. Definitely needs checks and balances in the form of limitations. When you start a new character, you can choose [1] magic, or, you can only choose so many slots of magic to have them self-taught. Maybe you're required to make some kind of roleplay application that details how your character learnt the magic, who they are, some ideas of what they plan to do with it. 3. In furtherance to the previous point, I could see an initiative to create roleplay means by which you could justify learning these magics. More altars on the server itself for events, magic books, sure, but also starting locations and wandering event characters or organisations that can be used as justification. Maybe there's a school of wizards somewhere on the map which is run partly by players, but also partly by ET played mages who can pass magics on. This might lead toward a world in which player and staff run stories are brought together into single organisations which make magic stuff happen, not sure.

A quick notice; I've been continuing my work on this and made a number of changes today. I've tried to streamline some abilities by dropping extra effects, rewrote one blessing to make it fall in line with the others, and added detail to Melding in an attempt to make it a little more intriguing, with enough depth to get the imagination going.

Another big update, making changes and clarifications across the lore! My next goal is to write a section on interactions with enchanting, which spells can and cannot be enchanted, and how they work when enchanted.

Thank you very much for giving this a thorough read! Pinging @LoTC's Next Top Modelbecaaaaause, I can see an answer to an idea they had! You mentioned amongst your other critiques that Sanctify should have some kind of material cost. What I could do, drawing inspiration from what BNK has said here, is to rewrite Sanctify such that you use a Cosmic Seed as a resource? And further, drawing on the mention of "emotional moments", it might be that the Seed is planted, grows into a tree, but inevitably perishes in consuming and destroying the corruption produced by the source of the corruption. I could make the cleansing more unique as well, in that it would be something that occurs over several IRL days, maybe a week or more, and in that time Celestialists have to tend to the tree to make sure it remains alive long enough to properly consume all the energy. There's currently no system that I've expressed for how often Seeds can be made, but I could put something into place that slows down their production further to make them even more valuable. Thoughts? (I love how you guys keep answering each other's questions, you're all awesome.)

@LoTC's Next Top Model@Luxury@E__V__O I have rewritten. A lot. Many things, all of the things. Thank you all for your input. I haven't touched Sanctify yet, but I mean to! I am now going to stand up, and not look at the PC for a bit. That was the fastest I have written, I think. Ever. Thank you all, again! EDIT: I have since noticed that I have hecked some things up in my document fumbling, if you notice I've double pasted whole paragraphs or anything else, do let me know!

I'm not going to respond to everything here, but thank you for writing everything out! The capstone feats are not available since each of them has some effect on one's mental state which would be negative for a Celestialist. I'm not going to elaborate on this in the lore, but I will if this gets accepted when I write up the guide. I have completely rewritten all of the auras + Arcanify / Bless. I'll put these edits in shortly, so I'm not going to address most of your concerns regarding the 1st slot. I will say that yes, the intention is to use Melding to switch aura colours in combat. With regards to auras being able to have multiple aura colours, I'll make it clear in the lore that a Celestialist should always have a "dominant" aura colour. Their aura might be blue, with some blue-green, but they would have to declare that their aura is predominantly and in terms of blessing, only blue. Melding cannot be enchanted, I will clarify this. The issues you have with Sanctify are somewhat intended. As much as the Celestials are cleansing sources of Voidal corruption that are not their own, they are actively interested in spreading their own corruption. This spell is really a means for Celestials to control their "eventual" control of Creation; that's the plan anwyay. They're just taking a different approach to conquering the descendants' world, slowly but surely infiltrating here and there, stemming inflows from the Void which they cannot control in favour of those inflows which they can. I think the concerns you have with regards to the thematics of both Sanctify and Grace are solved by the presence of the Celestials. The Celestials are higher Voidal beings who can make possible feats of symbiotic magic (that is, magic that works together with living things) that a Void mage could never accomplish alone. I see what you're saying with regards to conjuration and Jing, but I think that the Celestials may well provide enough of a source to justify the healing. I want to hear back from the ST themselves on this once voting has happened. If it's thought that Grace doesn't fit, it can come out in favour of something else. EDIT: Having a think about Grace specifically, I could certainly edit it into a kind of "Voidal Feeling but for living things". Since a Celestialist can meld, they use this melding to break through a target's aura and inspect the inner workings of their body. Perhaps they can see some of the damage caused to organs, and their touch plays with the energy inside a targets body and numbs pain. This requires that the Celestialist or someone else go on and do medical roleplay, or cast a spell from another school of magic that actually heals, but it would give the Celestialist the ability to help with medical roleplay without trespassing on the traditionally deific and occasionally dark magic aligned flesh and bone healing spells.

Can't keep away! This is all scrambled up, apologies. More thoughts: *psst, give me your discord! if you want. cool if not.* Agree with the radius of gardens, will reduce to [10 > 15 > 20]. Modify root distances as well. I haven't specified within greater melding specifically, but certainly within melding the idea is that there should be a VERY obvious tell, since everyone's aura colour becomes the same once they're melding, and the Celestialist would be glowing like a lightbulb. Everyone will be very obviously glowy when this is being cast, it wouldn't be subtle at all. I shall make this clear in the spell description. I'll also go on to clarify that if I'm understanding what you're saying, the "sending one message at a time thing" is already the case now, I just haven't properly expressed how communication works. I've been thinking of it like "speaking, but only the people in the telephone call can hear you". I'll clarify that this means that the Celestialist has to think in real time and emote what they're saying in say, or quiet, or some other open channel. Only in a one on one meld should the Celestialist be emoting in /msg to keep things hidden. I'm not sure how I feel about making the familiar unable to do the simple melee, I really just wanted it in there for a little last stand protection. That being said, we're moving in the direction of making the familiar need more protection, so perhaps I'll take it out. I can see the reasons why you would want to, I'll give it a think. I'll be interested to know what you think in terms of the spells I've posted above to replace what they have at the second. With regards to artificers, I think the familiars fill different niches. I had at one point wanted to allow people to have familiars without being Celestialists, as was possible back in the day, but I opted against that to let artificers give out familiars to others (which I think is possible but I'm honestly not sure). Additionally, Celestial Familiars cannot be used as Casting Implements, where familiars from Artificery can. I think this puts them in different niches again, as a Celestial Familiar (particularly with the changes I made in my post above) is now a buffer, rather than simply another spell caster, where an Artificery familiar is very much a tool for casting your regular spells. I think there's a divide there between a companion who does their own thing, and a tool which improves your own casting. But yeah, I've been aware of Artificery since the start and I don't think I can do anything to mitigate the overlap there. The only thing I could do, and have done in previous write ups, was to remove the familiar entirely and just have Celestials as patrons. That I didn't end up liking since the familiar was so integral to the Celestialists identity, so they're back in now. I totally see that there's a potential problem there, but I hope that everything has enough of a niche not to really make anything redundant. Rite of Constellations: I'll remove the idea that the communication can be done instantly at night. There is currently a "not in combat" redline in there (at least I think there is please don't tell me I forgot), but I'll make it such that you have to meditate to do this at all times. Maybe at night there's some out of combat bonus (you can communicate vivid image, experiences become more real to the point of being slightly illusiary, something fun and flavourful), rather than it being instant. So: 1. always requires obvious meditation and 2. night gives totally out of combat buff to the quality and complexity of the message. How does that sound?

I was honestly hoping I'd get one of your super long critical posts, it's an honour! I quote you both because, I think one person's thought solves the other person's problem, at least a little. 1. Reduce familiar wounds to like, 3 - 4 as requested. Effective materials do not deal extra wounds, but they do 1. prevent casting by the familiar for a short time afterwards and 2. disorientate them, reducing their move range so that 3. when they get hit with an effective material, they're more likely to get hit again, thus leading to a death spiral. That makes it so that 1. mundane weapons kill them in a small number of hits and 2. effective materials make those hits come more easily. 2. Remove both Bless and Arcanify from a Celestialists spells. Turn Arcanify (new familiar version) into a spell which is channeled by a familiar. The familiar blesses (x) number of people within [x] blocks of itself, and they have to remain within that range. The familiar can only move a reduced number of blocks per turn when channeling, let's say [2], and can't cast any other forms of magic. This would give every aura a simple weakness; kill the familiar, and the Celestialist or someone on their side would have to drop everything to protect that familiar, or the familiar would have to stop casting and relocate. I think that nicely encapsulates the "familiar as a well of magic" idea. I'm not going to address your concerns with the familiar spells for now because! NEW FAMILIAR SPELLS WOO! I'm surprised I made them this fast. Honestly, those spells were just generally a bit good and didn't hinge on the familiars location all that much, but THESE definitely do. Bind [Combat] [T3] By weaving their arcana into long strands, the familiar ensnares its targets in a magical rope trap. ✦ Bind requires [4] emotes to cast (1 | Connect > 2 | Charge > 1 | Release). ✦ Once cast, the familiar sends forth a stream of arcana which wraps itself around a target within [3] blocks, weighing them down with magically generated force. The target’s maximum movement is reduced to [2] blocks for the next [2] emotes, at which point the magical binds dissipate. ➣ At [T4], this spell may target an additional target, totalling [2]. ✦ These bindings can gain the following auxiliary effects through different aura colours: ➣ If the familiar’s current aura colour is Green or Brown, the binds crystallise and harden around their targets. This lengthens the duration of the bindings by [1] emote, to [3] emotes. ➣ If the familiar’s current aura colour is Blue or Purple, the binds are endowed with a mystifying veil of energy. When the duration of the binding ends, the target(s) are thrown [2] blocks in a selected direction. 〤 The familiar cannot move, or take any other action whilst channelling this spell. 〤 When utilising the auxiliary effect made possible through a Blue or Purple aura, the target(s) must both be thrown in the same direction. 〤 In addition, this throw is not particularly strong or disorientating. It does not otherwise stun its target(s). ‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒‒ Shimmer [Combat] [T4] By disassembling their arcana into a cloud of glowing particles, the familiar makes a swift dash to a nearby location, harrying those that it passes through. ✦ Bind requires [3] emotes to cast (1 | Connect > 1 | Charge > 1 | Release). This spell has a [1] emote cooldown. ✦ Once cast, the familiar breaks apart into an incorporeal stream of energy which surges to a new location within [6] blocks, reassembling into their corporeal form. For the duration of that emote, the familiar is invulnerable. ✦ Those through whom the familiar dashes are briefly disorientated by the surge of energy. This stuns those targets for [1] emote. ✦ This dash can gain the following auxiliary effects through different aura colours: ➣ If the familiar’s current aura colour is Red or Pink, the casting time of this spell is increased by [1] emote, and the targets through which the Celestial dashes are no longer stunned. Instead, upon landing at their target location, the familiar explodes with vigorous energy, knocking back all those within [2] blocks of its destination by [3] blocks. ➣ If the familiar’s current aura colour is Yellow or Orange, the familiar can choose to take [1] wound to immediately dash again at half the distance of a regular cast of Shimmer. 〤 The familiar is allowed to weave when dashing, allowing them to pass through multiple targets who are in a roughly straight line. 〤 The familiar may pass through [2] targets at most. 〤 The familiar immediately becomes vulnerable upon reassembling itself. These require the Celestial to be a lot more vulnerable. I probably won't keep both in combination with new familiar Arcanify, it'll be one or other of them. Or, I dunno, it could be all three actually. Celestialists themselves are losing both Bless and Arcanify, so giving an extra spell to the Celestial would work. I think that just getting rid of Shelter should make the familiar a lot more vulnerable as well, as well as just, focusing all the spells on the Celestial being in close proximity to multiple enemies. Auras R/P: Remove superman dodge (I can see the Matrix slowmo now!), put a limit on how often the detail noticing effect can be invoked. I then worry that this isn't all that useful outside of combat, so I'll have a think for other sight based passive things that would be less metagamey. It could be something like, you focus on an item... but then we get into trouble with outdoing Transfiguration at examining objects, and as much as this is a toolbox, I don't want to outdo the other toolbox! I shall scour the stars for new R/P effects, just try and redo this one. Y/O: Hopefully with the new Arcanify, this becomes significantly weaker, since the familiar blessing you is an obvious target. Running forever is no longer a viable strategy. Further, 1. reduce the movement increase through some combination of a) reducing the movement bonus to [1] block and b) only allowing the movement bonus to count every other emote. Remove the current acrobatic effect in favour of a long jump; rather than just generally increasing acrobatics, this blessing can be under to hurl yourself [6 - 8] blocks in a given direction. Still has the event utility of being able to cross large gaps, doesn't have all the utility of turning into Spiderman (everyone's a super hero today). Additionally; might add a specifically out of combat, much weaker acrobatics buff? When outside of combat, the blessed can focus their attention of the energies raging around them. Whilst in this focused state, the blessed is occasionally protected from fumbles whilst climbing, and finds keeping their balance easier in precarious situations. (Redlines: entering combat ends this effect, it cannot be invoked in combat, the effect is only minor, etc.) I just like the idea of the event utility when there's parkour involved, and I think taking it explicitly out of combat and just generally nerfing it into "your balance is really good" would hopefully be enough? G/B: Just, do all of your edits really, end the buff outright when it explodes. OR. So the idea of shedding your mage armour like a Dark Souls boss was cool! What if rather than it simply shattering, the energy was infused into some other attack? That way, 1. you could launch it as a spell, or on an arrow, BUT, 2. you HAVE to launch it on an attack. It can't be used as a get out of jail free card, since you have to spend some of the action that you're using to activate it on attacking, which prevents you from sprinting, makes it a non-free action, etc. Kind of a buff, in that you can shoot it into the backlines, kind of a nerf, in that you have to aim (it can miss!), spend time charging a spell, or just take an attack, which prevents you from doing just anything you want. So it would read something like: The blessed can condense the veil of energy protecting them into a dense cloud of energy. This is infused into [1] attack, be that a spell, ranged attack or a melee attack. That attack explodes upon landing... Redlines: does not regenerate, cannot hold onto the explosive effect, etc. It also occurs to me to redline this with regards to kani, preventing you from inciting resonance through it. The energy is as dense as metal, therefore, an oscillit cannot incite resonance through it, etc. B/P: I can definitely see why this would step on eminents toes. I think the best argument for it is that an eminent has that effect up all the time, where as this is something you get specifically from a buff. An eminent could enjoy that buff, in combination with other buffs. In addition, a Celestialist has to have someone nearby who has a blue or purple aura, which could limit them from getting access to it. The beauty of this all is that no Celestialist is ever going to have access to every one of their buffs at all times, they'll be situationally available. THAT BEING SAID, I'd happily modify this into some other kind of vigour / composure buff. I've struggled trying to think of something that I like, so I'm all ears. W/B: HONESTLY THOUGHT THIS WOULD BE THE WORST ONE SO WOO! Random other stuff: Happy to take out capstones entirely, wanted to keep them in at least a little since they seemed to be a big part of modern Voidal magic roleplay. Also probably going to move this to [2] upgrading to [3] slots. That way it's kind of [1] slot for familiar based stuff, [1] slot for all the other fun in hand stuff, [1] slot for gardens, rituals, etc. And there's still two slots for other Void magics! That was honestly my biggest concern, Void magic has always been about mix and match and I didn't want to kill mix and match spellbook making right out of the gate. But two other magics is still a lot of choice to be honest! I've run out of a steam so enjoy my thought pile, thank you so much for all your criticisms, it really does help, and I appreciate the time you've taken to write this all out. As I've said before, I want to hear from people. Having so many engage is what will help me to balance things out and make this as enjoyable as it can be for everyone.

Familiar spell nerfs! @Luxury@sam33497 What do we think with regards to making familiars a little more vulnerable? @Moribundity I'm hoping that these are obviously very different from past forms of arcanism. I realise that the previous two were, a magic missile and a shield, the two spells which typified arcanism.

I'd recommend giving the lore a thorough read; aside from Shelter and Barrage which do hearken back to the arcanism of old, this is a very different style of magic. It doesn't have any of the issues arcanism did in invalidating a lot of other evocationists by doing what they did, but better. This is now really focused on a supportive, utility based role that has a place in combat, but is really at it's best when it's solving problems away from the battlefield. I feel it's in a completely different niche now to where Celestial Arcanism was before, and I hope that other people can see how much this write up differs from the original. EDIT: I've now swapped both Barrage and Shelter out for two new spells, which I think have less to do with old arcanism! That should help with making them obviously distinct.

It doesn't matter whether or not you're experienced, thank you for engaging! I want to hear from everyone regardless of how long they've been around. The intent was definitely to make the auras and familiar useful to make up for just how much of a detriment summoning your familiar is. I've refrained from reducing the number of wounds a familiar has below 10, since I want to avoid things quickly becoming very under powered, but I could definitely look into that. I could probably also think of some other circumstances in which it takes 2 wounds a hit, other than the listed materials. I've wanted to turn choosing to use Void magic in combat into this really engaging choice for a Celestialist. Summoning their familiar makes them immediately vulnerable, and not just for that particular encounter. There's real character development and damage that can come about through permanently losing this cherished partner. That being said, I can definitely see that a combination of reducing their wounds, making them slightly more vulnerable and/or nerfing the spells they can cast might be what's called for.

Thank you very much, that means a lot! I definitely think it could lose some bits here and there without the overall usability of the lore taking a hit. I've been concerned that a lot of the really interesting stuff can be found through the rituals, which aren't the kind of thing someone is going to be doing every day. For that reason, I've just kind of kept everything that stuck to the wall in here so that people can read and vote on "yes, that one's good, but no, this one is a bit out there". For instance, I think I could probably drop Bestilled items, but I've kept them in here for now since my preliminary feedback was that they were very, very cool. I might drop melding Celestials with enchanted items in the final rite, the Rite of Transcendence as well, and in terms of in hand spells, I think Expel could probably be lost without too much of an effect. It's really an event spell anyway, for fighting back the nasty tentacle-y things. And that isn't even an exhaustive list, I could probably go through and find more things to trim. But here it all is for people to comment on, I'm looking forward to hearing things along the lines of "TOP 10 CELESTIALISM SPELLS - pssst, drop the bottom 3".

Yeah, I can totally see why it'd be strange for a traditionally neutral form of magic to take a stance on this kind of thing. Celestialism hinges on a very particular mindset that allows its practitioners to break down their aura and meld it with other souls' auras. I just don't see this mindset being possible for someone who is afflicted with all the pain and suffering that comes with being a dark mage. These practices include some really horrific stuff. More than that, a lot of dark magics are concerned with "mortal affairs", quite often in escaping from that mortality to become immortal. For a Celestialist, there's a need to distance oneself from mortal life and sufferings to come into a deeper understanding of the Celestials; that "walking away from the world" is what allows them to see life with renewed perspective, and welcome everyone and everything they meet back into it. If they were seeking power, immortality, or other earthly needs, that would really contradict this need to find a new perspective. There's a lot of deeper philosophical stuff like that which I haven't included here for brevity (this got looooooong), but I mean to bring all of it up in the guide if/when I get to it.

Currently, only Voidal Scions and Artificers are able to become Celestial Arcanists, also excluding Voidal Eminence. Furthermore, Exalted Celestialism (the 2 slot version) precludes all capstone feats, including Scions and Artificers. Voidstalking has not been singled out. I felt that Celestial Gardens were almost a feat unto themselves, and I wanted to prevent any issues surrounding being capable of doing too much. I'm very unsure on the slotting of things and want to hear back from people; your thoughts are welcome! If people's feedback leans in the direction that having access to some of the feats is still reasonable and wouldn't be too much, I'd be open to changing what's currently written and opening some of the feats up. EDIT: in response to some feedback, this has been made to include all capstone feats, whether or not a Celestialist is an Exalted Celestialist or not.

"Cousins" simply refers to the way in which all Void mages are related to each other. Fire Evocationists are "cousins" of Sensory Illusionists, for example. Every Void mage is a "cousin" of every other Void mage, related distantly. Calling them cousins draws no comparison in terms of their relative complexity.