#astromancy

☀SUN influenced 2H: ♌️ or Sun in 2H

They told you that being proud and confident would bring the wrong attention. Now you cringe at it… but your finances thrive when you ACCEPT the spotlight not shun it.

🌙MOON influenced 2H: ♋️or Moon in 2H

They told you that sensitivity and the intangible would never lead to real stability. That couldn’t be the furthest from the truth. Your finances thrive when you trust YOUR intuition and your imagination.

🗣️MERCURY influenced 2H: ♊️,♍️, or Mercury in 2H

They told you that you only advance in life when you silence yourself and commit to one thing. You however came here to learn from it all and to speak your mind. Your finances thrive when you share your voice and skills proudly.

🌹VENUS influenced 2H: ♉️,♎️, or Venus in 2H

They told you that beauty and art isn’t a “real” way to make money. So you turn to the mundane now, even though that doesn’t please you in the slightest. Your finances thrive when you accept pleasure and that you attract money with ease.

🔥MARS influenced 2H: ♈️,♏️, or Mars in 2H

They told you that you can’t get paid for your body and passions. That building someone else’s dream is the only way to make it in this world. Your finances thrive when you lean into ambition and enterprise.

📿JUPITER influenced 2H: ♐️,♓️, or Jupiter in 2H

They told you that your visions and aspirations were way too outlandish to create anything meaningful. Now you shrink your money goals. Your finances thrive when you pursue bigger dreams and expand your horizons.

🪐SATURN influenced 2H: ♑️,♒️, or Saturn in 2H

They told you that you if you didn’t follow the systems already built then there was no hope for you. Now you conform to structures that don’t truly resonate with you. Your finances thrive when you figure out what systems and career fields actually anchor your frequency.

Features of Astromancy

All astromancers possess ‘mages marks’, tattoos or more commonly scars that take the form of an elaborate series of rings and constellations engraved directly onto the skin above the heart, and in lines that lead to the fingers, mouth, feet and commonly eyes. The heart runes serve to draw celestial magic into the body, and the ley-line runes help guide it through the blood to the hands or mouth, where the spell is cast. Many spellcasters also sport copper or gold needles which have been hammered into and around these runes to enhance their conductive power, and some especially powerful mages of the past were said to have possessed powerful golden runes branded into their skin, affording them great power. 

Limitations

Because a mage’s heart rune references certain constellations, moving from one planet to another causes such constellation spells to become unreliable or completely unusable. For this reason most mages possess knowledge of so-called ‘calibration runes’, temporary runes generally painted onto a mage's chest rather than scarred in, and which effectively offset the mage’s position so that the magic is drawn in correctly. Furthermore, due to mages requiring their own blood to fuel their magic, most mages are limited by how much blood they can use for casting without dropping dead, and by how much pain they can stomach, as continuous casting produces effects ranging from pins and needles to heart-attack-like symptoms. Finally, mage’s marks provide an immediate way of identifying mages at close range, making them far easier to target both by prejudiced mobs and experienced hunters. For this reason, it is not uncommon for mages in regular social settings to conceal their facial and hand mage marks with cosmetics, although when casting these runes will still glow faintly.

There are two broad kinds of astromancers, which are detailed below.

Tome Mages

Also known as smoothskin mages or artefact mages, Tome mages channel their spells through a book or other artefact such as a staff that has been engraved with such spells. In these cases, the artefacts are anointed with leyline runes made from the casters own blood, which are designed to interface with the ones on their hand. For this reason, a Tome mage’s spellbook is only usable by them, although most mages are capable of fairly easily ‘re-programming’ a book should it be necessary. Other Tome mages may not use a tome, preferring a staff, wand or astrolabe. In these cases, the spell runes are carved into the surface rather than written in blood. Whilst tome mages are powerful, and are able to keep many more spells than their skin mage counterparts, if their spellbook or staff is stolen they’re effectively powerless, and they’re also limited by how many spells they can remember without having to flick through their book, meaning they’re often slower to cast than other mage types. However, Tome mages are far more versatile than most, as they can easily combine and modify spells within their book, allowing them to produce truly deadly multi-stage spells.

Skin Mages

Known as tatterskin mages or blood mages, Skin mages avoid the problem of a potentially stealable spellbook or artefact by directly engraving their spells into their flesh. This means that most Skin mages possess many more Mage’s Marks than their Tome counterparts, as each mark is a direct spell for a skin mage. Because of their method of casting, skin mages are limited in the complexity of their spells, as their skin only has so much room, but they can cast near instantly. This causes skin mages to be far more commonly found as lower-level soldiers, but due to their far higher rate of blood loss, they often cannot keep up with the casting stamina of a tome mage. Skin mages spells, known as cantrips, generally produce simpler effects than tome mages, but as the Skin Mage’s control on the spell is instinctual, they have much greater levels of control over the power and manifestation of their spells.

Most astromancers are some combination of the two above types, with many possessing both artefacts and a few cantrips.

Common Items

Aside from their casting artefacts, many astromancer possess numerous bizarre items to assist in casting. A few are listed below.

Blood Vials- These are small vials of the caster’s own blood which they can either inject back into themselves or use to form more complicated runic circles if necessary.

Crimson Ink- a form of ink used by mages in their spellbooks for writing spells. Made from the caster’s blood mixed with ink. Has a dark red colour, and is generally regarded as a better method of writing than pure blood.

Candles- Many mages often surround themselves with candles, which they use both to measure time, to slowly dispense certain plant fragrances known to repel fiends and the like, and most infamously, crimson candles. These large candles are often found throughout wherever mages cast spells regularly, with many even wearing smaller candles on hats or shoulder pads. Crimson candles are candles mixed with the casters blood which, as they burn, provide slow release of mana back into the caster, allowing them to slowly regenerate their mana reserves.

Magus Robes- Often coloured red, Magus robes are cloaks or robes that have gold or copper thread sewn into them to form runes. These runes are, as is typical, anointed with the owner’s blood, and often produce certain contingency spells if a given condition is met, such as teleporting the caster to a safe location if they fall unconscious, or shielding the cast from certain kinds of magic. Stereotypes of casters wearing robes with constellation designs likely originated from this.