#galactic magic

a galaxy is a collection of solar systems, stars, stellar remnants, dark matter, interstellar gas, and dust which is bound by gravity from the objects it contains. nebulae, on the other hand, are clouds of cosmic dust and [primarily] hydrogen/helium gas within a galaxy, many of which form stars!

this post is based on my personal understanding of a very complex and advanced topic - i'm not a professional astronomer so be nice.

common galaxy shapes:

barred spiral - spiral with a central bar shaped structure made of stars - the milky way is a barred spiral galaxy :)

elliptical - round or oval with a central bulge

irregular - blobs that lack a defined center and have no designated boundary

lenticular - has a central bulge and disk much like a spiral galaxy but without arms; has lost or used much of its matter and has very little star formation activity; thought to contain aging stars

spiral - rotating disk with a central bulge of stars and spiral arms that are sites of star formation

galactic terms & facts

active galactic nucleus (AGN) - the center of an active galaxy; theorized to be a supermassive black hole that is accreting at a rapid speed

active galaxy - 100x brighter than an "inactive" galaxy because of the huge amount of radiation that the SMBH emits from the rapid accretion of matter; can be any shape

blazar / blazar galaxy - active galactic nucleus (AGN) whose jet is pointed directly at the earth

dark nebula - nebula whose clouds are so dense that it blocks light from other stars and objects behind it; clouds are made up of frozen carbon monoxide and nitrogen which blocks out visible light wavelengths

diffuse nebula - irregularly shaped nebula without clearly defined boundaries

emission nebula - emits its own radiation either by star formation or as a planetary nebula in the presence of ionized ultraviolet radiation emitted by nearby (hot) stars; star nurseries

flux nebula - nebula without a central point of illumination; is illuminated by the flux (the amount of energy from a luminous object that reaches a given surface or location) of all the stars in the milky way

H II regions - emission nebula; forms when the ultraviolet radiation from newborn super hot stars (o and b type) begins to ionize hydrogen from nearby gas clouds

planetary nebula - emission nebula; forms from the stellar dust and gas that is ejected by dying stars that are low to intermediate in size (1 to 8 solar masses); has nothing to do with planets but was mistaken for one in the late 1700s, which is how it got its name; our sun will eventually end up as a planetary nebula

protoplanetary nebula - the stage just before the formation of a planetary nebula when the star first begins to expel its outer layers

pulsar wind nebula - type of nebula that exists inside the remnants of a supernova and is powered by the winds of a rapidly spinning, highly magnetized neutron star, aka, pulsar

quasar / quasar galaxy - AGN whose jet is observed at a wide angle; extremely bright and further away than a seyfert; can be detected in the absence of the galaxy around it because of its luminosity

reflection nebula - reflects light from nearby stars

satellite galaxy - galaxies that orbit other galaxies

seyfert galaxy - one of the most common active galaxies; luminosity varies over time; "younger" thus closer to us in distance; most are spiral galaxies; the surrounding galaxy is more easily detected than that of a quasar galaxy because the AGN doesn't outshine it

starburst galaxy - extremely active star forming galaxy

star nursery - star forming nebula

supernova remnant nebula (SNR) - consists of material ejected by the explosion of a supernova; bound by the shockwave formed from the ejected material

on emission nebulae: H II regions give life to newborn stars, whereas planetary nebulae are the result of stellar death. blazars and quasars are essentially the same thing. the only thing that differs is the viewing angle.

magical associations for some of the above

nebulae

dark - warding, shielding, protection

flux - community, collective, self-reflection, illumination

H II region - rapid growth, expansion, catalyst, manifestation

planetary - destruction, death, rebirth, transformation

protoplanetary - the beginning of the end, transitions, metamorphosis

pulsar wind - weather magic, wind calling, swiftness, catalyst

reflection - shadow work, meditation, introspection

supernova remnant - spirit work, storm magic, destruction

galaxies

barred spiral - harvest, vitality, balance, abundance

blazar - illumination, focus, insight, courage, confrontation

elliptical - protection, warding, shielding, boundaries

irregular - illusion, freedom, unpredictability

lenticular - stasis, stillness, wisdom, responsibility

quasar - power, energy, manifestation, illumination

satellite - sacrifice, obsession, hyperfixation, focus

seyfert - hidden power, moderation, humility

spiral - transformation, distortion, illusion, balance, death and rebirth

starburst - growth, expansion, manifestation, fertility, cleansing

some ideas

make a crystal grid in the shape of whatever galaxy you choose; imagine the central crystal is the AGN of the galaxy; could be used as a battery to charge the grid

implement colors accordingly - you can use the spectral class of stars or the color of visible light emitted by each object (different elements give off different colors depending on their state of matter); can be applied to candles, crystals, textiles, etc.

use galaxy shapes as the base of sigils

print photos of or draw galaxies and nebulae - write your petitions over them

craft a glitter jar with star sequins and mica powder and twirl it around to simulate the appearance of a spiral galaxy

carve galaxy shapes into candles or other objects

utilize galactic energy as a catalyst

think of a supernova remnant nebula like a web to trap or shock [something]

imagine yourself as a satellite galaxy, and the parent galaxy as something you're trying to attain or concentrate on

reflection nebulae are great for introspection but can also be used to return to sender

starburst galaxies can be utilized for more than just personal growth - think financial growth or career advancement

barred spiral galaxies tend to look like double sided scythes while lenticular galaxies contain aging stars; these two types of galaxies can be associated with saturn and its correspondences as well

visualize an elliptical galaxy surrounding you and your space versus a traditional circle for protection during spells and rituals - you are the AGN in this case (neat)

star nurseries and starburst galaxies can be seen as a place to store your ideas so they can grow and manifest over time

irregular galaxies and diffuse nebulae have no defined shape and can be used for generalized energy

these correspondences are personal to me - ymmv. please source back to me if you reference my content, thank you!

celestial body correspondences stellar color magic planetary composition planetary correspondences ✧ magical ideas ✧

(art by AdrianMarkGillespie on DeviantArt)

Continuing our focus on sneaky characters in Starfinder, we end off this week with another specialization for the operative class!

By their very nature, operatives are skilled at passing without a trace. Some do so with stealth, others with disguise. Some are hackers that infiltrate computer systems and do their best to not be detected, and others are survivalists that pass through the wilds like a shadow.

Some, however, are invisible not because people fail to see them, but because they make sure that others pay them no heed, by magical means if necessary.

Indeed, today’s subject, the memory weaver, lives up to their name by investing in minor psychic magics, allowing them to twist how others perceive them and even alter their memories.

Depending on the mission and their disposition, these operatives might be living cryptids, slipping into people’s lives to do their thing and then leaving behind only things that don’t add up when you look to closely. Or they might target an individual and twist them with their memory-altering powers in a most sinister and insidious way. Definitely ranging the full moral spectrum here.

So let’s see what they add to the operative arsenal!

Firstly, these operatives can set up trick attacks with sense motive as they read their target’s movements, but they can also use bluff with greater skill to do the same, flavored as them subtly messing with their target’s perceptions with figments and revised recollections to create openings.

They also gain an exploit that reaches into the psyche of an attacker, causing them to briefly view the memory weaver as someone they care about, either flinching and missing entirely, and prone to hesitating afterwards, or at the very least shaken by the vision.

Those that master this path learn how to modify entire minutes of their target’s memory, giving them a false impression of recent events in whatever way the sneak desires, though it can be broken with enough evidence of the discrepancy.

A fairly simple option, this specialization has a lot of potential, especially at higher levels, to manipulate things in the party’s favor if used right. That being said, I would recommend taking feats that grant minor spellcasting so you can get some lovely enchantment spells early on so that you actually feel like you’re a perception-altering mastermind long before you get to level eleven.

Memories are the cornerstone of identity. Without them we are a blank slate. Removing or erasing them is more or less a soft form of murder or at least mutilation. With that in mind, how your character feels about their powers can inform a lot about who they are. Do they do so seemingly casually? Do they grimly recognize the consequence of what they sometimes have to do?

Hidden behind cover identities, hacked accounts and credentials, and a knack for memetic magic, Minix is a ghost, setting up shop in different locales with a comfortable, wealthy life, often with a job that mostly requires memorization and people skills to get by. However, the temptation to actually use their real skills always arises, causing them to post themselves for hire in clandestine work. More than once, they’ve had to flee an identity because of this, and the ysoki simply sets up shop elsewhere with a new name and job.

While investigating a bombing, the party finds footage of emergency workers helping an unknown figure out of the rubble and into the ambulance. However, interviews turn up nothing. No description of age, species, gender, or appearance, and their responses to questions are vague and eerily similar, almost robotic, as if read from a script.

(art by MasterOgon on DeviantArt)

It’s a terrifying thing, knowing that the end is coming, that if things keep going the way they are, and sometimes seemingly no matter what changes we make, that doom seems predestined to arrive. It is a cruel thing indeed that we live in an era where such fears are all too real-seeming.

But no matter how much our present sucks, any future doom we might envision is still survivable, though things will not be the same.

Today’s subject though… they have seen a very final ending, one than hangs over them like a shadow.

Whether it’s some robotic uprising that threatens worlds or even the entire galaxy, a final invasion by the forces of Hell, the Swarm overtaking the galaxy… or something with no living breathing face to punch, some precogs awakened to their abilities because they saw a future that might be, one that they are driven to prevent.

Perhaps they were present at the pivotal event that set such a doom in motion, or maybe they were given this vision by one or more gods that wish to avoid that timeline, or maybe their future self awakened to powerful psychic potential during this apocalypse and sent a warning and awakening back to their past self

No matter the exact origin, the vision of such a horrible fate haunts them, and serves as their anchor, something around which their power swings as they struggle to find the metaphorical lever and fulcrum needed to dislodge such a fate from the timeline.

With the horrors they have seen, it should come as no surprise that precogs gain a special relationship with using their paradox powers with their own bodily functions and resistances, bending fate itself to keep them alive.

While the vision brought horror, it also brought knowledge, and occasionally as a result, these precogs just know things about subjects they might not have any business knowing, recalling uncanny detail about them.

More powerful precogs become so good at bending probability and fate to ensure their own survival that effects that would normally have a partial effect if resisted have no effect at all for any number of reasons. The poison dart struck a datapad in their clothing, the spellcaster fumbled their magic at the last second, and so on.

Bolstering fortitude saves and a free nat 20 on a knowledge roll once a day are fairly simple stuff, but perfectly in line with what this anchor is all about. I personally would go with a fairly balanced build with this one, mixing defense, offense, and utility magic to have an answer for every situation.

From a roleplaying perspective, this option is great for a GM that wants to seed things early in a campaign. If your endgame for the campaign involves preventing a terrible apocalypse of some kind, be it limited to one planet or many, such an event could very well be what the precog has forseen. That being said, be sure to give it to the precog piecemeal through vague visions and subtle clues. You don’t want them to have a to-do list of things needed to prevent the apocalypse, at least not super early on. With some maneuvering you can do a lot here, including red herring leads and even accidentally almost self-fulfilling certain prophecies. That being said, Starfinder is very much about determining one’s own fate, so maybe don’t make the doom a foregone conclusion unless that’s a story you want to tell.

Though most of their species focused on science, Drannak the ferran awakened as a precog with the vision of his world being devoured by a black hole… but too late and with too little power to do anything about. Now his people live on the moon of their lost world, suspended on the edge of the event horizon, and he lingers with them, plagued by the memories of having seen the disaster twice. He feels listless and with no control, and what he does going forward teeters on the edge of a knife, ready to be influenced one way or another by those around him.

In a freak cosmic alignment, Novica was granted a vision of the future where her home system is devoured by a nebula through a portal in time, the edges of which made reality itself scream and hiss. However, powerful lightning elementals from the cosmic storms of the nebula slipped through, and she must now survive long enough to figure out how such a freak disaster will occur, and how to stop it.

(art by ForestGem on DeviantArt)

With the presence of healing magic, it should go without saying that medicine and magic are heavily intertwined in a science fantasy system like Starfinder.

However, while everyone expects magic to assist and bolster medicine beyond the bounds of what is possible, today we’re going to focus on medicine that enhances magic instead!

Indeed, thaumapathy is the study of the natural magical fields generated by living things, and how to bolster or inhibit them. This is a bit more esoteric than other forms of medicine, but by exploiting the interplay between mystical forces and the bodies that possess them, these biohackers seek to fully understand that relationship.

These professionals might live in a magical society where understanding how drugs can affect magic and vice versa is extremely important, or they might instead come from societies whose enemies are magical and they might focus on ways to inhibit their magic, or maybe a bit of both. Alternatively, their goals might not be to better their own society but rather their own personal interest in magic. They might be minor casters themselves through multiclassing or the use of certain feats, or they might focus on thaumapathy as an alternative after discovering no talent for magic of their own.

Regardless, these doctors are the bane of enemy mages and a boon to those who are allied to them whether they practice magic of their own or not.

The booster associated with these doctors bolsters the natural magical field of the subject, causing them to gain a minor spell resistance or bolstering what they already had.

The inhibitor, meanwhile, disrupts the flow of magic in the body, reducing the statistical aspects of spells, and forcing a spellcaster to spend more time to cast spells.

The breakthrough associated with thaumapathy reenergizes the subject, renewing their magical energy to let them cast an additional spell that day. However, for safety and tolerance reasons, an individual can only benefit from one of these breakthrough boosters per day.

Biohackers already replicate nonmagical versions of serums, but you can make them even more magically aligned with theorems like Ampoule Expertise, Energized Assault, Morphing Hack, Ampoule Mastery, as well as others that can buff or debuff.

Expect to be facing a lot of casters and/or have more than one caster in the party? This field of study might prove quite useful indeed. Being able to grant spell resistance just before a fight is great, as is debuffing spell saves, durations, and damage.

A fascination with magic is pretty much required with this archetype, but the fact that they can’t use true spells themselves can be a source of interesting character questions as well. They might simply lack the inborn spark to cast spells, be focused on their work to the point that they are limited to minor spellcasting, or be even more akin to the alchemists of old and simply invoke their magic through elixers and serums. How they feel about it, however, is up to you as the player.

Taking their massive citadel ship into the Mos Nebula, the dwarves have discovered it to be full of all sorts of wild magic and creatures that utilize it. In order to combat this, the system admins have set about having the ship doctors researching how to inoculate the crew against such magic.

Eager to bring order to a primitive world, the Hellknight Commander Ertrikos takes on a contract to bring the natives of a new colony world to heel so the corporation can secure exclusive control of the world’s minerals. However, neither they nor their corporate employers expect the magic of the natives, and the way they enhanced it with stimulating chemicals.

(art by Ollie Mori on Artstation)

Now, it’s no secret that the solarian class in Starfinder is a bit of an homage to the Jedi of Star Wars, being warriors of a mystical persuasion tapping into forces greater than themselves, albeit tapping mostly into gravity and light instead of some vaguely-defined magic system that people have argued for literal decades about what it can and can’t do, and what counts as light side or dark side behavior.

But something that kinda gets ignored in Star Wars is that not every Jedi is just a combatant. Some focus more on the mystical aspects of the power they have come to understand. These are your Yoda’s and your more ascetic types.

And so that is what today’s archetype is all about. While these so-called stellar sages can fight in their own right, they’re more concerned with mastering the power of the stellar revelations they command, able to switch between modes quickly and tap into even greater mysteries.

So let’s get right into it!

These sages are less adept at combat, and have less vitality to stay in the fight. They do, however, learn more skills, and they learn to tap into greater depths of power as solarians, learning additional revelation powers.

What’s more, unlike other solarians, they can switch which aspect they are attuned to, though only when they deliver a deadly injury or receive the same, using the pain and the sudden change of the face of the battle to switch.

Finally, these mystics learn to be able to channel two powers at once, though doing so while not fully attuned requires a lot of resolve.

Less adept in combat than other solarians, the real strength here is that they get more revelations and can even use multiple at once later on, becoming almost like a pseudo-spellcaster in how often they are meant to be using their revelations. The ability to switch attunement type whenever they are critically hit or crit others is also very useful, letting them adjust their strategy on the fly if they find themselves suddenly very low on hp or with a defeated foe on their hands. With that in mind, I’d build them either as secondary melee or back line ranged builds, since they’re less interested in just hitting foes and instead on focusing their powers on them.

One might assume in a pettier interpretation of the solarian monastic orders that there might be some contention between traditional solarians and stellar sages, the latter considering the former too warlike, while the former considering the latter too high and mighty with their focus on the esoteric… But I just can’t imagine that being the case. There are many ways to explore the secrets of this path, after all.

Deeply connected to gravity as a force, the yrgytchee are at the forefront of gravitational research but also mysticism surrounding gravitational forces. As such, their own solarian orders host primarily broken cycle and stellar sages devoted to the graviton aspect. Those seeking knowledge of such things could definitely find worse locations to study the power of gravity.

Vilkor the Nova is a jovial and clever brakim, but he earns his name for his fighting style, using a hover chair to move while using all four limbs as graspers to wield powerful plasma weapons, and supplementing his arsenal with the power of his solarian training, favoring blasting foes over protracted combat, and certainly not in melee.

(art by Istvan Straban on Artstation)

Magic truly is a strange being, sometimes almost seeming to be alive in how it seethes and dances against reality.

Well, whether it be spirits with a connection to magic or literally the flow of magic itself, there are those that speak to magic as if it were alive, and to the shock of many, this seems to get results!

These so-called spell speakers can use positive reinforcement to bolster the power of magic of their allies, or turn around and literally scold magic out of existence, seeming to shame hostile magic into demanifesting.

While this process is poorly understood, it’s clear these individuals are accessing a form of magic in their own right, one which they leverage to make sure they stay out of the grasp of magic and empower their allies.

The core ability of this option allows the envoy to encourage the spells of allies, which has effects ranging from bolstering damage, duration, range, or area of effect, or reducing the resistance of foes or even guiding aimed spells to seek their target. Of course, their own skill determines the level of spell they can affect, though they can briefly bolster this by expending resolve.

While that’s potent enough on its own, there are a handful of special impovisations exclusive to this class option. These include coaxing the magic of an ally to briefly serve them, casting the magic themselves, scolding hostile spells into being dispelled or even being redirected with enough convincing, and finally, coaxing area spells to move out of the way, either to an entirely new location or simply parting to create a safe path through them.

While the class option on its own is great for supporting a spellcasting ally, particularly if your envoy is already a backline supporter anyway, but the ability to dispel and redirect magic, as well as improve action economy by casting ally spells for them can be quite potent.

I could easily see members of this character option to have a curious relationship with magic itself. Does the magic of different individuals or disciplines have different personalities? What about individual spells? What sort of things to they say to the spells they interact with, and how do they respond?

Nilendus has always been fascinated by the connections that magic bridges between all things. While they lacked the gift of magic themselves, the entu symbiote has always been able to understand what magic “wants”, and how to whisper to it.

The party is part of an away team about to make first contact with an alien civilization. However, when they arrive, they discover someone has beaten them to the punch, another offworlder and con artist using their talent for spell-speaking to set themselves up as a petty god of magic to the natives.

(art by Shifter07 on DeviantArt)

With its flexibility, magic is perhaps the ultimate resource, able to do anything as long as the user knows how to make it happen.

It should come as no surprise then that there are those eager to take it for themselves. Perhaps they failed to learn magic on their own but learned enough to take from others, or they are greedy types eager to gain without earning, or maybe they just really want to see mages dead.

Either way, the spell thief is exactly what it sounds like, a form of operative that takes magic from their foes and turns it against them.

Given the most basic application of their particular skillset, I think it’s fair to say these operatives mostly work as mage-slayers, whether they are specialized assassins on their own or part of a team that needs a way to take down magically-empowered foes quickly. They might hate spellcasters, or be professionally indifferent to them, but what is true is that they are at their most deadly when facing spellcasters or those that are benefitting from magic.

These operatives train in other areas, so their ability to deal extra damage is somewhat reduced. However, when striking foes in such a manner, they get an immediate sense of the magic that is currently benefitting their target, and can siphon some of the energy away into themselves, halving the duration of a spell. Once they do so, they can channel this energy into their weapons, causing their future trick attacks to become exceptionally more lethal. This may be due to the weapon becoming exceptionally sharper, being guided to the most optimal vital point, discharging the energy violently into the wound, or what have you, but the end result is the same.

Later on, they learn to instead drain the potential energy of spells from spellcasters and innately magical beings, robbing their foe of a potential spell cast.

With a bit of resolve, they can instead use the energy from a drained spell to apply that spell to themselves as well, though only for as long as the split duration lasts, though this does put them on more even playing field with their opponent.

True masters can integrate this stolen spell into their own aura, causing the stolen effects to last much longer.

The name really does say it all, and we get an operative that can steal magic just as surely as certain rogue builds in Pathfinder. However, I feel like in the effort to make this ability available at level 1, these operatives had to compromise, unable to fully dispel the spells of their foes but instead half their duration. Still, turning your d6s on trick attacks into d10s is potentially very devastating, meaning that in their element of fighting spellcasters or foes buffed by spells or magic, this option can be downright deadly. I recommend exploit and feat options that improve their ability to combat spellcasters, though don’t forget to diversify too.

While there are plenty of reasons for these characters to specialize so, either having some vendetta or not, what is likely true of most is that they likely collect magical equipment not just for use, but as trophies from their victories over mages. Such trophies might be benign, or horrifying depending on the individual.

The lashunta Piyori specializes in hunting casters, preferably those that utilize psychic magic. She is well-know for her prowess and cool demeanor and focus. However, that quickly flies out the window when her prey starts to escape her carefully-prepared killboxes. Is she just desperate to have a perfect kill record, or does something else motivate her to make sure psychics die?

The vampire lords of the rogue planet Gallik rule with terrible impunity, controlling the sources of heat that keep the habitable zone livable as well as travel to and from the starports. However, there are still those that resist their rule, many specializing in overcoming the vampire’s magical power and exploiting their arrogance.

(art by Yihan Dong on Artstation)

If you’re familiar at all with Starfinder, you probably know that the philosophy of solarians is defined by the duality of the forces of stars, the endlessly expelling energies of the photon and the consuming grasp of the graviton. Gravity and light. And the class rewards you for alternating the exploration of both so that you don’t fall out of alignment and weaken yourself.

But as thematic as these two aspects are, the supposed duality of them is ultimately an arbitrary one, as is the assumption that there needs to be a duality at all. After all, plenty of magical and mystical disciplines have focused on singular energies before to no detriment.

So naturally, there would be some sects of the solarian discipline, either true renegades of the wider galactic society’s sects or unrelated independent disciplines that arose without the assumptions of the kasatha-born belief system. These groups believe in focusing on a single aspect, becoming radiant warriors of light or imposing powerhouses whose passing cannot be ignored.

To some mainstream sects, these breakers of the cycle, might be anything from strange fringe teachings that have something to offer, or they might be seen as heretics actively damaging the tradition, to be denied at every turn.

What even these detractors cannot deny, however, is their total mastery of their chosen aspect.

In exchange for only being able to use either graviton or photon modes, these warriors gain greater passive benefits from achieving those states, Additionally, they improve the sidereal influence of the various skills associated with their chosen mode, eventually improving all five skills at once. Finally, they learn even more revelations and zenith revelations as they grow in mastery, mastering nearly every power that their chosen aspect has to offer.

A fairly simple archetype that opens up some different builds that just aren’t feasible with the vanilla solarian. Just remember that by focusing on one mode you give up some of the flexibility of the class. If you want all high damage or all control though, this option might appeal to you.

I have to imagine that for their part, broken cycle solarians believe themselves to be pure examples of their aspect made manifest. Some might view the other aspect as lesser, or they may simply find value in either exemplifying one aspect for it’s own sake.

Nearly a continent wide, the Blightmark is a foul swampy region on the planet Yedus that suffers under some form of fiendish corruption that grows every day. It is said that only one who embraces the light of the sun completely could destroy the source of the blight and bring warmth back to the planet. Certainly the science colony would be grateful.

Like a physics-defying anthill, the formian colony of Hivesphere is build around and in a mass of rock and earth that has unnaturally high gravity for it’s size. If the ant-folk have figured out exactly how or why the planetoid generates this force, they have not shared this information, but the fact several of their guardians channel powerful gravitational abilities in it’s defense shows they are studying and implementing it’s power.