Astranova

Astraseia trembled. Against the backdrop of the black, star-speckled night sky, the long connecting bridges of muscle fibers were shaking. Tension ran through the organic mass, pushing it incomprehensibly close to a powerful tearing. Even the distant celestial bodies, the most absurd shapes, which in some places remained still and in others bent, curved and broke into themselves in ever more complex ways seemed to break under the invisible weight. What Selia's eyes focused on stood still between three of the muscle fiber bridges. An egg-shaped structure that seemed frozen in comparison to the constant trembling and shaking of the entire space.

The small lizard in Selia's breast pocket squeaked once shrilly as she pushed off from one of the bridges. The lower gravity of astral space allowed her to glide several meters through the air before her feet reached one of the small, seemingly aimlessly floating platforms. The new surface reacted instantly. Instead of remaining a smooth surface, it swirled around itself as waves glided across its surface.

Hold still!, Selia cursed, desperately focused on catching a moment when the wobbling construct would hold still enough for her to push off again. Fortunately, her next target was much more responsive and merely let out a long, squeaking sound, punctuated by the sound of breaking glass. A crack started at the bottom of the green egg and twitched across its surface, like an eggshell being blasted apart from the inside.

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An astranova is a so far unexplained event that can only occur in the astral plane of the astraverse. It manifests itself in an extreme shaking and transformation of the astral plane itself, without affecting the central planes of the astraverse.

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1. general
2. effect
3. countermeasures
[url:#anchor-3]Table of contents

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Type

Metaphysical, Arcane

General

The Astranova appears as an egg-shaped structure in Astraseia. They are usually green to yellow in color and appear to be completely motionless. In the course of its "lifetime", the egg grows from the size of a thumb to up to two meters, whereby there can be a few moments or even the lifetime of a dragon between these two phases. The eruption of the Astranova manifests itself in the form of a fissure that opens from the bottom and continues from there to its tip. There are always exactly 103.124 seconds between the first appearance of the crack, which is always accompanied by the sound of breaking glass at the end of this process.

Effect

After the set time the top of the Astranova opens up in a dazzling flash of light. So far there is no way of knowing how far this flash of light will reach, but it causes significant changes within its abruptly ending area of effect. The enormous organic bridges, reminiscent of strained muscle fibers, are largely destroyed. The smaller platforms drifting aimlessly around Astraseia are also completely destroyed. The larger celestial bodies, however, are not destroyed by the light, but are instead set in motion. In doing so, they lose their solid form and instead drift around as huge masses of liquid.

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Excerpt from mission report #C14-7611 of the Burning Academy
Acolyte Vesrow Haren was struck in the left arm and right leg by the Astranova's explosion. His left arm was instantly liquefied to within 4 centimeters of the crook of his arm, and just under a quarter of his right foot was equally affected. A few moments later, the liquefied mass combined with one of the liquified celestial bodies and formed a planetary surface that seemed to imitate the structure of skin. Due to the residual radiation, no closer examination could take place, but from a distance hair structures could be recognized along the celestial body, as well as mite-like creatures rising from the new construct. Extinction Unit Argrave was immediately informed of the new life form and given third-rank powers. The acolyte's wounds were liquidated within four minutes.

The substances mix and recombine to form new mixtures, which harden again over time and form new celestial bodies. The resulting formations drift around Astraseia until they collide with the fiber bridges again and stick to them. However, the Astranova are particularly serious for the individual paths that are hit by their light. Along Astraseia, such paths repeatedly open up in the form of white cracks that remain in space. If such a path comes into contact with the light, it turns black and the light penetrates its interior.

A path afflicted by an Astranova will develop a type of disease called Ascherdakan, also known as Light Fungus. Once afflicted by this disease, there is no way to save the path. At the same time, however, the disease is also unable to leave this path, even after it has completely overgrown it.

Countermeasures

So far, there is only one known way to deal with an Astranova. Either you move away from its potential sphere of influence, i.e. keep as much distance as possible and hope not to be hit by the nova itself or by the liquefied celestial bodies, or you accept the Astranova as part of the eternal changes of Astraseia. Students of the Burning Academy in particular take much more daring measures against the Astranova and deliberately hurl it into individual paths. A single student sacrifices himself by throwing himself through the gate of the path with the nova. Many of the astral worlds do not think highly of this Academy practice.