Astral guide

The Astral Guide is an enchantment used to help guide and protect a mage traveling through the Astral Plane.

Creation

Components

• A random Imbued item
• An un-enchanted beacon shard
• Enchanter's Burin
• Celestial sigil of the Katamba, Yavash, Xibar, Shrew, Unicorn, Durgaulda, and Scales
• Activating Spell: Shadows, Dazzle or Unleash

Steps

• Part One: The Cradle of Moons

1. Imbue the item to be used
2. SCRIBE, activate, and bind the Katamba
3. Scribe, activate, and bind the Yavash
4. Scribe, activate, and bind the Xibar

• Part Two: The Crystal Mind

1. Scribe Shrew onto the beacon shard
2. Scribe, activate, and bind the Unicorn
3. Scribe, activate, and bind the Durgaulda
4. Scribe, activate, and bind the Scales
5. INVOKE the crystal immediately (it goes bad quickly and is then useless)
6. ALIGN to one of the four moons depending on whether you wish to set destinations or attributes <Grahzir to set destinations (any color crystal), Xibar for sanity protection (blue crystal only), Yavash for force (red crystal only), and Katamba for speed (black crystal only)>
7. TAP/TOUCH one of the desired destination shards with the crystal (this must be done soon after it is created, but not immediately)
8. Set aside and let it age for around 22 days

• Part Three: Combining and Finishing

1. Hold both the Cradle of Moons and the Crystal Mind and FOCUS on one to place the mind in the cradle
2. Once the desired amount of Minds have been placed in the cradle begin to SCRIBE sigils on the Cradle till it catalyzes. <It doesn't matter what sigils are scribed onto it>

• Additional Notes:

1. It should be noted that the difficulty of the shard relative to the enchanter seem to matter. A failed attempt will say "An immense sense of confusion flows into your mind from the a smooth blue crystal." with no other messaging after it.
2. The final, catalyzing part may take as much as around 20 to possibly 30 scribes. This was done alternating between Sun and Yavash sigils, until finally at night time twice Estrilda, once Triquetra, once Heron, and maybe about 2 more high level sigils. -New- However, on a second guide-making attempt, using Welkin, Shrike, and Penhetia completed the guide with only a total of 3 scribes.
3. Each cradle may hold up to 5 minds. 2 Destinations, and up to 3 minds to enhance each of the 3 categories. Limited testing shows 1 mind to boost in each category makes astral travel for a Non-MM comparable to a Moon Mage doing it. In other words, making it work faster would require sacrifice in one department, such as concentration requirement.

Use

1. An Empath using the same guide will start struggling at exactly the same time whether or not she was holding any mana.
2. Some guides seem to be more difficult to use than others, as it is possible to mess up the arcane incantation while RAISEing the guide. This was comparing an NMU (with over 250 PM and 100 MD) against an Empath, however.
3. Using the astral guide seems to bypass the microcosm, taking a direct route.

Data Collection

Moon Mage with 300 PM 340 PP 300 MD 260 Astrology skill 210 ]concentration makes a guide for Taniendar (Haven) to Marendin (Shard). The guide has 2 sanity protection (Xibar), 1 force (Yavash), 0 speed (Katamba)

Guide is "The gestalt mind is sane and will maintain its sanity under any stress. It reacts to its environment at a modest pace and can manipulate its environment only with exhaustive effort."

The Yavash mind for force may have been an angry mind, however. (mood states seem to matter, happier the better).

This guide allowed an empath with 230 concentration to BARELY travel between both shards, losing 20 concentration per room until the last room, losing 30 concentration.

Notes

• Astral Guides typically have a minimum 7 charges depending on skill.

• The aging process of the Crystal Mind can be sped up by scribing the Celestial Sigil of the Shrew on it, though this can have consequences.

• The stages of Mind growth are:

1. 10 minutes - infantile
2. 1 hour - made of barely coherent energy
3. 1 day - made of chaotic impulses
4. 2 days - beginning to form simple patterns
5. 3 days - a series of repetitive patterns
6. 4 days - beginning to form complex patterns
7. 6 days - composed by the interplay of numerous psychic patterns
8. 8 days - beginning to bring disparate patterns together into a gestalt
9. 10 days - developing primal intelligence
10. 12 days - instinct-driven
11. 14 days - mimicing animal intelligence
12. 16 days - developing a sense of cunning
13. 18 days - mimicing higher-order animal intelligence
14. 20 days - testing the limits of its environment
15. 22 days - nearly sentient
16. 22+ days - sentient... but only for a little while*

• The Crystal Mind will only remain sentient for about 5 hours before becoming insane and useless.

• There MIGHT be some randomization to the timer in achieving sentient stage. When several minds were created and then used in a sequence, when the first one to be created became sentient, one of the latter ones was found to be insane.

• Astral Guide enchantments operate on a cooldown timer shared by Gwethsmashers. If you have made a Gwethsmasher within 30 days, you cannot make a Guide. If you make a Guide, you cannot make another for 30 days, or a Gwethsmasher for 15."Moon mage" is not in the list (None, Bard, Barbarian, Cleric, Empath, Moon Mage, Necromancer, Paladin, Ranger, Thief, ...) of allowed values for the "Guild association is" property.