Astral travel

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Astral Travel is an ability that allows Moon Mages to enter and navigate the Astral Plane, allowing them to bridge massive distances on the Plane of Abiding in almost no time. The ability is dangerous and often fatal and was only recently made possible by the invention of the Naming Ritual, which is used on Grazhir shards to imprint them with a magical pattern of its name which allows a mage to use it as an anchor.

Basics

A mage may enter the Astral Plane by FOCUSing on a named Grazhir shard. Assuming they have memorized the pattern of its name, they will establish a link to it by doing this and the Plane can then be entered by casting Moongate or Teleport on the shard. This places them at the end of that shard's conduit. Mana must be harnessed at this point to continue navigation safely, and Moongate is preferred as a method of entrance for this reason despite being slightly more difficult as it allows a mage to keep mana harnessed prior to entering.

At this point, the goal is to navigate to the center of the Astral Plane, where a mage can move into the conduit of their choice from the appropriate pillar. This is done by using PERCEIVE in each room, and following the given directions to the center of the microcosm. Once the pillars are reached, a mage must move to the pillar that is associated with the destination shard. At that pillar, they must FOCUS on that shard's name to move into that conduit and repeat the process of perceiving in each room to reach the end of the conduit. The process used to enter the Astral Plane must be repeated at the shard at the end of the conduit.

Its important to note that not all shards are created equal. The pattern of some shards is harder to memorize then others, being a factor of Scholarship skill, Astrology skill, and Arcana skill. The easiest shards to memorize, from easiest to hardest, seems to be the one in Leth Deriel, Throne City, Theren, Riverhaven, Lesser Fist, Crossing, Shard, Taisgath. The one in Muspar'i fits somewhere in this list, as well, probably around the one in Haven's difficulty .

Travel Factors

Two primary factors determine a mage's success at astral travel: Concentration and Power Perception. Concentration determines how long a mage can stay alive until their body is incinerated by a stream of Lunar mana, which is deadly as fire to the touch in the Astral Plane. Power Perception determines how fast you can move and how accurate the directions you perceive will be. There is a little cross over between these two factors.

Harnessing more mana directly compensates for having less concentration and allows a mage to remain in the Astral Plane longer as well as influences their perceive times. There is no mana cap on this, which means on the lower end of astral travel a mage should harness as much as they can manage even if it causes mild nerve damage. The caveat is that the hits to concentration grow exponentially, which means there will be a point at which the system will tell you that you cannot hold any more mana (the current cap on held mana being 999) and the hits to concentration will continue to grow until death occurs.

Power Perception accomplishes two things: First, it lowers the roundtime on perceiving, which allows a mage to move faster, which means they will be spending less time in the Astral Plane and ultimately need to hold less mana to travel successfully. Secondly, it increases the accuracy of the direction a mage sees. Just as bottoming out on concentration means a messy death, going the wrong direction too many times will land a mage in the Grey Expanse, which is a woundless and slower but no less deadly failure. More mana will also lower roundtimes and quite probably increases the accuracy of the directions seen.

Another major factor of successful astral travel is the actual condition of the Astral Plane when a mage enters. This is seen when a mage focuses on the shard. The more distant and weak the mana is, the harder it will be to navigate, and the more skill and mana will be needed to compensate; the difference in roundtimes between the ideal conditions and bad conditions can be 2-3 seconds per perceive. While it doesn't sound like much it can be the difference between dying and not dying if on the edge of being able to pull off a trip. Another thing to watch for is a message that the mana in the plane ripples and settles into new patterns. That means the paths have changed, and a mage will need to re-perceive to find the right direction. This is important to avoid expansing. The frequency of this is greatly influenced by how many people are using the plane; astral pathways in the Platinum instance of the game can stay the same for days at a time because no one ever uses it. A mage can tell if someone is inside at the moment if the FOCUS of the shard says the mana is suffering from minor disruptions.

While in the plane, movement difficulty is important. Effortlessly is ideal and should be aimed for at all times. If a mage drops to carefully maintaining their position, they can respond by trying to harness more mana until they hit effortlessly again. If a mage is struggling to maintain and not at the shard and in the middle of focusing on it, chances are death will follow in a few seconds.

Random Events

The Plane is home to many different denizens, some benevolent but most hostile. These random events are rare but can help, hinder, or even kill a mage. The most well-known of these is Pelag ai Aldam, a pale red-haired apparition that will move a mage instantly into the Grey Expanse, where death is almost certain to follow.

Also See

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