Astral Space

The search for a reason behind magic’s existence and the Awakening led to the discovery of the astral plane. This plane is a sort of magical shadow of the material world, where unliving things are insubstantial and pale, no more real than fog, while the living shine with energy. Here is where many spirits live, some watching metahumanity and feeding off the emotions that are on display while others ignore everything around them as they pursue unknowable tasks. Some people get their first glimpse of the astral and simply go mad, collapsing into paranoia and terror. Even the gifted are not always able to under- stand what they see, or prepared to accept it. Over decades of research, the leading theories are that living things generate magical energy just by existing, with plants creating less than animals, which in turn generate less than metahumans, which slowly fills the “astral atmosphere” with raw magical energy. The astral plane and the material world are not always aligned; there were thou- sands of years between the previous era of magic and the Awakening. Before the planes aligned, magical energy could go from Earth into the astral realm, not the other way. Since the Awakening, those who have the gift of magic can reverse the flow, drawing energy from the astral and shaping it into a variety of magical effects. Some do this by unknowing instinct (adepts), while others require focus and concentration (magicians). Even today, the two planes are not fully aligned; some areas have an “astral shallow” that allows magical energies and creatures to more easily move from one side to the other, while other areas have a “thicker” barrier, making it more difficult to draw forth energies.