The Movement of the Cosmos
By Gaston Saury
This tome contains a lengthy exposition on common astrological beliefs in post-Interregnum Komaru. Despite the author's obvious attempt to produce the ultimate rational text on Komaran astrology, the work frequently bogs down in mystical speculation. Nevertheless, such passages are still much more interesting than the turgid mathematical descriptions of Saury's model of the Cosmos itself.
Possession of this tome is worth **** Research Point per session. If delivered to the Church, this tome is worth **** Church Prestige Point.
While various and sundry astrologers have lent their lives to assessing the current order of the Cosmos, most such efforts fall into the stagnant and untrustworthy field of mystical pseudoscience. Thus, when I was approached by the noble Twilight Crux with a request to properly describe the state of the Cosmos as a whole, at first I was wary. It would not do, of course, to merely duplicate the chaff-like work of those who essayed the field before, and I was chary of accepting the commission were it only intended to reproduce the swinish efforts of others. However, after an extensive conversation with the Twilight Crux preceptry, I determined that the order desired not mystical claptrap, but a detailed and accurate account of the true Cosmic nature. As such, I was only too willing to oblige the lodge in its efforts.
As a scholastic text, this treatise could not have been committed without the assistance of the following actual scholars of the astrological science...
...
A proper scholastic treatment of the Cosmos begins with a description of the Four Bodies. These bodies, as is apparent to any child weaned of its mother's milk, are the Sun, the Galaxy, Damien, and Lucien. In addition, a number of ancillary heavenly bodies exist as well, including clouds, auroras, comets, and other transitory phenomena. However, by their very nature, such phenomena cannot be considered essential elements of the Cosmos, in that they are neither permanent nor constant in their positions. Finally, the Wandering Stars are of particular interest in this day and age, and as such will be the subject of the latter portion of this treatise.
...
As bodies, the denizens of the Cosmos can be classified into the following diagram:
| Emits Light | Reflects Light | |
| Visible at Night | The Galaxy | Lucien |
| Visible in Day | The Sun | Damien |
Thus, it can be seen that the Galaxy and Damien are, by their very nature, opposed forces, as are Lucien and the Sun.
...
Foremost in the minds of most students of the heavens is the Sun itself. The Sun is a blinding bright source of light visible during the day. The Sun itself has two periods of change. First, it revolves around Mourn once each day, generating day and night. Second, it rises and falls around Mourn with a period of 400 days, generating the seasons in its passage.
...
At night, Lucien is the most visible element of the sky, a shining white mirror that waxes and wanes on a period of 16 days while circling the sky once per day. Lucien's constant pattern of change divides the solar year into 25 16-day moon periods, generally known as months. Most denizens of Mourn further break the months down into 8-day weeks, for convenience of scheduling.
...
The Galaxy is Lucien's companion at night. A broad swath of bright lights, the Galaxy drifts across the sky at an extremely slow rate. Many astrologers believe the Galaxy's motions to be periodic as well, but most records of the Galactic observations have suffered at the hands of the Church. I estimate that the Galaxy rises and falls around a central equator with a period of two hundred to three hundred solar years.
...
Finally, the dark moon Damien is one of the most visible objects in the daytime sky, as a black spot that obscures the sky's natural color. Like its sister moon Lucien, Damien waxes and wanes over time while it circles Mourn. However, Damien's period of 512 days is only betrayed by minor physical changes on its surface, generally not visible to the naked eye. As well, Damien's circumnavigation of the sky takes the entirety of its period. Many foolish superstitions concern deeds doomed to failure while Damien hangs in the sky.
...
Far more interesting are the Wandering Stars. This phenomenon, not observed since before Paraceln's Dream, occurs when certain stars begin changing their position with respect to other visible stars. These Wandering Stars are said to presage the coming of the End Times. I have noticed an increased surge of activity in the Wandering Stars since the Interregnum. Whatever plan causes these stars to shift in their places seems to be coming to fruition.
...
I first observed the Wandering Stars enter motion in the year 205, when a small degree of unexpected shifting occurred in the position of Achariel. Over the past several years, additional shifts have occurred of varying degrees. Achariel, in particular, seems most prone to behavioral shifts. However, far more significant than changes in Achariel's orbit are the changes in the position of the Celestial Locus.
The Celestial Locus's position is the astronomical location where the Sun, Damien, and Lucien intersect with each other while on the path of the Galaxy. Prior to 204, the four heavenly bodies did not orbit to intersect at any single location. However, since that year the paths charted by the celestial bodies have shifted dramatically, tracking through several constellations in a number of patterns not recorded in centuries.
...
Many astrologers have devoted countless hours to tracking and attempting to predict these shifts. It is believed that in ancient times, the constellation knows as the Weaving Woman, Neith, was the locus constellation for many years. The superstitious ancients furthermore devoted a cult to the constellation, claiming that it was their ordained duty to insure that the heavenly bodies remained at the locus position within Neith. To do this, they initiated two kinds of priestesses. The first, the followers of Neith, were said to first be initiates of the Shield of the North or Shousei, the Hunter Veiled in Ice. With the aid of a priestess of Urania (a mystery cult linked to the worship of the stars; the collegium in the capital still contains statues of this Lady of the Shining Path) who was as well an initiate of Neith, and had been for more than a year, the would-be initiate could complete the Ordeal of Neith.
...
When the locus strayed from Neith, other priestesses of Urania could be used. These second types of initiation required that the priestess of Urania had held her position for at least a solar year, and that the "Stars Themselves Be Bound In Place" for a solar year. However, while priestesses of Urania dedicated to Neith were considered sacred, the cult considered priestesses of Urania who were not of Neith's affiliation to be profane. Many cult records detail how the cult would torture and kill them after using them for initiations. Fortunately, all traces of this vile cult were destroyed by the Church of Inner Light after Paraceln's Vision, one of the Church's few positive contributions to society.
...
Like many cults, the Neith cult offered a number of prayers to the Cosmos, believing that these prayers provided them with supernatural powers. Each prayers was generally addressed to a specific element of the sky, such as the heavenly bodies or a more abstract presence in the sky. Damien, in particular, seems to have been the subject of many prayers: Blade of the Void, Flow of Shadows, and Voidwalker were all names of prayers to the Void.
...
Lucien attracted its own prayers, however: Chains of Glass was one such entreaty of the Mirror.
...
Peculiarly, some cults simply addressed their prayers to the abstract Light. The Torn Mask, Sense the Cosmos, and Vision of Light were all supplications of the Light. Darkness also held its own supplications, although only one has reached my eye: Mysteries of Ink is said to be the means by which many ancient astrologers masked their writings in mystical code.