Excerpts from the Writings of Master Scholar Aberran

“The Stars of Power are artifacts alleged to have fueled the Great Mechanisms of ancient times, enabling the grand magics that once permeated Rolara’s advanced civilizations. These relics, shrouded in mystery and legend, are said to have been the very essence that allowed societies to achieve feats now thought impossible.”

“According to tales brought by traveling merchants to Tatharia, the largest mountain at the center of the continent is the place where the lights of those ancient Great Mechanisms converged, bathing the lands in the legendary Golden Light. Many cultures, each in their own tongue, refer to this peak as Mount Origin: the source of all things. The convergence of these legends suggests a shared memory of a time when magic was unbound and omnipresent.”

“Another, perhaps older, legend reached me from across the seas. It is said that in distant lands, there are people who defied the ancients and retained their access to magic through various means. I have been fortunate enough to witness some extraordinary abilities firsthand. In fact, once I observed…”

[Here, Aberran’s notes abruptly end. The continuation was later discovered on a scroll tucked away in a humble picnic basket.]

“Regardless, the Stars of Power correspond to each of the seven ‘Schools of Magic’ that were sealed long ago. Seven Great Chiefs of seven Great Tribes willingly, though not without hesitation, worked to seal away the magic that had been woven into their lives and societies. This was no light decision; they feared the insatiable greed of humanoid rulers and sought to prevent catastrophic wars. The horrors that magic could unleash might well match the miracles it could bestow.”

“The legend speaks of an Eighth Great Chief, a trickster, who convinced the others that his magic alone should remain in the world, a gift of consolation for the pitiful people of future generations. His magic was the Art of Life and Death: Necromancy. If my conjectures prove true, this Art is the source of many so-called miracles performed by religious cults throughout the world. Though I lack definitive proof, I am certain of this connection. Unfortunately, or perhaps by the design of this Eighth Chief or the enigmatic mystery cult of the Old God for whom no true name exists, while miracles of healing and restoration are indeed impressive, the horror of the undead truly…”

[At this point, the scholar’s writings diverge into detailed sketches of a new design for a hat equipped with pockets. Judging by the annotations and numerous cross-outs, it appears he was not satisfied with the end result.]

(From the collected writings of the Master Scholar, Aberran)

Overview

The Stars of Power are nine celestial artifacts of immense arcane potency, forged during or before the Age of Wonders and integral to the grand civilizations that once dominated Rolara. Seven of these Stars correspond to the seven sealed Schools of Magic: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, and Transmutation, while the remaining two are unaccounted for in mainstream scholarship. Necromancy, the eighth school, was never bound to any Star.

During the Age of Wonders, the seven known Stars powered the Great Mechanisms: vast constructs that automated cities, extended lifespans, eradicated disease, and connected civilizations across continents. Their eventual sealing, the Extinguishment, plunged Rolara into a Dark Age lasting roughly 1,500 years. Their recovery and reactivation, the Reignition, restored Magic to the world and ushered in the current era.

Legends of Origin

The Stars’ origins remain a matter of cultural and scholarly dispute. No single account is accepted universally, and several traditions contradict one another on fundamental questions: whether the Stars were crafted, bestowed, or are fragments of a shattered god.

Alessandra’s Celestial Gift

One widespread legend holds that Alessandra, a revered sorceress or celestial being (accounts vary), descended from the heavens to bestow the Stars upon the mortal realm. In this telling, the Stars are divine gifts, symbols of higher powers’ benevolence toward Rolara’s inhabitants.

Banor’s Craftsmanship at Mount Origin

An alternative tradition, prominent among certain Elven cultures, credits Banor, a deity whose domains include Magic itself, with crafting the Stars in seclusion within the cavernous depths of Mount Origin. According to this account, Banor utilized the remnants of his mother, The Mythekah, to forge the artifacts. The creation myth in The Birth of Rolara and the Old Gods supports this framework: when The Mythekah was shattered, her fragments formed the heavens, hell, and the Stars of Power: the foundation of all magic.

The Shards of Vishravas

The people of Videha offer a radically different cosmology. In their tradition, the deity Vishravas shattered himself in an act of cosmic creation, splitting into twenty-seven shards distributed across three realms: nine to the Deva Realm (the heavens), nine to the Hell Realms, and nine to the Mortal Realm. These last nine are the Stars of Power.

This account is significant for two reasons. First, it is the only tradition that correctly identifies the total number of Stars as nine rather than seven, a detail that mainstream Tatharian scholarship has historically overlooked. Second, the Videhan practice of Shard Meditation, which channels the Stars’ residual energy, suggests an ongoing spiritual relationship with the artifacts that other cultures lack. The Videhan concept of the “Great Reunion,” a quest to reassemble Vishravas and restore cosmic balance, also raises provocative questions about the ultimate fate of the Stars following the Reignition.

The Porta Ultima Inscription

The most concrete historical evidence is a stone inscription near the Porta Ultima in Moredge, carved in Elvish. It explicitly states that the portal was powered by the Star of Conjuration during the Elves of Moredge’s initial ventures into the Planes. Notably, the inscription says nothing about where the Stars came from, whether discovered or created, leaving a tantalizing gap in the record.

The Seven Stars and Their Civilizations

Each of the seven known Stars was bound to a specific School of Magic and adopted by a dominant civilization of the Age of Wonders. The relationship between Star and civilization was symbiotic: the Star shaped the culture’s strengths, and the culture’s ambitions determined how the Star was employed.

Star of Divination: Humans of the Central Mountains

The Humans of the Central Mountains adapted the Star of Divination into an Orb of Unlimited Precognition and Insight, granting unparalleled foresight. This capacity for strategic planning allowed their population to flourish and spread across the globe, establishing societies characterized by sophisticated governance, scientific exploration, and cultural prosperity. The Pedestal, now hidden in Palm Harbor under Tatharian guard, is believed to be the surviving mechanism through which that Star was channeled.

Star of Transmutation: Gnomes of the Far East

The Gnomes of the Far East wielded the Star of Transmutation to manipulate matter and energy with extraordinary precision. Their greatest achievements included the Warforged, sentient constructs designed for labor and defense, and the Autognomes, autonomous devices that performed complex tasks with minimal oversight. The Warforged were poured from the Demon Forge, the labyrinthine mechanism the Gui Gnomes raised in the caverns of Iamea and the best preserved of the Great Mechanisms. The Extinguishment struck the Gnomes with particular cruelty: without the Star’s sustaining energy, many of their constructs simply ceased to function, and the Forge itself grew cold.

Star of Abjuration: Dwarves, the Elder Race

The Dwarves employed the Star of Abjuration to construct impenetrable citadels above and below the surface: fortresses that endured long after the Extinguishment. Their inherent cultural emphasis on resilience, self-sufficiency, and metallurgical expertise meant they were the civilization best equipped to survive without the Stars. The Dwarves weathered the Dark Age with relative stability, though they warred jealously among themselves until the Last War.

Star of Evocation: Dragonborn of Aikibira

The Dragonborn of Aikibira harnessed the Star of Evocation, which cast a fiery orange glow from their island continent. They used it to develop advanced weaponry, which they generously shared with the broader populace of Rolara. This benevolence attracted envy and hostility: a devastating attack nearly obliterated their civilization, and with the Extinguishment, the Dragons themselves gradually vanished from the world.

Star of Enchantment: Elves of the South

The Elves of the South ruled the region now known as the Vast Desert, using the Star of Enchantment to create flying cities and imbue their villages with awe-inspiring magic. Their society was marked by joy, artistry, and deep appreciation for the arcane. When the Elven Lords mysteriously disappeared before the Extinguishment, the loss of the Star’s sustaining power proved catastrophic: trees withered, rocks crumbled, winds ground everything to dust, transforming a vibrant land into desolation.

Star of Illusion: Elves of the Veiled Woods

The Elves of the Veiled Woods relied on the Star of Illusion to craft intricate underground hideaways, concealing their existence from the surface world. When the Star was stolen by unknown forces, the Veiled Elves retaliated by destroying the Grand Elevator, the monumental structure connecting their subterranean realms to the surface. This severed the Deep Dark from the world above for over a millennium.

Star of Conjuration: Elves of Moredge

The Star of Conjuration powered the Porta Ultima, enabling the Elves of Moredge to venture into the Planes. The Porta Ultima inscription remains the only hard historical evidence directly linking a specific Star to a specific function, making it invaluable to scholars studying the Age of Wonders.

The Surviving Great Mechanisms

Four of the Great Mechanisms are documented well enough to carry articles of their own, and each is tagged great-mechanism. The Demon Forge of the Gui Gnomes (Transmutation) and the Pedestal of Palm Harbor (Divination) are catalogued among the artifacts. The Porta Ultima at Moredge (Conjuration) and the Grand Elevator beneath Tolbridg (Illusion) are catalogued as technologies, being fixed infrastructure rather than portable relics. The mechanisms of Abjuration, Evocation, and Enchantment are known only from the achievements attributed to them.

The Ancient Jiao: A Notable Exception

The Ancient Jiao were a Human culture that advanced without direct reliance on the Stars of Power. They developed alternative methods rooted in natural magic and innovative craftsmanship, achieving significant progress in agriculture, architecture, and societal organization through ingenuity alone. Their example demonstrates that the Stars, however transformative, were not the sole path to civilization.

The Two Unaccounted Stars

Mainstream scholarship recognizes seven Stars of Power, one per sealed School of Magic. The Videhan cosmology, however, holds that nine shards of Vishravas fell into the Mortal Realm. If this tradition is accurate, and its correct count of nine lends it considerable credibility, then two Stars remain unaccounted for in the historical record.

No surviving text names these Stars or identifies their corresponding disciplines, if any. Several possibilities have been proposed by scholars: that they were hidden or destroyed before the Age of Wonders reached its zenith, that they correspond to magical traditions outside the recognized eight schools, or that they remain buried in locations not yet rediscovered. The silence of the historical record on this point is itself remarkable: seven Stars shaped entire civilizations, yet two left no discernible trace.

The existence of these missing Stars has implications for the Reignition as well. If only seven Stars were recovered and reactivated, two remain dormant or lost somewhere in Rolara: artifacts of immense power waiting to be found.

Necromancy and the Trickster Deity

The Eighth Great Chief

When the Seven Great Chiefs convened to seal the Stars of Power, an eighth figure stood among them: a trickster deity whose true name has been lost to time. Modern scholarship tentatively calls him Akkad, drawing on fragmented inscriptions and oral traditions preserved by the last remnants of the Labyrinthine.

Unlike the other Chiefs, Akkad argued that one school of magic should remain in the world: Necromancy, the Art of Life and Death. His motives were rooted in his nature as a trickster and in a philosophical conviction that the boundary between life and death was too fundamental to sever entirely. Through cunning and manipulation, he convinced the others to spare his domain, not by preserving a Star (Necromancy was never bound to one) but by embedding arcane loopholes within the sealing rituals themselves. The result was that necromantic energies persisted clandestinely even as the other seven schools went dormant.

A Curse and a Gift

Akkad’s intervention left Rolara with a paradox. On one hand, entire regions fell under the curse of undeath: lands where the dead rise each night, perpetuating cycles of terror. On the other hand, practitioners of necromantic healing could mend grievous wounds, cure diseases, and in rare cases restore the dead to life without the taint of undeath. These “minor miracles” sustained communities through the Dark Age and kept the thread of magic alive in a world that had otherwise lost it.

Whether Akkad’s act was punishment or mercy depends on whom you ask. Scholars who emphasize the horrors of the Accursed Lands view him as a saboteur who condemned millions to suffering. Those who note that his preserved magic eventually enabled the Reignition see him as the unlikely savior of Rolara’s arcane heritage. Both readings are probably correct: Akkad’s trickster nature resists tidy categorization.

The Extinguishment

The Decision to Seal

The Age of Wonders was not without shadow. As civilizations pushed the boundaries of what magic and technology could achieve together, the same Stars that powered cities and extended lifespans became instruments of escalating conflict. Arcane weapons proliferated. Elemental disasters, triggered by reckless experimentation, devastated entire regions. The Great Chiefs recognized that unchecked magical arms races would culminate in a war capable of annihilating every civilization on the continent.

In a historic assembly known as the Council of Sealing, the Seven Great Chiefs agreed to seal the Stars of Power. The decision was neither unanimous in spirit nor made without grief: each Chief represented a civilization whose identity was inseparable from its Star. But the alternative was worse. The sealing rituals were conducted at sacred sites across Rolara, binding each Star and establishing protocols to prevent their recovery by any single faction.

Consequences

The Extinguishment was catastrophic. The Great Mechanisms ceased to function, collapsing infrastructure across the globe. Civilizations that had woven magic into every aspect of daily life found themselves unable to maintain their societies. The Dragons vanished. Abandoned cities became haunts for monsters and rogue constructs. Environmental upheavals (extreme weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions) reshaped the geography of Rolara, rendering old maps obsolete.

Not all civilizations fell equally. The Dwarves, whose Star of Abjuration had built enduring physical fortifications and whose culture prized self-sufficiency, weathered the transition better than most. The Elves of the South, whose enchantments had sustained their very landscape, suffered total ecological collapse. The Gnomes lost their Warforged and Autognomes in a single stroke. The disparities in survival reflected how deeply each civilization had allowed a single magical source to become load-bearing.

The Dark Age

The period following the Extinguishment, roughly 1,500 years, is known as the Dark Age. Magic as a systematic practice effectively ceased. Knowledge was lost, institutions crumbled, and the populations of most species declined sharply.

The only magic that persisted was Akkad's necromantic remnant: enough to sustain healers and miracle-workers, but also enough to populate the Accursed Lands with undead. Secret societies emerged to steward this dangerous knowledge, most notably the Necromantic Society, whose true name and origins remain obscured. In isolated pockets, other minor magical practices survived: residual energy from the Great Mechanisms, or the efforts of practitioners who hoarded arcane knowledge against all odds. These fragments, thin as they were, would eventually provide the foundation for restoration.

The Reignition

Aberran’s Quest

In the waning years of the Dark Age, Master Scholar Aberran emerged as the pivotal figure in the effort to restore magic. His initial motivation was personal: his mentor, Lugal Icaghor of Tatharia, an adventurer who had surpassed 1,400 years of life through Potions of Longevity sourced from the Dragonborn of Aikibira, faced the depletion of his reserves. Aberran set out to find the Stars of Power and recover the magic of longevity.

His research was meticulous and interdisciplinary, merging the study of ancient texts with field expeditions to locations long deemed inaccessible. His compiled notes laid the groundwork for the expedition that would change the world.

The Expedition to Three Falls

Aberran organized an expedition to Three Falls, a region at the confluence of three major rivers, believed to be the resting place of several Stars. The team (scholars, adventurers, and arcane practitioners) navigated treacherous terrain shaped by centuries of post-Extinguishment upheaval. At the site’s core, they successfully recovered multiple Stars of Power. The artifacts, still imbued with residual energy, began to reactivate.

The Reignition that followed ended the Dark Age. The seven traditional Schools of Magic revitalized. Practitioners found their abilities restored and enhanced. Civilizations began to rebuild. Magical creatures, including Dragons, reappeared. Near Three Falls, Mythek Vortices manifested in the wake of the restored arcane energies: phenomena that scholars continue to study.

Aberran’s Legacy

Aberran died believing he had failed Icaghor, unaware of the monumental impact his work would have. His notes were published posthumously by his protégé, Daren Tor, and became foundational texts for the new era of magical scholarship. Icaghor, learning of Aberran’s death shortly before his own passing, recognized that his student had changed the world. Their intertwined destinies, the mentor who inspired the quest and the scholar who fulfilled it without knowing, remain one of the most poignant episodes in Rolara’s recorded history.

Open Questions

Several mysteries surrounding the Stars of Power remain unresolved:

  • The Two Missing Stars. If the Videhan count of nine is correct, two Stars have never been identified, named, or associated with any known civilization. Where are they? What do they govern?
  • The Great Reunion. The Videhan quest to reassemble Vishravas from all twenty-seven shards implies that the Reignition, however transformative, is incomplete. What would the full restoration of Vishravas mean for Rolara?
  • Akkad’s Current Status. The trickster deity faded into obscurity after the Extinguishment. Has the Reignition restored his influence? Does he have designs on the recovered Stars?
  • The Porta Ultima Gap. The only hard historical evidence about the Stars, the Moredge inscription, says nothing about their origins. The silence of the Elves on this point is conspicuous.

Type: Metaphysical Rarity: Unique (9)