Astrum

Astrum is known by many names in various languages. Mana, force, soul, energy, and power are all translations of common native words used to describe the most ubiquitous yet still rare and whimsical phenomenon throughout the Worlds. It is an abstraction for the phenomenon of magic; both its manifestation, and its potential.
Astrum can most easily be described as a charge, a potential energy to create a magical effect. It can be stored in people, as well as objects, or even in places, events, or moments in time or perhaps ideas and values. Many astrologers believe it exists in all living things, or perhaps in non-living things as well, or perhaps that it binds all things into reality.
Astrum has a source: conviction. It is the extreme belief, devotion, or reverence of many people that can charge a person or object with magical potential. A priest with a large following gains the magical ability to perform acts of healing, a sergeant with a loyal legion might gain enhanced strength in combat, or a tree that receives offerings and ritual prayer from a local clan might grow larger and bear more fruit. These acts all require conviction, and such strong belief is always tied to ritual and culture of the societies in which these events occur.

Astrum Throughout History

Astrology, the Eldest Magic

While the many Worlds each have strong differences in their locations, environments, and inhabitants; each has one thing in common, that the creatures living their can all look up at night and gaze upon an all but infinite starscape. For any sapient species, it is not unique to marvel at the beauty of the stars and contemplate their meaning in the skies, nor to reflect upon the inner self. Before most tribes or clans even formed languages, there was reverence for the stars. Patterns in these stellar orbs, constellations, while varied from culture to culture, would be seen and speculated upon. Stories are formed to explain them, and rituals, holidays, and prayers are made to honor them. As a focus of the devotion of creatures throughout the Worlds, stars and constellations build up a vast wealth of Astrum.
Then, as a source of Astrum, those who dedicate their life, minds, and energy to the constellations eventually learn to focus their inner Astrum and link it to that of the stars. These astrologers, in effect, learn to manifest magic. Their spells vary from culture to culture, but their genre of spellcasting is prevalent throughout the Worlds. Common themes include divination and the manipulation of luck or fortune, but by no means is magic derived from star ritual limited to these effects. The most wisened of these mages can even harness the power of Astronavigation, magic allowing for the creation and piloting of ships that sail the skies between the Worlds, connecting the cultures of various planets.

the Rising of Gods

It is the sincere belief in something that gives it Astrum, and the gods of the Worlds are no exception. Every god was once mortal, and any mortal can become a god if they acquire a devout enough following. In fact there is no difference in the magic wielded by gods and the magic wielded by a wizard or a shaman; it is all the flow of Astrum from one source to another, creating magical energy. Gods are just those who have acquired enough Astrum to be considered a source of it in their own right, and some scholars even claim that once astrum reaches a certain horizon, it truly becomes infinite.
Gods in the Worlds take many shapes and rarely would two or more be considered 'similar', although common themes and stories that occur throughout sapient societies and inspire their populations can lead to common themes amongst the gods, which often mold their domains. Take the military leader from the example above: a popular commander whose troops obey her orders not only out of civic duty, but out of reverence to her as a strong, noble leader. As this person rises in the ranks and more troops follow her command, her reputation of perhaps valor or justness toward her subordinates increases, charging her Astrum and thus she gains subtle magical prowess. The magic may be uncanny skill with a spear, physical strength greater than any foe, and the tales told of her battles continue the cycle of growing conviction. Soon she becomes a goddess of war in that culture.
Furthermore, the reverence that charges Astrum need not be positive. A strict, harsh, or tyrannical governmental leader might be revered out of fear. Her draconian rule could lead to prayer-like pleading to avoid her wrath in her populus, or she could demand "taxes" so extensive they function more as tithe and tribute, or she may even demand blood sacrifice. This too, sadly, increases her Astrum, and such a ruler would use her magic to incite further fear, further obedience, further worship, and soon she becomes a goddess of terror, death, or evil itself in that society.
The magical effects of deities manifest in ways related to their traits that garnered them such devout followings in the first place, and these attributes can become their divine "domain" over which their magic has control. A medicine-man or shaman might become a god of healing; a wise guru, skilled in martial arts and spiritual insight might become a god of inward-perfection; and so forth. Mortals that attain divinity in this way sometimes gain enough Astrum that their soul ascends reality, and their Astrum, their energy, their spirit (depending on the culture you ask) outlives their body. Over time their memory fades and their followership declines and those old gods lose their domains to new gods, but old tales, ancient tomes, and deserted ruins, upon discovery, can lead to a resurgence in their belief and their power can grow again with more worshippers.

Ritual, the Mana of Culture

Over millennia, as the constellations shift and gods rise and fall, the daily life of the average citizen in a given society bustles about, sometimes unconcerned with gods and stars and more concerned with their next meal or surviving the cold and darkness of night. The drudgery of a benign, survivalist existence is persistent; as much as the stars themselves, and while tales and stories of gods live on, they are subject to the ebbing memory of those civilizations that outlive them. Holidays gain new meaning, customs like a hymn or a pre-meal prayer, and most of all codes of ethics from gods, governments, philosophers, wisemen, and elders shift with generation after generation of interpretation and adjustment, all to meet the needs of the society that perpetuates them.
Such elements of culture; a sacred site, a certain recipe, a bedtime fairy tale; all can store, charge, and guide the flow of Astrum. Cultural traditions are perhaps the most common source of magic, "folk magic" if you will, in the Worlds. They attend to the needs of daily life; the sturdiness of a woodsman's axe , a true shot of a hunter's arrow, the healing properties of a mother's kiss on a child's wound, large or small; such is the magic of the common people. While not as fantastical, flashy, or complex as higher magic from stronger wells of Astrum, these incantations are the backbone of magic itself, the source of whimsical fancy that allows the act of devotion or the spirit of conviction to allow for the charge of magical energy at all.
An example of such magic could be as follows: centuries ago some deity decides full moons are a special time in the world, and the deity, having so much Astrum in themselves, with their conviction manifests Astrum in the idea itself of a night with a full moon. Over time the deity is forgotten, their doctrine devolves into fairy tale, and whatever significance they attributed to full moons is lost to the lore of scrolls bound to abandoned attics and sunken vessels and dead languages. However, those memories live on in the descendants of the people, and the same fairy tales of full moon nights, the full moon harvest festivals, and the special, tasty full moon candies grandmothers throughout the land bake only once a year, all these inspire whimsicalness and, of course, conviction. Full moons feel magical, even if no one knows why, because it's part of their culture.
So one might lock themselves in their abode, a temple, or a tower, and determine themselves to uncover the spirit of the full moon, and focus their inner Astrum toward the Astrum of that special night. This neophyte wizard meditates every full moon, and incorporates other rituals from their culture, and eventually hone enough Astrum to gain their own magical prowess and become a spellcaster.
The manifestations of ritual magic are as varied as the many societies and cultures throughout the Worlds, and a traveller is not limited to the Astrum of their own culture alone. Witnessing the conviction of another sapient species or individual is enough to inspire conviction in the observer, and their belief, so long as it is sincere enough, allows them access to the Astrum of another civilization and its magics.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane