Astrology
Arcane philosophers learn the art of forecasting future events by charting the motions of celestial objects and the ripples in the Ar left in their wake. Both Mages of the Collegium Arcanum and the Xianese students of Wu Jiao begin play with knowledge of Astrologia, as it is part of their formal studies. While Sorcerers and Warlocks do not begin with such knowledge, they can acquire it through training.
The complex calculations required to correctly deduce the perturbations in the flow of the Ar caused by celestial phenomena require a great deal of time and concentration, as such a magic-user may only cast one horoscope per week of game time, and only one prediction can be deduced during the creation of a particular astrological chart.
The chance to correctly interpret a horoscope depends greatly on the scope and specificity of inquiry and the length of time into the future that is being predicted; that is, it is much easier to trace the flow of Ar to predict the fate of an entire nation over a long period of time than to predict the fate of an individual in the near present. The chance of a successful interpretation is given in the table below. Each point in the Astrology skill adds +1 to the character's roll, as well as the character's INT bonus.
To craft a horoscope, an astrologer needs one piece of parchment, a quill, and one vial of ink (each vial has enough ink for 10 pages).
Manifestation
Astrologers are able to see the lines of Ar that connect the celestial bodies to one another. In order to do this, they concentrate on a particular question concerning future events while performing the meta-mathematical calculations needed to formulate the horoscope. If successful, an astrologer will gain insight into the future through a symbolic representation of what will happen that is visualize while in deep concentration. The more accurate the horoscope, the more cryptic the symbols will be. On an unsuccessful casting of a horoscope, the astrologer will be aware that his or her prediction was unsuccessful by noticing the symbols being too hazy and vague to be of any use.
