A brief summary on the primary astral forces contained within the universe

(partial rewrite on my more in depth analysis of astral energies from ‘Discerning the Similarities and Distinctions’.)

Introduction

When we look up to the sky we see a grander scene than can be understood. Whether day or night you observe the blue sky stretching to the horizon or the abyss of night. However, the background alone contains an incomprehensible quantity of detail and fascination, let alone the objects populating it. We notice clouds covering the stretches of blue, and on most days you recognize the object quite decidedly responsible for life on your planet.

A common celestial body, one called a star. Without the heat provided by such a body the facilitation of life is nearly impossible, although there are some situations where fire element Qi makes up for the deficiency. Alas the life forms created through such powerful forces grow in a flawed state.

Astral energies are the best for creating life.

When a mortal glances up, whether on the clean day or murky night, they take in some wonders unbeknownst to them. Can the being without any knowledge of photons, fusion, and gravity understand how the blazing ball hung above their heads function?

Even on developed worlds, how many understand the processes contained within their star?

The science is just one side of its universal truths, as the silent interactions of Qi are hidden within. We’ll start this session as you would a standard day, with the rising sun.

The sun as you know it

When compared to every other star in the universe, your star, the sun, is significantly closer. This is the most significant point in understanding the primary dynamics between astral forces on your planet. You will notice that starlight quickly dwindles at a reciprocal rate during this, inevitably reducing to nothing as the sun finishes its rising portion. At this stage the quantity of solar energy will continue to grow, until the star reaches its azimuth, relative to you, before lowering in an identical fashion.

Obviously expect some changes if you live on a world which rotates on an axis, in other words having seasons. I’m not here to discuss meteorological precise-ness.

First we will take a look at the Qi within these first few minutes, then the rest of the sunrise.

Before the star completely rises above the horizon we encounter a somewhat desirable mixed Qi. Only in this proportion is the solar energy gentle enough to combine with starlight to produce the ‘Momentary Tranquillity’ Qi. This variant of Qi is most prized for its insanely inert nature, capable of resisting nearly all corruptions and metamorphoses. However, this inert state also makes cultivating with it near impossible.

Out of boredom, quite a few centuries ago, a friend of mine developed a cultivation system based around this energy as a joke. He used a clone to barely cultivate it to Law questioning with the support of his main body. Needless to say it is practically impossible for anyone to naturally reach spirit forming with such an energy, and he made sure to destroy every copy made for insurance. No one deserved such a ruined life for cultivating this harsh technique.

Moving on, this energy’s inert state makes it amazing in alchemical recipes where an external spiritual pressure is required but you cannot risk contaminating the ingredients. It’s also utilised in a few extremely specific recipes and experiments, but for the most part you use it for defence. Coating your body in it will stop you from using any Qi externally, but any pure energy attacks below a threshold simply become invalidated!

Yes, I know that it’s literally useless in battle… Would it kill some people to take a joke?

After these first few minutes we get into the bulk of a sunrise and arguably the most important part. The creation of gentle solar Qi.

Gentle solar Qi falls into two brackets, ‘Nuanced Major’ and ‘Acute minor’, the names could be less confusing in my opinion but I’m an alchemist who makes similarly confusing names… So screw it.

Nuanced major, as the name implies, is the more common type of Qi created during this period, but it’s also the one you will absorb if attempted. In many lesser worlds this sort is called ‘Emperor Qi’ or something of the like due to the purple sunrise which commonly adjoins it. Humans really have a knack for making purple a royal colour for no good reason. It’s one of the best types of Qi to help children set a foundation, however using it to create spirits is a massive mistake that thousands of lesser worlds make.

Nuanced major is a gentle force, and as such lacks serious harshness. One can compare it to a flow of water, in this case imagine it as a constant river. This river is excellent at slowly grinding away at objects, quite literally how it eventually cuts valleys. This means that foundation techniques which clear the meridians will utilise this energy, although most are crude and result in overbearing masses of pain for the child.

That is because all these crude methods simply ignore gentle flow and try to utilise Nuanced major Qi in a harsh way. This can be related to simply dropping the river off a cliff as to dig a pit, which we colloquially call a waterfall. Do you think this method is safe for a child’s meridian network?

Using Nuanced major Qi properly takes roughly 3 years of constant work (Assuming 2 hours of work every sunrise). It is unlikely that any child remains dedicated to such a slow task, which is why those crude methods even come about. Concerned readers should know that more developed worlds have alchemical products or outright better techniques to achieve the same thing.

Next we have Acute minor Qi, the almost invisible force. Toughness in absorption is primarily why most lesser worlds fail to discover it until higher cultivation levels. If the Nuanced major sat in your star’s violet light, then Acute minor is firmly within the realm of ultraviolet rays. An easy way to test for this Qi’s existence is measuring the difference in spirituality before and after it emits a day’s worth of Nuanced major Qi. You will notice an energy gap, then it just becomes a matter of detecting this missing part.

Acute minor Qi is completely competent as a primary element for your cultivation, however it requires a limitingly high sensitivity to gentle solar Qi to even begin usage. All detection methods for this type require cultivation as well, so only the rare talent can use this.

This gentle solar Qi is more akin to a jet of water expelled by a water jet cutter. Specifically, its pressure is purely in the direction of flow, therefore being unable to blow up meridian networks. The problem comes with the fact that these networks are never straight lines, so the massive pressure will impact any bend or turn. This type of gentle solar Qi is difficult to control under pressure but easy beside that.

In terms of precision, this type is definitely up there with the severely volatile energies. Using even a slight excessive quantity will result in your meridian pathways tearing.

And that concludes the sunrises and sunsets. The latter happens in reverse in case you forgot the difference between the two. Now for the bulk of the day.

The star emits Greater solar Qi during this period, which is a type of Extreme Yang Qi. This one contains compressed energy as its core, an effect of the solar fusion which allows stars to even exist. Greater solar Qi is extremely overbearing and explosive, but more importantly holds is primarily filled with Yang energies. This differs from the traditional heat of a star, although this Qi is still extremely hot by human standards.

Now, with sunlight dominating we can begin understanding the effects. I suppose the biggest question is where your star’s starlight goes?

The stars in all their glory

It’s a fair question when you begin analysing stars after all. Every star generates starlight, but one only observes it after moving a significant distance away from the solar mass. This is a fundamental point used to teach the usage of science in mysticism, in that there is very little. You cannot rely on your physical constants and measurements to describe the generation and distribution of Qi.

Look at spirit veins for an alternate example. I won’t go into it here to stop myself wasting your time.

Sunlight is a short-range effect and starlight a long-distant one (But not infinite). Indeed, this does mean a troublesome gap exists between the two where neither exist! This space is given the name Astral Dead zones, or AD for short. Such a shortening is useful when looking at systems of millions of stars all with overlapping ADs.

It is rare to encounter a single true dead zone within an entire galaxy.

Now that we know this, we simply agree that sunlight is multitudes of times more powerful than starlight and as such completely nullifies the stars in the sky during daytime. This makes sense conceptually as you can cultivate a sunlight and starlight technique in roughly the same amount of time, although the former may be slightly faster due to most people being awake during the day and thus cultivating more during that time. In fact, sunlight techniques would be far faster if not for a human’s meridians requiring some downtime after every set of cultivation, unless dying as a human candle is the way you want to go out…

One final reminder is that interactions between Qi only occur when a suitable medium is present, which is physical matter in most cases. Some types of Qi, such as time and space, can utilise the fabric of the universe to interact but the majority cannot directly intervene with such a material. This means that sunlight and starlight both travel in tandem whilst moving away from their source, rarely interacting due to the occasional particles found throughout space.

Only upon striking the upper atmosphere do interactions begin, quickly defining the result before reaching the tallest mountains. From here the type of Qi received is decided without any input on your part, the only way to change it is influencing it in space.

We’ve completed the daytime cycle, but what exactly is the Qi present at night? Apart from vaguely calling it starlight it’s been given a purposefully unexplained existence.

Nothing special happens as the sun finally crosses the horizon, and you find no rare variants of starlight. Starlight belongs to the minor yin subcategory, specifically due its soft and gentle nature. Like the countering Nuanced major and Acute minor solar Qi types, just because starlight is a soft energy it in no way implies it cannot hold a firm sharpness. Yin and Yang merely define initial states.

This yin Qi is ‘Impenetrable boundlessness Qi’, commonly shortened to Impenetrable Qi. It isn’t actually boundless, and its effective range is around 1.5 million light years, but how many mortals can actually comprehend a distance that large? Boundlessness is perfectly appropriate when talking about the level of humans who primarily need this Qi.

Impenetrable, on the other hand, is a good way to describe a starlight infused object. Providing it is not annihilated by sunlight on its touchdown with a world, anything doused in enough starlight gains intense durability and energy deflection. Ancient empires reserved metals infused with starlight for royalty, and a king wearing a full set of armour claimed a near unkillable state on any battlefield. When Star Caller developed the first body tempering technique utilising Impenetrable Qi… the results were maddening.

Cultivation limitations at the time meant that very few worlds interacted with each other, and Star caller’s in particular ruled over two less developed ancient worlds. The technique found itself in public view due to a few leaks, and his empire actually imprisoned him for such a thing. It is unsurprising when you understand the basis of strength for this empire came entirely from its hoard of starlight metals, and without this explicit benefit they grew threatened.

It mattered little though. That empire had grown stagnant and refused to innovate with their power, only the more reclusive and knowledge-driven cultivators continued pursuing truths. This stagnation festered and bred outwards into a political dictatorship contaminated with corruption and nepotism, an easy system to overthrow once their dominant factor vanished. Quite laughably, rare records show that Star Caller’s technique required 10 years to cultivate to equal starlight metals.

An empire dominating three planets failed to stop a plot they knew in advance with a 10 year time limit! It just goes to show how incompetent later rulers became. The resultant fractured state afterward only drove more cultivators to advance more, and the generation who fought for freedom only further alienated themselves from mortal matters.

I recommend E. Flunker’s book ‘The rise and fall of stars’ on this matter. It’s extremely meticulous and goes through every event relating to starlight metals in that era. Little known fact about Flunker’s beard, but he claimed that only the tears of baby Starwhales can give it that lustre. Is it true? I don’t know, nor care, but it was a funny few days afterwards.

Moving back to starlight reinforcements, the reason that metals are easiest to infuse are their crystal structures. By an obvious connotation, this means that infusing actual crystals is also really easy. Metals will always be stronger though, this is mostly due to their formation process wherein they are not single bulk crystals and instead the arrangement of thousands of smaller interlocking ones.

This is not the only reason behind a metal’s toughness, but it certainly plays a huge part into its resistance to shattering on impact. Starlight infusions will thus take on this structure, forming their own web of connections which effectively redirect force before physical particles even begin taking an impact.

Pure Qi attacks below a threshold are completely re-directed though, this is nothing more than a repulsion effect. The easiest way to beat this stuff is puncturing it with a sharp point and a lot of force, but no one had the level of cultivation to achieve that in the ancient worlds. As for pure Qi attacks, strong enough ones are even harder to generate!

We then have Impenetrable Qi as a weapon. An adept controller can use their starlight refined body to redirect Qi attacks back to the attacker. Such a thing is hard to achieve and you only have one shot at such a thing as very few are dumb enough to continue such an assault in that manner. Redirecting attacks like this is incredibly precise though and performing it in the heat of battle is a feat of its own in the ancient world. Nowadays it is seen as an impressive albeit expected technique.

At the start of this discussion of starlight I talked about how its minor yin classification only talks about an initial state, and a transformed state of Impenetrable Qi makes it into a viable attacking force.

Starlight is naturally a weak force, and as such is rarely found in a concentrated state. This brings about the question, what happens if you lump a large mass of Impenetrable Qi together?

Unfortunately, it was proved long ago that compressing loads of energy can never form a physical substance like you can do with gases. Instead it formed a unique state dependent on the type of Qi itself, and this is where starlight became great.

Compressed Impenetrable Qi is a blade coating which retains the original materials toughness but reduces the edge to 10 micrometres. For reference, a razor blade is 100 micrometres and as such are useless as weapons. Such thin edges either blunt too easily or snap from a slightly too high load.

What does it mean to have such a thin blade with high durability though? That the force exerted is focused on a smaller area and thus cuts through more things with ease. In a scary notion, you can even layer it on starlight metals. The only good recompense at the time was that storing that much Impenetrable Qi takes 5 years of training on its own, but that was when the technique first came about. Nowadays you can achieve both the body refinement and additional storage for this technique in a short 3 years. All assuming you use alchemical supplements.

Sunlight also has a compressed form but it grew undermined with newer materials and forms of Qi replacing it. Nuanced major Qi simply forms a remotely detonable ball of energy, and Acute minor Qi forms a coating which is placed around pure Qi attacks. The detonation is instant and linked to your mind whilst the coating is designed to reduce drag on a Qi attack.

Hopefully, these examples and explanations have helped you understand how the two astral energies formed by stars actually works. Knowing loads of theory is good and all, but practical examples are just as important. I also hate loading my explanations with maths, which is why not a single equation on the dispersion rate of starlight in relation to the star’s luminosity exists. You’d think cultivators are incompetent by having 7 unknowns in a single equation, it’s ridiculous!

Natural satellites create a ruckus

There are a lot of celestial bodies, far more than people realise, but I want to keep this relatively simple. Imagine if I started talking about the various classes of stars and how their reaction rates massively change the proportionality of emitted Qi, not to mention super giant stars which completely threw out the primary model at the time. Don’t even get me started on supernovae and blackholes.

To keep this simple, I refer to rather average stars. Furthermore, I will assume all natural satellites to be large chunks of rocks, thus moons. I even have to specify the natural part since artificial satellites create further complexities.

Most planets in the universe have moons, such a thing is inevitable with such time scales. Even if a large chunk of rock passes by every million years, that means a thousand chances to obtain a moon in a billion years. Most planets easily exceed this, therefore there have been lots of chances.

For ease we will be treating the moon as a counterpart to your sun, such that it only appears at night. Satellites are even odder during the daytime, but it doesn’t matter in this explanation on easy to observe effects.

Most moons hold a low mysticism and this is exclusively due to being bombarded by astral forces constantly and their satellite itself holding some magical component. The most ordinary form of this is Qi crystals, although ores sometimes appear.

If a planet is really lucky then the moon may contain an internal biosphere. Although incapable of supporting human life, it is a breeding ground for wondrous astral flora and fauna. Such places hold innumerable wealth and if you found a moon like this then being hunted for it is practically standard. These biospheres are known to intelligently create a Qi blocking wall around their internals such that cultivators cannot discover it in casual scanning. Combining that with a humongous universe allows them to remain relatively untouched for long periods of time.

Now that we understand the natural mysticality of the moon, which is close to none in most cases. We can learn where lunar energy comes from because it definitely is not the satellite itself.

It was said that starlight is a persevering force, and that once more applies here. Before being trapped in a planet’s gravity and becoming a moon, these rocks floated around in the coldness of space with only the stars as their sources of light. This means no sunlight to counteract the formation of starlight across their surface. As this builds up more and more it eventually creates an infused layer across the entire object, a process requiring hundreds of thousands of years. You can do the same in 10 years using various formations and energy guiding techniques, just to point out the inefficiency of nature.

Infusing starlight into objects provides an energy reflection effect, and this is a universal thing. Only Qi types from beyond the Exceeding Void stage and beyond can ignore this rule, and people at those levels already have better energy reflection methods than starlight infusion. Nonetheless, for this satellite it gives the effect of also reflecting the sunlight, but not before it interacts with the layer of starlight infused rock.

As said before, most forms of Qi require mediums to interact, just like light interacts with a mirror before being reflected. This creates an awkward situation where the unchangeable concentration of starlight is bombarded with tiny droplets of solar Qi. If the two quantities of energy were in balance then the creation would simply be another bout of Momentary Tranquillity Qi, but this is a moment where the quantity of starlight is vastly superior to the sunlight. Not only that, but the boundary on which they interact is firmly within the starlight’s favour.

Yes, by all technical definitions the light emitted by a moon is just reflected sunlight. But that reaction at the point of reflection is so severe we call the result ‘moonlight’ and title the forces generated as ‘lunar energy’.

Lunar energies come in 12 different forms, all according to the different concentrations of starlight in a moon, the number of moons, and their natural magical conditions. We only care about the most common form which 80% of moons emit. A type of lunar energy called ‘Lone celestial Qi’. It comes with the primary side effect of culling your ability to enjoy company and is very unpopular for cultivation as a result.

All forms of Lunar energies display a primary yin effect, and as such are classed as major yin energies. This primary yin effect is one that many should be common with, mind cleansing. However, since direct absorption results in loss of emotions it must be achieved through a medium. What better medium is there than food?

Tea and coffee are the two most common due to ease of consumption.

Returning to the formation of the energy itself. Lone Celestial Qi forms when the solar energies are mostly annihilated in an interaction with starlight, this is a large range of 51% – 90%. A higher proportion of annihilation is only possible in moons with significant accumulations of starlight, thus metamorphosing their infused layer. We don’t care about this advanced state.

With our heavily reduced sunlight, of which most has been transformed into non-elemental Qi and absorbed into the moon at a humorously slow rate, we can now see a new application of starlight and sunlight. The two do not interact any further and completely retain their independent structures from this point on. Lack of merging is why this energy is still sunlight on a technical level. Against classic logic, the starlight instead willingly shields the sunlight from remaining deterioration, forming a stable bubble around a small enough bundle of solar energy.

These sort of love-hate relationships are rare in nature. Most creatures, even of the lowest intelligence, would jump at the chance to kill a weakened opponent, but starlight is one of the few cases of an energy willingly protecting its anti-symmetry. This actually does happen the other way round but requires extraordinarily impossible conditions. Both the starlight and sunlight must originate from the same star for the reverse to occur. So far it has not been achieved naturally.

There are reasons for effect to even happen but it falls far beyond the scope of this topic.

With our weak sunlight encased in a barrier of starlight, we can now complete the reflection process. This bundle of energy will fly out in a random direction with only a fraction aiming at your home planet. The bubble of starlight can resist interactions with sufficiently low density materials, primarily gases, meaning that reactions only occur at surfaces. This is why lakes may gain faint silver glows during nights with a full moon.

What makes moonlight even more amazing is how it goes about resisting interactions. Since it cannot simply make itself inert, the starlight willingly sheds any reacting portions upon contact with various molecules. This is why a solid object is required to force the final merger.

If allowed to merge then the moonlight is wasted. Both energies finally combine and annihilate in the starlight’s favour, leaving a meagre concentration of starlight along with emitted energy. In the case of water, and some other liquids (like mercury), the energy will neither be absorbed nor relinquished to nature. Enough accumulation of this energy brings about the notable faint glow.

However, directly absorbing the moonlight in its special state is what provides a mind cleansing effect. A human mentality is incapable of managing such a boundary used to separate the energies, and as such all attempts to absorb it require a changed mind. If the person doesn’t change their mind themselves then the Qi does it for them, unfortunate given the intrinsic strength of lunar energies.

Lone Celestial Qi is a type of yin Qi, displaying several soft features. The main are its deflection, agility, and cloaking. This makes it barely usable with assassins or people who focus on close-range, quick combat. It’s deflective abilities come in the form of redirection for the most part as it can be used like a river flow to slowly shift attacks in other directions. This means attacks with extreme speed or power will resist though.

In terms of agility it can be freely moved within a specific range, only dissipating after the starlight bubble is destroyed. This combined with its deflection property makes damaging an adept user of the same level extremely difficult.

Last is the cloaking. This refers to a cloaking from spiritual sense as others cannot directly sense the Lone Celestial Qi. Pure Qi attacks with this are perfect for assassinations as a result, but after realising you use Lone Celestial Qi there is nothing stopping anyone with half a brain from swapping over to less precise sensing methods and locating your attacks. Having a rough idea for attack locations is better than none at all.

Also, Lone Celestial Qi is not literally invisible. If you use it in a direct fight then anyone can just look at the attacks. But say you secretly co-ordinated a second stream of this Qi behind your opponent…

It’s compressed form produces a special type of sticker. These stickers are placed on a bladed weapon, and upon activation with a small stream of Qi, produce a trail of bladelight for a second. This is only enough time for a few attacks, but the entrapment effect of these lights can give an opening for a killing blow.

One matter I ignored was absorption of these Qi. What can you do when there isn’t a sun in the sky or the moon’s phase is a new moon?

Fortunately, there is a way around all this. The quick way is keeping stores of your Qi at all times, this is considered basic logic amongst all cultivators. However in troublesome circumstances you can convert non-elemental Qi into your specified type using your spirits. Do note that a heart spirit is best at this conversion.

Conversion rates differ from Qi to Qi, but at minimum you can expect a time of 5 hours to fully refill your store.

With the big three out of the way we can start looking at more types of astral energies.