starcalling

Starcalling is the name of the magic system used by children of Selecia. It is conjured through Constellations, which are strung together to conduct power from the stars. This power, or "magic", is called Alvanos-- It is essentially the essence of the stars. The suns and the moons, being born from the stars, are also made of Alvanos.

Human starcallers connect to the moons when starcalling. They can pull the power Alvanos from the moon for the brief period of time that the spell is being conjured. This power travels into their body and into their hands in an instant, ready to be used by the starcaller.

Alvans already have the power of Alvanos within them, hence the name "Alvan". By starcalling, they are releasing this innate power back into the outside world.

Usage

A starcaller will draw out their desired constellation. These patterns carry out an internal logic in them, acting as a sort of language (see Alvanian).

Conjuring constellations

Starcalling can be done by drawing these constellations on a physical surface or in the air.

Physically drawing constellations takes less power and is what most weaker starcallers resort to. Examples include writing on sand and soil, engravings on swords, etc. They can then place their hand on or above the symbols and conduct Alvanos to it to activate them. Once activated, the constellations will glow a bright silver-ish blue or, in rare cases, orange colour (depending on whether it is conjured through a sun or moon).

The starcaller may also choose to brush or swing their hand to direct the power towards a certain point (eg. after writing the constellations for freezing water on sand, they can brush the constellation towards the ocean to freeze a portion of it)

Alvans and average to powerful starcallers will also be able to draw these constellations in the air (dragon prince style). This works mostly the same as physically drawing them, but alvanos is conjured up throughout the whole process (to create the constellations) rather than just at the very end.

Enchantments

Objects can be enchanted by drawing constellations on them (eg. engravings, paint, etc). This works the same as normal physically drawn magic. This means that only starcallers will be able to activate them as magic will need to be conducted to the constellation engravings each time.

What magic feels like

When conjuring alvanos, a starcaller will feel immense power pulling from the moon and stars, originating from their lower back and coursing through their veins. An alvan will feel a tug in their gut, the magic channeling out through their body.

For those who are drawing constellations in the air, they will feel light power coursing through their fingers into the air, illuminating their strokes. A lot more power is conjured up to activate the constellation (this is the only time alvanos is conjured for those physically drawing constellations).

As the power passes through their hand and the constellation begins to glow, it will feel as if they are wielding all the power in the world in their hands. Once released, they will feel as if a powerful force has just exited their body and will be hit with a strong rebound. It is terrifying, but exhilarating (thanks zuko). Throughout the process, adrenaline courses through their body. Only after all the alvanos has left will the strength finally hit them, making them feel tired and drained.

The more powerful the constellation one uses, the more raw, alvanos power they will hold and the more tired they will feel afterwards. This effect is weaker on Alvans, whose bodies are already used to holding this immense power on a daily basis. However, with lots of skill and practice, human starcallers will also be able to build a tolerance and more stamina for this.

Drawbacks

Since humans aren't generally designed to hold large amounts of Avanos within them, using too much will give them a burning sensation within their back and arm. A small part of their life and body burns away each time they use magic, increasing based on its intensity. For the average user, it will only feel like a soft, warm sensation and the effects on their life and body and negligible. However, these limits depends on the individual. When pushed past these limits, it often ends with the sharp pain being so severe that the starcaller immediately stops conjuring due to the pain. This is when you should stop. Using much more than this (such as with High Lord Micah) will lead to the starcaller burning up from the inside out into nothingness.

Since humans draw alvanos power from the moons, they are most powerful at night, especially if their moon is full. Their power is significantly weakened during the day. They are also unable to starcall indoors without direct access to light from the outside (eg. underground or in a room with no windows), and even in rooms with windows, their power is weaker than if they were outside.

Training

Who can become a starcaller?

As mentioned previously, a human's life and physical body burns up a little bit each time alvanos passes through it. Most humans born in Selecia have a strong enough connection to the moon for starcalling-- the defining factor for who can be a starcaller and how much potential they have is how high their body's tolerance is. Starcallers who are considered weaker are that way simply because their body cannot handle the alvanos power needed for more powerful constellations.

Usually, to test for starcalling capabilities in children, a starcaller will draw a constellation on a physical surface and slowly infuse more and more alvanos energy into it while the child is touching it. The moment the child pulls away from it feeling like "burning" is generally a good indication of their tolerance (most starcallers can increase tolerance with practice but only within a certain range).

Connecting with the source

For Selecians, their source of alvanos energy is one of the moons. Every person has an innate connection with their moon, but needs to learn how to conjure alvanos from it. There isn't really a definite "trick" to doing this. It's a lot of trial and error and standing in front of a drawn constellation trying to infuse it with alvanos until it clicks. Once it does, you basically know how to do it-- it's just practicing it over and over again until it truly becomes muscle memory.

Here are some tips beginner starcallers are given:

• Spend more time out at night, especially when your moon is full, to try and connect with it better. It is recommended to only try conjuring at night until you get the hang of it.
• Know what it's supposed to feel like from books or other people. Imagine that vividly in your head-- imagine the pull, the warmth, the power coursing through your body. Do this exercise before every attempt.
• Consistently pray to your moon and do regular offerings to thank it for giving humanity this power and to ask for it's aid in helping connect to it.

Learning constellations

The rest of the journey is a lot of studying and practice. Most starcallers start of with a set of basic constellations, then branch off to study stronger and more specialised ones in their areas of interest. Building up alvanos tolerance and getting better at conjuring more energy comes gradually with practice. The most important thing for improving is learning new constellations and practicing with the goal of being able to draw them from memory.

Of course, the range and types of constellations each starcaller has access to depends heavily on their natural alvanos tolerance. Constellations are generally organised by category then by level of alvanos needed. Once the warm sensation turns into sharp pains or burns, it is advisable to stop and accept that this set of constellations won't be accessible to you. Soft burning sensations are seen as okay to some people as a way of building up tolerance, but caution is advised and it's generally safest not to conjure up this level of alvanos more than a few times a day (or at all).

The three rings

Types or genres of constellations can generally be split into three distinct levels, or rings. While the rings represent the power scaling of constellations on a larger scale, each individual ring has a wide range of options going from easy to advanced.

The first ring - pillar of nature

The first ring is the innermost and most basic ring of starcalling, often referred to as the inner ring. This is the ring that most human starcallers are stuck with. It deals with pure elemental magic: the alteration of the natural world. This includes feats such as summoning fire, conjuring winds, and accelerating plant growth. Basic healing constellations also belong to this ring.

The second ring - pillar of soul

The second is easily accessible by alvans, but not humans. Few powerful human starcallers have been able to tap into some of it's most basic spells, but any more will lead to the human soul and body burning up from the inside due to the amount of pure magical power needed. This ring deals with more abstract concepts in living beings, such as complex healing, strength enhancements, charmspeak (mind control), etc.

The third ring - pillar of alvanos

The third ring is often referred to as the outer ring, and is only accessible by the three suns and moons and the very few blessed elves in history. This ring deals with fundamental forces of nature such as life and death, time, and the very essence of alvanos itself. This is also the type that traps souls into this world as ghosts.

Bloodcalling

Bloodcalling is used by drawing alvanos power through someone else's blood. While they can bring about immense starcalling ability, the sacrifice of someone or something else's blood raises some ethical concerns, and is therefore forbidden in many societies.

Any blood

To utilise this magic, the starcaller carves a certain constellation into their casting hand, making sure that it is deep enough so that their blood is dripping out. They can then take the blood of another being and drip it onto their arm onto their own blood. When magic is casted, it will surge out of the arm and into the foreign blood instead, preventing the starcaller from experiencing intense pain or burning (since the magic isn't coursing through their own arm). This allows starcallers to freely cast more advanced spells that would have otherwise been outside of their limit, even allowing more powerful starcallers to cross into the second ring. However, since the alvanos still needs to travel through one's back before reaching their arm, pain is still felt within the chest and it still has a limit.

Alvanos blood

This technique is often used in physical constellations (such as enchantments). After one of these are drawn up, instead of using a starcaller's own body to draw out the magic, they can instead utilise blood with high amounts of alvanos, such as from alvans. Dripping enough of this alvanos blood onto the constellations will activate them.

This technique is most often used by people who are unable to sustain any amount of magic in their bodies.

This can also be combined with the previous technique for air constellations. After carving a constellation onto their arm, the starcaller can drip alvanos infused blood instead of regular blood onto their arm. They can then draw alvanos from this blood instead of from the moon. This leads to a much higher limit, as unlike the previous technique, this one doesn't involve any alvanos coursing through and burning up the body's interior. This creates immense potential for power, with some starcallers in history being able to reach the upper limits of the second ring.

The use of this technique has historically caused many conflicts between humans and alvanos due to people hunting them down for their blood. As such, it is forbidden and punishable by law in the current day.

• When volei uses this technique, altheius is unconscious and bleeding out. He takes his blood and uses it to beat the big bad