According to temple tradition, Orveth's primordial sea held no shore until Soryn kindled a star above it.

Its reflection broke into twelve celestial fragments, each becoming a throne and a god. The Court later claimed the fragments as its inheritance, though Mirkut's oldest rites suggest they were stolen from a power that still waits below.

Creation began when Orveth's dark sea reflected Soryn's first star.

The reflection cracked, and its fragments became the heavens, the mortal world, and the twelve thrones of the Astral Court. The sun is Drazha's war-chariot; the moon is Ilyat's shield, eternally scarred by Bragor's arrows. Beyond the visible sky lies the Unlit Deep, which even the gods fear to name.

The Court answers prayers unevenly and often through omens, bargains, or sudden disasters.

Temples compete for political influence, but most communities honor several gods according to need: Varkesh at court, Ilyat at the hospice, Orveth at the harbor, and Pelk at the workshop. Clergy of rival deities may cooperate in public while their divine patrons pursue incompatible aims.

The dead climb the Stair of Constellations, where Varkesh weighs their deeds against the witness-stars kept by Soryn.

The worthy join their patron's celestial retinue; the unrepentant are cast into the grinding dark below, unless Keldra claims them for a final trial. Even blessed souls may be summoned back when the Court's feuds spill into mortal lands.

Varkesh and Tzagan dispute who may judge oathbreakers; Soryn conceals prophecies that Keldra insists must be fulfilled; Orveth's sea-tempests repeatedly challenge Drazha's command of the winds.

Ilyat shelters fugitives from Bragor's punitive hunts, while Mirkut and Zorvanna compete to decide whether the dead should be remembered or released.

The Astral Court is a divine assembly of twelve rival powers, not a unified church.

Two Greater deities, Varkesh and Soryn, dominate formal rites and celestial interpretation; the remaining gods hold lesser, demigod, or outsider status. Temples are local and practical, while high synods meet under open skies to negotiate festivals, doctrines, and divine disputes. No priest may claim that the Court speaks with one voice.

Classical fantasy of celestial authority, divine rivalries, mortal choice, and the dangerous cost of appeasing powers that demand justice, glory, memory, or obedience.

Wrathful and grand: divine favor can save a city, but divine attention can ruin one.

Omens are rarely comforting, and even benevolent gods expect courage from those they protect.

Varied: lawful, neutral, and chaotic powers each include benevolent, balanced, and cruel impulses.

The Court is not a moral consensus; its gods disagree fiercely about what mortals deserve.