Auximancer
Auximancy, sometimes called the Threefold Art or Astral Extension, is a discipline of martial magic concerned with the projection and mastery of Astral Limbs - extensions of the self given form through concentrated potentia. Unlike combat traditions that treat the body as a weapon to be sharpened, Auximancy treats it as a seed: a core from which something greater might be grown, reaching beyond the limits of flesh into a projected, spectral form that supplements and amplifies the practitioner's physical presence. It is among the oldest codified battle-arts in Pannotia, and arguably one of the most demanding, for it requires not strength of arm but a refined and quiet mastery of the self - the conviction that what one is, at the deepest level, can be extended outward without distortion.
History & Culture
Auximancy does not originate with the Empyreans, but with those who came before them - those ancient seekers of knowledge whose great quest divided them and set two peoples on irreconcilable paths. Among the seekers, the art was already old; its foundational logic, that one's inner form could be extended outward through disciplined cultivation of potentia, predated the Conclave by generations. It was a warrior's philosophy as much as a practical technique: to project the limb was to project the will, and to master the projection was to master oneself. Those who became the Empyreans carried it westward with them as one of the few things from their former life that survived the crossing intact.
The westward journey was long and its shape can be traced in where the art took root. The first significant transplanting occurred in Aesox, where the Host paused long enough to establish early chapters and leave instructors behind. A second dispersal followed their passage through Ellawren, whose monastery-keeps preserved a curriculum of the Threefold Art for generations of students who bore no Empyrean Curse whatsoever. By the time the Host completed its great pilgrimage to the Argent Reaches, Auximancy had quietly seeded itself across the breadth of the two continents, taught in waystation monasteries and frontier chapterhouses to whoever proved capable of learning it.
Today, while the discipline remains overwhelmingly associated with the Empyreans and their Curse, non-Empyrean practitioners are documented across Pannotia - most commonly in regions where Empyrean monasteries have historically operated, though solitary masters and wandering teachers have spread it further still. Some traditions that have drifted from the Host's direct lineage have developed idiosyncratic techniques and philosophical glosses that their Empyrean counterparts would not always recognise; the art, having been given to the world, has begun to live its own life within it.
Auximancy is, at its root, a philosophy of extension rather than force. Where other martial disciplines seek to concentrate power into the body - to make the arm stronger, the foot faster, the guard impenetrable - Auximancy seeks to expand the boundary of what the body is. The Astral Limbs a practitioner projects are not conjured from nothing; they are drawn out from within, given shape by accumulated potentia and the clarity of a focused mind. To lose composure mid-projection is to lose the limb's coherence; to project with anger or grief is to project something unstable, something that dissipates at the first demand made of it.
The foundational text of the discipline, known in Empyrean circles as the Treatise of the Threefold Path, holds that mastery unfolds across three stages which it names Focus, Fury, and Calm - and which it is careful to note are not a progression from lesser to greater aggression, but from lesser to greater wholeness. The student who has learned Focus has learned to project. The student who has reached Fury has learned to project abundantly, without exhausting themselves. The student who has arrived at Calm has learned something harder: that abundance is not the point. At Calm, the limbs become simply part of the practitioner - natural extensions, as unconsidered as breathing, as powerful as their intent. The name is not ironic. It is the most violent of the three stages and also the most serene.
Among non-Empyrean practitioners, this framework is sometimes interpreted in explicitly cultivational terms: that the Three Paths represent the refining of one's potentia through progressive stages of inner discipline, and that each threshold is less a technique to be learned than a transformation of what the practitioner fundamentally is. Some schools in Ellawren teach that a student does not choose to advance along the Paths but becomes ready, and that the limbs that manifest at higher stages do so because the self that projects them has grown large enough to fill the space.
Non-Empyrean practitioners are most commonly found in or near the institutions the Host left behind on its westward passage - the rare few monastery-keeps of Ellawren in particular have maintained living traditions of the Threefold Art for centuries, taught to students who have no connection to the Empyrean Curse and who often frame the discipline in their own philosophical terms. In Aesox, a smaller community of practitioners exists, its techniques somewhat diverged from the main line, with an emphasis on the physical minimalism of the practitioner's body during projection - the ideal, in some Aesoxian teachings, being a master who stands perfectly still while their limbs do everything. Isolated masters and wandering instructors have spread the art beyond these centres, and it is not unheard of in the further reaches of Galudon and Keldwike, though it is rare enough there to occasion significant surprise.
Astral Limbs are projected extensions of the caster's potentia, taking whatever form the practitioner wills - arms, claws, tendrils, wings, constructs without mortal analogue. They are translucent, typically coloured according to the caster's particular affinity and concentration, and they persist for as long as the caster maintains their focus.
Notable People & Places
- The Waystation Monasteries - Strung across the long westward route of the Host's great pilgrimage like knots in a rope, the waystation monasteries are the primary reason Auximancy exists outside Empyrean walls at all. Each was established as a rearguard institution, left behind to serve the communities the Host passed through and maintain some continuity of the Light's presence in regions the Empyreans would not return to quickly. Along with their theological function, they preserved and taught the Threefold Art to whoever proved apt - and over generations, with the Host's direct oversight absent, their curricula drifted, adapted, and occasionally innovated. The monasteries vary enormously in character today; some remain closely aligned with Empyrean doctrine, others have drifted so far from their origins that their connection to the Host is largely historical.
- The Mirror Schools of Ellawren - A name applied collectively to a cluster of teaching traditions in Ellawren that developed from the waystation monasteries but have long since outgrown direct institutional descent. They share a common pedagogical emphasis - the Third Path's name, Calm, is taken with particular seriousness, and students are typically held at the First Path for longer than Empyrean training would require - but differ substantially in technique and philosophical framing. The schools rarely coordinate and occasionally dispute one another's methods with some energy. What they share is a consistent production of practitioners who are, by most external assessments, unusually controlled and unusually patient by the standards of martial disciplines.
- Daoven Silt - A Hand, Daoven Silt is notable for having written the most comprehensive non-doctrinal account of Auximancy currently in circulation - a practical manual aimed explicitly at non-Empyrean readers, stripped of theological framing and focused purely on technique. The text was not officially sanctioned by the Host's Keepers, and Silt has not publicly addressed the question of whether it was officially condemned. Copies have circulated widely enough that the question is now largely academic. Silt continues to serve the Host in the ordinary capacities of a Hand, and the manual is not something most members of their Triune appear eager to raise in conversation.
Spells
| Name | Description | Cooldown/Cost | Action Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Path: Focus | Having mastered the first of the Three Paths, you possess 1 pair of Astral Limbs, projected limbs that may be of any desired shape and form. Abilities may require you to Commit a pair of limbs for their duration - if so, this pair is not usable for any other ability while it lasts, at minimum until the start of next turn. | N/A | Passive |
| Relentless Flurry | A pair of Astral Limbs makes two strikes against an enemy within 3 blocks, making a MYS attack roll for 2 damage with each successful strike. | No Cooldown | Free Action (Commit 1) |
| Phantom Ward | A pair of Astral Limbs moves to intercept incoming strikes, granting +1 flat damage reduction until the end of the turn. This can stack. | No Cooldown | Free Action (Commit 1) |
| Name | Description | Cooldown/Cost | Action Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Second Path: Fury | Having mastered the second of the Three Paths, you possess 2 pairs of Astral Limbs, granting you greater flexibility in action. | N/A | Passive |
| Spectral Vise | Grasp an enemy within 3 blocks with a pair of Astral Limbs, making a MYS attack roll to lift them off the ground and Restrain them for two turns. | One Turn | Action (Commit 1) |
| Catapult | Throw an enemy you've restrained with Spectral Vise at a target, rolling making a MYS attack roll to deal 1d8 damage, plus the CON of the thrown enemy. If dodged, this damage is still dealt to the thrown enemy. This ends the Commit cost of Spectral Vise early. | Two Turns | Action |
| Name | Description | Cooldown/Cost | Action Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Third Path: Calm | Having mastered the third of the Three Paths, you possess 3 pairs of Astral Limbs, granting you the capacity to wield your projected form to its fullest and most potent effect. | N/A | Passive |
| Astral Sovereign | Your Astral Limbs are able to be manifested for use outside of combat at their full, immense power. For non-combat rolling, you may substitute 2xMYS instead of STR. | N/A | Passive |
| Grand Arsenal | Form a colossal weapon wielded by four arms at once, making a sweeping strike against all in front of you. Roll MYS vs DEX for all targets in a 5x5 area directly in front of you; on a hit, deal 3d6 damage and knock them back 4 blocks. | Once per Combat | Action (Commit 2) |
| Accreditation | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||