Path of Stars, Ch 2: Astral Chaos (Patreon)

This is the beginning of the Path.

The voice of the Will of the Path echoed, its words a crashing roar as it seemed to fade into the distance. Knowledge filled Sam’s mind as he became the star. He burned in the Void as darkness and light whispered to him, telling him of what had come before.

His essence star wasn’t an exact copy of his evolution, but it was very close. It felt like he had returned to that moment when he’d exploded outward, bringing sparks of life to the Void. Slowly, time passed as point by point, other stars came into existence.

This time, each of them was a much stronger presence and the Void began to burn with starlight as they reached out to one another. From each of the stars, he sensed a familiar consciousness that was like his own, sparking in the darkness as they grew stronger in the Void, their hearts flaming.

Each of them was an Astral Titan.

This is the First Truth of the Path.

As the voice spoke, he felt the stars come to life, turning their attention toward him, and he recognized them. Their names filled his mind as they told him who they were and he sent the same back to them, each of them greeting one another. There were thousands of them, each alive and new.

There was nothing else in the Void yet that he could sense, only these young stars. It felt like their voices were growing stronger as he spoke with them, and his voice was as well. In the wake of their conversations, pathways extended throughout the Void, connecting star to star in streams of silver light.

Astral threads. The paths between the stars.

The threads were fragile, even as they grew stronger. They were their voices and the Void was their home. Its existence poured life and energy into the paths, but there was also a chaotic, swirling power there, like flecks of every element and thought, which felt similar and different.

It was also natural to the Void and part of the paths. It helped them grow, connecting them to one another, but it also threatened to tear them apart. It was heavy, like stars that had never formed, holding the potential for growth and genesis. But where it passed, it pulled energy from the stars. Some of the voices of the young titans began to disappear, dissolving into that energy. Here and there, new stars came into existence as it swept by, different ones than before.

This is the Second Truth of the Path. Astral Chaos. It is part of us, a factor in what gave us life, but it can also be the end of us if we do not maintain our own essence patterns.

From that mixture of chaotic energy, other things began to spring to life in the Void. Some were natural wonders, but most were living things, powerful beings and monsters that shouldered the expanse of the Void and stood tall, roaring out their defiance into the darkness.

This is the Third Truth of the Path. Other races were born from astral chaos, especially as it became stronger and began to flow through the Void like an ocean. Few of those races were intelligent in the way that we were. Most were beasts in search of food. With us, they make up the Primordial Races who formed when the galaxy was young.

As Sam watched, the things that had come to life in the Void began to fight amongst themselves, especially the ones that the Will called beasts. Streaks of blood filled the stars in a hundred colors, all of it glowing with life and essence.

“There was essence then?” Sam muttered in confusion. His voice echoed from the star he had become as he tried to escape from the path of a beast that was slashing toward him. Its claws were dark ribbons of light that severed the Void.

He spun away, his starform shifting as he began to feel how to move. The Void was natural and moving in it was like stretching a muscle. Before the beast could pull back from its attack, he reached out with a blade of astral fire that formed in his hand and sliced it in half.

Power filled him, a mixture of essence and astral energy, as well as a trace of the chaos that was all around. He felt himself growing larger and stronger, his senses expanding. Now, it was easier to move in the Void. He walked along one of the astral threads, heading for where he could sense another beast that was approaching one of his cousins.

Essence and more, the Will replied as it accompanied him on his search. Astral chaos, essence, mana, aura, pure elements, fragments of nature half-formed and shattered, dimensional rifts, and many other things appeared in the early galaxy. In our infancy, we waged wars with the rest who were born from that mixture, but it could not be called an organized war, at least not until the end.

In time, we were one of the few races who survived, but we were not the only one. Some of our greatest enemies also flourished in those days. A few still exist in the Void.

The image of a great, scaled beast wove through the stars, far larger than the one he’d just killed. It had four arms with sharp claws and two long, strange legs with shimmering silver fins along the back side that stretched between sharp spikes. The fins looked as sharp as blades and protected it from the back.

It was the size of a moon. Its head was a rough, scaled wedge with a mouth that was wider than the rest of its body. It writhed as it moved, almost swimming through the Void in an undulating side-to-side motion. Except for the extra limbs and the spiked fins, it looked something like an alligator or a multi-limbed serpent, its body oddly elongated, but it was more agile than it seemed. Its motion was smooth and quick.

Sam felt a sense of hatred for it the instant he saw it. Everything about it screamed that it was unnatural and wrong.

As he watched, the beast approached a small star and its mouth opened wide. A dark sphere at the center of its throat expanded, becoming a swirling vortex that grew larger until it encompassed the star. The sun shattered into fragments under the force of the vortex and turned into currents of energy that were devoured. The area around it was nothing but shattered rubble where there had once been moons and flaring haloes of life.

The beast grew larger as it consumed everything that had made up the star and then it turned, heading for another bright point in the distance. The first star wasn’t a Titan, but this one was. Sam followed, walking through the Void as he raced the beast to its destination. It felt like he needed to get there before it did, so he could help to fight.

The Vos’Rekan, the Will explained, its voice filled with a highly specific loathing as the two of them chased the beast. Sun Eaters. Great scaled beasts the size of a moon or even a star. They grow larger with age. Unlike many of their cousins, they survived the early years. They thrive on death and can eat nearly anything, but they prefer dense energy sources like suns or the other primordial races.

We were one of the few races strong enough to fight them. They are difficult to kill.

When they are young, they have almost no thoughts in their minds besides their next meal. When they grow older, they become more cunning and patient, but their focus on food doesn’t change very much.

They are able to go for many years between meals, hibernating like drifting meteors. Some of them still hide in the Void, drifting along like a stone, until the tides of power send them to a location rich with energy. Then they wake up.

Other races were troublesome, but the Vos’Rekan were true children of Chaos, able to feed on nearly anything. The early Void was full of them.

They became our greatest enemies.

Sam was a towering Titan as tall as the beast was long. His astral blade flared and morphed into a long spear as he chased after the Vos’Rekan, running along the astral threads to hasten his pace. From step to step, he turned to energy as he traveled from one to the other, skipping between the stars.

The Vos’Rekan arrived just before he did, its strange body allowing it to swim through the Void with incredible speed, but he was no slower. He was just in time to watch its maw engulf the young and still sleeping titan, consuming it in a single bite as it swallowed the energy down into the abyss of its stomach. One of the stars in the Void went dark.

The loss of the Titan’s sparkling life tore at Sam as he crashed into the side of the beast, stabbing at its legs as he dodged the spikes and fins that cut toward him. His spear slashed through one of its arms. Scales and blood flew through the Void in a river of star-flecked motes, the material fragmenting into energy as it dissolved back into the astral chaos and mixture of elements that was still hot and rushing everywhere in the Void.

The strike left him open, however. The beast’s tail slammed into his chest and sent him flying away. He returned a moment later, astral energy cascading off his skin as he blocked another blow and moved in closer, slashing through the beast’s armored hide with the sharp talons on his left hand. He left a long cut down its side, but a spike from its finned leg stabbed through his shoulder in revenge, throwing him back again.

This time, the trail of lost energy poured off both of them like two celestial rivers. They clashed again. Sam shaped new weapons from the loose essence and astral energy around him, but the Vos’Rekan had its own strengths. It was difficult to injure and it devoured the energy around them to heal itself.

Even with his strength, the beast was an even match.

Their battle waged back and forth as he adapted his tactics. The pressure was forcing him to become more creative. He tore through the Vos’Rekan’s defenses and blinded it with a slash of his claws across its eyes. While it reeled backward, he wove threads of astral energy around it like a cutting net, imbuing the strands with bits of the elements that were floating everywhere.

Shards of ice, flame, stone, essence, aura, and more glimmered from the net, the mixture of energies trapping the beast.

The Vos’Rekan tried to lunge for him, its fangs gaping wide as its dark-scaled claws tore at the web, but it was held in place long enough for Sam to drive his spear through its chest and down into its abdomen where it stored the energies it consumed.

There was a miniature Void in its stomach and the Vos’Rekan folded inward, its inner dimension collapsing as it began to consume itself. It writhed, its scales and fins tearing through the Void with sweeping currents of dark energy, but with the stability of its stomach broken, it was unable to heal. It finally thrashed and died. Its body began to fragment. Shards of elemental energy flew outward in a wave of scales and bones, each of them a shimmering treasure of the early galaxy.

At the same time, a vast wave of essence poured into Sam’s body and he felt himself growing stronger. His height increased again, until he was nearly twice as tall as the Vos’Rekan had been long. Along with the essence came the raw force of astral chaos, but it was tamer and easier to absorb, and flickering concepts of the laws of the Void came with it.

He could see more of what was around him now. It was easier to understand the principles of the Void and the shimmering forms that supported it. As the concepts filled his mind, he recognized them. They were shining lines in the dark—bright patterns where aura, mana, essence, and more swirled as their energy became more intense. Some of them shone from the Vos’Rekan’s scales and spikes, and others were in his own body and the net he’d crafted.

He also saw how they were formed. The patterns were carved by astral chaos interacting with the other energies, the result taking on its own unique shapes, like an ocean had washed through the Void and left a rippled bed behind.

As soon as he saw them, he understood how to craft a better net the next time he met a Vos’Rekan. He could weave these patterns into his abilities and gather the natural forces to aid him. With their help, he could make something that would truly hold the creature.

This is the Fourth Truth of the Path. Astral chaos gave birth to the runes of the Void. The Will’s voice echoed in Sam’s mind as it observed the patterns with him. The interaction of chaos with other energies carved the patterns into existence. The exact shape of them is different in our galaxy than in others, or at least evidence suggests this is the case.

Time began to pass more quickly as the history of the Titans accelerated. From that moment when the Titan discovered natural runes, his abilities expanded. Enchantments and then artifacts began to flow from his hands as he crafted weapons and spells to augment his abilities. He wasn’t the only one in the stars to use the principles of the Void, but he was one of the first.

The Titans had an undeniable ability to understand the patterns that had been carved by chaos, but it was their experiments with them that truly proved to be valuable. Other Titans who survived the early years found paths to power using natural elements, starlight, bloodlines, and more, and as they shared their discoveries with one another, their exchanges began to create a rising civilization.

The runes of the Void flowed through them all, a system of crafted laws that supported their efforts and became the basis for their culture. As children of astral chaos themselves, the laws were already engraved into their very being and they had a natural insight into how to use them.

As their strength grew, the Vos’Rekan and other enemies were driven off, but they were not fully defeated. Swathes of the galaxy were consumed in a war that raged back and forth until the Titans managed to push them away from a section they claimed. The beasts still lurked on the edges of the star-flung bridges and haunted the deep dark between the astral paths, and sometimes they found new Titans who had not yet been born, but the Titans had made a home for themselves.

From that base, their powers grew and they began to fortify their home. The Vos’Rekan were the strongest of the beasts in the Void, but other things also fought back, their powers not much less than those of the Astral Titans. Several times, they were nearly destroyed by unexpected disasters and waves of assaults, but the advantage that runes and crafting gave them was undeniable.

With their hands, they forged a path through the stars, connecting their past and present. They wanted to cover the galaxy to find new Titans, teach them, and bring them into the area they’d made, so they worked to make it easier to travel the Void. They wove their understanding of astral chaos and the runes of the Void into their project and stabilized the early energy, trying to make it more helpful to themselves and less hospitable for other things, especially around their home area.

As they worked, however, they noticed that the amount of astral chaos flowing through the Void was declining. Time hadn’t meant much to them before, but now they began to track it as they watched the early energy disappear, fragmenting into other things. New beasts and young Titans began to appear less frequently in the Void, even as the ones that were already alive became stronger.

Astral chaos had supported them in creating many things and they watched it go with regret, even though they didn’t know what its disappearance really meant.

This is the Fifth Truth of the Path, the Will announced, its voice somber. The disappearance of astral chaos.

At the same time as the early energy was disappearing, the titans found that their largest project was more difficult to finish without its presence, so they collected what they could as they continued their work, imbuing the last remnants of chaos into it with their greatest effort.

When their creation came to life, silver threads connected the stars to one another more firmly than before, creating a path through the Void. It allowed the Titans to speak to another across the distances and made it easier for them to travel, but most importantly, it held information and a will of its own. It became the repository of all knowledge for their race.

It was tasked with seeking out new Titans and fostering them, as well as helping them to learn what they needed to grow stronger.

I am the Sixth Truth of the Path. The Will’s voice was a deep rumble. The Path of Stars was the final creation of the early years, the last artifact created with astral chaos. Since my creation, I have been the heart of the Astral Titans' homeland, its protector, and a collection of the total knowledge of the race.

As astral chaos disappeared, however, the Titans found it harder to create new works. Runes were less flexible, new paths were harder to discover. The stars that existed were only those that had already formed.

Most importantly, no new Titans were born in the Void. Until now, Titans had been able to have children and give life to new stars, but with the disappearance of astral chaos, that ability disappeared.

At the same time, the Vos’Rekan and other beasts were no longer born either, but some of them found other ways to propagate their race, from dividing themselves into lesser forms to combining their energy with the elements and other forces of the Void. Some cross-bred with other races, creating new things that lacked the spark of the original but were powerful in their own right. All of the primordial races required a certain amount of astral chaos to be present for their true genesis, but their children did not.

From that moment, the First Age of the Void had ended. The Second Age had begun.

Despite the shift in astral chaos, the wars did not stop. With fewer new things appearing, the forces that were already in existence continued to war against one another even more desperately than before. The Titans were forced to grow stronger again, refining their crafts over and over to repel enemies from their borders, but they held onto the core area they had claimed.

Each time they improved, they added their knowledge to the Path. It became larger, capable of aiding them in travel nearly anywhere in the Void, and it defended the borders of their realm from lesser threats.

Unlike the beast races, there were no new Titans born. Many things were tried, from creating new sparks of life in the Void to new stars, but none of them became a Titan. The race had no limit on their lifespans, but the desire for novelty was part of them. Without new Titans to defend and teach, they began to turn their attention outward, searching the Void for other things that could keep their attention.

To their surprise, younger races were appearing across the Void, ones that were at home in the more stable currents of energy. There were eight races that the Titans found in the first wave of searching, each of them unique in their own way. Most of them were highly attuned to the elements, which seemed to have taken the place of astral chaos in their birth.

Rather than allowing the monsters of the Void to find them, the Titans decided to guard them. They extended the border of their defenses and brought the new races into their home, connecting their worlds to the Path of Stars. They also taught them what they knew of runes and the elements, as much as they could. Each of the new races had their own strengths and differed in their ability to perceive the universe.

Now, the Titans were no longer alone. The galaxy was filled with new growth and surprises, and the younger races flourished. They had the ability to create as well, each in their own way, and their works brought life to the Void. For a time, the Titans' desire for change was satisfied.

These eight younger races and the Astral Titans formed a far-flung civilization, the mark of which you now bear on your hand. The Will’s voice echoed in Sam’s mind as it explained, recalling the things that the Astral Guardian had told him when they’d met. They called themselves the Nine Stars. It was a name the younger races settled on to honor the Titans. After a moment, it fell silent and Sam turned his attention back to the history that was unfolding in front of him.

Out in the distant reaches of the Void, the Vos’Rekan and other enemies still existed, even in the new age, making half of the galaxy a dark and wild place. Somewhere out there, the Titans hoped that they might find some traces of astral chaos that still remained, so while teaching the younger races, they continued to search outward.

Here and there, they encountered more new races, which they entrusted to the care of the ones they’d already taught. In time, they discovered the limits of the galaxy, as well as a different Void beyond, one that was less friendly. They were able to travel in it, but it was a difficult thing. Some of them began to turn their attention to it as they looked for better ways.

Teleportation, dimensional shifting, and other enchantments were crafted and tested, many of which were spread among the younger races, allowing them to communicate with one another and to form an interlinked civilization.

A few attempts were made to connect the Path to the younger races, but it was too attuned to the Titans’ nature and bloodlines for that to be successful. The effort, however, showed that the younger races were primarily attuned to mana and aura in separate quantities. That fact puzzled the Titans, who primarily used essence, but it was a minor difference.

Beneath the aegis of the Titans, life flourished.

However, no matter how long they searched or where they looked, they found no other remnants of astral chaos. It had long dissipated in the galaxy.

Life in the Void settled into an uneasy balance, half divided between the area the Titans controlled and half wild. Battles were still fought, but the younger races were sheltered on their worlds, which was fortunate, since few of them could survive in the Void without great effort.

The years began to stretch out like the waves of an ocean as the Titans continued their search and the new races grew.

“Are we still in the Second Age of the Void?” Sam asked as he pulled his attention away from the history. The Will was all around him, so he had no doubt it could hear him. “If astral chaos disappeared, how did I become a Titan?”

Some might argue that this is still the Second Age, the Will replied, but the consensus is that it is the Third Age. Watch and see why. It will answer both of your questions.

In front of him, time compressed. Information filled his mind about the events of those years, but it was condensed, something to study later. Millions of years passed. The younger races grew strong in their own right and he watched some of them join the Titans to explore the outer Void. They were looking for new experiences beyond the borders of the galaxy.

One of those projects tore a dimensional rift in a barren expanse of the Void where nothing lived. The location had been chosen since it was far from the Titans’ home and the worlds where any of the younger races lived. The most defining feature of the place was an enormous expanse of something that looked like stone, which was the size of a massive continent.

From his current viewpoint, Sam could tell that the giant slab wasn’t stone. It was part of the corpse of an enormous Vos’Rekan. The area was barren because the beast had swallowed nearly everything that existed nearby until a group of Astral Titans killed it.

Its former den was the safest location for their experiment, since nothing would be harmed if it went awry.

But the sight of the area sent a shiver of prickling shock across Sam’s skin. He knew that area and the pattern of the stars around it. He also knew that massive stone slab from his early dreams of the Nexus.

As he watched, a swirl of grayish-black energy filled the air, tearing a rift in the Void that folded in on itself. Time passed, but eventually the rift made contact with something on the other side. The rift grew as it began to spiral, turning slowly as energy traveled through it. Its shape warped, turning into a vortex.

From the center of that vortex, three beings stepped out that Sam was very familiar with. His vision was far better than it had ever been in his dreams, which made them look somewhat different, but who they were was unmistakable.

The three demons at the Nexus.

In front of them, the golden Titan descended from the Void. He was joined by the representatives of the other races who had worked on the project. Time froze as Sam pulled himself back from the image, turning his attention to the Will.

“This is the origin of the Nexus?” he asked. He wasn’t sure whether to be more astonished or troubled now that he knew more of the story.

Yes. The corpse of the Vos’Rekan still forms part of the world you came from. Its chaotic nature infuses Aster Fall and helps to absorb some of the effect of the Nexus. It is also one of the reasons that the world there flourishes so greatly. It is infused with primordial essence that is very close to astral chaos, even if it’s not quite there.

With the appearance of the Nexus, the Third Age of the Void began.

“But if there is no astral chaos in this galaxy, then how did I become an Astral Titan?” Sam frowned as he focused on the second question he’d asked the Will. Everything that he’d just seen was something he would need to consider at more length. “And where did the rest of the Astral Titans go?”

The answer to both questions is the same, the Will replied quietly. Your bloodline was born from an infusion of astral energy, but the spark of astral chaos was already there. If you think about it, you should know the answer.

Sam turned to look at the Nexus that was spinning in front of him. It was slowly growing larger, working its way up to the massive vortex that he knew so well.

“It came from the other side,” he said as he finally connected that piece of the puzzle. “The demons have some fragments of astral chaos in their bloodline, and somehow, it was enough to transform me.”

Yes, the Will agreed. You are the only Astral Titan to have been born since the First Age of the Void. Many attempts were made to create new Astral Titans from an infusion of the correct energies, and somehow you triggered one of those experiments with the help of Moonlight Relic and the World Core, but it would not have worked without that spark of astral chaos in your blood, and the only place that could come from is the other side of the Nexus.

As for where the Astral Titans have gone, the Will almost chuckled as he continued. It was the soft sound of an old complaint that had long worn a comfortable groove in its spirit. This is the Seventh Truth of the Path. They’ve gone to find it, of course.