Light My Way

Question: This is going to roam a bit, but what are the core concepts to the Stars purview? How does starlight differ from either sunlight or moonlight and so on?

Hmm, well, this is really talking about two different things: core concepts for Stars, and core concepts for light in general.

Light is of course a big deal in mythology because it's a big deal in the world, especially for ancient peoples who didn't have things like reliable or portable artificial lights to help them out when things got dark. The sun, moon and stars (and to a lesser extent fire, although it tends to more often be celebrated for heat than light) are the natural lights of the cosmos and therefore objects of reverence and worship in many ancient religions, simply because they kept away the terror of darkness and the things that might lurk in it. They are, however, different in the quality of that light. The sun was celebrated because it was the great light of day; it gave mankind the ability to move and trade and craft and do things during the brightly lit daylight hours, and its light was also recognized to feed plants and contribute to the fertility of the earth. The moon, on the other hand, was beloved as the great light in the darkness, the strongest comfort during nighttime when almost all else was black and dangerous, and the one thing that could help a lost traveler in the night find his way. The stars, finally, were objects of awe because of the mysteriousness of their lights, which were visible but not strong enough to really illuminate anything; ancient mankind wondered what that light was for if not for seeing, and invented hosts of different stories to explain it.

The Stars purview is therefore a little more eclectic than Sun or even Moon. Where Sun is all about light all the time because most mythological concepts for it are all light all the time, and Moon depends on several boons that refer to its light in the darkness roll and the changing light shed by its phases, Stars has to be and do a lot more than just light, since it has such a varied role in mythologies around the world.

Light is a concept that Stars uses, but in a less in-your-face role than the other two purviews; things like Aurora or Starfire trade on that idea of the light of the stars, but they focus on its conceptualization as a strange and faraway beauty rather than something people would use to light their way in the dark. Another major theme is that of navigation; once humanity realized that the stars appeared to have fixed patterns and movements, they became used widely as points of reference for travelers and seafarers, which is what boons like Axis of the Heavens or Celestial Beacon are working with. Another very strong theme is the idea of supernatural knowledge from the stars, which many cultures believed held secrets, writing or wisdom from the very gods in their unfathomable patterns, and that's where you'll see boons like Astronomer's Eye or Portent come into play. That concept's a little harder to deal with without stepping on Mystery's or Prophecy's venerable toes, but it's still a strong one for the overall global myths about stars.

Some other star themes are present in the purview, including creatures that live there (Summon Northern Spirit and Star Beast), the stars as the walkway or traveling path of the gods (The Milky Road) and stars as governers of fortune and fate (Lucky Star, Red Star), which is particularly popular in Asian astrology. Between you and me, we do have quite a few other potential Stars boons now that we've had some time to think about it since the great overhaul from the original rules, although I don't know if they'll get to come to light any time soon. Something for the voting poll, eh?