The Astralith

Bound by Starlight, Sworn to Silence

The Astralith was an order founded during the Phase, the weirding time as the eras changed - or possibly just before it. When reality was rewriting itself and things that should have stayed buried began to stir, the Astralith answered.

They wielded ancient, forgotten technology. They charted the first maps of the modern world. They sealed ancient powers away with chains of starlight.

For a time, they were unified. A single organization spanning the entire known world, dedicated to one mission: contain what is dangerous, guard what is sealed, and ensure that certain knowledge remains forgotten.

It didn’t last.

The Fracture

Over centuries, power struggles, disagreements over recordkeeping, the seals, and the Outer Rim drove the Astralith apart. They fractured into competing splinter groups - factions that share symbols, knowledge fragments, and a common origin, but whose goals have diverged sharply.

Caution

What follows is pieced together from fragmented records, conflicting accounts, and the occasional sealed document that someone probably shouldn’t have opened. Treat it accordingly.

The Wardens

The orthodox remnant. Those who kept the original mission: seal, guard, forget. Conservative, powerful, and deeply secretive. They operate across all three nations but are strongest in Khem-Asar territory, where the most important seals are maintained.

The Wardens believe the seals must hold at any cost. They don’t care about understanding what’s behind them - only that it stays behind them. To the Wardens, curiosity about sealed entities isn’t scholarship. It’s a countdown.

The Seekers

The research splinter. They broke away because they believed the sealed entities and the Phase itself needed to be understood, not just contained. Over centuries, this faction fed into Aethermere’s academic culture - some historians believe their early members founded the first academies.

The Seekers argue that the Wardens are sitting on knowledge that could save the world. The seals hide the truth about the Phase - what caused it, what it really changed, and whether it’s truly over. Willful ignorance, they say, isn’t protection. It’s a different kind of danger.

The Rimwalkers

The ones who went toward the Outer Rim.

They believe the Phase isn’t finished - that a second Phase, or something worse, is coming. The only way to prepare is to understand what lies beyond the Rim. Some of them went out there to find answers.

Some never came back. Those who did are… changed.

They are the most feared and least understood of the three splinters. Their philosophy is simple, and unsettling: “The Outer Rim isn’t a threat. It’s a door. And someone needs to find out what’s on the other side before it opens on its own.”

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What Remains

The three splinters still exist - hidden within the institutions and power structures of the modern world. A Warden might serve as a high priest in Khem-Asar. A Seeker might chair an Aethermere academy. A Rimwalker might be anyone.

They share a common symbol and fragments of the same ancient knowledge. But they no longer trust each other. And the seals they were founded to protect? Some of them are weakening.

Note

The five pieces of an ancient seal. The nine fragments of a faded map. These aren’t just collectibles - they’re fragments of Astralith work, scattered across the world. Every piece you find is a thread in a much larger story.