Astrology

 

The Art Of Astrology (Occult ••••)

Roll: Intelligence + Occult

Cost: 0 motes per attempt

Aspects: The Exalted, mortals, the stars of the dead, gods

Mortal thaumaturges have, over the millennia, researched, stolen and otherwise acquired a surprisingly complete set of astrological ephemera — tables, charts, star maps and stellar associations that detail the effects the stars and constellations have on a person or group’s destiny.

The first task of an astrologer in making a prediction is to gather as much information about the subject and his family as can be gathered — births, deaths in the family and dates of certain relevant events (first menses for women, for example). This information is then entered into charts of data, and correspondences with heavenly events are drawn up. These tables can then be used, in conjunction with formulas, tables and information gathered from checking the night sky, to cast a prediction.

Predictions are made using Intelligence + Occult, with a difficulty equal to (8 - any dots the character may have in the Destiny Merit [heroic mortal characters can always be counted as having a Destiny of at least 1]). Access to Varangian or First Age astrological machinery makes the base difficulty of this roll 5, rather than 8. The more successes scored beyond the base difficulty, the more accurate the predictions (in general terms) or the longer the predictions can be cast into the future. Successes should be divided into duration and accuracy, as shown below:

Successes             Duration                Accuracy

1                              One month            Extremely vague, at best (“The road ahead is difficult”)

2                              One season           Vague (“You’re coming into trouble”)

3                              Half a year             Enlightening (“Old enemies will darken your path”)

4                              One year                Somewhat accurate (“A former rival will seek vengeance”)

5                              Three years           Reasonably accurate (“A former classmate seeks to vindicate his belief in his own superiority over you”)

6+                            Ten years              Accurate (“Shao Yin will seek to disabuse his compatriots of the notion that you are the superior martial artist by challenging you”)

Storytellers should always keep in mind that, while predictions made using the Art of Astrology tend to come true — if the gods or Sidereals do nothing to meddle with the Tapestry of Fate in the meantime — they do not have to be exactly accurate. Predictions are often misleading, inconclusive, missing important details or otherwise subject to erroneous interpretation.