Bestiary

To the various Changing Breeds and their allies, In­ carnae and Celestines both come across like deities of a sort. Celestines, however, are the real deal in terms of raw power. Unlike an Incarna, a Celestine is literally the thing it represents and produces its phenomenon rather than the other way around. Each astronomical phenomenon has a spiritual presence, the true form of which is all but unknowable. Helios and Luna are literally the sun and moon and if slain those heavenly bodies would cease to be.

That said, destroying a Celestine is nigh impossible. Even the asteroid belt, a destroyed planet, still has a presence in the Aetherial Realm and an active Incarna. If destroying a planet isn’t enough to snuff out a Planetary Incarna, what would it take to kill a Celestine? The Apocalypse likely contains the answer to that question.

Despite the common belief among Incarnae that they could eventually ascend to the level of Celestine, the myths and fantasies so far prove to be just that. None of the few identified Celestines worked their up the hierarchy to earn their place in the heavens as far as anyone knows. Some legends suggest that, as the Mother Goddess, Gaia Herself may have the power to elevate an Incarna to this level.

Celestines reside in both the Deep Umbra and the Aetherial Realm (p. 46), in personal realms where their power and awareness are effectively infinite. They only rarely send avatars to Earth and instead focus their energies to nudge and influence those capable of listening. A Celestine can maintain multiple avatars at once. The power of even a weak avatar is such that they only dare affect the physi­ cal world with light, indirect touches. The unenlightened mistake their few, mysterious efforts for astrological forces or similar phenomena.