This page is simply here as a definitional footnote. Some of my earlier draconity essays make a passing reference to the "Great Astral War" (tm); back at the time they were written, there was plenty of context available for this term on the Tomorrowlands Forums, which have long since been lost to the passage of time.

I am fairly certain that I'm the author of the passage below, but I've lost the original thread I once pulled this excerpt from, so it's possible I'm misremembering. It dates from early to middle 2003.

The term "Great Astral War" is kind of an in-joke among people who have been mages for some length of time. A large number of mages -- at least of the sort who do a lot of work interacting on the astral plane -- get caught up, fairly early in their careers, in a crisis on the astral plane that seems like an imminent threat to Earth -- some sort of spiritual invasion, or something to do with great changes that will bring magic back to the planet (interestingly, either to hurry it along or to prevent it; I've seen both), or whatever.

This crisis is lovingly referred to in hindsight as "The Great Astral War," because it never seems quite as important a few years later as when you were fighting it, and you can even start to feel silly when you see the next generation of new mages getting caught up in the exact same thing with different enemies. The Great Astral War never ends -- it just shifts battlefields, and players, and reasons. It's fighting for the sake of fighting for something.

It's a good reality check and reminder to stay humble, especially if you've been on the front lines and have to figure out just what you were doing all those years you were pouring your soul into the struggle.

 
- Baxil

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