The First Mage, Lukan, learned the secrets of arcane energy not from books -- for who would have written them? His desperation for power called forth trange and terrible messengers whose very presence tore and strained and frayed reality. Lukan gleaned that these incarnations of the Beyond had just one goal -- to unify the Starry Beyond's arcane maelstrom with our world. In a terrible fight, he sought to banish them, and teach men to learn how to harness the Starry Beyond by discipline alone. But these creatures of terrible, bright, starlight still remain to tempt, scourge, burn, and transform the unwary - and your old friend was, it seem, more than ready to be tempted. Instinct: To bring the Starry Beyond into this world.

• Scour with the sizzling energies of the Starry Beyond
• Shimmering multicolored tendrils of energy speed out from its hovering mass and...
• Guide or force others to unleash the Starry Beyond.
• Take a humanoid form
• Teach maddening secrets.
• Strain the fabric of reality.

Let me tell you the tale of Joaquin -- a young man as cocksure as you are now. He came too near to the Wizard's Well, besting its guardian sprite, and dared to read the incantations inscribed on its edges. I caught up with him as he mouthed the last words, his eyes full of defiance and joy. Then, his bones lengthened, his eyes multiplied, and a great mound of fleshy mouths grew from his belly -- few men can master the Starry Beyond, said a wizard I later asked about it. Horrified, I charged, and pushed him into the well. I know not what happened to him after that, but I still have nightmares. Instinct: To twist and break what remains natural and beautiful

• Impale those who resist
• Tear those who offend it
• Rip the hapless apart
• Leap upon the unaware.