Lore Book Preview Spotted on the 14-Hour Broadcast

[Laerune]

I want it aswell

[Donaria]

I bet ethys asher grew a nerd boner when he saw that book.

[Nekotee]

I'm liiiiiviiiiiing for this
Can't wait for it

[Caitlyn]

[Fevelle]

Why is ice listed as astral on the wheel?

[MysticSpirit]

From what I could read from the lore book in the section Life and Aether

Within all beings- whether is it man, mammel or even plants?- does aether flow. It is the spark? which grants life to the _____. Conversely? death can be said __ ____ ____ aether has left a corp____? object. From this it is clear to see why many scholars saw? the words "life" and "aether" interchangeably?. It can be assummed that a young man of ____ ____ and body will possess a high concentration of aetherial energy in his? _____, whereas an elder man, or ___ ______ with corruption, will ____. Some scholar have expanded upun this hypothesis saying that the consumption of food serves not only to fill the belly, but to provide the body with aether __ through ____.

Aether is not by any ____ ____. It constantly flows through creation, _____ currents through earth, water, and air which ensure that life is ______ throughout the world. The stoppage of these currents would be ___ ___ the _____ of a limb? cut off from the hearth. Aether is the lifeblood of Hydaelyn, and without it She- and Her children- would perish.

[Rocl]

I've made a huge mistake.

[Daemius]

Cannot wait for this. If there is an ingame bonus for getting this, any theories of what it would be? Wind Up Matoya maybe?

[Anonymoose]

Why is ice listed as astral on the wheel?

I suspect it to be an artifact of ambiguity; that is to say that ice isn't astral on the wheel. The hexagram (two overlaid triangles creating a six-pointed star) has a long-held association with elemental theory and alchemy in the real world (one of the few things taken from Western elemental traditions; the cycles and the void and all that are more Eastern traditions).

Earth Water Air Fire
If you overlay Fire and Earth in opposition, you get a hexagram in which Earth and Air become apparent as well.

Notice also that, even in real world alchemy, Fire and Air point to the heavens, while Earth and Water point to the nether.
All that's missing are the "polar" elements of Lightning and Ice.

Astral is decidedly Wind/Lighting\Fire and Umbral is decidedly Water\Ice/Earth. It looks like, in order to keep the wheel's shape and maintain the hexagram, they colored one cycle black and one cycle white to differentiate them. Notice that the white cycle has two astral elements and the black cycle has two umbral elements. That itself might imply that the CYCLE is aspect-heavy without necessarily implying that ALL OF THE ELEMENTS WITHIN THE CYCLE are, as well.

Remember, Astral and Umbral are in all things.

Still, on my diagrams, the triangles are light gray and dark gray. (Just in case that ambiguity was going to cause a problem.)

[Fevelle]

...

OH, now that I zoomed the image I see! The hexagram has nothing to do with umbral/astral polarity, the upper elements are labeled as Astral while the lower ones are labeled Umbral.