Celestial Armada

Celestial Armada
Information
Type	Nomadic interstellar fleet
Status	Active

"Lead by a cosmic race of near-immortal angelic warriors armed with technology so advanced it's indistinguishable from magic, Celestials revere and cherish Animus, believing that it holds the key to unlocking Creation's greatest mysteries."

- Faction description^(src)

Celestial Armada is one of the playable factions of Stormgate.

Overview

"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

- Arthur C. Clarke^(src)

A Celestial mural

The Celestial Armada is a highly technologically advanced civilization of interstellar travelers. Their technology is so advanced that to humans, it seems like magic. However, everything about the Celestials is driven by technology. Despite their prowess, the Celestials are a dying civilization. They are not tied to any particular world, and the Armada is constantly on the move.

The Celestials are masters at misdirecting and manipulating their opponents, both in and out of combat. When engaging in war, the Armada takes up position above a world, and uses its cascade field to materialize structures on the world's surface. These structures appear awe-inspiring, but require steady power generation. The field is generated by arcships—massive sky-fortress craft which form the core of the Armada. They generate the field as they fly over the battlefield, allowing the Armada to deploy structures upon the world's surface.

Culture

A Celestial's face/mask

The Celestials are comprised of enlightened elder beings that traverse the vast distances of the universe in massive flying Citadel world-ships. The Armada is led by timeless, enigmatic beings known as sovereigns, while the core Celestial species is known as biosynths. The species of the Armada are surrounded by innumerable mechanical constructs known as the Machine Legion. Where the angelic biosynths are beautiful to behold, the Machine Legion are cold and terrifying weapons of pure destruction.

Celestials revere and cherish animus, believing that it holds the key to unraveling Creation's greatest mysteries. They have regularly sought out animus-rich worlds. The weaponization of animus is considered heretical.

History

"Before the Infernals invaded us on Earth and destroyed human civilization, they engaged in battle with their sworn enemies, the Celestial Armada. Angelic form merged with advanced technology, the Celestials fight unlike anything we've seen, harnessing both light and darkness. They have new ways to mine resources and centralized army production. Their flying arcship cascades power, which they use to expand infrastructure, energize their army, and enhance their abilities. Now the Celestial Armada is here. Earth is the latest battleground, and the war? It's just getting started."

- Anonymous Vanguard member^(src)

Celestials

The Celestials are an ancient civilization stretching back to the origins of the universe itself. The Armada has steadily made its way through the Milky Way galaxy, seeking out animus-rich worlds, and acting as guardians against cataclysmic threats.

The Armada has fought a never-ending war against the Infernal Host, and is the Host's sworn enemy. The two factions have battled each other long before the Infernals invaded Earth. When the Infernals attempted to conquer the planet c. 4900 BCE, the Celestials were able to defeat them. They left behind the Suppressor in order to prevent the Infernals from returning. Similar to the Infernals, there is evidence that the Celestials influenced humanity's cultural development, forming the basis of belief systems and deities.>

Sometime after the opening of the stormgate on Earth, the Celestials arrived to challenge the Infernal Host for control of the planet, with humanity caught in the middle.

Gameplay

"The Celestial Armada play quite differently from traditional real-time strategy factions. Players start with a flying structure called the Arcship, which can travel across the map from the very start of a battle to set up a Cascade Field anywhere. They don’t use workers to build–instead, the Celestial Armada materializes structures down from orbit anywhere they have a Cascade Field. Celestial players are encouraged to spread across the battlefield and take advantage of their unique ability to centralize production, spawning their entire troop output from their designated Prime structure."

- Gameplay description^(src)

Celestial units

The Celestials are a building-focused faction, and field a combination of mechanical and bio-mechanical units. They have the ability to move their structures in a manner akin to units, and are the most mobile of the three main factions. The Celestials are recommended for players who like to pursue their own strategies and deceive their opponents.

The Celestials are a skillful, strategically complex faction that encourages aggressive expansion and allows for some head-spinning tactics using its unique mechanics. Unlike the game's other factions, the Celestials don't use workers for base building. Although the Prism serves as their resource harvesting unit, Celestial structures can be placed anywhere as long as they are in range of the cascade field emitted by other Celestial structures. The idea for the Celestials is that the player will want to be constantly expanding and moving their base, while having structures all over the map. Celestials start with 300 supply and have a unique power-management system, which is the effective limit of their output. Unit-producing Celestial structures may be designated as a "prime" structure, where all the unit output may be produced from. For instance, if a player has six bastions, six bastion units may all emerge from the prime bastion simultaniously, regardless of the distance between the structures.

Pound-for-pound, Celestial units aren't as effective as their Vanguard and Infernal counterparts. Celestial players have to pay attention to their structures and power supplies to get the most out of their units.

Astral Interventions

The astral interventions top-bar

The Celestial Armada can use their power reserves to use abilities called "astral interventions." These are displayed on the top-bar of the screen. They include the following:

• Evolution Catalyst
• Power Surge
• Purify Intervention
• Sovereign's Watch
• Zenith Scan

Structures

• Aeon Gate
• Arcfortress
• Arcship
• Arcstation
• Ascension Matrix
• Bastion
• Blast Node
• Collection Array
• Creation Chamber
• Force Projector
• Guardian Nexus
• Legion Hall
• Link Node
• Mainframe
• Power Bank
• Starforge
• Strike Node
• Therium Purifier

Units

• Animancer
• Archangel
• Argent
• Arkhos Arcship
• Cabal
• Cryo Tank
• Kri
• Morph Core
• Prism
• Saber
• Scanner
• Scythe
• Seraphim
• Vector

Known Members

• Auralanna
• Kastiel
• Warz (formerly)

Notes

Possible image of a Celestial

• In the reveal trailer for Stormgate, a hologram of an angelic figure was seen in the Arctic. There is a chance that this is a Celestial, or at least an approximation of one.

• The Armada has been compared to the protoss of the StarCraft universe, in that they are the "high-tech factions" of their respective IPs.

• The Celestials have been referred to as a "dying alien race," but it is unclear whether this refers just to the actual species in the Armada (e.g. biosynths) or the civilization as a whole. The article has treated this as the latter.

• Despite their angelic appearance, the Celestials are not literal angels, but rather a collection of alien species.

• The in-universe justification for the Celestials' supply mechanics is that during a match, all their supplies are being held in the titular Armada above the battlefield.

Development

Early Celestial concept art

• The Armada's aesthetic was inspired by real-world angelic imagery.

• The Celestial soundtracks in Stormgate use a combination of synth and pipe organ/vocalizations in the higher register. This, along with synthesizers, was done to represent the Celestials' nature as aliens. A Bulgarian choir provided the vocals.

• A map had to be removed during the game's beta as the Celestials were simply too powerful on it.

• The Celestials' tech tree was still being worked on as of June, 2024.

• The Armada was playable during one of the game's beta phases, but testers were under an NDA (or similar), preventing the Celestials from being revealed before their official debut at the 2024 PC Gaming Show.