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I'm in a D&D campaign where astronomy plays a big deal. I want to name drop and reference some good astrology myths about evil or cursed stars, but I'm having an awful time finding anything. The only one I have for a reference to start searching is Algol, the demon star, which I found from an old Lovecraft story (but which has been in mythology for longer than that, of course), but that reference doesn't seem to lead me anywhere else and more generic searches yield nothing.

So my question is what are some evil stars and where can I find out more about them? I don't care what tradition or culture they come from. Honestly a mix would probably be ideal.

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Worldbuilding! If you're just looking for where to find out about 'evil star' myths, it might be a good idea to get rid of "what are some evil stars" (in my opinion, this makes it potentially broad) and add the worldbuilding-resources tag to make it a bit clearer that (if) this is what you want $\endgroup$
    – Mithrandir24601
    Commented Feb 17, 2018 at 19:25
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    $\begingroup$ You might get better answers over at MythologySE $\endgroup$
    – dot_Sp0T
    Commented Feb 17, 2018 at 23:59
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    $\begingroup$ Here’s one from the land of Japan although the Wikipedia page contains pretty much everything I’ve ever been able to find about this particular kami. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amatsu-Mikaboshi I’ll see if I can find the other page, otherwise I think this might get closed since it doesn’t really fit this site. $\endgroup$
    – Pleiades
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 7:58
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    $\begingroup$ Found it: eos.kokugakuin.ac.jp/modules/xwords/entry.php?entryID=67 $\endgroup$
    – Pleiades
    Commented Feb 18, 2018 at 8:04
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    $\begingroup$ Nemesis is a hypotetical star connected to mass extinctions $\endgroup$
    – SilverCookies
    Commented Feb 19, 2018 at 15:14

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In actual astrology, an 'unfortunate star' would be more like an unfortunate alignment of the planets. If you were born under the protection of Jupiter as a Scorpio, then when Jupiter is in the house of an opposing sign, like Taurus, it is an inauspicious time to start any endeavor that requires good fortune.

In general, this is how it would work. There would not be stars that are permanently evil, but certain alignments that are unfortunate, and can lead you to evil ends.

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  • $\begingroup$ I feel like this one was team effort with a lot of good suggestions, but I need to pick an answer and as far as sheer volume goes, I can find and use a lot of information regarding planets. $\endgroup$
    – lazer-guided-lazerbeam
    Commented Feb 21, 2018 at 18:31
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I can't think of any evil stars I would've heard of, but how about a comet? Historically, they've been regarded as omens and harbingers of doom, as well as associated with stuff like famines and deaths of important and/or powerful people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet#In_popular_culture
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CometOfDoom

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Might I suggest the Wormwood Star of biblical myth? It's only mentioned in a single verse, but it is a star which falls to earth and poisons the rivers, killing many people. Definitely evil.

This isn't explicitly an astrology myth, but still seems to be more or less what you're looking for.

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To my knowledge, there are no real stars that are "bad" stars. There are useful stars (used to navigate) and all the other ones.

Before the advent of telescopes, any of those tiny lights in the sky would have been seen as "stars" so it may not matter if it's a planet or comet or a star so much. We draw a distinction between those things that this fantasy society may not have. What I'm getting at is your search for "evil" stars may be limited by what we think of as stars.

As example, Mars. Even in ancient times, with the naked eye you could tell it was odd. It was red and it moved a lot more than most of the other little lights in the sky. It would show up in the night sky for a span of nights and vanish again, not to be seen for many more nights. When compared to other stars, it was magical in a way. But, at the same time, it is there enough that no long standing correlation can be made with evil events.

To be called a herald or a portent or ill it has to be very strange and not much seen and then have some bad stuff just happen the last time it (or something like it) showed up. So the more common foreboding things are comets and eclipses (both solar and lunar). But there is something else that you may like.

On August 6 in 1181 CE a whole bunch of people saw a light in the night sky bigger and brighter than any other star. Many of them feared it and said it was a bad omen. It wasn't a star, it was a supernova. It was there for six months. Yeah, people freaked out. After all, it could only be the end of the world. All that and they didn't know about the one in 1054 CE that remained in the sky for two years! We know of another half dozen supernovas seen in ancient times. Generally speaking, some people freaked out each time.

Again, we draw a distinction that the denizens of your D&D world may not. We know those were supernova. To them it's a thing that no one alive (at least no human) has seen before, hence it can't be good. Expand your definition of star to include these supernova and you can have something to reference. Otherwise, I don't think you will have much luck.

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