Synopsis
In a Tokyo that feels familiar but isn’t quite ours, Tokyo Tower has only just been finished and the international exhibition center in Odaiba is still a building site. The Shunin, a low-ranking local civil servant, is abruptly reassigned to an agency nobody has heard of: theSpecial District Office.
The office turns out to run the administrative affairs of every magician living secretly in Tokyo — and the Shunin is now the one official responsible for all of them. Any incident involving the city’s magicians is his to handle, alone.
Tokyo ’89: 1889 or 1989?
The setting is marketed as Tokyo ’89, which causes some confusion. The official answer is1889 — but in a world where technology, culture and civilization have raced roughly ahundred years ahead of real history. The result looks and feels like late-1980s Japan at the height of its postwar boom — some Japanese coverage simply calls the look “Heisei retro” and lists the year as 1989.
- Tokyo beat its rival Kyoto to host the World Expo after Paris, so Odaiba is being reclaimed at full speed.
- Tokyo Tower is due to be completed this year.
- The city is seen as the most youthful and energetic in the world.
- In-universe, the year is Reisei 9 (令成9年), using the game’s fictional era name.
The real 1889 is a deliberate choice: it is the year of the Paris Exposition and the Eiffel Tower, and the year Nietzsche collapsed in Turin — both of which the lore folds into its history of magic (see The Tower).
What magic is
In Astrae Oratio, magic is human dreams. Throughout history, people who wanted something from the world — a wish, a prayer, a hope, even a fear — looked up and spoke it to the stars, knowing it might never come true. Those dreams, the lore says, became the stars themselves. The game’s title echoes the idea: astra (stars) andoratio (speech, prayer).
Magicians
A magician is someone who takes the wishes people placed in the stars and makes them real with their own hands. The defining trait of modern magic is that it reflects the way of life of the land the magician lives in — which is why a Minato middle schooler, a Shinjuku urban-legend hunter and a Bunkyo vigilante all cast very differently. Magicians generally hide what they are from ordinary people.
Hecate, the first magician
The goddess Hecate is revered as the first magician. A goddess of sorcery, the moon and the night, crossroads and boundaries, she governs every passage between worlds: day and night, life and death, the surface and the hidden side, city and nature, reality and unreality.
She is usually depicted with a torch and a dagger. The torch marks the line between reality and unreality — the key into magic. The dagger is the magician’s will, which makes magic manifest. Myths have faded since, but those two ideas survive as the Kleis and the Artifact.
Kleis (ignition key)
Kleis (κλείς) is ancient Greek for “key”. It is Hecate’s torch in modern form: the basic tool every magician needs to cross into the hidden side of reality, where magic works. Magicians call it theignition key — like starting a car, you turn it to switch into magic. Since every magician owns one, a Kleis also serves as proof that someone is a magician.
Artifacts
Artifacts are Hecate’s dagger: magic weapons through which a magician’s will takes form. They come in every shape, from antiques with centuries of history to modern inventions. Once a magician has entered the hidden side with their Kleis, an Artifact lets them use far stronger magic than usual. The developers have also namedArtifact Liberation as a combat mechanic.
Dominions
Because magic mirrors the life of the land, a magician’s territory — their dominion — is the foundation of their power. Since the Fifth Era, magicians have borrowed administration as their framework for understanding the world, systematizing the administrative structure of the places they belong to.
In modern Tokyo that means the 23 special wards and other districts double as magician dominions: Minato, Shinjuku, Shibuya, Shinagawa, Sumida and so on. Conflicts between magicians therefore play out asadministrative disputes — and mediating them is the Shunin’s job. In battle, this idea becomes theDominion Skill.
Trial of Domination
When magicians clash, they settle it with a Trial of Domination — a trial by duel. It has been the main way of resolving disputes, and effectively the magicians’ justice system, since the Fourth Era.
The Eras of magic
Magic history is divided into numbered Eras. Two endings are known: the Second Eraended when the magician-king of Babylon, who built a tower to become a god, fell back to earth; theFifth Era ends in Reisei 9 — the year the story starts — echoing the philosopher in Turin who declared that God is dead and lost his mind. The game begins at the hinge between two eras.
The Tower
Between the Tower of Babel and the Eiffel Tower — between “I will become a god” and “God is dead” — thetower keeps returning as a symbol of humanity reaching for the stars instead of merely wishing on them. As the Fifth Era closes, a new tower is nearing completion in Tokyo, as if announcing the next paradigm of magic. That tower is Tokyo Tower, and the Special District Office sits right beneath it.
The Special District Office
Officially the Other Decree Special District Office (裏令指定特例区域管理庁), theSpecial District Office administers the special district designated by the Other Cabinet — the hidden power that really runs magical Tokyo. That gives it authority over every magical matter in the city. People call it the magicians’ Tokyo Metropolitan Government, but at the moment its staff is exactly one person: the Shunin.
Continue with the factions guide, the glossary or thecharacter list.