The mainstream view of stars is that they are resonant bodies responsible for producing the most potent portion of the musica mundana, the cosmic harmonies that resonate downward through all spheres of existence and touch the lives and substance and internal harmonies of everything beneath them. Therefore the motions of the stars (and other celestial bodies) influence the lives of all mortals (and many other things too) through the resonances they produce; hence the importance of astrology for understanding and predicting these influences.
Whether these resonant bodies have some sentience or not, and if so, what this sentience involves, is more of an open question. Most Azadi scholars and philosophers (and, more generally, those of the other faiths of the One True God) consider the stars to have a sort of deep sentience that reflects the underlying will of the Dreamer and the vitality of the Song, but do not consider them to possess any remotely human-like intelligence.
Azadi of a more mystical bent may ascribe a more recognizable sentience to the stars, while others do in fact see them as angels. In this case, they believe not so much that stars are angels, but that angels are stars -- that angels exist not as fancifully depicted humanoids with wings, but as spherical beings of elemental light and fire (spheres being of course the most perfect of forms). Other people may consider the stars to be something more like the abode of the angels, rather than angels themselves.
Popular Azadi (and again, Kalentian and Yashani) attitudes towards the stars may blend these ideas together rather indiscriminately, in addition to incorporating other older folk beliefs. Very few, however, would have any doubt whatsoever of the powerful and integral role that the celestial bodies play in regulating terrestrial affairs.
Pagans likewise believe in the influence of the stars and their harmonies, and also associate numerous stars/planets with various deities. This is most obviously the case with the planets, which in most cases bear the name of one of the Children of Dawn (plus the demigod Nthanda). Of course in other parts of Avaria the planets would be referred to by different names than these, but even then it's very common for planets to have a deity's name attached to them. Within our part of the world, these names are still used even when most people no longer believe in their relationship to any god.
Still, even in the case of pagans the stars are not necessarily considered to be the deity itself -- in other words, in looking at the star, it's not necessarily the case that you are actually laying your eyes directly upon, for example, Nirzali. It is more the case that in looking at the star, you are seeing a material emanation from Nirzali; the radiance emitted by her true, ordinarily ineffable being. As gods may manifest to mortals in various ways, so the star in its brilliance is one manifestation of deity. And just as with Azadi and angels, other people see stars as being more the dwelling place of the deity rather than the deity itself.
So essentially, there are many different threads of thought concerning the nature of the stars, some of them complimentary and others contradictory. But people's beliefs towards them are fluid and not necessarily logical, and the same individual may view the stars in different ways in different times and situations. But again, regardless of this, celestial bodies are known to have vast power and resonance, and so however distant they may be physically, in terms of their influence they are very are closely and intimately related to the terrestrial sphere.
