Songs of the night sky

[Murder-of-Crows]

Something just in this very moment crossed my mind:

What do I see when I am standing somewhere on the Tri-Kazel peninsula at night and look up to the sky? Do I see stars? How many moons are there? Are there even moons? Is there a ring? Are there constellations? Planets?

I think this wasn't described/discussed at all in book 1.

[Clovis]

Hmm, that's a very good question. I do not thank you for having asked it.

More seriously, I'd say that yes, there are stars in the sky: in many aspects, the world of Esteren is very similar to ours, so if there are seas, mountains, a sun, etc. why not stars? As for moons, I don't have any real evidence to support this, but I'd say there's simply only one. Regarding constellations, there are no defined ones as far as I know.

Of course, these are just my two ember Daols; I'm not directly part of the team that writes the book or defines the universe, so my answer is not the voice of God. Simple application of Occam's razor, really.

[iznurda]

We have no certitudes but the french community had speculate around a picture publish on the forum here :



This seems to be Bald Ruoch but there some interesting elements on this picture, including a globe with two moons. Truth or artitisque license?

iz

[Murder-of-Crows]

Thanks for that picture. Maybe one of the authors can comment on that? After all, observing the night sky is pretty straight forward.

[ikaar]

All my text that mention moon only refer to ONE moon. But these texts are not published yet and could be revised before it will be released.

[Murder-of-Crows]

I think two moons (or even more) would give the world a nice touch and reminding players that Esteren is not Earth.

[iznurda]

without forgetting that the tides linked to two moons may explain a slight inclination of peninsular to the exploration of the seas : weather instable, high tides + lots of reef, vortex and monsters.

iz

[Erich]

I do like the idea of two moons because, as iz points out, it explains 1) why the weather and tides are so treacherous and 2) why magiscientists went out of their way to build airships instead of sturdier iron fluxships (steamships). The two moons' effects on the water would have made air travel the path of least resistance.

[Dragoslav]

This article might be relevant... What if the Earth had two moons?

The bad:

The combined light from the Moon and Luna would make for much brighter nights, and their different orbital periods will mean the Earth would have fewer fully dark nights.

Esteren without pitch-black nights?! We can't have that!

The worse:

The higher tides created by Luna would make shoreline living almost impossible — the difference between high and low tides would be measured in thousands of feet. Proximity to the water is a necessity for sewage draining and transport of goods, but with higher tides and stronger erosion, humans would have to develop different ways of using the oceans for transfer and travel. The habitable area of Earth, then, would be much smaller.

So, while having two moons would make the seas treacherous -- which is good for our purposes -- it would do so to an extreme that is far more than we want and that isn't present in the world of Esteren.

You could always ignore the full, realistic consequences of having two moons, but if any of your players are astrophysicists, then they might object.

[Erich]

Dragonlance features three moons without too much difficulty. While obviously magical, their different light spectrums (one white, one red, one black) solves the issue of blindingly bright nights. If a second Esteren moon did not often reflect light, was only visible when it eclipsed with the white moon, or reflected the cycle of the first moon (so the sum total light per night would be that of a single moon: new moon <--> full moon diametric opposition) there would be no trouble with lighting. If that's still too much, just shroud the sky with clouds to create the desired atmospheric blackness, .

As for the tides, if one moon is further away or smaller in mass than the current moon, it will have a less dramatic effect than proposed by the linked article. In fact, the article assumes that the new second moon is closer to the Earth, mid-way between Moon and Earth, which accounts for its incredible effect on planetary events. A further/smaller moon will affect the ecology less--just enough to make the seas dangerous without destroying all of coastal livelihood.

This is all arm-chair science, granted, but this is also a fantastical world with obvious miracles and magic, so it's all good right? Haha