Songs of the night sky

[DiDoomDi]

Earth follows an elliptic pattern, and we are still able to sustain star based navigation. Of course the deviation angle that earth has is exceptionally small compared to what Esteren would require for a 400 warmer and colder period.

Star based navigation changes with seasons, sometimes even just weeks and months. I'd presume that there would be star charts for each month due to the deviation angle. As for if there would be fixed stars, I know that so long as the star in question, like our North Star, is approximately parallel to the sun sun even though it's really far away it will generally remain fixed in the night sky.


Edit: Though I can understand your dislike of star based navigation, since this would imply that it could be used at sea. So, I could understand that in the universe of Esteren there are no fixed stars. As without a fixed star it would be increasingly hard to navigate over sea. This actually opens up another idea for me concerning star charts and Demorthèn teachings.

This idea would rely more on the principles of astrology though - Oghamic symbols, animals, and general pictures that appear in the stars would bode ill or well. They shall interpret the stars as manifestations of spirits. C'maoghs do tend to show up like Will-O-The-Wisps and they do look sort of like glowing spheres or pinpoints of light in the distance. Perhaps they even are in this universe...

[Clovis]

Although the physics-related data kinda lost me, I can say I share your point of view: even though the people of the peninsula are far from only having crude and superstitious ideas about astrology, the information they rely on comes more from traditional, empiric knowledge than from an actual science. Experiments may be performed, of course, but only by wealthy intellectuals (after all, who cares about determining what a star exactly is when you have a family to feed?), and the information gathered through such computations is probably tentative at best.

It's really nice to flesh out such miscellaneous elements of the universe; they may not be relevant to a direct, first-time approach of Esteren, but they can really make a portion of a game more interesting, by really giving the Players something to rely on and imagine when they travel.

I'd even say you can base a whole scenario (or at least, a portion) on an astrology-related plot, with, for example, a central antagonist that has supposedly been cursed from their birth because they have been born under an inauspicious constellation...

[Deorman]

Personnally I prefer One moon, having two seems to be a really superficial difference to me and I like Esteren to be close to earth.
The only differences and supernatural aspect I add to the universe have to be meaningfull or usefull for my pattern, if not I stick to the closest thing to Earth I can get.

[ObsidianCrane]

Woah there folks.

People do realise that it isn't orbital distance that causes winter and summer right? It is exposure to sunlight based on the angle the planet's axis makes with the sun - the more sunlight because of this angle the warmer the time of year (handily this is why days are longer in summer as well ).

Having a wildly eliptical orbit would also affect the severity of the seasons in concordance with the angle of light exposure, however as a year is defined by a single orbit around the sun (and has been for at least as long as we have been able to write stuff down) this isn't going to cause a 400 year long warmer/colder period. Now having an unstable or erratic orbit (possibly from interaction with another large mass) could handily create this effect - but these things tend to be bad for the life expectancy of the planet (and thus life on it).

Of course a 400 year dip in temerature could be caused by things well beyond the ken of the people of the peninsula or even the Continent; volcanic erruption on the other side of the planet creating a mini Ice-Age for example.

[iznurda]

Yes, a 400 years geologic cycle could explain the alternance between warm and cold period. I prefered the eliptical orbit solution but It's right I don't have the knowledges to exactly explain it and make it possible. My point of view was that Esteren have always the same time for a revolution = one year. But his distance with the sun follow an ellipse with a revolution of 400 year. You have a warm period when Esteren is closest to the sun, a cold period when the furthest. I don't know if I explain well, i'm fighting to find my words ^^

iz

[ObsidianCrane]

End of the work year and holidays kept me away.

An eliptical orbit merely describes the shape of the orbit, it doesn't change the time period taken for an orbit.

An erratic orbit is one whose duration and shape changes, the problem is that erratic orbits tend to break down and the satellite falls into the body it orbits. This makes them unlkely places for life to evolve.

It is better to stick with simple believable weather phenomina that are well understood such as mini-ice ages. It is far more likely that in a 400+ year period that people re-invented their understanding of the world's weather than it is the world actually has some sort of crazy orbit.

Keep in mind we have not had a significant ice-age during recorded human history, imagine how different our perception of the weather would have been in 1200AD if 600-1000AD had seen a 5 Kelvin drop in mean temperature, especially if they had any evidence that there had been another significant cold period around 400 years before that, keeping in mind that a 2 Kelvin drop in mean temperature is enough to change climate significantly. All of this could be caused by things beyond the ken of the people on the peninsula.

Imagine over 1000 years of basically oral history to explain that...

[iznurda]

You finally convinced me. Going for a natural cyclical phenomenon globally regular related to unknown peninsular effect (volcanism, warm current, etc.).

iz

[Gully]

I just wanted to pop in and say that I love the idea of not having fixed starts in the sky, and thus greater rational for the difficulty of long distance sea based navigation ... Have to think about the ramifications of that more.

[Pwyll]

But seriously could an author actually tell us if there is one, two or even threnn moons in Esteren' sky? ^^' Come on guys!

It can't be a secret, everybody in the peninsula can see it... or is it just that it's a question you've not settled yet?

I start a weekly game as GM next Thursday, I nee to know

[Clovis]

I personally don't know if anything clear has been decided on the subject so far, but as things are, I'd personally say that for the time being, it's up to one and every GL to see what suits them on this subject.

However, I'm sure that the question will be addressed sooner or later! It's just that, as I think as I have said, it's by no means a prevalent aspect of a gaming universe, so it has not been given much thought so far.