Moon (Achaean)
The nameless Achaean moon is a prominent celestial body, overseen by the Goddess Ourania, that dominates the night sky of Achaea. Its powers were once tied to the planet Lunastra.
Influence
Throughout the span of mortal memory, the moon has played many important roles running the gamut from historical to spiritual. Worship of such predates the ascension of the goddess Ourania, reaching back to the cult of the Supernal Triad in ancient Hashan. Lunastrans have also cropped up, along with parallels in the other two parts of the Triad, among the Tsol'dasi astronomer-cultists of the Valho Coast. The Hashani cult's practices saw the light of the Modern Age in the form of the Disc of the Nocturne, a device that was later used to determine the divine patronage of the city.
Further north, the Yriluawe people of Aran'riod have revered the phases of the moon since time immemorial. Their oracles and spiritualists have raised it to a position of prominence alongside the creation of humanity, and the Yriluawen shamans take great pains to ensure that the proper rites are enacted at the proper luminosity.
In the ancient Tsol'aa-developed art of Tattoos, the moon is used as a symbol for the passive regeneration of mana. A similar ideal is found in the city improvement known as the Pillar of the Moon, a monument that bolsters the mental capacity of all who would dwell beneath it.
During the Eternal Night, the moon was darkened with the sun beneath the tidally locked planets Noxtra, Somnustra, and Lunastra. Slivers of preserved moonlight empowered the net that found its way onto the dread nychtaur, transforming the beast into its original form as the soul of a unicorn. When the Supernal Triad was destroyed in the cataclysmic wake of the Eternal Night, the light of the sun and moon was finally restored to Achaea.
Phases
Each of the eight distinct phases of the moon observable to attentive sky-watchers is foretold to have eldritch mysteries related to it.
- New Moon
- The beginning of the lunar cycle; the moon, though present, appears dark or totally absent during this phase.
- Waxing Crescent
- Represented by a crescent-shaped arch on the right hand of the circle in the sky.
- First Quarter
- This moon phase designates the moon’s transition into the Waxing Gibbous, when the right half of the moon appears lit.
- Waxing Gibbous
- When three quarters of the moon (from the right) is lit upon the night’s sky.
- Full Moon
- The circular orb of the night’s sky is fully illuminated during this phase.
- Waning Gibbous
- Receding slightly, the moon’s light contracts slightly until three quarters of the lunar orb are visible from left to right.
- Last Quarter
- The light of the moon is minimised to the left side of the moon’s lunar orb, designating the transition into the Waning Crescent phase.
- Waning Crescent
- Diminished in luminescence, the light of the moon is reduced to a crescent-shaped part on the left hand of the circle in the sky.
Other moons
Exploring the planar highways of Yggdrasil, Achaeans discovered the existence of other moons wheeling through the skies of other planets and planes. For instance a single giant moon hangs over the plane of Bjarndyr whilst the tumultuous vault of Drauger has a scattering of at least four at a time.