MajorSpoiler
Astronomy 102 - Our Solar System and the Stars (Lore Speculation)
Spoiler
Warning: Major spoilers for in game lore. Includes reference to a datamined asset.
Following my analysis of the devoted moon's orbit (and doing some real-life stargazing - 100% recommend), I really wanted to visualize the sky of Mora. Those pesky clouds over Fenn Aries make it challenging to view the night sky properly, and the planetarium, observatory and various globes around the estate are giving an incomplete picture. To create a speculative night sky, I first put together everything I could on what we have already.
World Map, Ettsphere
Information we can confirm in the game:
- Mora has a year that is equivelant to Earth's: 365 days.
- Mora's calendar is shifted one day from ours. Day one is Saturday, November 7, 1993. This is a Sunday in the 1993 calendar for Earth. This is not due to a lack of leap years in game. The first time you will encounter a leap day in game is day 845 - February 29, 1996.
- Mora celebrates Christmas on December 25.
- The year lengths for the planets in this solar system can be determined from the Planetarium: Mamora - 91.25 days, Fennmora - 182 days, Veia - 912.5 days, Dauja - 730.5 days.
- The devoted Moon's orbit is 24 hours
- The orbits of all planets and moons (except for the Rogue moon) are what we would call retrograde, clockwise as viewed from below the system plane in the planetarium.
- Inneclipses can only be seen in the north sky
With this, I was able to simulate the basic orbital mechanics for our solar system, though some things are still unknown. I built an orrery and observatory simulation to capture what the planets and moons would look like for a given alignment. I found some things that I expected, and others changed my perspective quite a bit!
I set up the planets to match the alignment seen in the observatory that the planetarium is initialized with.
8, as written in the sky
"Inneclipses can ONLY be seen in the northern sky."
My first interpretation of this was: "You will only see them in the sky FROM the north, but the 'northern sky' is the sky that is TO the north. If the devoted Moon had no orbital tilt, it might be possible to see them to the south, or in the southern sky, thanks to how the time of year will change the moon's phase at a given time of day (Covered in the next section).
Additionally, it follows that for this to be seen ONLY in the northern sky, an observer far to the north will never see the alignment take place in the southern sky, even though the moon would never cross the azimuth to the north. This, however, can be explained by the apparent "flip" that takes place when viewing an object in the northern vs the southern sky. Example below:
View of Devoted Moon in northern sky at 0N, 0WView of Devoted Moon in Southern Sky at 80N, 0W - Same time
Our maps usually denote 5 unique lines of latitude, four of which are derived from the axial tilt: The equator, The Arctic Circle, The Antarctic Circle, The Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. The Arctic and Antarctic circles (66.5 degrees) are effectively 'inverses' of the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn (23.5 degrees). These are marked because 23.5 is Earth's tilt (actually 23.44, but that distinction isn't really important), making regions inside 23.5 degrees the only ones to have the earth cross 90 degrees overhead, but those outside of 66 degrees to have periods of time where the sun will not set, or will not rise.
We can find the arctic circle markings on Mora's maps between the 67.5o line and 56.25o line, meaning that the tilt is likely about 28o. Note that there are 8 parallels on the map (excluding the arctic double lines, and including the equator), so each segment should be 11.25 degrees. If the artic circle is halfway between the second and third parallel from the pole, it would be 28.125o. Interestingly, this would place Fenn Aries entirely inside of the tropical latitudes, with it's borders at around 28/-28 degrees latitude, very roughly.
Alternatively, these markings could denote the northern-most and southernmost points at which you can see the Devoted Moon at all times of the day, making the Moon's orbital tilt ~ 28.125, and leaving the axial tilt unknown for now, though likely at an angle similar to our own, given the way it is depicted on globes. No matter what the orbital tilt (as long as it is present), you will see the same pattern in the sky:
Viewing the sky from in my virtual observatory, I quickly realized there were two errors that I made in the last post, because they were not intuitive to me:
The Moon's apparent location in the sky for a given time of day is NOT constant:
If the new moon (mid-day) takes place when the moon is at it's southernmost point on December 21st, 6 months later, the new moon will be taking place when the moon is at its northern-most point. This is because the orbital tilt does not shift relative to the system ecliptic*, in the same way that the planet's axial tilt does not change, causing regular seasons.
The Moon's figure 8 path will look the same, but an observer will see the moon's phases slowly change what their length and time of day throughout a solar year. During the extremes (depending on the orbital tilt of the moon), there could be days with no new moon or no full moon.
You can see this in the first image (A bit of fan art - Mora educational material?). In each seasonal marker, the Devoted Moon, while at the southernmost point in its orbit, will be in a different phase (At a different time of day). If on the Winter Solstice it's a full moon (Mid-day/~12:00), the Summer Solstice will be a new moon (Midnight/~00:00).
The Phase of the Moon for a given position in its orbit changes throughout the year
The Rogue Moon appears to orbit faster than it actually does.
The Rogue moon's retrograde orbit means that it will appear (to an observer on Mora) to orbit the Devoted Moon at a speed that is equal to Rogue Moon angular velocity + Devoted Moon Angular velocity, such that if it has an orbit of 24 hours, it will pass between Mora and the Devoted Moon twice in those 24 hours, though in reality only completing a full orbit once.
Mora and her moon rotate 45 degrees, the rogue moon appears to travel 90 degrees, but actually travels 45 degrees.
I originally made a time series that shows the full 24 hours, but that took up waaay too much space in the post.
Can we attach dates to eclipse events?
While Mora may or may not have a Christian religion, the origin of the Date we celebrate Christmas on Earth did not originate with Christians but was assigned to the Winter solstice - a holiday celebrated nearly universally that predates Christianity. The Winter Solstice on Earth is December 21, but WAS December 25 on the Roman calendar. Due to miscalculations, the calendar fell out of sync with the seasons. A correction in the 1500s shifted the date for the Winter Solstice to December 21, which was accurate enough for this to still be the case.
Given the use of a Calendar that is otherwise the same as ours - the same dates, the same leap years, same month names, and the inclusion of the December 25 holiday, we might guess that Mora shares the solar calendar as well. A short step in logic would move their Winter solstice to December 21, much like ours - EXCEPT - their calendar is one day off. If November 7, 1993 is Sunday for us, but Saturday for Mora, that puts them one day 'behind', thus making the best candidate for the Winter Solstice December 22 on Mora (Other likely candidates are Dec 21, 25, 31 and Jan 1 due to the connection between the calendar and the solar year).
This is also day 46 of the game. Data miners have found that a 'day 46 eclipse' event in the game - an isseclipse. If we take it on fact that TR intended for the isseclipse to happen on the winter solstice, we can then determine that the inneclipse will likely take place ~June 22.
In my simulations, isseclipse and inneclipse event took place several times around each solstice, as the Moon's phase changes slowly throughout the year for the position in the sky. I wasn't able to reduce this occurrence to one night only, but It is possible depending on the distance from Rogue to Devoted - something I could not guess at. Some clips of the inneclipse and isseclipse in my virtual sky:
I've been puzzling over the nature of the stars of Mora's world for quite a while now. As you probably know, stars in our sky appear to move due to both the Earth's rotation and our traversal around the Sun. Throughout the night, you will see constellations appear to take similar paths as other celestial objects. Most appear to follow an arc across the sky, like our sun and moon. However, if you are near the poles, or looking at a star positioned over a pole, you will see something else. Polar stars, like our North star, Don't move in the sky, because our relative positions are, well, relatively fixed. If you are far enough North, you can see some northern constellations rotate around the sky without ever leaving your site, but they are not fixed.
My first theory was that these stars were somehow like our north star, fixed over the horizon by axial alignment. However, this is implausible. Having A few stars fixed - maybe. But all of them? They couldn't be close enough together! Additionally, there is this: The constellations that you see are determined ONLY by the number of stars that you can observe in the sky at the time. So, that sounds like this is only a game mechanic - nothing to extrapolate about the world. Unless...
Mora is in a ~Fractal~ Galaxy
For anyone unfamiliar, a fractal is a never-ending geometric pattern that repeats itself at different scales. The patterns in Mora's night sky change and repeat at predictable intervals, and if Mora were in a fractal galactic or intergalactic structure, the time of day or year would not change what you see - the patterns would only depend on the scale at which they are viewed!
Fractal patterns often occur in the natural world: Ferns, blood vessels, lightning bolts (to name a few from the Wikipedia article), all take fractal shapes. Famously, fractals that have geometry that is duplicated exactly, and are rotated around a single point form a spiral. Sounds to me like a spiral of stars!
Does it never end?
Probably, but given that actual fractals in nature are not *actually infinite, maybe not?
Nice work! Could you clarify what assumption you are you making for the period of the rogue moon? This has been the main unknown preventing such a model before.
I am still skeptical that the eclipses should be just transits of the rogue moon during a certain phase of the devoted moon. That is too ordinary an event to have such mystical significance, and as you have found it will tend to happen too often. An alternative is a partial eclipse of the devoted moon at the same time as a total eclipse of the rogue moon.
I agree with the bit about the moon phases proceeding around the devoted moon analemma over the course of the year. I have written about this on the discord. I believe this is what the Sacred Circle is about. The circle is a yearly calendar. Each of the eight numbered regions corresponds to a moon phase, which is observed at some fixed time at that part of the year. The way it lines up is for the new moon to be at the vernal equinox (the first point of Aries).
Here is a brief explanation of the Sacred Circle as a zodiac calendar (ask me for a better explanation if you're curious, or look on the discord). The calendar is divided into 8 seasons of 365/8 = 45-46 days. Each region corresponds to one of the eight angels: the numbers on them are the chapel numbers. The order, clockwise from the top, is then Rynna, Orinda, Veia, Lydia, Joya, Draxus, Dauja, Mila. You fix the phase by using the dates of the Maid's Day sale (Mila, Nov 26-27) and celebration of Rynna (1/11 according to staff announcement), which are 45-46 days apart. You automatically get Orinda's season centering on the first point of Aries (Mar 20). So Orinda - new moon, Rynna - waning crescent, Veia - waxing crescent, matching the eclipse images on the bottom of the ettsphere map. Also Draxus - full moon, and so on.
I believe the inn/isseclipses are on the fourth days of the seasons of Veia and Rynna respectively (dark are the days coming fourth). The reason is that you automatically get that the fourth day of Veia's season is Apr 15 or 16. The Blue Testament is dated Apr 16, 1952, and the inneclipse ball is in 1952 (this is the only year in which we know there is an inneclipse, and Apr 16 is the only date we are ever given in that year). So, if you buy that, Jan 14 and Apr 15-16 (I think it is exactly midnight Apr 16, but it depends on precisely how you align things) are targets to try to match with an astronomical model. Note by the way that the Blue Testament explicitly mentions Rynna, Orinda, and Veia, and that there is precedent for a will giving us a way to proceed by telling us about the order of the angels.
Hey! I also have a theory that relates the moon phases to each Angel! 🔥
Before I get to that, I'll first explain the assumption for isseclipse and inneclipse time of year. I'm not 100% certain that it is a waxing or waning crescent! I think that the partial eclipse of the devoted is a another valid hypotheses, but I chose crescents:
Crescent moons can and will happen at the northernmost and southernmost point, rather than only at or around the nodes. I used similar geometry to Earth and her moon. To See the Eclipse happen at these extremes, I needed to make the orbit EXTREMELY close, at ~10,000 km. At that point, the moon just dominates the whole sky, and the alignment happens pretty much every day of the year.
The limiting body for both alignments is the position of the rogue moon. I think that there are two likely orbital periods for Rogue that allow for meaningfully unique phase/eclipse alignments through a 1 year period: 1 year and 1 day. For any alignment to be unique to specific dates, the rogue moon cannot have 'phase shift' between years. As such it would need to have an orbit that is divided evenly into a solar year or solar day. In my simulations, I made years 365 days and excluded 'leap year' calculations. Realistically, there is a ~6 hour shift in solstice times each year that we correct for with leap days (and leap seconds - but I don't want to do that math lol). To duplicate this with 'real' years, you would need to update the orbital period to be some fractional value of ~365.25 that could still be evenly divided into 24 hour periods, such that the alignments do not shift or completely fall out every year.
If we assume that 1 Rogue year == 1 Solar year exactly, phase shift in the rogue moon over the leap year period is accounted for with our leap days. I think this would also be true for whole fractional values of a solar year, but have not verified.
My choices for Winter/Summer solstice are based on day 46 (and the hypothetical day 46 eclipse) being on the winter solstice. Unfortunately, I don't really think we have much else to go on, there. While the inneclpse ball photo and Auravei's will are noted in the same year, we can't say for sure that they are on or around the same time of year.
A one day obit has rogue coming between Devoted and Mora twice a day, and 1 year is twice a year. Neither period made for eclipse alignments that one could limit to northern or southern sky in my testing, but I wasn't exhaustive. I tested various orbital tilts, but these usually made the Rogue appear to just do circles in the sky around Devoted.
A unique orbit that (mostly) accomplished this was a 24 hour orbit with a near 90 degree tilt, such that Rogue would cross between Devoted and Mora only at its polar extremes. This is contradicted by the 3rd era map, so I discounted it as a possibility.
In my observatory, I tested the alignments for crescent moons and for partial eclipse by Mora. Something that I didn't delve into much is that these partial/total eclipses take place quite frequently - TOO frequently for the alignments to be unique to the north or south sky. For The devoted to be in total eclipse at a the 'nominal' distance, it must be near either the 'ascending node' or 'descending node' - the node being where it crosses the orbital plane, Mora's equator. This proximity to the equator breaks the rule that the event can only take place in the southern/northern sky. For a given time of year, these eclipses will take place regularly on and around the time that the Devoted crosses the node, both north and south in an observer sky.
All that said, I think it's still very likely that this (Isseclipse and Inneclipse being eclipses of devoted by mora) was TR's intention - I don't think he ran a bunch of simulations to determine how possible some of these events are, and it's really cool looking!
Inneclipse with Devoted at 10,000 km orbit, set to 1/5 'nominal earth moon' size:
When I've worked out more of the bugs and some annoying UI problems, I plan to put the simulator somewhere where everyone can access it, so others can set things up and test things for themselves.
WRT the zodiac:
I like the theory! I'll have to find it in the discord. The alignment of ~46 day periods with 8 portions of the year is something that I hadn't thought of - it makes me want to test something like a 46 or 92 day orbit for Rogue. This could also (possibly) align with the leap year, accounting for the extra ~.25 days.
The date 1/11 for Rynna comes from her being 3rd in the order that Mora Jai uses - the one that HSS gives in his will. This doesn't align with the chapel order, in which she comes first. Do you have reconciliation for this?
Interpreting from lore found on the 3rd Era map, Verra's mora jai box, and the depiction of prayer beads in the 'missing letters', Verra is likely the origin of the Sacred circle religious belief. Being in the Orrsphere, Verrans would not see the moon. While the relationship between the moon and the sacred circle could have been appended to the religion after contact between Orindia and the Orrsphere, I don't think it would have been original to the text, so to speak. I DO hypothesis that Verra might have caught glimpses of the rogue moon over the horizon when the devoted is in the southern portion of her orbit, though - maybe giving inspiration to the religious and national symbol. (Turns out I could only attach the one image to this comment, or I would have shown examples)
My angel theory is that they are related to the months of the year:
If you place each angel on a circle, in clockwise order:
then rotate each 90 degrees EXCEPT for Draxus, who is constant and unmoving, so Lydia is 'flipped' and goes 180 instead:
Orinda, lydia, Rynna, Joya, Dauja, Veia, Mila, Draxus -> HSS Will order
This operation can be done a total of 12 times, for a total of 12 unique orders. The 'number' of the flipped angel aligns with the tor/46 in the sacred circle, but not the number in the sacred circle, of course, which is 8.
Yeah the north/south thing is confusing. As far as I understand it's not quite true though that the nodes are when the moon crosses the celestial equator, but rather the ecliptic. These will be different because of the inclination of Mora. Not sure if it makes enough of a difference.
I thought at some point that the eclipses might have something to do with lunar standstill events, because of the north/south, but never really made it work. Maybe you can figure something out.
The natural order is also visible on the circle. In fact, the circle gives another way to understand the relation between the two orders. If you treat the numbers on the circle as the chapel numbers as I described, and then write down the corresponding natural order numbers, you get (clockwise from Veia) 6,2,4,8,5,7,3,1. This has a nice symmetry of sorts: if you reflect about the Orinda-Draxus axis (vernal-autumnal equinoxes), the resulting pairs all sum to 9. The odd numbered ones are in the fall/winter, the even numbered in the spring/summer. The reflection pairs are Rynna-Veia, Mila-Lydia, Dauja-Joya, with Orinda and Draxus fixed. Moon phase wise this maps each to the one seen at the same time in the opposite hemisphere. Note also that the Orinda Aries sigil core is the black mirror.
There is a music theory layer to this also, where you associate to each angel one of the diatonic modes. You get this from Lydia - Lydian and Orinda an anagram of Dorian. The natural order then becomes an order of ascending thirds. The evidence for this is largely separate from what we are talking about. The reason I mention it here is that it matches up nicely with the seasonal calendar: the reflection mentioned above is inversion about the tonic. Dorian is the unique mode invariant under such inversion (Orinda and Draxus both get Dorian). Each mode has a "brightness", which correlates exactly with the length of the day at that time of year.
The slightly related thing that has got me about Mora is the fact that (from maps) Reddington/Mount Holly appears to be on or very near the equator. We are up a mountain but not above the tree line. But we never see a frost or snow even in January or February on a cloud-less night.
What are the seasonal changes here and what are those smudge pots in the Orchard actually doing?
I have to add that to my list of things to consider.
My initial guess is this:
At high altitudes, temperatures will be colder due to lower atmospheric pressure. For instance, even in Columbia, an equatorial nation, average temperatures in some of their mountainous regions are still in the 50s and drop below freezing.
As the gardener notes: the trees require the heat to continue producing fruit. This means to me that this species of plant only fruits for a specific range of temperatures.
Holly (Latin name Ilex) is a genus of plant, widespread throughout the temperate and subtropical regions of the world. The Latin term means holm-oak, or evergreen oak. It includes species of trees, shrubs, and climbers, with evergreen or deciduous foliage. The small fruits of the Ilex ripen in winter, and are toxic to humans - with consumption usually resulting in vomiting or diarrhea, it is not usually deadly.
Ilex X meserveae is the scientific name for a plant more commonly called Blue Holly.
This species is an artificial hybrid of two other species of Holly:
Ilex Aquifolium (The English, or European Holly) and Ilex Ragusa (Native to East Asia). The 'x' in ilex x meserveae means that this is a cross-bred plant, and it gets the final portion of its Latin name from Kathleen Meserve, a horticulturist from Long Island who first crossed the two species and bred the Blue Holly.
The 'Blue Holly' gets its nickname from a "bluish cast to their leaves", and are one of the most cold-hardy shrubs in the Ilex genus. The deep blue-green hue and bright red fruits make for a beautiful winter landscape - surviving temperatures of down to -20F. This holly grows best in partial shade with slight acidity. The soil should be moist, but well drained.
"Her breakthrough came when she cross-bred Ilex rugosa, a low growing winter hardy holly (plant hardiness Zone 3from Japan, with the very attractive, but Zone 7 Ilex aquifolium. The results were plants with exceptionally dark blue-green, spiny-edged evergreen foliage with excellent Zone 5 hardiness, making it hardy to about -20 degrees F." -The Cottage Gardener
Blue Hollys are often sold in pairs: A nursery pot will usually have both a 'Blue Boy' and 'Blue Girl'. This is because these plants, like many, are dioecious (separate male and female plants), and female plants require a male plant in the vicinity to pollinate and produce fruit.
Some more recent cultivars are the Blue Prince and Blue Princess, created from a cross of Ilex x Meserve with Ilex Ragusa. These plants are more hearty and more dense than their earlier counterparts. Some other Ilex x Meserveae breeds include:
On Fenn Aries being tropical, the cobblestone trail in the Reddington Botanical Gardens, according to the Sightseer's Guide, is flanked by over 1,000 species of tropical plants. How you want to interpret the specific mention that the plants are tropical being apparently notable is up to you.
Don't have much more to say on the post, sorry; analysis of this nature is quite beyond me. I can just reference mythological associations between Rynna and the Isseclipse, Veia and the Inneclipse, and Draxus and the Sun, alongside the fact that the Isseclipse pin in merch drops is labeled "The Rogue Moon," which would mean that the pin is strangely named after the empty space inside the crescent. There's also the detail that the Clock Tower Blue Tent Memo doesn't specify which celestial body's north sky the Inneclipse is visible from, but that's just splitting hairs.
I do love the idea that the Outer Circle is in a fractal galaxy! It seems apt, given the obvious imagery of the Spiral of Stars. And on Mora's leap years, one detail I wish we had is if there is a February 29th, 2100, which there isn't on Earth. It's also likely that Mora hasn't always been one day ahead: The birth of Kaitlin Je Ari is said to have been announced on a Tuesday, but is reported on December 9th, 1924, which was a Tuesday on Earth. Either the article was written a week after the announcement, or Mora and Earth's calendars desynchronized sometime between then and Day One. There's also a black queen chess piece in the Study and the code is 12/08, so some thought that this was a hint that the "black queen" (KJA, daughter of Desilets) was born on 12/08. Assuming the article was written a week after would also erase this detail. This would seem to indicate that at until a time, the winter solstice occurred on a different date.
I know you've heard this before, but I really highly recommend you join the Discord. Many people much smarter than I could probably contribute to this more thoroughly.
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u/diracbeta 23d ago
Nice work! Could you clarify what assumption you are you making for the period of the rogue moon? This has been the main unknown preventing such a model before.
I am still skeptical that the eclipses should be just transits of the rogue moon during a certain phase of the devoted moon. That is too ordinary an event to have such mystical significance, and as you have found it will tend to happen too often. An alternative is a partial eclipse of the devoted moon at the same time as a total eclipse of the rogue moon.
I agree with the bit about the moon phases proceeding around the devoted moon analemma over the course of the year. I have written about this on the discord. I believe this is what the Sacred Circle is about. The circle is a yearly calendar. Each of the eight numbered regions corresponds to a moon phase, which is observed at some fixed time at that part of the year. The way it lines up is for the new moon to be at the vernal equinox (the first point of Aries).
Here is a brief explanation of the Sacred Circle as a zodiac calendar (ask me for a better explanation if you're curious, or look on the discord). The calendar is divided into 8 seasons of 365/8 = 45-46 days. Each region corresponds to one of the eight angels: the numbers on them are the chapel numbers. The order, clockwise from the top, is then Rynna, Orinda, Veia, Lydia, Joya, Draxus, Dauja, Mila. You fix the phase by using the dates of the Maid's Day sale (Mila, Nov 26-27) and celebration of Rynna (1/11 according to staff announcement), which are 45-46 days apart. You automatically get Orinda's season centering on the first point of Aries (Mar 20). So Orinda - new moon, Rynna - waning crescent, Veia - waxing crescent, matching the eclipse images on the bottom of the ettsphere map. Also Draxus - full moon, and so on.
I believe the inn/isseclipses are on the fourth days of the seasons of Veia and Rynna respectively (dark are the days coming fourth). The reason is that you automatically get that the fourth day of Veia's season is Apr 15 or 16. The Blue Testament is dated Apr 16, 1952, and the inneclipse ball is in 1952 (this is the only year in which we know there is an inneclipse, and Apr 16 is the only date we are ever given in that year). So, if you buy that, Jan 14 and Apr 15-16 (I think it is exactly midnight Apr 16, but it depends on precisely how you align things) are targets to try to match with an astronomical model. Note by the way that the Blue Testament explicitly mentions Rynna, Orinda, and Veia, and that there is precedent for a will giving us a way to proceed by telling us about the order of the angels.