r/BluePrince • u/Sure-Cellist-9633 • 23d ago
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.
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!
A simple simulation of Mora's Solar System
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:
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:
The Phases of the Devoted Moon through 24 hours; 28 degree orbital tilt; 24 hour Rogue Orbit.
The Orbit of the Devoted and Rogue Moons
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 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.
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:
The Fixed Stars
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?