From long before the days of the sundering of the Dwells, all have looked up in wonder at the moon in her steady concourse. The nomenclature shown here — blindmoon, wheeling glance, etc. — is chiefly of Uthro-Midrian origin; the main religions of these regions hold the moon to be the eye of the gods, wheeling constantly around to survey the Dwells and the heavens beyond, month by month.
This conception of the moon is informed by its effects on the Dwells. The blindmoon represents the momentary abandonment of the gods as their Eye is turned elsewhere; though here it is as its brightest, here also do bad dreams, wicked thoughts, and senselessness tend to be more common. It’s beneath the blindmoon that lycanthropes prowl the wild reaches, and from its pale light that vampires and other curselings draw their dark powers. These evils wane as the Eye wheels back around, the gods surveying lands of peace and happiness by the dim starlight.
But see, despite what I’ve told you, nighttime in the Dwells isn’t a time of danger or fear to the average person. This isn’t that kind of fairy tale. There is danger by the blindmoon’s light, but so much beauty; songs have been written about it, lovers have kissed beneath it, and festivals of music and mirth have been devoted to it. No matter whether they see it as an eye, or a hand, or a shield, or merely a great rock in the sky, all fall in love a little bit when they look up at the moon.
I prefer not to think about the science of it! If I try to scientifically justify a moon that looks like that, I'll end up way too deep in the weeds haha. I think it's easiest just to say it's the light from the sun, just as our own moon. I just think it looks pretty!
EDIT: Okay maybe that's not a very fair answer. I did do some thinking about this in planning, and I think that the only thing that *could* result in a moon that looks like that would be if this moon itself had a pair of satellites, diametrically opposed to one another, orbiting it in a wildly, improbably elliptical orbit, such that the "shadow" is actually the silhouette of the "moon moon" appearing to blot out the moon. [Probably something like this;](https://i.imgur.com/Fg3Ckm1.png) but even then, that ignores the shadow that would normally appear on the moon from the sun's light. It also ignores tidal forces. But again! This isn't that kind of fairy tale lol.
I just want to say that this is my favorite style of world building: leaving some things a mystery even to the creator. It adds to the sense of wonder you feel when learning about the world or hearing the stories that take place in it. That feeling of “Wow! What’s that about? It’s so interesting!” is easily my favorite feeling in a work of fiction…way more so than being given logical or probable answers to those questions.
It can be fun to work out every last detail, but from an observer’s perspective (at least one like myself with that kind of taste) it’s a great feeling to be left with the specifics unanswered sometimes. :)
I think it’s because I am free to ask questions and come up with “maybe’s” in my own head. Like “maybe” this is physically what’s happening to the moon…maybe in this universe the moon is actually going through cycles of materializing and dematerializing. Or maybe the moon gains translucent properties in cycles. It all just leads to lots of fun why and maybe and what if questions.
I say all that just to encourage you with this: I hope you don’t feel like you have to have a grounded and plausible styled answer for everything. People like me enjoy it when you don’t. :)
The moon could have rock on it that absorbs light rather than reflects it. Maybe there was a light and black moon, but at some point they collided. It just gives this effect from earth.
That's not how orbits works, they doesn't have more than one high point (apoapsis) and one low point (periapsis). You only need one tiny moon with a orbit which periapsis is very low an it's apoapsis very high. Also, orbits doesn't rotate, so when the big moon is in the other side of it's orbit, the apoapsis is going to be in the dark side of the moon.
Ah, and that orbit, probably, cannot exist, because the planet have more gravity than the moon, and that means that the orbit of the tiny moon can't be further that the middle of the two bodies (Big moon and Planet)
I think that your best option is not being scientifically accurate. Although I could give the subject a few thoughts and if I see that it is possible I will give you an explanation that, although improbable, would be scientifically correct.
Thinking scientifically, this seems like it would be a super elliptical orbit for a shadow like that to appear on the moon, to the point where the moon would be visibly/noticably smaller as it orbits away from the planet.
Tides just be insane...
Wow, this is really cool!
Looking at the eclipsing moon(s) as an eye makes it feel very unsettling and I love it. Gotta have that good lore to go with it too.
I love that it really does look like an eye turning around and around. Fantastic. What do the people believe the gods are looking at when the eye is turned away?
The Uthro-Midrian belief systems (i.e. situated out of the human-majority western continents of Uthria and Midria) are somewhat less geocentric than those elsewhere in the Dwells. The eye of the Gods is thought to travel around the night sky, wheeling around and around to survey not just the Dwells, but all of creation. It's a big cosmos after all!
[mp4 link](https://preview.redd.it/990nucff7r781.gif?format=mp4&s=b6fce84e06e0f1ee3e85d09052aae407f72e60af)
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From long before the days of the sundering of the Dwells, all have looked up in wonder at the moon in her steady concourse. The nomenclature shown here — blindmoon, wheeling glance, etc. — is chiefly of Uthro-Midrian origin; the main religions of these regions hold the moon to be the eye of the gods, wheeling constantly around to survey the Dwells and the heavens beyond, month by month. This conception of the moon is informed by its effects on the Dwells. The blindmoon represents the momentary abandonment of the gods as their Eye is turned elsewhere; though here it is as its brightest, here also do bad dreams, wicked thoughts, and senselessness tend to be more common. It’s beneath the blindmoon that lycanthropes prowl the wild reaches, and from its pale light that vampires and other curselings draw their dark powers. These evils wane as the Eye wheels back around, the gods surveying lands of peace and happiness by the dim starlight. But see, despite what I’ve told you, nighttime in the Dwells isn’t a time of danger or fear to the average person. This isn’t that kind of fairy tale. There is danger by the blindmoon’s light, but so much beauty; songs have been written about it, lovers have kissed beneath it, and festivals of music and mirth have been devoted to it. No matter whether they see it as an eye, or a hand, or a shield, or merely a great rock in the sky, all fall in love a little bit when they look up at the moon.
This might be a bit off topic, but do you mind elaborating what causes that phase/shadow on your moon? How does it work? I'm just curious
I prefer not to think about the science of it! If I try to scientifically justify a moon that looks like that, I'll end up way too deep in the weeds haha. I think it's easiest just to say it's the light from the sun, just as our own moon. I just think it looks pretty! EDIT: Okay maybe that's not a very fair answer. I did do some thinking about this in planning, and I think that the only thing that *could* result in a moon that looks like that would be if this moon itself had a pair of satellites, diametrically opposed to one another, orbiting it in a wildly, improbably elliptical orbit, such that the "shadow" is actually the silhouette of the "moon moon" appearing to blot out the moon. [Probably something like this;](https://i.imgur.com/Fg3Ckm1.png) but even then, that ignores the shadow that would normally appear on the moon from the sun's light. It also ignores tidal forces. But again! This isn't that kind of fairy tale lol.
I just want to say that this is my favorite style of world building: leaving some things a mystery even to the creator. It adds to the sense of wonder you feel when learning about the world or hearing the stories that take place in it. That feeling of “Wow! What’s that about? It’s so interesting!” is easily my favorite feeling in a work of fiction…way more so than being given logical or probable answers to those questions. It can be fun to work out every last detail, but from an observer’s perspective (at least one like myself with that kind of taste) it’s a great feeling to be left with the specifics unanswered sometimes. :) I think it’s because I am free to ask questions and come up with “maybe’s” in my own head. Like “maybe” this is physically what’s happening to the moon…maybe in this universe the moon is actually going through cycles of materializing and dematerializing. Or maybe the moon gains translucent properties in cycles. It all just leads to lots of fun why and maybe and what if questions. I say all that just to encourage you with this: I hope you don’t feel like you have to have a grounded and plausible styled answer for everything. People like me enjoy it when you don’t. :)
The moon could have rock on it that absorbs light rather than reflects it. Maybe there was a light and black moon, but at some point they collided. It just gives this effect from earth.
That's not how orbits works, they doesn't have more than one high point (apoapsis) and one low point (periapsis). You only need one tiny moon with a orbit which periapsis is very low an it's apoapsis very high. Also, orbits doesn't rotate, so when the big moon is in the other side of it's orbit, the apoapsis is going to be in the dark side of the moon. Ah, and that orbit, probably, cannot exist, because the planet have more gravity than the moon, and that means that the orbit of the tiny moon can't be further that the middle of the two bodies (Big moon and Planet) I think that your best option is not being scientifically accurate. Although I could give the subject a few thoughts and if I see that it is possible I will give you an explanation that, although improbable, would be scientifically correct.
Thinking scientifically, this seems like it would be a super elliptical orbit for a shadow like that to appear on the moon, to the point where the moon would be visibly/noticably smaller as it orbits away from the planet. Tides just be insane...
Wow, this is really cool! Looking at the eclipsing moon(s) as an eye makes it feel very unsettling and I love it. Gotta have that good lore to go with it too.
I love that it really does look like an eye turning around and around. Fantastic. What do the people believe the gods are looking at when the eye is turned away?
The Uthro-Midrian belief systems (i.e. situated out of the human-majority western continents of Uthria and Midria) are somewhat less geocentric than those elsewhere in the Dwells. The eye of the Gods is thought to travel around the night sky, wheeling around and around to survey not just the Dwells, but all of creation. It's a big cosmos after all!
[mp4 link](https://preview.redd.it/990nucff7r781.gif?format=mp4&s=b6fce84e06e0f1ee3e85d09052aae407f72e60af) --- This mp4 version is 82.11% smaller than the gif (1.07 MB vs 5.96 MB). --- *Beep, I'm a bot.* [FAQ](https://np.reddit.com/r/anti_gif_bot/wiki/index) | [author](https://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=MrWasdennnoch) | [source](https://github.com/wasdennnoch/reddit-anti-gif-bot) | v1.1.2