How the Sky Works


"The sky is a vast sphere, the Firmament, that surrounds the world and touches upon Chaos. It is divided into two hemispheres - Night and Day. Night and Day each have a great light that rides upon the inside of the hemisphere. For Day, it is the Sun. For Night, the light was broken into many pieces. The largest is the Moon, the smaller are the Stars."

Teshnuvar I (xii).

"The Firmament revolves about the world, turning Day into Night and back again. Where the Sun rises is the East, and where it sets is the West."
Teshnuvar I (xiii).

"There are other bodies in the sky that are not attached to the Firmament, since they can appear in both Day and Night. I call these bodies the Wanderers. Their colours are Jade, Gold, Silver and Bronze."
Teshnuvar I (xiv).

"There is a land beneath our world, like a reflection in the water. It is the Underwater Darkness World, where all things are reversed. It is the true home of Night, and of creatures of the Night. Sometimes the Underwater Darkness World impinges on our own, where waters or shafts in the earth are especially deep."
Teshnuvar I (xv).

"Long ago, there were four suns - one for each season. There was a terrible war between the brothers...The East Sun was victorious, and he took up the burdens of his brothers. The North Sun was slain, and now the Winter Sun is his pale ghost, shedding light but not heat.
Teshnuvar I (xx-xxx).

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Designer's Notes

Is this cosmology set?
Again, bear in mind that this is the predominant theory within our most detailed part of the world. Teshnuvar may have got things terribly wrong. All that can be said for certain are that there is one sun, one moon and four "other" bodies - possibly planets, possibly something else. The sun rises and sets in the usual fashion. Its path takes it across the very centre of the world, and does not vary with seasons. Changing temperature over the seasons therefore comes from a change in intensity of the sun, of which different cultures have different explanations.

But what if I want three moons (or suns or whatever)?
Not a problem. How the sky appears can vary form place to place, although unlike the prevailing temperatures it is a lot harder to alter. Kiranjika, for example, is a land where four suns appear in the sky due to a powerful spell cast long ago by a conclave of sorcerers. Teshnuvar's "Wanderers" can take on different appearances in different times or place too.

Isn't this irrelevent to gaming?
Not necessarily. It is important to know for calendars, weather, phases of the moon (which may be important for magic or shape-changers), plus providing the option for heroic journeys to the Underworld, or the Moon, or the Wanderers, and for less-heroic adversaries to come from these places.

What about travel to other worlds?
Let's concentrate on one world for the time being! Should such a requirement arise, it ought to be up to the individual gamesmaster. Maybe the Firmament is not solid, allowing passage through into the domain of Chaos. Maybe Teshnuvar is wrong, and the world is simply a globe adrift in the void of space, obeying Newtonian physics. The common person on the ground, however, believes in Teshnuvar's theories, or something akin to them.