Celestial Bodies

Moon Charts | Solstices and Equinoxes

The Moons of Lyran Tal: Anolinde and Rodien

For millennia the presence of the twin moons has been perhaps the only constant in all of Lyran Tal and the lands beyond the Silver Moon Empire. Legends hint at many strange things about these moons; some identify them with the mythical siblings Anolinde and Rodien, spirits of dreams and nightmares respectively. Others tell of travel between Lyran Tal and the larger moon in ages past, of an entire civilization upon the face of that great looming sphere of silver. One very obscure tale even claims there was once a third moon that disappeared or was destroyed, but this is little more than a story, with no solid proof available; it is likely just another fanciful invention of the minstrels.

Regardless of the many myths surrounding the moons of Lyran Tal, these are some of the truths of those amazing spheres, at least as the citizens of Lyran Tal see things. Let us begin first with some helpful facts about our own planet that will better enable us to visualize Lyran Tal's world.

For convenience, we'll assume the world of Lyran Tal is approximately the same distance from its sun and the sun about the same size as we have. Earth's moon and sun happen to be precisely the right sizes and average distances from Earth so that, depending on their immediate positions, you can have both full and annular solar eclipses, and both full and partial lunar ones. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the moon blocks out all of the sun but a thin ring. Solar eclipses only occur during a new moon, lunar ones only during a full moon.

Lyran Tal's moons are vastly different in size and appearance, despite their similar periods of rotation around the planet. Great Anolinde appears so large that it dwarfs Rodien in the sky, on average eighty percent larger than our own moon seems. Rodien is far closer in size to our own moon, seeming just a little smaller in the sky, but small enough that the great majority of its rare solar eclipses are annular. The two moons almost seem to halves of ours, for massive Anolinde shines as ours does, while Rodien is far more similar in size and general behavior.

It is Anolinde that legends say once held life, and some claim it yet does. Storms move across its face at times, and occasional volcanic activity lends energy to the moon's fairly mild weather patterns. Areas rumored to have once been oceans are now believed to be ice fields or entirely dry, and some larger craters can be seen on the surface, though not so many as Earth's moon possesses, Anolinde's thinning atmosphere still providing it some protection. When Anolinde is in the sky, it lights up the world beyond anything seen during a night on Earth, shining like silver, etched with mountain ranges, valleys, craters, ice fields and plateaus. Its still-shifting face is perhaps one reason it has been called the moon of dreams, looming brightly above Lyran Tal. Anolinde rotates slowly, a day on the silver moon taking 40.82 planetary days to complete, and at a high angle of orbit, meaning that it crosses the sky more north to south than east to west. Anolinde also has fewer solar and lunar eclipses because of this.

Rodien is like a red jewel by comparison (almost), far smaller and closer than Earth's moon, though it seems nearly the same size to stargazers below. Rodien's surface is dark and murky, its features a jumble of crimson and black that at times glows like great drop of blood; this is surely responsible for Rodien's own nickname as the moon of nightmares. Only one face is ever visible, a Rodien day being equal in length to that of its orbit, so what lies on the other side of Rodien is a great mystery. Rodien's path through the sky is much more east to west than Anolinde's, and eclipses involving it more common as a result. Rodien is clearly the closer to residents of Lyran Tal, as it passes now and then before its far larger sibling. It also contributes little to lighting the land, even on nights when it shines full and Anolinde is nowhere to be seen, but when even a sliver of Anolinde is visible, the silver moon easily makes up for this.

Rodien makes a full circuit of the planet once every twenty-six days; Anolinde takes only marginally longer, at thirty. Because of this, it takes seventy-eight years for the precise same lunar configuration to occur again on a specific day. The ominous double full moon that heralded Icaruss' return on the 5th night of Earthfreeze, 1259, was the first to occur on that precise day in seventy-eight years, and thus the first since the Battle of Dawn's Early Light in Soothcool of 1200.

There is another, far older calendar still used in parts of the Silver Moon Empire and beyond. This calendar goes by many names, depending on who is asked, but it is based off the lunar cycles, with not one but two sets of cycles during its 390 day year. The last day of 1259 was also the first day in the old lunar calendar. The cycles are ordered by the moons, naturally: thirteen cycles of thirty days each and fifteen cycles of twenty-six days apiece. There are seventy-three lunar years for every seventy-eight solar years. The lunar calendar tends to be used by certain races, organizations, and traditions for cultural and magical purposes both. Elves and Dwarves have commonly kept track of the lunar years, as have Druids and Witches. There are few holidays associated with the lunar year, except those found in individual cultures and regions, but special days during the solar year are often considered more special if they coincide with special days during the lunar year, such as eclipses and dual full moons. Frequently, the cycles are unlabeled, though there is an ancient tradition that names the longer cycles for the most prominent constellations near Anolinde's moonrise at the start of the cycle, with the shorter ones noted for major events; storms, disasters, wars, coronations, special births, and so on. Some cultures even have records dating back for centuries upon centuries, kept in the lunar mode, with the current lunar year numbered well beyond 1260. Some hold to both the solar and lunar years, counting them together as they do the dual sets of cycles for the lunar side, and there are still tales and old sayings stemming from the ancient seventy-eight year cycle, from the days when it was more codified.

A few small groups across Lyran Tal have tried through the ages to keep track of eclipses, both solar and lunar, and even to predict them. They work especially hard to take note of eclipses involving Rodien, as it is considered a herald of violent events by many. This is not as easy a task as one might think, however; solar and lunar eclipses both tend to only be visible from a certain portion of the planet, not to the world at large, so they seem even more rare events than they actually are.

Moon Charts

Anolinde's charts are easy to work up; because of how regular its cycle is, its cycles correspond precisely with those of the solar year; if Anolinde is full the 13th through 15th of Bitewind, it will be full on those same three days all the rest of the year until Earthfreeze's five extra days drop everything back five days for the next year. Rodien is more difficult to work out in the long run, but in the short run you can go cycle by cycle by adding thirty and subtracting four.

Solstices & Equinoxes

The Winter Solstice is celebrated as a two-day event, placing it precisely opposite the Summer Solstice and taking care of the problem of that little fraction left over when splitting a 365-day year into four equal parts. The solstices and equinoxes fall as follows:

A point of note: though our days of the week change because we keep a running tally, Lyran Tal's solar years always fall on the same days.

Information courtesy of Gjaki's Player

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