I thought that I'd expose my own theories of how the Red Moon rotates. We know it rotates because all the sources say so, but (as far as I can tell) its manner of rotation is never specified. the natural assumption is that it goes like a searchlight (very well illustrated on Nick Brooke's web page) and thus its axis of rotation is vertical.
The problem with this is that it renders almost meaningless the concept of "Full moon day" or "Black day" except as purely local events, since this will depend on which part of the Empire you're in at the time [1]. Yet we also have a large number of Lunar documents sent from one cormer of the empire to another are dated on the phase of the moon - cresent-come etc and this would be very confusing if it was based on local time.
Additionally, there is the unsatisfying effect that the Siver Shadow
Sultanate will always see a
Half Moon.
These problems disappear if the axis of rotation is *horizontal* - parallel to the ground. All the Empire sees the Moon from below. The Moon rotates as before but this time the rotation moves the red half to face the ground and then face the Heavens, instead of facing North and then South. The Moon is high enough[2] so that all the Empire see the phases at the same time.
If the axis is horizontal though, an obvious question is whuch way does it point? It could point E-W or N-S or any direction in between. This direction would be obvious to any observer but I would suggest that North-South is more satisfying. Or actually the axis points directly at Magasta's Pool (or the Pole star if you're a Light worshipper) which is very closely the same thing. The Moon should be high enough to mask any "edge effects" of seeing it more end on from, say, Dragon Pass, but from Pamaltela you would only be able to see its end (if you could see it at all).
So this theory doesn't conflict with any source, and resolves a few otherwise knotty problems, so it's true in my Glorantha, but please comment and criticise!
Notes:
[1] I'm aware that some people don't see this as a problem, and in fact
think it a Good Thing
[2] If you make some reasonable assumptions about the size of the Crater
and the angular width of the Red Moon, you can estimate it's distance.
I believe figure of about 1000km above Glamour is (within a hand wave)
not unresonable. However I also believe that it's possible to climb a
high mountain (8-12 km) and jump *down* onto the Moon - figure that out!
graeme
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