I'm afraid it does to me. Ordinary in this world (apart from latitude and longitude effects, which are another matter entirely), ordinary in Glorantha. (Or at any rate, 'usual'.)
> Come on, man. We had a table telling the phase of the moon in relation to
> the day of the week. No exceptions vere given. Simples explanations are
> still the best.
You mean in those books and games talking exclusively about Sartar and Prax? Your account might be the parsimonous generalisation, but no more than that.
> If you refuse to see the problem, that's ok. The model given (for instance
> in the Reaching Moon magazine) with the searchlight, and it's explanation,
> leads to the moon behaving like I described. Never full and never empty,
> and always a half moon directly under it. Also, since the moon doesn't
> turn (it's the shadow that turns) Rufelza's face is different in every
> part of the empire.
No, you're not describing 'the model', you're describing what _you_ extrapolate from it using assumptions about 'physics' and 'optics' that are certainly inappropriate, and possibly invalid. I quote Nick Brooke on the topic (from his website):
: The Red Moon hangs motionless above the centre of the Lunar Empire, and : slowly turns through her weekly cycle of phases. One face of the moon is : bright red, the other is black. As the cycle progresses the red face : wanes, replaced by darkness creeping around it. The darkness grows to : cover half the moon, then three quarters, until the last crescent of red : moonlight disappears. When the moon is dark (the Dying and Black : phases), it can be seen only faintly by observers within the Glowline; : it is no longer visible outside. It remains dark for two days, after : which the red light creeps in again and waxes to full. An entire lunar : cycle takes seven days and nights. : This change of phases is not the same across all Glorantha: the Full: Moon phase in Dragon Pass (which begins at sunset on Wildday) coincides : with the Black Moon in the north of the Empire.
That's not 'optics' or 'RW astronomy' or indeed 'geometric modelling', that's a description of what one _sees_.
> I didn't claim it was, it's just the result of trying to get a "physics"
> model of how the moon vaxes and wanes,
But it isn't! I don't know if it was _intended_ as one, but as it cannot accurately be characterised as such, arguing against it on that basis requires a rather Inquisitional line of argument, if not to say guilt by association (without the association).
> instead of just accepting a simple mythic explanation "The moon's face
> is the same everywhere".
In this context, the word 'mythic' is really only conveying "Mikko likes it", just a 'physics' is mainly telling us "Mikko doesn't". Constancy is hardly an attribute of the mythology of the Moon, is it?
> > I agree that 'bendy light' is a horrible account, but are you seriously
> > suggesting that Glorantha ought to simply not to have a horizon?
>
> Yup.
NIMG.
> I think we could be dropped into a world with no horizon, and not
> notice it for a long, long time.
Unless you happen to live near an ocean, or in Prax, or Pent, or most of Pamaltela... And 'it won't bother much if you don't notice' is hardly a strong argument one way or the other -- that's as much to say it doesn't even matter mythically, and you're rejecting it one grounds of physics (i.e. that Bendy Light is ridiculous).
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