Re: Appearance of Red Moon

From: simon_hibbs2 <simon.hibbs_at_...>
Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2003 16:57:37 -0000

> Note that the "official" version is a bit more confusing than a
rotating
> moon. According to an article by Greg Stafford in "Tales of the
Reaching
> Moon" #16, the Moon is red all over (no Dark Side), and does not
actually
> rotate: instead, she stares fixedly southwards [1], while a black
shadow is
> "projected" onto her by an invisible orbiting body called Destix.
The shadow
> moves across the face of the moon, and *this* is what creates the
phases.
> (Yes, it hurts my head too!).

Usualy I agree with nick on things like this, but I quite like the idea of an unseen dark companion casting it's sinister shadow over the Red Moon (which otherwise should realy be called the 'Half Red, Half Black Moon'. The immediate questions this raises are where did this companion black moon come from, who worships it and why? All of which I think can have very entertaining questions. I also like the idea that the palace of the goddess isn't permanently a place of radiant moonlight, but spends half it's time plunged into darkness.

> [1] Interestingly, ILH-1 describes Rufelza's gaze "sweeping across
Her
> Empire" (p.15), which is hard to reconcile with a non-rotating Red
Moon
> whose face always stares in the same direction.

It also means that actualy the goddess, one of who's titles is 'The Turner' doesn't actualy turn. OTOH if her palace is permanently a place of light, that's hardly consistent with the idea that she is in a state of constant cyclical change. Neither is entirely satisfactory. I don't think either explanation can provide a fully satisfactory account, but I don't think they realy need to.

Mathew Cole :

>IMG Gloranthans don't ask that kind of question, really. Isn't
>that kind of thinking a product of a modern, technologically
>enlightened mind?

I think they do ask such questions, and are capable of developing quite sophisticated theories. After all, the fact that the earth is a sphere was proposed by Aristotle more than 2300 years ago, and Eratosthenes even calculated it's diameter around 2200 years ago. We know that the Buserians of Dara Happa have a highly sophisticated star lore, probably even more well developed that that of the ancient Babylonians, Egyptians and Chinese, who could accurately predict eclipses. Not only that, but Lunars can and do actualy go to the surface of the moon and find out for themselves.

Simon Hibbs

Powered by hypermail