The Sky Above Aurelia

The Sky Above Aurelia

An Abridged Guide for the Student of the Heavens

by Magister Calen Voris of the High Observatory at Starfall Spire

Written in the 4,182nd Year of the Cracked Crown

On the Nature of the Heavens

We dwell upon Aurelia, a great world adrift in the sea of stars. The common folk say we stand at the center of creation; the instruments of my observatory insist otherwise.

By careful measure of the wandering lights, we know this:

- The sun, which we name Solinar, is the lamp at the center

- Aurelia and the other wandering stars—planets—circle Solinar, bound by unseen forces

- Around Aurelia move twelve moons, whose motions are intricate beyond full understanding

The old chronicles claim that once, in an elder age, sages possessed orreries of such precision that they could chart the dance of all these bodies and so read the fates as plainly as letters upon a page. Those devices are lost. We, in our humbler era, make do with lenses, brass, and patience.

Solinar, the Unblinking Flame

In the day sky rules Solinar, the Unblinking Flame. To the farmer, Solinar is simply light and warmth. To those who climb high enough, it is a blazing orb whose face changes subtly over the years.

Observations:

- Solinar burns steadily, which is our fortune; lesser worlds know fickle suns

- Yet there are rare seasons, perhaps once or twice in a lifetime, when its light grows troubled

During Solar Pulse Years:

- Strange veils of color ripple far from the poles

- Long-range spell-sending and scrying grow unreliable

- Delicate magitech—old sky-beacons, leyline relays—may stutter or fall silent for days

Temples call these "Years of Testing." We, more prosaically, mark them as flare cycles. Our tables can now predict them with reasonable accuracy, and city-states wise in such matters reinforce their wards accordingly.

The Wandering Worlds (Planets)

When Solinar sinks, the night's first lights are not stars but planets, each following its own path.

Cindros, The Anvil Star

- Closest to Solinar; bright, swift wanderer appearing near dawn or dusk

- Through telescope: half-lit coin, sometimes crescent, never full disc

- Named the Anvil of the Gods; closeness to Solinar makes it a hell of stone and fire

Astrological: Favored by smiths, engineers, and those who transform the world. When bright, great works prosper.

Akitara, The Red Sister

- Reddish wanderer, slow-moving; disc shows dark scars and pale basins

- Legends speak of bridges of light between Aurelia and Akitara in the Second Age

Astrological: Presides over old wars, buried empires, stubborn remnants of the past. Warns of ancient grudges stirring.

Vaelor, the Crowned Giant

- Mighty wanderer with visible disc, often girdled by faint ring

- With good glass: bands across face, tiny attendant moons visible

Astrological: Signifies great ventures, empires, engines too vast for one lifetime. Rulers dream larger when it stands high.

Nereth & The Outer Dark

- Pale, slow wanderer at farthest reaches; barely visible without glass

- Takes many years to complete circuit of Solinar

Astrological: Planet of endings, long decline, patient inevitability. Those born under its gaze tend to outlive their peers.

The Twelve Moons of Aurelia

If Solinar rules the day, then the twelve moons rule the night—and, in many minds, the fates of mortals. Scholars classify them by brightness into triads.

I. The Bright Triad

Lunara, the Hearth Moon

- Largest and brightest; primary moon, \~30 day orbit

- Governs ordinary tides and rhythm of months

Meaning: Mother, hearth, law, home. Oaths sworn under full Lunara bind more tightly. When eclipsed, even the bold grow uneasy.

Sereth, the Scholar's Lantern

- Cool silvery-blue hue; \~40 day cycle

Meaning: Patron of scribes, mages, sky-watchers. When both Lunara and Sereth are full, observatories fill and breakthroughs occur.

Aurethiel, the Harvest Crown

- Pale golden, softer light; \~60 day cycle

Meaning: Farmers watch Aurethiel's rising. Regions that plant/reap to her calendar fare better. Healers report steadier hands when high.

II. The Shadow Triad

These moons are dimmer, some small enough that only the keen-eyed or well-equipped track them.

Umbriel, the Veiled

- Dark, ashen-red disc; sullen light easily lost in haze

- Swift 9-day orbit

Meaning: Death, memory, secrets interred. Funerary rites performed when high. Unwholesome cults time rites to its "black full."

Noctis, the Dreamer

- Small muted blue moon; erratic motion, inclined path

Meaning: Dreams, visions, thin line between inspiration and madness. Nights when large bring vivid shared dreams. Artists court it, physicians dread it.

Thren, the Avenger

- Tiny and dim; more bright star than moon to naked eye

- 70-day path, best seen with glass

Meaning: Oaths of vengeance, last resorts. Old ballads speak of "rising bloody over traitor's hall." Direct worship is dangerous.

III. The Far Triad

To most folk these are "wandering stars," but we know them as distant moons.

Eryth, the Warbrand - Ruddy point mistaken for star; slow multi-month cycle. Heralds campaign seasons and heroics.

Velis, the Wayfarer - Quick, sharp light that "skips" along ecliptic. Patron of travelers, merchants, those between places. Sailors feel its pull.

Saela, the Muse - Soft rose-tinted glimmer, often lost in city glare. Governs art, beauty, passions. Great works cluster around its brighter apparitions.

IV. The Hidden Triad

Three moons more whispered of than seen. Many colleagues deny them outright.

- Mor'Kas - Associated with decay, entropy, inevitable ends

- Ilyon - Tied to time, recursion, turning of ages

- Xyra - Linked with forbidden knowledge and doors that should not open

These bodies, if bodies they be, are faint, their paths skewed from the common plane. Only with finest lenses and patient apprentices have I glimpsed their passing.

The Auroral Veils

In regions nearer Aurelia's poles, and at times even far from them, the night sky blooms with curtains of shifting light.

- Surge brightest during Solar Pulse Years and rare moon-conjunctions

- Interfere with some spellcasting, while empowering others

- Wild folk say they are paths along which spirits and dreamers may travel

During strong veils, the ambient manafield itself stirs and flows differently. Those sensitive report feeling as though they stand in a river rather than air.

On Omens, Calendars, and the Reading of Fates

Our calendar divides the year into twelve months, each nominally under the patronage of one moon. Within those months, lesser cycles layer further complexities.

From these patterns, astrologers derive:

- Birth charts, to read a soul's tendencies

- Electional charts, to choose auspicious days for treaties, coronations, or enterprises

- Warding charts, whereby a city's defenses are tied to favorable alignments

Yet we must speak plainly: certainty is impossible. The sky is a chorus of twelve voices and more, and we no longer possess the full music. At best we catch snatches of melody.

Divine miracles, too, wax and wane with these hidden harmonies:

- Priests of Lunara find their blessings stronger when she rides high and full

- Those who serve Umbriel's somber mysteries report vivid clarity during its black fulls

- And sometimes, despite all expectation and charting, prayer falls on deaf heavens

As an astronomer, I can say only this:

- Power still flows—but not in ways we fully understand

- The moons are not mere lanterns; they are knots in the great net of magic that holds Aurelia

- To know the sky is not to master fate, but to glimpse the vast pattern in which we are threaded

Whether that brings comfort or dread is left to the reader.

—Magister Calen Voris, in the 4,182nd Year of the Cracked Crown

Starfall Years

Once in several generations comes a Starfall Year—weeks or months of countless falling stars, some bright enough to cast shadows.

- Fragments survive the plunge, dug from smoking craters

- Star-stones hold strange properties: lighter metals, singing crystals, or worse—things already awake

Troubling pattern: Many of our greatest heroes—and most infamous tyrants—were born in the wake of a Starfall Year.

The Silent Void

I cannot in good conscience omit the Silent Void, though I would rather.

Look to the far reaches of Nereth's path, and beyond, and you will find a wedge of sky where stars thin, then fail. The longer you stare, the more it feels as though something there stares back.

- Telescopes show fewer stars than mathematics demand

- Divinations return only cold, pressure, and sense of distance unending

Proscribed texts speak of a "Sleeping One" wrapped in chains of light and shadow. Temples declare such stories heresy. The cults disagree.