Veridia's Second Moon
"Should the two moons ever be apart from one another, it is like siblings being torn from each other" -Pre Chromatic War fable
When people in Veridia look up at the night sky, they can see the stars and, assuming its not cloudy, the moon. Many religions worship the moon or see it as some kind of special entity, or that it has something to do with fate and destiny and whatever. But what most people don't know is that Veridia supposedly once had two moons. Veridia's two moons: Luna and Duna, could both be seen in the night sky. Luna, the larger of the two, is the moon that still exists, and is much like Earth's moon. Duna was a much smaller moon, only 1/8th the size of its sister and its orbit was much closer. Almost nobody knows what happened to Duna, much less that it even existed. Those who know the legend say it was eaten by a monster, or that a wizard made it invisible for some reason, but the true events of its disappearance are something those who experienced it would never forget.
Summary
The moon Duna was once an important figure to dwarves, much like how Luna is significant to elves. It's radius was about an 1/8th of Luna's and its orbit was much closer such that, when looking at the sky, Duna would be only slightly smaller than Luna. Duna also had a very distinct greenish tint to it, which allowed people to distinguish it from Luna when only one was in the sky. It was believed that significant effects happened on certain celestial alignments. A dual full moon, or a lunar alignment, where both moons appeared full, was said to be a blessed day with good luck. A child born on that day was destined for greatness; a couple who met under the lunar alignment were believed to be fated couples from previous lives. However, lycanthropes' instincts were twice as strong - most werewolf attacks happened on these days. Likewise, a dual new moon was considered a time of remorse, a time to remember lost relatives and to be hopeful for the future, since the moons, though gone, are together. The times where only one moon was full and the other was new, also known as an alternate moon, were times of ill omen. It symbolizes loss. One moon without the other is an incomplete whole, and it reminds people that life is fleeting, that your friends and family will one day leave you.
Things get even more crazy when factoring in the sun. A dual lunar eclipse, where Veridia was between the sun and both moons, marked a day of extreme luck - not just good luck, though. The day could be entirely chaotic: someone could gamble and win a huge amount of money, only to be attacked by a pack of Werewolves, who were also super boosted by the celestial alignment. Conversely, the very rare dual solar eclipse, where both moons block the sun, was the absolute worst thing possible. One eclipse is already a bad omen, but two? Absolute chaos would be expected during the dual eclipse: cities would burn, people would go mad, and monsters would rampage. The eclipse, however, would be extremely brief, since Duna orbited at a very high speed, so the chaos would be over almost as quick as it started.
So what happened to the second moon of Veridia? Only rumors and bizarre stories of its disappearance exist. Most people believe that, during the Chromatic War, some terrible, gigantic space dragon ate it whole to destroy all hope. Others believe that the moon still exist, but some elf wizard made it invisible to piss off the dwarves. Astrologers believe both these explanations are absolute garbage, but even they are baffled by the mystery of the moon's disappearance. As far as they are concerned, the moon broke out of its orbit and is now somewhere in space, or it collided with the planet at some point. There are reports of people who have claimed to find minerals that are otherwise not present on Veridia concentrated in certain areas...
Historical Basis
The truth of the matter was that there were in fact two moons orbiting Veridia. It is a well documented and known fact, at least from before the Chromatic War. Though the moon disappeared during the Chromatic War, it was not the Chromatic War that caused its disappearance. A more sinister battle between good and evil on Veridia led to the moon's chaotic destruction. The Lich King Vecna, in a devastating move, used an immense amount of magical energy to literally pull the moon out of orbit and hurl it into the city of Sacrosanct and its defenders. Thats right, Vecna yeeted the moon into a city as a power move. As Duna was falling towards the planet, it broke into four separate pieces. The largest one was being pulled by Vecna, and landed directly on top of the city of Sacrosanct. The second chunk fell into the ocean, into and possibly creating what is now the Luserial Archipelago. The third chunk fell towards the Osmad Desert, flying overhead and creating the Osmad Gulf, where the city of Asaria is today. The fourth and final piece landed beyond the Porval Swamps, near where present day Toriel is, devastating the area and making it into the wastes that it is now.
The reason that Sacrosanct and the land around it somehow still exists, is that the gods defending the city used extremely powerful magic to dampen the impact of the moon colliding with the city. This remarkably saved many people and the city itself, but the land around it was ruined. A massive earthquake shook the entire continent, leveling (and creating) mountains in the process. Absurdly sized tsunamis crashed onto the shores of the world. A black cloud of dust and debris blocked the sky for years and was only fixed by divine intervention.
People across the world could witness the horrific sight of the moon falling apart as it hurdles towards the ground, yet nothing they knew could explain what was happening.
In Art
It is notable that literature and art before the Chromatic War depicted the Veridia night sky with two moons, one smaller than the other. This, of course, depicts Luna and Duna. However, strictly after the Chromatic War, art has always only shown a single moon.
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