Astronomy of Candarion
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It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience.
-Carl SaganI would like to start a formal discussion on the astronomy of Candarion. How many suns do we have? How many moons do we have? Are there other planets visible to the naked eye? Are there any particularly notable stars? Anything related to the night (or day in case of the sun) is open for discussion. Already written lore that relates to this discussion would also be good to bring up for reference.
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I would say that, in order to provide a fair and simple field for everyone to operate in, we should set the world's cosmology as as similar to Earth's situation as possible. That means one sun and one moon, with days and years taking the same amount of time as they do here. I don't say this because I like boring cosmology or because I don't think different solar system models are interesting, but because I don't want that to be the focus on this server. Large scale stuff like this should not be the focus of anyone's world building here; we have a very well-established realm system that dictates what people's world building is and I think we should stick to that. Too much deliberation over global world building will only result in muddying that realm-focused system and lead to more creative conflict that could be seriously detrimental to the community.
In terms of details, like other planets, I think that the level of technology in Candarion is such that that is far more up to interpretation, and I don't think we have to label every star in the sky, any more than we needed to dictate the exact path of the comet last year. How individual realms interpret the heavens is absolutely something I would love to see people explore, just so long as everyone remembers where the boundaries are.
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I would prefer to have one moon and one sun. Firstly, it is convenient due to the similarities to Earth, and secondly, it is what is observable in game.
I think it would be cool to have a few planets in the sky. I wouldn't go as far as to name them. I think that, as well as associated cultural beliefs, should be left to the realms. The point of figuring this all out is not to write lore for people, but to make sure we're all working from the same source. Five is a good number of planets I think. It matches up with what is observable to the naked eye.
Stars should be left up to the realms. Fact of the matter is that there are so many stars that we could all come up with a dozen and not even come close to describing the night sky. I do like the idea of there being a North star like in real life, that being said.
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It would certainly be interesting to have different realms find different constellations in their night skies. perhaps we could make something like a universal night sky as in a randomly generated field of dots.
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I too would prefer to keep the number of suns and moons at 1 each. We're better off keeping ourself grounded in reality for certain huge things like this. The implications of having multiple suns or moons would raise questions about the way days, time, tides and seasons work which weve already locked down
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@Ari said in Astronomy of Candarion:
It would certainly be interesting to have different realms find different constellations in their night skies. perhaps we could make something like a universal night sky as in a randomly generated field of dots.
Something like this?
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Hey all, I'm making an astronomy chart and would love to get a consensus on planets! The following list is based on a previous discussion on discord (credit to @Alexrk) but I would love to finalize this and hear any dissenting opinions.
Planet 1
Color: royal blue with yellow poles
Size: small
Visibility: low
Being the closest to the sun, it is often obscured by sunsets and sunrises and lies close to the horizon. When it is clearly visible, however, it is a brilliant lapis lazuli luminescence in front of a faint golden halo. Its extremely short year, being so close to the sun, makes it appear to zip from place to place between clear nights.Planet 2
Color: Changes between a light teal and deep blue to a bright orange and yellow.
Size: medium
Visibility: high
The tumultuous, thick, and swirling gaseous atmosphere of this terrestrial planet causes light to reflect highly variably, resulting in the changing colors. Additionally, its orbit is at a much different degree than that of Candarion's world. This mean on one hemisphere it is not seen for one third of the year, high overhead for another, and in between for the rest. All in all it is a body of flux and flamboyance, shining bright in the night skies.Planet 3
That's us, silly!Planet 4
Color: lavender
Size: medium
Visibility: medium
This planet is relatively large for a terrestrial planet, and its moon is large in proportion. This causes it to partially eclipse the planet occasionally, creating an almost unnoticeable crescent shape.Planet 5
Color: white (blue tinted)
Size: large
Visibility: high
White with a blue tint, this jovial planet looks remarkably like the north star. This becomes problematic when its orbit brings it close to the north star, confusing novice navigators into believing it is the north star and becoming lost. Look for its unflickering gaze.Planet 6
Color: purple
Size: large
Visibility: low
While large and in unusually royal purple, its distance makes it rather faint in the sky. It has a dark spot, but this can't be seen from Candarion.Ps. I would like to propose adding rings to the lavender planet
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@beijimon Are the large ones gas giants?
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@plus yep
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I personally support these planets. Completely unbiased here, of course. I also like Beiji's suggestion of adding rings to planet 4
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You are forgetting the OG 6th planet:
Planet 6
Color: Hot pink
Size: Petite
Visibility: Yes
No one likes this one because it smells bad. -
Just wondering, but since planet 5 has an orbit which takes it close to the functional north star of Candarion, wouldn't it indicate that the planet would have an orbit severely misaligned from the ecliptic? Gas giants which deviate this way would be phenomenally rare, since impactors wouldnt collide and throw the planet like any terrestrial bodies, and gas clouds would be compressed into sufficiently large protoplanets only along the ecliptic... The only acceptable explanation by modern astronomy is an extrasolar "rogue" planet got caught up in the sun and was captured. This explanation makes the sixth planet a statistic unlikelihood, but not out of the realm of possibility.
tl,dr; planet 5 is fucky, is that okay? -
Also even if we have other planets in our solar system, nobody in Candarion would realize they are planets, right? It would just be a "huh, those 5 stars look and move really weird but we don't know why" sort of thing right? Or does our tech limit allow for good enough telescopes to actually observe these planets and discover their true planetary nature?
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@chewypudding I believe planets were identified and observed first around the 16th and 17th centuries if I recall correctly, with Galileo Galilei. If we are willing to make an exception for us to be able to identify planets in our 15th century era, considering this is not Earth but rather a completely different world, I would accept that. Even with the use of magic of sorts. I don't see it being anything that would be of any real significance / lore breaking.
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I don't think the time period should make a difference here.
The ancient Greeks and beyond knew of the planets unto Saturn. It wasn't until the invention of the telescope that the later gas giants were identified, but the idea of planets and their relevance to earth was well documented even in the Bronze Age and before
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@ielis Yes, this is correct, good point. I think we should probably cut that bit of the lore, then.
@ChewyPudding @Darius The five innermost planets (Mercury through Saturn) have been known since ancient Babylon in 2000 BC! While planetary physics may not have been fully understood, the ancient Greeks had several heliocentric models of the solar system and knew that the planets were orbiting bodies. The color of planets can also be distinct enough to differentiate them from stars (eg. Mars). So, as Seppy said, we don't need telescopes to be able to identify and study planets, though of course we wouldn't expect anyone to understand the finer points of their physics and compositions.
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As Beiji said, the 5 closest planets are easily observed and distinguishable from stars using the naked eye. In fact, the word planet comes from the ancient Greek planētēs ‘wanderer, planet’.
There won't be any lore conflicts with the above suggestion.
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I suppose it's a matter of semantics. As far as the tech, telescopes are somewhat complicated devices and require specific advancements in glass making for the lenses. I am not entirely opposed to telescopes because
magic , but I would advise against anything later than Galileo for thematic reasons.For a lot of cultures through history, the planets were just as you said - wandering stars. I don't care particularly much how your realm interprets what they see. Do they consider them fundamentally different than the other stars? That's fine. Are they just weird moving dots? Also fine.
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That sounds cool! Most this stuff is irrelevant to any of our lore, but why not have a captured exoplanet in our solar system. I like the idea.
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Unless anyone has any last minute contributions, I am willing to accept this as the final arrangement and description of planets in the Candarion system.
