======Astrology and Celestial Bodies====== The skies have always been of particular interest to the denizens of Ardora. With the notable absence of the moon prior to the Moonrise Event, they have similar sights to those of the real world: a sun that shines during the day, stars and more recently a moon at night. =====Celestial Bodies===== ====The Sun==== What seems to be a bright burning ball of fire in the sky. Much like our own sun, those who have studied it extensively have occasionally seen darker spots on its surface, called "sunspots". Attempting to look for these by staring directly at the sun is not recommended. ====The Moon==== The mysterious new object appearing in the sky which gave the Moonrise Event its name, the Moon is very much like that of the real world in appearance. Nobody is quite sure what a "moon" is supposed to be, but all who gaze upon it get the distinct impression that, yes, that is the Moon. Looking like a planet but bigger and with an eerie pale glow, people have different views on whether its sudden arrival is a warning from their Gods or a harbinger of the end times. It is only seen at or around night, which has caused some people to come to see it as a counterpart to the Sun, which is only seen during the day. The Moon has phases, which it seems to cycle through over the course of about a month. At times it is barely visible in the sky and doesn't cast much light, but from there more of it starts to be seen until it is a full, beautiful orb in the night sky. For the people of Ardora the full moon is anything but beautiful, however, as it seems to bring with it great danger: whilst the local wildlife may have become restless and more aggressive since the Moonrise Event, especially by night, in the light of the full moon there have been reports of such violent and dangerous beasts only spoken of in legend, from the vicious Wyvern to the most terrifying of all, the Unicorn. There are many fascinated by this new object, and of course a number of theories and rumours have begun to spread about what it may be, including that there is a terrible beast imprisoned within, that it is the egg of a Dragon, and that Echoes are the result of the cold light of the Moon sucking the souls out of people. ====The Stars==== The night sky is also host to countless stars, small pinpoints of light which seem to wander the heavens in various ways. Where this differs from the our world is by being far less consistent and static. Each star seems to have its own movements, and whilst some remain constant and consistent and can almost always be seen at the same point in the sky, others freely dance across the skies, although rarely quickly enough to be noticeable unless you're really paying attention. This variability and the number of them means that it is difficult for those who are not experts to spot or recognise individual stars. Even expert scholars on the matter tend to identify and categorise the stars more by their movements than anything else. ====The Planets==== The people of Ardora are no strangers to planets. These round objects are occasionally seen in the sky, during day and night, gently drifting through the heavens. Whilst there are some that appear as small as other planets observed in the real world's sky, a few that are larger are occasionally seen, although even then they seem to vary in size from one sighting to another. Most people know them by their colours: * **The Red Planet:** Ominous and looming, the Red Planet casts a creepy red light. It is most commonly seen in times of war and great unrest, and so some people refer to it as the Bringer of War. It generally shows up for longer periods and stays in the same place in the sky. * **The Blue Planet:** Subtle and serene, the Blue Planet is inconsistent in how often and how long it shows up for, though does not move around much when it is visible. * **The Silver Planet:** Covered with intricate patterns, some claim to see the Silver Planet more often than others. Certainly it is occasionally sighted in the sky above Falgarias, for better or for worse. It is known to shift position in the sky quite frequently. * **The Orange Planet:** Sometimes known as Heaven's Wanderer, the Orange Planet is the least predictable of the planets. It has been known to turn up in the sky unexpectedly and its position is never consistent. =====Astrology===== Astrology is the practice of looking up at the planets and stars in the night sky and from their positions attempting to divine the future or seek guidance. It is a tradition in many of the Myriad Nations, and it is said that one can learn as much by looking outward to the heavens as one can by looking inward at oneself. There are two general schools of astrology practiced across the Myriad Nations: mechanical and intuitive. ====Mechanical Astrology==== A particular favourite among Mages, those who adhere to mechanical astrology note that each star and seemingly even each planet has its own rules to its appearances and movements. By focusing on particular stars and learning their patterns, and attempting to map these to events back on land, they seek to identify the ways in which those stars are a mirror to the world. Such astrologers tend to specialise in particular stars or groups of stars, which they can eventually come to recognise on sight, and whilst information they divine is still going to be vague, it is generally more targeted and focused than one who takes the more intuitive approach, so long as the stars they are most familiar with happen to be relevant to the things they wish to know. ====Intuitive Astrology==== The more traditional school of astrology, those who take an approach of intuition will look up at the stars, take in their movements as a whole and from this come to conclusions about what might happen. This is more vague and less reliable than the more mechanical approach, but doesn't require extensive study of the specific stars one is interested in before being fruitful. Intuitive astrologers often come up with names and meanings for the stars as they read them, and through this explain away their divinations in a logical way, knowing that they may never recognise them as the same stars again.