City of Thornmouth

The magical moon Aetheros pulls and pushes more than the tides. It shifts magical currents in ways that strengthen or weaken magic users and processes, creating a sort of magical pressure system. This seems to have informed many changes within the ecosystem over the centuries and has a dramatic effect on the lunar associated. Those versed in reading these patterns are called lunar augurists and can additionally use this knowledge to predict the behavior of moon gates. Aetheros affects life on Anexus in many ways, least of all through its ominous presence hanging broken in the sky, implosion held in threatening stasis. It is feared by some, who do not believe the stasis will hold forever (perhaps is even moving at an imperceptibly slow pace) and hailed by others, who see its magical presence as a blessing upon a sacred land.


The much smaller, mundane moon Custodi is considered to be a warden to its partner, in some way preventing Aetheros from completely crumbling and destroying the world below. It is smaller, but ‘stands between’ the larger moon and the planet.

Anexus experiences some differences in tides due to the presence of two moons. This notably includes extreme high tides known as ‘dragon tides’ that occur following every ‘blink’ (double new moon) or ‘wink’ (one new moon, one full moon), considered to be a ‘cleansing’ event of sorts. They would also occur in the wake of a double full moon, but such a thing is a celestial event of exceptional rarity.

Thornmouth sees strong storms around these occasions, but was chosen for its location to build a fortress in the first place due to the bay lessening the incoming tides on top of controlling the eastern side of the landbridge.

Moon Glass
a chemical reaction between fragments and crystals on the surface can lead to the creation of moon golems, seemingly mindless constructs (whom are mistakenly believed to have fallen from the moon as they are) - these golems are sometimes made into 'vehicles' by those who know how to tame them, but the glass that makes up their bodies also has uses and so they are sometimes 'hunted'

they were repurposed for use as weapons in the human-fae war and as a result many altered golems can be found abandoned and still wandering the wilderness - while 'wild' golems are generally harmless, they can be problematic

weapons made from this glass are extremely effective against creatures being affected by a super aetheros moon

Keys of Aetheros
dragon forged dimensional keys created from moon fragments that failed to materialize into gates or perhaps pieces of moon gates themselves - no-one actually knows and some insist it is an art they learned from the wizards

their method of creation is a well kept secret, but these artifacts have managed to find their way out into the greater multiverse - in the right hands they can always bring someone to a moon gate of Anexus

Moonserker
Any lunar being affected by the Aetheros super moon. They become difficult to see and hear in the night, their irises turn purple, they become stronger and far more aggressive, and control of themselves becomes a challenge (even for shifters who have mastered their other forms). They showcase bad moods and exaggerations approaching a super moon - like rapid hair growth or uncontrollable magic - while suffering from low energy and fatigue post moon. This tends to affect all lunar beings regardless of their origins.

Moonborn
A werecreature who was changed by bite during a super moon (by either a regular or moonborn were). These beings are rare because of the unlikelihood an average person would survive an attack from a berserking werecreature. Their fur shimmers with occasional pulses of pink or purple energy resembling Aetheros' scar, their irises are always bright purple, and their shifts are always tinged with a mindless rage difficult to learn control over. They gain more mass in transformations than normal werebeings and sound ghostly when uttering a sound of any kind.

Lunar Augurs
Those who studies the phases and effects of the moon, including patterns in gate behavior. They are among the very few who can help someone find a way back home safely.

In a given month there is an average of seven full moon nights, what would be the same thirty day cycle as seen on Earth interspersed with full moons from the second moon Custodi, which completes its orbit twice in that time.

A ‘Super Aetheros’ moon takes up two to three of these nights, when Custodi is in new moon phase and Aetheros is full. This is called a ‘wink’ and these nights are known to gather werebeings together, celebrating under the full power of the magical moon as its warden rests. These super full moons are known to have a dramatic influence on werekind and rather intense for newcomers to the planet, even the most experienced of shifters (see below). When the moon is at its height in the sky, the land become tinged in a faint pink light.

Aetheros itself does not ever ‘wink’ in return when Custodi is full.

Instead there are monthly ‘blinks’ when both moons are in a new moon phase simultaneously, usually lasting two nights (but on the rare occasion just one). These dark nights are when weres are rendered near powerless, but other creatures of the night run rampant - both reasons hunters use these nights to track active or weakened prey.

When the magical moon is full, it has a powerful effect on those affected by lunar bodies. It is notable that while werebeings are the prime example of those who feel its influence, they are not the only ones! It’s also notable that any sentient humanoid race can be afflicted by the Anexian strains of therianthropy, with the original disease having changed and diversified over time.

Lunar Eclipses
The occasion of a lunar eclipse is when a were is at their weakest, depending on the totality of the eclipse blocking the light of the full moon. While no eclipse lasts throughout the night, when these occur it delivers a crippling blow to werekind that must be recovered from. When Aetheros is due for a lunar eclipse, hunters in the east gather for annual celebration and to conduct large scale hunts.

Solar Eclipses
The occasion of solar eclipses have no effect on werebeings, but they do empower creatures of darkness far more than the monthly blinks do. It is said that some are gifted special powers in the moment of totality when Aetheros shields children of the night from the sun entirely.

The study of the planets, moons, and stars plays a big part in many if not most cultures on Anexus. There is the obvious importance of the moons, but the planet additionally has its own sky of stars and local constellation sets. These include dark cloud constellations painted in the blotches of alien galaxies.

There are absolutely no stars that would be recognizable to an earthling and the local understanding of astronomy is vastly different from what one might know. It can be deduced that this realm is not anywhere in or near the Milky Way! It is extremely important to note that any magic or supernatural phenomena linked to the celestial bodies or alien constellations of other worlds (e.g. Earth's Luna) will not work the same here (if it works at all). The same goes for those who draw their power from celestial beings residing elsewhere: they may be too far from them now.

[Constellations TBA]

The great moon is best known for the effect it’s had creating a planar nexus through interdimensional doorways known as 'Gates of Aetheros'. These gates are formed by fragments of the moon that manage to escape and pass through the atmosphere to find contact with the surface; the first were created in what is known as the 'First Falling' some two thousand years ago. While not a particularly common occurrence, the planet still sees moonshowers to this day. Not all moon fragments form gates and precious few actually hit land, but if so much as even a spark of a piece does - there contact with the planet forms a burst of magic so harsh, the force tears through the fabric of spacetime itself. A tear can appear anywhere on the far side, manifesting as a nigh imperceptible distortion; as the tear opens, on Anexus a gateway forms in telling crescent shape, a crooked arch marking a potential door back - if one is lucky, for gateways sometimes connect to multiple tears, as well as tending to be difficult about the specifics of time versus space.

This means that Hy-Brazir often appeared as a spontaneously appearing and 'disappearing' island in other realms. It is for this reason that it is mentioned in legend and found on many early maps, accounts describing a mystical 'island' being found but then never rediscovered. It is thought that William Shakespeare himself traveled to and from Hy-Brazir and used it as inspiration for some of his written works.

An unknown number of moon gates are scattered across Anexus. It can only be presumed that there are hundreds, albeit most hidden deep under the ocean except in special cases of the rare sea arch gate. A moon gate can come in any size from those passable only by the smallest faeries to those even the largest of dragons can pass through. It is for this reason some have eluded detection for centuries, even if their nature is wholly stationary. Whenever a new gate is found, it is typically monitored for signs of travel to judge what kind of world may be on the other side - few are eager to hazard a one way trip with a potentially dreadful fate. There are some gates with outposts that have waited for clues to the other side for centuries, with no-one ever returning once they've gone through and no traveler ever arriving. These gates are mysteries to be solved.

Then there are gates that don't take much guesswork to deem hazardous when found: these are gates with typically fixed locations that bring through dangerous beasts on a frequent enough basis. In such cases measures are usually taken to either have a response team always at the ready or in some cases 'lock' or otherwise seal the gate. It's typical such measures are only temporary when it comes to magic and in these cases the seals on a gate must be renewed every so often. While all of these methods are costly and time consuming, they are the only options available - for Gates of Aetheros are indestructible except by the most extreme of means. It's unheard of outside of legend and that task took the death of a god. They appear to sit both within and outside of perceptible reality all at once, granting them some sort of strange invulnerability.

Known Moon-Gates

The Bridge of Morel
(forest gate, west of Thornmouth)
A major moon gate just west of Oberon’s Rest on the other of the The Sundering, known for being an active portal that brings travelers to Anexus from all over the multiverse. While technically on the western side of the land bridge, agreements have been made with both seelie and unseelie guards that see newcomers guided in the right direction.

The Kasurian Gate
(sea arch gate, southeast of Thornmouth)
A large moon gate out at sea with a fixed point in timespace. It leads to a land known as Kasuria and is one of few known gates large enough to accommodate a ship (or a dragon). It closes during 'blink nights' and is one of the only known gates with a 'customs'.

The Mountain Peak Gates of Shipwreck Valley
(mountain gates, northeast of Thornmouth)
A pair of gates with fixed exit points found in the mountains of the northeastern valley. These gates ironically connect to bodies of water on the other side, one specifically to [an] Earth in the sea outside of Ireland. These gates are named after a pair of specific mountains in the range, respectively the The Crown of Argorum and The Crown of Maelenri. The names are a bit misleading however, as the gates appear all over the mountains themselves dependent on the phases of the moon. This can make finding either - never mind the right one - rather difficult for travelers.

The "Sky Gate"
(sky gate - mobile, nature unknown)
While a very rare and inexplicable occurrence, it is not unheard of for someone to simply drop out of the sky! There are many theories of how a gate could even be in the sky when all known take physical form, but the arrival of travelers in such an unceremonious manner confirms that somehow such a thing does exist. Unfortunately, survivors through this gate have never actually seen anything to report. There are many researchers on the hunt for whatever might explain this bizarre phenomena, with most seeking some kind of floating landmass (as such things are known to exist in the far western regions).

- one small bright moon (Custodi) with a shorter cycle and a larger dark moon (Aetheros)
- both are tidally locked
- the ring of debris around Aetheros’ casts shadows upon its surface, making it even darker
- Custodi is brighter and smaller than Earth’s Luna
- brighter nights, truly dark nights a rarity outside of double full moon ‘blink nights’
- nights when Aetheros is full cast a pinkish light over the land
- ‘blinks’ are when both moons are in a new moon phase simultaneously
- 'winks' are when Custodi is in new moon phase and Aetheros is full (Aetheros does not wink)
- Aetheros’ orbit is slower than Custodi’s
- Aetheros has the same orbital cycle as Luna (29.53 days), while Custodi is a fifteen day cycle (14.76 days) (1:2 orbital resonance)
- eclipses of Custodi are rarer and its solar eclipses are always annular (moon isn’t large enough to eclipse the sun)
- rarity of a double solar eclipse: ???
- double full moons: may be next to impossible, meaning a double lunar eclipse is even more astronomically so
- Anexus has the same solar orbit as Earth and time is based upon on this and the orbit of Aetheros - at least in the east among most mundane, the fae and dragon may use very different calendars
- some believe that the moons collided once already and will again, this is the true source of the crack and the eventual doom of the planet
- others are far more concerned about the eventual appearance of a double full moon, which would surely bring about the end of the world (maybe would be what would ‘unlock’ Aetheros)

While the weather is what one might except for such a climate - hot, dry summers and wet, rainy winters - there are some unusual distinctions to the local weather patterns.

Gateway Showers / Meteor Showers / Moon Showers
An event that typically occurs during 'winks' when the magical is moon is at its height in strength. These are the occasions when lunar fragments called 'tears of Aetheros' fall to the planet, creating new gates and moon glass sites.

'Rains of Madness'
The lunar augurist are depended upon to predict the effects the magical moon has on all things, not just moon gates - they also read the patterns of magic in the aurora to forecast magical weather, such as the 'rains of madness'. These come most commonly during the winter and spring.

They are unnatural rainstorms that come from the forest, made almost entirely of wild magic - hard to predict and look like regular rain, but afflict people who get wet enough with dramatic temporary changes, from growing a mustache to switching race with the nearest person. An amusing secondary effect of these rains is the peculiar effect of a person being convinced they've always been how they are until the effect wears off.

Aurora

Magical Snow
snow in the winter brought to the city by supernatural means, specifically local fae

Woah look, a space for more information on how magic behaves locally! COMING SOON