Subject: MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Dec 2001 to 17 Dec 2001 (#2001-344) From: Automatic digest processor Date: 18/12/2001, 19:00 To: Recipients of MYSTARA-L digests Reply-to: Mystara RPG Discussion There are 6 messages totalling 255 lines in this issue. Topics of the day: 1. Mystaran ephemeris (4) 2. Order of the White Drake? (2) ******************************************************************** The Other Worlds Homepage: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/OtherWorlds.asp The Mystara Homepage: http://www.dnd.starflung.com/ To unsubscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ORACLE.WIZARDS.COM with UNSUB MYSTARA-L in the body of the message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 00:19:58 -0800 From: "Jenni A. M. Merrifield" Subject: Re: Mystaran ephemeris At Sunday, 16 December 2001, Alan Antholz wrote: > I would like to know if there is an established Mystaran ephemeris. In > particular, I am interested in the duration of the cycle of the Mystaran > moon(s) in relation to the Mystaran day, and the dates of the full moon. > A Mystaran day is a standard 24 hours. The year of Mystara is exactly 336 days long. This leads to several regions having calendars with 12 months of exactly 28 days, each divided into four weeks of seven days -- Thyatis, Alphatia and (I think) Sind each have their own calendars in this format. The one major exception I can think of is Minrothad, which has a calendar with 11 months of 30 days, each divided into five weeks of six days, followed by one extra six-day week (called "mitwok") which accounts for the extra six days in the year. The visible moon (Matera) has a cycle which is exactly 28 days long(*). On calendars with the twelve 28 day months, the new moon always falls on the 1st of the month and the full moon always falls on the 15th of the month. (*) How convenient, eh? ;-) The invisible moon (Patera) isn't really of much relevance to ephemeris time, since it's invisible. :-) In any case, I don't know that there is necessarily anything that provides a definitive description of it's phases. On one of the large trail maps (the Western one?) there is a table for sun and moon rise and set times, but the details for the visible moon are entirely inaccurate. Because a full moon can only physically occur when the moon and sun are directly opposite from each other with the planet in the middle, it is simply impossible to have a full moon rising in the morning and thus crossing the sky during the middle of the day (that would be a new moon). This table may include details for the invisible moon (I don't remember off hand), but even if it does, given the problems with the description for the visible moon, I certainly wouldn't put a lot of faith in it. IMC, however, I have set Patera in a near-perfect polar orbit that is always tangental to Mystara's orbit around the sun. Heres an ascii illustration: Top View ----------- / ----- \ <---- Mystaran orbit / / \ \ | | @@@ | * <--- Patera | | @sun@ | O <--- Mystara | | @@@ | | \ \ / / \ ----- / ----------- Front View ----- / * <---- Patera | @@@ | ---+--@-O-@--+--- <--- Mystaran orbit | @@@ | \ / ----- I have it take 56 days for Patera to complete one full orbit, thus it travels from the north pole to the south pole in 28 days and back again in another 28 days. Because of it's orbitally tangental position, it technically only has one of two possible phases which, (if it were visible) would be a quarter moon (which occurs as it travels from north pole to south pole) and a three quarter moon (which occurs when it travels from south pole to north pole). Hope you find this information to be useful to you. Jenni ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 01:10:41 -0800 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Mystaran ephemeris --- Alan Antholz wrote: > I would like to know if there is an established > Mystaran ephemeris. No idea what this means but: > In particular, I am interested > in the duration of the cycle of the Mystaran moon(s) > in relation to the Mystaran day, and the dates of > the full moon. I can help with this. By the Thyatian calander in DotE and PWAII which is 12 months of 28 days the dates are as follows: 1st of the month - New Moon 8th of the month - First Quarter 15th of the month - Full Moon 22nd af the month -Last Quarter it is the same every month. DotE has 4 more stages of the moon mentioned on the 5, 12, 19, and 26 and the 8th is called a half-moon, but it really depends how you devide the cycle up. I am not sure of the invisible moons cycle but it means that tides on mystara can move however you want them to because only one moon orbit is well knowen. > Thanks! No Problem. Hope this helps, there's plenty more where that came from and if you really want there has been some discustion about moon rotation... but thats really for those going to a Mystarian moon rather then just looking at it. Chris. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 01:15:46 -0800 From: Chris Furneaux Subject: Re: Mystaran ephemeris > Hope you find this information to be useful to > you. > > Jenni Wow, I found it interesting even if no one else did. You just bet me to responding but yours looks much more complete then mine. Good job. Chris. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Check out Yahoo! Shopping and Yahoo! Auctions for all of your unique holiday gifts! Buy at http://shopping.yahoo.com or bid at http://auctions.yahoo.com ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 15:16:04 +0200 From: Ville V Lahde Subject: Order of the White Drake? Does anyone know if there's something substantial written on the Order of the White Drake in official Mystara/ODD products? The only things I've seen were in the Palace of the Silver Princess (I have the one included in B1-9), and a short remark in the timelines of the Dawn of the Emperors -Gazetteer. In the Palace there's the dragon-rider guy (I forget the name), but virtually no info was given on the Order. And in the timelines it was told that the "fervently anti-thyatian" group's remnants were assimulated into the Retebius Air Fleet. But nothing else is said about the Order, so the remark kind of hangs in the air. I found the article on the history of the Order of the White Drake by Geoff in the Vaults - thank you, it was a good read. Was it meant to fill this obvious gap, or was it based on some canon material that I am not aware of? The main reason for my questions is that about 10 years ago (in real-time and Mystara-time) our group played out the Silver Princess module and made friends with the inhabitants of the Haven valley and the dragon-rider. I plan on bringing the Order or the White Drake back in play in the future, and some background information would be cool. Unless there's some other (very good) material, I think I'll stick with Geoff's text with some campaign-specific modifications. But it would be nice to know about some ready-made alternatives... Ville ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 12:12:42 EST From: Alex Benson Subject: Re: Order of the White Drake? I'l admit some interest as well. In particular the role they played in the Alpher invasion where Tylion had them sentenced to death (or thereabouts). I always found it odd that the OotWD survivors found sanctuary among the Retebius Air Fleet and Knights of the Air. I asked about this one time before but do not recall any input. I am really curious. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 18 Dec 2001 09:48:11 -0800 From: "Francisco V. Navarro V" Subject: Re: Mystaran ephemeris Hail Mystaran astologers and astronomers! It is quite convenient that the cycles of the moon is in sync with the very regular Mystaran calendar. But then again, consider that in ancient times, the calendar days were based on the astronomical cycles. It was only later on after the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church got involved that they dictated that the calendar should be "standardized"--which actually made it out of sync with astronomical phenomena. For example, a new month is supposed to start on a new moon (i.e. when the sun and the moon are in the same place in the heavens--the same zodiac sign). However, this day and age, the sun enters a new sign anywhere from the 19th to the 24th of a month (way out of sync!), and the moon generally follows a few days after, making the new moon very irregular. An ephemeris would be far more useful in the RW, particularly with the sun and the moon, as it is pretty regular in Mystara (Do I sense the forces of Law meddling with events on the Prime?) Of course, an ephemeris for other planets would be useful--but I don't know of any in existence. Btw, check out my Mystara Arcana files on astrology and astronomy at Shawn's site: http://dnd.starflung.com/random.html (the new additions). They've got glyphs which I wasn't able to display on the MML. Kit Navarro Mystaran Astrologer ------------------------------ End of MYSTARA-L Digest - 16 Dec 2001 to 17 Dec 2001 (#2001-344) ****************************************************************