The Virgo Constellation Map from the Japanese Rules Cyclopedia
by Håvard
I am sure many of you have seen this image from the Japanese edition of the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. It depicts the real world Virgo Constellation and surrounding parts of the western hemisphere sky. For some reason the illustration came with French captions in a Japanese book. Did Bruce, being French, send it to them? :)
Here is the corresponding Star map with English captions:
Over in the BECMI group on Facebook (the one run by Bruce) Christopher Nixon asked if there could be something more behind the inclusion of the map?
My immediate thought is that it was just some filler art that the Japanese editor added.
However, it is interesting to speculate if there could be more meaning to it.
- Mystara's Galaxy is similar to the Milky Way so it does make sense that the skies and stars would look similar. (See Gold Box Immortal Set)
- Could there be anything relevant with the stars shown on the map?
- Virgo represents Demeter (Goddess of Autumn) and her daughter Persephone (Goddess of the Underwrold and Spring). Could there be some significance here?
- What about the other constellations shown?
Part of me wishes they had gone with the star map from CM7 instead, but this is also quite interesting.
Thoughts?