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Hey :) I was just wondering if you had a favourite phase of the moon? I really enjoy looking at waxing crescent moons but I think the moon is just really pretty in general !
Waning gibbous.
It means I can stay home for a few weeks and be Soft Runaan.
That's the point :3c he scrambles along the floor (too fast for what he looks like) with glowing eyes and glowing fins out of the pitch-black of his zone and all you can do is pray
in our world humans have flown and landed on the moon. whats your opinion on this event?
Did they learn anything of the Moon arcanum up there? Did they bring back any pieces? And would they mind sharing one? Please I'm so curious!
I have not posted in a very long time, but I had to post this.
About a week ago I watched a netflix documentary/drama called When They See Us, directed by Ava DuVernay. Most of you have probably heard of it by now, but if you haven’t I urge you to watch it.
The docu series is four episodes long, all about ninety minutes each. It tells the story of the “Central Park Five” (or the “Exhonarated Five” as they should be called) in a heart wrenching and soul crushing light. Each episode focuses on the four main points of the story. Episode one focuses on the boys being harrassed and coerced by police to confess to a crime they did not commit, episode two shows the trial where everyone ignored what was right in front of them, episode three focuses on the four boys who went to juvi and their life after, and the fourth episode (the most soul crushing one) tells the story of the boy who went straight to adult prison and the horrors he faced.
I could type up every single emotion I felt while watching this docu series, but it is really something you have to experience for yourself. As a white woman, I will NEVER face the type of discrimination, fear, and injustice these boys faced. It is easy as the privileged to ignore things like this, write it off as “too sad” or “too infuriating”. It is easy as non-POC (or just non-black) to turn away from this and pretend it never happened, but I URGE you, watch this docu.
It took me over two weeks to get through each episode, it pulled out emotions in me that I didn’t know I had. The type of rage and heartbreak that I have never felt before. I will even admit, my mind went to dark places I never thought it would go. I wanted the justice system to pay for what they had done. I wanted everyone who had ever hurt these boys to pay.
On multiple occasions I had to turn off the show just to cry, just to hit things, just to let my heart break. I cannot explain how it felt to just watch, nevermind how much pain it must have been to experience. I cannot fathom how each of those men continue to exist on a daily basis with the pain they endure, pain that goes far beyond what was even conveyed in the docu series.
But, despite how many times I had to turn off the show, I had to come back. Something in me knew it was not fair for me to just turn my back on their pain and continue on with my day. I had to watch it, I had to feel it.
In my opinion, everyone should watch this series. EVERYONE. No matter your race, gender, religion, social stature, political affiliation, class, etc. This is something that everyone needs to see, regardless of how they feel.
When They See Us is not fiction, it is real life. It is pulled from what ACTUALLY happened to real men, real PEOPLE. Korey Wise, Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, and Raymond Santana Jr are real people who will continue to suffer from the injustice they were subjected to as children.
Say their names, and say them loud. They are not the “Central Park Five”. They are the “Exonerated Five” and they deserve to have their story heard by everyone.
-ky.
Runaan, I have a question. From my logic, I have a theory that would work in practice but doesn’t not appear to. So, Sunfire elves draw their power for the sun, so they’re strongest when the sun is out, yes? Specifically, they’re at their strongest when it’s around midday because the sun is at its peak. Now, Moonshadow elves. Moonshadow elves draw their magic from the moon and are at their strongest when the moon is full, correct? Well, my question is, why do you seem to be diurnal? Wouldn’t it make more sense for Moonshadow elves to be nocturnal instead? I’m just a little confused.
It's a source of continual concern for me that humans generally seem to believe that the Moon is only up at night. Perhaps if you turned off your artificial lights and attuned more to the darkness and to skygazing, the Moon's cycle would shed a little more light on things? Or seem to, anyway.
A "full Moon" is merely the Moon's position when it opposes the sun. Riding the far side of the sky from the sun lets the Moon's face fill with reflected light. At every other phase during its orbit, the Moon cannot be full because we see less of its lit face from where we stand.
With me so far? The trick to understanding why we have a full Moon only once a month lies in understanding the Moon's unique timing. The Moon does not live to oppose the sun. It simply follows its own rules. Sometimes those rules do oppose the sun, but sometimes they work with it.
If the Moon only came up at night, it would be full every time you saw it, because it would always be opposite the sun. However, the sun is, as I'm sure you have noticed, down at night. The sun is obvious like that. so unsubtle
But the Moon moves slower than the sun, because it wishes to. Every night it rises a little later than the night before. Which means there are days when it rises and rides the sky during broad daylight. Those days are always partial Moon days, but some moonlight is better than none.
The Moon doesn't choose day or night, little shadow. It rises when it pleases and sleeps when it likes. Much like a cat. *Moonshadow smirk*
We Moonshadow elves follow the Moon's example. We rise when we need to, whether that's with the Moon or with the dawn. And with training we can fall asleep anywhere, at any time, also like a cat so missing sleep isn't as much of a problem as you'd think.
Moonshadow elves aren't diurnal or nocturnal. We are lunurnal, bound to a cycle that changes and yet does not change.
What if the moon is just a giant primal stone gifted by the deity of the moon arcanum? And the greatest act of worship to her is understanding her gift?
I study the visible face of the Moon through my telescope every night, love. The Moon is literally, and for all practical purposes, a giant Primal Stone! The trouble is, it's a bit out of reach for more than the usual amount of interaction we already enjoy.
It's still beautiful, though. *soft Moonshadow noises*
If you think about it--which I have--the Moon's light is the radiation of its inherent power. When its visible face falls into shadow--half moon, crescent moon, new moon--then the amount of Moon power available to those of us with the Moon arcanum is lessened, in a practical, usable manner. Less light equals less primal power. We are weaker in shadow.
Shadow... is bad. Darkness is bad. For all Moon arcanum creatures, including Moonshadow elves. For our connection to our great Primal Stone in the sky.
And, point of fact: that's nothing to do with the Sun. That shadow is cast by the Earth, getting in our way. If you don't think I think about that while I aggressively polish my pretty gemstones and make them sparkle for me--light from darkness, take that!--then you haven't experienced the grumpiness of not being able to cast your favorite enchantments during the whole week surrounding new Moon. Lucky you!
But that shadow we bear is a part of our cycle, a part of our magic too. There is a different power in the darkness. It's not my favorite. But it is a part of who we are and what we know. It's less about raw power and more about intent. And intent is often a very tricky thing, especially when you add Moonshadow elves into the mix.
"Worship," though... I might call it "reverence" instead. As far as my understanding takes me, our world is a place of natural beauty and magic. We've no need of sentient deities to order it for us. We'd rather learn to order it ourselves, through patient study and communal intent. But if a Moon deity were to make themselves known one day, I hope they'd approve of what we've done with the place.
Hi Ethari! Have you thought much about the moons of other planets? Our solar system has one special planet (Jupiter) around which orbits approximately 79 moons. (We're not exactly certain how many yet.) It makes me curious whether a Moonshadow elf on Jupiter would feel the same connection to Jupiter's moons as to Earth's Moon. Do you think being surrounded by that many moons would be a positive experience, or something completely overwhelming?
I can see a few other planets in the sky with my telescope. On very dark clear nights, I take it to the top of the tree house and look at all the amazing stars and planets. And a couple of the planets that are closest have Moons! Plural!
It blows my mind every time I see it. So fascinating! What does it mean? Do they have primal magic there too? Is there a different kind of Moon magic for each Moon, or all the same? If more than one Moon is up at a time, does your magic get stronger? Which Moon is the most powerful Moon? Are there Moon battles for dominance, or is their magic cooperative?
Or is it like the Old Times, with no primal magic?
I, ah, have thought about this a fair bit, as you can see. And I have a couple of books by great philosophers who have thought about it as well. I’m currently of the notion that if I could somehow transport to one of those planets, I’d land there with no magic in me at all, being too far from my own Moon and not having forged any connection with any of the Moons in that strange new sky.
It would take a very brave elf to explore that far from Xadia, purposefully leaving all their magic behind. I think I prefer my adventure a bit closer to home, with a hammer in my hand and the thrum of moonlight in my arcanum. I may study the stars, but I don’t want to visit them. I know where my home lies.
I've been informed that tonight is apparently "International Observe the Moon Night" on my planet! Do you have any interesting holidays coming up in the Silvergrove in the near future? I assume that you have a lot more that are related to the Moon than we do.
How exciting! Your whole planet observes the Moon together on the same night? That’s so lovely.
The Silvergrove celebrates the Moon at every opportunity possible, let me assure you. But there’s a lovely event coming up in just a few weeks that we don’t get to hold very often. It’s one of the most irregular Moonshadow events, which are rare and strange in a culture that’s so even and ordered: a Blue Moon!
It falls on Soultide this year, as well, so we’ll have double the dancing, at least in spirit. *witty chuckle* In the old times, the Nexus would be opened on Blue Soultide nights as the Moon rose, and Moonshadows would get to dance and visit with their lost ones until sunrise. Blue Moons mean the same sort of thing to us as they do to humans, in that way. But we haven’t gotten to participate in this special celebration for the last thousand years. I’m sure it must’ve been lovely.
We still get to eat Moons on a stick, though! The elflings just get their Moons on top of the stick, but us adults have to eat ours as they dangle on a string, too. It’s a fun challenge, but the real secret is to tackle it with a partner.
