Cosmology

The heavens above the Empire of Illyria has always fascinated the citizens of the Empire. Countless generations have looked up to the skies and seen the fates of the world reflected there. And as the fates of the world changed, so too did the face of the heavens.

The Skies

Above the world of Illyria, the celestial bodies whirl about, dancing through the heavens in cycles that last days, month, years or even longer.

The Sun

Each day, the light of the sun rises and sets, bringing light of the day to the world and the restful dark of the night. While the lengths of the days change through the seasons, in some places dramatically, there is always the assurance that for each night there will be a dawn. In the Empire, often a connection is made between the light of the sun and the light of El, the Light in the Darkness.

During the night, the wider cosmos makes its presence known to the people of the world.

The Moon

The light of the moon shines down on the world, with its ever changing faces, cycling through its phases every month. While not associated with any of the major deities of the Prime Pantheon, there were several smaller cosmic entities that found themselves linked to the moon and its phases.

The Stars

Sprinkled across the heavens are the tiny lights of the stars. These are often grouped into shapes, associated with with myths and lore, legends and gods, the wonders of the world, assigned by the peoples of the world as they stared up in the dark night skies in wonder.
In the Empire of Illyria, the major constellations represent the gods of the Prime Order. These shapes rotate through the skies as the seasons pass, with each taking their time at the apex of the sky at midnight.

The Flower of Life

The constellation of Flower of Life rises high in the midnight sky during the spring. The symbol of the Lady Illyria signals the coming of Spring and its appearance in the night sky brings hope of new life and the thawing of the world.

The Sun of Summer

The starburst of the Sun of Summer finds itself high in the sky at the summer solstice. The mark of El, this constellation often fills the sky during the warm nights of summer as the inhabitants enjoy the cool breezes of the evening after a long day of work.

The Hammer of Justice

The forge tool of the protector of Truth, the Hammer of Justice rises to its peak at the autumn equinox. The sigil of Dran, this constellation is associated with the harvest and the act of creation through crafts.

The Book of Knowledge

The tome of The Book of Knowledge finds its peak at the winter solstice during the quiet months of the chill of winter. The icon of Nysra fills the night sky during the longs darks of the winter, finding many using this time to learn more about the world, their skills and themselves as a reflection of the year that has past and in hopes for the year yet to come.

The Wanderers

And still to this day, there are some stars that do no hold their places with respect to the others that hang in the heavens. These are often termed the Wanderers although they can also include stars the blink or change color instead of move locations.  Additionally, these variable elements in the skies may be cyclical and repeat on a regular schedule, there are others that have only appeared once or twice.
While there are many examples of these types of phenomenon, there are a few that are well known to all members of the Illyrian Empire.

The Evening Star

The Evening Star appears six times a year, right as the sun sets below the horizon.  When it first appears in the sky, it is very close to the horizon, making it hard to see  since this occurs right after sunset.  Through the appearance, though, the star moves higher in the sky each night for the first eight days after which it reaches its peak height for that cycle.  Then, through the next week, it moves lower each night until after the eighth night, it will no longer be visible until the next cycle.

The Dawnbringer

The Dawnbringer is the sister star to The Evening Star.  Similarly, it appears six times a year, but it appears before the sunrise.  With a similar period, the Dawnbringer appears earlier and higher in the sky for the first eight days of the appearance and then slowly lowers in the sky, to disappear into the sunrise after an additional eight days.

The Drunken Star

The Drunken Star appears every twenty months and each appearance last for nine weeks.  It is called the Drunken Star due to its movement with respect to the stationary stars it passes by.  Every few days, the movement of the star appears to change, moving in a different direction, sometimes back the way it came and other times at an angle to its previous motion.  While the timing of the appearances of this star is well understood, no one has been able to discern a pattern or sequence to the wandering movement during each visitation. 

The Eye of the Fox

Different than the earlier explained Wanderers, The Eye of the Fox remains stationary and appears as the eye in the Winter Fox constellation.  It gains it place among the Wanderers though because of its variable brightness.  The Eye of the Fox can brighten and dim, sometimes appearing as if it has disappeared completely.  These variations sometimes take weeks or months to happen and can last for days to years.  The timing of these changes are also unpredictable, happening without warning and not according to any discernable pattern.

The Falling Hammer

The Falling Hammer of 205E is one of the best known examples of a comet.  Appearing suddenly in the early months of 205E, the Falling Hammer initially appears only slightly larger than the Moon.  But as the winter melted into spring and then bloomed into summer, the comet grew to stretch across most of the sky.  Finally, on the evening of July 8th of 205E, the head of the comet appears to hit the ground on the eastern horizon.   The tail remained visible for several more month until finally, it disappeared from the night sky.
Many saw the comet as a sign, some interpreting it as a good omen while others saw it as a portent of ill things to come.  Even to this day, there are debates to what effect it may have had.  The harvest of that year was particularly abundant, providing the biggest yield in decades.  Unfortunately, the following winter also broke records, being the coldest and longest that many alive could remember.  While no direct links to the appearance of the comet were ever proven, cases could be made either way as to what affect the celestial visitation had on the Empire.

The Rain of Stars

The annual event of The Rain of Stars occurs the first week of September each year.  During this time, a marked increase in the number of falling stars appears in the skies above the Empire.   Lasting most of the night and peaking in the early morning hours after midnight, up to several streaking stars can appear each minutes in the best of years.  Many small villages will often hold star watching festivals during this time, using it as a relaxing prelude to the upcoming fall harvests.

On the Consistency of the Sky

While some see the skies as unchanging, though, they have not always been the way we see them today. Legends tell that once the skies were filled with more constellations, some marking the presence of the Prime Chaos as well as the currently seen Prime Order. During the Great War, stories speak of night skies full of falling stars and the shapes of the sky changing from night to night. As the stars sparked and flew through the heavens, some worried that the entire sky would be empty when the war was over. But, as it happened, when the battles final came an end, the people of the world found the night sky to be all but unrecognizable. Only the four familiar groups of starts remained. The rest, they had to discover and name again, as their positions were new and unfamiliar to the survivors.