Ëmar

Ëmar, or Eimar, is one of two moons of the planet Ólïvarneð alongside Úlim. It is the closer of the two, averaging a distance of 200,000 km (roughly 18 times the planet's diameter) from the surface of the planet. Its orbital period serves as the benchmark for the length of a typical Ólïvarneðian day, also known as an Ïdavý or Ëdavý, while that of Úlim, which coincidentally aligns to be around seventy-two times as long, serves as the benchmark for a typical Ólïvarneðian year, or Údavý. Together alongside Rhiloneð, Ólïvarneð's star, the two moons are the main instigators of the harsh weather conditions on the planet.
Measuring at around 95 km in diameter at its widest extent, Ëmar is the smaller of the two moons, a designation likely caused by multiple collisions during its formation. It is thought that a series of particularly devastating impacts caused Ëmar to accumulate mass, breaking and reforming to into a multi-layered, highly diverse geological composition. The result of this would be an ovalish, relatively spherical solid, and its fracture lines, which are still visible through a telescope. Ultimately, this shape is by far Ëmar's biggest contributor to its cultural identity; its name itself is derived from the Illibrivroni and Eldrond term Ë, or Ei, meaning 'to be'. The suffix -mar is lost to antiquity, but archaeological finds in the Yitdish Ruins point to a meaning close to 'us', thus referencing the moon's anatomical resemblance to the Ibrófeneð.

Etymology

Ëmar goes by several names, depending on the region. The name Ëmar itself has seen widespread use throughout the history of the Ibrófeneð species, as nearly all cultural distinctions have, in some form or another, noted its similarity with their own anatomy. Other than that, however, many religions and cultures incorporate Ëmar in their mythology and/or religion. The following are a couple alternate names encountered by archaeologists in their findings.
Ðimar is a name used most often by those adhering to the Elironidian mythos, in which Ëmar is perceived as a protective deity. This term derives from the verb 'Ðilav', meaning 'to care for'.
In addition, Tëmar is a name that is extremely common, mostly throughout the Urnimrine continent, where it is used to refer to Ëmar in a scholarly context, or simply as another word for the moon if the name Ëmar becomes too repetitive. This means 'watcher', derived from the verb 'Tamdë', that is, 'to watch'.
Finally, amongst particularly devout Ibrófeneðs, the name Wëmar is used as a way to directly address the moon. Derived from the verb 'Wë', or 'to call', its use has fluctuated over the years.

Geography

Dimensions

The shape of Ëmar resembles an oblate spheroid whose equatorial and polar radii have a ratio of approximately 1.76 to 1. The former measures at around 47.65 km, and the latter at around 27.1 km. The surface area measures at 25,011 square kilometers, owing to the jagged, cratered surface. The volume is 255,961 cubic kilometers.

Physical Structure

It is widely agreed, through results obtained in the Mýnö expeditions, that the intermal structure of Ëmar consists of a spherical nucleus of ice surrounded by a dense region of stone, which was formed during the formation of the moon itself. It is at this rock layer that the major pieces, or Úmovarkó, are conjoined into a single mass. Together, the outer faces of these Úmovarkó make up the exterior surface of Ëmar, and the spaces between them form deep gorges, or Úkataró, that allow restricted access into the inside network of Ëmar.

Khówep

Th Khówep is the inner nucleus of Ëmar. It is split into two parts: the icy core of Žaŋa and the dense rock layer above it. Due to the gravitational pull, the Khówep is extremely dense, about 4,500 kg/m^3 for the ice and 4,300 for the rock layer.
In its infancy, the rock layer was split up into anywhere between 20 and 30 individual pieces, as the vapor streams of the melting core forced cracks open. Today, all pieces have fused back together, and only one crack in the Khówep is still traversible, albeit highly dangerous. This crack is the only remaining passage to the ice core.

Úmovarkó

The Úmovarkó, literally the Celestial Skeleton, is the common name for the pieces that make up Ëmar. Typically, this term does not refer to the individual fragments that were broken up in the two collisions, as they number well into the trillions, but rather the much larger segments that such pieces eventually fused together into. These segments are delineated by gorges, or 'Úkataró', which were where the vapor streams of the melting core escaped.
An Úmovark is usually defined as measuring at least 20,000 cubic kilometers in volume, minus the inner nucleus itself. Generally, all pieces are speckled in color, as they are a mix of the rocks of both the Proto-Ëmar and the Óðóla.

Úkataró and Fömaró

The surface of Ëmar is characterized by two types of features: gorges (Úkataró) and craters (Fömaró). The former measure between 5 and 25 meters wide, and are characterized by a slight incline in the terrain at the edges, most likely caused when the vapor streams forced these pieces aside. Only about 25% of the Úkataró originally present at the formation of the moon still exist, the rest being closed up by gradual weathering and the gravitational pull. However, all Úkataró, open or closed, still bear this ridge-like pattern, helping to give the moon its characteristic 'stitched' look.
The Fömaró are craters that measure between 15 and 75 kilometers in diameter. only a select few date from the Ëmar-Gaž or even the Nota-Ëmar periods; the majority of them are from the Proto-Ëmar and Óðóla themselves. However, due to the multiple collisions, intact craters are extremely rare. There are 20 intact craters, with 15 being subterranean and thus extremely hard to preserve, much less explore, and the other 5, dubbed the Tamdapó, or the 'eyes' of Ëmar, are dotted around the planet. Conversely, there are about 1500 fragmentary craters, 700 of which are underground. About 300 fragments make up a giant line that runs near the equator of the moon. Originally thought to be another Úkataró, this landmark, called the Vëŋüd, or the 'scar', is the most recognizable part of Ëmar.

History

It is believed that Ëmar was formed around 1.1 million years ago, owing to the relatively fragile anatomy. There were at least three astronomical bodies involved in the forming of Ëmar; one such body, probably an asteroid, was rich in iron and was made of a light-bluish rock called Óðóla, another contained traces of ice surrounded in a casing of a brownish rock called Žaŋa, and the third was what is called the 'Proto-Ëmar', or Ëmar-Švúlak, a misshapen, greyish rock that was about a third the size of the modern Ëmar. Although it was once believed that all three bodies collided in a single impact, the more popular concensus nowadays is that two separate collisions happened in the course of 500,000 years.

Proto-Ëmar

The Proto-Ëmar is believed to have been slightly misshapen in size, and is most likely a rogue asteroid that strayed into Ólïvarneð's orbit. It was greyish-to-black in color, and was significantly smaller than the modern-day Ëmar, ranging from 3,000 to 12,000 cubic kilometers in volume.

First Collision with Óðóla

The Óðóla rock was the first to hit. It was likely also an asteroid between 5 and 8 times the size of the Proto-Ëmar, and it hit the Proto-Ëmar at an angle of 45 degrees. This had numerous effects; the Proto-Ëmar was essentially pulverized, and its pieces either rained down on Ólïvarneð or coated the surface of Óðóla.
About 3,000,000 kg of debris and molten rock rained down on Ólïvarneð and Úlim. The most significant of these was a 25-kilometer-wide asteroid, originating from the Óðóla, that slammed into the west coast of the Tayzem Region, creating the Merios Lake. Today, the evidence for this collision is still visible; the terrain there, although faded from eons of erosion and weathering, bears a faint light blue tint.
The resultant satellite was significantly less massive than the combined masses of Óðóla and Proto-Ëmar; it's estimated that at least 15% of its mass rained down on the planet. Various estimates place the combined moon, usually given the name Nota-Ëmar, or Second Ëmar, at a volume of 30,000 to 70,000 cubic kilometers.

Second Collision with Žaŋa

Žaŋa, which weighed at least four or five times as heavy as the Nota-Švúlak, was probably a comet or some other body with a large amount of ice. Žaŋa's direction before its encounter with Ëmar was towards Rhiloneð. It was most likely caught by Ólivarneð's gravitational field in the same way that the Proto-Ëmar was, which drastically increased its speed and reset its trajectory towards the Nota-Ëmar. With this new trajectory, it collided with Nota-Ëmar almost head-on, with Žaŋa's increased mass prevailing. Here, scientists disagree on the exact manner of collision, given that, at the end, much more of Nota-Ëmar's mass did not fall to the home planet, but instead existed as a short-lived ring system. Within ten years after its collision, about 45% of this mass, include most of the larger fragments, was absorbed into Žaŋa, or, as astronomers will call it, Ëmar-Gaž, or Preperatory Ëmar, while the other 55% would be layered on in the next 50 years. This was accelerated by the growing mass of Ëmar-Gaž itself, allowing its gravitational pull to steadily increase.

Ëmar-Gaž

Meanwhile, its icy composition was likely starting to melt due to the star's heat. This was a process that was in transit even before the collision, as Žaŋa was, as previously mentioned, heading in a direction towards the home star. In fact, the gradual accumulation of mass eventually settled along special 'rift lines', or Úkataró, which was influenced by streams of vapor emanating from the surface. Upon sufficient melting, a layer of empty space would now inhabit the region between the now-shrunken ice core and the fragmented crust; the already-unstable crust was therefore obliged to collapse and fragment even further, with fragments resting on and compressing other such fragments. It was this last step that gave Ëmar its modern-day maze-like, striated structure.
Once the icy core was sufficiently covered up in layers of rock, the pressure allowed the ice to retain its solid form without further melting. This point marked the end of the Ëmar-Gaž, thus bringing it to its current form. Over the years, further geological shifting, this time in the opposite direction, would fuse most of the gorges shut. It is thought that during the time of the Ëmar-Gaž, that is, when Ëmar was being formed via these vapor streams, about 5500 kilometers-worth of passageway was accessible, including 15 individual trails to the icy core alone, while nowadays only 600 kilometers are accessible, with about 560 left as potentially discoverable in the near future.

Alternative Name(s)

Tëmar, Wëmar, Ðimar