Selune

PLANET TYPE: Spherical earth body
PLANET SIZE: D
ESCAPE TIME: 3 turns
SATELLITES: None
DAY LENGTH: 30 days
YEAR LENGTH: 30 days
POPULATION ANALYSIS: Mostly Elves and Humans
DISTANCE/TIME FROM:
200 million miles 2 days travel
150-250 million miles 1.5-2.5 days travel
100-300 million miles 1-3 days travel
Toril - 183,000 miles 70 min travel
100-500 million miles 1-5 days travel
200-600 million miles 2-6 days travel
800-1,200 million miles 8-12 days travel
1,000-1,400 million miles 10-14 days travel
1,400-1,800 million miles 14-18 days travel
3,000 million miles 30 days travel
Selûne, or Leira to some civilisations, is Toril's only natural moon. Named after the goddess of the Heavens, it orbits Toril and is visible to all civilisations across the face of the planet. As one of the largest divine bodies on the prime material plane, it is highly magical, coated in a magically induced atmospheric shell which can support some extra-terrestrial life, and is drawn on by various divine spell casters. As such, it is highly central to many religious doctrines of the mortal world.

Geography

Selûne was about 2,000 miles across and was located 183,000 miles away from Toril. Since the revolution and rotation period of Selûne's orbit around Toril were the same, only one side of the of the moon faced Toril, while the far side could never be seen from the planet. The surface of Selûne had enormous lakes and two large seas. Three large mountain ranges ran the surface of the moon from North to South. The mountaintops of the 12 tallest mountains were constantly molten and gathered heat from the sun during the moon's 15-day-long day. As they cooled down, they shone an incandescent light that was bright enough to read by during most of the moon's 15-day-long night. Selûne had a remarkably stable temperature, thanks to its magical blanket. Except for the hot mountain tops, the surface of the entire moon was relatively cool, although temperatures never dropped below freezing.

Lunar Phases

Selûne orbits Toril on an wide elliptical path every 28 days, 10 of which are spent close to the planet and 18 far from the planet. The days where the moon is closer result in an eclipse every four months, and larger tides on the shores of the hemisphere the moon is closer too. The days where the moon is further away result in calmer and more stable tides throughout the day, and a fainter moon in the sky. For those who magic lunar magic, the phases of the moon impacted the potency of their spells, peaking in the full moon and dipping in the new moon. The phases of the moon can be seen by the art below

The Tears of Selûne

Orbiting Selûne is a large celestial body dubbed "Selûne tears", a large asteroid cluster visible from Toril, which appears to follow Selûne along its path around the planet. There are hundreds of them, trailing the moon and orbiting one another. Several are home to air pockets and caves which are home to various extra-planar and void-breathing bodies

Tears of Selune

Circa -3500 DR an astronomer from Shou Lung, Tu Pi Chei, reported seeing many objects ‘pop’ into existance. Soon, all of Toril’s oceans were wracked by massive tidal waves. The Emperor was informed and the next night he too looked at the sky and saw the new objects. Twenty astrologers were tasked with determining their meaning. Most said that Shou Lung would expand inland, some said that a member of the emperor’s family would soon die, one claimed that the emperor himself would become pregnant (that astrologer was immediately put to death). Shou Lung did indeed expand inland soon after and is now one of the largest countries on Toril. The emperors wife also died in childbirth later that year. The elves of Evermeet took it as a sign that the gods were pleased with their magical research and view the Tears with pride, while the goblinoids believed they were part of a plot by human mages to bathe the night in moonlight. They feared that the night sky would soon be filled with moons thus eliminating their precious darkness. Many have set out to kill as many humans and elves as they could for just this reason. Spacefarers tend to believe that they were created by a deity new to the sphere to hide the castle in the center of the cluster where it lives. Many have attempted to investigate the castle but none have returned alive. Most human legends tell of the goddess Selûne who fell in love with a handsome warrior who turned out to be an evil shapechanging monster bent on destruction and conquest. She sealed the warrior and his minions in a gem made of her life essence and wept with the tears coming to rest trailing the satellite of her namesake. The popular belief amongst those versed in such matters is that they are just a normal asteroid cluster that got caught up in the wake of Selûne. There are hundreds of them, circling each other, though the focal point of their revolution is actually a castle. Selune is Toril’s only natural satellite. Only one side of the moon is ever visible to the planet. The other side, called the dark side, is never seen by Toril inhabitants. Selune revolves around Toril once every 30 days, performing the natural cycle of full moon, three-quarter, half, one-quarter, and new moon, and back again. With the positioning of Selune’s orbit, eclipses happen frequently.
Selune, surprisingly, is a relatively cool place, except for the molten mountain tops. The tem­perature rarely exceeds 60 degrees, while never dropping below freezing. This temperature sta­bility has been related to the moon’s magical blanket that shrouds the side facing Toril. This magical illusion makes Selune appear to be completely uninhabited and desolate. The other side, however, is not blanketed in illusion, and its full splendor is revealed.
The people here are hedonists, demanding the best in everything. One cannot find an un­comfortable chair, a table that doesn’t appeal to the eye, or an earring that doesn’t shimmer in the light just so. The clothes worn express this aestheticism as well. Some people call the Se­lune inhabitants frivolous, foolish, and unwor­thy of serious consideration. This could be true for the most part, because one of the major reli­gions on Selune is the worship of Leira, the Lady of the Mists and goddess of illusion and un­truths. Refer to the FORGOTTEN REALMS® hardback for a complete rundown on this reli­gion.

Ports of Call

Selune has several ports by which spelljamming ships can dock. All of these facilities are on the “dark side” of the moon, thus being efficiently hidden from Toril. Please note that there are absolutely no spacefaring ports on the Toril side of Selune; in fact, the gov­ernment of Selune prefers that ships never ap­proach this side.
The fifty-some ports are all located at the Leira Trading Center which is on the equatorial line in the center of the moon. From here, the Selunians cannot see Toril, but more impor­tantly, Toril cannot see them. Selune’s natives are paranoid of the planet’s inhabitants, and usually look toward Toril visitors as spies. It is not uncommon for Torilian merchants and ad­venturers to be denied access to the rest of the moon from the Leira Trading Center.
When one first enters the docking ports of Se­lune, one is immediately greeted by almost a dozen dock hands hired to assist the ship into port. These are dedicated men and women, striving to assure that not a speck of paint on any ship gets scratched. Crews may be surprised when the inhabitants welcome them to Leira, and not Selune. The people feel a closer bond to this goddess and thus named their world after her.
Crews are free to roam anywhere, except for a few designated areas. Even then, the only pen­alty is a polite escort to the nearest non-secret location. This applies to everyone but those who claim to be from Toril. In this case, an arrest, trial, and conviction for espionage is much more likely. People found guilty of spying are al­ways decapitated within the hour. There is no tolerance for thieves of trade or militaristic se­crets. If there is ever any doubt about the sincer­ity of an individual in these matters, the worst is always believed.

Resources/Trade

The people here are ex­ceedingly aesthetic. Their only care when pur­chasing something is its relative comfort and beauty—which chair is the most comfortable, and which coat rack has the most appeal. Silks are a large import item here. Selune does not have the capacity to create its own, so all must be imported. The more seductive and revealing the clothing, the better.
Fine foods are a necessity—the more deli­cious and savory the better. These people are not afraid to pay for their luxuries, but they are not fools either. They know how to play two mer­chants against each other to get the best price they can. This often causes fights in the mar­kets, to the delight of the Selunian residents.
The furniture bought must be of the brightest and best colors, and must be enjoyable to the user. (Burlap covered furniture never sells.) The magical items Selunians purchase are usually those that can be assimilated by their ever con­suming passion, or they are very deadly.
These lethal magical items are purchased and hidden away deep within the moon, for the peo­ple live in fear of the day when Toril mounts a full scale assault on Selune to take it as their own.
The Selunians naturally import great quanti­ties of art. Paintings and sculptures are all major purchase items for the average citizen, but their largest artistic import is the artisans them­selves. The love for theater and music is so high that many of artisans from several worlds in Realmspace and even from other crystal spheres gather here to entertain, paint, sculpt, and to sing and dance their way into the Selune hearts and coin purses. A great deal of money is to be had here for those talented and lucky enough to get on stage.
The Selunians may be aesthetic and frivolous, but their passions cannot be quenched. They love as deeply as they fear and hate. Nothing to them is done haphazardly, which is why many observers see a threat lying beneath that exte­rior dedicated to the pleasures. It is believed that the high magistrate, Her Highness Phlandra Alabaster, is readying to attack Toril. She fears that a Torilian attack is inevitable, and she would rather have Toril’s lands ripped from the devastations of war instead of hers. There has been a growth in the number of internal protect­ive service agents in recent years as well. This growth seems to parallel the paranoia the Selu­nians feel.
The people for the most part are pale skinned, living their lives in a world’s atmosphere that softens the rays of the sun to such a point that tanning is impossible. The humans, who are about an average of six inches shorter than their Toril counterparts, live in harmony with the elves who are about six inches taller than their relatives planetside. There has never been a war in recorded history between these two races, which is a credit to their benevolence. Together, side by side, they have made the Toril satellite a very beautiful place to live and work.
The humans all have blonde or light brown hair. Their eyes are light colored as well; bright blues and greens are the normal, with the purple or lavender shades being fairly unusual. None of the inhabitants have brown, black, or any other darker eye color. Even the elves exhibit lighter shades of skin, eyes, and hair.
Gnlike many worlds, this one lacks families of dwarves burrowing deep beneath its surface. Many dwarven mining conglomerates have asked the Selune government for permission to set up mining operations, but all have met with denial. Truth be known, the elves and the hu­mans have already drilled huge caverns deep within the surface—as invasion shelters. When Tori 1 invades, if the Selunians are unable to fend them off, they plan to hide themselves in these manmade caverns. All school-aged children are taught the techniques of guerrilla warfare from the time they are old enough and strong enough to pull back on a bow. No manner of talking can convince the Selunians that there is no danger from Toril.

Prominent Land Features

The Selune side which continually faces Toril is shrouded in a powerful illusion. This illusion, being a gift from the goddess Leira for their unbridled worship, cannot be dispelled without a dispel magic, alter reality, or a wish spell cast by at least a minor god or goddess. This illusion shows the moon as being a completely uninhabited place, with cra­ters, and lifeless valleys. The atmosphere of Se­lune is hidden as well. The illusion drifts about 500 feet above the surface of Selune. A wish spell displays the true features of Selune, but only for the character who invoked the wish. There is no other way to see its features without actually being on the surface itself.
Beneath this mask of magic lie sprawling cit­ies, huge lakes, and seas. Majestic mountains with molten peaks lie in huge ranges which stretch from north to south. Three such moun­tain ranges exist, with the middle one being the tallest and the most foreboding. The tops of the highest 12 mountains are molten. The heat from the sun and the atmosphere’s reflective properties combine to create this candle effect. During the Selune night, these peaks glow with such brilliance that books can be read from miles away. Toward the end of the night, which lasts 15 days, the mountaintops cool and no longer glow. During the day they heat up again, and the cycle continues.
The cities that sprawl across Selune are all connected by highly decorative streets and walkways. Many schools have taken historical field trips to older cities throughout the lands to view the artistic carvings in their streets. There are hieroglyphic writings as well as pictures. De­spite centuries of traffic, these carvings are still beautiful and legible.
In the middle of the dark side of Selune—the side that constantly faces away from Toril—lies the most beautiful building on the planet. This is the spelljamming space port. There are about 50 separate docking bays along its 300-foot tall structure. Surrounding the Leira Trading Cen­ter, dwarfed by its immense size, lie thousands of multi-colored buildings—single and multi­family lodgings, businesses, and theaters.
There are two large seas on Selune. The Northern Sea, being twice the size as the South­ern Sea, is responsible for the large quantity of fish that Selune eats. Fish never see export trad­ing tables, because of their rarity and value.
Fishing is allowed only in season, which hap­pens to be during dusk and dawn. This twilight time not only assures good fishing, but it is also when the fish are not breeding. Any fishing dur­ing the off season is punishable by 30 days hard labor in the mining operations deep under­ground.

Disposition

The people on Selune want nothing personally to do with spelljamming. They think it grand that cultures across the uni­verse have made their world a stop in their trad­ing routes, but they want nothing to do with the discomfort of the tight quarters and the hair- raising adventure on the sail.
Their idea of fun is having a cold glass of tea with shaved ice and a small umbrella, while sit­ting in the warmth of the Sun.
Selunians seem aloof. Their interests today do not necessarily dictate their interests for to­morrow. They do, however maintain a constant interest in music and the arts, but like children, the attention span they possess is so short that they are always looking for something new and different.
This has created a ruthlessly cutthroat art business. If two or more artists perform the same night, the latter performer always ridi­cules the previous performances, accusing them of being behind the times, or that the act copied another, even if the previous acts were completely new. Many people have died from this constant badgering, for everyone needs to make a living, and when someone takes that away, the anger that ensues comes in manyforms. Sometimes these forms can explode in fits of lethal anger.
The creative people who come here to per­form are well met and respected, but their pro­fessional life expectancy is usually rated in mere days or weeks. The very lucky and the very crea­tive have been known to last for many months. These artists tend to die mysteriously at the end of their careers.

PLANET NAME: Selune (Moon) PLANET TYPE: Spherical earth body PLANET SIZE: D ESCAPE TIME: 3 turns SATELLITES: None DAY LENGTH: 30 days YEAR LENGTH: 30 days POPULATION ANALYSIS: Mostly Elves and Humans
Selûne Size D spherical earth body[1] Type Moon Classification Code D●E Satellite of Toril Day length 30d 10h 30min[1][2] Year length 30d 10h 30min[1][2] Demonym Selûnian, or Leiran[1] Population Elves, humans[1] Geography Selûne was about 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) across[2] and was located 183,000 miles (295,000 kilometers) away from Toril,[1] although some sages from the late 14th century DR claimed the distance to be some 20,000 miles (32,000 kilometers) instead.[2][note 1] Since the revolution and rotation periods of Selûne's orbit around Toril were the same, only one side of the moon always faced Toril, while the far side (referred to by some as the "dark side") could never be seen from the planet.[1]
A moonlit night in a dockside town, with Selûne shining bright and full. The visible side of the moon was disguised by a powerful illusion that made it appear to be an airless, barren, desolate place filled with craters and valleys. The illusion drifted about 500 miles (800 km) above the surface. It could only be revealed by a wish spell and, even so, only to the caster. The far side, however, was not obscured by any magic, so its true splendor could be seen from space. All docking ports for spelljamming ships were located on the far side.[1] Selûne was followed in the sky by the Tears of Selûne, a constellation of very small celestial bodies that was often identified as composed of nine stars,[4] but which in reality consisted of hundreds of asteroids.[5][6] Lunar Phases Selûne was full at midnight on Hammer 1, 1372 DR, and subsequently every 30 days, 10 hours, and 30 minutes. Selûne was also full at midnight on the first day of every leap year. Selûne made exactly 48 synodic revolutions every four years, so the phase of Selûne was the same at the same time on the same date every four years. Selûne was generally full around the first day of each month, give or take a day; festival days served to keep the moon's phases consistent across calendar months and years.[2] For those who practiced lunar magic, the phase of the moon affected the potency of their spells, peaking in the full moon and dipping at the new moon.[7] Eclipses Due to the size and relative rotation of Selûne and Toril, eclipses were quite frequent and commonplace.[1][2] Geographical Features Climate for Selûne Temperature Ranges[1] Max 60 ℉ 16 ℃ Min 32 ℉ 0 ℃



The surface of Selûne had enormous lakes and two large seas. It was dotted with cities connected with one another by beautifully decorated roads. Three large mountain ranges ran along the surface of the moon from North to South. The mountaintops of the twelve tallest mountains were constantly molten and gathered heat from the sun during the moon's 15-day-long day. As they cooled down, they shone an incandescent light that was bright enough to read by during most of the moon's 15-day-long night.[2] Selûne had a remarkably stable temperature, thanks to its magical blanket. Except for the hot mountain tops, the surface of the entire moon was relatively cool, although temperatures never dropped below freezing.[1] Flora & Fauna The native vegetation required low temperatures of below 60℉ (16℃). Known in Faerûn as "moonplants", a whole garden of them was carefully maintained in a sensitive ecosystem under the Dome of the Moon atop the House of the Moon temple to the goddess in Waterdeep.[8] History
Selûne shining over Priam Agrivar, displaying its craters and cracks. By the hand of Selûne, goddess of the moon and its namesake, the moon could be a conduit of her powers. In 1357 DR, her avatar Luna used a bright beam of moonlight to transport Conner and the kittenlord to her inn, Selûne's Smile, and later to crack open the roof of a cavern and blind ogres holding the paladin Priam Agrivar.[9][10] Rumors & Legends In Kara-Tur, it was believed that the Moon Women of the Celestial Bureaucracy were responsible for steering the motion of the Moon along its course.[11] Notable Locations The largest and most beautiful building on Selûne was the Leira Trading Center, located in the center of the moon's far side. It consisted of about 50 spelljamming space docks and was surrounded by numerous colorful businesses, theaters, and dwellings. Visitors from Toril arriving at this large complex were usually confined to it and were not allowed to explore the remainder of the moon.[1] Inhabitants Selûne's aloof inhabitants, also known as Selûnians, but who referred to themselves as Leirans, had a refined sense of aesthetics that appeared frivolous and foolish to outsiders. The predominant religion among the moon's inhabitants was the worship of Leira. In fact, it was not uncommon for the inhabitants to call their world Leira instead of Selûne. The obscuring illusion that hid the near side of the moon from Toril was a gift from Leira to reward their worship.[1] Selûnians were extremely suspicious of Torilians, to the point of paranoia. Visitors and merchants from Toril were usually considered spies and were often denied access to restricted areas of the moon, sometimes being even confined to the spaceport where they docked. Selûnians were convinced that Torilians were dangerous and could not be persuaded otherwise.[1] They even feared the Torilians would invade their world at any time, despite having no evidence for this belief and despite all the evidence against it. They would launch a "preemptive counterattack" on Toril if the opportunity arose.[12] Their leader in the late 14th century DR was High Magistrate and Queen of the Leirans Phlandra Alabaster, who had wizards working for her who would track visitors to the moon.[12]

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