“Of Orhan, many Tales are spun, It is the home of the Gods, and cradles a wealth of lore. To look at it aglow, pearly silver in the velvet night, it is easy to talk of gossamer castles and ethereal lords.

“Of Charon, no one will speak.”

The night sky - when not dominated by bright Orhan - is thick with stars. Many cultures have perceived patterns in the groupings and even imagined that they delineate images of the gods or other beings. Because of the variable night sky depending on location and season, different civilizations give many different names to these perceived patterns. However it is worth noting that many of the Elven races of the northern Hemisphere have named constellations after the various Lords of Orhan.

Kultheans as a rule have an unusually well-developed understanding of their place in the cosmos. In many cases this may be attributable to the wealth of knowledge - however fragmented - left behind by previous cultures. For instance, despite the fact that the globe cannot be circumnavigated (see The East below), any goatherd knows that the world is a sphere, and that it whirls around the huge burning orb of the sun (along with a number of other spheres). Things begin to break down, however, when one inquires as to the number of other planets and their names.

THE MOONS

Kulthea holds in orbit five moons: one is very large and close, presenting an easily discernible disk. The other four moons are relatively small and more distant, with less visible disks. (The smallest is in fact a satellite of the largest moon, not of the world itself.) Orbiting nearly on the equator five times per year, the largest moon has regular and noticeable phases and profound effects on the tides of the world. The others have less tidal effect, but in conjunction the five act to create very strong and varying ocean currents and weather systems.

ORHAN

By far the largest of the Kulthean moons, Orhan also has a unique characteristic: it apparently has an atmosphere. From Kulthea Orhan is nearly always shroudedin thick clouds so it is hard to discern the makeup of any land and water masses. Orhan also shows only one face to Kulthea; the other remains forever hidden. The Great Moon (as it is sometimes called) orbits nearly on the ecliptic. Orhan has phases as it orbits Kulthea, each full cycle requiring seventy days. The moon is so large and bright that it is quite visible, even in daylight. Such an overwhelming feature in the sky inevitably influenced Kulthea’s civilizations, and virtually every society’s calendar is based upon the seventy-day cycle. On the first of the month, Orhan is new; it is full on the 35th day of each month/season. Orhan is always full on the Winter Solstice. Orhan is reputed home to the Lords of Orhan, a pantheon of Gods worshipped by many cultures under a plethera of names. Whether or nor Orhan is inhabited by other intelligent life is yet to be verified, as any Kultheans who claim to have visited Orhan are usually consider raving mad moon-men as they tell outrageous tales.

VARIN

The second largest of the Five Moons, Varin is considerably smaller than Orhan. Varin has a discernible disc. It also orbits on the ecliptic, but at a considerably faster pace than Orhan: a period of ten days. This provides a secondary calendar subdivision for Shadow World inhabitants. This moon has a strange, mottled yellow appearance, a result of constant volcanic turbulence. Varin is tortured by the strong gravitational forces at work in this satellite system.

CHARÓN

Charón circles Kulthea inside the orbit of Orhan but outside that of Varin, and is quite small. It is a featureless ice-covered rock ball with a silvery grey appearance, barely large enough to show a disk to the naked eye. Because of this, for all but cultures with telescopes, the ‘phases’ of Charón are estimations at best. It is also known as the Third Moon, not because of its distance from Kulthea but because it is third in size.

Charón is considered an evil presence by nearly every culture on the planet. who believe that the orb is a haven of strange, otherworldly beings and presences. One of the strange things about Charón is its unique polar orbit (meaning that it circles Kulthea by passing over the poles rather than roughly on the equatorial plane, like the other moons). It takes about 21 days to make this orbit, but has many disturbing perturbations.

The Night of the Third Moon

Because of the polar orbit, Charón emerges slowly from the south, every night rising higher and becoming more full, until one night every 149 days Charón is full and at Zenith in a given location (the full moon occurs in different places at different times, of course, and the latitudes further from the equator are fortunately spared this horrible event). It shines much more brightly, and with a reddish glow. There is no mistaking the Night of the Third Moon. Dark cults worship Charón. They consider the zenith to be a time of particular importance, a time when servants of the Unlife are able to leave their home on Charón and come to the Shadow World.

MIKORI and TLILOK

Mikori is the least visible of the Kulthean moons. It can barely be made out as a gleaming mote in the night sky, brighter than most stars and planets, but no match for the other moons. As noted elsewhere, Tlilok is actually a satellite of Orhan, rather than Kulthea itself. It is small, and not a significant feature, though it can be seen against the backdrop of Orhan on clear nights. It is pocked with craters and is a multi-hued grey color.

CELESTIAL EVENTS

Because Orhan is so large and orbits more-or-less on the ecliptic, solar eclipses (when Orhan passes between Kulthea and the sun) are relatively common affairs, occurring every few years in a given locale. And while they lack the spectacle of a Terran solar eclipse (where the moon centers on our sun and reveals a glowing ‘corona’) they cause a deeper darkness over a large area of the planet. Many cultures can predict eclipses with accuracy. A total eclipse can last over an hour and cause temperature drops of more than 40°, wreaking havoc with weather patterns.Lunar eclipses (in which Kulthea passes between Orhan and the sun) are also fairly commonplace, causing a large portion of the Great Moon to darken with a reddish hue. Some less sophisticated cultures believe that it is an attack by the Dark Gods upon Orhan and pray for the victory of their gods. To the relief of some (and disappointment of others) of course the blight inevitably is thrown off and Orhan shines brightly again.

Kulthea is visited by many comets at regular intervals; the Loremasters have recorded the appearance of hundreds over the millennia. By far the most famous and dreaded is Sa’kain, a massive ball of ice and dust which returns every 1500 years. This comet is also imbued with powerful Essænce, for almost every visit is a harbinger of terrible flow-storms and other magical disruptions all across Kulthea. Sa’kain last visited Kulthea in 5650 TEI, so is not expected to return until around 7150, but it is not the only comet in the sky.