Azurelight/Luna
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Like many others, I have thought a lot about the function of Luna in Creation. The canonical data we have is quite limited, one of the more noticeable things being that Lunar cycles affect the Wyld. So I got around to thinking, what can a moon do? Ironically, I found the answer in modern physics.
Most people dismiss the moon as a chunk of rock. This is a mistake. The existence of the moon has a very profound influence on the environmental conditions of the earth.
Most people are aware that the moon affects the tides. I once thought this was its only vital function. However, after watching a certain TV program, I learned that without the moon, the climate on our planet would be far more violent.
For starters, the rotation of our planet would not be regular or unidirectional. The earth would rotate irregularly, more or less tumbling in its orbit. This would lead to extremely violent storms on the surface, and the world would also see a dramatic increase in temperature. (Some 20 degrees Celsius I think, but I’m not sure.) In essence, the researchers said that life on land would have been impossible. Only in the ocean could there ever have been life, if at all.
So how can this be linked to Exalted? Well, I do it by mixing it with an ecological theory called the Gaia theory and a little imagination.
An article on the Gaia theory can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaia_theory
I haven’t read the whole article myself, but I was into the Gaia theory some five years ago. Back then someone said that different ecosystems might be considered to be like organs of the earth. Though I am sure that the theory has evolved since then, this is really all that is needed.
Maybe Luna’s role is similar to the moon in our world, maybe her role is to oversee the regulation of the Essence factors that make Creation habitable and suitable for life at all. This could include anything from the Wyld to the climate (does Creation have an atmosphere?), to being at the top of the general health of the natural ecosystems of Creation.
I do not think that the cities and nature need to made antagonists either. If they are, the world is doomed. Even civilisation needs vital and flourishing ecosystems to survive in the end. This could partly explain why the Lunars have such close ties with animals and nature (I am of the opinion that they should have animistic charms in addition to what they have). This could also explain why the Lunars are often chosen from peoples with a close tie to nature (that these peoples are only portrayed as “barbarians” in the Lunar book indicates a failure to integrate peoples such as the Native Americans or the Aborigines in Exalted.)
Note that the major purpose of this article is not to speculate on what the Lunars are or should be. That part is merely a small sidetrack. I was trying to speculate on a metaphysical place for Luna.
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According to DeathBySurfeit, I committed an error when I placed my last musings page in the hierarchy. Despite reading BestPractices I couldn't figure out what to do or what I had done wrong. This may be due to the fact that English isn't my native language. Therefore I would like some help in solving the problem. -Azurelight
Where was it before? It might just have been a top-level page, in which case, it's innappropriate because top-level pages with general names are for (in general) communual projects, or directory pages.
For example, if this was at just Luna, I would say that would be inappropriate. It's an interesting and worthwhile theory on Luna, but it's -your- theory. The proper place is where is is now (Azurelight/Luna) or, alternatively, if you want a page for general discussion about Luna, it would also fit on Luna/Azurelight. (In this case, Luna would probably be used as a directory, much like SolarArchery)
An alternative to either of these would be to put it at AzurelightLuna, and then link it from your userpage. This would be suggested if you wanted to make subpages off it, for example AzurelightLunaAzurelight/Luna/Theory and AzurelightLunaAzurelight/Luna/Practice.
Hope that helps!
-- Darloth hopes the spammers don't instantiate all the links, but hey, they're not proper examples otherwise.
