Moons of Neyush
Two former lovers, locked in an eternal race to reach the sun
Neyush has two natural moons, Azhini and Kin, named for the first people to walk the planet, according to ancient T'illik'eye mythology. They believed that the two watched over the planet, provided conditions for healthy life, and protected them from serious dangers.
Quick Comparison
Cultural Impact
Symbology
Up and Down
As is fitting for the matriarchal T'illik'eye society, Azhini is still to this day considered the more dominant of the two moons. She regularly covers Kin completely in a Dual Eclipse, just over every two months.
Following on from that, Azhini is also usually associated with creation and the Spheres generally concerned with an increase of some aspect. Kin was always viewed as having more to do with the opposing, decrease-focused Spheres.
Push and Pull
The overall symbology of the two lovers is one of balance and motion. The positive Spheres cannot exist without the negative, and none of them are more powerful than the others. They continue to push and pull on the world equally as time moves forward, just as the two moons exact an equal influence on the oceans.
Right and Wrong
It's important to note that 'good' and 'evil' are never used to describe the actions or personalities of Azhini or Kin, nor to describe any of the Spheres. The T'illik'eye generally believed that all morality was subjective, and that no one person or source of magic could be considered good or evil without context.
Mythology
Main Article: Ashini and K'inuh - T'illik'eye MythOrigins
As the T'illik'eye culture faded mostly into obscurity until the relatively recent discovery of the K'itsitsäne Manuscripts, most of what we know about these myths has been reconstructed through the stories and religions that have been passed down to modern-day tilken and kliasta people.
Despite the obscurity and the multiple conflicting accounts that have been warped and exaggerated across history, there are common themes and general stories that surround the mythical first people on Neyush.
I think, therefore I Channel
The link between consciousness and magic has long been known, if not always fully understood. The first tilkens knew it so well that Qatätsäne used the same word Nä'iq to mean both 'magic' and 'consciousness'.
With that context, it makes sense that stories involving the first people to be self aware would involve them being the first people to channel, as well.
Power and Humility
Individual people are simply not capable of drawing from every source of magic, instead being limited to a single Sphere. According to assorted myths, Azhini and Kin discovered magic and mastered six of the Spheres each. It is this supposed act that gave them a deity-like status worthy of having moons named after them.
Ambition and Competition
As the stories go, Azhini and Kin kept looking for more ways to use magic, determined to be more powerful than the other. This eventually led them to the Drake, the Sphere that binds all the others, along with the physical world, together.
Being able to draw from the Drake is a sign of an incredibly proficient mage, and this was no different for Azhini and Kin. Not satisfied with merely drawing from it, however, they wanted to master it and prevent the other from taking it.
Round and Round
The moons, according to some stories, don't simply represent Azhini and Kin, but actually are the two first tilkens, having left the planet behind them in a race to reach the sun. Even in religions entirely separate from The Dozen, the sun is often revered if not outright worshipped. Within the T'illik'eye's faith, the sun is an aspect of the Drake itself that created the universe, remaining in the physical world after she created it.
Just as we see the sun as a bright ball of light that hurts the eyes because we're mortal and can't comprehend her power, we see Azhini and Kin as similar (albeit less painful) balls of light in the sky, symbolising their journey from mortal to deity.
Size Comparison
This one's small, that one's far away.
Azhini appears to be the larger of the two, even hiding Kin completely during a Dual Eclipse. However, this is only because Azhini is so much closer to Neyush. In reality, Kin is almost a third bigger than Azhini in diameter.
Earth / Neyush Moon Comparison (apparent)
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