Lore: Time

In the human realm, the earth runs on a persistent cycle of Day and Night, which as we all know is dictated by the position of the sun known as a Sun path, which refers to the daily (sunrise to sunset) and seasonal arc-like path that the Sun appears to follow across the sky as the Earth rotates and orbits the Sun.

Daytime is the period of the day in which the Sun is above the local horizon in a given location, while nighttime is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Approximately half of Earth is illuminated at any time by the Sun, while the other half goes through its night cycle. However in the Demon realm, Daytime does not exist in the traditional sense.

Instead the Demon realm runs on a Singular Formation Cycle: meaning that only one object dictates what would be considered night and day, instead of two (The position of the Sun and Moon) on Earth.

This is because, within the Demon realm, there is no sun

The general presumption among demons is that there never WAS a sun to begin with (For those old enough to remember pre-honmoon days, they’ll quickly correct younger demons: that yes there USE to be a sunlike object in the sky, but no one knows what happened to it, where it went or when it plans on ever coming back).

Instead, much of the light comes from the Phases of the Moon. While on Earth the light of the moon comes naturally from the sun itself shining on it, for some odd reason or another, the moon itself within the Demon realm emits its own form of light. Thus when the moon goes through its “cycling”, each phase emits more or less light, and hours are instead determined depending on what phase the moon is in.

For this reason, two of the most important phases of this cycle are what we would typically call New Moon and Full Moon.

New Moon:

On earth, New Moon is where the Moon stands between the Earth and Sun, the illuminated side facing away from Earth, making it invisible to the naked eye. In the Demon realm, this phase is what would typically be considered Sun-Down.

In the current age, the world of Demon’s at this stage is nearly enveloped in total darkness. However, it is not necessarily an existence completely devoid of fire and illumination as it might seem. Certain creatures emit their own light source, and many settlements of Demons often live and thrive by way of torch light despite their near-perfect night vision, with many finding the warmth of flame to be very inviting.

Full Moon:

On earth, Full Moon is the lunar phase in which the Moon appears fully illuminated from Earth’s perspective. This occurs when Earth is located between the Sun and the Moon.

In the Demon realm, this phase and the few that come before it, are what would typically be considered to be the start of Sun-Rise. The brightest of the phases, while it does not completely liven up the place, this phase of the moon emits enough light that visibility greatly increases. While still not bright enough to be considered a traditional Sun-up, many Demons cope well, and treat it as though it would be any other “day” on earth.

Plus, much like with Earth, the Demon realm also runs on what is presumably a typical 24 hour time-cycle, meaning that at least this variation of sun is not so short lived!