Auria
Auria is a silvery-white moon and one of the two moons that orbit Phidas. Auria is the closer one, visible almost every night and formed from the slow gravitational compression of what used to be an asteroid belt that surrounded Phidas when it was still a molten planet.
Auria is the closer, larger moon of Phidas' duo, and the one that provides light in the night and with the major effect on lycanthropy. Auria is only maybe a fifth the size of Phidas, with a radius of about 1638.2 kilometres. It's roughly in a spherical shape, though the surface of it is covered with a smattering of craters and smaller impacts. It is inhospitable to life, containing no plant life or water, but also containing a fairly powerful aura of magic surrounding it. Its internal structure consists of 3 distinct sections and the surface contains no implications that water nor life could have been sustained at any point in the moon's lifetime
Auria's orbit around Phidas is the rough guide for the month cycles, successfully completing its orbit roughly every 30.08 days. From the surface of Phidas, its appearance can be distinguished into 9 phases with a duration of about 3 days each. These phases are known as the following: Null, Crescent, Bise, Coved, Full, Fell, Sect, Crested and Void. As Auria is the closest celestial body with a notable size to Phidas, its gravitational pull is one of various forces that impact the shifting of Phidas' tides. The amount of effect it has on the tides is dependent on what phase it is currently in. Additionally, due to the nature of the orbiting bodies, Auria can enter one of 5 eclipses. These 5 eclipses occur when Auria and Asra perform a syzygy, when Auria and Kalypso syzygy or when all three celestial bodies are aligned. If Auria is larger than Asra in an eclipse, it is called a total eclipse. When Asra is larger than Auria, it is called an annular eclipse. When Auria and Kalypso eclipse, it's called a Velos eclipse and when all three bodies align, it's known as a true eclipse.
Auria, due to its existence before the first life on Phidas, has had many myths, legends and stories surrounding it made by the inhabitants of the planet. To the Aberrations, Auria is merely just a moon of Phidas like most planets have and take more interest in Kalypso. To the Celestials, Auria is a symbol. One that represents many gods, and therefore something that should be respected, if only by association. To the Constructs, Elementals and Monstrosities with intelligence, Auria exists as the celestial body, though they do acknowledge its impact on cultures through history. For the Dragons and Giants, Auria is a place steeped with rich lore, something almost as old as them and something they see in their culture as a symbol. To the Fey and Plants with sentience, it exists not only via its impacts on nature but as a muse, a symbol, a testament to the rich past of the world and how it extends beyond the mere confines of Phidas' surface. To the Fiends and Undead, Auria is often associated with the night and the many curses that follow the moon, shaping their perception of it as a grand, neutral force that can be manipulated into acting. To the humanoids however, Auria is all of that and much more. Perhaps simply due to the nature of humanoids, Auria has existed in their culture, art and stories as long as stories have existed. It's viewed as an opposite, a balance, something both physical and metaphysical. Nearly every culture of humanoid has at least a single story about the moon, and many more have worshipped it in their past.
Type
Planetoid / Moon
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