The Moon Wants To Murder You: Fact or Fiction?

I see the bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today

— Creedence Clearwater Revival

Even as humanity's understanding of the cosmos grows, dangerous secrets lurk in the night sky. In the Shadow, the moon hangs over the world like a sword of Damocles, a harbinger of the end to come. Far from an inert hunk of space-rock, the moon is a potent magical force that reaches across worlds like few others can.
Nobody is really sure what the moon is, but every sign points to the bastard being trouble.

Bad Moon Rising

I hear hurricanes a-blowing
I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers over flowing
I hear the voice of rage and ruin

— Creedence Clearwater Revival

For denizens of the Shadow, the moon has been an ill-omen for as long as anyone can remember. Even in the Prime, it's blamed for everything from causing insanity to natural disasters, and perhaps for good reason. Like a living, hungry thing, the moon gazes down on the earth, waiting for its chance to devour everything - or so the more paranoid wizards proclaim. Others say it is a living god, a creature from beyond space and time, or an unholy cocoon, just waiting to hatch.

by Rawpixel.com (Freepik)

The handful of Magi who have been to the moon in the Shadow and returned to tell about it report an alien landscape nothing like the barren, crater-riddled satellite seen in the Prime. The surface of the moon is said crawling with strange and impossible life, the very ground writhing and pulsing as if to the beat of a heart.

Every now and then, one of these things from the moon will find its way to the world below, and that's not good.

No story from those who have been there ever has a happy ending - they speak of alien cities that shouldn't, chasms of hungry teeth, unholy terrors lurking in every shadow, and a voice that calls for the doom of all things. Most explorers don't return at all.

But that doesn't stop people from wanting to go, thinking they're the ones who'll beat the odds. Some are sure they'll find power or treasure; others seek the truth. It's a real be careful what you wish for kind of situation.

There is only one known Gates to the moon; the Gates of Tomorrow. It is a neolithic monument from ages past, standing stones whose physical representation in Prime have long since withered away. They remain in the Shadow the stone growing like wild-flowers as the moon moves towards its fullest, withering again as the moon does.
It isn't known who built them or how they were imbued with such power, the most likely culprit being some critter from the Beyond, or even the moon itself. Every total lunar eclipse, they unfurl like a lotus flower and open the door to the moon - and a path for whatever's up there to reach the world.

Moon Magic

Don't go around tonight
Well it's bound to take your life
There's a bad moon on the rise

— Creedence Clearwater Revival

Whatever it is, the moon exerts a powerful influence on magic, tugging at the weave of reality from its place in the Shadow. When it is full, monsters emerge from their hollows with an uncommon frenzy, and the mist hides strangers never seen before. The ebb and flow spark a charge of energy into the world, dangerous and wild. For some mystics, it is a source of power, even if they aren't exactly what they're tapping into to fuel their magic.

Like children playing with a nuclear reactor.

Using the stars, planets, or other celestial alignment is part and parcel of ritual spellcasting, but the moon has always been particularly present. Many Gates use its phases as their Keys, and even parts of the Beyond seem to change when the moon does.

Moon-powered spells never seem designed to pet puppies or summon candy for children, either.

Werewolves are the most infamous example of a monster seemingly controlled by the moon, but not the only one. Some broods of vampires seem driven to a hunger frenzy by the full moon and slumber as it waxes.

by Unsplash (Jaroslav Devia)

by Unsplash (Zoltan Tasi)

Shadow of the Moon

The Shadow lies atop the mortal world, like a veil of oil on water. It's where things that go bump in the night hide when the sun goes up, where magic dwells, and where wizards and witches live away from prying eyes.
It's a plane of existence that mirrors the world. From here, people in the Prime are like insubstantial shades. It isn't quite a 1-to-1 translation of the real world, but close - and the shadow of the moon is a forbidding, dangerous place, even for the most powerful warlock.

by Pixabay

Apocalypse Party Pacts

One part Burning Man, one part vigil, the Apocalypse Prevention Party is an irregularly held festival deep within the Shadow. Here, party-goers bar the Gate to the Sea of Tranquility on the moon in the rare times when the gate opens, preventing anyone from going up there and doing something stupid.

Lunacy

Some folk don't take well to the idea of some impossible god-beast always hanging in the sky, watching their every move. They go moon-mad, obsessing over whatever doom the moon promises to the world or even them specifically. How they respond depends on the magi in question - some hole up bunkers every night, preparing for 'the big one', while others adopt a sort of strike first mentality.
Between those two extremes are those just stricken by paranoia, treating moonlight as if it was radiation.

It's always up there. Watching us. Waiting...

If there's a way to summon the creatures that live on the moon, no one has found it yet - at least, they haven't admitted to it. Such research is considered ill-advised in the best of times, but that's not going to stop the ambitious or power-hungry. Rumors whisper that some mages have already figured it out, and some of the seemingly random occurrences of moon monsters in the Shadow is nothing more than a summoned monster that broke its leash.

Truth & Theories

Hope you got your things together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye is taken for an eye

— Creedence Clearwater Revival

Everyone has their own idea what might be going on up there, but the answer remains elusive. Even Magi who have been can only guess at the truth, but that hasn't stopped anyone from wildly speculating.

Prison

A variant on the hollow moon theory popular with crack-pots everywhere, some magi hold that the moon itself isn't to blame, but holds some monstrous entity within it that is responsible for all its aberrations.
What this entity is ranges from the actual devil to alien gods, to some god from the Beyond who finally made their way across. There are claims, unsubstantiated, of wards sighted on the moon, and no one admitting to forging them.

Kaiju

Some cast the moon itself as a singular, living entity. A god or devil, lurking in the night sky and waiting for its chance to claim the world, or perhaps every world, as its domain. Some even claim to have heard its voice call them.
Others claim that the moon they see is just the tip of the iceberg - the physical manifestation of a far greater beast that lies waiting in the Beyond. Certainly, some Walkers claim, with gibbering madness, to have seen continent-sized monsters in their journeys to the Beyond.

Alien

A few extreme mages jump right into the deep end of the pool. If the moon is impossible, then it has to be something else. A hollow space-station, a time-travelling machine, or an alien colony. Perhaps other worlds have wizards too, and they've come to visit.
Since there's not much proof of any of this, most of these folk are laughed right out of the room. It's still a fringe theory, amusing but generally disregarded by more serious magi.

Other theories include the moon as a piece of some alien planet, mystically charged, or an artifact forged by some poorly defined but magically superior 'ancient people'. Perhaps the most credible theory is that the moon has become a permanently open Gate straight into the Beyond, and has been forever changed by the endless flow of magic.

No matter which theory holds true, one thing is certain - it is bad news waiting to happen.

by Unsplash (Mark Tegethoff)

...And of course, there may very well be other gates to the moon than just the one.

by Annie Stein