Noctaliya Geographic Location in The Discontinuum | World Anvil

Noctaliya

The world of Noctaliya lies within a geometry of the discontinuum designated as the twilight realms by the stability council. These realms include both evolutions and archetypes. Noctaliya is an evolution but one which sits on the very edge of temporal stability. Whilst Magicians' End, perhaps only a little more stable, is under active, if precarious protection, Noctaliya is very seldom visited by stability council agents and their policy is only to watch and monitor it. It is considered to be too far from the influence and gateways of the local council patrolled worlds to be defensible.   The peculiarly precise geometry of the celestial bodies and the apparently unnatural origins of the Owlblood, suggest to some that an ancient Power engineered Noctaliya. Alternatively, it is possible that it was once an archetype which has attained the status of an evolution. Transitions over the borderlands between these two types of realm can happen in both directions. It is difficult to settle the question and it remains open.

Geography

The planet orbits a white dwarf star and is tidally locked to it, so that the length of the year and day are the same, a period lasting a little less than thirty of the days on Earth Zero. This means that one hemisphere permanently faces the wan little star which never sets here, whilst the other hemisphere never sees dawn. A small moon call Noct is tidally locked to the planet on the dark side, exactly opposite to the sun, so that the "dark" hemisphere is always lit by the reflected light of this moon which remains permanently fully illuminated. The two hemispheres are known as Sunside and Moonside respectively and both are inhabited.   The star gives off only a meager amount of light and heat but because the planet is in a tight orbit, this is enough to keep the day side at an equitable temperature and to sustain a liquid planetry ocean. Moonside receives suffcient energy, transfered via ocean currents, wind circulation and some few geothermal sources to keep it from freezing over completely, although it is bitterly cold and the central continent is always covered in snow and ice.   There are a number of features of the system which make it highly unusual and have led to suggestions that it may not be entirely natural. The near perfect symmetric tidal locking might be a coincidence or might have a physical explanation but it is not clear what that would be. It is hard to explain the proximity of the world to the dying sun and how it has retained an active molten core and the very strong magnetic field which is necessary for habitability.
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Cover image: Noctaliya by DMFW with Midjourney

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