The Moons

A blood-red Moon hangs over the demonic city of
Orms-by-Gorr.

The Moons are enormous, gravity-defying objects found throughout the Duskscape. Utterly mysterious in origin, it is unknown if they are natural or intelligently made. Records of their existence date back to the earliest-surviving Material writings on the Umbral realms. Whatever the case may be, these objects are deeply tied to demonic society, radiating a sort of sustenance, or source of empowerment, for the beings: the closer a demon is to a moon, the more puissant and sharp-minded it is. This "energy", for lack of a better term, is usually called "Pathos".

A single Moon typically makes up the core of a major demonic city, thus creating a sort of inevitable, ringed caste system around the city centre, with lower and lower castes farther outward, ruled by their more empowered, central cousins. The city of Epitaph, for example, contains its Moon deep in the bowels of the Singing Spire at the city centre. The hive-city of Dis is unique for having two Moons, which slowly orbit its towering peaks like ioun stones. The shadowy moon of Kloster Storkenfels and the "blood moon" of Orms-by-Gorr simply float, motionless, above their respective cities.

"Rogue Moons", belonging to no city, are also known, though poorly documented by Waking sources.

Moons are not the sole source of demonic sustenance and not all demonic cities have them. Demons at the outskirts of Moon-based societies appear to fare worse than those in societies completely divorced from the large objects, suggesting irregular exposure is worse than no exposure at all, somewhat akin to Material substances that cause addiction and withdrawal.

Description

Moons are colossal in scale, often the circumfrence of a Material town. They are usually spherical, with varying degrees of roughness. They are made of a tough substance comparable to Duskscape rock. Some are plain and roughly-hewn while others are smooth and worked, occasionally covered in alien runework or pictoral stelae. They are immune to gravity, and will either float in place or orbit around a set point.

A Captive Moon in Nibelheim, used to power the dwarves'
bioengineered technology.

Theories

Being creatures of the Spective layer of reality beneath our Material one, demons are known as cognitovores. Just as Material creatures consume Matter (also called Logos) to continue existing, Spective creatures must replenish their beings with their own—to make a crude generalization—stuff, usually called Pathos. The term 'Spective' informs words such as retrospective, introspective, circumspective, et cetera; in other words, high cognition. Moons may be, for lack of a better definition, repositories of Pathos or cognition.

Across the Veil

The only Moons known to exist on Waking Materia are the "Captive Moons" of Nibelheim. Legends within this great, subterranean metropolis maintain the Captive Moons were stolen from their original demonic owners by the legendary dwarven heroes known as the Wanderers of Nod, who were the first humanoids to colonize the Waking world after a great journey through Nod, their name for the Duskscape. Though dwarves are, of course, Material beings and so require physical nourishment, the cognitive energies of the Captive Moons are harnessed by their myriad bio-engineered technologies, which seem to respond to the Moons in the same way demons do.