Friday, March 16, 2018

Notes on Sunpoint and Directions In the World

Aeyona is centered on Sunpoint, this nobody disputes.

Sunpoint is the center of the world, and a sacred city to all those who worship the sun - there may be a thousand factions that worship the sun, but all those who make the pilgrimage to Sunpoint are at peace with each other.

Even the old Nerathi Empire never attempted to conquer Sunpoint (though they are the ones who funded and engineered Sunpoint Tower and the Following Wall).

For those who travel to Sunpoint for religious purposes, the common practice among factions is to attempt to walk for a day around Sunpoint, such that one is always between the sun and the center of the city.  If one can, one walks long the Following Wall, if not, many follow around the outside of the city - a slightly faster pace for the day-long walk.

This is made possible by the fact that the Sunpoint is on top of the world - from the top of Sunpoint Tower you can see (and measure) the Sun circling at a right angle from a plumb line, never more than a few degrees above the horizon, with half the world in shadow and half the world in light.

This is proof that the world is shaped like a spherical dome, if a shallow one - in the most Stormward part of Evernia, the sun is 20 degrees above the horizon, and in the Storm Isles the sun makes it's arc 40 degrees above the horizon.  (Or so the dragons say - it's not like the sun is visible, or setting up measuring equipment is tenable.)

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Once the centrality of Sunpoint is understood, the Aeyonan system of cardinal directions makes sense:

Pointward (or formally "Sunpointward") is towards Sunpoint, from wherever you are.

Stormward is towards the Boiling Sea, and the storms that come off of it - this is the opposite of Pointward.

Following (formally "Sunfollowing", also "Duskward") is following the movement of the sun around Sunpoint - turning to the right, from the perspective of someone on the Tower who is facing the sun.

Seeking (Formally "Dawnseeking" or "Newseeking", depending on who you ask, or "Dawnward") is going in the direction of dawn, the opposite of the direction of the sun, or left from the perspective of someone standing on the Tower.

(Among the sun worshiping cultures, the Sunpoint perspective is why "doing a left turn" is a euphemism for doing something the wrong way - it's because the sun circles to the right, so turning left is the opposite motion of the sun.)

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If one is close to Sunpoint, if you start Following, but go in a straight line, you'll find yourself "wandering" due to not following the curve of a true Following path.  So when someone says "wander a bit stormside of following", they mean to start walking a little to the left of following, but keep going in a straight line rather than curving.

This practice is really only prevalent on the peninsula near to Sunpoint.

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The city of Sunpoint is a bustling metropolis on the slopes of a large hill or small mountain, home to nearly a hundred thousand residents, along with that number again in visitors - mostly pilgrims, but also traders.  Along the sides of the hill are some amount of farmland and pasture, though the city has been heavily dependent on imported grain for generations.

Near the top of the mountain is the gleaming white beauty of Sunpoint Tower.  Unlike the depictions of the untravelled, who often draw Sunpoint Tower like a watchtower, Sunpoint Tower is actually a massive circular ziggurat of white marble, with numerous landings, and many windows peeping out from the walls.

The famous Following Wall is not so much a wall as a perfectly flat, perfectly circular stone pathway on the slope of the small mountain Sunpoint is on top of.  It is 7 leagues in diameter, and along the pathway are small stations, each with a pendulum and a drum.  When it is day, an acolyte beats the drum according to the pace of the pendulum, and devotees take one step per drumbeat - if one stays in the center of the path, and follows the beat of the drums, one will complete the circuit in exactly one day... if one's stride is the same as the old Nerathi Emperor.

The Following Wall is called that because the majority of construction require was on the side of the mountain facing towards dawnward Nerath, where the mountain fails to be sufficiently circular, and the path goes from varying roughly somewhere between ground level and a few stories tall--always at that one chosen level--to being higher off the ground than the Tower itself.  It is a marvel of engineering, and stonewrights from throughout the world come to examine it and try to discover the lost secrets of the Nerathi imperial stonemages.

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