Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-66.177.58.176-20140121224654/@comment-175.142.224.128-20140303033032

24.217.68.72 wrote: it's unlikely it was an eclipse because mundus's astronomy is not rational (the stars are holes in oblivion, the planets are the aedra, the moons are lorkhan split into halves,etc..) That's also Earth's astronomy, proposed by ancient Greek philosopher Anaximander of Miletus. Our planets are also "Aedra", at least, they were named after the Roman pantheon for that reason. Who's to say Mundus isn't like that, just undiscovered because of the lack of scientific development since the Dwemer, and also the presence of aedra and daedra in Nirn?

My theory is that, since the moon can only be seen at night but not during the day, the moons were at one point close enough to each other that they revolved around each other not unlike a neutron star, the center of orbit being an empty point in between the two. At the same time, they were in front of Mundus, which revolves like a normal planet. From Elsweyr's perspective, they are looking at the moon during the day, but since it's too bright they don't know it. At night, because the moons are "locked" to each other, they don't appear since their orbit is around the front portion of the Earth. As the years pass, the moons drift further apart until finally reappearing.

If you're lost, try this analogy. Take a hoola hoop and mark two points opposite each other. The points represent the moons and the hoop is the orbit. Place it in front of your head. You can clearly see the moons orbit around you. Now, without moving the hoop, turn around so it's night. You can no longer see the moons, but the moons are still orbiting you. Repeat the process, gradually moving the hoop closer to you, and past you. This is when two years have past and the moon reappears.

I'll admit, this isn't the best explanation, but it's the only logical one I can think of based on our own astronomy.