This name refers to different figures in 3 worlds; the versions are not merged.
The Moon is, in Antiterra, at once a stone body reached by ship, a goddess, the regent planet of a religion and a unit for charging travel; in Torreluces, “the lady”, a split satellite whose dark side holds a vault; and in Vala, a dragon-ruled moon whose name marks rivers, mountains and a gate.
| Type | Place / celestial body; deity (Antiterra) |
| Worlds | Antiterra, Torreluces, Vala |
| Spanish entry | Luna |
Antiterra
“The moon is condemned, they tell it.” No cause, author or date of the condemnation is recorded.
The body
In principle there is one Moon, visible from all of Antiterra: over the lake at Gary, rising over the desert. Its phases include half moon, “a very full moon” and “the red moon, waning, waning further”; in one phase “the moon looks like the ring of Sigil”. It has been seen to “switch on and off”. The ground is stone and lunar earth that throws up “beautiful white dust” when struck. There is water deep enough to sink in, and “gravity is strange on the moon”. The holes pitting the surface were made by a Guardian. It is cold, especially at night, and reaches four thousand degrees when the sun strikes it.
Travel and measure
The Moon is 120 kilometers away and is reached by ship; the one named is the Raven. A passage is charged “as a moon”, a unit of payment rather than the trip’s real duration. Its phases mark the calendar cycle, which begins at the crescent; “the great moon of the autumns” fixes the season.
Luna Azul
The landing site is Luna Azul (“Blue Moon”). At its center stands a tree tangled with silver chains, linked to interplanetary teleportation. A guardian with a red cloak thrown back guards it, with an assistant “with a crossbow and a pale gaze”; landings are made nearby. The chains are sought there (“the chains end on the moon”), and it has been proposed to hand them to the same guardian. The boarding of the Flying Dutchman also takes place on this ground.
The goddess
Some name the Moon as their goddess, “function and regent planet of religion, of the protection of sovereignty”. She gave “the favor of recognition” and “rejoiced in Central Park”. With Celestia, she is among the celestial planes that need defending against invasions. Of one apparition it was said that “it made us feel it was something sacred”.
A poetic warning about the Apocalypse and justice is attributed to her: stars falling, animals gathering, souls rejoining bodies, the book opened, the furnaces of hell lit, man seeing the list of his deeds; it closes, “this is only a warning, to men who wish to walk the paths of justice”. She can be “bleeding”, a state to be avoided, named alongside the wish for no more violence.
A shadow is seen “near the moon… in the place of the moon”.
Conflicting accounts
- One Moon by common sight; one uncertain record speaks of “more than one, but they’re not sure either”.
Open questions
- Why the distance is only 120 km, and of what stretch.
- The guardian’s name, nature and master: whether he serves the goddess or guards the tree against her.
- Whether Luna Azul names the tree’s site, a larger region or the whole Moon.
- What the switching on and off, the bleeding (literal or figurative), the shadow and the condemnation are.
Torreluces
There is one Moon, “the lady”. It was part of the Earth, remains bound to it by mutual gravitation, and is now broken: “the moon is splitting. They split the moon and are entering the earth.”
The body
It has no air: sound does not carry and combat on the surface is silent. It “balances the tides and some of the climate” of the Earth, and the pull is mutual: “only when the moon starts to fall on the earth does the earth also start to fall on the moon”. Whether the “cheese blow” of Chismal struck it, and whether the Moon is cheese, is left open.
Access
Reaching it requires a ship, a lunar suit for each person adapted to its wearer, and on at least one trip “lowering time”. Access belongs to those with a lunar module, a base on the dark side or the power to order transport; others are told “not you”.
The dark side
All recorded lunar activity is on the dark side: cratered, with at least one deep crater where ships can land, and a base reachable by lunar module. On one landing, “two boogies come carrying the girl”. The base is a vault for what must be kept safe. The recovered initial ooze was brought there in a lunar module attacked on the way, an episode associated with Daedalus. DeLos orders the ambrosia moved there within a week to ten days. A trip to recover the “flocilla” (possibly flotilla) took place two or three weeks earlier and required “lowering time”.
Hecate “is developing the moon worm”.
Open questions
- What split the Moon, when, and what is entering the Earth; whether the split is connected to the dark-side activity.
- Who owns the base; what the moon worm is; why each suit must be adapted.
- What “lowering time” and the “flocilla” are; nothing is recorded of the visible side.
- In what sense the Moon is “the lady”.
Vala
There is one moon over Vala, visible to all; some call it Listasint. It belongs to the White House and is ruled by dragons. It “has long summers or long winters”, alternating extremes of cold and heat. “There is something there”, and the question “do you know what we might find?” remains open. Temples in the city are dedicated to the moon.
Places named for the Moon
- River of the Moon, also called Tigre: third of the five main rivers of the ancient religion. With the River of the Sun (the fourth) it bounds the territory of Val; meteors fell between them, leaving hidden treasures. The fifth is the River Gracia, around the province of Barfil of Axum.
- Mountains of the Moon: among the places hard to visit, like the Isle of Bleik.
- Sector of the Moon: on the legendary route to the City of the Dragons, past the Mountains of the Sun.
- Gate of the Moon: “the only thing that leads from this place to another place”, spoken of with dragons and guardians of the moon.
Open questions
- Whether Listasint is an alternate name, an ancient name or a second body.
- What the “something” on the moon is, and whether it can be reached.
- Which two places the Gate of the Moon connects; whether the Mountains and the Sector of the Moon are one region.
- What it means for the moon to belong to the White House: worship, dynastic claim or rule.
- Whether the Luna Neutral, a faction with its own code and resources, distrusted by the King and not sworn to him, has any tie to the moon beyond the name.
- The moon’s size and phases are not recorded; of medias lunas (“croissants”) it is recorded only that they “ran out”.