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@Riot: Cosmology & Runeterra

Dreamspitter··2 votes·684 views
  • Is the system the World is apart of heliocentric, geocentric, lunarcentric, or something else?
  • Does the moon have an atmosphere, does anything live on it?
  • What are stars, the sun, and the moon composed of -is it sacred fire, mundane gases, delicious cheese, divine crystal?
  • Do they just float in space, or are they set in crystal spheres?
  • Is the World flat, spherical, or some other shape-is it shaped...like a Rune?
  • How many continents does the World have- are any of them shaped like Runes, or engraved with natural runes?
  • How big is the World compared to Earth?
  • Is the World hollow?
  • Are there other worlds -in the same system, or in other systems?
  • Is the space between heavenly bodies a cold vacuum, or would an enchanted flying boat be enough to "sail" it? ?
  • Are there comets, meteors, asteroids, or other wandering bodies -are they magical, do they hail the death of princes or cause mass extinctions?

If you have other questions under this theme, post and discuss them below.

6 Comments

Sharjo1 votes

That's a lot of cosmological questions! Gosh. Well given the fact Runeterra is a planet that harbours life in a very similar fashion to our own, then it stands to reason that some celestial rules from real life would apply to Runeterra to an extent, such as being heliocentric, a spherical world, being geothermically active as a planet, etc. Size wise if we're going by real world estimates, then Valoran would probably take up an area from scandinavia down to central Africa, given the variance in climates across the continent.

How big this makes Runeterra is debatable, but Mount Targon almost certainly sits at the equator given the fact that item 2303 indicates they experience equinoxes. If we extrapolate that the hundreds of miles wide Shurima desert is south of that then I'd say Runeterra's a tad smaller than Earth, with the extent of Valoran being close to Runeterra's poles. I feel like knowing Valoran's shape is critical to discerning if there are more continents, and right now that's unknown to us.

I have little to no thoughts on the other questions other than "maybe?", but one question I'd like to know, just because I'm curious: is Runeterra's moon (or moons if things have changed) tidally locked with the planet? Or is the reverse true? Or are neither locked?

Dreamspitter1 votes

{quoted}

How big this makes Runeterra is debatable, but Mount Targon almost certainly sits at the equator given the fact that item 2303 indicates they experience equinoxes. If we extrapolate that the hundreds of miles wide Shurima desert is south of that then I'd say Runeterra's a tad smaller than Earth, with the extent of Valoran being close to Runeterra's poles. I feel like knowing Valoran's shape is critical to discerning if there are more continents, and right now that's unknown to us.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_equinox#Human_culture

Equinox's have been noted culturally elsewhere other than the equator.

Near East

  • The Southward equinox marks the first day of Mehr or Libra in the Iranian calendar. It is one of the Iranian festivals called Jashne Mihragan, or the festival of sharing or love in Zoroastrianism.

East Asia

  • The Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated on the 15th day of the 8th lunar month, often near the autumnal equinox day, and is an official holiday in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and in many countries with a significant Chinese minority. As the lunar calendar is not synchronous with the Gregorian calendar, this date could be anywhere from mid-September to early October.

  • In Korea, Chuseok is a major harvest festival and a three-day holiday celebrated around the Autumn Equinox.

  • The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 solar terms (节气, literally "climatic segments"), and the autumnal equinox (Qiūfēn,

  • Chinese and Japanese: 秋分; Korean: 추분; Vietnamese: Thu phân) marks the middle of the autumn season. In this context, the Chinese character 分 means "(equal) division" (within a season).

  • In Japan there is an Autumnal Equinox Day (秋分の日 Shūbun no hi).

Europe

  • The Roman celebration of the Fall Equinox was dedicated to Pomona, goddess of fruits and growing things.[4]

  • The traditional harvest festival in the United Kingdom was celebrated on the Sunday of the full moon closest to the September equinox.

  • The Southward equinox was "New Year's Day" in the French Republican Calendar, which was in use from 1793 to 1805. The French First Republic was proclaimed and the French monarchy was abolished on September 21, 1792, making the following day (the equinox day that year) the first day of the "Republican Era" in France. The start of every year was to be determined by astronomical calculations following the real Sun and not the mean Sun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox

  • Spring equinox and fall equinox: colloquial names based on the seasons. However, these can be ambiguous since the northern hemisphere's spring is the southern hemisphere's fall, and vice versa. The Latinate names vernal equinox (spring) and autumnal equinox (fall) are often used to the same effect.

  • March equinox and September equinox: names referring to the months of the year they occur, with no ambiguity as to which hemisphere is the context. They are still not universal, however, as not all cultures use a solar-based calendar where the equinoxes occur every year in the same month (as they do not in the Islamic calendar and Hebrew calendar, for example).

Sharjo1 votes

I see what you're saying, and thanks because I honestly didn't know that, so I learned something from this. But the Equniox is still kinda intrinsically linked to the Equator, and given Mount Targon's celestial reverence (seemingly) it makes sense that their culture would come to have a stronger cultural view and beliefs about such celestial events if they were in a location where these things focus around. I feel like that sounded like a lot of fluff so to try and alleviate that:

Equinox's are used as time stamps across the world, which makes sense, but that the Targonians have relics specifically associated with the Equinox itself it stands to reason they're located at the Equator, as this location would be more naturally aligned with such events. Hopefully that made sense in some manner, else I'm gonna be sad about my inability to explain things.

Ebonmaw Dragon1 votes

Plotwist: Runeterra its a Circumbinary planet, has 2 suns. The one from SHURIMA and the one from the Solari.

http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/128/590x/Star-Wars-567295.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RprbAMOPsH0

Dreamspitter1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Ebonmaw Dragon,realm=NA,application-id=6kFXY1kR,discussion-id=TWgraTRo,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2015-12-01T03:03:11.145+0000)

Plotwist: Runeterra its a Circumbinary planet, has 2 suns. The one from SHURIMA and the one from the Solari.

http://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/128/590x/Star-Wars-567295.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RprbAMOPsH0

#Runeterra has 2 Suns?

http://i.imgur.com/hpRaX6B.jpg

##Mind. Blown.

Rebonack1 votes

Given that solar and lunar eclipses are a thing on Runeterra, it has to be possible that the planet can be between the moon and the sun. And the moon likewise needs to be able to get between the moon and the sun. Given that a paired event happens annually (assuming the Harrowing dealy is still a thing) that would make for a pretty interesting set of orbits. That doesn't tell us whether the place is geo or heliocentric, though, since eclipses can take place in either.

I want to know what the relationship is with the various metaphysical realms. The Glade, the Void, the Land of the Dead, whatever realm Tentacle Snake hangs out in. So on and so forth.

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