Three hexes southwest, three northwest of Alakran.
From sun and moon Urig astronomy turned to the stars, which
wheel in time with the Moon and have all fled when the Sun shines.
Their varied hues, too, argue against the perforation idea. The
persistence of Urig civilization over millennia allowed for the
difficult and at times unspeakable observation that the stars were
shifting, too, independently of each other, and at different speeds,
some growing brighter and some fainter, as if all were in motion at all
angles of space. Other civilizations believe themselves to live under a
dome or a tent; educated Urig know better, and place the edge of the
universe, which makes the night dark, a calculable but vast number of
world-lengths away.
Far more visible are the erratic movements of
the six wandering stars. While many other lands take them to be the
gods or saints themselves, Urig knowledge decisively posits that they
are spherical worlds formerly ruled by the major Dead Gods. Predicting
their motions is an eternal challenge that has greatly advanced Urig
mathematics. But every algorithm proves inadequate to augur any but the
grossest planetary trends. The general lament among skygazers is that
Chaos has set the world out of balance.
The same inferred
cataclysm that set the wanderers agog also reduced the number of them
from the divine seven to the infernal six, and threw off the harmony of
the calendar, with its 360 days and 360 nights a year (720 = 1 x 2 x 3 x
4 x 5 x 6), throwing in the five intercalary days. Each of these days
has a traditional deity to guard it against demonic assault: the dual
guardians Nabu and Tashmet of the scribes, Taweret who blesses birth,
Bastet the catcher of spiders, Bes who laughs at the mighty, Gibil the
shaper of the forge.
But once in every epoch there comes the
sixth day at the start of the year, whose curse taints the whole
generation in which it appears, dreaded for a decade before and lamented
for a decade after. This day is dedicated to the ambiguous figure
Pazuzu. Demon and scourge of demons, he gives free rein to both good and
evil on earth while the sixth day lasts, usually to the detriment of
good.
The science of astronomy has
also been midwife to astrology. Due to the random motion of the planets
this art has more to do with the casting of lots than the forecasting of
determined fates. Still, astrologers are esteemed throughout the Urig
cultural sphere for the imprint of inevitability they are skilled at
marking on people's decisions. Their horoscopes are cast taking into
account the position of the planets in relation to the Moon and stars,
comparing the hour of birth with a significant hour of night at the
present moment, through charts that borrow from geometry, numerology,
and the overfitting of models. The stars are divided into thirty-six
chambers with evocative names. The six chambers directly before and six
behind the path of the Moon have special significance and lend their
names to the months of the year.
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