Sun and Moon

16 MAY 2020

Today I'm going to be spit-balling a fantasy story idea. This blogpost will change as the story details become fine-tuned.

Imagine a world much like ours, but where magic exists. Magic based solely on heavenly bodies, with the Sun and Moon, as the closest heavenly bodies, being the dominant sources of magic. There are no other types of magic except those based on heavenly bodies. Mages of the other heavenly bodies ( Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) are too weak to be major players. They do have some powers though and will be used to reinforce the worldview. 

The Sun

Sun worshippers are able to call for heat, fire, growth, beginnings, and illumination. Practitioners are called: Solars/Heliomancers/ Solmancers/ Daymages? Overall they are the most powerful magicians in the world. Their most powerful time is during the summer solstice, their weakest during the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

How would our world change if sun and moon magic were real? Births outdoor during the day. maybe attempts to influence when babies are born. 

Loose caste system

* Women who are born during the day have no magic at all.

* Men born at night. They can be weak or strong in moon magic, but no sun magic.

* Women born at night. Strongest in moon magic.

* Men born during the day.

Two rulers, one sun and one moon. The sun ruler is kept or changed out by vote once a year at the summer solstice. And the moon ruler is always changed out every tenth new moon.

Sun magic can only be performed in sunlight, by men only, and is accomplished through prayers to the sacred sun names, dances (always sunwise - to the right), and blood sacrifices (a la Aztecs but not to ensure the Sun rose each day). Hilltops are favored, as are ziggurats (flattened tops). Clouds are their nemesis, and their worst fears can be found underground. Day mages come from babies born at sunrise, high noon, and sunset. Those born at sunrise are starters, nooners are strongest, and sunset babies are the longest-lasting.

The story starts with a Sun mage on the run. He is better off during the day, but defenseless at night. In order to survive, he must find workarounds for not being able to call on the sun in shade or shadow, and later on during the darkest nights. Not sure how he would do that yet. If the magic can only be done while in sunlight, then that means... 

Sunflowers are sacred. They do follow the sun after all. They store sunpower and may be used to replenish solars when they are weak. 

The Moon

Those who worship the moon call on her for coolness, change, undead and other creatures of the night (bats), tides, hidden things. Practitioners are called witches and warlocks. Some of the story hook will be the from the 'traditional' aspect of the moon followers offset with the uniqueness of the Sun mages.

Moon magic may be cast while the moon is in the sky, whether seen or unseen, by men and women. This is a source of much questing. Men are the only ones who can cast either sun or moon magic, depending on when they are born (day or night), but women born during the day are powerless. Women may only cast moon magic. 

Moon magic is accomplished through spells painfully crafted over the years and written down in secretive books of shadows compiled by covens. The moon does not give up its secrets easily. Sensitive moon mages can feel when the moon is in the sky. They are in touch with the phases and the rising and setting times, much more than Sun worshipers, who watch the stretching of the day in the summer and its shrinking in the winter. Babies born during the midnight of the night of the fullest moon or midnight of the the darkest night of the new moon are stronger than others.

The climax of the story takes place during an eclipse. And ends there... Did the witches and warlocks manage the inconceivable, stopping the moon to overpower the sun?

I’ll have to keep working on this, I like it.