Theory regarding the latest Archon quest (Spoilers)
I'm going to preface by saying I'm not entirely the most up to date regarding lore of this game, so if I'm missing anything or I get anything wrong, do let me know. I'm also not an astronomer, but I do really like space so I hope that I get everything right physics wise, but again if I got anything wrong let me know.
Something struck me as really odd when we were viewing Teyvat from space with Columbina on the moon, and I had screen recorded the scene for later viewing. The stars in the sky seemed to rotate but the sun stayed stationary. Now of course being a Genshin player, and also NOT a lore skipper, This felt very odd to me because astronomically this should not be possible.
As a result of these observations, I am willing to bet that the Sun Moon Sky Teyvat system is an analogue or that of an armillary sphere.
From the ground, and yes I double checked, the stars do not move, and only fade in and out depending on the brightness of the sky. In other words, no diurnal rotation. And from the moon itself, the planet did not visibly rotate under us. Again considering this is just a cutscene, it is very possible that the developers did not consider the planet moving for esthetic reasons, so that's not as important. Also, the planet is confirmed to be a sphere, which is important.
Secondly, The sun and the moon have also clearly never been in the sky at the same time and this is especially clear when we alter the time in the game. The sun/moon moves across the sky and the shadows elongate appropriately, But when we AFK on the moon for a longer period of time the sun appears stationary relative to us. Because of that, I am led to believe that the sun and moon are locked onto a single rigid rotating ring that circles Teyvat, at an approximate 180 degree separation arc between them.
And because of this, the sun looks stationary from the moon because we are attached to the same ring at that point. We share the same frame of reference therefore it never moves relevant to us. Now I want to make it very clear even though I said the planet didn't rotate but that wasn't that important and yet here the sun isn't moving and I think that's important, That actually comes down to the fact that I believe the stars were intentionally designed to move noticeably quicker than anything else at that moment. The developers could have easily made the stars look static for this minute cutscene, but instead they chose to make them clearly rotate through the sky. That brings me to my next point.
As I mentioned before from the ground, the stars stay completely still with the sky. From the moon, the stars are rotating visibly and relatively quickly at that. Additionally it's a little hard to see in this recording, and I will mention later that I would love a longer recording of this as well for both wallpaper sake and analysis sake, but stars fade when the sun gets close to them, and I attribute this to some sort of bloom effect. If the universe really was, universe sized for lack of a better phrasing, the stars rotating that fast would violate many laws of physics but most notably the fact that nothing cannot travel faster than light, and the stars rotating at that specific angular velocity would require at minimum billions of times the velocity of light to visibly move at that rate. With that being said, It makes sense that the false sky is a stationary physical sphere that encloses the entire planet, And because both the planet and the sphere are stationary, the view from the planet is also stationary. But the stars move on the moon because we are riding the sun moon rig which is spinning at high speed to create the day night cycle, Which creates the illusion that the sky is rotating, when in reality WE are the ones revolving.
Another thing is that artificial illumination is clearly playing a big role here. Because the sun is acting like a spotlight that's washing out the stars and creates shadows and whatnot, and the moon also does not have any phases and is permanently full, that makes a lot of sense if the sun and the moon are on opposing sides, just like how the sun and moon are in opposition around the earth, the phase of the moon is full. If I'm remembering correctly I believe this phenomenon is also called a syzygy, which is funny considering the spiral abyss term. I'm sure people who are much more well versed in the lore may be able to make a deeper connection than I can.
Actually something I just thought about at the time of writing, if the separation was ACTUALLY at 180 degrees, That would mean that there would be a permanent eclipse of the moon by Teyvat, But from the video itself we know that there is clearly an offset of about 15-20 degrees between the sun and the moon that allows for light to directly hit the moon from the sun, otherwise we would not be able to see the sun in the perspective shown in the video. The offset is likely minor enough that we would never see the sun and the moon at the same time, but allows for the moon to consistently and always be full. It's funny though because of this specific offset, it makes eclipses completely impossible. I wonder what else no longer exists (the Eclipse dynasty...? Let me cook.)
There's so much more honestly considering the Cataclysm and then the three moon goddesses that we got to see (I love Sonnet heh), as well as all of the lore regarding the dark sea and the sea of stars and the heavenly principles and potentially what could be out there and in what orientations and distances.
Now I fully admit right now, I'm still struggling to wrap my brain around it, so again if there are any consistency or physics issues please let me know. Also if this is relevant lore-wise as well, please share with me below because I would love to know.
Side note again: if anyone has NOT done the quest yet and somehow still clicked on this post, I'd be super grateful if we could get a high resolution recording of the whole rotation of the sky, preferably in ultrawide for an animated wallpaper too.
Something struck me as really odd when we were viewing Teyvat from space with Columbina on the moon, and I had screen recorded the scene for later viewing. The stars in the sky seemed to rotate but the sun stayed stationary. Now of course being a Genshin player, and also NOT a lore skipper, This felt very odd to me because astronomically this should not be possible.
As a result of these observations, I am willing to bet that the Sun Moon Sky Teyvat system is an analogue or that of an armillary sphere.
From the ground, and yes I double checked, the stars do not move, and only fade in and out depending on the brightness of the sky. In other words, no diurnal rotation. And from the moon itself, the planet did not visibly rotate under us. Again considering this is just a cutscene, it is very possible that the developers did not consider the planet moving for esthetic reasons, so that's not as important. Also, the planet is confirmed to be a sphere, which is important.
Secondly, The sun and the moon have also clearly never been in the sky at the same time and this is especially clear when we alter the time in the game. The sun/moon moves across the sky and the shadows elongate appropriately, But when we AFK on the moon for a longer period of time the sun appears stationary relative to us. Because of that, I am led to believe that the sun and moon are locked onto a single rigid rotating ring that circles Teyvat, at an approximate 180 degree separation arc between them.
And because of this, the sun looks stationary from the moon because we are attached to the same ring at that point. We share the same frame of reference therefore it never moves relevant to us. Now I want to make it very clear even though I said the planet didn't rotate but that wasn't that important and yet here the sun isn't moving and I think that's important, That actually comes down to the fact that I believe the stars were intentionally designed to move noticeably quicker than anything else at that moment. The developers could have easily made the stars look static for this minute cutscene, but instead they chose to make them clearly rotate through the sky. That brings me to my next point.
As I mentioned before from the ground, the stars stay completely still with the sky. From the moon, the stars are rotating visibly and relatively quickly at that. Additionally it's a little hard to see in this recording, and I will mention later that I would love a longer recording of this as well for both wallpaper sake and analysis sake, but stars fade when the sun gets close to them, and I attribute this to some sort of bloom effect. If the universe really was, universe sized for lack of a better phrasing, the stars rotating that fast would violate many laws of physics but most notably the fact that nothing cannot travel faster than light, and the stars rotating at that specific angular velocity would require at minimum billions of times the velocity of light to visibly move at that rate. With that being said, It makes sense that the false sky is a stationary physical sphere that encloses the entire planet, And because both the planet and the sphere are stationary, the view from the planet is also stationary. But the stars move on the moon because we are riding the sun moon rig which is spinning at high speed to create the day night cycle, Which creates the illusion that the sky is rotating, when in reality WE are the ones revolving.
Another thing is that artificial illumination is clearly playing a big role here. Because the sun is acting like a spotlight that's washing out the stars and creates shadows and whatnot, and the moon also does not have any phases and is permanently full, that makes a lot of sense if the sun and the moon are on opposing sides, just like how the sun and moon are in opposition around the earth, the phase of the moon is full. If I'm remembering correctly I believe this phenomenon is also called a syzygy, which is funny considering the spiral abyss term. I'm sure people who are much more well versed in the lore may be able to make a deeper connection than I can.
Actually something I just thought about at the time of writing, if the separation was ACTUALLY at 180 degrees, That would mean that there would be a permanent eclipse of the moon by Teyvat, But from the video itself we know that there is clearly an offset of about 15-20 degrees between the sun and the moon that allows for light to directly hit the moon from the sun, otherwise we would not be able to see the sun in the perspective shown in the video. The offset is likely minor enough that we would never see the sun and the moon at the same time, but allows for the moon to consistently and always be full. It's funny though because of this specific offset, it makes eclipses completely impossible. I wonder what else no longer exists (the Eclipse dynasty...? Let me cook.)
There's so much more honestly considering the Cataclysm and then the three moon goddesses that we got to see (I love Sonnet heh), as well as all of the lore regarding the dark sea and the sea of stars and the heavenly principles and potentially what could be out there and in what orientations and distances.
Now I fully admit right now, I'm still struggling to wrap my brain around it, so again if there are any consistency or physics issues please let me know. Also if this is relevant lore-wise as well, please share with me below because I would love to know.
Side note again: if anyone has NOT done the quest yet and somehow still clicked on this post, I'd be super grateful if we could get a high resolution recording of the whole rotation of the sky, preferably in ultrawide for an animated wallpaper too.
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