eternal night (and probably eternal day) question

[South]

So, I feel curious about something, like there is a gap in the story.
A planet is always has one side covered with sunlight while the other covered in total darkness (effect of rotating, and only if the planet orbiting one sun/star). So, when The sky is frozen by Chronos, that means the planet is stop rotating. One side is in eternal night and one side is in eternal day. My question, why Ash never said about the eternal night side and if the planet has the eternal night side, who lived there?

[ElleMaylise]

I guess we also don't know how their world is shaped and how it orbits. Since it's not in the same universe, the way their gravitational forces work may be different to our universe.

Their world might not be round ha! Although I assume it should be similar to our world since time in hours and minutes are the same.

Or Ash just doesn't know of the rest of the world.

Interesting to know what the developers had in mind though, good question!

[cowbunny]

A lot of Alyncian concepts of time are from the human world, but since they're not based on things that occur in their universe, got corrupted or changed over time. For example, they have “years” which are 365 days, but most Alyncians have no idea why such an arbitrary number was chosen. They have "months", but the names of those months are long forgotten, and they are 30 days each, with the exception of the last one which has 35 days.

These concepts changed and evolved because they weren't grounded in any astronomical or mythological reason for Alyncians, like they are for us humans. To understand how these concepts came from the human world, you should read through the Ezra Memory Oracle. Especially the chapter “Birthday.”

[ElleMaylise]

interesting.... I guess normally if everyone knew days and years as a certain amount, not many would question it. We only because we were taught in school. Thanks cowbunny

[South]

I guess we also don't know how their world is shaped and how it orbits. Since it's not in the same universe, the way their gravitational forces work may be different to our universe.

Their world might not be round ha! Although I assume it should be similar to our world since time in hours and minutes are the same.

Or Ash just doesn't know of the rest of the world.

Interesting to know what the developers had in mind though, good question!

I am pretty sure the world shaped is round (or at least oval) because they had day and night. I agree with you, I think the similarities about hour and mins in our world and Alyncia can be a proof that the shape, size, how the planet rotating are pretty same between earth and Alyncia.

But Ash can't be not know about the rest of the world. I mean, it's pretty common to know about your world shape.

[cowbunny]

We're actually amazed you guys thought through and figured this out. Yes, Alyncia is flat.

The only reason it hasn't been explained in the story is that there really wasn't a reason or avenue to. Ash doesn't know that the human world is round, and you don't know that Alyncia is flat, so there hasn't been a reason to explain it yet. We always write Ash in character, so Ash wouldn't just bring this stuff up randomly if it didn't cross Ash's mind. There are a million details like this that we haven't talked about yet because they don't yet impact the story. Our goal was to only introduce the world-building elements that were relevant to the plot and characters, because we would hate for Ash to suddenly break character and become an info-dumping encyclopedia all of a sudden.

Here's a clearer explanation of the world since you're all interested:

Think of the world of Alyncia contained within a sphere. The edge of that sphere is called the Great Halcyon Barrier (introduced in Ezra's Memory Oracle). Outside the barrier is the substance beyond, which Alvin dismissively named “plasma.” Inside that sphere is Alyncia.

There is one huge land mass in Alyncia called Magus Firma. For most of the characters in Timecrest, this is the only landmass they know of, as not many have gone out beyond. Surrounding Magus Firma is ocean (water), and between the water and the Halcyon Barrier is the Plasma Sea. Plasma is dangerous, so not many go out to explore beyond Magus Firma.

Deep, purple in color with tinges of blue and white sparkles, plasma is more murky than water, but with less density. Plasma tends to get hotter as you travel further away from Magus Firma. It can be quite beautiful and mesmerizing to stare at the sea of sparkles at night, though when there was eternal day, the Plasma Sea lost some of its brilliance.

Magus Firma is divided into four territories. Everend, Baskdor, Icecade and Tenareign. Although Tenareign has been slowly corrupted by the plasma, so those living outside Tenareign (e.g. most Alyncians) refer to it pejoratively as The Rotlands.

Timecrest Guild is in Everend.

All of the above is stuff that Ash knows, it just hasn't come up in conversation with you. Perhaps, with the exception that Ash knows nothing of Alvin or how plasma was named .

There is a lot about their world that Alyncians do not know. Light is able to penetrate through the plasma, so people have theorized there is an unknown source of light that comes from beyond the Plasma Veil, or what Alyncians refer to the plasma past the Halcyon Barrier. The light source turns on and off creating day/night cycles, so some have theorized that the light source rotates around Alyncia, which is fixed in place, creating day and night.

If you have read all of our stories and all Memory Oracles, you'll know the only person who has passed through the Halcyon Barrier is Alvin. Even Ezra could not pass through. So it makes sense that no one truly knows what is beyond the Great Halcyon Barrier.

Hope that clears some of this stuff up.

[ChristineMoon]

And darn it, I feel like every question that gets answered leaves me wondering more! Now I want to know about the light source!!!

[ElleMaylise]

oh my goodness I was thinking that I would sound silly suggesting that their world is not round! wowowow so much info to digest

[South]

Thank you for clear up this mystery, cowbunny.

[ChristineMoon]

I was just looking through the "ask me anything" thread because cowbunny mentioned lands on there as well. I see that Ben also had thoughts on the meteors. This is a great tie in (and hopefully he will see this tag. Here's his quote.

If there are multiple continents in Alyncia, assuming that their planetary structure is similar to ours, where exactly did the meteors come in? If the meteors were summoned on Asura and Ash saw them, what about on the other side of Alyncia? Were they just in the dark about the meterors? Did time flow regularly there? What happened to them, if anything? Or did Ezra summon meteors that appeared in Alyncia's skies everywhere outside of the world? And if that is the case, does that mean that Chronos's magic spread throughout the atmosphere of Alyncia? I know it is a lot of questions, but if the world of Alyncia is not flat, then what happened on the other side of the world?