Quote:
Originally Posted by Landwalker
Late though I may be, there's an existing published setting that at least considers this same thing: The Iron Kingdoms, by Privateer Press. I don't remember the exact angles and whatsits and so forth, but the general gist is that the planet has three moons in orbit around it, which are highly different from one another in orbital inclination, mass, and the "severity" of their orbits' elliptical shape. This was used to explain the unpredictable, severe, and very dangerous tidal behavior of the setting's primary ocean, and thus in turn to explain why it had virtually never been traversed.
Cheers.
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You're not too late. I always appreciate input.
Besides, the thread is open for discussing other arrangements as well.
Essentially, what I was going for with the oceans was an exaggeration of the reason for America's isolation from the rest of the world before it was 'discovered' by the European countries of the world at that time.
I imagine that tides would be the most severe during a single full moon on this world because both moons would be lined up and pulling from relatively the same spot. I'm not sure if this is completely correct, but I imagine it like a game of tug of war; when the two moons are lined up, they combine their pull. I'm not 100% sure if that thinking is correct, but, in my mind, it seems like it would be.
During a 'double moon' I imagine that the tides would be somewhat rough as well, but I imagine they'd be less severe yet more spread out than they are during a single moon. I'll try to illustrate what I mean.
o .. (full moon; lunar-lunar eclipse)
o : (double moon)
So, if you include the sun in the illustrations, some of the possible alignments over a year include some of the following -
O o .. (sun, planet, and moons all lined up in a row; a lunar eclipse)
O o : (I think this might create some sort of lunar eclipse in which the
phase of each moon's individual eclipse would be the mirror of the other's)
O .. o (an eclipse which would look similar to a solar eclipse on Earth I think; also a time when I think the tides would be the most severe because you'd have three bodies pulling from the same direction)
O : o (I think an eclipse like this would produce an interesting visual effect. I imagine it appearing similar to an hourglass.)