Astronomy

The Hull, being a rough great icosidodecahedron is surrounded by celestial light. The warm and plentiful the light of the mantle washes every shard, triff and crown free of the taint of the shadows. A day has 24 hours, mostly they are blessed with the Mantle's light, but for approximately 12 hours every day the shadows turn live, they grow and shift into the terror of night.

The Mantle

The sky in the Hull is called The Mantle.

Off to the vaults of heaven is a bright and luminous warm glow, not a sun, but a ever shining dome that emits light. Faint thin straight rays of a darker light cross the sky thatching it, and on a clear day you can see small dark spots twinkling in the distance as well as one white dot that moves slowly but constantly from one horizon to the other.

Some believe that this white dot is the iris of the Golden Eye, god of all wealth and time.

Many Astronomers suspect that black specs are caused by tiny holes in the Mantle, like an old cape that has seen too many winters. Other suspect that behind the Mantle are many other horrible things that are best left unnamed or forgotten.

Another popular opinion thinks that the twinkling dots are other planetoids like Hull's own Doom. But they are too far to reach us, or maybe they have their own worlds to torture. And that the lines we see are the inside of another world, and that its just worlds, worlds all the way down.

The Doom

The nearest astronomical body is called Doom, a planetoid so evil that it radiates darkness and fear when it looms over the horizon. No one knows its true shape because all attempts to look at it blur the sight with darkness and a sense of dread. Those who are forced to look at the Doom directly for a long period of time turn twisted and evil, or simply die consumed by the darkness, the term used in the Hull for these unfortunate souls is heart-blindness.

Every day Doom rises, in what is called the Doomfall, night starts and shadows turn darker. Portals to a sombre world open when darkness starts to engulf the world in a mantle-less night. Tides and rivers turn treacherous, and birds and beasts seek nest and burrow. The light continues to darken until at the stroke of midnight, no light remains. This is known by all hullians as the hour.

The Hour

At midnight, evil takes place when the Doom is darkest and the mantle lost. For sixty minutes; non-magical fires are quenched or extinguished and all those unsheltered lose hope. The darkness of the hour makes travellers lose their ways, and sends shadow creatures out to torture and scare anyone not afraid of the dark, as if they could smell out the brave and feed on it. Most hullians agree that this hour is the longest time of the night.

The shadow evils dwindle as long as they can, but eventually light forces the darkness to go back into its hiding place. Morning must come eventually, and the Mantle shines its loving light over the world. The shadows turn pale and people come out of their shelter to start a new day.