#magicarnivora

[Image Description: A digital drawing of a nighttime landscape scene. The moon has a bright glowing purple splotch on it. The moon is partially blocking a star that is much larger and brighter than the others. End Image Description.]

A partial eclipse of the lesser sun by a gibbous moon, somewhere in Carnissus's southern hemisphere.

The two stars in Carnissus's system are known as the "true sun" and the "lesser sun", respectively. They are of equal size and brightness, although to Carnissans the lesser sun appears much smaller due to its distance. At its closest, it shines about twice as brightly as the full moon. It is visible during the day, meaning sometimes all three celestial bodies can be seen in the sky at once. The lesser sun is too far away to impart any extra heat upon the world.

The true sun eclipses the lesser one once a year, causing a slight dimming in the daylight. This event drifts later by about a day each year due to the orbits of the two stars. The eclipse lasts long enough that all or part of it is usually visible from most places in the world, and many cultures consider this a holy day. For example, it marks the new year on the Cherisangi calendar.

The moon can also eclipse the lesser sun, about as frequently as it eclipses the true one and with a similarly narrow range of visibility. Unlike other eclipses involving the moon, however, these are not tethered the phase of the moon. Totality is less spectacular than an eclipse of the true sun, but is still very much noticeable at night. During the day is produces a similar dimming effect to the yearly two-sun eclipse, but if the moon is poorly lit it often looks like the second sun simply vanishes for a time.

[Image Description: A map of a fantasy world called Carnissus. The landmasses are colored in light brown while the sea is a darker brown. There are 6 continents: Riakone, Oruzaes, Yawura, Wreckera, Qualokel, and Iwul. There are also two large islands: one called Wowun which is off the northwestern coast of Wreckera, and another called Inux which is off the northeastern coast of Iwul. There are also lots of other islands which are too small to have labels. The world is shown in equirectangular projection in the first image, and then the northern and southern hemispheres are shown side-by-side centered on their respective poles. Lines of latitude are included at 15 degree intervals on both maps, and the hemispheres also have the lines of longitude. The polar circles and the tropics are also shown.]

Carnissus is the world of my fantasy setting, MagiCarnivora. It is inhabited by semi-anthropomorphic carnivoran mammals, referred to as "Carnissans" to differentiate them from their non-anthro kin, which also still exist in this world.

While in many ways Carnissus is similar to earth - Same size, only slightly cooler climate, and familiar flora and fauna - There are also many differences. The sun rises in the west and sets in the east, and there is another, much dimmer sun ever-present in the distance. Magic affects almost every part of the world, in ways that aren't always noticeable... and are sometimes very noticeable.

[Image Description: A reference sheet of an original character named Arrow. They're a 20-year-old anthropomorphic wolf with brown fur and orange eyes. Their clothes are an earthy green with reddish-brown accents. They have a sleeveless shirt, a skirt that goes down to their knees, and an upper arm band on their left arm. Their main outfit also has a feathery shawl and a bracelet on their right wrist. Their riding gear, shown in a smaller drawing to the right, lacks the shawl and instead has elbow-length gloves, ankle-length boots, and a helmet with feather trim. The riding gear also has a chest piece with their clan symbol (A pine cone with five needles sticking out of the top) embroidered on it. The other two images in the ref sheet are close-ups of their face and hand. The art has a blue gradient background and is signed "Tundra Echos 1-2024." End Image Description.]

Arrow is the messenger (in training) of Rivercrossing Village. They try to be kind but can get a short temper if something isn't going the way they'd expected it to.

[Image Description: A digital painting featuring two anthropomorphic bear characters named Lusaaq and Urris. Lusaaq is a black bear wearing a brown parka with the hood up, as well as gloves and boots. Urris is a polar bear with an underbite, wearing a blue parka with the hood down, and blue pants. They are sitting outside around a campfire. Lusaaq is holding a bowl and talking to Urris, who is laying on their back with their head resting on a pillow. Urris's eyes are closed and they are smiling contentedly. Behind the two characters are a few wooden cabins and some spruce trees. Everything is covered in snow, except for the area around the fire and the paths leading to the cabins in the background. The sun has just set, and the clouds are still tinted pale pink. There are also blue aurora borealis in the darker areas of the sky. The art is signed "Tundra Echos 12-2023." The other two images are close-up shots of Lusaaq and Urris's faces, respectively. End Image Description.]

Happy New Year! This is my final drawing of the 2023, a tradition I have been doing since 2016 but usually forget to actually post!

My only rules are that the art must feature either one or both of these characters, and the northern lights must be in it. I was actually feeling a bit uninspired and considered doing something completely different this year, but at the last minute I thought of something!

[Image Description: The first image is a digital drawing of a moon in a starry sky behind the silhouette of a mountain range. The moon is partially lit, and looks similar to earth's moon except for a few streaks of glowing blue that are visible even on the unlit side. The whole moon has a faint bluish-white glow.

The second image is a simple drawing of this moon, as seen from the northern hemisphere. In the northern hemisphere the moon has dark patches on the top, a pale crater on the bottom-left side, and three streaks of blue on the bottom right side. In the southern hemisphere these features appear flipped vertically. End Image Description.]

Tonight is a blue moon, which on Earth just means the second full moon within one calendar month. But I thought this would be a cool time to share some worldbuilding details for Magicarnivora, because the world of Carnissus has a literal blue moon!

Carnissus's moon is similar to Earth's in size, distance, orbital period, and composition. But its appearance has one very noticeable difference: There are three huge streaks of blue magic across its surface, often referred to as "The Scar". These are visible even when the moon is not lit by the sun. In addition to this, the moon itself emits a faint blueish glow for reasons that may or may not be related to The Scar.