ROON - The Great Owl

This is the outermost of the two moons that circle Greld. It has always been worshiped by cults on Greld. The other moon (Klee) has been respected as a "sister" of Roon but never worshiped on its own. In the Ancient hunting language (a variation of Greld,n) Roon means "one who flys slowly in the night". Strangely, this word never degenerated into the name of a real animal, but always remained an adjective.

Its orbit is wider, and slower as it is the larger of the two. The period is 54 days, and it is large enough to have it’s own spin. Klee is tide locked to the rotation of Greld, but Roon has it’s own day of 19 hours. It rotates in the same direction as Greld. There is no axial tilt, so there are no seasons. This hardly matters to any Rooner, as they mostly live underground.

Roon was the first moon populated. This moon has always been extreamly dusty, and as there is only ½ of normal gravity, it takes a long time for the dust to settle. When excavation of the moon began in earnest the dust flew into the air, and has not settled since. To this day, the moons surface is hidden in the clouds of dust and even in its full phase is large but dim, reflecting a dull tan light. This light provides little or no illumination.

The atmosphere is easily breatheable underground, but on the surface, masks made of Roon silk (a good filtering agent) must be worn to protect the lungs from dust. The Rooners have large noses and never cut their nose hairs. They grow copious amounts of nose hair to filter the dust from the air, and when on the surface, their noses run constantly to wash the dust accumulated away.

Those living on the moon are decended from human stock of course, but the thousands of years past and the different conditions on this world have caused a departure from normality. They are generally taller than normal (6’5" average for men and 6’ 3" for women) and weigh about the same as a standard human. They are thefore tall and slender, but sturdy of bone and possessed of whipcord mussle. These folk are called the "Rooners".

Most life on Roon is confined to the areas at the polls, as that is where water is most plentyfull. There are some large cities near the north and south poll, but only a few small towns near the equator.

City Name Population

Gazafu 2,700

Gitaze 3,000

Mizequ 2,300

Githaxa 1,200

Gorawo 900

Shiqaha 1,500

Chalatho 870

Chobocha 2,600

Jisathe 1,100

Qathaga 3,700

Waluna 1,400

Demoki 2,600

Xemele 23,000

Fifemo 650

Rizucha 3,700

Zazuzu 65,000

Mameje 4,500

Robacha 17,500

Asivbeha 1,350

Bashovi 2,400

Makeca 33,500

Baviro 17,500

Thudoche 800

Timoho 2,200

Pabuze 4,000

Chewodu 12,300

Dariti 3,300

Doluta 4,300

Suxoti 3,400

Zotume 4,500

END NUMBERED