To visualize how far away the Sun is, think about it like this: the Sun is 100 Suns away from us. So if the Sun were a basketball, you could imagine lOO basketballs lined up, and that’s how for away the Sun would be. This distance is known as an AU, or Astronomical Unit. If planes could fly through space, going to the Sun would be an 18—year flight.
We can also use the AU to visualize the size of the Solar System. Mercury, Venus Earth and Mars are 1/3, 2/3, 1 and 1.5 AU from the Sun. Jupiter is 5 AU away while Saturn, Uranus, Neptun and Pluto are conveniently about 10, 20, 30 and 40 AU from the Sun, respectively.
Isembard is concerned about the questions surrounding Sister Ourcen’s integrity.
Isembard: Sister Ourcen… It cannot be. Though, she is wont to travel to the Golden Bazaar on her own, and it is not uncommon to see her speaking to the children. But…no. It could not be she…could it? Isembard: Hmmm… (sigh) I grow weary of these suspicions. I know there is one child in particular that she is fond of. Pray seek out the boy, Meredith, and see if you cannot glean something from him about Ourcen’s activities.
Uncombed Urchin: Please help! Sister Ourcen went out all on her own and hasn’t come back! Uncombed Urchin: She always reads to me right here, about Thal and the Order and the other side. I told her I lost my shiny thing and she went looking for it. But what if the monsters outside hurt her? Please find her!
Ourcen: You… You are the one from the church. Thank goodness you arrived when you did. It seems my gratitude is yours yet again. Ourcen: You spoke with the child? Yes, well, I was able to find his lost trinket. It is a ring given him by his mother before she passed. I will see it safely back to him.
Isembard: Sister Ourcen was attacked outside the Golden Bazaar? Gods forfend… I will secure a room at the inn for her should she require any rest. Isembard: Searching for the mementos of orphans? And risking her own well-being in the doing, no less? Certainly not the dastardly deeds Thancred would have us believe.
Enif is a massive dying star, which doesn’t mean it is calmly enjoying the rest of its old age. Enif — or Epsilon Pegasi — is known for its erratic and violent behavior. In 1972, the star was observed to release some kind of enormous flare, five times brighter than normal. These kinds of events are only poorly understood and only about 24 of them are documented, so we don’t know what irritated it. But if we were constantly stalked by gawking researchers we’d probably be grumpy too.
Isembard would like you to learn what you can from the clergy.
Isembard: If we would know what the commonfolk speak of to their gods, we’ve no better place to ask than at the Church of Saint Adama Landama. It is a small and humble church, found to the northwest of here. Isembard: And so long as you are headed there…might I ask you to deliver this embalmed corpse? A morbid request, I grant you, but it must be borne to burial, and I trust none more than you to see it done. Isembard: Seek out a man named Marques─he tends the graves of the lichyard. He will tell you where the body is to be interred.
Marques: I am Marques, yes. A body? Of course… There…there have been…so many bodies of late… Marques: I… I apologize, miss. If you seek a place of burial, then there is an empty grave atop the ridge. Take the path and lay him to rest there.
Marques: May they all walk in Thal’s realm… …What? Missing people? I…I’m afraid I cannot help you. Marques: But maybe Sister Ourcen can. She has been kind to me. Everyone…everyone has been so kind. Marques: I don’t know why, though. I… Pardon me. You will find Sister Ourcen within the church walls.
Ourcen: I hear you have done us the service of burying a fallen soul. Please accept our gratitude, and extend it to Isembard when next you see him. Ourcen: Hm? You seek knowledge of missing Drybone inhabitants? It is true I am closer to the people than any other of the Order. I confide in them, and they in me. When they wish to speak to their keeper, Thal, I am the medium through which they do. Ourcen: Should I learn anything pertinent, I will be sure to share the information with you. (sigh) I only wish Marques would be more helpful in the matter. I pray he did nothing to offend. He saw…terrible things during the Calamity… His scars run deep. Indeed, he seems to now prefer the company of the dead over the living. Ourcen: While tragic, I fear such behavior ill befits the church. I received word not long ago that one of our recent visitors─a man called Thancred, I believe─took offense at his conduct. I must have words with Marques, and soon.
Isembard: Thank you, Meredith. A burial is no easy thing─even when the departed is a stranger. Were you able to learn aught of the missing commonfolk? Thancred: You’ve been keeping yourself rather busy of late, haven’t you, Meredith? Thancred: A pleasure, my dear Isembard. The name is Thancred, and I share a passion with you and our mutual friend here for learning what has become of these missing persons and why. Thancred: I, too, spoke with Ungust─more times than I care to count. There seems to be some truth to this notion of the commonfolk speaking their secrets only to those in service to the gods. Thancred: Prostration, prayer, penance. Abject deeds done behind closed doors, away from prying eyes. Who better to take the pious unawares than she who takes confession─the good Sister Ourcen herself? Isembard: Ourcen!? She wouldn’t… She couldn’t! Thancred: Even the most beautiful roses have thorns, my friend. And you would be wise to keep an eye to this rose. Thancred: Still, the lichkeeper Marques… I’d swear to the Twelve I’ve seen that face elsewhere before…
A blue-white supergiant in the constellation Cygnus, Deneb is over 50,000 times brighter than the Sun. It’s pretty far from us though — 2,615 light years — so it’s only the 19th brightest star in our sky.
Isembard aims to turn his investigation to the commonfolk.
Isembard: What say we turn an eye to the commonfolk themselves? It may be among them that we find the reasons for these vanishings, Twelve forbid it be so. Isembard: There is a merchant by the name of Ungust who was born here in Drybone and grew up in the Golden Bazaar. A…rough character, but he knows the people here better than anyone else. Isembard: I’d wager he’s at the inn, quaffing away the day’s earnings. Here, I’ll write a note for you to show him, else he’s not like to speak to you.
Ungust: (belch) Well, gods be damned! You’re that bloody adventurer who threatened me back in Ul’dah! What in the seven hells do you want with me now!? Ungust: “Dear friend… (belch) Missing people… Please help… (hiccup) Yours, Isembard.” Ungust: Folk around here are as wary as they come. They’ll turn tail and run if you so much as pass wind nearby. Played them all for fools and coaxed some hard labor out of them, I did. Ungust: If anything, they’re even more timid than before, what with all the disappearances. You can go talk to ’em yourself if you don’t believe me.
Hungry Beggar: P-Please, miss, just leave me be… Devious Derelict: I’ve nothing to say but this: Thal take who─or whatever’s been feeding off us low folk. Petrified Pauper: Wh-What do you want from me!? I d-don’t know anything, I swear! Please don’t kill me!
Ungust: Just as I told you, wasn’t it? The whole lot of them are terrified. (hiccup) Ungust: There’s been talk of folk getting abducted, but if you ask me, they simply up and moved on to a better place. This place isn’t exactly Costa del Sol, if you know what I’m saying.
Isembard: Welcome back, Meredith. Have you learned aught of import? Isembard: I see… I suppose I should have expected as much from Ungust. Well, another thought occurred to me in your absence. The commonfolk are nothing if not fervent in their religious beliefs. Perhaps if they speak freely to their gods, then the clergy may know something of use.
People are quite good at estimating various things. To demonstrate what I mean, try answering the four following questions. How long does it take an average person to walk half a kilometre? Approximately how many eggs fit into small box? How much taller is an adult person compared to a six-year-old? What is the average difference in temperature between summer and winter? It is very likely that your answers to the questions above were to some extent correct.
Everybody knows that an ordinary human walks a distance of a few hundred meters in a couple of minutes, that about five to ten eggs fit into a small box, that a child is about two or three times smaller than an adult, and that the difference between summer and winter temperatures is several dozen degrees at most. No reasonable person would tell you that they can walk half a kilometre in about a tenth of a second, that about a billion eggs fit into a box, that a twenty-year-old is about a hundred thousand times larger than a child or that the temperatures in summer can be up to a million times greater than those in winter. Our brains are excellent at estimating these things, since we encounter them on a daily basis.
But once we get over the border of the ordinary world, our perspective suddenly vanishes. How many atoms fit into the dot of the question mark at the end of this sentence? How much farther from Earth is the Sun compared to the Moon? What is the difference in temperature between the Sun’s core and its surface? If you have not happened to learn the answer to one these questions, you might not be able to respond. And if you have at least tried, it is very likely that your answer is far off from reality. Our brains do not encounter atoms or stars on a daily basis, which makes answering these questions immensely difficult for them. The aim of this chapter is therefore to bring a little bit of perspective into the mysterious world of the cosmos.
Keishinrei 