Super basic dumb science question

[Spectrum]

The "magic" in my story that allows for werewolves (and vampires etc) to exist isn't necessarily based on any physical phenomenon related to percentage of moonlight or anything like that. Actually, my vampire hunter - Steve Van Helsing - explains it better than I can:



“One question,” said Angela. “In your experience as a vampire hunter…which religious artifacts work against them? I mean, I guess I’m trying to ask, like…”


“Which religion is true? All of them, really. In a way. Sort of. A vamp will recoil at a Buddha as quickly as it’ll recoil at a cross. It’s not the literal power of God or whatever that hurts them. I’m not actually sure what it is, but I have my theories. I think it’s more of a humanist idea –the fact that humans, mere mortals, can collectively create an idea as powerful as a religion, can collectively believe something so massive without any evidence, and pour that collective energy into it, into the hope of something bigger than themselves, somehow that positive, collective energy can damage a vampire. It’s not that religions are true, per se. It’s the focused energy of the human, of the mortal, to try to find meaning in the meaninglessness of existence – somehow, that energy is poison to a vampire.”

That's not analogous to moonlight at all. That doesn't help IMO.

Is the werewolf transformation psychosomatic? Does he wolf up because his mind registers the full moon and subconsciously thinks "oh no, wolf time"?

 

[StilLearning]

Could you set things up inside a star cluster, with enough nearby bright stars (I'm thinking big o-type stars) within half a light year that any planet effectively gets no real night, just a dimmer timer when the local Sun is below the horizon? Applied to a Moon similar in size and orbit to Earth's that would mean it's whole disk was always illuminated to some extent.

There'd be follow on problems - most solar systems only live in star clusters when they are young for example, so you might need to justify how you planet supports life so quickly (or you could just point it out as a mystery, or skate over the top of the issue) - but a sky full of bright enough stars could give you a perpetually full moon.

Similarly you could locate the solar system in the a galactic core, where (according to my dodgy memory) the stars are so close packed that the stars in the sky would provide about 1/3rd as much illumination as a local Sun, which should keep your moon full.

Edit: As per this source ( How bright is the Milky Way’s center? | EarthSky.org ) the milky way's galactic core would be brighter than a full Moon even from our vantage point 25000 light years away, if not for the dust between here and there - so I'd say it's a bright enough locale.

For the problem of your planets orbital stability inside dense packed star clusters or a galactic core: How about putting it in a solar system around a quiet and stable red dwarf star? These solar systems are only a fraction the size of ours, and hence much less vulnerable to gravitational disruption.
Or you can run with the idea of it being a wandering planet, but kept habitable by artificial means, or just being in a dense enough star cluster that it gets enough warmth. Ok, I realise I'm obsessing now, I hope you found some of the ideas useful

 

[sinister42]

That's not analogous to moonlight at all. That doesn't help IMO.

Is the werewolf transformation psychosomatic? Does he wolf up because his mind registers the full moon and subconsciously thinks "oh no, wolf time"?

I'm keeping it sort of ambiguous - the basic idea is that the "paranormal" in my story is generally activated by the power of collective belief - the sort of humanist idea that, for lack of a better word, "God" exists not as an outside supernatural entity, but can be seen as an idea representing the collective actions of humans working together for a better world. Werewolves change at the full moon because a global belief has developed over centuries through myth and legend that werewolves change at the full moon. Vampires are immortal and drink blood and burn in sunlight for the same reason - because myth and legend have created those features. That's why vampires are repulsed by all religious symbols - because the religions aren't "true," but the collective belief in them make the symbols "true enough" to activate that part of the vampire myth that says vampires hate religious symbols.

It's sort of psychosomatic in that sense, but on a global scale - the collective social consciousness of society's shared myths have the power to make those myths true. This is sort of cribbed a little bit from CS Friedman (and Jung maybe?) - on Friedman's planet of Erna, the "fae" have the power to take human thoughts and turn them into physical objects or monsters. Here I'm not using anything like the "fae" to channel anything; I'm just saying that myths make themselves real without needing any sort of religion or paranormal ...stuff... to be literally true. The culmination of the novel is when the wolves realize that this Maguffin that they're looking for - a medallion that's supposed to allow werewolves to control when they turn into wolves - is only imbued with power when all of the wolves collectively believe it has power, and as soon as that happens, suddenly, all wolves have the power to control their wolfiness.

Anyway, I'm still working it out.

 

[sinister42]

Could you set things up inside a star cluster, with enough nearby bright stars (I'm thinking big o-type stars) within half a light year that any planet effectively gets no real night, just a dimmer timer when the local Sun is below the horizon? Applied to a Moon similar in size and orbit to Earth's that would mean it's whole disk was always illuminated to some extent.

There'd be follow on problems - most solar systems only live in star clusters when they are young for example, so you might need to justify how you planet supports life so quickly (or you could just point it out as a mystery, or skate over the top of the issue) - but a sky full of bright enough stars could give you a perpetually full moon.

Similarly you could locate the solar system in the a galactic core, where (according to my dodgy memory) the stars are so close packed that the stars in the sky would provide about 1/3rd as much illumination as a local Sun, which should keep your moon full.

Edit: As per this source ( How bright is the Milky Way’s center? | EarthSky.org ) the milky way's galactic core would be brighter than a full Moon even from our vantage point 25000 light years away, if not for the dust between here and there - so I'd say it's a bright enough locale.

For the problem of your planets orbital stability inside dense packed star clusters or a galactic core: How about putting it in a solar system around a quiet and stable red dwarf star? These solar systems are only a fraction the size of ours, and hence much less vulnerable to gravitational disruption.
Or you can run with the idea of it being a wandering planet, but kept habitable by artificial means, or just being in a dense enough star cluster that it gets enough warmth. Ok, I realise I'm obsessing now, I hope you found some of the ideas useful

These are all great ideas to mull - thanks.

 

[Spectrum]

I'm keeping it sort of ambiguous - the basic idea is that the "paranormal" in my story is generally activated by the power of collective belief - the sort of humanist idea that, for lack of a better word, "God" exists not as an outside supernatural entity, but can be seen as an idea representing the collective actions of humans working together for a better world. Werewolves change at the full moon because a global belief has developed over centuries through myth and legend that werewolves change at the full moon. Vampires are immortal and drink blood and burn in sunlight for the same reason - because myth and legend have created those features. That's why vampires are repulsed by all religious symbols - because the religions aren't "true," but the collective belief in them make the symbols "true enough" to activate that part of the vampire myth that says vampires hate religious symbols.

It's sort of psychosomatic in that sense, but on a global scale - the collective social consciousness of society's shared myths have the power to make those myths true. This is sort of cribbed a little bit from CS Friedman (and Jung maybe?) - on Friedman's planet of Erna, the "fae" have the power to take human thoughts and turn them into physical objects or monsters. Here I'm not using anything like the "fae" to channel anything; I'm just saying that myths make themselves real without needing any sort of religion or paranormal ...stuff... to be literally true. The culmination of the novel is when the wolves realize that this Maguffin that they're looking for - a medallion that's supposed to allow werewolves to control when they turn into wolves - is only imbued with power when all of the wolves collectively believe it has power, and as soon as that happens, suddenly, all wolves have the power to control their wolfiness.

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.

So it is like the Orks of Warhammer 40.000 whose technology only works because Ork minds generate a shared psychic gestalt powered by Ork beliefs. When enough Orks believe that their machines work, their subconscious psyker powers makes the machines work.

 

[sinister42]

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.

So it is like the Orks of Warhammer 40.000 whose technology only works because Ork minds generate a shared psychic gestalt powered by Ork beliefs. When enough Orks believe that their machines work, their subconscious psyker powers makes the machines work.

Well I'm not familiar with that reference but sure, that sounds similar.