1314

## **Stonehearth College points out the *'Imperfection of the Heavens****'*

### **The Logic of the Planes**

The scholars of Stonehearth weren’t the first to look into the cosmology of the Realms by any means. Telescopes had been invented and forgotten countless times on Toril, but the knowledge, like the scopes, had been discovered and forgotten countless times as well.

Several things stood in the way of this making a greater impact. First, there were artificialities in the nearby Realmspace that skewed the results enough to stop most inquiries. To the users of most telescopes, it became self-reinforcing to whatever religious lore was there, and given the preponderance of evidence that the gods existed, deeper inquiry was ridiculous (or at least a waste of time).

The solar system was locked inside a dark but sparkly crystal sphere and that was that. Academics built their Orrery to model the heavens and anything that was wrong was assumed attributable to a flaw in the model-building skills.

This turned cosmology to a study of the planes, where all the planets and life itself existed in the Prime Material Plane, but other planes existed to form a multiverse. The two prevailing models were World Tree cosmology and Great Wheel cosmology (World Axis cosmology would rise among other scholars after the Spellplague).

What natural philosophers didn’t have until this point was the consistent application of anything like the *Naturalist Method**…* or the quality and power of the optics Stonehearth was developing… Or even the application of mundane math, that was *also* evolving.

### **Through the lens…**

By **1314**, Stonehearth College released a paper detailing what they’d observed in the heavens.

The study of the sky was the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, cosmological, calendrical, and astrological beliefs and practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World (see astrology and astronomy). In some cultures, astronomical data was used for astrological prognostication.

Ancient astronomers were able to differentiate between stars and planets, as stars remain relatively fixed over the centuries while planets will move an appreciable amount during a comparatively short time.

The Stonehearth College stood on the back of antiquity when they utilized observational astronomy, using the telescope to observe modern bodies. They essentially worked backward, filling the role of Galileo Galilei with astronomical observations, then beginning to connect the dots with the physics (which harkened back the to earlier Oearth analysis of Nicolaus Copernicus).

While still simply a curiosity elsewhere, in West Faerûn, it sparked a new pursuit of optical technology.

Stonehearth pushed farther, from precision metallurgy and lens grinding to a new appreciation for astronomy and the true appearance of the planets.

The metallurgy was a frustration point. Building the glasses, the microscopes, the telescopes – all of it suffered due to the inability to consistently produce or accurately machine the mechanisms for the devices.

### **Stellar Parallax gives a sense of the universe…**

In the same year, stellar aberration first and Stellar parallax shortly thereafter.

In the academic rite of passage, as scholars sought to confirm models in their own journey to enlightenment, the ever-increasing optics (and careful record-keeping) began to show evidence of the aberration of light.

This affected positions, ever so slightly, of the planets – and where they should be versus where they were observed to be.

It was the cracks in the crystal sphere that gave it away: the discovery of stellar parallax.

Suddenly, the positions of stars in the sphere were changing – which did not fit the widely-accepted, theologically-endorsed model of the crystal sphere.

By detecting motion in *some* of the distant pinpoints of light, it was realized that there was movement far, far, far beyond the last of the planets.

And it opened the unimaginable scales of the universe…

### **It was the Candlekeep Calculators, all over again…**

Now, suddenly, astronomy was tied in far tighter to the study of light itself. The study of matter and the *Indivisible Universe* was suddenly relevant for cosmological arguments.

Most simply didn’t care: this didn’t affect the farmer in his field, it didn’t diminish troll threats on the overland route to Waterdeep.

Other establishments knew they had to start looking into this *right now*. This included the scholarly groups like Candlekeep and Blackstaff tower and well beyond. There was now *evidence* for new cosmological models: *the prime material plane was much, MUCH bigger than anyone expected*…

Some groups were *very threatened*. Like certain other realms, this was less about the cosmology itself and more about maintaining validity, credibility and authority.

Even as Candlekeep quietly opened the books of astronomy and cosmology for a new chapter, Stonehearth College now bore the brunt of the ire of upset clergy. It wasn’t even consistent among churches, but it was certain consistent that everybody had an opinion and who was right was more important than who was factual.