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(Thanlks to Curethan for posting that clip.  Curiously there is no bright sparkler visible in Earth's southern hemisphere that defines geographic south.)

Yeh, as an Australian I found it very interesting.  We have the Southern Cross, but that just points to where a pole star would be if there was one.
Also interesting to note that as we travel through space the pole star will change.

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Another sighting when Akka is throwing down with the Scarlet Schoolmen in the Sareotic. Specifically says the Nail is silvering a cloud while the sun sets. Bit more than a star, folks.

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Binary star, perhaps? Though not sure what the orbital relationship would be like given its static position in the sky.

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Another sighting when Akka is throwing down with the Scarlet Schoolmen in the Sareotic. Specifically says the Nail is silvering a cloud while the sun sets. Bit more than a star, folks.

A bit more than a star?  Well how close to Earwa is the putative pole star?  I certainly don't know.  And while I said that I was not an astronomer, there is something called Olbers' paradox, which holds that the night sky should be brighter than the day sky (that's it's not may be evidence for a finitely old universe).  I have no problem with a bright, proximate sun that is visible in daylight.

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I thought that alleged paradox was broached when the universe was believed to be infinite? In a universe that is neither spatially nor temporally infinite it's no paradox at all. Well, unless you live in the galactic core or something where there are stars absolutely everywhere right next to each other.

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Honestly, I'm quite sure it'll be addressed at some point. It's too much a curiosity now. Well, I can hope. There IS that expanded encyclopedia we keep hearing of...

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I'd buy an Encyclopaedia Earwa even if it were a fourth novel to the Aspect-Emperor trilogy

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It sounds increasingly like the nail is the true center of the universe, rather than the very center of Earwa being the center of the universe.

How would it's position remain invariant with respect to a planet?  A pole star, one that defines the north pole with respect to a planet, is much more easy to accept.

You have to remember in biblical times, it was taken the sun revolved around the earth (and from 'obvious observation' it certainly seems the sun revolves around us). This is a book about a world where the bible is just plain true.

So you have the nail of heaven, then Earwa orbiting that, then the sun of Earwa orbiting Earwa.

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But the Nonmen believe, as the Inchoroi have said, that each star is another Sun, each with its own world. Though humanity found the idea offensive. I'm inclined to trust objectivity in this case.

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Yes, and doesn't it just burn to be but a mere forgetable detail in the sky of the true world, as it revolves around the center of the universe? Doesn't it burn to be mere window dressing? Whole worlds, just to make a single winking lights for them? Yes, the other worlds revolve around their window dressing suns. Because it doesn't matter if they do.

Ya gotta jive on the epic self loathing of that. Then think, does that epic fit the setting?

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i mention it in more detail in my I.5 almanac posting--but TTT glossary on the NoH indictaes that

The northern star that, aside from being the brightest star in the night sky (it is sometimes visible in daylight), provides the axis from which all other stars revolve.

(III at 469).

the inference is that the axis around which the celestial sphere spins (i.e., matching the perceived or actual revolution of the heavens around the earth) must pass from the north pole of that sphere (i.e., sphere as perceived from the center, i.e., on the planet, looking heavenward) through the center of the sphere to the south pole.  the pole points have no apparent radial velocity, aye, and the greatest radial velocity is on the equator?  the center of the sphere must be on the axis. 

the planet is therefore the center of the universe.  the inchoroi have accordingly chosen well.

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I'm not getting that - the terms might just be going over my head? Why does that make the planet (or the center of the planet) the center of the universe, rather than the north star?

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it makes sense that the planet is the center of the universe if that's what the ancient world believed.  This is about making a fantasy world that recreates the reality of ancient beliefs.

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Yeah, it just A: grates against a certain aesthetic because you can't actually visit the center of the universe, as its under alot of rock and B: in flat earth days, the center of the universe would be visitable.

Yeah, I grant the north star being the center of the universe would jar the traditional idea. But for myself, if it's the center, and it's all glowy and mysterious, it's super more interesting to visit than some rocks. Unless SA becomes journey to the center of the earth at some point - which is kinda cool.

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flat earth...that's damned interesting.  we know that there're horizons in the setting, which implies a non-flat earth.  can we make RSB's world flat?  tolkien made his world flat, at least in the early drafts, even though aragorn later could go to places "where the stars are strange."  what's north of agongorea, south of kutnarmu?  dunsany's edge of the world?