Theory on the moons.

[Nabiri]

Hydaelyn has twin moons. The lore of Menphina, the lover (one of the Twelve) confirms this.

Lore of the gods doesn't answer scientifically whats going on up in space.

If it did, we'd use the bible as empirical evidence everywhere.

I guess that's technically true from a "real world" perspective.

But this is a fictional world in a videogame, and for that argument to hold much weight you would need to first assume that the creators of this game have decided to outright lie to us about the world they created in the form of established lore and background. I would say the likelihood of this is very low.

And in this fictional world it's totally possible that the inhabitants always believed the 2nd moon to be a moon, but may later find out that it is actually something else.. Like a planet, (or meteor).
What Cairdeas said makes sense.
In the lore they're only called moons because the people living on the planet believe them to be moons. They could be wrong. Even with the lore this would make sense. I hope I explained this well enough.

As an example.. we've called Pluto a planet for so long. Now we're being told "oops, we were wrong, it's actually something else." It's not unrealistic to believe that the same could happen in a fictional world.

[Jynx]

Unfortunately if its meteor then its a one way trip =P better remember to build an escape pod and to check to make sure there are no faults with the oxygen tanks!

I suggest we found some rough and tumble guys to plant a explosive in the center of it!

[Kyra]

Its definatly Meteor, Cid only says that one word and at same time this so called moon changes color. Co-incidence?

I believe what they thought to be twin moons orbiting their planet is infact one moon which has trapped a meteor in its own gravitational pull and this meteor is now orbiting the planets satalite. Some event is now causing this meteor to glow red and it might even possibly break orbit from the larger moon.

I believe they are planning to change the maps for Thanalan, black shroud and la noscea? What better way to do this than explain this change with a catostophic impact from meteor

Just imagine it getting nearer and nearer to the planet the closer we get to the patch that will change the maps. With the final few days before the patch goes live, meteor would be very large in the sky at night and during the day. It would be awsome.

If the entire meteor did hit the planet it obviously woiuld destroy everything but I believe it will break up in the planets atmopsphere with 3 large chunks of the metor hitting thanalan, black shroud and la noscea causing and explaining the changes we will be getting to these maps!

[Catapult]

That's no moon...

...that's a space station.

But on a more serious note, the recent change in colour screams out this will be some form of plot point.

It has also been stated that the resident's of Hydaelyn do not carry the concept of there being other worlds, planets etc. Such concepts are beyond them and they are simply in touch with what they have exposed to them. When they look at the night sky, they see the two moons as the icons of Menphina and Dalamud, her loyal hound.

The truth may be a completely different ball-game.

[Atoli]

There are only two ideas of which I think make sense:
The "moon" growing bigger and changing color is either a hint on things to come, you know, like in all those fantasy/mystery stories where the moon turns red in the night before an important fight to indicate a great bloodbath coming or something like that..
OR the moon is a threat itsself, which would be kind of awesome, but..I think we have enough threats for now xD

[Inaaca]

And in this fictional world it's totally possible that the inhabitants always believed the 2nd moon to be a moon, but may later find out that it is actually something else.. Like a planet, (or meteor).
What Cairdeas said makes sense.
In the lore they're only called moons because the people living on the planet believe them to be moons. They could be wrong. Even with the lore this would make sense. I hope I explained this well enough.

As an example.. we've called Pluto a planet for so long. Now we're being told "oops, we were wrong, it's actually something else." It's not unrealistic to believe that the same could happen in a fictional world.

Never said it was impossible or unrealistic, just very unlikely, that they would falsify this kind of information.

From the perspective of a game designer, I don't think they would build the entire basis for an important deity on a chunk of lore that isn't even true to begin with.
I also don't think they would present false information about the basics of the world we're in, when all they've been doing lately in quests is trying to give us more concrete information and/or lore about it.

Also, as far as the Meteor theory, I think this is likely and doesn't conflict with the twin moons, considering a meteor that's been orbiting Hydaelyn can still technically be considered a moon (or satellite, I suppose).

[Razor]

I believe what they thought to be twin moons orbiting their planet is infact one moon which has trapped a meteor in its own gravitational pull and this meteor is now orbiting the planets satalite. Some event is now causing this meteor to glow red and it might even possibly break orbit from the larger moon.

Due to the drastic size difference, the larger of the two bodies would have a substantially stronger gravitational force upon the other and most likely a more developed atmosphere. It would make sense that this red glow could be attributed to the meteor/debris igniting upon entering the moon's atmosphere. I'm sure the devs are giggling to themselves as we speak thinking "and we just made that s**t up!" but it would be really cool if later down the line this phenomenon contributes somehow to the overall storyline.

[Catapult]

It would be sad if this just turned out to be a part of the seasonal event and nothing more with it returning to white next month.

I hope otherwise, of course.

[Cairdeas]

Never said it was impossible or unrealistic, just very unlikely, that they would falsify this kind of information.

From the perspective of a game designer, I don't think they would build the entire basis for an important deity on a chunk of lore that isn't even true to begin with.
I also don't think they would present false information about the basics of the world we're in, when all they've been doing lately in quests is trying to give us more concrete information and/or lore about it.

Also, as far as the Meteor theory, I think this is likely and doesn't conflict with the twin moons, considering a meteor that's been orbiting Hydaelyn can still technically be considered a moon (or satellite, I suppose).

You haven't played very many SE games have you? They tend to spend the first half of the game slamming the same rules at you over and over and over again until you get comfortable and then BAMF* All of a Sudden, YOUR the bad guy and you just kill and entire civilization of people. (lolnier)

[Sav]

(lolnier)

Nier was an awesome game!

(the JP PS3 version, of course. not the Huge McUgly version).