So, where's the Sun on the Moon?

[Lurea]

The sun can be seen in the zone preview trailer shown before release. It looks great! I have to think this is a bug of some sort, and would encourage others to submit a bug report reporting the missing sun from the sky box.

[KageTokage]

It absolutely is, the moon is only visible when umbral wind is the weather as seen in this screenshot. I've submitted this as a bug report, I'd encourage others to do the same.

I'd be more inclined to agree if not for the fact that the weather the moon is visible in also happens to be the only elemental weather present on both the moon itself and in Ultima Thule.

That and the very specific timing with which the moon appears/disappears seems deliberate.

Though on the flipside, if it gets marked as "not a bug" that would basically soft-confirm it as some manner of foreshadowing.

[kaynide]

Just to add/throw this out there:

We are lead to believe Venat created the actual moon, but it is possible that...
A) They only meant she created the moon base/Zodiark Prison elements (adjusted an existing moon) or
B) There was some mistruth or misunderstanding or even
C) Venat created the moon long long long before the sundering as an entirely unrelated project, and it existed at the time of Elpis.

To me it seems strange that Venat would create such a huge stone/lifeless structure when something more mechanical/magical in nature would have done the job. If it was truly meant to carry all of mankind, why make it desolate? Surely it could have been greener.

Personally (tin foil hat time) I believe Labyrinthos was originally meant to be the lunar interior, but the story got reworked.

[JepMZ]

Just to add/throw this out there:
To me it seems strange that Venat would create such a huge stone/lifeless structure when something more mechanical/magical in nature would have done the job. If it was truly meant to carry all of mankind, why make it desolate? Surely it could have been greener.

Personally (tin foil hat time) I believe Labyrinthos was originally meant to be the lunar interior, but the story got reworked.

It's already been explained ingame that Hydalyn is the Goddess of Stasis. In order to keep Zodiark in check, she had to have the astral nature so the moon just happens to be barren, like the First, because her powers lack umbral energies to balance it out.

[Keimthuba-Mal-Vitaestris]

I'd be more inclined to agree if not for the fact that the weather the moon is visible in also happens to be the only elemental weather present on both the moon itself and in Ultima Thule.

That and the very specific timing with which the moon appears/disappears seems deliberate.

Though on the flipside, if it gets marked as "not a bug" that would basically soft-confirm it as some manner of foreshadowing.

Umbral wind is also present as early as the sea of clouds, it's used for rare fish appearances while fishing. I suspect the weather isn't all that relevant and just chalk it up to ham-handedness.

[Necrotica]

Quick Google search is not showing anything, but what is the lore cause of Umbral wind?

If the moon is/was housing Zodiark and a gigantic mother crystal equivalent of dark energy, it being the source of umbral weather could be interesting.

[KageTokage]

Well, the weird Elpis moon is still around at the present time, so they don't seem too keen on fixing it if it is a bug.

The elemental weathers were vaguely described as just being a product of fluctuations in the ambient aether IIRC, though that makes presence of umbral wind even in Ultima Thule seem...strange.

[Cleretic]

We don't really know the physics of space in-universe, it's never exactly been important until now. In real-life there are solar winds in space--they're essentially shockwaves from solar flares--which would actually translate pretty well as something like umbral wind in FFXIV's universe, but that's just me taking a guess.

[Tiramu]

If it is modeled per our real Earth, Moon, and Sun, then due to the lack of an atmosphere on the Moon, the "sky" would always be dark and would be like night time on Earth in general appearance even at "high noon". The Sun would appear as a "larger" star in the night sky, bright enough to "light up" the surface and cast shadows, but it's apparent size would be smaller than say a full Moon as seen from Earth.
Remember, the only reason we see a "bright blue sky" on Earth is due to our atmosphere refracting and being illuminated by the Sun light and without it we would see what the astronauts see outside of our atmosphere, a field of darkness with small light points from stars/galaxies.

I don't think the game explained fully why we can walk the surface of the Moon in game and not suffocate (and irradiate), but lets chalk it up to magic

To add, in real life due to the rotational speed of the Moon, a full day/night cycle last about 4 weeks, so the changes through out the "day" and "night" are very small compared to a typical 24 hour day/night cycle on Earth

This website shows a video of what it is like from the Moon surface having a sunrise:
https://earthsky.org/space/how-often...from-the-moon/

Spoilers-ish:
I believe its magic or magitek of sorts. While the Moon and the unrealistic stuff about it isn't explicitly explained, the Loporrits explain a few things that imply that its all magic and technology. For example, it not being a moon at all, but a giant space ship masquerading as a moon, and explaining how they generate a breathable environment with the "tree" like structures. Which allows them to not have to explain or think about realism, its all technology and magic beyond anything we could understand.

[Joven]

He wouldn't be on the moon. He's at the Dawn Throne in Azim Steppe.