SPOILER Lunacy

Half Moon Island, a island at the lower eastern corner of the ocean, fittingly shaped in a crescent form. The island is inhabited by possessed beings, devout cultists and lunar beings. The area was rebuilt in 1.18 and is filled with several interesting things to explore, the only use of the area is for the diversity of the ingredients there. Oddly enough, there's another island that looks like the other half of the moon, near Gavel, it has the only boat merchant left in the game, and some strange ruins that don't mean much.

Now let's see what we know about lunacy, there are two items that give us some background on lunacy:
Lunar Spine:
From the Nether Gate, a shard of cosmic stone was ejected. Its purity was defiled, and the first man to wield it went mad, raving about the fall of the cosmos' beauty.
Moontower:
For the belief of the cosmos’ defilement, the moon was noted to remain unchanged. Those with this belief live only for the light of the moon, desperately seeking to maintain it through means that would only darken the soul of the most devout. Such from them comes the word lunacy.

They both describe madness due to the cosmos' defilement, Lunar Spine does mention cosmic stone and the Nether Gate, so whether Lunacy is a force of corruption somehow or related to the meteors is rather unclear and won't be looked on much.

Lunacy in real life means someone who is insane, the word Lunacy deriving from the Latin word lunaticus, which refers to some one as "moonstruck", someone becoming insane or having epilepsy due to the phases of the moon. Both the two items mentioned above mention the cosmos becoming defiled, just as people become insane due to the phases of the moon.

Remember how I mentioned that there are possessed beings? Well, Epilepsy just so happen to mean possess or seize, and you know what's even more surprising? The discovery lore says this: "This island is home to some form of cult, obsessed with the moon and its power. Rumors fly about it, a common thought being that they are attempting to summon some form of lunar deity." A lunar deity, the two Greek goddesses Selene and Artemis, but Selene is based solely on the moon, and are said to inflict Epilepsy on those who upset them, guess what the song of Half Moon Island is? "Affliction Of Lunacy".

The cultists on this island might not be the original owners of it, as we see a small, rather rudimentary little village probably built by the cultists while in other areas we see fortified towers, the original builders of these towers are probably the possessed people that walk around, afflicted with lunacy and stuck in a epileptic state. Now as for the summoning of said lunar deity, several sacrificial areas can be found in the basements of these towers, so this is what they're presumably using for the summoning of the deity. Now before the 1.18 Half Moon Island revamp, the island was actually inhabited by Oni, a type of yokai similar in appearance to demons in Japanese folklore, but now it seems they changed it to fit with actual lunacy, and a bit more with Greek mythology.

 

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

 

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Cosmic magic is a somewhat common topic in wynn. It's usually described as a powerful force that drives people insane, from what I can see.
So if the cosmos and space is dimming, that could have something to do with cosmic magic.

Given how this seems to hit towards something odd happening due to or to cosmic magic, I'm guessing that one day, some quest will tell us exactly what is happening - or it will stay a part of item lore.

 

Seems about it, Lunar Spine mentioning cosmic stone, but what about the connection to the Nether Portal?

 

It could be that the corruption/decay/darkness/other such forces taint the purity of the cosmic stone in some way, and thus as the war gets more fierce, the cosmos gets more and more tainted. We even have Pure as the name for a cosmic wand!

My theory is that cosmic magic represents purity and is tainted by anything impure, such as corruption. Cosmic magic can also turn people insane, espicially about the purity of cosmic magic. If tainted cosmic magic makes people insane and ramble about the beauty of the stars dimming, could it be that cosmic magic is somewhat sentient and recognizes it's in danger? It would fit the bill of "powerful mind-bending magic" if the whole thing was sentient. Or is it so pure that even the slightest bit of impurity will complitely change what that cosmic magic does?

It's a very intresting theory, at least.

 

Random bump cause for fun

 

I was wondering when someone would make the connection between Moontower, Lunar Spine, and Half-Moon. I can confirm that that other crescent-shaped island is unrelated to Half-Moon, though; if I'm remembering right it had a whale storage but basically no other content.