Type: Asteroid cluster
Size: A
Day Length: various
Year Length: 30 days
Distance/Time To:
Toril: 183,000 miles
Selûne: 100,000 – 183,000 miles
Major Asteroids
Abandoned Castle — The Cave — The Citadel — Dragon Rock — Eye of the Sky — Journey’s Legg — Stardock

Circa -3500 DR an astronomer from Shou Lung, Tu Pi Chei, reported seeing many objects ‘pop’ into existance. Soon, all of Toril’s oceans were wracked by massive tidal waves. The Emperor was informed and the next night he too looked at the sky and saw the new objects. Twenty astrologers were tasked with determining their meaning. Most said that Shou Lung would expand inland, some said that a member of the emperor’s family would soon die, one claimed that the emperor himself would become pregnant (that astrologer was immediately put to death). Shou Lung did indeed expand inland soon after and is now one of the largest countries on Toril. The emperors wife also died in childbirth later that year.

The elves of Evermeet took it as a sign that the gods were pleased with their magical research and view the Tears with pride, while the goblinoids believed they were part of a plot by human mages to bathe the night in moonlight. They feared that the night sky would soon be filled with moons thus eliminating their precious darkness. Many have set out to kill as many humans and elves as they could for just this reason.

Spacefarers tend to believe that they were created by a deity new to the sphere to hide the castle in the center of the cluster where it lives. Many have attempted to investigate the castle but none have returned alive.

Most human legends tell of the goddess Selûne who fell in love with a handsome warrior who turned out to be an evil shapechanging monster bent on destruction and conquest. She sealed the warrior and his minions in a gem made of her life essence and wept with the tears coming to rest trailing the satellite of her namesake.

The popular belief amongst those versed in such matters is that they are just a normal asteroid cluster that got caught up in the wake of Selûne. There are hundreds of them, circling each other, though the focal point of their revolution is actually a castle.

Image ScreenCapped from Neverwinter Nights 2