Novalunar Geography
Much like Earth, to which it is geographically analogous in a great many respects, Novaluna's surface is characterised by varied proportions of water and land, shaped by natural processes into an immense variety of features that are continually shifting over time. As Novaluna experiences a high level of tectonic activity, across the long span of its geologic history its surface has underwent a great deal of change, all culminating in the unique and oftentimes breathtaking topography visible now.
At the current stage of Novaluna's geologic history and the state of its lithosphere, the conventional conception of a continent does not quite neatly line up with the geological definition of continents
when it comes to classifying Novaluna's landmasses. Nevertheless, compromise between the two has led to the identification of four major continental landmasses on Novaluna and several small rifted or volcanic pieces of continental crust detached from the primary continents, based on the definition of continents as largely contiguous masses of continental crust, including associated shelves and islands.
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Saveria in the west and Sepideia in the east are the two continents of Novaluna most readily recogniseable as such, given that most of their surface areas are above sea level and that they together comprise the vast majority of land area on Novaluna. Although their continental shelves are merging along a convergent boundary near the 180th meridian, they are considered geologically distinct, yet were notably part of a supercontinent known as Mehtria that split apart 90 million years before the present, the widening rift zone having since formed the Ituvinus Ocean. The two continents are separated by the Bladed Strait along the 180th meridian and the Night's Passage near the prime meridian.
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Saveria is most notable, geographically, for the three (sometimes considered two) immense inland seas contained within its continental interior; from north to south, the Whispering Sea, Weeping Sea, and Wailing Sea, with the latter two connected by a strait and thus considered to be the same hydrological body. Their creation by rifting events during the split of Mehtria and their non-estuarine outflows to the ocean often have them classified as enormous lakes, although their complex hydrologies and containing of exposed oceanic basin complicate this classification. Sepideia's geography, conversely, is dominated by the immensely complex tectonic formations along its eastern coasts, especially the Ivory-Ash Crest network of mountain ranges that mark a sophisticated interaction of orogenies and large igneous provinces that result in the region being one of the most tectonically active regions on Novaluna.
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The two other continental landmasses are Tranquility and Nereis-Apsaras, both moderately-sized fragments that broke off from Mehtria before the major rifting event. Named after the respective islands that rise from their segments of crust, both are significantly smaller than Saveria and Sepideia, with Nereis-Apsaras being almost entirely submerged save for the eponymous very small islands that remain above sea level.
Continents
Oceans
Although hydrology and ecology lend a degree of determinacy to the delineation of Novaluna's oceans, their boundaries are ultimately defined by semi-arbitrary convention. As a result, the
exact number of distinct oceans on Novaluna can vary, although by far the most common convention is to identify three major divisions of Novaluna's single world ocean.
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The Ituvinus Ocean is geologically the youngest of Novaluna's three, formed by the split of the supercontinent Mehtria into Saveria and Sepideia 90 million years ago, and is likewise the most economically and culturally important ocean on Novaluna. The complex process of Mehtria's breakup created a huge network of various archipelagos and marginal seas, bays, and estuaries that result in the Ituvinus being the most geographically and ecologically varied of Novaluna's oceans, as well as its second largest. The Ituvinus now accounts for half of the northern polar region, with the border between it and the Inanitus Ocean crossing the North Pole at the 90° great-circle meridian. Its border with the Fengicus Ocean, meanwhile, is drawn between the Heart of the World and Blackfall regions.
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The Fengicus Ocean is the largest ocean and second oldest on Novaluna, encompassing the entirety of Novaluna's southern polar and temperate regions, including the island-continents of Tranquility and Nereis-Apsaras, and bordering the southern coasts of Saveria and Sepideia. Once the island-bound southern half of the superocean Pehtrus contemporaneous with Mehtria, the Fengicus was fully and definitively separated from the North Pehtrus/Inanitus Ocean when the archipelago separating the two was compressed into Shimmer-Morasum region split only by the Bladed Strait, now the sole passage between the two. The Fengicus in particular is notable for several very warm southward currents that produce a variety of unique climatic effects and marine habitats.
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The Inanitus Ocean is the smallest (by surface area), oldest, and deepest ocean on Novaluna, existing in various semi-contiguous forms for nearly 600 million years. Formerly the North Pehtrus Ocean, the re-merger of Saveria and Sepideia that split it off from the Fengicus save for the Bladed Strait had a major effect on the hydrology and ecology of the ocean. Combined with the near-absence of any continental cratons or other visible surface features despite heavy undersea volcanism, the Inanitus has a dual reputation for both seeming vast and empty yet also having some of the moon's most terrific pelagic ecosystems and organisms.