So what's up with the Angel Moon?

[Cheech Marin]

I've noticed that the Angel Moon (the one orbiting Hiigara) has been going through various states of... geological activity, or something like that throughout the Homeworld series. For example, in HW1, it looks like a fairly ordinary moon, similar to ours. In HW:C, it has this weird dark grey stuff on it. Then, in HW2 it looks like there are firestorms all around it.

http://well-of-souls.com/homeworld/h...destroyer2.jpg
Here's a pic of the moon in HW1.

http://well-of-souls.com/homeworld/hwcs/recon8.jpg
Smallish pic from HW:C

http://well-of-souls.com/homeworld/h..._091303_06.jpg
The moon in HW2, behind the bombers

So, is there any "official" explanation or anything like that?

[Chrome]

Not that I know of, but maybe the "firestorms" are reflective areas? It's positioned pretty well to catch the sunlight there. (Europa I think has similar features.) Most likely the mapmakers decided to make the Angel Moon cooler.

And who's to say something didn't happen to the Angel Moon between HW:C and HW2? Maybe some gigantic disaster like the Praxis incident in ST6, and now it's a volcanic hellhole.

We can only guess; I doubt anybody bothered to flesh the time period between Cataclysm and HW2, even in fanfic.

[EarthBorn]

Maybe.
But we do know that the Angel Moon is uninhabited, so it doesn't affect our story.

[Magus]

Uninhabited as of HW1. In my opinion, in HW2 it is covered in cities, hence the glow. As for the Cataclysm one, it could be the other side of the moon, it could also have been the subject of bombardment during the Taiidani Imperialist incursions that reached Hiigara.

[EarthBorn]

Cities do not glow that brightly.
If it is inhabited, why did the Vaygr not ADW it? Why did the mothership crew transports travel all the way from Hiigara to the MS2, when the Angel Moon was closer?

[Void]

MAybe it was nuked or something? I guess they had some military facilities on it :/

[DatonKallandor]

Exactly my thoughts.

HW1: uninhabited
Cataclysm: terraforming process started
HW2: first line of defence - hence bombed by Vaygr invasion


Daton

[Verrin]

Cities do not glow that brightly.
If it is inhabited, why did the Vaygr not ADW it? Why did the mothership crew transports travel all the way from Hiigara to the MS2, when the Angel Moon was closer?

I disagree with the glow comment. If you take a look at some older screenshots, you'll see that they had a different moon design in place. Also, note that Hiigara has a glow very similar to the angel moon in the released version, which Marin pointed out as firestorms. It looks to me they had a military base installation or something.

[EarthBorn]

Now it fits.
Ok, so the Angel moon was inhabited.

[Sastrei]

Neat find. Looks like they have bulls-eyes on them though...

-Stefan-

[Solarmech]

If you look at some of the pre production sketches they have for HW1 (1998) there is one of the Angel Moon and the caption "Angel Moon Mining Operations". It looks much closer to the HW2 AM than what we see in HW1. sm

[Progenitor]

anyone thought of them as geological formations catching the light of the sun and creating those ribbons of reflected glitter on-surface?

[EarthBorn]

Yes I did, but they could be artificial geological formations you know...

[Void]

maybe it was glassed? so it reflects sunlight?

[Starblade]

That symmetrically? I doubt it. I say it's just citylights.

[Progenitor]

citylights aren't that magnified. they're huge when seen in HW2, which either means Hiigarans have dedicated sky-shining spotlights or are just some weird formation that reflects light.

perhaps it's some kind of mineral or ore deposit on the crust?

[Riess]

How about ice?

[Unk]

Most likely city lights, on earth they are easily visible to the naked eye from orbit even through an atmosphere. Although no word on whether or not the Angel Moon has an atmosphere, there is none visible which implies either no atmosphere or an incredibly thin one. So it could easily be city lights, especially at the distances which are used in the game.

[EarthBorn]

..they could have terraformed it.
But it certainly did not have an atmosphere before exile, as the guidestone, which was made on the moon showed signs of 'being made in a vaccum'.

[Starblade]

They could be domed, magnifying the light. Maybe. Don't know too much about how that affects light.

[Koki]

Lights can be seen from space, but I don't think that's it, mainly because these are red, mostly. If anything, I'd suspect that Angel Moon is geologically active(More like geologically berserk with that amount of light...)

[Starblade]

Well, if the Guidestone showed signs of being in a vacuum and what not, that means there is no atmosphere. So maybe the cities could be domed.

Or maybe it's just to look pretty.

[Vanas]

Between HW and HW:C; moons DO rotate, you know.

As for HW2, I was under the impression that the Angel Moon was inhabited. It doesn't look like firestorms, or really lava flows, unless this happened to it, and I think the Hiigarans might complain if the Imperium starts to use their moons as target practice.
I just looked at it and thought 'hey, cities on the moon!' and that was it.

[Kiith Somtu]

Well if you really think about it, sometime after Cataclysm happend the hiigarans started to colonize their moon. So its possible that factories started production for the minerals on it.