East is east, West is west

In the middle part of Rome's Revolution, Rei must fly Rome into the "Lion's Den" which is his fatalistic reference to the Vuduri compound. His hope is to convince them to apply their advanced medical knowledge and save Rome from succumbing to polyhydramnios. As Rome and Rei were leaving the secret Ibbrassati enclave, they were instructed to fly "East" until they got to the coast of Asquarti, the western continent.

But what does that mean, East? Well, east is where the sun rises. So if a planet is spinning counter-clockwise when viewed from the north pole, the east is the way we think of east as in the East Coast. But what if a planet spins clockwise? What if the sun rises in the west and sets in the east?

The answer lies along the equator, not the poles. If you are in the sky and looking down at a planet, you have to choose one of the poles and call it the North Pole. So you pick the one such that as the planet rotates, the sun rises on the right hand side and sets on the left hand side. It doesn't matter otherwise. There is nothing critical as to whether the planet is rotating with its north pole "up" whatever that means.

So, the bottom line is, east is defined as where the sun rises, west is defined as where it sets. What you would do if the planet did not rotate, I haven't a clue. But I get to make this stuff up and so far, my imagined planets rotate so East is east, West is west.

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