Nami's Lore - Relationship with Diana
 

The mention of the moonstone initially piqued my interest for possible links to Diana.

The following quotes from IronStylus have cemented this link:
My theory:
The "Lunari" was the civilisation that customarily traded the moonstone for the pearl with Nami's people. Sometime in the last 100 years, the Solari wiped out the "Lunari" (a theory that already has quite strong evidence of its own), attempting to erase all knowledge of its teachings and existence, thus explaining why the moonstone carrier never showed up for Nami. Additional evidence is provided by "a powerful object found only in the towering reaches of the surface world", suggesting that the moonstone is to be found on Mount Targon. Now it falls to Nami to discover the truth before the current moonstone that protects her village fails.

I love the way you think. It would be cool to see a thre way grudge match.

A Diana/Leona/Nami threeesome sounds good...

I was so hyped when I read Iron Stylus post. I'm wondering what the pearl has that makes it so special to the Lunari. We know that the moonstone ensures the Marai's survival so the trade must favor both sides right?

I was thinking the same thing. It's the big question on my mind.

I hope it falls to both Leona and Diana to help Nami. The exchange takes place on the solstice after all. Perfect balance of sun and moon.

I'm sorry, but 100 years to completely take out a major religion and destroy all of its followers and essentially wipe out every trace they have save for very very scant and shaky signs? Diana had to delve into ancient texts and not semi-old texts. It doesn't make sense. From a historical perspective, it doesn't make sense.

Now that I think about it a bit more, the ceremony has to take place every 100 years. That means the complete and utter eradication of the Lunari in fact took place in less than 100 years. It just...doesn't make a lot of sense and makes it more unrealistic.

Edit: Snippet of Diana's lore:

"This clue led her to a secluded valley on Mount Targon where she unearthed the hidden entrance to an ancient, sealed temple. Inside, among aging relics and faded murals..."

What is the definition of ancient?

Ancient
1. Of great age; very old.
2. Of or relating to times long past, especially those of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire (a.d. 476).

Is the Eiffel Tower an ancient structure? It was completed in 1889, and is more than a hundred years now. Ancient is a long, long time. I know we're not dealing with the Roman Empire, but the basic definition for Ancient is more than 1500 years ago minimum (Doing an approximate amount of years). 100 years is not ancient, it truly isn't.

Yeah I'm with GV on this... Under 100 years just doesn't seem long enough, and I thought it was implied that Diana had to dig through ancient texts in order to find the information necessary to rediscover the Lunari. I mean if it was under 100 years ago there might be some old timers who still REMEMBER the Lunari.

It's possible that the exchange still occurred during the the fall of the Lunari. It's true that it would probably take longer than 100 years to completely wipe out traces of a religion, so I would guess that those who remained in the Lunari religion even during the Solari's take over/inquisition/whathaveyou still carried on with the tradition and ceremony of the exchange despite their persecution. During Nami's time is probably when the final traces of the Lunari had been wiped out, and Diana may have been barely discovering the ancient texts as Nami was named Tidecaller, so there was probably no chance of the exchange occurring when Nami journeyed to the shores, at least not right away.

Another thing: since the moonstone may come from highest peaks of Mount Targon, and with the Solari inhabiting of that place, if Diana knew that there was to be a ceremony between a Lunari and a Marai, she may not able to bring the stone because she simply cannot get it easily.

I'm pretty sure the Lunari fell apart soon after their avatar was killed since the Sun avatar was probably still running around frying things after the Moon avatar was dead. And since that temple has been sealed with the armor inside for well over one hundred years, the Lunari have likely been gone for a very long time as well.

Also what's easier? Altering a small period of history that no living person or their grandparents or even great grandparents were alive for in a way that avoids notice, or altering history that happened within the last century and everything that came before it? Diana's a smart girl, if there were weird hiccups in the past century's history and most of the stuff before it, especially with what she was looking for, I think she would have noticed. Heck, in Leona's lore we're told that there was only ever ONE other Sun avatar, that it was a man, and that he founded the Solari at Targon's peak. This is in complete contradiction to the mural that depicts the Sun avatar slaying the Moon avatar: it shows both the avatars as female. So either we had a long and ridiculously complex history of the intertwining of the Lunari and Solari orders(since the Moon temple itself is stated as ancient and therefore over 1000 years old) that was completely erased during the inquisition and somehow covered up, or the avatars were brought to a halt a very long time ago, perhaps within three generations of the first founder or even directly after.

The ceremony itself makes it sound like you need someone powerful to hand over the moonstone in order to imbue it with magic, such as a priest or the avatar him/herself, and those are definitely the first to be wiped out when you're violently eradicating another religion. And really... I don't think the Lunari would be much concerned with the Marai when they're busy trying to survive themselves. Knowing about the solstice and the ceremony beforehand would lead Solari warriors to stake out the cove and just kill anyone who showed up. It's the perfect trap to catch someone too dedicated to tradition to just leave well enough alone and hide out.

And again, under or even around 100 years is far too little time to completely eradicate another religion and make everyone forget that it even existed. Because it's not just the Rakkor that need to have forgotten the Lunari's existence. You have to make sure that all the lands around you don't remember them either. Someone walking around in armor like Diana's isn't exactly inconspicuous, especially if they have to travel through populated areas to get to this mystic cove. People remember. Even if you have them ruled by an iron fist you can't police the stories they tell their children. These stories take several generations to lose their accuracy or fade entirely, I'd give it about... Maybe five or six generations MINIMUM for this to happen. One hundred years encompasses at most two generations; if people have parents who were alive during the time of the Lunari, they wouldn't have been forgotten by now.

Moonstones are actually a very common gemstone, it's easy to get them wherever feldspar is being mined so location is not overly important. If it's special moonstone then that would be a problem, but wouldn't the Solari have completely destroyed any and all moonstone mines during their inquisition? That would mean everyone was screwed either way if the mines are beyond repair. But Nami's lore doesn't mention the moonstone having special properties in and of itself. It suggests that the bearer him/herself gives the moonstone power, just as the Tidecaller bearing their half of the trade may give the abyssal pearl special power.

And another thing: What would a race of people who live on top of a mountain near the middle of the Great Barrier want with a pearl that uses tides magic? (Note that on the available Valoran map, Mount Targon is still labeled as Mount Gargantuan, just to prevent any confusion.) Wouldn't it make more sense for someone living nearer to the ocean to do the exchange since they could actually benefit from such an object? I'm sure a place like Bilgewater Port or the peoples living around the mouth of the Serpent River in northwest Valoran could certainly use a pearl with tidal powers far better than a bunch of people living on the highest mountain peak in the known world.

Sorry for the long post, was trying to get across why I don't really buy this theory considering what we've been given in lore and what's happened in history and such. It just... Doesn't make enough sense for me. =[