Orrery-World brainstorm project: peeling the onion

[LD]

Helix- thanks for the answers. Strangely, I really find the Universal Law Books quite fascinating. It reminds me a lot of Eastern Philosophical battles.

[Endless_Helix]

@ Cataclysmic Crow: Yeah, there are a lot more layers in my vision of Orrery too. However that sketch gets the general gist of how my orbital system sorta looks. The asteroid belt near the Core was always in my vision of this setting actually. I thought it could lead to some fun adventures of chasing the fleeing BBEG through the asteroid belt. Glad you liked the titans, so far they're coming along nicely.

@Survivorman: Mostly because it looks cool. I'm using a couple of images from string theory, but I don't really understand the concepts behind it. Seriously, my guess would be that the shape of the gravity well is different than a planet's, and thus creates a different shaped land mass.

@Light Dragon: I'm glad you like them!

Here's something new:

[ic=Telemus, The Confederacy of Telemachos, and the Aviates]

The orbital of Telemus is a strange mixture of terrain, soaring cliffs and quiet moors. There are few trees, plants mostly falling into shrubs and grasses. Because of this rather unique landscape, and it's two moons, Telemus is a very stormy continent. Thunderstorms are common, as are rainstorms and windstorms. In the center of the continent, three inland seas, named Uror, Veroandi, and Skuld, surround the Stormspire, the tallest mountain on the orbital. There are around three hundred different species of grasses, a hundred species of shrubs, almost two hundred varieties of climbing vines, and 3000 types of lichen. Animal life is mostly small warm blooded rodents, many birds, some herd animals like the Alpine Uot, and a couple of pack predator species.

The Aviate are humanoid birds who live on Telemus, and resemble crows, rooks, and magpies. At about five feet tall, they're covered in black or mottled grey feathers. They have slightly smallish heads, long black beaks and large black eyes. Vaguely humanoid in appearance, they only have two arms, two legs and a head; they do not have wings. Rather their arms are built much like a bird's wing, and hang down nearly to the ground when extended. Their arms also have feathers reminiscent of flight feathers, ending in long-fingered, delicate looking scaled hands. They do not have hollow bones. Once they lost the power of flight, they quickly developed a heavier bone structure. They've tamed Telemus as much as it could be tamed, and live in a rather tightly-knit confederation of city-states centered around the Stormspire, where the Skybreakers live and are educated. Their natural language is a series of clicks and harsh calls, but the Aviates are adept mimics and most know three or more languages. They also have an eye for shiny objects, much like magpies and crows, it is believed this trait developed because of all the lightning storms that ravage the continent. Personalities tend toward a flock mentality, but this is a generalization. They respect any form of learning, treat males and females as equal, and tend to not discriminate based on species. Slavery is illegal, but indentured servitude is common.

Resource-wise, Telemus is quite bare, only having stone, decent farming soil, sheep, and water. However, it is also rich in magic. Elementals tend to born in the numerous storms, ley lines crisscross the land, and the Fair Folk are attracted to the highly magical environment. It is because of this that the Aviates are the first race to develop skycraft technology. They are the first race to discover and create a contract with the Orrery Spirits, and then bind them into skyfaring vessels. The Aviates are a highly magical people, and always have been. The Skybreakers, Aviate thaumaturgists, focus primarily on weather control, and their techniques are unrivaled in that arena. As you can imagine, the power to spontaneously generate storms in a world that is mostly clouds and sky has lead them to become quite well-respected in the political arena. They build large ritual circles of stone dolmen that they can use for several purposes, but mostly as a place to commune with the elementals and fair folk. These circles also serve as amphitheaters where the lords of each city can meet with each other and the Skybreakers, who act as the judges and spiritual leaders of Telemachos.

The primary religion would be animism if it wasn't a cold, hard thaumaturgical fact that these spirits do exist. In that sense, the Aviates of Telemus are a very secular people. However, there are a number of mystery cults that the Skybreakers are trying to weed out, collectively known as the Scavenger Cults. They tend to revere a single deity, the Scavenger, who guards the entrance of death, and practice ritual scarification to achieve a closer connection with death. They also have been noted users of Necromancy, which in Telemachos is illegal, unlike in Idjku. They also have been known for their cannibalistic rites and their use of humanoid sacrifice. They are also rumored to posses contracts with some of the demonic nether hells. Quite a few cults have also sprung up around the Drowning Lord, an alien god who lives far into the Deeps. While they aren't known cannibals, they do have a number of rituals that amount to torturing their unlucky victim to death, often with various forms of drowning, knives, and poisons.

Most cities are built among the cliffs that are so incredibly common on Telemus, a mixture of carving and construction. The Aviates favor caverns for travel within the city, and large stone buildings for living quarters, often built on the larger ledges and cliffs. Statues of various Nymphs, Elementals, and Fair Folk dot the halls within the cliffs, as well as many reliefs of daily life. Even if they cannot fly, the Aviates do have a marvelous head for heights, so they tend to build tall megalithic spires.

Their airships are long, sleek ships, with the spirit who is bound within' face carved on the bow, originally made from the few trees on the continent. Now with their colonies, they use imported lumber. Coming in a few different classes, they go from the 30 foot long Talon, to 800 foot long Maelstrom, which carries a number of Rocjarls and their Roc mounts along with a sizable detachment of Skybreakers.
[/ic]

[Endless_Helix]

Arise my threadbare minion, arise! I have returned; college is finally slowing down, somewhat, and I now have enough time to post some of the stuff I've been playing around with. I've created a compilation thread over  here. It's still under construction, so please don't post there. It's going to house all the edited, revised material from this thread, and more!

[LD]

EH- sadly that link leads to a "Reply to Post" thread. Your link to Orrery in your signature does the same thing.

>>the Guild of Merchants, who make money on tariffs mostly, and enforce the trade codes, which notably punishes theft more harshly than murder.

Interesting nugget. But how do they figure this treatment? You can't rob a dead body? How is killing someone not robbing them of life or impeding trade, for example?

and re your note: "I've also noticed a distinct trend for very gritty settings in this forum nowadays, maybe I'll try to break the mould a bit with something so pastiche-y that it can't be taken so seriously" Well, you can always check out Gloria, (see signature), eBil (see sig), Tatterdemalion, Godsmack (see sig), or Dreaming of the Opium Drip for counter-arguments. :)

[Endless_Helix]

Ooops. *sig-chuck fixed*

On the Guild of Merchants: Life is cheap. Sentient life is cheap. It's not a commodity, except enslaved. The Guild is all about commodities, specifically the sale of them and either the trade of currency or bartered goods for said commodities. Nothing else matters. For instance, killing a slave (that you don't own) is willful destruction of property, not theft. Kidnapping a slave, that's theft. Killing some random dude on street doesn't concern the Guild because that random dude wasn't owned by someone, and thus doesn't fall under the trade codes. In fact, the only time murder is really punished is when one of the guilders is killed by an outside entity, when someone who was contracted by the guilders is killed before they could complete the service, or when the Guild Enforcers are hired to. However, cutthroat business tactics are encouraged, and if you can't afford appropriate protection... you weren't a very good merchant anyway. However, Theft is a non-economic, non-voluntary transaction of goods, which attacks the very basis for the Guild's laws. Consequently, all thieves, that are caught anyway, are punished by death. Murder, on the other hand, is punished by a fine (generally equal to the estimated value of the property the victim held) to a couple of days in the stockade. However, failure to pay the fine is punishable by death, just like reneging on a contract.
--

There are a few settings that embrace the 'New Weird', but I'd still maintain that over all, a larger number of gritty, darker worlds are being posted here. It's not a "every single world is set in the grim, gothic future in which there is only war," but it is a trend I've noticed.

[LD]

>>However, failure to pay the fine is punishable by death, just like reneging on a contract.

That is interesting. I like how you've thought that out.

--

Endless_Helix, regarding the off-topic comment line that we've been pursuing regarding gritty settings v. new weird; you may find this analytical chart thread interesting: http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?67351 I also bumped it.

I understand your feelings about the trend and in my setting design of first Gloria, I was trying to react against that sort of setting design. In a sense it seems a lot more difficult to create an engaging world that isn't teetering on the bring of disaster. Warhammer, World of Darkness, Cthulu all play on that trope. However, games like Eberron, or Indiana Jones as you cite above demonstrate how a sense of wonder and exploration is also ripe for gameplay. I suppose the distinction is on different types of struggle that people can maintain. The more conflict there seems, the more attractive it is to write about it-- thus the proliferation of GrimDark settings-- they're ripe for development. Other settings limit the options for struggle and challenges to some degree by imposing more order on the universe. There are good arguments for both styles of game design, I think. But of course, I like you, appear to prefer the Eberron-style to the World of Darkness-style of foreboding- although I can certainly have fun with either.

[SamuraiChicken]

You definitely get an A+ for Most Amazing Geography if I were to grade this setting. Describing it as an onion is definitely a good start, though pictures are a must-have as words can only get you so far.

The more you describe what the setting looks like, the more I try to imagine what it would be like to an observer within the setting: [spoiler=This is a little long'¦]Disclaimer: This is all just a prediction based on the information you have provided. If any of the following is incorrect, please let me know.

On the Light Side: since the continents are curved, you would be able to see the horizon rise towards the sky (instead of curving towards the ground as it does on Earth). If anyone has played the Halo video games, a similar effect can be seen when standing on Halo (this is very noticeable in the first game, since every map with a sky in that game has this effect). The major difference is that while Halo has this effect with thin ring, the continents of this setting would appear to do this with the entire horizon, creating a bowl-like effect. If you are on one of the inner continents (they have the least-obscured skies), the sky would actually look like you are inside a massive sphere, albeit a shattered one with all the different pieces floating around. The further away from the core you are, the more continents would obscure your vision from this 'inside a sphere' appearance. When a continent eclipses another continent, it could potentially look like a massive wall covers the sky, with only a thin horizon on the edges of the sky (though you would not necessarily see 'sky' '" since the continents are curved, you would likely see the continent you are currently on rise up from the ground until it hides behind the continent floating above you. In other words, imagine yourself on the inside of a massive sphere, only this time there is a slightly smaller sphere floating exactly in the middle of the room).
All of these perceptions differ depending on how much a continent curves, but the effect is generally the same.

If you are on the dark-side of a continent, the horizon would look like it does on Earth, and the sky would look like you are standing beneath a giant dome that covers the entire sky (albeit a shattered dome with each piece traveling at a different rate, but a 'dome' of some sort none the less).

Back to the light-side: If the sky is very clear (things don't become bluer the higher it is in the sky), someone could potentially look at the other continents through a telescope. If you look straight up (well, maybe not exactly straight up due to the bright core), you could spy on what is happening on a continent across from you and get a birds-eye view of it. This means that people across the world can accurately make maps of the continents on the other side of the world, since they can clearly see what it looks like.
On the other hand, if the sky appears to be blue like it does on Earth, this effect could not be accomplished very well. Although given the fact that a continent reflects light, it wouldn't be impossible to see the continent on the other side of the world (remember that Earth reflects 40% of the sun's light into space, compared to our moon which only reflects 16% of the sun's light. This is primarily due to Earth having an atmosphere, and since the continents in this setting appear to have their own atmospheres & weather, they are probably highly reflective. Despite the blueness of the sky, you will probably see something floating behind the core, but how clear the image is would be hard to determine. [/spoiler]
I like how you thought of the temperature difference between the light side and dark side of a continent, and gave those areas a lot of clouds/weather. Good job on doing the research!
Since night is defined as when a continent eclipses the core, the innermost continents would be baked in a never-ending day. Things can get pretty hot on those continents.

I liked your explanation of gravity and how it works on the continents, as well as how each skycraft creates it's own gravity. I suppose a skycraft is able to make a barrel roll without the risk of anyone falling off.
Question: How do flying creatures deal with these gravity wells? Can a griffon traverse the 'space' between continents, or are they limited to flying within the gravity well of a continent?

I absolutely love the idea of the Order of the Books of Law I,V, VII, XI, and XXVII, and the Order of the Books of Law II,V,VIII, IX, XXI, and XVI fighting each other. It's funny that they can agree on Book of Law V '" perhaps it is the only way they can relate to each other (unless they each have a different interpretation of the Book, in which case it is probably the biggest reason they hate each other).

The idea of the Deeps (the Waters behind the sky) sounds interesting. Do you have any more information on it? This sounds like your version of deep space, or what lies beyond the continents.

One thing you can do with classic fantasy races is to give them a culture they are not associated with, thus making the race feel different or even new. By doing so their culture suddenly becomes far more interesting than their race, with you idea of tribal mind flayers being a perfect example of this. I've never been a fan of mind flayers, yet the thought of 'tribal mind flayers' sounds really awesome. I can't wait to read more about them.

Overall, I find this setting really interesting. Not only the geography, but the fact that you thought a lot about how it all fits together (the way gravity, magic, spirits and skycraft all blend together very well). I know it is still under construction, but you have a really good foundation to build on. I can't wait to read more about it.

[Endless_Helix]

@ SamuraiChicken: Hey! Thanks for commenting and thanks for the info! Your thoughts have really helped me visualize what it would be like to live in Orrery. Likewise, I'm pretty sure that there's a picture in the 11th post, granted it isn't accurate, but it's close enough.

Flying creatures would handle movement outside of gravity wells very differently. They could still generate thrust, but it would be in the opposite direction of the wingflap. Likewise, as long as there is air to push against, they could control their flight somewhat. It would not be as precise as in a gravity fold, despite requiring more flaps per second to generate the same amount of thrust. Inertia would be kept, except for what is bled off by wind resistance. Most flying creatures and their riders would have to be trained for 0-g flight, but it would be possible.

The Deeps are intentionally vague at this point. I've yet to work on them in any real fashion mostly because they mostly play a very background role in the setting. It's something for epic levels, really.  

I'm glad you're excited for the Church of the Divine Law and the flayers, as they are the next two things I'm working on. Flayers first then the church. The tribal mindflayers inhabit a highly contested piece of Orrery known as the Dawnland which the 6 major powers are currently fighting over with themselves and the natives. I'm looking at the indigenous tribes of the Phillipines a lot with the mind flayers, but that's all the spoilers I'll give out now. Here's something new that I'm polishing up.
[ic=The Three Gateways of Cvilization]

Moran Hallowbeck is a well respected Phaethusian political philosopher from the late colonial period about fifty years ago. His particular preoccupation was studying how civilization formed, and as he analyzed the reports of cultures in the colonies, he began consolidate what would become known as the Codex Civilus. His primary theory was the idea that there were certain technologies that had to be discovered for a real civilization to exist.

The first gateway technology is precise timekeeping. Until a group of peoples is capable of measuring how long it takes for something to occur, they cannot create schedules. They cannot govern over a large scale. The only real social organization capable without measured time is a loose tribal confederation that barely rates the term civilization. One of the interesting things about timekeeping was that it basically only developed on orbitals with at least one moon, with the one exception being the Dendrosentients of Belsarius and their highly regular pulse cycle. There were instances on orbitals where agriculture was developed of the growing periods for certain crops was used as a rudimentary timepiece, however there is no known example of a society developing a way to measure time from this. Hallowbeck theorized that once the idea of 'moonrise to moonset to moonrise' is established, timekeeping becomes widespread, it allows for schedules, it allows for more forward planning, for the idea of rates, and it allowed for peoples to build a more structured society. It allowed or agriculture to spread easier, with measurable growth cycles and a calendar to figure how to plant.

The next gateway is Skycraft technology. It takes a certain level of organization, basic thaumaturgical knowledge, and resource base to enter this gate. On some shelves, some basic summonings are more difficult, or suffer from interference from the basic fabric that the orbital rests in. A number of civilizations couldn't manage to get off of their orbital due to the lack of certain magics. Also, it requires a knowledge of astronomy that  Once a civilization achieves the ability to transverse the orbital system, it gains the ability to spread out, have access to greater resources, and trade with other cultures beyond the civilization's limited experience. It also makes it entirely more likely that it will have to go to war to protect itself, subjugate the native populations, or to drive of other colonial powers. There is no record of a culture developing Skycraft technology before developing timekeeping. A few of the peoples had developed the ability to get to their moons, but it was generally a very crude and dangerous set of methods used. The Telemachans actually developed workable skycraft before they managed to design an alphabet.

In his final chapter, Hallowbeck suggested that the next gateway would be 'deepcraft' technology, a way to build or create a ship that could actually navigate the deeps. It would be a step on par with the growth provided by Skycraft technology. However, many scholars have tried and failed to make this leap. The problem is that the deeps are a very hostile environment. The leviathans of the black waters are alien, impossible things, some of which cannot even enter the Orrery because they'd die from the lack of crushing pressure. Likewise, no-one knows exactly what lies beyond the bubble Orrery inhabits, and consequently no one can really say what deepcraft technology would allow.  It's also rather impractical, as there is a lot of space still available within the orbital system, so there is no need to grow. [/ic]