Solar System?

[Zemyla]

Has anyone ever decided what the rest of the solar system Gaera is set in is like? Are there any other planets? Is there anything else interesting in the sky? <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
Dammit, Dan, I'm not dating a damn NPC! - OOC Will (Will Baseton)
Of course! Anything worth doing is worth doing completely wrong! - Travis English
Ultimately, wizards and clerics don't say, "Gee, I want to become a lich because weapons hurt less and I don't have to worry about being backstabbed; that whole 'eternal life' thing is just a fringe benefit."-Darklion
But this one time I killed a walrus with my bare hands, and I suddenly understood spherical coordinates. - KnightsofSquare
Also, when you've worked a 36-hour shift as an intern you too just might pour yourself a catful of coffee and sit down to cuddle with your travel mug. -eirehound
</span>

Brotherhood of Elitist Bastards</p>

[Archmage144]

It's not within the same solar system, but I think we decided that Earth exists within the same universe as Gaera, so you could theoretically get there via mundane travel if you had faster-than-light starcraft.

You could say that the events of Gaera take place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

<p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div>

</p>

[Zemyla]

I know. What I was wondering was what else is in Gaera's solar system. <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
Dammit, Dan, I'm not dating a damn NPC! - OOC Will (Will Baseton)
Of course! Anything worth doing is worth doing completely wrong! - Travis English
Ultimately, wizards and clerics don't say, "Gee, I want to become a lich because weapons hurt less and I don't have to worry about being backstabbed; that whole 'eternal life' thing is just a fringe benefit."-Darklion
But this one time I killed a walrus with my bare hands, and I suddenly understood spherical coordinates. - KnightsofSquare
Also, when you've worked a 36-hour shift as an intern you too just might pour yourself a catful of coffee and sit down to cuddle with your travel mug. -eirehound
</span>

Brotherhood of Elitist Bastards</p>

[Groxley Grunk]

I would assume stars. Perhaps also planets.

[pd Rydia]

Bunnies.

Dust bunnies.

And space dust bunnies. <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center">dictionary.com | encyclopædia dramatica</div></p>

[Kai]

Space Butler. <p>-------------------------
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." -- Sandman "The Kindly Ones" </p>

[Idran1701]

There is a zodiac in that there are a series of constellations that the sun, at least, appears to pass through over time, though the constellations which make this up are indeterminite as far as I know.

Also, there is a star named Orion, as opposed to a constellation. <p>

---

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
</p>

[Shinigori V2]

I know that there's, like, nineteen moons, because whenever Div's in an RP, one of them is full. <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center">What's wrong with this ring?!</div></p>

[The Great Nevareh]

Well, considering the fact that in Gaera Main, space travel is nigh-impossible, it might be a moot point.

However, I move that there be some other planets since in all likelihood there WOULD be some other spatial bodies. Though if you REALLY want to be kooky, you could have some kind of sci-fi time/space paradox going on in which the weaker/stronger fabric of reality in the region centered around Gaera's central star causes for a strange mirror/parallel anomaly in which there is another Gaera circling on the exact opposite side of the star, blocked from noticing eachother through a combination of fractured universe-material and refracted time (for those of the Divine bent) and otherwise by insufficient astronomical equipment and calculus to see or guess what's on the far side of the sun. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[Idran1701]

Don't really think it's completely a moot point. I mean, we knew about 9 planets 40 years before we started sending people into space, 6 hundreds of years before, and 5 thousands of years before. But there isn't anything preexisting to draw from either way for planets specifically as far as I know, so you can make up just about anything you want.

Also, I don't see how that's a space/time paradox, Nev. Or how you can even have a paradox involving space for any reason beyond the space/time duality in the first place. <p>

---

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
</p>Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=idran1701>Idran1701</A] at: 11/4/05 20:26

[Capntastic]

I've brought this up before, but no one really thought it was worth the effort. I was planning on it being so that each of the planets represents a different group of gods, and thus different seasons have different connotations, and stuff. Also, stuff about Gaera's constellations as well :D

[The Great Nevareh]

It's a time/space paradox mostly because of the fact that it is classically impossible. A mirror reality as PART of this reality? <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[Groxley Grunk]

I think we should go back to talking about space butler.

[Besyanteo]

I heard at some point that Gaera has two moons, but I don't recall from who, and everyone I've mentioned it to after disagrees.

Also: Earth HAS been used a few times, by different people. I've seen Earth as being as it is today, and Earth as it might be in a few centuries from today.

Kooky! <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[KingOfDoma]

Earth's in OUR universe? Well that screws a few things up... *will have to rethink something in Cardinal's sheet*

Anyhoo, who wants to be lazy and name planets after the gods?

... no, I didn't think so. Well, at the very least, let's make Gaera the third planet from the sun, for survival's sake.

And, I would like to put in another only-slightly-less-habitable world, just for fun MAC's sake. <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[Besyanteo]

Chuck: The number of plants from the sun is not so important as distance. There could theoroetically be more than one planet the right distance from Gaera's sun so as to allow them to have liquid water and bear life.

But on a guess here I'm thinking we're sticking to one, since it's already a bit 'sparse' by earth standards, but has more than we can even use. :o

... SO whee. Random facotoids. <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[KingOfDoma]

That's why I proposed it, since it was plausible.

And honestly? For actual AMOUNT of planets, let's just roll a d12. It matters not. <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[Besyanteo]

Indeed. <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[Kelne]

I've given the matter a bit of thought myself, and I agree that the number of planets in the system's unimportant. It has little enough bearing on the main setting, and Gaera has enough homegrown menaces without menaces from outer space thrown in. "Present" Gaera, at least.

I expect that someone or other will get around to detailing other bodies in the system at some point for their own nefarious purposes, but until then, there's no sense setting anything more in stone than we have to. <p>Centuries of threats of "I'll turn you all to stone!" and "I'll knock you all down!" have caused Domans to develop an instinct to form small groups. For safety, I assure you. – Keir</p>

[Wolfbelly]

Alternately, you could all consider the possibility that Gaerans never paid much heed to celestial bodies. Why look to the heavens and think about Gods when their evidence is all around you and they don't bother to mention the planets? If you take the fact that none of you really seems to have a definitive idea as to whether there are more planets, what those planets are, and the sociological effect of the planets on culture ... then you can conceivably state that no one really cares (both within Gaera and without). <p></p>

[Idran1701]

Makes sense to me. Only problem is, wouldn't they have to pay some attention to have the concept of a year/month at all?

...Hmm, well, maybe not year, since that could be purely from seasons. And the moon(s?) would be much more obvious than any planetary motion in the sky, so they could still have a month. This could actually fit in pretty well, thinking about it.




Of course, whether or not Gaerans care about them or not doesn't really answer the question about what's there at all, and just because it might not be important doesn't mean we can't come up with something. But like Kelne said, no reason not to put it off until it actually is important to something. Unless they want to just for fun anyway. <p>

---

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
</p>Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=idran1701>Idran1701</A] at: 11/5/05 6:30

[Kelne]

Oh, I suspect that there are any number of people within Gaera who care, and others who would make it their business to study the heavens. Simply because the gods plainly exist doesn't mean people won't look to the skies. And magic no doubt provides any number of methods for astronomy.

Since nobody cares to detail what the skies contain, of course, this sort of thing by necessity takes place off-camera. Much like the majority of worship of the gods. PCs as a group aren't typically astronomers any more than they are devoutly religious. <p>Centuries of threats of "I'll turn you all to stone!" and "I'll knock you all down!" have caused Domans to develop an instinct to form small groups. For safety, I assure you. – Keir</p>

[Idran1701]

I've got a character whose dad is an astronomer, but I'd be fine with having him as an outlier. <p>

---

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
</p>

[KingOfDoma]

Two questions, that are related.

May I have more info on this supposed zodiac?

Horoscopes now yes? <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div></p>

[Zemyla]

Also, there are more ways to explore space than just rockets. There are people on Gaera who have extremely strong scrying and/or teleporting magic, and some of them might be interested enough to scry the surfaces of these planets, just for curiosity's sake.

Also, I bet if someone said that they needed strong people to teleport to the surface of the sun to explore it, they would get at least 5 volunteers. :D <p>-----
Do not taunt Happy Fun Zemyla.

<span style="font-size:xx-small;">I think boobs are the lesser of two evils. - Inverse (Pervy)
Dammit, Dan, I'm not dating a damn NPC! - OOC Will (Will Baseton)
Of course! Anything worth doing is worth doing completely wrong! - Travis English
Ultimately, wizards and clerics don't say, "Gee, I want to become a lich because weapons hurt less and I don't have to worry about being backstabbed; that whole 'eternal life' thing is just a fringe benefit."-Darklion
But this one time I killed a walrus with my bare hands, and I suddenly understood spherical coordinates. - KnightsofSquare
Also, when you've worked a 36-hour shift as an intern you too just might pour yourself a catful of coffee and sit down to cuddle with your travel mug. -eirehound
</span>

Brotherhood of Elitist Bastards</p>

[Wolfbelly]

Quote:

---

Of course, whether or not Gaerans care about them or not doesn't really answer the question about what's there at all, and just because it might not be important doesn't mean we can't come up with something. But like Kelne said, no reason not to put it off until it actually is important to something. Unless they want to just for fun anyway.

---

No, it doesn't answer the question, but it creates an excellent RP opportunity to explore this subject in game. You see, if the majority of Gaeran society has no concern with the heavens, then it simply would not pop up as a subject of conversation outside of "the stars look pretty tonight." It would be about as common as palm reading is today. Do we all know what a palm is? Yes. Do we know how to read it? Mostly, no. That topic of interst is glossed over by the mainstream and only examined and known about by a select few.

I'm all for exploring the topic of planets (heck, I'm even willing to help create some of them), but I'm leery of Gaera going from "No mainstream astronomy" to "everyone knows mainstream astronomy." Saying that it's something that no one is interested in creates an excellent in-game reason as to why no one brought it up before while still allowing people to flesh out the details on planetary stuff. <p></p>

[Capntastic]

Quote:

---

Also, I bet if someone said that they needed strong people to teleport to the surface of the sun to explore it, they would get at least 5 volunteers. :D

---

Kyle: <span style="color:orange;">Well, I figure a fire-resistance ring and some leather armor should make this a cakewalk.</span>

[The Great Nevareh]

I was going to ask: Why make it classically similar to the world we have? Would the worldsetting suffer from the world quite literally just being a large plane floating over nothing with stars above and whatever below?

Then I remembered that Gaera is in the same universe as Earth, and that would make it succinctly less plausible. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[Wolfbelly]

Not necessarily. It's ignorant of us to assume that the laws that we are capable of observing on the earth will apply to the rest of the universe as a whole. Just like how it'd be ignorant to view 1% of a movie and then declare what will happen in the remaining 99%. <p></p>

[Capntastic]

Quote:

---

I was going to ask: Why make it classically similar to the world we have? Would the worldsetting suffer from the world quite literally just being a large plane floating over nothing with stars above and whatever below?

---

Well, considering that there is horizon, and the fact that during the Infinity RPs a few characters saw Gaera from space, it's pretty much spherical.

[Kai]

I say it's round/elliptical.

Gaera has oceans and weather systems. These are created by things like tectonic plate movements. These happen on planets that are round so that the plates have somewhere to start and somewhere to go. I think planets work better that way. Zero also has super RP precedent and I cast my vote with him. <p>-------------------------
"It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit and the emperor remains an emperor." -- Sandman "The Kindly Ones" </p>

[The Great Nevareh]

Considering the fact that I, myself, said it was an invalid point, I also have to agree with Zero. Note that natural disasters don't necessarily only happen due to Earthlike phenomena. <p>[---------------------------]
"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung

"I eat the talking bees because I am George Washington Christ"
-From "Bob the Ball"</p>

[Capntastic]

I think that Nev was just saying that Gaera's solar system doesn't have to be totally similar to Earth. I myself can see there being loads of anomolies and such, given how magically rich the galaxy is.

Edit: If there's ever an article written up about Gaera's solar system, I demand that Gaera be referred to as the 'shining jewel' of said system. >:D

Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=capntastic>Capntastic</A]&nbsp; at: 11/5/05 21:13

[Idran1701]

Hate to derail, but: It's not exactly ignorance, Wolfbelly. It's simply parsimony. Until and if there is independantly verifiable evidence that it is not true that the laws of physics we can observe from Earth are universal, it would complicate things to assume otherwise, and so it is assumed to be true. If evidence is found to this concept, then this will be incorporated into updated models in physics just like every other time since the 1700s that evidence contradicting known "facts" were used to change the models used in physics to a new form that incorporates the new data while still allowing for or explaining the fact that the old models explained the old data as well as they did.

(Examples in case this is disbelieved: The disproving of the existence of a universal ether and solidification of a finite speed of light, the quantum mechanical revolution of the early 20th century.) <p>

---

"Never let your morals get in the way of doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
</p>Edited by: [url=http://p068.ezboard.com/brpgww60462.showUserPublicProfile?gid=idran1701>Idran1701</A] at: 11/5/05 21:12

[Wolfbelly]

You hade me at hello. <p></p>

[Spleen]

Well, we know Elemaer can't be in this galaxy, because it's the center of existence in its universe.

Also, I demand that Gaera go to war with the inhabitants of one of its moons, even if there aren't any. <p>-_-___-___-___-_-

"Even if you have lots of hit points, a dagger through the eye is a dagger through the eye."
-Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook v3.5, page 145

"I don't know who's a bigger fool: Him for going, you for following, or me for not leaving you both."
-Demona, Gargoyles (Episode 11: Long Way to Morning)</p>

[Archmage144]

Elemaer: No comment.

War of the Worlds: Declaration of war on nonexistent people seems rather pointless for a government, don't you think? <p>

---

<div style="text-align:center"></div>

</p>

[Spleen]

Shut up.

And it wouldn't be a real war. It'd be, like, all the simple country people hearing that there's life on the moon, so they naturally think that the life on the moon is going to attack Doma, because everything else seems to. <p>-_-___-___-___-_-

"Even if you have lots of hit points, a dagger through the eye is a dagger through the eye."
-Dungeons and Dragons Player's Handbook v3.5, page 145

"I don't know who's a bigger fool: Him for going, you for following, or me for not leaving you both."
-Demona, Gargoyles (Episode 11: Long Way to Morning)</p>

[Kelne]

Except that the common people don't declare war - the government does. And somehow I can't see the Doman government planning a preemptive strike against the moon. <p>Centuries of threats of "I'll turn you all to stone!" and "I'll knock you all down!" have caused Domans to develop an instinct to form small groups. For safety, I assure you. – Keir</p>

[Choark]

Quote:

---

somehow I can't see the Doman government planning a preemptive strike against the moon.

---

What, really?

I mean... you sure?

Sounds like something there King would do to me, probably under the Jesters suggestion if nothing else.

Can't hurt to be prepared.