Alverant Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Earlier today I saw a thread called "Star System Generation" in the Fantasy forum. The author put it in the wrong spot, but it got me thinking about fantasy solar systems. For example Dragonlance's Krynn has 3 moons of good, evil, and neutrality. In the 80s cartoon Visionaries there were 3 suns when aligned once every 1000 years altered the laws of physics. In the PS Lunar series, the setting was a moon orbiting a devastated planet. So I'm wondering how common are non-Earth/non-standard solar systems (one sun, one moon, planets far enough away to be considered "wandering stars") in fantasy campaigns and do their differences affect the campaign world (phases of certain moons affecting magic, etc). Do people use them as plot hooks or "you're not on Earth anymore" decorations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Well, there's always Diskworld You could also have a ringworld, and if you're putting together a fantasy game, who says the world has to conform to the laws of physics at all? Why not have a world that really is flat, where the sun orbits it and the stars are affixed to crystal spheres? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curufea Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies I hadn't done much beyond one moon and sun. I figure with rampant magic - there isn't much need to look at the movements of tiny dots in the sky and lists of numbers in order to tell the future. Just look in a crystal ball. Seriously though - it was just something I hadn't got around to yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Korvar Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Glorantha is a very non-Earth setup. The world is flat, there is a Red Moon that can be seen anywhere in the Lunar Empire (so if the borders expand, you can see it today in places you couldn't see yesterday), and various other bits of strangeness. If I remember correctly, the fantasy realm in Torg (Aysle?) was a flat doughnut and the sun rose and set in the hole in the middle. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 11, 2008 Report Share Posted January 11, 2008 Greyhawk is set in a geocentric solar system. The solar system in the Forgotten Realms is heliocentric, but it has its share of oddities, such as the Tears of Selune. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorpheousXO Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Why not have a world that really is flat? Exalted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Didn't the old World of Darkness setting go with the idea that the world started out flat, then became a sphere only when consensus reality concluded it was a sphere? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Jogger Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies I have a dark "moon" in my game called Capricious, named after its erratic movement (it's actually a planet). It can only be spotted with magic (it gives off a detectable amount of heat to those who see into infrared, but no visible light). There's a theory that it somehow influences the magic of the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Jogger Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Didn't the old World of Darkness setting go with the idea that the world started out flat' date=' then became a sphere only when consensus reality concluded it was a sphere?[/quote'] That would fit well with the idea in the old World of Darkness that the moon is actually Arcadia and the Technocracy hid this fact by faking the moon landings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmadanNaBriona Posted January 12, 2008 Report Share Posted January 12, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Didn't the old World of Darkness setting go with the idea that the world started out flat' date=' then became a sphere only when consensus reality concluded it was a sphere?[/quote'] I don't know my oWoD well enough to say, but Tolkien's Middle Earth started flat and became a sphere (during the Fall of Numenor) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MorpheousXO Posted January 13, 2008 Report Share Posted January 13, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies In the mage version of owod I believe that to be true, of course the different lines didn't really mesh very well together in many ways, so what might be true in one line isn't true in another, even though they are supposed to be the same world. Anyways, that's sounds magey enough to be true, in any case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeropoint Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Didn't the old World of Darkness setting go with the idea that the world started out flat, then became a sphere only when consensus reality concluded it was a sphere? That's absurd. If the world was really flat, what evidence would there be to believe that it was round, and why would the consensus shift to believe that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drunkonduty Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies That you'd have to ask the WoD designers about. It seems to be an extension of the old Ars Magica idea of Magical/Fey/Faith areas that depend on the beliefs of the folk who live there. Least it seems that way to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal_sage Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Warlords of the Accordlands (a DnD setting by AEG) has 3 moons, each with special properties. actually first i have to explain halos. halos are basically "always on" portals to other planes. in the Accordlands, each cosmic body is actually a halo permanently set into motion through some fairly amazing magic and affixed in the sky. what this means is that it is actually possible to levitate to other realms, as the stars are actually just fairly small halos to minor realms. the 4 major realms are God's Eye, Lahashan, Bascaron, and, of course, the sun. from the solar halo pours light direct from the plane of eternal light. nothing else is known about it, but it seems to be immune to Bascaron's influence, at least. God's Eye is actually sort of like Mount Olympus in that it is the celestial meeting place for the deities of all the major religions (minus the Storm, the Elements, and Bascaron, but those are special cases). from this vantage point the gods can watch over the entire world. most gods have their own planes besides, since God's Eye is basically public property, but a few gods (like the original elven gods) are so weak by lack of reverence that they can no longer leave God's Eye and just kind of wander around (celestial hobos?). Lahashan is known as the scholars moon, and links to a plane that basically acts like a celestial server, storing all the events that transpire across the Accordlands and beyond. Bascaron is the Moon of Corruption. Bascaron is where abberations and lycanthropes come from, and its sick, red light twists the minds of all who look upon it. the game actually takes this cosmology into play with a set of feats that mark you as being born under special circumstances. God's Eye Ascendant gives you some special fame and holy powers (marks you as Chosen by the gods, basically), while Bascaron Ascendant makes you something like an Accordlands version of Damien Thorn from the Omen movies. Bascaron Decending makes you immune to Bascaron's touch and gives you the ability to detect Bascaron creatures at sight. also, their are special conjunctions. since the moons are not moons but two dimensional things, they can line up in ways that actual bodies cannot. Bascaron behind God's Eye basically leaves all aberations and lycanthropes powerless, God's Eye behind Bascaron creates whats called the Shattering, which destroys large swaths of the Accordlands over which the conjunction happens and twists the inhabitants into abberations. for the records, Lahashan does do stuff, its just not as interesting as the other two... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Markdoc Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies That's absurd. If the world was really flat' date=' what evidence would there be to believe that it was round, and why would the consensus shift to believe that?[/quote'] Dude, this is WoD. Explanations need not make sense nor be consistent (either internally, or with other explanations). It sounded cool, alright? And it has sort of post-modernist "fluidity of belief" thing going for it. Don't be negative cheers, Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eternal_sage Posted January 14, 2008 Report Share Posted January 14, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies oh, and of course Eberron (a WoTC DnD setting) has a heliocentric system in which the other planets are actually planes of existance. its a little more "science" like than the Accordlands world view... but only a little, since it make abberations into aliens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PhilFleischmann Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies In my fantasy setting, the world is a torus. There is one moon and one sun. There are five other planets (not necessarily spherical) that are other planes of existance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cancer Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies If you want something strange simply for the point of strangeness, you can go browsing here. Though a few of the more interesting-sounding ones just lead off to stub articles without pics. And some will just make your brain hurt. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
assault Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Meh. I only ever use flat Earths. In one of my worlds, powerful wizards could catch a lift in the Sun Chariot and travel to the Underworld. If you wanted to get there faster, all you needed to do was annoy the driver. Of course, in that case, you no longer had a return ticket... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies That's absurd. If the world was really flat' date=' what evidence would there be to believe that it was round, and why would the consensus shift to believe that?[/quote'] I've thought about this since you first posted it. At least in the old WoD, the Technocracy made changes like this when they felt that other beliefs were too wild and open to dangerous beliefs. Why a flat earth would be dangerous to the Technocracy (or whatever they called themselves back then) is beyond me, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OddHat Posted January 17, 2008 Report Share Posted January 17, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies That's absurd. That's WoD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 18, 2008 Report Share Posted January 18, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies The Dragonlance novels never specifically stated that Krynn was geocentric, but I remember Chaos (the evil deity in Dragons of Summer Flame) holding the sun in his hand. The gods are seen as constellations, as are the moons in the rpg version. In the original trilogy, most people didn't know about the third moon, Nuitari, but that part may have been ignored in later books. Also, while not a world, I vaguely remember a dungeon set in a mobius strip. Has anyone created a world like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maur Posted January 18, 2008 Report Share Posted January 18, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies People knew of Nuitari, but only Black mages and others like them could see the moon. So when Solinari and Lunitari were in their new moon state it would look like a dark night to most people, but to those who could perceive nuitari it was like any other moonlit night. Of course we have differences in AD&D and current versions in the placement of the moons. In AD&D they are each in their own tracks so each moon has a different period. In the new one they seem to be orbiting on the same track, but equidistant from each other (at least that is mentioned briefly in one of the novels when the gods find where the world had been stolen off to and ended the mortal age). WoD has some odd ideas if they put in that the world was flat and then not. The greeks had been able to figure out the world was round and even calculated its size based on measurements taken in cities at different latitudes with sticks at local noon on the same day. So, that would mean the world would be unknown, round, flat, then round again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 18, 2008 Report Share Posted January 18, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Middle-earth was flat until the end of the Second Age, when Iluvatar sank Numenor. It was also geocentric in design. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TSandman Posted January 20, 2008 Report Share Posted January 20, 2008 Re: Fantasy Cosmologies Earlier today I saw a thread called "Star System Generation" in the Fantasy forum. The author put it in the wrong spot' date=' but it got me thinking about fantasy solar systems. [/quote'] I'm the Author in question Dunno why, but when I saw your thread, I immediately thought about Discworld (not my fault, I just finished the latest one!) Damned Cross-Pollination of ideas, sometimes it's weird ;p Bye the way, I've played my share of Iron Kingdom games (same setting as the Warmachine/Hordes wargame) and they have a quite evolved cosmology in there... There exists a cult that is bent on understanding the cosmology and everything mechanic (the Cult of Cyriss). It was an Heliocentric cosmology IIRC... the fun part, is that it's the first part of the book your read, as the narrator explains the world around you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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