New Reality Seeds

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

A Sargasso of Lost Parachronic travelers would be an interesting place. Start with a badly failed experiment at Cal-tech during some parallel's 1920's, giving a tech level six California for a start. They drop in people from dozens of different worlds over a century or two.

Some Pacific islands are home to polynesian-esque tribes and kingdoms, some as far advanced as TL3-4 (limited access to metals). Their oral tradition is immensely diverse, and includes legends of sailing an impossibly huge ocean, and countless islands. The seas and isles they recall are certainly reminiscent of other timelines...

They are the decedents of a TL2^ culture that used inexplicably simple techniques to shift dimensions, trapped here by the sargrasso. Their knowledge would nonetheless be useful to someone trying to leave.


Inhabiting the depths of the world-ocean, pods of sentient dolphins co-oexist with the native species (though similar, they have distinct body shape and generally different markings). They have advanced mathematics and linguistics (TL 8+), plus a field of study that mainly focuses on sonar and their ability to communicate sound-pictures (a form of art). In short, everything that can be achieved fully by thought, they have at TL 8 or above. Physical sciences that demand instruments they have at TL 4 with some quirks.

Their lack of manipulators, however, locks them out of many fields. The main place that this hurts them is medicine; fortunately for them, they live as migrant foragers, so they don't have cities or other population concentrations to breed disease. They are learning animal husbandry and do use crude tools such as sponges, stacked stone fish traps, and so on.

They note that they don't really recognize this world; they come from one with a complex network of saltwater rivers a few generations ago; the open oceans here are some kind of heaven.


There are greater threats in the ocean, however. At least one colossal leviathan - mainly seen in the Atlantic - attacks ships and cetaceans of any size. It's at least SM 9 with tentacles against its flank. More alarmingly, attacks are matched with bizarre, seemingly supernatural effects.

It is in fact an innate mana enhancer with a disadvantage similar to "Psionic Static." It is in fact a filter feeder; in its native world, its static allows them to keep isolated and safe from overfeeding an area. The overpowering mental activity of a pod of cetaceans, let alone the crew of a human vessel, drives it into a rage.

There are in fact several of them (~20 total) in the Atlantic, Indian, and Arctic oceans. Though certainly intelligent, they are Animalistic. One last thing- the flesh and bones of the creature are rich in mana. Although probably impossible to discover at this point, the leviathans originate from a magical dimension that found they couldn't destroy them, but could banish them.


In the Indus valley, a massive city TL-4 city flourishes. They recently celebrated the 50th year since their priests "restored the world," following a great storm and cataclysmic flood. It took years to rebuild the outlying settlements (that the city had taken in a great stock of food before the cataclysm at the behest of soothsayers was helpful).

The city was in fact totally mundane, although lucky in that a banestorm happened to coincide with an apocalyptic panic. They are starting to expand slowly into the world around them. They originate from a parallel where IVC never collapsed. Their language is different from pretty much any other common language, and they are both expansionist and legalist, making for a problem if travelers are found in their territory.


Did I mention I like this setting?

[ericthered]

Built a simple world recently ... history is mostly just background. I basically decided to just shuffle who owns what and who's up and who's down...

Haspburg-7
In this timeline, different rulers live and die, leading to a number of political differences:

• The reformation never happens, replaced by the Avignon-Roman Schism
• Most of europe falls under direct rule of either the hapsburgs or the bourbons.
• Ottoman empire remains strong rival of europe
• The Mexico becomes the spainish capital, and is strong enough to deal with european powers
• Qing Dynasty falls early, china strong in early 1800's, not weak
• European colonization of new world is controlled by spain and portugal
• South and South-east asia a patchwork of client states fought over by external powers

I'm playing in early 1800's. The world is mostly just scenery. It may be a fun place to play sides off each other when its necessary to remove player bias. I'm currently running pure off-worlder stuff on it.

[ericthered]

I've come up with a second 'economic' world.

Midas-1
Q-3

Midas is an alternate earth with a divergence point somewhere in the formation of the solar system -- the planets are different, and it can be debated whether or not the planet is earth. Midas has half the diameter of earth but 75% of the gravity -- Its quite dense and rich in minerals. Midas doesn't have as deep of oceans as earth, and is about 10x as volcanically active.

Life on midas is limited to bacteria: lots and lots of it. The atmosphere is mostly breathable -- the oxygen content is too high, but the atmosphere is thin, so it mostly works out. That doesn't mean breathing the air is comfortable though.

Distances between locations are half of that on earth. For whatever reason, conveyors on the surface of midas travel to the surface of earth, and vice-versa. Midas is a common 'receiving ground' for infinity. Once on Q3, you can ship to where-ever on the world.

Midas has very rich mineral deposits, but only the very richest are exploited due to the cost of surveying vs finding an unexploited resource on simple version of earth.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Midas-1
Q-3

Midas doesn't have as deep of oceans as earth, and is about 10x as volcanically active.

Midas has very rich mineral deposits, but only the very richest are exploited due to the cost of surveying vs finding an unexploited resource on simple version of earth.

And the hazard pay or automation required to actually exploit these resources would also drive up the operating costs.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I've come up with a second 'economic' world.

Midas-1
Q-3

Midas is an alternate earth with a divergence point somewhere in the formation of the solar system -- the planets are different, and it can be debated whether or not the planet is earth. Midas has half the diameter of earth but 75% of the gravity -- Its quite dense and rich in minerals. Midas doesn't have as deep of oceans as earth, and is about 10x as volcanically active.

Life on midas is limited to bacteria: lots and lots of it. The atmosphere is mostly breathable -- the oxygen content is too high, but the atmosphere is thin, so it mostly works out. That doesn't mean breathing the air is comfortable though.

Distances between locations are half of that on earth. For whatever reason, conveyors on the surface of midas travel to the surface of earth, and vice-versa. Midas is a common 'receiving ground' for infinity. Once on Q3, you can ship to where-ever on the world.

Midas has very rich mineral deposits, but only the very richest are exploited due to the cost of surveying vs finding an unexploited resource on simple version of earth.

Minerals mined on Midas-1 could actually be used for other Homeline operations on Q3. It could be easier to mine minerals there and convey them to other worlds then mine them on a Q4 or Q5 world, move them to Homeline, then to a Q3 world.

I'm thinking of gold 'dead drops' to resistance members on Reich-5, for instance. Or minerals for high-tech items used in observing Shikaku-Mon. Even minerals used in magic for the Merlin worlds.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

And the hazard pay or automation required to actually exploit these resources would also drive up the operating costs.

Ehh, a 10x increase in volcanic activity isn't actually dangerous. It certainly contributes to the weird atmosphere, but volcanoes on earth are pretty rare, and fairly predictable. The bigger concern is that you have to ship labor in, ship all your food in, and convince people to work in the unpleasant atmosphere.

Originally Posted by fchase8

Minerals mined on Midas-1 could actually be used for other Homeline operations on Q3. It could be easier to mine minerals there and convey them to other worlds then mine them on a Q4 or Q5 world, move them to Homeline, then to a Q3 world.

I'm thinking of gold 'dead drops' to resistance members on Reich-5, for instance. Or minerals for high-tech items used in observing Shikaku-Mon. Even minerals used in magic for the Merlin worlds.

Transportation in Infinite Worlds is pretty cheap -- about 15 cents per ton before labor costs, if you're running a tight operation. transporting things through quanta is either 15 or 30 times more expensive, but its not that bad.

You still would like to stay within the quanta your in. That's kind of the point of midas: its a place where infinity can put all of its conveyors.

I'm glad you like this one.

[Astromancer]

I'm rereading some Joseph Campbell just now and I thought about a major turning point in western history. The Irish monk Pelagius disputed with Augustine of Hippo over many things including the nature of sin. For Augustine sin was inborn ("with Adam's fall we sinned all"), Pelagius though this was nonsense. A world were Pelagius won, were it was assumed that people weren't born stained with sin, would be a very different one. Perhaps a world where the late classical West might not simply choose to give up.

Picture a late classical world that was on the mend instead of falling to pieces. It could be a very interesting place.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

A world were Pelagius won, were it was assumed that people were born stained with sin, would be a very different one.

I presume there's meant to be a "not" in there?

This is actually a key point in the Pendragon RPG, although it doesn't leap out at you. It enabled Greg Stafford, a solid neopagan, to write a game where Christianity is quite important.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by ericthered

Transportation in Infinite Worlds is pretty cheap -- about 15 cents per ton before labor costs, if you're running a tight operation. transporting things through quanta is either 15 or 30 times more expensive, but its not that bad.

You still would like to stay within the quanta your in. That's kind of the point of midas: its a place where infinity can put all of its conveyors.

I'm glad you like this one.

Minerals are also cheaper in Infinite Worlds, at least on Homeline & colonies. So less of a reason to export minerals from Midas-1 to Homeline.


What if there was a Q3 empty world for agriculture? That could make the whole operation a lot easier. The agriculture world could provide food, and even be where the miners live when not mining.

Indeed, such a world would probably end up being where Infinity would put its conveyors. Though there could be some of Quantum 3's staple weirdness - remains of an ancient, unknown civilization, regions of mana, talking animals, etc.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I presume there's meant to be a "not" in there?

This is actually a key point in the Pendragon RPG, although it doesn't leap out at you. It enabled Greg Stafford, a solid neopagan, to write a game where Christianity is quite important.

You are right and I will patch that up now.