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Old 08-04-2019, 09:19 AM   #1501
malloyd
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1 View Post
A few months ago, Infinity discovered what seemed to be a mundane uninhabited worldline. It was entirely devoid of any life more complex than bacteria, so it was opened to exploitation as soon as it was confirmed to be safe for humans. That ended about a month ago when the world was studied more closely. Based on the tectonics and star positions, it appears this world is several years beyond Homeline chronologically. As soon as this was discovered, the world was reclassified Z1 and closed off.
I'd suggest not limiting it to bacteria. First because it's pretty hard for something to be safe for human life without more biosphere (oxygen producing algae are not bacteria and less than half as old, and plants are probably involved in feedback loops that keep the planet from runaway greenhouse or permanent ice sheet), and secondly because anything that diverged long enough ago for that *shouldn't* have the same tectonics or star positions, so if it does it implies something more than just normal divergence at work. Go ahead and have a normal looking biosphere that just lacks humans - that might only be a few hundred thousand years divergence, a couple million if you want there to be no hominid fossils in Africa too, well within the range not to have disrupted geology much, not the thousand times as long you need for just bacteria.
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Old 08-04-2019, 09:47 AM   #1502
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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I'd suggest not limiting it to bacteria. First because it's pretty hard for something to be safe for human life without more biosphere (oxygen producing algae are not bacteria and less than half as old, and plants are probably involved in feedback loops that keep the planet from runaway greenhouse or permanent ice sheet), and secondly because anything that diverged long enough ago for that *shouldn't* have the same tectonics or star positions, so if it does it implies something more than just normal divergence at work. Go ahead and have a normal looking biosphere that just lacks humans - that might only be a few hundred thousand years divergence, a couple million if you want there to be no hominid fossils in Africa too, well within the range not to have disrupted geology much, not the thousand times as long you need for just bacteria.
I completely brain-farted when I said bacteria. I meant no animals. But if no hominids or no humans would work better, that wouldn't affect the core idea of the world.
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Old 08-04-2019, 12:36 PM   #1503
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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...*shouldn't* have the same tectonics or star positions, ...
Why would star positions change? What happens on Earth should have no effect out there.
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Old 08-04-2019, 02:51 PM   #1504
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Dramatica

This is one of the silliest worlds known.

Dramatica appears to be an ordinary near-parallel dated around 1990. But everyone speaks in Ye Olde Style Dramatic Stage-Speak (the way everyone thinks Shakespeare and his contemporaries spoke).

Typical dialogue:
Man on Street: "Good day. sirrah! And how art thou this eventide?"
Other-Guy: "F**keth off, thou scurvy ****!"

One of the main exports is tv shows and movies. An episode of Law and Order takes on a hilarious tone when everyone is talking like a Jack Kirby Asgardian. It's rather tricky to send agents in, though.

(All these worlds are serious adventure material, I felt a change-of-pace was needed.)
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Old 08-04-2019, 04:24 PM   #1505
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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I completely brain-farted when I said bacteria. I meant no animals. But if no hominids or no humans would work better, that wouldn't affect the core idea of the world.
Which goes nowhere to explaining why Infinity wound up slapping a Z1 on a reality they originally thought qualified for an O (whatever rating) rating.

Being chronologically further along by itself is not enough as Z is generally used for Worlds that pose a danger to Homeline, or to The Secret. It isn't a "hell" parallels unless there is evidence that humanity once did exist there and even that is iffy. Now if the world is like the Planet Eden out of Star Trek then a Z would make sense.
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Old 08-04-2019, 04:30 PM   #1506
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

The most I can imagine is restricted access until they determine how else it differs from known parallels.
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Old 08-04-2019, 04:49 PM   #1507
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Which goes nowhere to explaining why Infinity wound up slapping a Z1 on a reality they originally thought qualified for an O (whatever rating) rating.

Being chronologically further along by itself is not enough as Z is generally used for Worlds that pose a danger to Homeline, or to The Secret. It isn't a "hell" parallels unless there is evidence that humanity once did exist there and even that is iffy. Now if the world is like the Planet Eden out of Star Trek then a Z would make sense.
Now that I look at it more closely, Z1 is a bit harsh. Z3 or Z4 would be make more sense. But I think the Z classification isn't unreasonable. The most prominent Z-class worlds are either dangerous to Homeline or just dangerous to Homeliners, but not all of them. Enigma got a Z1 rating "just to be on the safe side" even though it appears to pose no immediate danger to visitors at all. And keep in mind, this is a worldline that's only been discovered a few months ago that's fundamentally different from any other that has ever been discovered. At the absolute minimum, Infinity wants to do more in-depth studies of the world without interference or contamination. And in any case, they don't want knowledge of the world's nature to be widely known, at least until they understand it better.
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Old 08-04-2019, 06:40 PM   #1508
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Now that I look at it more closely, Z1 is a bit harsh. Z3 or Z4 would be make more sense. But I think the Z classification isn't unreasonable. The most prominent Z-class worlds are either dangerous to Homeline or just dangerous to Homeliners, but not all of them. Enigma got a Z1 rating "just to be on the safe side" even though it appears to pose no immediate danger to visitors at all. And keep in mind, this is a worldline that's only been discovered a few months ago that's fundamentally different from any other that has ever been discovered. At the absolute minimum, Infinity wants to do more in-depth studies of the world without interference or contamination. And in any case, they don't want knowledge of the world's nature to be widely known, at least until they understand it better.
With Enigma they had a reason to go Z but this reality less so unless "no animals" also means no non-Photosynthetic microbes. That would send off enough alarm bells that I can see a Z1 getting slapped on the reality. Otherwise R(whatever) would seem more likely,

R: "Set aside for special study, but not immediately threatening. Such worldlines usually have strange physical laws or wildly variant cultures, dinosaurs or other exotic ecologies, or pre-Bronze Age human populations"
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Old 08-05-2019, 07:28 AM   #1509
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Why would star positions change? What happens on Earth should have no effect out there.
It's billions of years and a chaotic system (which the orbits of stars definitely are on that sort of time scale). I'd just assumed something would be different.

But yes even if the only change is on Earth, what happens on Earth can and will have a gravitational effect on the stars. Not a big one, but perturbations to a chaotic system don't need big to produce noticeable changes with this sort of timescale to work with. You don't actually even need to change the motions of the stars to see different ones, just perturbing the sun a tiny bit puts it somewhere entirely different in the galaxy.
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Old 08-05-2019, 07:50 AM   #1510
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

In a truly chaotic system, that Earth wouldn't be in the exact same orbit or galaxy position.
There has to be some spooky similarities for the whole world jumping system to work.
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