inventrix

Further thoughts on expressions of Ellehemaei bloodlines in halfbreeds

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 04:24:15 GMT

Since my first written speculation, I have accumulated a significant additional quantity of data on halfbreeds genetics and their purebred ancestry. Based on that information, I have to make some additions and amendments to my previous hypotheses - most significantly, for Grigori.

Partial Grigori genes seem to manifest primarily through three characteristics: exaggerated physical proportions, unusual coloration or patterns of the skin, and shifts in mental perception or character. All pureblood Ellehemaei have some degree of personality shift, but those are less significant than what I mean here. Most positively, Grigori genetics can (and frequently seem to) impart enhanced mental abilities. However, it can also have such severe effects as psychosis, split or entirely rewritten personalities.

On my previous note of more aquatic, fish-like characteristics, I would like to revise that particular hypothesis. I do still believe that the Grigori genetics lend themselves more towards water or aquatic elements than the other two bloodlines. However, I now believe it to be, more specifically, the effect of Grigori genes on Daeva genes.

This parallels my prior tentative hypothesis of more plant-like Changes being a combination of Grigori and Mara genes, but you may notice the difference in phrasing. That is intentional and related to my revised conclusion: Grigori physical characteristics are all inherently humanoid, but they can strongly affect the expression of genes from the other two bloodlines.

This is especially interesting when taken with the fact of the pureblood personality shifts. If one takes the premise that Grigori genes primarily function to strongly influence the expression of the other bloodlines' genes, a primarily Mara halfbreed could feasibly evidence a more extreme but still Mara-like personality effect. (I suspect this is evidenced in one particular case, where a clearly Mara-dominant halfbreed can, after Changing, no longer experience fear. This is a very Mara-like characteristic, but not a very Mara-like Change.)

Stronger Grigori influence would obviously have more of an effect of their own right than simply altering or enhancing elements of the other bloodlines, such as the aforementioned proportions and coloration.

Additionally, while I continue to hold to my "elemental" associations from previously, I also now speculate that being what one would view as "an elemental" - having a Change which makes you largely "into" that element, with some significant degree of control over it - is a sign of strongly Grigori genes.

And lastly, I would like to rescind my prior hypothesis of Mara genetics expressing a tail. I believe that is a solely Daeva characteristic, and that the presence of a tail on Changing is a good indicator of some Daeva ancestry (although not necessarily of a strong influence).

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Ideas for Imperial Callanenanian Ceremonial Robes

Mon, 21 May 2012 14:35:26 GMT

(I have no idea what the adjective is supposed to be anymore. Lyn keeps changing it on me. ;P )

This is all for aldersprig's setting.

First, established details. It likely has seven layers (because of the Seven Mountains). Each Emperoress would probably have more of the color of the deity they are most associated to. And it is sort of like if you took Chinese Imperial robes and made them more flowy.

Now, IDEAS.

I was thinking that the outermost layer probably has all three deity colors (maybe with jewels/embroidery on a color fabric that is reserved for the Emperoress?) and is handed down between reigns. It probably has a special name, and is intrinsically linked to the status of Emperoress in a similar (but maybe not as clearly symbolic) manner to crowns and kings. Or like the Pope's hat. Or something.

Since the gender is socially and politically relevant, one of the layers underneath (I was thinking the next one down) would have some characteristic dictated by whether it's an Emperor or Empress. I was thinking the style of decoration, possibly. Other ideas could be the texture of the fabric or the cut of the edging, but I like the decoration style best. (Like angular versus swirly or something.)

One of the other five layers (not the undermost layer) I think should be connected to the previous Emperoress. Some ideas: primarily using the color of the preceding ruler's deity, using some relevant motif in the decoration.

The undermost layer, I think allows the most personal influence in style.

I don't know about the last three~

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Another web serial-related poll!

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:53:41 GMT

If you don't have a dreamwidth account, please leave a comment with your vote.

View Poll: Which would you be most interested in reading?

NOTE: These are all set modern-day Earth.

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Character meme!

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:50:52 GMT

I have sort of stolen this meme from aldersprig, but I have modified it to better suit the fact that the majority of my characters are almost or completely unknown to you!

SO HERE'S THE DEAL! You have two options.

ONE: Pick a character of mine you know. If you remember the character but forget the name, a brief description'll work.

TWO: Pick a number between 1 and 25. I have here a Secret List, with each number corresponding to a character! I will then tell you which character you drew.
Numbers that have been used so far: 3, 4, 7, 9, 13, 17, 18

For either option, I will then tell you the following:

- Why I like them
- Favorite line
- Favorite outfit
- OTP
- A wish
- An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen
- 5 words to best describe them
- My nickname for them

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Some thoughts on expressions of Ellehemaei bloodlines in halfbreeds

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 22:57:45 GMT

UPDATE: Please see my more recent further thoughts after reading, as it contains more information and some corrections.

Daeva
A pureblood Daeva has ram-like horns, a long sinuous tail, and shapeshifting and emotion/soul-eating/manipulating abilities.

One way partial Daeva genes seem to express is through horns - or, really, "horns". Horns, antlers, horn-like protrusions, etc. I firmly stand by all such halfbreeds having at least some Daeva background.

Another aspect which appears to be partial Daevas is small - emphasis on small - wings. Not flight-worthy. Speculation on why ties into the next point.

I also suspect partial Daevas tend to give a reptilian (or sometimes, relatedly, avian) bias. Lizards and snakes, mostly. This, as well as the sort of latent wing gene, I believe to be related to the co-identification of Daeva and Dragons. Dragons, as we know, are commonly viewed as reptilian, usually with wings. Additionally, it also relates to the shapeshifting/bigender nature of pureblood Daeva. A number of lizards have unusual sex and reproductive characteristics, including parthenogenesis and switching biological sex during adulthood.

Tails, as well, I suspect to be linked to Daeva bloodlines.

In terms of "elemental" changes, Daeva genetics I think express in the more intangible ones: light, darkness, emotionally-related, et al.

Mara
A pureblood Mara has, to my knowledge, demonic or angel wings, with preternatural strength and fortitude.

Partial Mara genes seem to express largely in a mammalian way, with a few avian-related exceptions which I believe to be wing-focused. i.e. a decidedly avian halfbreed is, I suspect, more likely to have gotten the genetics for its avian characteristics from a Daeva bloodline than a Mara one, but the presence of significant and/or flight-worthy wings would be a strong indicator of Mara background as well.

I have a feeling that partial Mara genes also can manifest as a tail, although less strongly than Daeva genes. A primarily Daeva/Mara cross should, if I am correct, almost always have a tail.

For more magical/elemental types of Changes, I think Mara genes tend towards those like earth and fire.

Grigori
A pureblood Grigori is essentially "super-human" - human, but more intelligent, more beautiful, generally superior.

I have a tentative hypothesis that fish-based Changes draw strongly from Grigori partial expression, but lack much data on the matter aside from Regine's general genepool. I also suspect that plant-related characteristics stem (ha!) primarily from Grigori genetics; maybe when combined with particularly earthy Mara genes?

However, I think Grigori genes are more frequently skill-based. You're more likely to have Grigori bloodlines express as higher intelligence, magical aptitude, et al. than as physical characteristics. A strongly Grigori halfbreed, in fact, I suspect would have physical characteristics sort of "toned down".

Elementally, I feel they probably express more along water, air, maybe electricity although that one is a toss-up between Grigori and Mara in my mind. Electricity may, in fact, be an inherently halfbreed characteristic?

Please see my more recent further thoughts after reading, as it contains more information and some corrections.

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Arting things!

Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:59:16 GMT

It's probably a good idea for me to draw someone other than Leofric every now and then, so, here's my idea. If you want me to sketch a character of yours, post a comment with the information requested below.

Important Notes
I'm talking sketches, like these, not finished pictures or even clean line art. Also, while I will attempt your character(s), I can't guarantee I will succeed to a point I feel comfortable sharing.

If I do, however, I will give you a link to it.

Required Information

A physical description of the character in as much detail as you can manage: species, hair color/style/texture, eye color/type/shape, face shape, nose, mouth, height, body type, other notable features. Clothing style, if relevant. Image references are welcome but not needed.

Description of the character's personality. Confident, irritable, sassy, shy, aggressive, intellectual, nervous, likes to read, athletic, has a passion for ice cream, etc.

Anything else you think is relevant.

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Poll time, take two!

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 14:51:19 GMT

If I were to begin a web serial, which would be your preferred frequency/length of updates?

1 kitten = 100 words

View Poll: Hypothetical Web Serial

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MEMETASTIC

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:03:26 GMT

Stolen from aldersprig, like a boss.

I'm running a test to see who's reading my posts. So, if you read this, leave me a one-word comment about your day that starts with the last letter of your LJ DREAMWIDTH USERNAME. Only one word please. Then repost so I can leave a word for you. Don't just post a word and not copy - that's not as much fun!

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Setting Exploration: Give me PROMPTS!

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:18:51 GMT

Update 1/13/12 Correction to the 'ZEPPELINS!' entry on the Settings page, because I am a dumb.

This is literally the worst possible time in an entire six-month span for me to be starting something like this, which of course is exactly why it's happening now.

Without going too much into the details of the "why" (as I am prone to doing just that and in fact was about to when I thought to myself, no, don't be a silly), I have decided to set up an on-going prompt... thingie. BUT! Not just any prompts will do. There are rules.

The rules are thus:

Each prompt must be for one of these settings. Please indicate which before the prompt.

The prompt itself can be anything, so long as it's consistent with the setting you picked. (e.g. space flight in Saeland simply will not do)

Submit your prompt as a reply to this post.

I will write a bit of fiction of at least 500 words (with no predetermined maximum) to each prompt in order of receipt, minimum of one per day. They will be posted on my writing blog and I will reply to your prompt comment with a direct link to it.

For now, there is no intention of a closing date. The settings page may be updated at some point in the future; I will mention if it does.

-P.S. If you feel the need to request I write something which does not conform to these rules, go ahead and ask. I can't guarantee I will write it, but I'll likely at least give it a shot!

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Writerly thingies

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:35:23 GMT

dahob over on LJ posted this as a question for aldersprig's question-about-writing meme thing earlier today:

In the RPG theroy wonk circles they have come up with three 'stances' that describe how people play RPGs:

actor stance - putting the character on like a coat and 'inhabiting' the game/story world, trying to react and percieve that way (sometimes reffered to as immersion stance). Exemplified by speaking in charter and roughly analogous to 1st person perspective.

author stance - where you are 'outside' watching the characer and describing what they do/feel/think, but often without internalizing. This can focus more on the visible surface of the characer than the inner workings. Exemplified by describing the characters actions and roughly analogous to 3rd person perspective.

director stance - which is where the GM in a game mostly stays. It is a meta level sits above an individual character's actions. It's where you act from when you hav a character do thigns for 'plot' reasons instead of character goal motivated reasons.

I think that fokls approach writing in very similar ways and that, just like gaming, people are more comfortable in some stnaces than other and shift from stnace to stance as they write/game. Assuming that you buy that at all (XD), where do you write from and how much influence does each stance have on your writing?

They are extremely interesting observations! I wanted to expound upon them a bit in the context of my own gaming and writing habits, so I took the liberty of yoinking it for here.

Actor Stance
This is how I usually play when RPing. The visual of "wearing" the character is extremely apt, I think. I generally describe it as getting inside of the character's head; seeing their thoughts and actions and reactions on an intimite enough level that you are in essence being them. It is almost like a reverse possession.

I don't really do this when I'm writing. Sometimes, when doing a first person narrative, I come close, but it's still different. There's a certain level of conscious control in the concept of the actor stance; you choose what to do, but you do it as the character. But you're still choosing.

Director Stance
(I skipped to this one because the Author one doesn't make as much sense without the added context of Director.)

I'm interpreting this as similar to what I term "puppet-mastering". I use this a lot when writing longer fiction, especially for less major characters or off-screen events. You could say that I write said characters in a similar method to how a GM plays the NPCs. Their individual goals and motivations are less important and their characters are less fleshed out, so you can tweak them and their actions (within the context of consistency) in order to sort of herd the protagonists and the story in an actual plot-related direction. It is very important, in a sort of back-stage way, for my successfully conducting a Real Plot.

Author Stance
I write like this ALL. THE. TIME. XD Even when I'm writing in first person, like with Invisible Dragons. Basically, I conceptualize my major characters as separate entities. They develop their own characters, are driven by their own goals and motivations and personality, and I have little to no real sense of control over any of it.

With the first person narrative mentioned above, that manifests for me as the book basically being narrated to me, by my narrator, while I take dictation. It obviously isn't quite so simple, as I'm going back and revising things to be more consistent or be more in the right voice, but that's the attitude behind it.

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Telling time!

Tue, 20 Dec 2011 00:59:56 GMT

Hey-oh, worldbuilding time!

So I was pondering a bit on how my elf people would go about developing time-keeping methods - or, more accurately, what sort of temporal measures they would develop.

The first and most important thing to keep in mind is the lack of a "day" in the sense that we have one. The world is a moon orbiting a gas giant, and as such is tidally locked. The planet itself is similar in orbit to the Earth (I use 400 "days") and the moon orbits the planet around once every 4 "days". This means that from sunset to sunset on the moon is approximately one hundred hours. Clearly this is not going to define the sleep/wake cycle of pretty much anything - especially once you take into account the typical ambient light levels. But let's not tangent.

Anyway, I shall be foregoing specifying that the numbers are approximate in order to make writing less obnoxious.

The 100-hour cycle would be neatly divided into quarters by four distinct events:

sunrise

solar eclipse

sunset

fully reflecting planet

Those would probably each get their own name, like how we have morning and afternoon. I imagine they'd be roughly equivalent to before-eclipse, after-eclipse, waxing, and waning.

That gives them four "days" in a single cycle; similar to our week, I suppose. Closer conceptually/temporally to the Chinese week of five days.

The question of what would then be the "hour" is much more difficult. Early on, at least, one can divide up the day further with divisions such as "a hand above the horizon" and whatnot. The night would be more difficult, requiring references to the shape of the lit planet in the sky above.

I'm thinking at some point they just divide it up into arbitrary numbers. Since they love the number 4 so much, I'm guessing it would be divisions of 16. Their "hour" would therefore be about one and a half of ours. Then... each hour would be divided into... hmmm. Quarters. And each quarter-hour would be 16 "minutes".

I have no idea how you'd say this, though. day-quarter:hour:hour-quarter:minute. So it'd be like, instead of "Monday, 13:26", you'd get... after-eclipse, 2:2:15 or something. Hmm, spoken we'd say "around half past one on Monday", so the equivalent would be like "around three-quarter past two, after-eclipse". Or more likely "around a quarter to three, after-eclipse".

That actually works! HUZZAH!

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Exploring Hypotheticals

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 21:44:21 GMT

I happen to be rather fond of aldersprig's web serial, Addergoole. It's a sort of... well, it's a dark fantasy set in a semi-dystopian mini-society in the context of a specialized boarding school for teenagers who don't know they're not human.

Anyway! A lot of bad things happen there, partly because Year 1 was full of shitheads, partly because of the way the school is designed. The latter leads to a lot of anti-administration feelings on both the parts of the students and the fans of the story.

Now the thing is, I think the entire project is fascinating. In fact, I wrote up a whole post/thread thing on it on the Addergoole forums (you need to have an account to view that thread, though) and my take on and understanding of Regine's ultimate plans and design goals when putting together Addergoole. At the bottom of my first post, I said: " Looking at it with those goals in mind, Addergoole is actually pretty well-designed."

Now, the key to this post there is pretty well-designed. Not well-designed. I personally think it could have been better if done somewhat differently. Possibly because I am less naive than Regine. Possibly just because I am a different person! But. Anyway.

That's the intro. Now I shall move on to the fun part: if I were designing Addergoole, the school, what would I have done? To that end, I've divided up the post into four sections: one for each of what I judge to be the three main goals of the institution (which I think are, for the most part, laudable goals), and one for general rules/structure.

( Read more... )

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Technology levels for an idealized Dark Ages society

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:45:33 GMT

So, this is prompted by a query on the part of aldersprig regarding a thing she's writing for NaNoWriMo. Since she asked on twitter and I suspect it would take me no less than thirty tweets to properly work through this (not to mention it is interesting), here it is.

ASSUMPTIONS

The "dark ages" are post-Roman Empire, pre-HRE. I'm using 600 C.E. as a rough target point.

They want to keep modern medical knowledge and technology for anything that wouldn't have been effectively treated at that time (i.e. most everything) because "everyone dies of diseases and accidents" is not a part of an idealized return to a "simpler time". ...well, where said technology doesn't involve things like running water and electricity. So medicines and stuff, basically.

Desired political structure is feudal in nature and not theocratic (even surreptitiously).

The people deciding what to keep/use or not keep/use in this retrograde society are fanatics of questionable rationality.

( Read more... )

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More about dragon packs

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 20:40:44 GMT

I was considering that point about clutches of juveniles creating packs, and I really like it. I don't think I'll go with the hidden-clutch method of incubation, however, due to wanting my dragon species to have some degree of wide-spread society. For that, they need to be brought up by at least one adult.

At which point I had a fantastic idea! So, first, each adult individual has a territory. Then there is however breeding works in terms of finding a mate. For this particular example/method, they would not have a joint territory (like human marriage), regardless of whether they mate for life.

So, the clutch is laid. NOW. I was originally thinking it would be laid in the female's lair, but it is entirely possible that it could be laid in the male's lair. Or even either. It depends on how the travelling for mating works. The clutch is incubated by whichever parent is in possession of the eggs until they hatch.

Now, recall that these larger dragons would most likely eat their kill on-site. The more birdlike ones could regurgitate their food for the hatchlings, but that seems unlikely. Instead, the hatchlings could hunt small animals in the area around the lair while the parent gave them basic education, until they were developed enough and had learned how to fly.

At this point, the juveniles would begin flight-hunting together to find food better suited for their increasing size, using the skills and knowledge they developed as hatchlings and adapting it as necessary.

The parent would continue educating and raising them until reaching adulthood, at which point the children would all go off to find their own territories.

The small dragons (who continue hunting in packs through adulthood) would have a substantially different societal structure than the large dragons, due to this sort of thing. And I haven't even started touching on the other types of dragons~

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Pack dragons

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 19:47:57 GMT

One of the hunting methods I considered for dragons is pack hunting, like lions or wolves. And I love the idea, so I've been trying to figure out how to make it work. (Once again, discussing six-limbed dragons with toothy jaws.)

One major issue is size. Pack hunting lets you take out larger prey - but at the same time, you have to support more dragons in a single territory. So while your food options are increased somewhat, it's not unlimited. Pack dragons would most likely be smaller varieties, maxing out at the size of, say, a cougar. As opposed to the last post, which covers dragons that can range up to the shoulder height of a large draft horse (though substantially longer).

Pack hunting also means you can scope out more area in search of good prey in less time than if you only had one dragon searching. Of course, more efficient means of locating prey wouldn't counteract the need to avoid depleting the prey in the area.

A reason the smaller dragons may develop pack structures is defense against their primary competitors: other dragons. Especially larger dragons. (Land-based predators pose little threat, and most predators are smaller than even my smallest dragons here, which are about the size of a coyote or maybe a bit bigger - definitely longer.)

I imagine dragons are highly territorial, and a small dragon species wouldn't fare well against a larger species one-on-one. However: in packs, you can get behaviors much like crows with a hawk, or blackbirds or sparrows with a crow. A group of smaller, more agile fliers can harass and drive off a larger, more powerful but slower flier.

I haven't spent much thought on the pack hierarchy yet, as I've mostly been thinking about draconic hunting logistics. I think it would be more like a wolf pack than a lion pride, but not exactly like either. One major difference (and I do mean major) is that dragons, being reptilian, lay eggs. Even being warm-blooded reptiles; they still lay eggs. They are not mammals.

The females therefore do not need to be the ones to incubate the eggs, nor do they need to be the ones to feed the hatchlings, thus removing possibly the biggest biological influence on male/female roles. Said roles may - and undoubtedly will - differ between various pack dragon species.

***EDIT***
I copied a brief exchange from twitter with @nathanblevins regarding packs, age, and raising young.

Nathan: Re Dragons: I can see dragons hunting in flights. Assuming dragons live a LONG time, maybe its an age thing. Young-uns pack.
Me: Why would young dragons leave their parents to create packs? (Also I don't think they do live a LONG time. Not these.)
Nathan: Good point. Are dragons nurturing parents or hide eggs and go (like turtles & some snakes)? If the latter, packing could be approrpriate until size & scarcity drive them apart nearer to adulthood.

This is why I like sharing things~ Most of my knowledge/experience is with mammals and a little with birds, so I forget/don't consider a lot of the more interesting angles of dragons being reptilian. Hidden-egg dragons wouldn't develop much in the way of social structures or language, however, due to the lack of upbringing to pass such things along. Which is in itself a fascinating point to consider.

I shall probably write up something about this at some rather later date!

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DRAGONS and stuff

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:36:10 GMT

Well this is supposedly supposed to be my world-building-type blog so let's do some~

I've been thinking about the... I guess logistics of dragons, lately, as a sort of spin-off of playing with anatomies. Things like hunting methods, social hierarchies, habitats and suchlike. For this, I'll be talking solely about six-limbed winged dragons, like the typical European variety.

Dragons are carnivorous predators, of course. I toyed with the idea of them being scavengers and it's a possibility I'm keeping in mind for some species, but the angle I've been thinking over is for the predators.

Now, the common view of draconic hunting is clearly based on raptors - swoop in, grab an animal, fly off with it. Often back to the cave/lair to eat it. This... is not very likely, for a number of reasons. Nor is it necessary.

The first and obvious point of difference between birds of prey and dragons is the number of limbs. Birds have only four limbs, so they only have two limbs which they can use for standing, walking and grabbing their prey. Additionally, hunting beaks are not well designed for carrying prey, so that option is also out.

The particular variety of dragons I am currently discussing have jaws with teeth, as well as four feet for walking and grabbing. The resulting implication is that there is absolutely no need for them to grab and carry. They can easily attack the prey from the air, land with/on it, and then eat it on the spot (or, if necessary, nearby). Since they have those teeth, four clawed limbs, and possibly other means of attack/defense, they also don't need to worry as much about being vulnerable while on the ground.

An additional benefit of this is not having to lug a sheep or deer or cow all the way back home, which saves energy and thus means the dragon's overall food consumption doesn't need to be as high.

J happened to know a bit about fox territories and eating habits, which were extremely useful. Foxes eat small rodents, which are a comparably sized meal for a fox as a typical temperate ruminant is to these dragons. A fox's territory averages at about a day's journey (for the fox) from one end to the other.

This is a reasonable size for a dragon's territory as well. Since dragons are larger, they need a large hunting territory to be supported without wiping out the local prey. However, dragons can also fly, which greatly enhances their ability to quickly and easily travel distances. It's therefore a reasonable conclusion that a given species of this class of dragons would have a territory ranging about half a day's flight radius out from the lair.

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AND SO I'M BACK FROM OUTER SPACE

Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:13:09 GMT

Been locked out of my dreamwidth account for goodness knows HOW long, due to having forgotten my password and my email server being down so being unable to retrieve said password and basically every single back-up plan and back-up plans of back-up plans regarding regaining my password being rendered completely impossible by a ridiculous chain of events.

NOW I AM HERE AGAIN. I shall be pondering what exactly I want to do with this account, in the meantime.

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Furs and fabrics and suchlike

Sat, 22 Jan 2011 17:34:45 GMT

Lyn's been working on fashion for her peoples, which has gotten me thinking about mine. Well, not fashion so much as just... clothing.

See, in such a highly flammable environment, you aren't going to get nice fluffy plant material for spinning. No cotton, no linen. There might be something along the lines of silk - and considering the size to which insects are capable of reaching on this planet, it could possibly be easier to harvest sizable amounts than it is for our actual silk.

This leaves the primary clothing materials as being skins and furs. Possibly leaves? I still need to think about the leaves. Anyway! So the question of fur, wool, etc. came up as a possible source of fibers for fabric. I was hoping to make the fibers naturally flame-retardant, but I'm not so sure that would happen. Most animals will not need to be flame-resistant, as they will just, you know... run away from the fire.

Which means that fabrics will be exclusively in the colder regions, where you would quite possibly just want to use the whole fur anyway. Unless I go with the silk-like thing, but why would you develop spinning and weaving just to make something wearable out of insect cocoons if there is no other use for said spinning and weaving? It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

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Planety Goodness and the Darkest Hours

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:33:56 GMT

So I've pretty much decided that this is going to be a moon of a gas giant at this point. Which of course gives me a whole other set of things to decide!

First, of course, is the obliquity of the planet's rotation. The reason this is important is that it determines the relative inclination of the moon's revolution about the planet, and thus directly affects a) the seasons, and b) the eclipses. (The obliquity is the angle of the axis, relative to the orbital plane.)

There are a lot of eclipses.

The moon is tidally locked to the gas giant, meaning each day/night cycle is a single revolution about the planet. Probably somewhere in the vicinity of one of our weeks. Now, what this means is that every single day, the planet will eclipse the sun. The only case in which it wouldn't is if the planet has a pretty large obliquity, in which case it would only eclipse a few times a year or something.

Now, this doesn't have to be a complete eclipse every day. It could just be a partial eclipse. It depends on your location on the moon's surface and on the planet's obliquity/inclination of the moon's orbital plane. (Picture, if you will, the vast curve of the planet overhead, part of it eternally dipping below the horizon. Every day, the sun rises in the east, soaring across the sky. At the apex of its daily arc, it slowly dips behind the great planet, sending the world into a noontime darkness. And this is a perfectly normal and regular occurrence!)

Another interesting part of being a large moon orbiting a gas giant is that you can see your moon's shadow on the surface of the planet in the sky.

An interesting biological/evolutionary aspect of this is that there is no real concept of nocturnal or diurnal, because the length of the night or day is entirely too long to sleep through most of either of them. Animals will need to be functional in both times of day.

On the flip side of that, the planet itself will reflect quite a lot of light down during the night, so it never gets very dark. Except at noon! The darkest time of the day/night cycle.

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Wherein I begin to discuss the matter of animals.

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:23:30 GMT

One of my favorite ideas that I came up with has to do with completely separate evolutionary tracks on the northern and southern continents. To summarize and over-simplify: the northern will be twos, and the southern will be threes.

The northern continent is where my civilized humanoid biped species is going to develop (the one that speaks that language). They, along with pretty much all of the animals who evolved on that continent, will have either two, four, or eight limbs/digits per limb if relevant, bilateral symmetry, etc. So my elf people (they have pointy ears, it is easy to just call them elves), they have two arms, two legs, four fingers/toes per hand/foot, two eyes, a nose with two nostrils, a mouth, two ears.

There will be quadripeds too, of course, of various kinds, and large insects of various kinds which I have not really thought too hard about yet (and when I say large I do mean large). Lots of antlers, which I shall cover at a later date.

One major impact that this will have on the culture is that their numerical system will octal, not decimal. This could, likely will/would, have a strong impact on their technological advancements in the realms of computing.

And then there is the southern continent, where instead of twos, there are threes. Animals will either have bilateral or tri... trilateral? symmetry. Limbs and digits and sensory organs will come in threes. Three, six, or nine limbs/digits being the most common, along with three eyes, etc. (This means, by the by, that it could evolve dragons! Whee!)

The primary significance of this is that occasionally, some of these trinary creatures will make their way over to the binary continent, fueling the mythologies and legends of the elves. Three will be a significant number, but associated with monsters and the unnatural. Two and four, on the other hand, will have positive significance.

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Let's talk about plants!

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 04:07:17 GMT

One of the interesting aspects of a high-oxygen atmosphere is the tendency for things to burn. Lots. Earth actually went through this before, a couple of times, but that's besides the point.

The point is that easily-flammable plants are extremely unfavored due to the BURN BURN BURN BURN BURN AHAHAHAHA nature of the environment. So the majority of plants will develop resistance to fire - a thick woody bark, for example, possibly reinforced with metals and/or minerals like a shell or animal armor. In order for a less flame-resistant plant to survive, it would need to have developed a flame-resistant reproductive system - nuts, for example.

An interesting note on that point is that the majority of plants that produce nuts on Earth are in fact woody plants with coarser bark.

In contrast to the flammability of above-ground elements, however, one has plants which are based on a root system - something like grasses. The flames could completely raze an entire grassland, but the grasses could have developed storage node things so they have the energy to re-sprout. They would need to be very fast growing, as the fires would be a fairly frequent occasion in this scenario.

Additionally, the higher flammability levels from the oxygen-rich air means that lower elevation locations - such as valleys - are at greater risk of destructive conflagrations than higher elevations - such as mountain sides or plateaus. I'd imagine that the vegetation of such lower-altitude areas would thusly be very tough and woody, in contrast to the lush valleys we envision on earth. I imagine they would grow primarily upwards (as opposed to branching), reaching for a) the sunlight, and b) less flammable environments for the relatively tender and unprotected leaves (a.k.a. photosynthesizing elements).

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The creation of another planet!

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:51:25 GMT

It all started with a language. To make a long story short: I began making a language a long time ago, and in my efforts to be thorough and plausible, but I am also now making an entire fictional planet for this language to develop on. SO! I am going to start blathering on about my ideas for this world on here, because it seems a suitable location.

Today, I shall be discussing the global characteristics of the planet itself, beginning with decisions that I am currently settled on.

It's going to be a fairly small planet - Mars or Mercury sized - and dry relative to Earth, with two major continents on a north-south division. Essentially, there will be primarily land with an equatorial ocean that reaches all the way around the circumference. The overall climate will be fairly cold - cold enough for parts to have ice and snow. However, since the water is collected primarily around the equator, with land at the poles, the planet is ideally (and serendipitously!) designed with the best buffer configuration against snowballing. So it shall not turn into an ice planet! Joy!

The atmosphere is relatively high oxygen content to modern-day earth. Greenhouse gases are apparently fairly low, resulting in the relative coldness of the climate. And aiding in the prevention of runaway fires. The high oxygen atmosphere means fires burn very hot and very fast - which plays a major part in the evolution of flora. More on that in a future post.

Due to the small size of the planet, it has a high potential of being, rather than a proper planet, the moon of a gas giant. This would cause very, very interesting relative astronomical phenomena, which would most likely highly impact the developments of cultures. Such as the giant looming object in the sky, and regular eclipses of the sun, and lengthy days due to tidal locking. I haven't yet decided if I want to go with that idea, interesting as it would be. I'm definitely leaning towards it, however.

Another interesting side-effect of being a moon instead of a planet is that it would not have any moons of its own. Instead, it would have the far more complex relative motions of the gas giant's other moons. Which means even more fascinating potential cultural influence from astronomical phenomena.

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