Author Topic: Appearance of the sky  (Read 8566 times)

Norture

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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #25 on: January 16, 2014, 01:06:45 AM »
This seems like an appropriate place to ask. A lot of arguments I have seen regarding time/weather/environment seem to dredge up "The sky is artificial" as an "answer" to the question or problem. My question about this, is it a KNOWN fact that anyone in game will know as a truth of the world? I figured that one would simply adjust  psychologically to the circadian rhythm naturally as it is presented to them (hence why all my characters are absolutely culture shocked or even mad the first week of inception.) But that doesn't account for the answer being that the sky is artificial. How would my character know that as a truth, or would he know it at all? Does it take some kind of special scholar to know it? is it written somewhere? I'd imagine its a pretty convincing sky, fake or no, and that non of my guys have the itch to climb up to the ceiling and test it.

Some characters learn the truth about the world, but most people will never know. The world might be peculiar in some ways, but it would seem real.

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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #26 on: January 16, 2014, 01:50:35 AM »
This seems like an appropriate place to ask. A lot of arguments I have seen regarding time/weather/environment seem to dredge up "The sky is artificial" as an "answer" to the question or problem. My question about this, is it a KNOWN fact that anyone in game will know as a truth of the world? I figured that one would simply adjust  psychologically to the circadian rhythm naturally as it is presented to them (hence why all my characters are absolutely culture shocked or even mad the first week of inception.) But that doesn't account for the answer being that the sky is artificial. How would my character know that as a truth, or would he know it at all? Does it take some kind of special scholar to know it? is it written somewhere? I'd imagine its a pretty convincing sky, fake or no, and that non of my guys have the itch to climb up to the ceiling and test it.
It is not a known fact that anyone in-game will know as the truth. Most outlanders will no doubt feel that the world is off and slightly unnatural, but there's no way to tell you're on a demiplane because it's a fairly convincing facsimile. The sky seems real enough. The stars shine, the moon has phases, the sun shines and feels warm. For all intents and purposes, it looks just like the real night sky. The celestial objects just aren't "there": the sun isn't a nearby star a million miles away, the moon isn't a giant hunk of rock exerting gravity, and so on, but nobody knows this because there's no way they could confirm it. If, by chance, and character from the Spelljammer setting (D&D in space!) was brought into the demiplane along with his/her spelljamming vessel and tried to fly to the moon, the ship would just end up in the Mists. But that would be a rare occasion, and nobody would believe a bunch of outlanders who claim they can travel the stars in a magical flying ship.

The only NPCs that would be aware of that the sky is fake are probably Azalin and Strahd, and they're not going to discuss it with your characters. :P



Guessing from the era the setting is based on, I highly doubt anyone even knows the actual science behind the moon and the stars.
So would it even matter? The common people probably have all sorts of different superstitious explanations for the appearing of stars.
They most likely have no clue that the sun is also a star, nor that the world may be round, if that is even the case in this setting at all.

I'm also curious what the commonly known explanations are though. Or the most popular theory to explain the stars and the moon.
It's not touched upon too much. Gazetteer II has a diagram of the universe according to Lamordians, though.

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Elfric

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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #27 on: January 16, 2014, 09:14:12 AM »
Ta da!


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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #28 on: January 16, 2014, 06:09:29 PM »
Guessing from the era the setting is based on, I highly doubt anyone even knows the actual science behind the moon and the stars.
So would it even matter? The common people probably have all sorts of different superstitious explanations for the appearing of stars.
They most likely have no clue that the sun is also a star, nor that the world may be round, if that is even the case in this setting at all.

I'm also curious what the commonly known explanations are though. Or the most popular theory to explain the stars and the moon.
It's not touched upon too much. Gazetteer II has a diagram of the universe according to Lamordians, though.
A way too detailed hypothetical sprung to mind.
The whole topic begs the question about what the Dark Powers will do when the Land of Mists give birth to their first Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus. I assume the facsimile is so detailed and elaborate that physics laws would still seem consistent.
Also, wow, the mind explosion that one must feel when they realize there is nothing after science for hundreds of years seemed rock solid that there was something beyond the clouds. HAHA.


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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #29 on: January 16, 2014, 06:24:39 PM »
dat great clockwork

Elfric

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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #30 on: January 16, 2014, 06:29:40 PM »
dat great clockwork
  :whatsthis: "...The great Clockwork huh? Seems racist towards Lamordians."

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Theorem Of Neutrality

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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #31 on: January 17, 2014, 12:49:01 PM »
Guessing from the era the setting is based on, I highly doubt anyone even knows the actual science behind the moon and the stars.
So would it even matter? The common people probably have all sorts of different superstitious explanations for the appearing of stars.
They most likely have no clue that the sun is also a star, nor that the world may be round, if that is even the case in this setting at all.

I'm also curious what the commonly known explanations are though. Or the most popular theory to explain the stars and the moon.
It's not touched upon too much. Gazetteer II has a diagram of the universe according to Lamordians, though.
A way too detailed hypothetical sprung to mind.
The whole topic begs the question about what the Dark Powers will do when the Land of Mists give birth to their first Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus. I assume the facsimile is so detailed and elaborate that physics laws would still seem Also, wow, the mind explosion that one must feel when they realize there is nothing after science for hundreds of years seemed rock solid that there was something beyond the clouds. HAHA.

This seems like something the Dark Powers would want to carefully manipulate. Afterall, there are already - what - three domains with a Renaissance cultural level? If we were to follow the logical course of scientific advancement, Dread should already have its own Galileo or Newton.

It seems likely, however, that the Powers would want to carefully control the scientific advancement of it people - keep it focused inwards, give scientists red herrings to study (like the Mists).
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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #32 on: January 17, 2014, 12:59:55 PM »
Guessing from the era the setting is based on, I highly doubt anyone even knows the actual science behind the moon and the stars.
So would it even matter? The common people probably have all sorts of different superstitious explanations for the appearing of stars.
They most likely have no clue that the sun is also a star, nor that the world may be round, if that is even the case in this setting at all.

I'm also curious what the commonly known explanations are though. Or the most popular theory to explain the stars and the moon.
It's not touched upon too much. Gazetteer II has a diagram of the universe according to Lamordians, though.
A way too detailed hypothetical sprung to mind.
The whole topic begs the question about what the Dark Powers will do when the Land of Mists give birth to their first Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus. I assume the facsimile is so detailed and elaborate that physics laws would still seem Also, wow, the mind explosion that one must feel when they realize there is nothing after science for hundreds of years seemed rock solid that there was something beyond the clouds. HAHA.

This seems like something the Dark Powers would want to carefully manipulate. Afterall, there are already - what - three domains with a Renaissance cultural level? If we were to follow the logical course of scientific advancement, Dread should already have its own Galileo or Newton.

It seems likely, however, that the Powers would want to carefully control the scientific advancement of it people - keep it focused inwards, give scientists red herrings to study (like the Mists).
The Dark Powers really wouldn't need to do that, and the demiplane already has someone with that much scientific knowledge: Victor Mordenheim. The thing to remember is that there have been people born inside the demiplane for centuries. To them, the Mists ARE their natural world. To them, the fact that their sun and moon are not celestial objects with gravity wouldn't shake them much because they've never known any other cosmos. To them, a universe like ours with infinite space and asteroids and black holes could be much more frightening; it would certainly be less predictable

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Theorem Of Neutrality

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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #33 on: January 17, 2014, 01:52:58 PM »
Guessing from the era the setting is based on, I highly doubt anyone even knows the actual science behind the moon and the stars.
So would it even matter? The common people probably have all sorts of different superstitious explanations for the appearing of stars.
They most likely have no clue that the sun is also a star, nor that the world may be round, if that is even the case in this setting at all.

I'm also curious what the commonly known explanations are though. Or the most popular theory to explain the stars and the moon.
It's not touched upon too much. Gazetteer II has a diagram of the universe according to Lamordians, though.
A way too detailed hypothetical sprung to mind.
The whole topic begs the question about what the Dark Powers will do when the Land of Mists give birth to their first Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus. I assume the facsimile is so detailed and elaborate that physics laws would still seem Also, wow, the mind explosion that one must feel when they realize there is nothing after science for hundreds of years seemed rock solid that there was something beyond the clouds. HAHA.

This seems like something the Dark Powers would want to carefully manipulate. Afterall, there are already - what - three domains with a Renaissance cultural level? If we were to follow the logical course of scientific advancement, Dread should already have its own Galileo or Newton.

It seems likely, however, that the Powers would want to carefully control the scientific advancement of it people - keep it focused inwards, give scientists red herrings to study (like the Mists).
The Dark Powers really wouldn't need to do that, and the demiplane already has someone with that much scientific knowledge: Victor Mordenheim. The thing to remember is that there have been people born inside the demiplane for centuries. To them, the Mists ARE their natural world. To them, the fact that their sun and moon are not celestial objects with gravity wouldn't shake them much because they've never known any other cosmos. To them, a universe like ours with infinite space and asteroids and black holes could be much more frightening; it would certainly be less predictable

Very true. Still, wouldn't the example of Mordenheim not also show that the Dark Powers are well aware of the tempting nature of scientific discovery, and are more than willing to exploit it?
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Re: Appearance of the sky
« Reply #34 on: January 17, 2014, 02:10:14 PM »
Guessing from the era the setting is based on, I highly doubt anyone even knows the actual science behind the moon and the stars.
So would it even matter? The common people probably have all sorts of different superstitious explanations for the appearing of stars.
They most likely have no clue that the sun is also a star, nor that the world may be round, if that is even the case in this setting at all.

I'm also curious what the commonly known explanations are though. Or the most popular theory to explain the stars and the moon.
It's not touched upon too much. Gazetteer II has a diagram of the universe according to Lamordians, though.
A way too detailed hypothetical sprung to mind.
The whole topic begs the question about what the Dark Powers will do when the Land of Mists give birth to their first Newton, Galileo, and Copernicus. I assume the facsimile is so detailed and elaborate that physics laws would still seem Also, wow, the mind explosion that one must feel when they realize there is nothing after science for hundreds of years seemed rock solid that there was something beyond the clouds. HAHA.

This seems like something the Dark Powers would want to carefully manipulate. Afterall, there are already - what - three domains with a Renaissance cultural level? If we were to follow the logical course of scientific advancement, Dread should already have its own Galileo or Newton.

It seems likely, however, that the Powers would want to carefully control the scientific advancement of it people - keep it focused inwards, give scientists red herrings to study (like the Mists).
The Dark Powers really wouldn't need to do that, and the demiplane already has someone with that much scientific knowledge: Victor Mordenheim. The thing to remember is that there have been people born inside the demiplane for centuries. To them, the Mists ARE their natural world. To them, the fact that their sun and moon are not celestial objects with gravity wouldn't shake them much because they've never known any other cosmos. To them, a universe like ours with infinite space and asteroids and black holes could be much more frightening; it would certainly be less predictable

Very true. Still, wouldn't the example of Mordenheim not also show that the Dark Powers are well aware of the tempting nature of scientific discovery, and are more than willing to exploit it?
Sort of. The Dark Powers aren't really interested in Victor except as a way to provoke Adam.

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