[TML] "Dies the Fire"

[Richard Aiken]

On Dec 9, 2007 3:10 PM,  <shadow at shadowgard.com> wrote:
> For one, other than the magitech that keeps the disk from collapsing
> into a sphere, the geology is *real*. You can dig mines, have
> earthquakes, volcanoes, drifting continental plates, the works.

Maybe whatever's powering your "magitech" can be tapped by psionic
means.  "Magic-users" evolve over the millenia to manipulate this
extra energy.  Eventually the energy drain imposed (I'm thinking of
Robert Jordan's cycle here) by the now-high-technology society strains
the system that you get a "Breaking of the World" - massive
earthquakes and such.  The society collapses and the tech is lost, so
the system swings back toward equilibrium.  Only to have the next Age
begin the drain all over again . . .

> The surface area is a lot bigger (the players may not see that as an
> advantage :-) and the climates a *lot* more varied (near the inner
> edge, conditions will resemble dayside Mercury in all the old SF
> books, near the outer edge, you've got conditions that make the
> Arctic look tropical)

Hmmm

So . . . a fantasy world that really IS a "flat earth."  The Sun would
always be about at dawn, right?  So would you call it Dawnworld?
There'd be a permenantly Light and Dark side to everything, wouldn't
there?  Wait one.  Shadow squares, like with Ringworld?

Assuming the builders wanted to get anywhere quickly, what would they
have built for truly long distance travel?  Mag-lev railways?
Sub-orbital slingshots?  Teleporation networks?

There would be a back side to this disk, right?  If the magitech can
keep the disk from collapsing into its primary, it should also be able
to handle a few vertical "wells" between the two sides.  During
periods of high-tech society, these would be conduits of trade (and
war).  During periods of collapse, they'd be Bottomless Dungeons for
our Heroes to explore.

> Here's something I wrote for a sort of "test" walkthru I ran a few
> folks thru. It's the description of an object they found in a long
> abandoned Inn/reststop/whatever along a "roman" type road (with
> mileposts that had numbers in the tens of thousands along the road
> :-)

[snip of comic book]

Very nice.

-- 
Richard Aiken

"Never insult anyone by accident."  Robert A. Heinlein