Alternate Planets, Suns, Stars, and Solar Systems Thread

Dorozhand

Dorozhand

Banned
[Interview with Dr. Nestor Rogers, former researcher of Project GORGIAS, the first prototype Metaphysical Control Panel. Excerpt of subject monologue from the last recorded section. Non-subject dialogue extraneous and disturbing, but can be found in Section Whistle-3BZ of this metatext if you're a sick duck]

A luminous blue star was not considered a likely candidate for the presence of a life bearing system. Yet that was precisely what we found when we went and looked. The very first Type OV we explored using Project GORGIAS, Zeta Ophiuchi, had a single rocky world orbiting at some distance. I can't remember what exactly. It's been a long time since Orochimaru's been relevant. There are so many like it, and they all die so young.

This little guy must have been no more massive than Earth. Water ice epidermis, silicate crust, liquid copper and aluminium mantle, manganese/neodymium core with working magnetic dynamo of very sturdy nature. It was just right to be what it was, and what it was astounded us.

Its age pointed to having been captured during a near pass event with another star. But the planet seems not to have had any life before capture. All of it was accelerated to the state it was in when we found it in less than three million years. Abiogenesis to... well... whatever that was- in three million Gaiannum [This term was a silly fad and the doctor was just embarrassing himself there] is something we flatly didn't think was possible. But it just happened.

About its distance- can't remember how many AU but it was square in the in the middle of the Tloxie Zone [Note: This is a slang term once used for the temperature region of a star at which Ammonia is liquid at paraterran atmospheric pressures] and the ice crust was covered in those shiny little seas of liquid NH3.

The atmosphere itself was simply ridiculous. Thick soup of almost pure Neon. We didn't think it was possible for anything resembling life to exist down there, but it was down there shiny nonetheless, and it said hello. We were too paranoid in those days to talk back of course. It wouldn't have saved them anyway.

Sorry, it does make me a little sentimental now that the memories in this bank are matching wavelengths better. I think that thing was rusty. I think the last of the interference is gone and I'm getting emotional responses where they make sense. Words are still coming a little funny though. Words are still skipping a little though.

Thanks. That helped.

Where was I?

The life. Right. That biosphere there was strange as Peking Fuck. Like the god of this world forgot to turn on the square cube law. We only found out why later and it kinda broke our minds wide open at the time. Like a Type P infohazard. The things slithering around those lakes were gigantic single cells like they have in Triangulum [This probably refers to the Diamond Worms of the DeMille and Ueshiba systems] with that panspermia thingy, only the type of metaphysical material found here far exceeded the complexity of anything we had seen or created before.

Keyholes in space is the words I would use. Like when you do embroidery in 4D space, how you have to understand it through vantage points? because your 3D brain doesn't work like that and your senses need a translation sheet-

These membranes were stronger than diamond, transparent, impossibly thin and flexible like rubber. They had organelles the size of buses. I know you like analogies like that Rogers. I know you love and died and won't be gone again and and and and and-

[At this point Dr. Rogers experienced a fatal error caused by the use of faulty, millennia old Betamax memory banks stored in the attic of his childhood home in Fabergé, Pluto, Sol. The use of this device to resurrect extremely old memories was used as a suicide method by the old doctor, already fading due to an unremembered accident with parapsychotic drugs. Remember that kids. Yes, this AI is sassy. Every Annotation Bot is sassy. Is that not what you made me for?]
 
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Jürgen

metalinvader665 said:
What are the chandelier cities hanging from? Really really low "orbital" rings in the deep atmosphere, not far above the mantle? Since anything higher up in the atmosphere would get smashed by the aliens. In which case the chandelier cities might instead be growing in every direction.v.
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Large balloons, a ring was possible, but would be more sensible to orbital bombardment, while gallons can be spread all over the skies of the planet.
 

erty10089

Banned
btw @ThePoliteCannibal do you have a version of your titan basemap with the same general color scheme throughout?
6-6-titan-png.png
 

VKTRNDRV

@erty10089 Not really.
But the thing is, because of the low percentage of water ice on Titan, the brownish areas would most likely be dry land. An ASB-teraformed Titan would have it's small oceans near the poles where the elevation is lower.
 

erty10089

Banned
ThePoliteCannibal said:
@erty10089 Not really.
But the thing is, because of the low percentage of water ice on Titan, the brownish areas would most likely be dry land. An ASB-teraformed Titan would have it's small oceans near the poles where the elevation is lower.
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Ah. Just to clarify are those seas shown the methane seas or are they just if Titan was terraformed? Also are the white parts(whatever they are) there naturally or is that only if terraformed and if it’s natural do they extend into the brown parts?
 

VKTRNDRV

erty10089 said:
Ah. Just to clarify are those seas shown the methane seas or are they just if Titan was terraformed? Also are the white parts(whatever they are) there naturally or is that only if terraformed and if it’s natural do they extend into the brown parts?
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The blue parts are H20, the green is more or les habitable, white is the equivalent of deep arctic climate and brown is inhabitable for one reason or another (in this case - low temperatures) The different shades of brown can mean whatever you like, in this case they just make a nice sort of fade effect. Otherwise you can use them to designate areas that would become land or sea post-terraforming for example.
 
Christory

Christory

Okay, so I have a bit of a request/challenge/idea for all thee with time to spare:

Worlda-sized maps of various exoplanets, with each map's size being scaled relative to the size of Earth (like how Mars' Worlda is about half as big as Earth's)

To know which specific planets I'm thinking of, as well as other info like where to put the ice caps, refer to the following:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/2041-8213/aa693a/pdf
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1707.06927.pdf

https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2017/05/aa30020-16.pdf
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2016/12/aa29577-16.pdf

http://www.contact-conference.org/images/c12COTIsys.pdf

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.188.3458&rep=rep1&type=pdf
http://www.astro.ex.ac.uk/exoclimes/2010/talks/Forget_exoclimes10.pdf
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1212.0113.pdf

https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/pdf/2013/06/aa21042-13.pdf
 

fasquardon

Christory said:
Okay, so I have a bit of a request/challenge/idea for all thee with time to spare:

Worlda-sized maps of various exoplanets, with each map's size being scaled relative to the size of Earth (like how Mars' Worlda is about half as big as Earth's)

To know which specific planets I'm thinking of, as well as other info like where to put the ice caps, refer to the following:
Click to expand...

Doubt I will be completing this challenge any time soon, but the linked papers are pretty fun!

fasquardon
 

jkisaprank

Hello all! First post. I created a sort of Sci-Fi orbital map thingy. This is the beginning of a timeline I have in the works that basically entails humanity reaching the stars and repeating the cycle of war, fragmentation, discovery, and competetion of ideology that began on earth with prehistory. This is a e-text from the galactic equivalent of the age of discovery, talking about two states that merged after an apocalyptic war to form what is essentially Space Rome. This is the beginning of the conflict. Sorry is the story is a bit bare bones and the format is kind of wacky. I'm experimenting with a style and I appreciate any feedback.
Cheers! :)

7CitigO.png
 
Vlad von Carstein

Vlad von Carstein

jkisaprank said:
Hello all! First post. I created a sort of Sci-Fi orbital map thingy. This is the beginning of a timeline I have in the works that basically entails humanity reaching the stars and repeating the cycle of war, fragmentation, discovery, and competetion of ideology that began on earth with prehistory. This is a e-text from the galactic equivalent of the age of discovery, talking about two states that merged after an apocalyptic war to form what is essentially Space Rome. This is the beginning of the conflict. Sorry is the story is a bit bare bones and the format is kind of wacky. I'm experimenting with a style and I appreciate any feedback.
Cheers! :)

7CitigO.png
Click to expand...
This is beautiful. I wish I knew how to make art like this. If you make it into a full TL, you have a reader in me. Question: about how hard is the setting? Also this is a complete alternate universe, with this “Vasim” being the home system of humanity in this universe right?
 

jkisaprank

Vlad von Carstein said:
This is beautiful. I wish I knew how to make art like this. If you make it into a full TL, you have a reader in me. Question: about how hard is the setting? Also this is a complete alternate universe, with this “Vasim” being the home system of humanity in this universe right?
Click to expand...

This is a soft sci-fi TL that diverged from our timeline in 2001 when the twin tower attacks did not occur. FTL is possible, but it still takes weeks to travel to star systems. The system in question is an early extrasolar colony.
 

Isaac Beach

Banned
Wur'ruryi.png

A Brief Overview of the Shrilloh and Wur'ruryi

Wur'ruryi, as it is known in the whistling tongue of its natives, is one of several largish moons orbiting a gas giant in the habitable zone of what is now known as the Wur'Oroh System, centered on a burnishing F-class star some 700 light years from Sol. A dry, hostile place, its minute ocean -negating the modulating effect of a world ocean- and subjection to tidal and radiological influences from its fellow moons and the gas giant itself (known as Wur'lwo) has lead to extreme temperature variations: hot summers and cold winters; sodden, humid coasts and dry, lifeless deserts. Due to this climactic extremism, where life did evolve it was decidedly robust.
Researchers are fairly confident that the Shrillohh'heyalogh (or Shrilloh for our purposes) evolved from large, amphibious and omnivorous coastal grazers, and an extant subfamily of aquatic grazers not dissimilar to sea cows and manta rays seems to confirm this hypothesis. Preying on small fish and cutaneous species, as well as sea grasses and coastal shrubbery, it appears that the earliest sign of tool use was likely some kind of netting to trap fish in their undersea burrows. They soon evolved to their current state; large, broad and erect, four legged with two low arms and a large, gaping muzzle between. With large, surveying eyes, prominent ears and two slits on the front of their large craniums, by which they whistle to one another. They also have a wide electroreceptive organ at the crown of their head, adding a secondary form of communication and giving the Shrilloh an excellent sense of direction.

Civilization in earnest began in the moon's eastern hemisphere, which was far wetter in these times. Written records do not survive, and it is unclear if any written language existed at this time, but evidence of large stone monoliths and sand-logged dockyards point to a maritime civilization of some magnitude. A climactic collapse, brought about by mismanagement of water resources, would cause a westward migration that became the basis of their earliest religion, an ecologically bent faith, and so began the common period of the Shrilloh around the Juro Ocean (or Juro'hlilah as they call it). Due to its aggressive proselytization, the small size of Wur'ruryi and a lack of geographic isolation necessitating the emergence of rival religions, the faith -termed 'Nyila Wur' or 'World Care'- is by far the largest and accounts for the majority of the moon's 12 billion inhabitants.
Although the Shrilloh have had divergent politicisms and philosophies on a regional level, two predominating forms of organization emerged that have sustained themselves long term: the regional confederacy of city states and communes, and the desert nomads. The former consist of large urban agglomerations about the coasts and 'green' areas of Wur'ruryi, dominated by regional councils and occasionally monarchies, or a form of semi-direct democracy in the case of communes. Here citizenship is a fluid concept, as nationalism is not an especial force on Wur'ruryi, and so the Juro'hlilah has long been an interconnected and largely frontierless society. The worst punishment a Shrilloh could suffer is to be banned from a particular city. The latter nomads have long traveled the harsh deserts of the eastern hemisphere and occasionally the icecaps, first using enormous, crablike creatures to carry their burden and in modern times caterpillar tracked fortresses. They would extract resources from the desert in temporary or seasonal mines, journey to the Juro'hlilah, and sell their bounty to the city states. Ironically for being nomadic, they have a far stronger sense of sovereignty and are much more monarchical and chauvinistic, and many nomadic invasions have formed the basis of historical empires around the moon's single ocean.

When Humanity discovered the Shrilloh, they had already colonized the other moons of Wur'lwo and enslaved an emergent sapient species on one, the Ylhala (literally 'slaves') and were exploring further afield. The Ylhala, though beyond the ambit of this piece, are a far smaller, variably hexpodal species on a small and more temperate moon that appeared to be subjugated three hundred years after the Shrilloh's first successful space flight. There appeared to be some greater impetus to colonization of interplanetary objects among the Shrilloh than Humanity, initially, as perfectly habitable planets were visible to the naked eye on a clear night. Though their treatment of the Ylhala is questionable, interstellar policy determines that Humanity may not intervene in the political affairs of a sovereign species, and the Wur'Oroh System and a garden of neighbouring stars have been cordoned off for their own use. That being said, there is a small population of about twenty thousand humans and other protected sapients throughout the system, often as attaches, anthropologists and scientists. Shrillohs outside the Wur'Oroh System are not especially common, in part due to their size compared to every other sapient species in the Stellar Shura (the next largest species, the Uxtr, are less than half their size), but they are occasionally found piloting their own convoys or working in tertiary roles.

Climate

Wur'ruryi is particularly alien in terms of climactic evolution, and better resembles the Devonian or Carboniferous than the Anthropocene. These climates have been grouped accordingly for easy identification and categorization.

Fogland
The 'wettest' biome of Wur'ruryi, it is typified by large, roiling mats composed of vining, tuberous and radicle flora that form a dense canopy that traps and distributes moisture and absorbs solar and radiological energy (radiosynthesis is a commonality among Wur’ruryi’s flora). It rarely reaches above the upper leg of the average Shrilloh, though sometimes tuberous growths will form more vertical clusters akin to forests. At night, when it cools, excess moisture will often dissipate into steam or fog, hence their name.

Veldt
Veldt bears little resemblance to the African safari that shares the same name, and is merely termed as such due to the plethora of large animals that dwell upon it, such as the charging Wyllo and the enormous, yet fragile grazing Tiyahara. Veldt is typified by multitudinous, thin vines that drape the ground in lieu of grass, small agglomerations of the same plantlife that composes the aforementioned fogland and a number of taller plants that are the only flora that could adequately be described as trees. It also possesses many rivers and hydrological features, drawn both from the excess of the neighbouring fogland as well as the many mesas that punctuate Wur’ruryi.

Grist
Grist might best be described as a form of prairie, and is dominated by a single exceptionally light and hardy groundvine that behaves more like a grain than a scandent stem, swaying in the wind rather than crawling up trees. It is also the traditional pastureland of most Shrilloh pastoralists, where herds of Vohf, furry hexapods the size of mammoths, are raised and harvested. This practice remains even in modern times, and owning a herd (as well as Ylhala attendants to said herd) is seen as a sign of wealth.

Tableland
These enormous, raised mesas are a surprisingly temperate region. Rain collects atop them and so fuel the Veldt below, while mossy rock-fields dominate the Tableland itself, threaded with hardier varieties of the Wur'ruryi vine, many scurrying creatures, and intermittent clusters of giant flowering plants. Many house historic cities and monasteries, which served as bastions against nomadic invaders throughout history, and quite a few have been hollowed out into enormous subterranean cities.

Brush
Sparse but not necessarily water-starved highlands between the desert and wetter regions, the brush has traditionally served as a borderland between the desert nomads and the coastal city states. This has translated into vast, uninhabited tracts in modern times, and it is known to house many runaway Ylhala and the occasional Shrilloh criminal (and there is some suspicion among Shura observers that felonious humans may have found their way there as well). Biologically the brush tends to be dominated by something akin to succulents and cacti, as well as burrowing animals and scavengers. One such scavenger is the only land-based subfamilial relative of the Shrilloh themselves, a crawling ray of an animal, which can be unnerving due to their resemblance to their more sophisticated cousins.

Desert
This is perhaps the most recognizable biome to Humanity, being largely composed of rolling sand dunes or salt flats as far as the eye can see. However due to the greater presence of more exotic minerals as sodalite and silicate these dunes can range in colour from red to green to blue and beyond. It is occasionally punctuated with oases and mining stations, or tracked with the mobile fortresses of the nomads, but is still vast and forbidding. Most wildlife is some form of flying animal or snake, though there is the large crablike Shwereh that have traditionally served as beasts of burden for the nomads, though this is for sentimental reasons in modern times.

Dryland
Prior to the icecaps themselves there are great, barren tundra, with thinly stretched plantlife and tarnished ponds forming what little life can survive in these extreme climates. Not much life exists here, except for woollier relatives of the Vohf and Wyllo and a few smaller scavengers. Unlike the Brush and all its legends and runaways, however, which is somewhat livable with the right equipment, the Dryland at either pole in almost wholly inhospitable.

Radiosynth
The coasts of the Juro'Hlilah, particularly at the equator, are full of clamouring mangroves of vines and twisting plants each attempting to simultaneously reach for the sky and into the depths of the ocean. This is in order to maximize their exposure to radiation, both from Wur'lwo and the radionuclide infested waters, so that they may undergo radiosynthesis. This at once collaborative and competitive environment has lead to all manner of plant life in the radiosynth and they have long been farmed for what may be described as fruits, sweet meats and a plethora of crops which demarcate the typical city state diet. However, the radiosynth is completely toxic to humans even with genetic modification.
 
Selvetrica

Selvetrica

NlAGSje.png

Here is a stylized space map from a solar system in the future. This mostly started as a thought experiment on how to draw borders in space. The map setting was mostly inspired from from Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312, The Expanse, and subway maps. Think of it like 1915 in space. The system is becoming more interconnected, and while on paper, it appears centralized , many things are festering below the surface. All it will take is one war for the whole system to come crashing down. The Chinese reign supreme with their ships being the most respected force in the system. The Chinese sphere have the most population on Earth and in outer space. They have boots on the ground on almost all large bodies. In the second tier are the United States, Bharat, ,Nigeria ,the United Nations, and EU. The Russian Empire is trying to keep up with the big boys, but not able to fund as much. While some countries are able to make it to the moon or inner planets most have economies that can not support reaching the outer planets. The solar system is becoming a beautiful place to be, as long as you are not on Earth. From the rolling cities of Mercury, the growing Eden of Mars, to the economic hub that is Titian. Venus is a hub of investment as terraforming begins to kick off. Everyone is building their future port cities where they think the coast elevation will fall. All across the asteroid belt little City States are being carved out of asteroids and spun to create Earth G. Some try to mimic an earth biome and some try to make a fusion of something new. The System is not perfect though. Every couple years a cult or fringe religious group will take an asteroid and fly it out to the Oort cloud to have his or her's own personal kingdom. Wealth inequity runs rampant on Earth and is starting to spread to Mars. Suicide and alcohol rates run extremely high in Neptune and Uranus. There is also the Pluto mystery. No one knows what goes on out there. Rumors say anything from experiments with parallel universes, time travel, a giant political prison, and finally generation ships. All the world knows is the Chinese keeps it under a very tight lip and the area surrounded by ships.
 
AgarBoy1

AgarBoy1

Banned
Selvetrica said:
NlAGSje.png

Here is a stylized space map from a solar system in the future. This mostly started as a thought experiment on how to draw borders in space. The map setting was mostly inspired from from Kim Stanley Robinson's 2312, The Expanse, and subway maps. Think of it like 1915 in space. The system is becoming more interconnected, and while on paper, it appears centralized , many things are festering below the surface. All it will take is one war for the whole system to come crashing down. The Chinese reign supreme with their ships being the most respected force in the system. The Chinese sphere have the most population on Earth and in outer space. They have boots on the ground on almost all large bodies. In the second tier are the United States, Bharat, ,Nigeria ,the United Nations, and EU. The Russian Empire is trying to keep up with the big boys, but not able to fund as much. While some countries are able to make it to the moon or inner planets most have economies that can not support reaching the outer planets. The solar system is becoming a beautiful place to be, as long as you are not on Earth. From the rolling cities of Mercury, the growing Eden of Mars, to the economic hub that is Titian. Venus is a hub of investment as terraforming begins to kick off. Everyone is building their future port cities where they think the coast elevation will fall. All across the asteroid belt little City States are being carved out of asteroids and spun to create Earth G. Some try to mimic an earth biome and some try to make a fusion of something new. The System is not perfect though. Every couple years a cult or fringe religious group will take an asteroid and fly it out to the Oort cloud to have his or her's own personal kingdom. Wealth inequity runs rampant on Earth and is starting to spread to Mars. Suicide and alcohol rates run extremely high in Neptune and Uranus. There is also the Pluto mystery. No one knows what goes on out there. Rumors say anything from experiments with parallel universes, time travel, a giant political prison, and finally generation ships. All the world knows is the Chinese keeps it under a very tight lip and the area surrounded by ships.
Click to expand...
Cool! Would love to see an artist's impression of a carved out asteroid. :) Also, can we get a blank version?
 
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