ZEITGEIST cross-planetary influence?

[efreund]

Do planet's influence other planets? I had thought that the planets only influence earth.

However, in another thread, Ranger Wickett dropped this anecdote from an upcoming book, specifically a writeup of Jiese:

they have spotted his loyalists laying the gold in an immense ring surrounding the caldera of one of the archipelago’s volcanos, as if he intends to prevent something truly massive from teleporting

That's a reference to Urim's gold-blocks-teleport power.

I struggle to make sense of the idea that planets exert their powers over other planets. For example, there's not a Dreaming (and Bleak Gate) version of Jiese (or is there?). Likewise, does Avilona affect Jiese's weather patterns? Does Mavisha break up Jiese's landmasses into smaller islands? Is Mojang helping the Salamanders tame the jungles? Would Padyer flood Jiese with boiling oceans? Would Shabboath create an underdark inside Jiese?

I'm actually confused as to why Urim still "works." When the party rediscovers Urim in adv12, it has been strip-mined of all of its gold. I know this is only a "mote" and not the real planet, but I would imagine that this would somehow disrupt its metaphysics. I'm not sure how exactly planets get their "powers", but I would imagine that at this point, Urim would have lost its gold-blocks-teleport power, and instead adapt to the new theme, something like "makes precious metals scarce." (Then again, Av gets blasted into nothing but a twenty-mile stretch around Flint, and somehow it ends up fully-restored for the upcoming campaign-book.)

Anyway, I'll admit these aren't really "questions", as the answers are obvious here, I'm more just trying to make conversation about my favorite adventure path

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I think the answer is yes. I will post a longer reply later on my thoughts as I am currently trying to work out how various planets will interact as my players are planning on a complciated solar system

Edit
A related question what are the planar traits of the nameless homeworld and how do they effect the other worlds/planes of the system?

 

[Blue Orange]

Medieval Europeans believed that the visible planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, and they included the Sun and Moon often) had all kinds of occult influences, so Mercury might make things more changeable and Venus more romantic. It's where we get our words 'mercurial', 'venereal', 'martial', 'jovial', 'saturnine', and 'lunatic' from. They had long tables of correspondences of the planets and signs of the zodiac with colors, metals, plants, animals, and the like.

So all sides might get +1 to damage if Mars is in the sky, or confusion spells might be more effective if the moon is full, for example.

The Chinese had their own tables of correspondences based around their five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water).

 

[RangerWickett]

As for the Dreaming and Bleak Gate, Av orbits the earth, so its effects only really manifest there.

 

[efreund]

As for the Dreaming and Bleak Gate, Av orbits the earth, so its effects only really manifest there.

But in the Grand Design, Av is stuck in the 8th slot (death) and the Dreaming/BG still reflects Flint (on earth), not the next-nearest planet (Illocus?)

 

[arkwright]

But in the Grand Design, Av is stuck in the 8th slot (death) and the Dreaming/BG still reflects Flint (on earth), not the next-nearest planet (Illocus?)

We don't see the Grand Design realized because Av gets knocked into the Gyre, the Dreaming with it. If the Grand Design was realized then we would very likely see the Lanjyr Dreaming destroyed and some new Dreaming created, based off of Illocus or something else.

For the sake of simplicity, I would strongly suggest that plane effects should only influence the 'central' world in the system.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I think it is more complex but fun to assume that the planets effect each other. Not that the effects on other planets will be that important to the players. This also made be think 'What is the trait of their homeworld?" I thought Perhaps 'Heroes Arise to defeat the threat' but my players suggested
'
Synergy: the creation of a whole that is greater than the simple sum of its parts. Complex solutions beat simple solutions.

Civilisations, groups, plans and other things all show a tendency to combine disparate, and often contradictory pieces together to form a more complex whole which seems to work better than a more simple approach.

With a hole bunch of examples.

I think Av still resembled Risur in the Grand design because it is not a moon of another planet so it has not reformated to mirror another planet so it remains an image of the world it orbited , but that mirror will no longer change to match the changes on the world if it remains seperated for long enough.

My players are very likely to stick both Iretha Ket and Av in the Life slot around the planet so I have been thinking about how this works. Obviosuly Disney musical numbers and the Fey go together perfectly but I think Av will mirror both Iretha Ket and the mainworld so instead of a planet with 2 moons they will get a planet and 3 moons Av/primary mirror. Iretha Ket, Av/Iretha Ket mirror.
In general I would not have a planets traits effect its elemental opposite (except somewhere like Av which is Life and Death so the Death plane may effect it).

So having Jiesse in the fire slot means every world in the system if it has a civilisation on it could build technology, technically including Av , I think the fact that technology messes with the Fey is an example of an unplanned interaction between Jiesse and Av possibly because they share the Life trait .
Avilona would mean flying was hard on every planet and Urim means gold blocks teleportation everywhere, the planets with more complicated traits are more complex to work out as are binary combinations, I am expecting to have to deal with 5 to 8 binary planatery systems and they may try for a triplet.

I also think that the overall planar bias of the system may be worth thinking about if there is a strong balance in favour of one or two planets in the secondary elemental traits that should probably make the effects of that element or maybe the effect of the planet(s) in that slot stronger

 

[arkwright]

It is more complex to come up with how the planar traits affect each other; but the problem is that once you decide on how they affect each other, you then apply that exact set of effects to all planes in the solar system, making all the planes very identical. You could say that the 'local' effect is strongest, but that is still rather weak.

Better, I think, to have each plane only be affected by its own traits, with the exception of the central world. It allows for the PCs and Lanjyran civilization to 'specialize'. Put industry on Jiese, put dance academies on Iratha Ket, as opposed to putting both factories and dance academies on both Jiese and Iratha Ket.

 

[Andrew Moreton]

I pretty much totally disagree.
Each world and culture is a unique thing (this is going to be less apparent with the normal gyre worlds few of which have a culture) to which the lens of the system traits will be applied and make each world more unique. Importantly this lets the players really think about what they are building (if they care to go into detail) and build a truly unique system .

So Iretha Ket will be a world of living skeletons rebuilding for their mortal relatives and the theme of that world is going to be the rebirth of their world and possible tensions between the dead and the living they are protecting. The world will also always be dominated by it's musical tendencies . When Jiesse is added to the system then on Iretha Ket the people will be able to build science and technology if they choose to but unless Jiesse or a a substitute is present then they will not, and the ability to fly will be set by the choice of Air plane.
I don't yet know what I will be getting but I know my players plan 3 lists
1) the Simple option a set of worlds any of them can fit in to be used if they have a lot of casualties and not much time on Axis Island
2) The optimum plan to be implemented by a specially prepared pc with lots of magical skill boosts implemented in a specific order to optimise the binary or Trinary planets
3) A version of the above in case the cannot access the existing Ob Icons using only their own icons they control.

I expect them to implement 2 . I know that this will include Iretha Ket, Av (Binary), Gloriana(my invention) but I have no idea what they will settle on for the rest and in what combinations. They are thinking of an Alliance of Worlds which may be able to defend itself even without an Apet or Nem barrier,

 

[Lylandra]

huh and I thought the spheres/worlds only had effects on the world(s) they are bound to via ritual... or maybe on the planet they orbited as a moon.