[Dragon Earth]The Three Ladies Return

[mythusmage]

Just long enough to give Mythusmage "The Look". Then return home, discussing their ENWorld's latest travails. (Virus attack. Keeps morphing into an anti President Kyle site. And tracking down the hacker is proving to be harder than initially expected.) So this thread will be about the world they live in.

I will start it with with the admonition, these are not the vampires you are looking for. As the thread goes on it will become clear.

Next. The metaphysical foundations of Dragon Earth. Complete with pseudo-science and poorly founded speculation.

 

[mythusmage]

Kathleen stepped down the site, her feet touching lightly on the hardbaked Kenyan soil. It was old as paleontological sites go. Well picked over, but still things weathered out of the local rock, and sometimes a partial skeleton.

After 10 years here she had an eye for small hints. Today there was something else. Something that prickled at her spine.

The monthly supplies being late didn't help. She had a few ounces of blood left, but would it last long enough? She remembered the early days, just after the change, and she had no desire to relive them. The locals would help, but she was feeling a bit contrary of late and really had no desire to impose on them.

So many discoveries made here. The first of the plains apes ever discovered. The oldest footprints made by a bipedal primate. Unless the new discoveries in Senegal paid out. The first discovery of worked stone tools.

But today? Today something nagged at her. A darkling twitch at her soul that reminded her of the man who'd essentially raped her close to three centuries ago. And it came from here.

She let her sight go slack. To her vision the world became draped with strands and threads. Threads she wove together with gesture and word into a pattern. A faint pattern that spoke of wrongness, of great age. Of something that saw her and those she knew as a momentary amusement, but other wise held no concern for her at all. A thing that where it showed any consideration for her feelings it was because her terror and disgust amused it.

Kathleen let the pattern go, closing her eyes as it dissipated. It was an old evil. Too old really for anyone of her experience to note. But she had.

Pride be damned. She needed to be alive for this. To be human. Fully alive, fully human. She sped off to the nearest village, there to seek the boon.

That was supposed to be the introduction to the first in a series of postings on Dragon Earth. But, it kinda took up the space allotted. Sometimes you can't introduce the new reality destroying threat in a couple of sentences. So the metaphysics of Dragon Earth has to wait for the next installment. Sorry 'bout that.

 

[Berandor]

You are the king of non sequitur posting. Thank you.

 

[Piratecat]

Mythusmage, could you please let us know whether this is:

- a d20 Modern-esque thread? If so, we'll slide it over to the d20 Games forum.
- a story hour-type thread? If so, it'll go there.
- a D&D campaign thread? If so, it's in the right place.
- None of the above? Then it may need to be in the off topic forum.

It's really difficult to tell from the above posts, so any clarification would be appreciated. I know it's about the DragonEarth you mentioned in the previous thread, but unless you post about it only you have the background to know what kind of setting it is.

 

[Tom Cashel]

Far out.

 

[mythusmage]

It's Metaphysics Time

In one very important way the Dragon Earth universe is very much like ours. It is understandable. Furthermore, that understanding can be taught. It can be tested and falsified. It is, in short, a scientific universe. A universe that obeys scientific laws.

Yes, even the magic.

Technically speaking, Dragon Earth is a science fiction setting, with fantasy trappings. But since most folks think of any place with working magic as fantasy, then we'll refer to Dragon Earth as a fantasy setting.

Make Believe Science Time

Starting at the basics, Dragon Earth is an alternate world. One where things are much like here, and much unlike. The universe itself is about 15 billion years old, and the history is much like ours. Stars were born, elements forged, and eventually a world that would one day be known as "Earth" took shape in orbit around a G type star.

With the inclusion of magic. How did that come about?

What follows is entirely made up and has nothing to do with the real world, as far as we know.

The universe is a most curious beast. It is a solid that exhibits traits found in fluids and gases. All in the universe is space-time. Even matter and energy. Furthermore, the universe is one huge ball of space-time. Compressed space-time.

It is this compression that produces what are known as, "Folds". These Folds are not objects per se. A Fold is a property of space-time. A property that bends space-time. That is the most important thing to remember about folds.

Folds are most often found as singletons. On occasion a number of Folds will come together in a pattern where they 'orbit' around a common center. Though it really isn't the Folds that orbit, but the Fold property.

It works like this: It is not space-time that moves, but the property of being Folded that moves. In effect, space-time goes from being flat to being Folded, while the space-time once Folded becomes flat. There are a couple of things to remember regarding this.

First, space-time can not be created or destroyed, only changed from one condition to another. From Folded to flat and vice versa.

Second: Space-time resists change. The faster and/or larger the change in a volume of space-time the more effort it takes. In short, a single Fold can 'travel' across the universe nearly instantaneously. But multi Fold patterns must 'travel' a lot slower.

Next time we'll be looking at twine and superstrings, and Dragon Earth's five forms of energy. Emergent properties dead ahead.

 

[mythusmage]

Mythusmage, could you please let us know whether this is:

- a d20 Modern-esque thread? If so, we'll slide it over to the d20 Games forum.
- a story hour-type thread? If so, it'll go there.
- a D&D campaign thread? If so, it's in the right place.
- None of the above? Then it may need to be in the off topic forum.

It's really difficult to tell from the above posts, so any clarification would be appreciated. I know it's about the DragonEarth you mentioned in the previous thread, but unless you post about it only you have the background to know what kind of setting it is.

If you must, you can consider it a d20 setting. Sort of D&D® in the modern day, only not. It's not a simple thing to explain, as you've no doubt noticed by know.

And, yes, the pseudo physics play a part.

So go ahead and shuffle this beast of to the d20 forum.

 

[Henry]

I'm no good at the shuffle, but I have been known to do a little soft-shoe.

 

[Barak]

oh boy.

I am so confused. Am I the only one?

 

[Zappo]

I think this is MM introducing a new setting, or putting on paper (well, sorta) ideas for a setting. Since I like pseudo-science and "objective magic", I'm quite intrigued.