How do you treat Outer Space in your fantasy setting?
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frankthedm
First Post
the current world's moon can be flown to by strong creatureor strong magic. past that is lethal-to-most-critters. Vacuum other planets in solar system mostly uninhabited. other solar systems have inhabited worlds. black gulf between the stars sometimes have lovecraftian horrors so travel is not common even amoung those who can. those who try teleporing find the horrors inhabit more than just the material plane. The gods of mortals do keep those things away from most habited worlds [to keep said worlds habited.
Jürgen Hubert
First Post
For Urbis, I use a "space as envisioned by H.P. Lovecraft" approach - Outer Space looks superficially like in the real world, but it is far more populated than might be expected - and none of the life forms there resemble humans. And sometimes, creatures from Outer Space end up on the main world - just as humans can reach Outer Space with magic (and in fact, they have set up small colonies on some worlds).
Here's my writeup of the solar system:
Other planets can be seen circling in the night sky above. Sometimes, mighty archmages have visited them, bringing back tales of strange and fantastic places if they bother to tell about their exploits at all.
And sometimes, the inhabitants of these far-off worlds come to visit this one.
Magrith
A hot and wet world covered by dense jungles and deep oceans.
Known inhabitants of this planet include carrion crawlers, chuuls, digesters, ethereal filchers, ettercaps, fungi, othyughs, phantom fungi, purple worms, shambling mounds, spider eaters, stirges, and tendriculous.
Rothea
The home world of humanity and many other intelligent races besides. Its geography and people are detailed elsewhere. Its solitary moon, Uluth, appears lifeless to the naked eye, but explorers who braved its airless surface tell of creatures of elemental earth who have made their home there. Some tales tell of vast underground cavern complexes with thriving ecosystems, but these reports must be considered apocryphal at bet.
Also noteworthy are two large rocks with a length of approximately one hundred miles each that are located at the points where the gravitational pull of Rothea and Uluth cancel each other out. These are commonly called "Uluth's Herald" (or "the Herald") and "Uluth's Servant" (or "the Servant), and appear approximately four hours before (in the case of the Herald) or after (in the case of the Servant) Uluth in the sky. Some diviners have reported seeing structures on the surface of these moonlets, pointing to inhabitants, but the truth behind this remains a mystery.
Yethrod
A wet world with a dense atmosphere, Yethrod is perpetually shrouded in mist. Yethrod has almost no natural elevations like mountains that break through its dense cloud cover. Instead, it has massive plants that are many miles high and that have been dubbed "world trees" by explorers, whose upper surface reaches beyond the clouds and hungrily drinks all the surface it can get. Its massive seeds float as well, thanks to lighter-than-air gases that accumulate in its interior. The seed trails a long root behind it that reaches all the way to the ground. When that root finds a locale that is suitable as a base for the world tree, it fixes itself to the ground and grows until it becomes the massive trunk of an adult world tree.
Below its cloud cover, the atmosphere of Yethrod has a very low visibility. This has caused the animals of this planet to have underdeveloped visual organs - indeed, eyes are often entirely absent. On the other hand, they have a keenly developed sense of hearing, and most beings orientate themselves by sonar. Some beings have developed their sonar to such a strength that they can even rend flesh with it, and use it for hunting.
Know inhabitants of this planet include destrachans and yrthaks.
Surtus
A large, cool and dry world without any major bodies of water. Its wind-swept surface has a high content of iron, which gives the entire planet a rust red color.
Bodenwald has established several diamond mines on Surtus, since these gems are abundant in some areas. The logistics of these mines are staggering, but they have paid off handsomely, since diamond dust is in strong demand as a material component for raise dead and similar spells. The mines now finance most of the space exploration ventures of the city-state, which has caused other cities to rethink their negligence of the other planets.
Known inhabitants of this planet include ankhegs, basilisks, behirs, bulettes, delvers, displacer beasts, frost worms, manticores, remorhazes, rust monsters, and umber hulks.
Calturus
The outermost planet in the solar system, Calturus presents a cold, airless surface to the observer. Its interior is still heated by volcanic activity, however, and all kinds of loathsome and slimy creatures thrive in the wet, subterranean cave systems.
Known inhabitants of this planet include aboleths, cloakers, darkmantles, gray renders, gricks, mind flayers, and ropers.
Here's my writeup of the solar system:
Other planets can be seen circling in the night sky above. Sometimes, mighty archmages have visited them, bringing back tales of strange and fantastic places if they bother to tell about their exploits at all.
And sometimes, the inhabitants of these far-off worlds come to visit this one.
Magrith
A hot and wet world covered by dense jungles and deep oceans.
Known inhabitants of this planet include carrion crawlers, chuuls, digesters, ethereal filchers, ettercaps, fungi, othyughs, phantom fungi, purple worms, shambling mounds, spider eaters, stirges, and tendriculous.
Rothea
The home world of humanity and many other intelligent races besides. Its geography and people are detailed elsewhere. Its solitary moon, Uluth, appears lifeless to the naked eye, but explorers who braved its airless surface tell of creatures of elemental earth who have made their home there. Some tales tell of vast underground cavern complexes with thriving ecosystems, but these reports must be considered apocryphal at bet.
Also noteworthy are two large rocks with a length of approximately one hundred miles each that are located at the points where the gravitational pull of Rothea and Uluth cancel each other out. These are commonly called "Uluth's Herald" (or "the Herald") and "Uluth's Servant" (or "the Servant), and appear approximately four hours before (in the case of the Herald) or after (in the case of the Servant) Uluth in the sky. Some diviners have reported seeing structures on the surface of these moonlets, pointing to inhabitants, but the truth behind this remains a mystery.
Yethrod
A wet world with a dense atmosphere, Yethrod is perpetually shrouded in mist. Yethrod has almost no natural elevations like mountains that break through its dense cloud cover. Instead, it has massive plants that are many miles high and that have been dubbed "world trees" by explorers, whose upper surface reaches beyond the clouds and hungrily drinks all the surface it can get. Its massive seeds float as well, thanks to lighter-than-air gases that accumulate in its interior. The seed trails a long root behind it that reaches all the way to the ground. When that root finds a locale that is suitable as a base for the world tree, it fixes itself to the ground and grows until it becomes the massive trunk of an adult world tree.
Below its cloud cover, the atmosphere of Yethrod has a very low visibility. This has caused the animals of this planet to have underdeveloped visual organs - indeed, eyes are often entirely absent. On the other hand, they have a keenly developed sense of hearing, and most beings orientate themselves by sonar. Some beings have developed their sonar to such a strength that they can even rend flesh with it, and use it for hunting.
Know inhabitants of this planet include destrachans and yrthaks.
Surtus
A large, cool and dry world without any major bodies of water. Its wind-swept surface has a high content of iron, which gives the entire planet a rust red color.
Bodenwald has established several diamond mines on Surtus, since these gems are abundant in some areas. The logistics of these mines are staggering, but they have paid off handsomely, since diamond dust is in strong demand as a material component for raise dead and similar spells. The mines now finance most of the space exploration ventures of the city-state, which has caused other cities to rethink their negligence of the other planets.
Known inhabitants of this planet include ankhegs, basilisks, behirs, bulettes, delvers, displacer beasts, frost worms, manticores, remorhazes, rust monsters, and umber hulks.
Calturus
The outermost planet in the solar system, Calturus presents a cold, airless surface to the observer. Its interior is still heated by volcanic activity, however, and all kinds of loathsome and slimy creatures thrive in the wet, subterranean cave systems.
Known inhabitants of this planet include aboleths, cloakers, darkmantles, gray renders, gricks, mind flayers, and ropers.
In my campaign the old crystal spheres of Spelljammer where destroyed creating our normal Outer space. Some ships, survived by while in port while those on the Rock where transported to the deep ethreal right before the final destruction when the Spelljammer mysteriously appeared in the rocks gravity sphere. The jammers quickly learned that the helms no longer functioned on the Prime, but worked fine on the planes, so instead of traveling through the phlogliston and spheres, they travel through the astral, deep ethreal (essentialy planar reflection of outerspace), and outer and inner planes via portals and astral conduits. Ships with normal motive means even make port on the prime on occasion. Well, you did ask.
Jürgen Hubert said:
Was Lovecraft's outer space a vacuum? I remember that some creatures literally flew through space without any vac-suit. But, then again, those creatures were so alien that they probably didn't need to breathe!
Also of note is an Edgar Allan Poe story about a balloonists journey up into space. I *think* as the the ballonist got higher, the air got thinner, and he nearly passes out. However, this was just a barrier, once he got past the "thin air" he could once again breathe. This is my vague memory of the story; I could have it wrong.
Galethorn
First Post
Normal space, only in the most simplistic of terms. The world, Yril, orbits the sun, and itself is orbited by a single moon; Lyri. The space between those three bodies is essentially the same as real-life space, though it might have considerably less radiation...if you knew how to check. The stars are 'really far away', and seem to be of different sizes, and move at wildly different rates; the biggest ones seem to move more quickly and regularly, however.
The *deities actually live on Yril, on inaccessable continents (except to elves and the dead, who both end up there eventually). If one was to sail across the sea, they might actually reach the Land of the Gods, but they would quickly be caught and killed/sent home by divine servants.
*Two of the four; one godess is the world, and the other lives on the moon. The two gods live on/slightly under the surface.
The *deities actually live on Yril, on inaccessable continents (except to elves and the dead, who both end up there eventually). If one was to sail across the sea, they might actually reach the Land of the Gods, but they would quickly be caught and killed/sent home by divine servants.
*Two of the four; one godess is the world, and the other lives on the moon. The two gods live on/slightly under the surface.
Jürgen Hubert
First Post
dead said:
Well, humans couldn't survive there without special preparations - like the "Space Mead" that protected them from it (though I don't remember if that is actually out of a Lovecraft story). Conveniently, the Space Mead also made the experience rather blurry and confusing...
Those creatures that can "fly" through space probably do this through vibrations in higher dimensions - I believe this is canon for the Mi-Go, and probably safe to assume for others as well. Certainly, terrestrial creatures can't do this on their own, and many other aliens can't do it, either - I believe the Beings from Yaddith use "light-envelope ships", whatever that might be...
Turanil
First Post
I never bothered about it, but would assume it is like real space (vacuum at near absolute zero temperature). I really don't like other more fantastic treatments, I always prefered a realist world in which magic works.
I remember that in a campaign once, my high level wizard had got a robe of stars (or something like that) that worked like a vacuum suit. He used it to teleport on the moon, visit around and return. It had nothing to do with the adventure, but I was very satisfied with that trip.
I remember that in a campaign once, my high level wizard had got a robe of stars (or something like that) that worked like a vacuum suit. He used it to teleport on the moon, visit around and return. It had nothing to do with the adventure, but I was very satisfied with that trip.
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