cignus_pfaccari
First Post
drothgery said:
I suppose one could use a Dyson Sphere or a ringworld.
But a flat world is not going to develop naturally, which is really more what I was attempting to say (and for some reason couldn't last night).
Brad
How would a Flat World work, visually?
- Thread starter LordVyreth
- Start date
I suppose one could use a Dyson Sphere or a ringworld.
But a flat world is not going to develop naturally, which is really more what I was attempting to say (and for some reason couldn't last night).
Brad
buzz
Adventurer
Thornir Alekeg
Albatross!
Interesting concept. Making some assumptions here: The world grows more orderly or more chaotic as it approaches those source points? Being flat, I would say you can see things that rise up from a good distance away. The closer you move towards perfect order, the further you can see as the atmosphere becomes less turbulent. Moving closer to the Chaos source your sight range grows more and more limited as the chaotic movements and mixing of the atmosphere diminishes its clarity.LordVyreth said:
Here's what I wrote up for my flat world, modeled onthe order of the stick comic (stick figure physics, not the same world cosmology).
Cosmology
The world is called "Eurastika" by its denizens. The world is flat, with a wrap-around characteristic, should one travel the 26,000 miles to find out. The sun is a light source that resides 20,000 miles above the plane. The sun travels a path from East to West across the equator of the world (the middle as determined by the path the sun takes). It exists in all positions along the equator at the same time. (a dilema for whoever discovers quantum physics in this world to solve). Thus, from any position on the ground, it appears that the sun rises and sets. It also will be "midnight" at the same time, anywhere on the plane. The day/night cycle is 24 hours. The plane tilts along the equatorial axis seasonally, which causes the seasons, temperature variance, and varying length in daylight hours.
Eurastika has a single moon that travels diagonaly across the equator from a north-east to south-west direction. this causes it to appear in varying positions across the world. The moon exists as normal entity, and truly does appear different when viewed at the same time from different places.
[edit]Science Content
The sun appearing in all positions along the equator is a quantum physics effect. Basically, the sun exists in such a state that it hasn't determined it's starting position, and thus exists in all posible starting positions along the equator. It's momentum keeps it moving, so it effectively shifts position along the equator. The sun is not a big entity, being close enough to the plane provide its warmth. It is still hot enough that if one were able to travel to it, proximity would be fatal.
The wrap-around effect isn't really scientific, you might claim it as a curvature of space problem. However, the plane really is flat. When sailing, ships on the horizon are just really tiny, as opposed to only being able to see the crow's nest, as the rest of the ship is obscured.
The plane tilt will cause seasonal effect farther away from the equator, because as the plane tilt brings the northern half closer to the sun, getting it more heat. Technically, there's a little problem with what happens to the southern half, since it is technically, just north of the northern half, if you get our meaning. Somehow it all works out though. Perhaps the wrap-around effect only works east-west, and not along the northern/southern borders. it's too cold there to find out.
The last problem to solve is the whole distance of the sun to the plane, size of the world, and the appearance of night (aka lack of visible sunlight). Since the world isn't round, the sun can't hide behind the other half. If the world width is very wide, and the sun height is not very high, then as the sun recedes from your position, it will be mostly obscured from view due to the landscape. At most, there will be a glow on the horizon all night.
Cosmology
The world is called "Eurastika" by its denizens. The world is flat, with a wrap-around characteristic, should one travel the 26,000 miles to find out. The sun is a light source that resides 20,000 miles above the plane. The sun travels a path from East to West across the equator of the world (the middle as determined by the path the sun takes). It exists in all positions along the equator at the same time. (a dilema for whoever discovers quantum physics in this world to solve). Thus, from any position on the ground, it appears that the sun rises and sets. It also will be "midnight" at the same time, anywhere on the plane. The day/night cycle is 24 hours. The plane tilts along the equatorial axis seasonally, which causes the seasons, temperature variance, and varying length in daylight hours.
Eurastika has a single moon that travels diagonaly across the equator from a north-east to south-west direction. this causes it to appear in varying positions across the world. The moon exists as normal entity, and truly does appear different when viewed at the same time from different places.
[edit]Science Content
The sun appearing in all positions along the equator is a quantum physics effect. Basically, the sun exists in such a state that it hasn't determined it's starting position, and thus exists in all posible starting positions along the equator. It's momentum keeps it moving, so it effectively shifts position along the equator. The sun is not a big entity, being close enough to the plane provide its warmth. It is still hot enough that if one were able to travel to it, proximity would be fatal.
The wrap-around effect isn't really scientific, you might claim it as a curvature of space problem. However, the plane really is flat. When sailing, ships on the horizon are just really tiny, as opposed to only being able to see the crow's nest, as the rest of the ship is obscured.
The plane tilt will cause seasonal effect farther away from the equator, because as the plane tilt brings the northern half closer to the sun, getting it more heat. Technically, there's a little problem with what happens to the southern half, since it is technically, just north of the northern half, if you get our meaning. Somehow it all works out though. Perhaps the wrap-around effect only works east-west, and not along the northern/southern borders. it's too cold there to find out.
The last problem to solve is the whole distance of the sun to the plane, size of the world, and the appearance of night (aka lack of visible sunlight). Since the world isn't round, the sun can't hide behind the other half. If the world width is very wide, and the sun height is not very high, then as the sun recedes from your position, it will be mostly obscured from view due to the landscape. At most, there will be a glow on the horizon all night.
Quartz
Hero
The world presented in the old Imagine magazine was a discworld, but a growing one. IIRC there was pure order in the centre and as you got to the edge things became more and more chaotic, but that edge was ever expanding outwards, which gave a great excuse for suddenly inventing new lands to explore.
theskyfullofdust
First Post
My new homebrew is a flat, disc, world (easier to draw), with a large mountain range in the centre, which is where the Gods were born. It creates the sun on a daily basis; the heart/core is a conduit to the Elemental Chaos.
I tried to do some research on the web about how far you could see on a flat world, but it was not easy to find anything concrete. With no weather to get in the way, you could technically see the ends of the world. I'm house-ruling a limit of about 100 miles on a clear day.
Not sure yet how my NPCs view living on a flat world, or even if they're fully aware of it. The main landmass is surrounded by sea, the edge of the world polar ice-cliffs, so exploring that way for the common man is mighty hard; but is a hook for a potentail adventure
Haven't quite decided what to do with the moon though. Need one, but whether it's going to be an actually moon, or something to do with the created sun, I don't know.
And my world was created by the God Io, father to the others Gods. So, it can look like anything I desire
I tried to do some research on the web about how far you could see on a flat world, but it was not easy to find anything concrete. With no weather to get in the way, you could technically see the ends of the world. I'm house-ruling a limit of about 100 miles on a clear day.
Not sure yet how my NPCs view living on a flat world, or even if they're fully aware of it. The main landmass is surrounded by sea, the edge of the world polar ice-cliffs, so exploring that way for the common man is mighty hard; but is a hook for a potentail adventure
Haven't quite decided what to do with the moon though. Need one, but whether it's going to be an actually moon, or something to do with the created sun, I don't know.
And my world was created by the God Io, father to the others Gods. So, it can look like anything I desire
LordVyreth
First Post
Plane Sailing said:
Would that always be true, though? The only fictional self-defined ring worlds I am aware of are the books of the same name, which I haven't read, and Halo, which I thought were comparatively small in the sense that you can see the other side above you and the land "rise" up on both sides. Oh, and there are the spaceships in the Rama books, but those are explicitely artificial.
LordVyreth
First Post
Thornir Alekeg said:
That's sort of true. Civilization and geography lack any corrolation, but some lawful and chaotic monsters are located at the appropriate sides. The actual inhabitable area is fairly small; there is nothing but endless fog past a point on the chaotic south, and bright lights similar to the Aurora Borealist by the lawful north, and no one who goes far in either side ever returns. Both sort of reflect the "diminished sight" concept, but I suppose in the inhabitable area the base sight range can be reduced. I need to figure out the base numbers, though.
As others have noted, air isn't perfectly transparent. There's dust, water droplets, and even the gasses themselves that tend to absorb and obscure, when there's enough of them. So, very distant objects will be lost in the haze.
As for things like mountains - note that even if they are mile-high things, when they are 500 miles away, they're going to seem pretty small (they'll take up only a small fraction of your field of view, and are likely to be obscured by much closer objects (like trees and houses).
As for things like mountains - note that even if they are mile-high things, when they are 500 miles away, they're going to seem pretty small (they'll take up only a small fraction of your field of view, and are likely to be obscured by much closer objects (like trees and houses).
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