Living After The Sun Died

[Land Outcast]

Also, remember Illithid conception of deities...
After "some centuries" I wouldn't be surprised that no religion survived their manipulation of society (or at least only some core venerations, actually conglomerates of previous religions melded together to survive), after all, 'tis what makes many peole strong, and they want docile cattle (most of the time).

 

[Yair]

Thanks all. Some really good ideas there.

The idea is to have an all-psionics campaign, playing only psionic races and classes against a background of psionic opponents. I think augmenting this background with a few non-psionic creatures (such as skum) would be necessary, but I would like to avoid arcane and divine creatures and magic to preserve the all-psionics feel and nature of the game.

I agree with the sentiment that the setting requires a huge handwave, but I'd still like to give a nod to versimilitude - hence the thread. So thanks again for all your ideas, they are really helping. I'm still not at all sure how best to approach this, but at least now I'm contemplating more (and more intersting) ideas...

 

[DMH]

A few centuries of ice cover will not kill all complex plant life. Some seeds, spores and "hybernating" plants will likely survive. And without competition, will likely flourish during the "big thaw".

Even those seeds that can sprout after being frozen for so long are going to have problems surviving. Many tree species seedlings rely on either adult trees (possibly of other species) or fungal root symbiotes or both. And what of the flowering plants- pollinating insects* are not going to survive centuries of being frozen.

It would be like dropping seeds on Martian soil under a dome and expecting them to live normally. The air may have not changed, but everything else has.


*Not so trivial fact- beetles are the most important, then bees then butterflies.

 

[jim pinto]

science channel thing

there was a special on tv once about mass-extinction events

i don't recall which one, but it went something like this

there have been five in the history of life on planet earth (if you believe the planet is over 6,000 years old)...

cockroaches have survived all five

hominids have not witnessed one, BUT it is theorized that because of our biodiversity, population levels, and wide-spread population, that we would survive one if it happened today

the same could be said for one of the 1600 species of cockroaches and so on

if the game intends to include any race the DM wants (and i must say oozes are awesome), then it is simply a matter of orc and goblin and minotaur hold-outs surviving in corners of the world that no one expected them to survive in

i would love to see a full write up of this game world when it's done

 

[Nifft]

Just because it's a psionic world doesn't mean all magic (and magic items) are gone. Just that they are exceedingly rare.

Some hold out ideas:

1/ Lost in the ruins of a forgotten city lives a tribe of exactly XX people, where XX is four times the number of sustaining spoons that their ancestors found in a magic item shop.

2/ Undead! They can live forever. Well, not live live, but you know what I mean. I see a lot of Liches coming into existence just around the time of the Great Sundown, because Wizards are smart, and can read the writing on the wall in many languages.

3/ Maybe some of the more powerful dudes took their friends & families to alternate planes and/or alternate worlds. Aasimar and Tieflings may be looking to migrate back home once the Sun is back in the sky.

-- N

 

[Tonguez]

Psionic Mucous World!

I like the idea of a psionic mucous world.

This could be used instead of the Divine Intervention idea posited above.

What is some races developed a symbiotic relationship with their psionic skins and used them to survive the death of the sun. Perhaps goblins now live inside nodules the grow within gigantic algae sheaths and humans live underground beneath a slimey fungal sheild only emerge when protected by their living psionic skins.

 

[jim pinto]

Yair. If you ever finish your notes on this, I would love to see them.