Fantasy Cosmology Compendium

[Eerie]

I want to make a list of various forms fantasy worlds can take. I`ll start with what I know, and you all are invited to add more. I will appreciate corrections, examples, links, good illustrations...



Fantasy Cosmology Compendium


1. Spherical world.
Universe full of spheres. This is the most realistic cosmology, because, well, it`s the real one. In order to find inconsistences, you have to plunge deep into astronomy and quantum physics (dark energy, Higgs boson et cetera).


Advantages:
- Physical model already fully developed by centuries of scientific progress.
- Variably big, yet travel between planets is hard.

Problems:
- Unoriginal, boring.
- Space. Blurs the border between fantasy and sci-fi. If you have space and elfs, you will eventually have elfs IN SPACE!!!, and not everybody likes it.

Variants:
- Geocentrical model.
- Space filled with air.


2. Flat Earth
A plane. Your old flat world.


Advantages:
- Easy do draw maps.
- Classic.

Problems:
- Gravity. If the plane only have one side, then why does it floats? And will anything that fall off accelerate forever?
- Space. Leads to "IN SPACE!!!" problem.
- Horizon should curve up, unless you do something extreme with the atmosphere diffraction. People who live on a flat plane will think they live on the bottom of a hemisphere. "World is a Cup".
- Edges. What holds the atmosphere? What holds the ocean?

Variants:
- Plane of infinite depth and infinite sky, no other side. "It`s stone all the way down and air all the way up". Deals with the "IN SPACE!!!" problem.


3. Inverted sphere.
Hollow ball, and you live on the inside. Dyson sphere, only magical.



Advantages:
- It`s cool.

Problems:
- Night time. Movement of sun in the sky.
- Gravity. Everything should fall down into the sun. Possible solution: sun exerts negative gravity.
- Horizon. No horizon at all.
- Space outside the ball. Leads to "IN SPACE!!!" problem.

Variants:
- Hollow bubble inside an infinite space filled with matter. "It`s stone all the way around". Deals with the "IN SPACE!!!" problem.


4. Floating islands.
Many little planes or rocks just flying around.



Advantages:
- It`s cool.
- You can make flight an integral part of your setting.

Problems:
- Gravity.
- Edges. You can`t really have rivers unless you get really big islands. Everything will run off.
- Horizon. Lack thereof. We are floating in empty space. Even if the sun moves, it will never disappear.
- Bombing. Dropping heavy objects in islands below you is very easy.

Variations:
- Combine with something bigger. Floating islands above a surface.



5. World tree
Very big tree, and everyone is living on it.


Advantages:
- It`s cool.

Problems:
- Maps. Go on, draw me a map of a freaking tree.
- Ecology. It`s a tree. It should grow on something. What`s down there, a plane?
- Bombing. Inhabitants should expect heavy object to fall on them every living moment.
- Edges. Hard to have rivers, unless the branches are really big.

Variants:
- Multiple World trees.


6. Dungeon world.
Infinite rock in every direction, honeycombed with tunnels, caverns, underground rivers etc.


Advantages:
- Caves are cool.
- Can have great variety, large caves can function as small worlds.

Problems:
- Maps. 3D world, go draw a map of it...
- Energy. No sun, no light. Need to design light and hear sources.
- Gravity. Infinite world with gravity will collapse. Without gravity you get weightless enviroment where everything flies. Local gravity sources are complicated. Possible easy solution is to give the world a frame, an infinitely strong skeleton upon which everything else lies, thus dividing the world into many finite, non-collapsing parts.

Variants:
- Elemental plane of flesh (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3040009#post3040009). A living Dungeon world. Or you can substitute animal-like flesh for plant-like tissue, and get a plane of plants.


7. Water world.
A universe filled with water. Not to be confused with local underwater settings (in oceans, rivers, caves etc.) although they share many characteristics. May have local bubbles of air\land.


Advantages:
- Underwater settings are cool.
- Weightless enviroment, everything "flies".

Problems:
- Maps. 3D world again.
- Energy. How do you put Sun in the water?

Variants:
-

[Eerie]

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[Eerie]

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[Eerie]

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[Eerie]

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[DracoDei]

6.Dungeon World-esque
Infinite rock in every direction, honeycombed with tunnels, caverns, underground rivers etc etc.


Advantages:


Problems:
Where is the energy input into the ecosystem? (No sun)
Flight rendered nearly useless in most cases. (or is that an advantage?!)

Variants:
I guess Zeta Kai's elemental plane of flesh might qualify as a variation of this... as would the currently in development plane of Plant.




7. Bubbly Water
Came up with this myself basically... because the default Elemental plain of water isn't supposed to have any way for say dolphins and whales (or coral) to realistically survive. So I have had the idea in my head that the elemental plane of water in all my campaigns will have airbubbles, about one mile in diameter should do it with 1d4x10 miles from one to the closest neighbor... throw in some even rarer rocks a few hundred feet in largest dimension for coral reefs, and miniture suns in the center of some of the air-bubbles.


Advantages:
Much more survivable for parties with limited but availible spellcasting resources.
Allows ocean bottom type encounters near rocks, ocean abyss (but without the crushing pressure, just dark and cold) encounters far from the nearest "sun", and hey, everybody loves dolphins...

Problems:
Physics of combining and splitting of bubbles (due to turbulance) implies suns would occasionally get doused, which could be rather problematic, even if they are only a thousand degrees or slightly less. What happens then? Do they go out, or does it just give off a lot of steam

Variants:
Sourceless light instead of suns.

[Eerie]

6.Dungeon World-esque
Infinite rock in every direction, honeycombed with tunnels, caverns, underground rivers etc etc.


Advantages:


Problems:
Where is the energy input into the ecosystem? (No sun)
Flight rendered nearly useless in most cases. (or is that an advantage?!)

Variants:
I guess Zeta Kai's elemental plane of flesh might qualify as a variation of this... as would the currently in development plane of Plant.




Wanted to add this one in the first post, and forgot. Will do.

Another problem with dungeon-world is gravity. If all you have is a stone filled with caves, where is up and down?



7. Bubbly Water
Came up with this myself basically... because the default Elemental plain of water isn't supposed to have any way for say dolphins and whales (or coral) to realistically survive. So I have had the idea in my head that the elemental plane of water in all my campaigns will have airbubbles, about one mile in diameter should do it with 1d4x10 miles from one to the closest neighbor... throw in some even rarer rocks a few hundred feet in largest dimension for coral reefs, and miniture suns in the center of some of the air-bubbles.


Advantages:
Much more survivable for parties with limited but availible spellcasting resources.
Allows ocean bottom type encounters near rocks, ocean abyss (but without the crushing pressure, just dark and cold) encounters far from the nearest "sun", and hey, everybody loves dolphins...

Problems:
Physics of combining and splitting of bubbles (due to turbulance) implies suns would occasionally get doused, which could be rather problematic, even if they are only a thousand degrees or slightly less. What happens then? Do they go out, or does it just give off a lot of steam

Variants:
Sourceless light instead of suns.


Actually, this is Chelestra, one of the worlds of the Death Gate cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Gate_Cycle).

Funny, the cycle also includes Flying islands, Dungeon world and Inversed sphere.

[PirateMonk]

Another problem with dungeon-world is gravity. If all you have is a stone filled with caves, where is up and down?

If you don't mind ignoring real world physics, you could simply say that there is a consistent "down" to which gravity pulls at a constant strength.

Also, what about ringworlds?

[Vaynor]

Another problem with dungeon-world is gravity. If all you have is a stone filled with caves, where is up and down?

Actually, this could make for a rather fun world. You're in an enclosed space, and there is no up or down. Think M.C. Escher.

http://www.globalgallery.com/prod_images/600/esc-e6.jpg

[Eerie]

If you don't mind ignoring real world physics, you could simply say that there is a consistent "down" to which gravity pulls at a constant strength.

It`s too much to ignore. Gravity in an infinite world means everything should collapse immediately into singularity. And if you remove gravity and only keep inertia, well, you get weightless enviroment. Everyone floats.

You can add local gravity sources, but then it gets complicated...

[Zeta Kai]

It`s too much to ignore. Gravity in an infinite world means everything should collapse immediately into singularity. And if you remove gravity and only keep inertia, well, you get weightless enviroment. Everyone floats.

You can add local gravity sources, but then it gets complicated...

...Or you could just go with the flow & not worry about how many catgirls died to bring the fantasy world to life. You know, whichever your prefer. :smallamused:

[Eerie]

...Or you could just go with the flow & not worry about how many catgirls died to bring the fantasy world to life. You know, whichever your prefer. :smallamused:

I prefer to go to the consistency level that makes me feel comfortable. :smallsmile:

[PairO'Dice Lost]

It`s too much to ignore. Gravity in an infinite world means everything should collapse immediately into singularity. And if you remove gravity and only keep inertia, well, you get weightless enviroment. Everyone floats.

You can add local gravity sources, but then it gets complicated...

Simple fix: The "earth" is actually a super-dense metallic stone with massive amounts of gravity (enough that a few inches produces the gravitational force of, oh, the surface of the Earth, say) and bands of dark matter surround the tunnels, precisely canceling out their gravitational effect on the rest of the plane. Fixes gravity, and stops pesky PCs from making new tunnels unless they want to be imploded.

[Eerie]

Simple fix: The "earth" is actually a super-dense metallic stone with massive amounts of gravity (enough that a few inches produces the gravitational force of, oh, the surface of the Earth, say) and bands of dark matter surround the tunnels, precisely canceling out their gravitational effect on the rest of the plane. Fixes gravity, and stops pesky PCs from making new tunnels unless they want to be imploded.

That feels far too artificial.

[PairO'Dice Lost]

That feels far too artificial.

And floating islands or a world tree are more realistic because...?

[Eerie]

And floating islands or a world tree are more realistic because...?

Can`t explain... but floating island is just an island that floats. And world tree is just a very big tree. Tunnels specially designed for gravity, hovewer, just don`t feel natural to me...

[Ichneumon]

You can do some freaky stuff with our normal idea of space and planets though, I've used Pythagorean cosmology in my campaigns and it has some cool aspects to it, like the Counter-earth (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counter-Earth)!

[Eerie]

Added the Dungeon world, along with a posible solution to the gravity problem - a framework. Added a link to the elemental plane of flesh, because it is so cool. :smallsmile:

[SlyGuyMcFly]

Actually, this is Chelestra, one of the worlds of the Death Gate cycle (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_Gate_Cycle).

Funny, the cycle also includes Flying islands, Dungeon world and Inversed sphere.

I wonder what the Labyrinth would be... Infinite Plain?


Another problem with dungeon-world is gravity. If all you have is a stone filled with caves, where is up and down?

I don´t see a problem. There is an arbitrary direction called "down", which is the direction gravity pulls you towards. I mean, the Inverted sphere deal is harder to explain away, as gravity would have to be pulling away from the centre of the world (where the sun is), in a uniform manner.

A Dungeon World could be just like Earth, with the "surface" being an impenetrable barrier of some sorts. I think an Inverted Sphere would need this too, as otherwise you could dig yourself all the way down into outer space.... Which could actually make for a pretty cool adventure hook, come to think about it.

[Eerie]

I wonder what the Labyrinth would be... Infinite Plain?

I don`t remember it`s shape. Was it infinite?

[Eerie]

I don´t see a problem. There is an arbitrary direction called "down", which is the direction gravity pulls you towards. I mean, the Inverted sphere deal is harder to explain away, as gravity would have to be pulling away from the centre of the world (where the sun is), in a uniform manner.

Here is a nice solution. The sun is made of a matter that generate negative gravity on a regular matter. So the inverted sphere is a border where positive and negative gravity reach an equilibrium. It also implies that the outside surface is a regular spherical world. Permanently dark, perhaps, if you only have sun inside.

[Thane of Fife]

8.Fountain World
Flat, finite planes stacked on top of each other, with the larger ones at the bottom (i.e. You can sail off the edge of one world and fall onto the next one down).


Advantages:
Allows for ways to "get rid of" people without actually killing them.
Opportunities for adventure in different environments.
Creates fear of edge of the world

Problems:
Why doesn't all the water go over the edges?

Variants:
You could do sort of a staircase world, I suppose. Or one with a small number of layers.



As another variant to the Flat Earth - "It's water all the way down, and air all the way up."

[Owrtho]

On the idea of an inverted sphere cosmology, I came up with a solution for the day night issue here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117633).

Also, on the dungeon world, you could just say there are multiple sources of gravity, with none strong enough to make the thing implode. Then the tunnels just go around them. And its not like travelers could really tell anyways as they'd be enclosed in the caves.

Owrtho

[Eerie]

On the idea of an inverted sphere cosmology, I came up with a solution for the day night issue here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=117633).

Problem with your solution is the total absence of any time of day bar midnignt and midday.



Also, on the dungeon world, you could just say there are multiple sources of gravity, with none strong enough to make the thing implode. Then the tunnels just go around them. And its not like travelers could really tell anyways as they'd be enclosed in the caves.


It is a solution, but will create regions of weightlessness on the borders between gravity sources. Also, maps become even harder to draw...

[Eerie]

8.Fountain World

I think it`s more of a variation of Flat Earth.

[PirateMonk]

It`s too much to ignore. Gravity in an infinite world means everything should collapse immediately into singularity. And if you remove gravity and only keep inertia, well, you get weightless enviroment. Everyone floats.

You can add local gravity sources, but then it gets complicated...

Given that there aren't any celestial objects to keep in their orbits, what's wrong with replacing "mass attracts mass" with "everything is pulled that way"?

[Eerie]

Given that there aren't any celestial objects to keep in their orbits, what's wrong with replacing "mass attracts mass" with "everything is pulled that way"?

Because "everything" includes the stone itself. So with a constant force applied, everything is falling at the same speed and acceleration, so you get back to weightless enviroment.

Solution to this can be what I proposed, motionless framework.

[Owrtho]

Problem with your solution is the total absence of any time of day bar midnignt and midday.

First, I'd point out it's better than daytime all the time. Second, there would be a (somewhat) gradual change between day and night near the edge of the object blocking the suns shadow (though it likely would be more pronounced than in real life). Also, some other stuff that I'm feeling too lazy to type.

Owrtho

[Eerie]

Added "Water world".

More ideas?