Questions about Sennadar

Mandorin
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Questions about Sennadar

Post by Mandorin »

First, how old is the universe itself? Is the planet of the same age? I remember being intrigued enough by the skybands that I asked my astronomy professor about them, and it seems that keeping them up on anything but a young rocky planet would require (easily available) divine intervention.

Are there any other planets in the Sennadar universe that have life? If so, is it intelligent? Between the icons and the weave itself being present on Sennadar's planet, would it be appropriate to describe it as the capital planet of the universe, if indeed other planets and civilizations do exist? Sennadar is obviously not a world bound in technological stasis, so it would not be too surprising that, within a thousand years, the Wikuni are creating spaceships. Any plans for a far future, same world type of sequel?
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Lochar »

Mandorin wrote:First, how old is the universe itself? Is the planet of the same age? I remember being intrigued enough by the skybands that I asked my astronomy professor about them, and it seems that keeping them up on anything but a young rocky planet would require (easily available) divine intervention.

Are there any other planets in the Sennadar universe that have life? If so, is it intelligent? Between the icons and the weave itself being present on Sennadar's planet, would it be appropriate to describe it as the capital planet of the universe, if indeed other planets and civilizations do exist? Sennadar is obviously not a world bound in technological stasis, so it would not be too surprising that, within a thousand years, the Wikuni are creating spaceships. Any plans for a far future, same world type of sequel?
The original idea for Sennadar pulls from Fel's D&D notebook, where world/plane are pretty much interchangable. You want to go to a different world, you have to use a portal to a different plane. Pyrosia seems odd in that fact since the moon is also inhabitable, but that's the exception to the rule I think.
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

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Mandorin wrote:I remember being intrigued enough by the skybands that I asked my astronomy professor about them, and it seems that keeping them up on anything but a young rocky planet would require (easily available) divine intervention.
I've assumed that the skybands are a ring system, a la Saturn, above the equator. What did your astronomy professor think they are, and why would they only naturally occur on a young rocky planet?

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Re: Questions about Sennadar

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bbobb wrote:I've assumed that the skybands are a ring system, a la Saturn, above the equator. What did your astronomy professor think they are, and why would they only naturally occur on a young rocky planet?

Here's what I know about Sennadar, the planet.

- It orbits a single star.
- It has an atmosphere and climate range similar to earth. (desert, forests, and icy areas)
- It has a ring system visible from the surface.
- It has several (seven?) barren satellites (aka moons).
- None of the moons are on the same orbit
- All of the moons have different orbital periods (i.e: every few thousand years, they form a conjunction when viewed from a specific point on the surface of the planet)
- The ring system is broad enough to fill a significant portion of the sky when observed from close to each pole.
- The ring system is dense enough to provide enough reflected light to do some basic navigation on some areas of the planet.


Having absolutely zero knowledge about orbital mechanics, here's my guess:
For all of the above, to occur, your planet needs to be large enough to have a massive gravity well - moons are pretty massive, and have a fair whack of intertia, so your planet needs to be pretty massive to capture one.

Yes, earth has a big ass moon - however that's only a single moon, and there's no bunch of smaller rocks to get caught in the atmosphere.
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Fel
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Fel »

pretty close.

Sennadar is about 2.5 times the size of Earth, and has about three times the mass, because the planet has significantly more metal in it than Earth.

The circumference of Sennadar is about 60,000 miles, to give you an idea.

This tremendous size gives the planet a massive gravity well; gravity on Sennadar is about three times gravity on Earth. On Sennadar, I would weigh 600 pounds. :shock:

This is why everyone is stronger on Pyrosia...but Pyrosia itself is also larger than earth and has stronger gravity as well.

If Dolanna was on Earth, for example, everything would be three times lighter to her. Where on Sennadar she could manage to pick up about a hundred pounds (but not carry it anywhere), she could pick up three hundred on Earth.

Normally this kind of massive gravity would preclude any large creatures, who would be crushed under their own mass, but that's where magic comes in. Magic infuses the Sennadar universe and overrules physics to permit things that wouldn't normally exist. ;)

Sennadar's gravity well allows it to maintain its 4 moons and an extensive ring system without any kind of magical intervention.
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Mandorin »

Ah, that would explain it. I was assuming Sennadar had a size and mass similar to Earth.
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Were_Fan »

Lochar wrote:
The original idea for Sennadar pulls from Fel's D&D notebook, where world/plane are pretty much interchangable. You want to go to a different world, you have to use a portal to a different plane. Pyrosia seems odd in that fact since the moon is also inhabitable, but that's the exception to the rule I think.
I am not into the D&D scene but have noticed the apparently confusion over the words planet and universe. The terms planet and universe are interchanged often in the Firestaff books. If you think of planets such as Sennadar and Pyrosia as pocket universes, it can work out OK. Otherwise, Niami's comment about 100 conversations being her maximum would be way too low for a god considering there are billions of stars in a galaxy. It is just a story so please don't ask me how stars appear in the pocket universe! :-)
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by J-Man5 »

Were_Fan wrote:It is just a story so please don't ask me how stars appear in the pocket universe! :-)
Oh my!!! What a temptation!

Must resist. Nope.

Were_Fan how do stars appear in a pocket universe?

Do tell please. <BIG GRIN>

Oh and I don't think they are the one's in a cartoon that spin arround someones head when they are hit. <PHBBBPHTTTTTTTTTT>

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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by J-Man5 »

I have a theory about the stars. They are painted by the gods themselves on the inside of the pocket universe. Or they are a representation of everylife on Sennadar. Just like the starts in the Heart represent all the Sorcerers and Sorceresses alive. So each new life a new star. When Dakki and Dakku come to collect a soul at death the could still leave the star behind as the soul is still existing.

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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Spec8472 »

An easy explanation is that Sennadar is the only habitable/populated planet inside its own pocket universe... thus the stars are really stars.
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Trekkie »

Spec8472 wrote:An easy explanation is that Sennadar is the only habitable/populated planet inside its own pocket universe... thus the stars are really stars.
thats such a waste of space, though
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Fel »

hehehe.

In my old game world, there WERE other worlds in the Sennadar universe that had life on them. There are no plans at this time to introduce these "aliens." ;)

One thing I didn't note when I replied was the unique aspect of Pyrosia.

Elara is not a moon. It is a planet. It is only slightly smaller than Pyrosia.

Pyrosia and Elara are a double planet system. They orbit one another in a compound orbit that has a period much longer than their period around their sun, and their orbital tracks are such that one planet never eclipses the other. Elara never seems to change position or phase to the people of Pyrosia, when actually it completes one full "revolution" and returns to the same position and phase in the sky every 140 years. The Pyrosians know about this long "orbit," and base their major time divisions upon it. A "century" in Pyrosia is one complete cycle of Elara.

The Pyrosia-Elara system does have a moon of its own, but this moon is very small...about the size of Phobos, one of the Martian moons. It orbits outside the symbiotic orbit of Pyrosia and Elara, at a considerable distance. The moon has a very fast orbital track and moves visibly in the sky to someone who takes enough time to observe it. Because it is so small and so far away, the people of Pyrosia think it is a star, and they call it the Wanderer.
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Shadowhawk »

Higher surface gravity of a planet means lower safe height (safe = skull would not crack at fall) for verti-bipeds, which usually means lower height. But people on Sennadar and on Pyrosia are of the same height; otherwise I think somebody would notice.

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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Lochar »

Shadowhawk wrote:Higher surface gravity of a planet means lower safe height (safe = skull would not crack at fall) for verti-bipeds, which usually means lower height. But people on Sennadar and on Pyrosia are of the same height; otherwise I think somebody would notice.

Just my 3 eurocents.
You could have thicker skulls. Unless you're able to bash someone's head in, I can't see that being noticable.

Also, I wonder how hard it is for the three kids to cope in Sennadar, since the gravity is much higher. Even the horse shit is heavy. *grin*
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Re: Questions about Sennadar

Post by Were_Fan »

Spec8472 wrote:An easy explanation is that Sennadar is the only habitable/populated planet inside its own pocket universe... thus the stars are really stars.
Another explanation is that the GoG sets up an Elder God to watch over a single planet within a universe. That Elder God may or may not create other gods. The limit of 100 "conversations" that Niami mentions would support this theory. There are also other "planes" such as the Astral which could be completely seperate universes created by the GoG. But, after all, Tarrin's Tales is a fantasy storyline and as in all fantasies, it is not bound by the laws of our reality.
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