Thoughts?
Håvard
Shane
If no immortals changes a continent from drifting, well, yes, with time Mystara could be like our RW.
Considering the time needed for a continental drift to change significally the face of the world (for humanity), even to an immortal points of view that may be a little long ...
"The 6,000-km-plus journey of the India landmass (Indian Plate) before its collision with Asia (Eurasian Plate) about 40 to 50 million years ago (see text). India was once situated well south of the Equator, near the continent of Australia."
A gathering of potent immortals would be require to do such a feat (?). Or perhaps one immortal could achieve this alone, but at which cost (in time, energy, favors, during which his competitors could take an advantage ...)
But when you consider that Mystara instead of having a boiling core has a world instead (hollow world), it implies that if continents drifts, it's not because of a geological phonema ... (unless this phenomena occurs just inside the mantle separating the surface world from the inner world, and that does not explain the problem of tunnel and elevator, and less why there is still lava which arrives on surface sometimes ... ok volcanoes are linked to the elementary plane of fire ! Ah the old ones are tricky ones ! :D )
So for me this kind of problem is more a question of personal taste, flavor and curiosity in fact, which sometimes can help (either DM or players) making a better idea of the game world, and thus making the experience more rich in a way or another.
Of Course RW science shall not kill the fantasy. A game shall stay a game.
Science here just help creating the magic.
Given that Mystara resembles an earlier stage of Earth with regards to the continents, does that mean that Mystara will one day appear identical to earth? Or has the Blackmoor incident reversed the process, meaning that Mystara is heading towards a pangean state?
There's a major difference between Mystara and Earth -- Mystara has big polar holes, and as Arghis said it should not have continent drift. Even if it had, the shift could bring parts of the HW in the OW and vice versa, making it less likely that, in a distant future, Mystara could match modern Earth.
Also, the sinking of Alphatia has altered the surface of Mystara even more.
Remember, the fact that there was a Hollow World was unknown until Mystara was struck by a meteor. Prior to that, the polar openings did not exist.
Therefore, prior to the meteor strike, continental drift would have occured, as there is a layer of magma between the Hollow World and the Outer World. However, I would say it would be slower, as the energy would be focused inward as well as outward. Thus, by the time of the meteor strike... the same meteor that brought about the extinction of the dinosaurs, 65 million years ago... Mystara was only at the point in the break-up of M-Pangaea where Earth had been in the late Cretaceous, with some minor differences, for example, Gondwana had not drifted apart at all.
When the meteor struck, and the Hollow World was discovered, the Immortals of that era (including Ka, most notably, who wanted to preserve the dinosaurs) created the red sun in the Hollow World, repaired the damage done by the huge meteor, and opened the holes at the poles... and in the process, harnessed the energies that would normally go into continental drift to power the Spell of Preservation and the Hollow World sun. And so for 65 million years, the continents have been pretty well fixed... though through other events, lands might rise and fall, in fact, do so more readily than would otherwise be natural!
Locked down as they are, with the energies that would normally go into the drifting of the continents, there still remained energies aplenty for volcanoes, earthquakes, and other, lesser geological events... and some of this can be easily directed against parts of lands that otherwise would have a different outlet for energies. Another side effect, due to erosion and other aging effects, is that the continental shelves, and even the continents themselves, are weaker, and more easily affected by other influences, such as the Great Rain of Fire, the destruction wrought by Taymor, the explosion of the Blackmoor artifact in the Highlands, and the magical effects of the Doomsday Device during the Wrath of the Immortals.
So while the continents no longer drift as they once did, cataclysmic energies can shift around the overall appearance of the land, thrusting up mountain ranges and sinking lands under the seas. Great wizards seek the power to do this, tapping into the ancient energies used to re-mold the Hollow World and set the continents in their place. And all too often, disaster results...