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#1 zombiegleemax Dec 26, 2006 16:42:20

This idea was inspired by Dark Sun, however, it is based off of Science Fiction and should be in the D20 Future board, however, it will have a lot of the Dark Sun themes to it. Based on Arcbuilder's Proxima Centauri system. Proxima Centauri, 3000AD+ or so. An earth sized world orbits this tiny star at about 0.04AUs. It is close enough to receive that little dim light the star provides. However, it is tidally locked to the star. The sun never sets, never moves. It is always in the same location. Facing the sun, is an eternal desert. The eternal night side is an glaciated frozen wasteland. Near the edge of the world, near the poles and where the eternal red star is low in the sky, liquid water and humans are found. The humans living here came centuries ago in Generation ships. Since then, they have reverted into a barbaric primative society. Their ancestors were in two groups, those that chose to live on the surface and those that chose to live underground. Those that chose the surface has to adapt to the world's harsh conditions. The gravity here is a little stronger than earth's making them a little shorter and more muscular. Eternal light meant that humans have lost their night vision and cannot see in the dark. They are also dark skinned. They're darker than ethopians on Earth. There is less oxygen here than on earth, so their lungs had to be more efficient. Those that lived underground, fell to barbarism after the surface dwellers did. They, however, kept an Earth like climate in their underground arcologies. They have lighter skins, retain some night vision and have trouble breathing sometimes as their lungs are not that adapted. As their underground eco-systems failed, they moved to the surface. They became rulers of the first surface dwellers and their descendants still rule today in city-states. The landscape is very different. The native alien life is not very advanced and just starting a cambrian explosion. They remain the water. Human plants they have brought with them from Earth grow on the surface where they can. They are genetically modified to grow with a red sun. In space, raising animals is a waste of resources, so there are no Earth animals here except humans and all humans are vegitarians. The insect-like creatures in the seas are not edible for humans. However, every plant that grows here produces fruit and or is edible for humans to eat. The people here can eat large meals. The greatest hazard here are solar flares. Given the close proximity of the planet to the sun, when a solar flare hits the world, it provides as much as twice the sun light, heating the land until it passes. Most humans carry a black cloak to shield them from the light if they are caught outdoors. Pscionics; Has risen here due to human evolution. Not everyone has it, however, those that do are seen as mystics. Technology; Iron age. Metal is available, but rare due to the lack of sophistication to mine it. Creatures from the sea can provide useful materials for tools. Most clothes are made of plant fibers. The eternal sun means houses usually have walls facing away from the sun, for cooling (humans have evolved to only need about 3 hours of sleep day). Time; Time is the one element lost here. There are no nights. There is only an eternal day. They're no seasons. Only slight ones caused by variations in the world's solar orbit. The concept of time is lost. It is no longer measurable. Not everyone one of the subsurface dwellers came to the surface. Some arcologies remained, forming a society that really had no need to travel above. Advances in cybertechnology has made them very advanced. Perhaps a few, bored with it all, went to the surface. Their, they used their advanced knowledge and eventually became the immortal rulers of the surface city-states. Perhaps instead of sorcerer-kings, we have cyborg-kings? Perhaps.