The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums





Hello, World
#1
Hey, all. I've been a lurker for close to half a year now.

I’m a high-school student as of right now, born 1999/11/28 in Seoul, South Korea. Yes, nice to meet you, too. I’m currently a resident of Eastern Canada and have been for 6 ½ years. English happens to be my best language, and I know a bit of french. It’s interesting, living in a bilingual region.

Here I go.

Some months ago, a group of friends and I were to start worldbuilding for a setting that we would all agree on and expand on. My friends mostly wanted a fantasy world a la LoTR. I wanted something with SPACE and more generically scientific principles involved. And so we came to a compromise, creating a world that had fantasy elements explained with (mostly plausible!) sciences. ...Or so I thought.

I first came across the Orion's Arm Universe Project while looking for worldbuilding tips and questionnaires and whatnot for the setting (I was desperate for some semblance of consistency in the culture I wanted to make). In an old Wayback Machine archive, I found some old links that were mostly deactivated sites dating from before 2004. One of the only working links directed me to the Encyclopaedia Galactica page about the Sephriontic Empires. After the primer and introductory statements, I was hoping for something interesting that would maybe keep me occupied for several days.

Instead, I ended up reading most of the articles that were related to various cultures, polities, OA-style gengineering and nanotech, and especially habitable worlds of all kinds and the specifics that went into them. It was exactly what I had been looking for.

No, it was even better than that. And for that, I have to thank every contributor of this project. Even though some of the articles' contents may seem incredibly silly or nonsensical at first reading, that is expected for the setting. I mean, this is speculative fiction, yeah? Some pretty captivating stuff here.

And so I kept making my little world, absorbing ideas here and there with my easily memetically-influenced brain. I had watched James Cameron's Avatar some months ago and the image of the hostile-paradisaical moon was stuck in my head for quite some time. But I knew, after some research and thinking, that the conditions seen in the movie and with realer physics would be very different. That led me to even more research, mostly on the EG. That's how I discovered Celestia, too, and I've been playing around with that for a few projects of mine. And I do wonder, why so many habitable planets when moons can be used the same way? (The Pentagon Moons, 55 Cancri, the works.)

After a while, I started running out of fresh articles to read.

Quite horrified and wondering if I had to obsess over something else, I kept developing my world with help from the EG and periodical research. I have most of the setting developed now, with lots of help from my friends and especially from you guys. Inspiration? Definitely.


I made an account a few months prior but neglected the forum for just as long. Here I am now to give my thanks... and also to ask some questions, and possibly to participate in writing. I do love writing. Mm. *hugs keyboard awkwardly*


I had been planning on asking what the JD and YTS classification for star systems was, but I know now that they're fictional star catalogs. So that confusion is over with. Whew.

I have a lot of questions about the star system I have worked on for a few months now. I think I may incorporate it into the OA-verse at some point in time as well. It shouldn't be too hard. Just a few name changes and optimizations and it fits perfectly.

There it is. I think I’ve said most of what I wanted to say. All I’ll s[/font]ay is that there is a large chance I’ll participate in the near future. I do what I consider to be a fair amount of writing. I meddle with digital art on occasion, though I prefer doing rough sketches and colouring on a more physical medium. My knowledge of biology is a few steps ahead of what The Magic School Bus teaches, but is in no way comprehensive. I have a love for space, celestial objects, astrology, and what’s out there, away from this little sphere that’s holding us down. The future is also something of interest to me. It excites and worries me that our culture right now will be looked down upon, criticized, mimicked, studied, and taught to children in schools as the Age of Procrastination / the Information Age.

Okay, turns out I have many more things to say. I think I might as well end this here before it gets too bothersome to read through.

portalhunter99
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#2
Hi There, Welcome to OA!

By all means, feel free to post your ideas or questions here or in whichever sub-forum seems to fit them best. And of course take part in any conversations that grab your interest.

Regarding your questions below...

(12-17-2014, 10:31 AM)PortalHunter Wrote: And I do wonder, why so many habitable planets when moons can be used the same way? (The Pentagon Moons, 55 Cancri, the works.)

There are many more moons in the setting than planets, and many more space habitats than moons. And possibly more bubble habs floating in gas giant atmospheres than space habs. This is either implied or stated in passing in various places. However, the content of the setting is a result of what people choose to contribute and so far most people who choose to write about worlds have chosen to describe planets. There's no rule against writing about moons and there are techs in the setting that are explicitly aimed at moons as habitats such as Bluesky Worldhouses, Yggdrasil Trees, and other such things.

If you'd like to write some EG articles about moons, please feel free to do so.

(12-17-2014, 10:31 AM)PortalHunter Wrote: Okay, turns out I have many more things to say. I think I might as well end this here before it gets too bothersome to read through.

portalhunter99

Looking forward to your future posts. And once again, Welcome to OASmile

Todd
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#3
(12-17-2014, 11:43 AM)Drashner1 Wrote: There are many more moons in the setting than planets, and many more space habitats than moons. And possibly more bubble habs floating in gas giant atmospheres than space habs. This is either implied or stated in passing in various places.

Yes. I think many people choose to write about planetary bodies because it's more relatable to them in some aspects. I find that it takes a bit less planning and thinking to envision a generic planetary surface than it is to think in 3 dimensions in a city-sized Freesphere.

(12-17-2014, 11:43 AM)Drashner1 Wrote: However, the content of the setting is a result of what people choose to contribute and so far most people who choose to write about worlds have chosen to describe planets. There's no rule against writing about moons and there are techs in the setting that are explicitly aimed at moons as habitats such as Bluesky Worldhouses, Yggdrasil Trees, and other such things.

If you'd like to write some EG articles about moons, please feel free to do so.

That sounds great! I plan on doing so.
(On a sidenote, my new computer isn't used to all this worldbuilding vocabulary. Too many red squiggly lines everywhere. Undecided Ehehehehe.)

The technocentric methods of terraforming are the ones I think less about, true. Those I can definitely consider for small, low-grav worlds. The Yggdrasil Trees, though... They can support an amazing degree of biodiversity. Yeah.

Thank you for the warm welcome! ...I think I'll like it here.

I have some questions for tomorrow, as I have no more time today. They have to do with the magnetosphere of a gas giant and the habitability of its satellites considering a balance between its orbital period and proximity to its charged no-go 'radiation ring.'

Bye~
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