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« on: July 31, 2020, 07:34:35 am »
A combination of some ideas in my other proposals after talking it over with my anonymous voting bloc. Don't worry if the first half is largely similar to the previous one. Important stuff like the ftl is changed/removed.
Uphar
The world of Uphar is orphaned. No suns light up the planet from beyond, only the stars and the faint glow of the spiral arms from the galaxy beyond. And yet the planet is not pitched into darkness. Strands of floating ether orbs light up the planet along an exhaustive web. The lights brighten and dim much like a solar cycle of approximately 33 hours. The strands of light float but a few meters above the ground in most locations. In some regions though, they arc over valleys thousands of meters up, in other locations, they dip deep under the surface. Those who live here now do not know the origin of these lights. But modern surveyors and geologists speculate that this luminary array aligns very closely with the geological landscape that may have been present some 5,000-9,000 years ago. A wide range, and not long on geological time, for these changes to occur. It is extremely puzzling. However, there is significant evidence of calamitous changes, a glaciation period, leyline reorientation, substantial correlated volcanic activity and more occurring at the fore end of this time period. Given the massive changes that occurred in this time, it is unknown whether the lights match the landscape of 5,500 years ago, or seven thousand.
The magic on this planet is strong, and some of which is siphoned up through this light network. Of course, the imperial mages have traced other consumptions of energy, and found many locations where it simply leaks out of the earth, perhaps to fuel some long eroded or destroyed machine. Flow traced deep underground has led to the discovery of other incomprehensible draws of the magic of the land. Some of these lead to pacifying enchantments on magicless glowing stones, others to the lights of vast tombs and giant rotating fans. Odd uses of magic to be sure, as the methods of lighting and spinning seem odd, relying on strange again magicless metals. With time, the imperial mages and archaeologists have begun to investigate these, and we have begun to understand this natural, magicless magic. It has led to an era of unprecedented ideas, combining this invisible magic with the more tangible magic. The combination of the two seems even more useful than each on its own.
For ages, the origins of our people have been a mystery. Following the discovery of a great library, our origin. . . remains unknown. Humans were but colonizers of this world, not evolved upon it, in fact even more recently than other stars in the system. But a great deal of the history of this world is being unfurled.
Those who came to this planet came from different places, brought together in fleeing persecution. Some brought magic, others brought this "science." In time, due to the tendency for people to seek out those like them and that which is familiar, the power for the two ways of life was consolidated, into competing empires. While they competed in who's methods were superior, they lived sort of peacefully. It was always suspected war might break out, but it never really did. Tensions were high, but despite a few close calls, never boiled over. It would have been devastating to all. Occasionally, expositions would demonstrate the achievements of one side to the other, to try to gain support from the population of the other. Somehow it always seemed like each side were a little less surprised by some magic or technology than would be expected. Yet the diligent hoarding and consolidation continued.
Magic had the edge in power and convenience, but lost out in reliability and finesse compared to this "science". Those with magic could fly with far more ease, but occasionally might just vanish from existence. Meanwhile those of science developed their own flight, and while it failed, it was far more often understood what went wrong, at the cost of being more expensive and damaging to the natural world around them.
In this unsteady state, a strike from the heavens flew onward at the speed of light towards this civilization. It was those using magic who first noted it. A rapidly repeating beam of radiation, pinpoint in size on the galactic scale, but more than large enough to cover the entire orbit of Uphar, the precessing annihilating beam of a pulsar. There was time to prepare, thankfully, a few years. In a fit of benevolence or a failure to protect the intelligence, the news made its way out. It never really could have stayed a secret. Both factions began to plot an escape from this doomed world, and began to snatch up precious resources. Spellwood and sapphire, steel and copper, and for both, one rare resource. While both factions could reach space, it was only through the use of this material that prolonged space exodus would be manageable for both. Both sides wished there was enough that they might both escape. They were humans after all, beyond this rivalry. In fate's sadistic twist, there would be but enough to bring up the majority of one civilization. And so the simmering war boiled up again, on a greater scale than ever before. On their doomed planet they fought, twisting the continents beneath them. On paper the side of science may have won, but there was no real victor. The world was drained of its resources in a last gluttonous feast. Those on the side of science attained somewhat vaster stockpiles of the materials they needed due to greater reliance on mining and similar infrastructure, but it was only through the casualties of this war that their stockpile could match their population. Those on the magic side attained some, but in a tragic accident, their meager supplies were lost. The scientists fled, before their enemies could catch them by the tail. In fear and desperation to avoid being caught by their enemies before they could escape the kill zone, they sent back one final strike, just to hold the magicians off for a few days, persuading themselves that it was only to guarantee their survival. It was in this strike that they inadvertently destroyed any chance for their neighbors to escape.
Six months until the radiation burst hit. Six months in which to prepare for the inevitable end, and rage against its grim inevitability. And rage they did. In the final days, those remaining settled on a plan to save themselves, for a bit. A ritual, to siphon the power of their very sun to create a shield from the blast. Those who debated it determined that whatever the risk, it was better than laying down and giving in. So, in desperate defiance, they grasped for all the life that would ever be in the nuclear furnace of their sun. For half a year, this sufficed. Then the nuclear power gave out. So they took the heat, all the radiated energy from the next billion years, and their sun whimpered and dimmed, given up to delay the end, a dead dark mass of electron degenerate matter. The only indication of its existence was now its gravitational pull, and the dark shadow that would pass with the stars.
The delay bought them time, but soon they were faced with another, quite obvious crisis. In the dark, without light and heat, the planet would die. They'd come this far, they would not stop now. They would sacrifice again. This time, their population, more than half. Ritualistically, for the survival of anyone on this husk at all, they gave their lives to postpone the dark. The luminous web was created. Light and heat, in a pattern resembling their sun spread across the land, a set distance from the ground. It was not perfect though, it was neither perfectly uniform, nor perfectly nonuniform. Thus heating was not even, nor did it perfectly recreate the uneven distribution of heat from a true sun. Weather patterns shifted, some glaciers melted, others froze, and the continents again began to reshape, at breakneck pace.
As the world adjusted, those left behind after the sacrifices worked only to survive in this almost barren world. We are thankful that they did. In thousands of years, we have adapted, and slowly, slowly rebuilt our population. There were hurdles and setbacks, primarily the changing, collapsing, and resurging landscape. Conflicts in time, once there were enough people for it. Pockets of lost tech and magic discovered, become the subjects of conflict. New religions appear, sacrilegious to the old. Worship of those and the wonders long lost conflicts with worship of the dead god sun whom some hope to bring back, while still others insist the ancients had been full of hubris, and struck down by the hand of providence. And sometimes, conflict occurs because people are assholes.
The information within this library, we have laid bare, spreading it amongst the people. It is not for us to hide the writings. Perhaps some will claim it myth and others not, but it is of historical significance, and we who found it thought this right.
It behooves us to ask, how exactly our forefathers were brought to the brink of extinction in a populated sector of the galaxy. As we have reached for space, expeditions have set out, to investigate this tale. The source was found sure enough, surrounded by a sphere of magically stabilized satellites, strange and impregnable. They did not respond to transmissions nor scrying, nor was there any opening to investigate. They hung as silent celestial shields, absorbing the lethal radiation beam and stabilizing its rotation, save in a few choice gaps. Perhaps a large cosmic impact, perhaps meddling, perhaps an erroneous orbital correction. Either way, one of these holes is pointed right at us. Huh. No wonder our ancestors didn't have much trouble finding a spot for themselves in the crowded Jumble sector. Ancient history perhaps, most likely none of the civilizations around now were involved in keeping this information that others knew secret from our ancestors. Our recent expeditions have revealed something far more important. There remains about 100 years before the beam sweeps our system once again.
We cannot conquer a world nearby. Claims are well staked, and power too entrenched. Yet in order to honor those who came before us, we must survive. And survival requires influence and resources. If we must obtain other suns to reignite our own, we will. If we must conquer other worlds to replenish the resources on our husk, we will. If we must investigate every technology that exists to build a permanent shield, we will. Otherwise everything will have been in vain.
tl;dr FTL is gone, we sacrificed our own sun to survive, creating a dark ages or whatever, couple thousand years later we've bounced back and there's new civilization and stuff, but we're possibly doomed again so we gotta expand and get the resources to prevent it.
MoP, Twinwolf, TFF, Empiricist, Madman, TricMagic, cronos5010, Strider03