The thing I liked about the Kasatha is how close they happen to be to one of everyone's favorite dark sun races...
Also, what would the term be?
Extragolarial?
The thing I liked about the Kasatha is how close they happen to be to one of everyone's favorite dark sun races...
I tend to think of them as more like the Sandfolk of City of the Gods/Blackmoor fame, but I guess they are sort of thri-kreenish as well.
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Also, what would the term be? Extragolarial?
I don't *think* the term has been established, which opens up the FUN possibility (for linguaphiles anyway) of creating a word for it! The thing with celestial objects is that the adjective can be quite far away from the root word, like Jupiter -- jovian, Venus -- venerean. So there's a lot of possibilities.
Extragolarial is a very direct analogue for extraterrestrial. I might also consider extragolarian, depending on the situation.
Has the etymology of the word Golarion ever been explored in canon? Like the Old Gray Box right off the bat went into how "Abeir-Toril" was constructed.
I haven't heard a proper term for it but I am not surprised, they also don't have scientist on Golarion. Yes they have wizards, alchemist(proto-science), scholars but no real modern version of scientist.
In my head, Golarion and Earth are indeed in different galaxies. And where the Numerian ship is from is from a third galaxy.
And the reason the ship's made of humans goes far beyond the need for us to explain why androids look like humans—the ship is INTENDED to be a place for PCs to go and explore, and the technological devices found within are INTENDED to be things that PCs can use. That means that making the ship of human origin was really the only option.
Doing this also lets us actually have alien stuff that feels alien, so that when you find an alien element inside of the crashed ship, you can tell it's alien because it feels alien... not only to you the PC, but to the human ship it's found in.
Also... even though the ship is from somewhere else, it's a part of Golarion. And Golarion's got very strong humanocentric themes.
Do you realize how vast a cosmic distance you're talking about? (One of the things that really bugged me about Joss Whedon's Firefly is that he initially put all of those habitable planets in the same fricking solar system.)
Just a world on the other side of our OWN galaxy would be hidden from us and far enough away that light would take 200 centuries to reach us. Galaxies on the other hand that would have habitable worlds in them, are separated by far greater distances.
It make more sense (and a bit more simplified) for me, at least, for Golarion and Earth to be in the same galaxy, and the Numerian starship coming from a second galaxy, possibly the Andromeda. There has to be a very good reason for any civilization to cross intergalactic distances, which makes the distances between stars pale by comparison. It's like if a grain of sand in the middle of the Saharan Desert decided to visit/conquer another grain of sand on some beach in California.
Although honestly, for the PCs at least, it won't matter where Earth is because it will likely never be touched on in Iron Gods (and even if it did, all the PCs would need to know is that it's "very, very far away". in the grand scheme of things, being on the other side of the galaxy, and being in another one altogether, is irrelevant, at least to the PCs).
Y'know what, I gotta stop speculating on this, at least until June. The whole adventure path won't be out for almost 11 whole months and that, to me, is more distant than the edge of the observable universe.
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I really think that distance is pretty much trivialized by the existence of gods. I could see how super-super-super-long distances could be a problem for conventional magic (let alone conventional tech, of course), but I don't think deities are limited by distance at all. If some god, at any time, decides that, hey, it would amuse me to zap some of these guys to another galactic supercluster, then it would be a snap of fingers to them.
If and when deities are involved, I think distances become meaningless.
I could see how super-super-super-long distances could be a problem for conventional magic (let alone conventional tech, of course), but I don't think deities are limited by distance at all.
Actually "conventional" magic can handle super-super-super long distances, greater teleport doesn't have a limit (or rather shouldn't since we know have the interplanetery teleport issue, grrr...), also the "within 500 miles" accuracy of plane shift is surpisingly accurate when you are talking about distances measured in star systems and galaxies.
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Do you realize how vast a cosmic distance you're talking about? (One of the things that really bugged me about Joss Whedon's Firefly is that he initially put all of those habitable planets in the same fricking solar system.)
One thing to note, Firefly's system is a star cluster, consisting of five main sequence stars and seven brown dwarf protostars. Also, many of the worlds are not actual planets, but instead moons.
I really think that distance is pretty much trivialized by the existence of gods. I could see how super-super-super-long distances could be a problem for conventional magic (let alone conventional tech, of course), but I don't think deities are limited by distance at all. If some god, at any time, decides that, hey, it would amuse me to zap some of these guys to another galactic supercluster, then it would be a snap of fingers to them.
If and when deities are involved, I think distances become meaningless.
That prospect turns me off the same way sci-fi in fantasy turns off some people. On a personal level, it's way cooler if it was a Kardashev III-scale precursor race that just kinda threw our genomes around on a bunch o'planets, unintentionally or not. The solar system housing Golarion just so happened to get more seeded, thus the abundance of life there on every planet. Earth, on the other hand, got the short end of the stick; we're probably the only planet that has an actual civilization for quite a distance.
(Yes I know the reason why the Golarion solar system is teeming with life is because it's a high fantasy setting and would otherwise be boring if it was as lifeless as our solar system. Still, lemme have my fun damnit.)
Also, I remember reading somewhere (it might have been in Distant Worlds) that even the deities are limited in their power in the Material Plane, at least on a scale of galaxies and clusters. Not only are they not totally omniscient, they are not omnipotent either.
The ship was sent by the Ori to go after the Ancients and got lost on its way to the Milky Way. Or maybe the Ancients redirected it...It would be more likely that (based on the age of Golarion) either a) the ship was from the Ancients, perhaps as old as Destiny, and or had 'ancestors' of the Asurans on board who later rebuilt the androids/robots we see.
Ooooh, that makes the Android monk of Irori in the NPC guide tie in nicely. The Androids/proto-replicators are searching for their own route to ascention.
Ok, enough Stargate geeking now.
No, more Stargate geeking.
Actually the Stargate franchise has some issues regarding time lines (and travel speeds) and the SGU brought even more issues on the table, but that's beside the point.First of all the Asurans don't have ancenstors
the moment their intelligence "advanced" enough in order for the nanites to combine together and take human form (actually Lantian form) they became the Asurans.
Secondly, even factoring Golarion's timescale you don't need a ship as old as Destiny
remember that only the Lantians (aka the Ancients of the Pegasus galaxy) died or ascended 10000 years ago, the ancients of the milky way died or ascended long bofore that.
you could just have it be from the time that the ancients were colonising the milky way or even
you could have 2 ships that left their homeworld when their split with the ori happened and one of them haeded for the milky way and eventually Earth and one haeded for whatever galaxy Golarion is in, only that this galaxy (although this approach might bring timeline issues if you want to be as close as possible with stargate's timeline)
We might have been the only planet in are solar system with complex life forms if mars didn't loose all/most of it's atmosphere. It really makes me wonder what the planet would have been like if it was a earth-like environment.
So, Word of T-Rex is the Starmount was built (and piloted) by "humans." But per Prometheus, the Engineers possessed DNA virtually identical to humans too... so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Starmount-ronauts—outside of roughly similar size, limb distribution, and food/oxygen/water requirements—don't exactly match what we (and Golarion residents) think of as human.
I do like the idea of Golarion humans being seeded/arriving there. If they were seeded from some Ur-Engineer-like race's DNA, that may explain why human DNA combines so well with elven and draconic and fiendish and so many other DNA sources.
The thing I liked about the Kasatha is how close they happen to be to one of everyone's favorite dark sun races...
I thought they where based off of the John Carter/Warlord of Mars race ?
And I people got weirded out when I wanted giant robots!
Which I still want, btw.
So, Word of T-Rex is the Starmount was built (and piloted) by "humans." But per Prometheus, the Engineers possessed DNA virtually identical to humans too... so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Starmount-ronauts—outside of roughly similar size, limb distribution, and food/oxygen/water requirements—don't exactly match what we (and Golarion residents) think of as human.
Interesting point, and it addresses something I was wondering about recently in light of the "human ship" comment. The Gearsmen are described in the ISWG as human-shaped but not precisely proportioned, which- if their creators were entirely human, wouldn't seem to be the case.
(Of course, that assumes that they were created by the same race that created the ship, which might not necessarily be true. Perhaps they were created *by the ship* in an early attempt to create a substitute for its human pilots who died in the crash. The androids would then be its most recent, and most successful, attempt.)
If anyone guesses correctly I will be highly suspicious.I could venture a guess :D
Don't hold back on our account. :p
I thought they where based off of the John Carter/Warlord of Mars race ?
I think that's more the Shobhad's territory. (Although, TBF, the Kasatha, Shobhads, and Sandfolk are probably all inspired by ERB's Tharks.)
Not wholly successful. They are running amuck without a clue, after all.
True, but they can mostly blend in with the rest of the populace, at least. Aside from that lack of emotion thing and their nanites flaring up periodically, that is. ;)
But even the Gods make a few missteps from time to time.
Eoxians were very similar to humans, just a different racial mods to there stats.
Triaxians are also similar to humans.
Lashunta are similar but still a little more to human evolution.
It could be possible that these races and others could be among those seeded by "human" DNA just changed enough by there world to be different.
So, Word of T-Rex is the Starmount was built (and piloted) by "humans." But per Prometheus, the Engineers possessed DNA virtually identical to humans too... so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Starmount-ronauts—outside of roughly similar size, limb distribution, and food/oxygen/water requirements—don't exactly match what we (and Golarion residents) think of as human.
I do like the idea of Golarion humans being seeded/arriving there. If they were seeded from some Ur-Engineer-like race's DNA, that may explain why human DNA combines so well with elven and draconic and fiendish and so many other DNA sources.
The fact that engineers and humans are genetically identical despite pretty drastic differences in appearance and physiology is just one reason of many many reasons why Prometheus gives me headaches...
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We might have been the only planet in are solar system with complex life forms if mars didn't loose all/most of it's atmosphere. It really makes me wonder what the planet would have been like if it was a earth-like environment.
...also, if Venus hadn't experienced a runaway greenhouse effect, it to might have been in the "liquid water" zone.
I do like the idea of Golarion humans being seeded/arriving there. If they were seeded from some Ur-Engineer-like race's DNA, that may explain why human DNA combines so well with elven and draconic and fiendish and so many other DNA sources.The fact that engineers and humans are genetically identical despite pretty drastic differences in appearance and physiology is just one reason of many many reasons why Prometheus gives me headaches...
There is a lot of things that bug me about Prometheus, but that is a minor one for me, especially considering how minor genetic and epigenetic changes to real-word human DNA can create significant changes in the organism. A magic-wielding Engineer/progenitor race could likely accomplish even larger changes, especially if magical ability is expressed in higher-/meta-dimensional components of DNA sequences (kinda like how magical abilities, qualities, and things like UGE are theorized in-game within Shadowrun).
I'm not saying it'll show up in canon so much as 1) recognizing the Creative T-Rex's expressed fondness for many of the ideas in the movie, and 2) recognizing the developers' abilities to constantly outflank our expectations.
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However, that setup - with four other stars orbiting a central star like planets - isn't really how multiple star systems look.
Generally, you're of course right. Theoretically I think it's possible though, if the ratio between the central star and orbiting stars' masses is big enough to place the barycenter inside the central star. Then it would indeed look like stars orbiting a star.
Having said that, I haven't done the math to check if the required ratio is within the realm of possibility with known star masses.
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It's certainly possible if you're willing to allow the secondary stars to be brown dwarfs. The lowest mass brown dwarfs are actually not a whole lot more massive than Jupiter. (The problem is that when you're talking about low-mass brown dwarfs, you get into semantic issues as to what actually is a brown dwarf and what is a gas giant. The mass histogram of the two populations overlaps.)
The lowest mass "real" star is something like 0.1 solar masses. (I don't remember the actual cutoff, and I'm too lazy to look it up right now.) The largest star that can plausibly have planets such as you'd need is probably on a 2-3 solar masses; larger than that, and they don't live long enough for the debris disk to settle down and the planets to not be under too-frequent bombardment to be habitable. If you consider a 3 solar mass star and a 0.1 solar mass star, for the barycenter to be inside the 3 solar mass star you'd need the distance between the two to be less than 30 times the radius of the star. Given that Earth is 100 times the solar radius away from the Sun, that the habitable zone of the 3 solar mass star is going to be quite a bit farther away from it than the Earth is from the Sun, and that the radius of the 3 solar mass star is bigger, but not that much bigger, I strongly suspect the math simply won't work out. (To know for sure, I'd have to look up the radius and temperature of a 3 solar mass star.) You really need the two stars pretty far separated so that each star can have its own planetary system (as Jupiter has a system of moons orbiting it); without that, planets are dealing with significant 3-body interactions and will tend to be ejected from the system.
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Maybe our PCs will get to ask the Starmount's AI after we accidentally get it going again. If it can use an at-will Technology Jar on specific gearsmen, so much the better.
Pathfinder Shepherd: "I reload my musket and ready an action to shoot the next gearsman to announce itself."
ASSUMING DIREC*BANG*
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So, Word of T-Rex is the Starmount was built (and piloted) by "humans." But per Prometheus, the Engineers possessed DNA virtually identical to humans too... so I wouldn't be too surprised if the Starmount-ronauts—outside of roughly similar size, limb distribution, and food/oxygen/water requirements—don't exactly match what we (and Golarion residents) think of as human.Interesting point, and it addresses something I was wondering about recently in light of the "human ship" comment. The Gearsmen are described in the ISWG as human-shaped but not precisely proportioned, which- if their creators were entirely human, wouldn't seem to be the case.
(Of course, that assumes that they were created by the same race that created the ship, which might not necessarily be true. Perhaps they were created *by the ship* in an early attempt to create a substitute for its human pilots who died in the crash. The androids would then be its most recent, and most successful, attempt.)
The picture of the gearsmen in Inner Sea Beastiary actually looks like a human in a thick powered armor.
So it's possible they're actually based upon heavily-armored military personnel while the the androids are based on what those personnel would look like outside of the armor.
About the forges in the ship wreckage having some issues to full copy human anatomy I think is because the human crew of the spaceship were transhumans, so they sure had some possible alterations which made them divergent, like eoxians.
In fact if there are still some of the actual crew around, I imagine them being as lethal as Khan Noonien Singh, like having advanced template azlanti stats.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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No, more Stargate geeking.
Actually the Stargate franchise has some issues regarding time lines (and travel speeds) and the SGU brought even more issues on the table, but that's beside the point.
First of all the Asurans don't have ancenstors
** spoiler omitted **
Secondly, even factoring Golarion's timescale you don't need a ship as old as Destiny
** spoiler omitted **
you could just have it be from the time that the ancients were colonising the milky way or even
** spoiler omitted **
By 'ancestors' I meant previous versions of AI. Destiny and the Gateships had basic AI, even if it was the "chase this radiation" and "Drop gates when these parameters are met" simple type. I'd not be surprised to find there were others around there. (Reece created the Milky Way Replicators and never had her origins specified, so she might be an Ancient creation.)
And yes, I was using Destiny as an example that the ancients were, well, ancient. :-)
I'm pretty sure that the hyperdrive moves at the speed of plot. :-)
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Also keep in mind that Brown Dwarfs only radiate slight amounts of heat from residual contraction.... they're really not going to be warming any satelite planets.
Woohoo, finally we get a new type of Dwarf subrace, after all this ti--- ah. Never mind!