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What if the Numinarian (I think that's how you spell it,) peoples came together, realized that the end of the world was coming and the gods were going to have an epic smackdown that would blow Golarion up, and decided to work on a space station in secret. Then, when the End of Golarion came, they launched the Absalom Station in secret, and made they're getaway as Golarion slowly combusted and exploded, sending missiles of rocks the size of football fields soaring past the little spacecraft. After awhile, they expanded on Absalom Station, making adjustments and improvements to their spacecraft. Slowly, the memory of Golarion was forgotten, as seeing a whole planet collapse and hearing the cries of the fallen pleading for mercy was too much for those who survived that fateful day. They never wrote about it, never told anyone, and died with secret locked away, never to be opened again. This time of forgetness was known as the Dark Age, and set the stage for a new era. An era to discover how and why Absalom Station was launched, and who launched it.
What do you think?
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I would think if the Numerians built the station they wouldnt have named it after Absalom.
My theory is that the station is a "gift" from the gods, when they pulled Golarion out they replaced it with the station and puts all displaced peoples there. Originally everything was laid out in an efficient and manageable way but when these displaced peoples and monsters were unable to form a unifying government or control their own growth slap-dash add-ons and environmental decay began to set in. After a period of violent conflict and intrigue things have mostly stabilized in the upper echelons of the station with a ruling coalition of factions. There still exist both designated wild zones for more dangerous creatures to live in as well as regions of self government that are either small scale rivals to the ruling council or decaying messes the council eyes to reclaim.
There are other, far smaller space stations and colonies but by positioning and divinely gifted resources Absalom is the shining jewel of the system.
EDIT: Oh, and uh, Absalom Station is our last, best, hope for peace.
Wait, how big IS Absalom Station?
Reversed Starfall. Aroden awakens/wills himself back from whereever and removes the Starstone and surroundings (aka Absalom) from Golarion.
Ruyan.
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My stupid-crazy theory? Basically, the Starstone was the power source of Absalom Station, which existed in the time period during which the gods had hijacked Golarion, and were working on modifying to serve as a prison for Rovagug. The battle with Rovagug had already literally taken up all of eternity. Further, it was not going well: it was all that could be done to keep him from entering existence, much less kill him. So the gods banded together and retroactively began rewriting history and converting Golarion into a prison at the same time, hence why no one knew why Golarion was missing: the history of the universe was currently in the process of being edited, and was not available for 'public use.'
However, once Golarion was returned to it's previous position (though now existing for the duration of eternity) in the continuum, the gods fully expected for the universe to rewrite itself around their "edited" Golarion. For the most part it did: except for Absalom Station, as it was shielded, in part, by the enigmatic properties of the Starstone. Absalom station, suddenly finding itself trapped in the newly modified gravitational pull of the suddenly re-appeard Golarion came crashing down. Acavna and Amazen both realized that Absalom's descent had to be slowed, lest the impact possibly cause the Starstone to unleash some other mysterious ability, and destroy Golarion.
They were only partially successful, but Golarion survived. The gods made a pact to keep the secret of the Starstone to themselves. As part of this pact, none of them were allowed to even exist within the same plane of existence as the Starstone, and they each retreated to their own plane.
Roughly Five Thousand years later, Aroden finds the stone, and achieves unknown, but immense, power. The gods fearfully made him aware of the history of the Starstone, and begged that he forgo the power in exchange for god-hood. He relented, but not before demanding that he be allowed to place safeguards to prevent the stone's misuse. He created the Cathedral, and a city to surround it, both in honor of the Station and to remind the gods of the billions of lives there actions destroyed.
As for the orgins of Absalom Station, only the gods still remember, and their bound by mutual oath never to divulge that information to any mortal. It is lost to the vast history of the previous universe.
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Since the origin of Absalom Station is within the Gap, the real question is what can be known about it from the physical evidence. The core rulebook for Starfinder should have answers to such questions as these:
1) From the outside, does Absalom Station look new and shiny or pitted by millennia of meteor impacts?
2) How many people are on Absalom Station?
3) How many people is Absalom Station designed to support?
4) Does the interior of the station provide any physical evidence that the station is older than the end of the Gap -- for example, do the wilderness areas contain trees that look like they had already been around for a long time at the end of the Gap?
5) Is there any physical evidence that would suggest that Absalom Station was or was not built by humans?
The answers to these questions could imply but not directly prove either that Absalom Station was designed to hold the entire population of Golarion or that it was meant to hold only a tiny fraction of that population. In the latter case, we could have a setting in which humans are not the most numerous race.
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In my head it was something like:
Gods: We hereby remove Golarion and much of the memory of it from all of existence!
Starstone: We'll call that a reminder that I make chumps like you for giggles.
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Small Moon/Big Pluto.Wait, how big IS Absalom Station?I would think if the Numerians built the station they wouldnt have named it after Absalom.
My theory is that the station is a "gift" from the gods, when they pulled Golarion out they replaced it with the station and puts all displaced peoples there. Originally everything was laid out in an efficient and manageable way but when these displaced peoples and monsters were unable to form a unifying government or control their own growth slap-dash add-ons and environmental decay began to set in. After a period of violent conflict and intrigue things have mostly stabilized in the upper echelons of the station with a ruling coalition of factions. There still exist both designated wild zones for more dangerous creatures to live in as well as regions of self government that are either small scale rivals to the ruling council or decaying messes the council eyes to reclaim.
There are other, far smaller space stations and colonies but by positioning and divinely gifted resources Absalom is the shining jewel of the system.
EDIT: Oh, and uh, Absalom Station is our last, best, hope for peace.
That's no moon. It's a space station!
Since the origin of Absalom Station is within the Gap [snip]
Mind the gap!
Ruyan.
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I would think if the Numerians built the station they wouldnt have named it after Absalom.
My theory is that the station is a "gift" from the gods, when they pulled Golarion out they replaced it with the station and puts all displaced peoples there. Originally everything was laid out in an efficient and manageable way but when these displaced peoples and monsters were unable to form a unifying government or control their own growth slap-dash add-ons and environmental decay began to set in. After a period of violent conflict and intrigue things have mostly stabilized in the upper echelons of the station with a ruling coalition of factions. There still exist both designated wild zones for more dangerous creatures to live in as well as regions of self government that are either small scale rivals to the ruling council or decaying messes the council eyes to reclaim.
There are other, far smaller space stations and colonies but by positioning and divinely gifted resources Absalom is the shining jewel of the system.
EDIT: Oh, and uh, Absalom Station is our last, best, hope for peace.
I thought of it more as a honorary measure to remember the "City at the Center of the World".
Or maybe, they were jealous of the way Absalom flourished and by copying the name of the greatest civilization known at that time would give them some of its former luck?Just a guess. They were, (the Numerians) the most technologically advanced people in the Inner Sea Region. But they didn't have the wealth that Absalom had.
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It was constructed by a race of sentient cyborg space cuttlefish the size of capital spaceships to teleport in their entire fleet to harvest galactic civilization every few millenia.
:3
G%##*!n cuttlefish.
Every. F++&ing. Time.
Hey! {sulks} No tentacles for you!
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Hey! {sulks} No tentacles for you!It was constructed by a race of sentient cyborg space cuttlefish the size of capital spaceships to teleport in their entire fleet to harvest galactic civilization every few millenia.
:3
G%##*!n cuttlefish.
Every. F++&ing. Time.
;_;
Sowwy.
It's kind of premature to speculate on the origins of a place we know nothing about save it's name.
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Aroden: Ha. You thought i just pulled an ISLAND from the bottom of the sea? Wait till you see what happens when you dust it off....
Does anyone else have any idea of how Absalom Station came to be?
Presumably the way most space stations came to be... a lot of construction with the usual amount of accidents and deaths.
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Does anyone else have any idea of how Absalom Station came to be?Presumably the way most space stations came to be... a lot of construction with the usual amount of accidents and deaths.
And time travel.
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The startsone's AI: "Ascent to divinity? No no no! to the heavens. With rocket thrusters. gotta get this baby up to 7 miles a second! What did you think the brochures outside mea...OH. That explains all the dead bodies running into the defense system. OoooooOOOoo Awkward.
One would think that Numeria's tech would have accelerated technological development such that interstellar travel would be an option within a few hundred years, not a few thousand.
Numeria's tech has had precisely zero effect on anyone but the Technic League for the last several millennia. What's special about the next few hundred years?
(The official timeline doesn't assume all the APs happen, and certainly can't guarantee a given outcome afterwards.)
What the aboleth giveth, the aboleth taketh away.
RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I posted in another thread how the city might be Crystilan. A Thassilonian city which not much is known about, but rests inside a crystal dome. The city was placed under protection from Earthfall and was supposed to awaken after all the destruction, but the sacrifices of some Azlanti gods prevented most of the damage so the conditions were never met for the contingency spell that was supposed to awaken the city. Instead, when Golarion disappears, Crystilan remains and awakens.
Others had managed to escape the "disappearance" of Golarion and when they returned to see what happened they found Crystilan's sphere and built around and inside it, helping the ancient Thassilonians catch up on what had happened for the thousands of years the city had slept. Which leads to all kinds of intrigue...
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I posted in another thread how the city might be Crystilan. A Thassilonian city which not much is known about, but rests inside a crystal dome. The city was placed under protection from Earthfall and was supposed to awaken after all the destruction, but the sacrifices of some Azlanti gods prevented most of the damage so the conditions were never met for the contingency spell that was supposed to awaken the city. Instead, when Golarion disappears, Crystilan remains and awakens.
Others had managed to escape the "disappearance" of Golarion and when they returned to see what happened they found Crystilan's sphere and built around and inside it, helping the ancient Thassilonians catch up on what had happened for the thousands of years the city had slept. Which leads to all kinds of intrigue...
Yeah, but how do they launch it into space?
And how do they all forget what happened to Golarion?And how did they find the city if a whole planet disappeared? And wouldn't the Crystal City been taken with the rest of Golarion to... wherever?
Um, also, how would they move the city? Rocket thrusters? Jet propulsion?
Does anyone else have any idea of how Absalom Station came to be?
Here is what we actually know:
Before the Gap, Absalom Station did not exist.
After the Gap, Golarion and its moon were gone and Absalom Station (populated by some number of people of Golarion origin) was orbiting Golarion's sun in their orbit.
Some effect has suppressed all memories and erased all written and computer records of all events that happened during the Gap.
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RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32
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I posted in another thread how the city might be Crystilan. A Thassilonian city which not much is known about, but rests inside a crystal dome. The city was placed under protection from Earthfall and was supposed to awaken after all the destruction, but the sacrifices of some Azlanti gods prevented most of the damage so the conditions were never met for the contingency spell that was supposed to awaken the city. Instead, when Golarion disappears, Crystilan remains and awakens.
Others had managed to escape the "disappearance" of Golarion and when they returned to see what happened they found Crystilan's sphere and built around and inside it, helping the ancient Thassilonians catch up on what had happened for the thousands of years the city had slept. Which leads to all kinds of intrigue...
Yeah, but how do they launch it into space?
And how do they all forget what happened to Golarion?
And how did they find the city if a whole planet disappeared? And wouldn't the Crystal City been taken with the rest of Golarion to... wherever?
Um, also, how would they move the city? Rocket thrusters? Jet propulsion?
It didn't launch into space. When Golarion "disappeared", it was left behind, staying in the same orbit. Maybe the city was protected by a demigod/herald/outsider that prevented its removal. They don't know what happened because the city was sleeping until after the disappearance. Maybe even longer after the city disappeared, if they had other contingencies in place (golems to create certain objectives, undead thralls to create food sources, called elementals to create portals, etc.) that had to be fulfilled before they were awakened. The city could be kept in orbit by a variety of means; an artifact (i.e. Starstone), gravity disturbance, magic, or tech.
Don't forget there is a period of universe wide amnesia...
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I posted in another thread how the city might be Crystilan. A Thassilonian city which not much is known about, but rests inside a crystal dome. The city was placed under protection from Earthfall and was supposed to awaken after all the destruction, but the sacrifices of some Azlanti gods prevented most of the damage so the conditions were never met for the contingency spell that was supposed to awaken the city. Instead, when Golarion disappears, Crystilan remains and awakens.
Others had managed to escape the "disappearance" of Golarion and when they returned to see what happened they found Crystilan's sphere and built around and inside it, helping the ancient Thassilonians catch up on what had happened for the thousands of years the city had slept. Which leads to all kinds of intrigue...
I really like this idea.
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Can anyone point to a developer post or interview that actually says Absalom Station came into existence during the Gap? I'd be interested to read it and the context.
They have not said much about that gap or anything about the origin of the station. But by leaving the origin of the station open, they leave room for it to be discovered within organized play.
Senior Developer, Starfinder Team
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To my knowledge, we have not yet stated when (or why, or how, or anything) Absalom Station came into being/was built/was created/whatever. We've said very little about the core setting, and the core of that core (Absalom Station). As always, early days, folks! Lots more will be revealed in the future.
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To my knowledge, we have not yet stated when (or why, or how, or anything) Absalom Station came into being/was built/was created/whatever. We've said very little about the core setting, and the core of that core (Absalom Station). As always, early days, folks! Lots more will be revealed in the future.
We know. It's just fun to speculate!
Can anyone point to a developer post or interview that actually says Absalom Station came into existence during the Gap? I'd be interested to read it and the context.
They did state that the Gap lasted for thousands of years and was set up to avoid spoiling the outcomes of any Pathfinder adventure path -- which means that the beginning of the Gap would be in the 48th century AR. Absalom Station does not exist in the original Pathfinder setting (or if it does, it is nowhere near the location at which it is found in the Starfinder setting), so it had to have either come into existence during the Gap or been moved from some unknown location to Golarion's orbit. For Absalom Station to have been created during the Gap is the simpler explanation, but if it turns out to be extremely old, I suppose that it is theoretically possible that it existed somewhere else before the Gap.
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Where did Absalom Station come from? Well, since you're old enough to ask I should give you an honest answer. How should I put this?
*ahem* When a daddy space station and a mommy space station love each other very much...
What kind of talk IS this!?!?!
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Here is what we actually know:
Before the Gap, Absalom Station did not exist.
After the Gap, Golarion and its moon were gone and Absalom Station (populated by some number of people of Golarion origin) was orbiting Golarion's sun in their orbit.
Some effect has suppressed all memories and erased all written and computer records of all events that happened during the Gap.
Ah, but I think we're missing the last, critical piece. Humanoid mortals are short-lived and narrowly-focused as a whole; however, they are often quite curious, remarkable at discovering patterns, and tenacious in pursuit of a goal. They are also quite efficient at disseminating information. Individuals will uncover facts about what happened to Golarion and the secret origin of Absalom Station. So I would amend the last statement to:
Some effect has suppressed all memories and erased all written and computer records of all events that happened during the Gap... and some effect actively continues to do so.
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Absalom Station was built as a rest stop at the hyperspace bypass whose construction required the removal of Golarion.
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I asked Wes during his AMA last night if Absalom Station was created before, during, or after the Gap. ** spoiler omitted **
That is an interesting response, as I can see some obvious problems with Absalom Station being created before or after the Gap.
Before: That would imply that somebody is capable of creating Absalom Station in the "now" of the Pathfinder universe.
After: That would imply that it was built by one of the more sophisticated cultures that survived the removal of Golarion (perhaps the Vercites?). If, for example, the Vercites built it, then why is it located in Golarion's former orbit around the sun rather than a more obvious location such as in orbit around Verces? And why are most of its inhabitants from Golarion rather than Verces?
Either way, there would be a strong implication that Absalom Station was created somewhere else and then later moved to its current location.