How much of humanity is left?

[Jester David]

I'm watching Titan AE at the moment. It's on Netflix.ca. If you're unfamiliar, the Earth got blown up, and humanity becomes refugees in floating scrap colonies.
There's some shades of Battlestar Gakactica at play.

With Golarion gone the home of humanity (plus that of dwarves, halflings, orcs, etc) is gone. There's just a space station the size of either a city or island. Not much left. Shouldn't 99.9% of humanity be gone as well?

How much of humanity remains?
Is humanity in Starfinder an endangered species?

[Tom Kalbfus]

Apparently not, as humans are one of the major races in the Galaxy. And of course people have children.

[Torbyne]

Absalom Station as a polity seems to be on par with a full planet, i expect its actual size to be several miles wide and with all of that space dedicated to living spaces it could esily support several million inhabitants. Akiton also had a large human population going all the way back to Pathfinder era and humans were known to have established themselves on multiple other worlds elsewhere in the universe so as a species it would have survived quite well even without Golarion. Also, the latest information about the drift indicates that trade and colonization was already occurring pre-gap so Golarion specific communities could have spread off planet before it disappeared.

[The Raven Black]

There is also a veritable cornucopia of billions of humans on a blue planet out there

Unless Cthulhu awakened of course ;-p

[dharkus]

also I imagine during the GAP spacefaring happened and all the hummies went and colonised

[Fardragon]

Golarion isn't destroyed. It's just lost.

But a diaspora has been mentioned, suggesting humans spread through the galaxy during the time of the Gap.

Then, there may already have been humans spread through the galaxy. Planer travel, divine intervention, teleportation etc.

Maybe humans didn't originate on Golarion in the first place?

[Jester David]

I guess it does depend on how long the Gap is and how long humanity ceases colonizing prior. Humanity could be spread out and common but still low in numbers.

Still, even after a couple hundred years, the colonies would be pretty small and barely self sufficient.
That does give some ideas for stories, with the small colonies under attack and no longer having Golarion and patron empires to call for aid.

[Torbyne]

Fardragon wrote:

Golarion isn't destroyed. It's just lost.

But a diaspora has been mentioned, suggesting humans spread through the galaxy during the time of the Gap.

Then, there may already have been humans spread through the galaxy. Planer travel, divine intervention, teleportation etc.

Maybe humans didn't originate on Golarion in the first place?

The Diaspora is a specific place, an asteroid belt in the Pact Worlds System, it is apparently both colonized and somewhat lawless.

Humans are in fact already known to not be unique to Golarion and have appeared on many other worlds throughout the universe for tens of thousands of years before the Starfinder era.

[MMCJawa]

The fact that thousands of years before even the current Pathfinder year date already has seen humans confirmed for 4 separate planets (Earth, Androffa, Golarion, and Akiton) suggests that there are a LOT of humans out there anyway.

[Jurassic Pratt]

Also an Azlanti Space Empire formed from offworld colonies unaffected by Earthfall has been confirmed.

[Tom Kalbfus]

The gods have been very busy making humans in different places, on some planets, they made it seem as if they evolved naturally from animals such as Apes!

[Mudscale]

MMCJawa wrote:

The fact that thousands of years before even the current Pathfinder year date already has seen humans confirmed for 4 separate planets (Earth, Androffa, Golarion, and Akiton) suggests that there are a LOT of humans out there anyway.

So what you are saying is my Starcraft/Starfinder United Earth Directorate plot can work out seamlessly :P

[John Lynch 106]

MMCJawa wrote:

The fact that thousands of years before even the current Pathfinder year date already has seen humans confirmed for 4 separate planets (Earth, Androffa, Golarion, and Akiton) suggests that there are a LOT of humans out there anyway.

Have Greyhawk and Toril also been confirmed (Obviously not in any published product, but at least in the developer's mind canon)?

[Fardragon]

We better call psi corps and ask.

[MMCJawa]

John Lynch 106 wrote:

MMCJawa wrote:

The fact that thousands of years before even the current Pathfinder year date already has seen humans confirmed for 4 separate planets (Earth, Androffa, Golarion, and Akiton) suggests that there are a LOT of humans out there anyway.

Have Greyhawk and Toril also been confirmed (Obviously not in any published product, but at least in the developer's mind canon)?

If the GM wants them to exist out there, they probably do :)

[IonutRO]

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

The gods have been very busy making humans in different places, on some planets, they made it seem as if they evolved naturally from animals such as Apes!

Or the gods actually direct evolution.

[The Sideromancer]

IonutRO wrote:

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

The gods have been very busy making humans in different places, on some planets, they made it seem as if they evolved naturally from animals such as Apes!

Or the gods actually direct evolution.

There is a confirmation of a god of evolution, Ωrαs.

[Matthew Shelton]

If there are multiple worlds where humans showed up and never had previous contact, but they can all interbreed on day one of contact (Kirk meets Princess), then there might easily be other races with multiple spawn points, all interfertile subraces. Given how the new races of Starfinder have bubbled their way to the top of the heap, we may speculate that there's more than one true homeworld for these 'favored' races.

We can hang it all on the Reincarnate spell. Whether a certain caster has ever met all the possible races of Reincarnate or not, the spell doesn't care about their ignorance; all possible outcomes are still viable outcomes. Once the spell is known on a given world, it is only a matter of time before enough of a population of a 'nonnative' species is 'reborn' to make a sustainable genetic pool.

Even on a world of the Veskarium, there could have been a statistically improbable event of rebirthing dead Vesk into Lashunta, Ysoki, Shirren, Human, Elf, Kobold, Kasatha, or any number of other races native to the Pact. These genetic offshoots would know nothing of the cultures or existences of their genetic brethren living under other suns, but these Reincarnees would remain steeped in Veskarian culture and habits--though nothing would stop someone from using divination to learn more about their new exotic racial identity.

Similarly, there must have been at least a few instances where Reincarnates took on a strange shell of a race that no one had ever seen before. But because no sustainable population of Vesk or Shirren were known in antiquity, we may surmise they didn't appear as Reincarnations enough to make a sustainable population. Or if they did, they went into hiding and remained unknown on Golarion or other Pact worlds until modern times (and perhaps remain hidden still).

If there are other races that have become more common than the ones who dominated in ancient times, then it must have been a combination of highly prolific birth rates, favorable economic circumstances, and particularly good results coming out of the otherwise random effects of many Reincarnate spells cast on many planets, and where all the humans that have been spawned on many planets have nonetheless met and mixed together and created a shared racial heritage that transcends culture, language, history, and homeworld.

[Grumpus]

At one of the seminars at paizocon, I believe they said that Absolom Station was approx. the size of Manhattan, but in 3-dimensions instead of just flat.

[Torbyne]

Grumpus wrote:

At one of the seminars at paizocon, I believe they said that Absolom Station was approx. the size of Manhattan, but in 3-dimensions instead of just flat.

So manhattan is about 23 square miles, does that make the station ~500 cubic miles of volume? Sorry, i havent had to math in multiple dimensions in ages... but that actually looks like a massive structure, even giving it loads of uninhabbitable space for infrastructure you should be able to house billions of people in there.

[The Sideromancer]

Torbyne wrote:

Grumpus wrote:

At one of the seminars at paizocon, I believe they said that Absolom Station was approx. the size of Manhattan, but in 3-dimensions instead of just flat.

So manhattan is about 23 square miles, does that make the station ~500 cubic miles of volume? Sorry, i havent had to math in multiple dimensions in ages... but that actually looks like a massive structure, even giving it loads of uninhabbitable space for infrastructure you should be able to house billions of people in there.

I got 23 ^(3/2) = around 110 cubic miles

[Torbyne]

The Sideromancer wrote:

Torbyne wrote:

Grumpus wrote:

At one of the seminars at paizocon, I believe they said that Absolom Station was approx. the size of Manhattan, but in 3-dimensions instead of just flat.

So manhattan is about 23 square miles, does that make the station ~500 cubic miles of volume? Sorry, i havent had to math in multiple dimensions in ages... but that actually looks like a massive structure, even giving it loads of uninhabbitable space for infrastructure you should be able to house billions of people in there.

I got 23 ^(3/2) = around 110 cubic miles

hmm, let me try some more bad math... an aircraft carrier is ~1,040' by ~240' by ~190. so you could line up 5 fore to aft, stack them each 20 high and then make almost 28 rows like that. that is a structure of about 1 cubic mile that takes 2,800 nimitz class aircraft carriers. Absalom Station is then about the same size as 308,000 Aircraft carriers. (i did change some dimensions on an aircraft carrier since they widen out considerably as you get closer to the flight deck, so i split the difference between waterline and flight deck)

an Aircraft carrier can support ~5,000 people living aboard it, granted you will need to onload food periodically but it has all the engineering spaces it needs included. rebalance the living spaces for more family units instead of large berthing areas... so lets say for long term living you only have 500 people in that space. That puts Absalom at accomodating ~150 million. There will be those at the top who take a lot of space for themselves and then those at the bottom who live in about the same conditions as those open berthing spaces... maybe a little less engineering spaces and add in some food growing or park areas but all in all i am comfortable with the station housing 100 million plus huge transiant populations.

[IonutRO]

The Sideromancer wrote:

IonutRO wrote:

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

The gods have been very busy making humans in different places, on some planets, they made it seem as if they evolved naturally from animals such as Apes!

Or the gods actually direct evolution.

There is a confirmation of a god of evolution, Ωrαs.

Oooh, so he's not just the god of change in the general sense but also explicitly of evolution (as a "subdomain", if you will)? That's all we could make out from the slideshow photos posted to twitter. Also, Ωrαs, eh? Everyone was debating whether it was a D or an O, and I guess everyone was wrong.

[Archmage Variel]

IonutRO wrote:

The Sideromancer wrote:

IonutRO wrote:

Tom Kalbfus wrote:

The gods have been very busy making humans in different places, on some planets, they made it seem as if they evolved naturally from animals such as Apes!

Or the gods actually direct evolution.

There is a confirmation of a god of evolution, Ωrαs.

Oooh, so he's not just the god of change in the general sense but also explicitly of evolution (as a "subdomain", if you will)? That's all we could make out from the slideshow photos posted to twitter. Also, Ωrαs, eh? Everyone was debating whether it was a D or an O, and I guess everyone was wrong.

Are we sure it's an Ω? It looked a closed letter from the images I've seen.

[The Sideromancer]

It's a reference. I interpreted it is O, which led into it. Oras and Ωrαs are both abbreviations for the same thing, the pokemon games Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I thought it was fitting, considering the evolution portfolio.

[Archmage Variel]

The Sideromancer wrote:

It's a reference. I interpreted it is O, which led into it. Oras and Ωrαs are both abbreviations for the same thing, the pokemon games Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I thought it was fitting, considering the evolution portfolio.

Ah ok.

[IonutRO]

The Sideromancer wrote:

It's a reference. I interpreted it is O, which led into it. Oras and Ωrαs are both abbreviations for the same thing, the pokemon games Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. I thought it was fitting, considering the evolution portfolio.

Ah, lol.