
Derrick Winters |
The Astral Plane is a vast, mostly empty place which can be visited via (Lesser) Astral Projection.
I'm thinking of the astral plane as VR-MMORPG for a bunch of azlanti citizens who have managed to create a -comparatively simple- occult ritual that creates an effect similar to Lesser Astral Projection.
Some *founders* of this project - Golarion is boring, let's explore the Astral plane and create our own world there! - decided against terraforming the moon and used Aether Architect to create an ever-expanding city, further improving it with Illusory Walls & Permanent images.
While the Astral Plane writeup does have some clues what challenges the Astral plane can provide - shulsagas, astral leviathans, planar travelers, the river of dead souls traveling towards judgement with various outsiders defending or hunting them...
How would you envision a large(10.000-50.000) group of [wizards and/or members of a highly advanced magical culture] who treat the astral plane as "gaming" environment without permadeath act there?

JDLPF |

Law and Order: The ultimate sentence for breaking the laws of the realm would be expulsion to the material plane. Anyone who has failed to consume food and water regularly or is past their date of natural death would likely instantly die due to time catching up with them.
Resources: Food and drink would only be consumed as luxury items for pleasure rather than sustenance. Lack of growth or decay due to ageing means all foodstuffs must be imported. This likely results in all consumables being high cost luxury items.
Trade: Any and all naturally occurring materials would likely need to be imported. Primary industries and craftsmen would be likely nonexistent. Exports would be high cost finished goods crafted from imported raw materials, in most cases expensive magical items.
Society: Without need for primary industry, likely the only citizens would be wealthy spellcasters capable of magical item crafting and their servant retainers. Lack of need for large numbers of lower class proletariat to support the bourgeoisie who own the means of production would likely result in a slavery based society. Reproduction and maturation is impossible, meaning society contains no children save for those brought from outside and prevented from ageing to adulthood, thus it is likely inheritance is non-genealogical.
Architecture: Wealth and status would indicate the total size of any personally owned residence and the materials from which it was crafted, with illusions being the cheapest and least structurally reinforced materials, increasing to conjured spellcrafted materials such as walls of stone and walls of iron, up to opulently ostentatious mansions created from imported real-world materials. Subjective directional gravity removes many aspects of restraint for structural limitations, allowing for M.C. Escheresque creations of baffling complexity.
Politics: Likely rulership by oligarchy is the norm, with rare changes in power due to extended lifespans. Political influence and connections are the true stock in trade for the elite of society, with a dauntingly complex bureaucracy protecting the interests of those in power.
Military: Predominantly defensive in nature with a focus on spellcraft for both offence and defence, using force multipliers rather than sheer numbers to enable victory.
Religion: Druidic religious orders are likely nonexistent. Clerical orders would probably be present, especially to deities such as Nethys or Abadar.