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Just how "Real Life" is Golarion's sun?
What I mean by that is is passing through it or living on or in it survivable by the right kind of monster or character?
Specifically, I would like to know if you think a Solar Dragon who has the Fiery Body spell up 24 hours a day able to live on or in Golarion's sun? If not, maybe just pass through it?
I think my question boils down to whether Golarion's sun works like our RL sun does (fusing hydrogen into helium at millions of degrees centigrade), or is it a "fantasy" star that, while hot, isn't nearly as hot as Sol is.
Thanks.
If you care, I think I might know a good guardian for as well as good place to put the Whispering Tyrant's phylactery should it ever be found.
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Based on the Starfinder Dawn of Flame AP, Golarion's sun works pretty much like RL stars. Just with interplanar portals and other fantasy elements added.
Creatures with fire immunity can handle at least the heat, but the gravity/pressure stresses are also an issue as you go deeper.
Creative Director
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As a general rule, when you see something that has a real-world science based solution, it's usually pretty safe to assume that's the case in Golarion. That's why the planet is the same size as Earth, why it has one moon the same size as our moon, and why its 93 million miles away from the sun which is more or less the same as our sun. There's stuff living on the sun of course, because fantasy, but something like a solar dragon? That'd make sense for it to be able to nest on the sun, but assuming you want them to fight and encounter a PC, they should be able to go other places.
Making fundamental changes to this sort of thing can certainly make for an interesting world, but raises a lot of questions that make it more difficult for us to create stories for the setting. It's easier to draw upon real-world science for tide tables or real-world folklore for werewolves than have to come up with fantasy versions that would arise from having multiple moons—and if we were to just handwave those differences away, then why have multiple moons to begin with?
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There's stuff living on the sun of course, because fantasy, but something like a solar dragon? That'd make sense for it to be able to nest on the sun, but assuming you want them to fight and encounter a PC, they should be able to go other places.
I've got a pretty cool backstory for a Mythic Solar Dragon that was "born" from the Kumaru Tree in Arcadia as a result of the ending of our gaming group's playthrough of the Tyrant's Grasp AP.
I will likely write it up someday for Pathfinder Infinite.
It's easier to draw upon real-world science for tide tables or real-world folklore for werewolves than have to come up with fantasy versions that would arise from having multiple moons—and if we were to just handwave those differences away, then why have multiple moons to begin with?
TBH, it could help with creating an interesting setting (e.g., Harry Turtledove's Gerin the Fox novels, specifically Werenight and Prince of the North); it would involve more work to explain how it works, however.
On the other hand, Golarion already has so many "different" places/regions/takes that IMO it doesn't need to make more changes just for the sake of being "different." Elves being from another world (Castrovel) instead of just the "typical nature-loving tree-huggers" is a good example.
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Creative Director
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It's easier to draw upon real-world science for tide tables or real-world folklore for werewolves than have to come up with fantasy versions that would arise from having multiple moons—and if we were to just handwave those differences away, then why have multiple moons to begin with?TBH, it could help with creating an interesting setting (e.g., Harry Turtledove's Gerin the Fox novels, specifically Werenight and Prince of the North); it would involve more work to explain how it works, however.
On the other hand, Golarion already has so many "different" places/regions/takes that IMO it doesn't need to make more changes just for the sake of being "different." Elves being from another world (Castrovel) instead of just the "typical nature-loving tree-huggers" is a good example.
Also, the more folks you have working on creating a setting, the more complicated that gets. It's one thing if you are the sole author and need to become an expert astrophysicist in order to develop your five-mooned world, but if you have a dozen or several dozen folks producing content, wordlbuilding shortcuts are pretty handy.
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Well, if we want to draw from the full canon... The Burning Archipelago might already be there. In the Starfinder games, there is a city in the sun, held multiple bubbles created by unknown hands. The followers of Sarenrae set up worship there and it is now populated, but it was very much discovered, not built by any known hands.
Theoretically, it could be there already in your world, either populated by it's creators, or already long abandoned save for the (for example someone said above) Solar dragon the party is there to fight/bargain with. A number of spells could get the party there, and as the saying goes, any sufficiently advanced technology...
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Canonically a 16th level wizard can set up a tower on the sun and enjoy their privacy, so it's at least that survivable.
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Well, if we want to draw from the full canon... The Burning Archipelago might already be there. In the Starfinder games, there is a city in the sun, held multiple bubbles created by unknown hands. The followers of Sarenrae set up worship there and it is now populated, but it was very much discovered, not built by any known hands.
Theoretically, it could be there already in your world, either populated by it's creators, or already long abandoned save for the (for example someone said above) Solar dragon the party is there to fight/bargain with. A number of spells could get the party there, and as the saying goes, any sufficiently advanced technology...
Or it's been recently abandoned... and the cycle begins again....
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I think my question boils down to whether Golarion's sun works like our RL sun does (fusing hydrogen into helium at millions of degrees centigrade), or is it a "fantasy" star that, while hot, isn't nearly as hot as Sol is.
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I'll just note that Sol's temperature varies widely for different layers.
While the core is about 15,000,000 °C, that drops to a 'mere' 5,500 °C at the 'surface' (the photosphere). Sun spots can even lower that a bit. So your dragon might not have any temperature difficulties in Golarion's sun so long as they stay around that depth.
Weirdly, temperatures actually increase again as you rise from the photosphere to the corona, with parts of the corona having temperatures as high as 2,000,000 °C. No one is sure why this is the case, but interaction of the coronal plasma with the sun's magnetic fields seems plausible.
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As a general rule, when you see something that has a real-world science based solution, it's usually pretty safe to assume that's the case in Golarion. That's why the planet is the same size as Earth, why it has one moon the same size as our moon, and why its 93 million miles away from the sun which is more or less the same as our sun. There's stuff living on the sun of course, because fantasy, but something like a solar dragon? That'd make sense for it to be able to nest on the sun, but assuming you want them to fight and encounter a PC, they should be able to go other places.
Can a Dragon lift itself on the sun? Objects weight 28 times as much on the Sun. Looking at some of the highest Creature level dragons on AoN, they seem to be +10 Str and Gargantuan. Fafnheir,the fabled Father of Linnorms, has +12 Str, so it can hold 17 bulk if it were medium. If I'm reading table 6-19 correctly, it's limit is 8 times that, or 136 Bulk. So Fafnheir could drag 272 Bulk.
A Gargantuan creature has minimum bulk of 48, and gets to carry its own bulk for free. Now, "The Bulk value of an item reflects how difficult the item is to handle, representing its size, weight, and general awkwardness." Size and awkwardness are not going to increase. If we treat each each factor here as equal, we get that Bulk should increase 1/3 for every doubling of gravity. So (28-1)x1/3 gives us a nice 9x modifier to bulk. That givens use 432 bulk of extra weight on the Sun for Fanheir.
A gargantuan creature would need Str +22 to drag itself across the surface of the Sun.
