Not that it’s desired for the setting, but I’m looking at a pseudo-scientific reason for the lack of sunlight on the planet of the shattered isles. I’m looking to place it within a sci-fi or space opera universe that allows for nobles, guilds, the loss of technology, a shattered empire, demons, magic, ghosts, spirits, and the like, and also has the phenomenon of problems with light.
The sci-fi system in question is Fading Suns, and I figure this world could be a Lost World isolated from the jumpgates, perhaps lost during the diaspora era. The “magic” that provides different atmospheres could be from area terraformers.
The area of the shattered isles appears to be fairly small, and I’d prefer for the world to be low population. If it’s moon-sized, the continent of Australia would dominate half of the moon (let’s say that Australia equivalent is Tycheros). That means the various Shattered Isles could be roughly the landmass size of a U.S. state. Relatively small world-wise, but plenty large for a for a victorian empire, and still a ton of vast space.
Given those requirements, this is what I’ve come up with so far:
The moon of the Shattered Isles is relatively far away from the sun, and heated largely from the neptune-blue middle-orbit gas giant that it orbits. Radiant heat from the gas giant warms the moon (perhaps the gas giant is near enough the sun to support atmospheric combustion and provide heat similar to a brown dwarf?). Rings of rock on the same orbital plane obscure the sun and prevent significant light from getting through. Another moon, purple in hue, not on the orbital plane of the rock ring, weakly reflects the light of the sun. An asteroid belt on the same orbital plane but an inner orbit further obscures the sun. Part of the cataclysm could be the explosion of a larger moon, or the collision of two moons that formed the ring of debris that blocks the sunlight.
Does anyone else have any ideas?
Is this something that you want to tie to the cataclysm in the fiction, or can it be the result of something else? Like something has created a dyson lattice around the sun and is capturing >50% of its emissions. Or the powerful magics of the cataclysm released a literal black hole that is eclipsing the sun at all times and only letting the coronal light bend around the singularity?
I do sort of want to tie it to the cataclysm, but it’s not at all a requirement. I figure that enough time has passed that the original source of the cataclysm can just as easily be a mystery.
Along the dyson sphere idea, I suppose it could also be a near-orbit solar lens that was once supposed to gather and reflect energy back to the moon, but the refraction mechanisms are broken or out of place. the tech level of the FS universe doesn’t really allow for a dyson lattice, they’re not that high tech.
both awesome ideas — thank you Mark
If I recall, there were hints of things living in the spaces between the stars. Not to mention the title of the rpg is all about fading suns as they start going out before their time.
Peter Cobcroft , you are correct. Holistic Design did much more than hint at the demons of space, but the book that would have given that exposition fully was never released. Eldritch horrors of the void were part of the setting.
What if the cataclysm has literally turned the planet/moon inside out?
Like the islands are now basically the inside of a shattered Dyson Sphere?
That would explain why you can see star constellations at the bottom of the void sea. And there is still a dusk/dawn because the sun shines from the outside through the cracks.
People in Skovlan do not see Iruvia above their heads because whatever force holds the islands together has collected all clouds in the middle; and everything is too dark to see a horizon anyway, so no one noticed it’s missing entirely.
And Leviathans are gigantic creatures that live on the outside surface and just fish with their appendages through the cracks.
Of course someone should have noticed the true nature of the world in 900 years, but normal people are just too occupied with daily life and the emperor might keep it a secret for political leverage.
Useless for science fiction, but here was my explanation.
https://fictivefantasies.wordpress.com/2015/07/22/blades-in-the-dark-what-happened-to-the-world/