Difference between revisions of "Physics"

Revision as of 03:39, 21 May 2010

The physical nature of Felarya, its origins, are a highly controversial topic, subject to much debating and heated discussions among mages and scientists alike. Phony theories and far-fetched speculations are rife . Othemites murdered a few of their authors for heresy and daring to say Felarya wasn't created by their god Oth.

Theory of Lathan Yarblek

This great and famous - but now deceased - scientist was specialised in investigating dimensional phenomena across the universe. He literally fell in love with Felarya when he arrived here and vowed to unveil all the mistery of its nature. His theories are widely regarded as solid and credible, though they have never been proved yet.

The Felaryan plane

Felarya, despite its initial appearance, is not a world in the sense of the word that we are familiar with. It's a closed pocket plane, with an ever-changing mass. The easiest way to picture Felarya is to think of it as a massive, flat disk. Forming a ring around the perimeter of the disk is a massive dimensional rift. This rift connects to the opposite side of the rift. Because the connection is instant and impossible to detect by any normal means, this gives Felarya the appearance of a spherical world, and it is indeed possible to circumnavigate Felarya, if you can survive the trip.

The next main feature of the Felaryan dimensional plane is the sky itself. Felarya has no “space” around it like a normal world would. There is no way to view it from space. The sky of Felarya is divided into layers, like the atmosphere of a normal planet, but at the point where you would enter into orbit on a normal world, is a massive dimensional rift in the sky of Felarya. Once you pass through this rift, you leave Felarya and appear at a random point in the empty space of the universe. For example, if you were to fly straight up in a rocket, you would eventually reach the rift and pass through. If you only looked straight ahead, it would appear to you like you’d simply flown into orbit and entered space. Upon looking behind you, all you would see is empty space, since you have left Felarya through the rift. Once you exit this way, there is no way back.

Of course, if Felarya has a vertical barrier to its plane, there must also be a subterranean one as well. The ground of Felarya is layered and structured similar to a normal planet’s. But if you were to dig down deep enough (many miles) you would pass through the subterranean rift. You would then appear several miles under the ground of a random planet in the universe. If you kept looking straight ahead, you would just seem to be digging like normal, but once you pass the rift, looking back would only reveal a wall of dirt. Felarya would be gone and you couldn’t go back. This scenario is highly unlikely though, since it would be nearly impossible for any living creature, or machine to dig that deep.

Note that the image of a flat disk is only meant as a way to better understand this theory and Yarblek himself never said Felarya actually formed a disk. Some say Felarya is in fact shaped as a flat 42 faced polygon, some say that it has no shape at all ...

The Felaryan sky

One of the great mysteries of Felarya is the sky itself. It is a documented fact that Felarya has no “space” around it and is essentially a flat plane lying under a dimensional rift in the sky. This brings certain questions to mind, like, How is there a sun ? How is there a moon ? How is there a day/night cycle ? and so on.

According to Yarblek, the rift in the skies of Felarya shifts nearly as much as the world itself and observant people will notice that the stars and moons change sometimes, albeit rarely . The rift in the sky actually aligns itself with a random star in the universe to use to heat Felarya. Something in the dimensional chemistry of Felarya itself actually controls, to a degree, where the dimension of Felarya will connect to real-space. This is why the rift in the sky always connects to certain sized stars and at a certain distance from them. This keeps Felarya at roughly the same temperature. The same principle applies to the night cycle. The rift will connect to certain sized moons, at a certain distance to maintain Felarya’s tidal cycle and so on. This control in the dimensional chemistry of Felarya could also explain why it seems that only human inhabited worlds get connected to Felarya. The plane of Felarya only seems to connect to worlds with a similar environment to its own. This is most likely a safety measure in place to ensure a natural equilibrium. Given the sheer size of the universe, and the possibility that Felarya can potentially connect to multiple universes… There would still be billions of compatible worlds, stars and moons for Felarya to potentially connect to.

The big question is, of course, "what - or who - regulates all that?" Does Felarya have a consciousness of its own ? To this day, nobody has found any satisfactory and rational answer.

Connection to other worlds

Lathan Yarblek was the first to categorize the different patterns in which Felarya connects to other worlds.

• Stable connections : These are the most common, and most traditional types of dimensional connections. Two points of space link up, with a swirling vortex-like aperture marking the entrance/exit. They appear throughout the universe in areas where the fabric of reality are strained or thin. On Felarya, they can last a few minutes or a few hours. Many groups of explorers around the universe peek into these portals, to try and study the worlds on the other side before the portal disappears. Enter at your own risk ! Stable connections are also the main type of connection generated by artificial means, be it by a portal mage, or a portal generation device.

• Whiplash connections : These types of connections are a good deal less common than stable ones. A whiplash connection is a sudden, violent connection between Felarya and another point in space or dimension. These can be thought of as the interdimensional equivalent of a rip-tide. When they appear, anything within a certain proximity (some are bigger or smaller than others) gets sucked in as that point in space violently shifts. Their near-instantaneous nature also means that the exit usually closes behind you. Basically, the ultimate case of being in the wrong place in the wrong time.

• Vanishing lands : These are aguably the most extreme type of dimensional connection. In a vanishing land situation, an entire region of another world becomes displaced, and transported to Felarya. Vanishing lands come in several varieties :

- Rebound connections : Where the land automatically returns back to its original location, along with anyone in it, after a certain amount of time. These are the most common types. Just don't panic and stay where you are, and you should be fine. Most of the time, people in Vanishing lands actually never notice the shift. If they do, it often gives birth to legends or tales of a an ancient, sacred vanishing forest.. The amount of land that is transported can vary widely...from a few yards, to whole cities in some extreme cases.

- Exchange connections : In this situation, a piece of land from one world is completely exchanged with a piece of another. In these cases, the displaced lands do not return home, and become a permanent part of Felarya. These tend to be very rare though, and affect smaller areas than rebound connections. The Jungle Bowl is a perfect example of an exchange connection. Still, these places can theorically return to their original state at any moment, much like how a volcano could awaken, and so vanish suddenly. In practice, it happens extremely rarely though.

• Credits to rcs619 for the base text of the Yarblek theory, connection types, and many other ideas.