User blog:TheReturnOfTheKing/A new world

So, I have an idea for a new planet. Actually, to be more precise, I have several ideas, but I made a page for one of them. I think that was a bit hasty of me. In fact, maybe someone could delete that, please? Thank you.

The temporarily-named Flambe is based on one of the worlds created by] Chris Wayan as part of Planetocopia. (Don't even bother with the rest of the site. It's… I don't even know.) The worlds of Planetocopia are really well thought-out and detailed, aside from the residents, which are a bit idealistic and utopian. I was just thinking, what if I could come up with a spread of worlds like that, except without the strange furries? Then, I looked at my history and decided to be honest with myself - what if I could come up with a single worlds inspired by or related to the concepts in Planetocopia, except without the strange furries?

So, the thought I decided to run with was a tribute to Caprica, an idea quite unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's a hot, fairly dry world with massive areas of exposed seafloor offering fascinating opportunities for life in all shapes and sizes. However, it's not the only idea I had. Two other possibilities captured my imagination: a giant, largely water-covered world with a surprisingly great land area, like Lyr; or a freezing but not frozen super-Titan with ethane replacing water, like Xanadu.

However, another collection of worlds unrelated to Planetocopia has also captured my imagination. The worlds of Aurelia and Blue Moon, subjects of a two-part documentary mini-series on the National Geographic Channel (titled Alien Worlds in it's U.K. broadcast and Extraterrestrial in the States) were two worlds that set my imagination on fire. In fact, Blue Moon was one of the primary inspirations for Skyridge. Aurelia is a swampy, tidally-locked planet that orbits a red dwarf (an, basically) and Blue Moon is a small moon of a gas giant with a dense atmosphere and abundant forests. I had an idea for a tribute to them - essentially, combine them into a single planet (an eyeball world with a dense atmosphere and low gravity) and see what happens.

However, another part of my brain doesn't want to do a tribute. After all, Galactic Crucibles is no encyclopedia of an existing idea or fanfic of a pre-made universe. GC is it's own universe, a place where the imagination may run wild with ideas unlike anything humankind has seen before. Therefore, I wonder if this new world should be it's own world, something which isn't a salute to something someone else did some time ago? I'd like to do something unique and unusual, something unlike old Earth. Therefore, I figured I could make an inhabited gas giant. Of course, inhabited gas giants are a highly speculative idea, and I want it to be scientifically plausible. A rogue planet, adrift in the darkness of space, an orphan with no parent star to watch over it and give it light? In fact, could we get more abstract? Perhaps this could be a world where life is based on silicon, or metal? Does it even need to be a planet? What about an asteroid, or even a star? Could photon-based life exist on the event horizon of black holes? What if life could exist with no home, floating amongst the stars like fish or whales through our seas?

Before I go off on a wild tangent, maybe I should take another look at the ideas I already have, see if any of them are worth devoting time to. Stay tuned…