On Creating Imaginary Worlds: Questions and Answers

[Lenny]

Originally Posted by am

made a template for world building concerning physical environment and things but i think this type of template would be concerned with mostly SF world because some of it is quite technical anyway wat you think?

I'll use it!

Knock out some of the more technical fields and you've also got a template for a simple fantasy world, too.

[asher marquering]

hey if i have a world that i'd like people to review should i post it here or in critiques

working on one now: Cairu for like a SF story

[Lenny]

I don't see why you shouldn't post it in Critiques - after all, it's something that you've been working on and you want it reviewing.

[HardScienceFan]

Looks good to me Asher. Perhaps some atmospheric or climate details/geographic details,like
Hadley cells,
major gases in the atmosphere
presence/absence of ice caps*hydroology*
or magnetohydrodynamics:
presence of absence of v.Allen belt
orography
geological:
presence/absence of plate tectonics
oceanography:
major current systems,for heat transport/thermohaline circulation
just some thoughts,hope you can use some of it

[Culhwch]

Okay, here's a question. And please feel free to speak to me like a five year old in explaining why I've got this totally backwards, if I have - which seems likely.

In my current work, I've proposed a calendar year of eleven months, and a seasonal year of sixteen months. That is, each season lasts four months, as opposed to three, and they aren't tied to months as they are here. I've called this sixteen-month period a harvest year in my world. Is this feasible? My (admittedly rudimentary) understanding is that the length of a year is tied to a planet's orbit, and the seasons to its axial tilt. What am I missing? I'm sure it can't be that simple... And thanks in advance.

[Anthony G Williams]

Why would your calendar year be a different length from your seasonal year?

Calendar years originated from the seasons - that's what they're all about.

[Culhwch]

Well, that's kind of the point, that knowledge has progressed from marking a year by simple seaonal events, to the discovery that the calendar year - perhaps astronomical year is a more apt phrase, in as much as it's the period in which the planet takes to make one complete orbit of the sun - doesn't correspond to this. That's what I want to know - is that even possible?

It is fantasy, so I'm not going to obsess over it if it's wrong. Just curiosity, really.

[Lenny]

I don't see why it's 'bad' - an eleven month calendar and a sixteen month year. You could probably get away with saying, oh, I don't know, that the moon of the world orbits the world and gets back to that position every eleven months.

Your world, your rules.

[iansales]

It wouldn't work - a year is the time taken for a planet to circle about its sun. During that period, axial tilt determines the seasons. One is a function of the other.

The only way you could possibly get away with it is by having more than one sun, or having the world as a moon of a gas giant - sort of a year and a Great Year. See the Helliconia trilogy by Brian Aldiss, the Starbridge Chronicles by Paul Park, or Planet of Exile by Ursula Le Guin...

[The Pelagic Argosy]

Originally Posted by Culhwch

Well, that's kind of the point, that knowledge has progressed from marking a year by simple seaonal events, to the discovery that the calendar year - perhaps astronomical year is a more apt phrase, in as much as it's the period in which the planet takes to make one complete orbit of the sun - doesn't correspond to this. That's what I want to know - is that even possible?

You are probably under the same misunderstanding that I was for most of my childhood. (All the blame falls on my fifth-grade science teacher, Mrs. Reed, who also vocally disbelieved in evolution.) Perhaps you, like me, were told that we have seasons because the earth "tilts" on its axis. This is very misleading.

The tilt of the earth is constant. The angle at which sunlight hits the earth, and thus the seasons, are directly related to where the earth is in its trip around the sun. (Hard to explain without an orange and a flashlight.) Right now, for example, its summer in the northern hemisphere, because the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the sun. Six months from now, the earth will have made its trip half way around the sun, and the southern hemisphere will be tilted toward the sun. Note that the axial tilt of the earth hasn't changed.

You can make the length of your fictional planet's year as long as short as you want. But the seasons would have to be directly related to this.

[Leisha]

I agree with Pelagic; if you have one sun and your planet revolves around it, your seasons will correspond to that orbit. In my novel, for example, I have a world that takes 450 days to orbit its sun, Yanish. Thus, there are 450 days -- that's 45 weeks -- in one year (and my planet's days are 1 hour longer than ours). Also, there are 15 months in the year (and a month lasts 30 days), and three seasons lasting five months each during that year. To have a physically realistic world, everything must match up to everything else.

As you say, though, it's your fantasy world and your choice in the end.

[dustinzgirl]

You know, I've always wanted to do a story that happened in a different dimension......say, one of the mathematical dimensions....but I've never really fully understood the math, and I've never been able to figure out how to explain it on paper.....obviously things would not look the same, for example if you could see in 11 dimensions......but I always thought it would be a cool premise for a story.

Any suggestions?

[Leisha]

No idea about mathmatics, Dustin, but I thought I'd post these here and make us all feel humble (might help with the planning of worlds in somebody's novel):






Source: Jeff Rense Program


I feel so insignificant now...

[Green]

Originally Posted by dustinzgirl

obviously things would not look the same, for example if you could see in 11 dimensions......but I always thought it would be a cool premise for a story.

Any suggestions?

Have a read of Hyperspace, by Michio Kaku.


It deals with the science of extra dimensions and discusses what extra-dimensional "beings," or at least those with access to the extra dimensions, would make of the world, and how they would manifest to us. One of the best pop-science books I've ever read

[Culhwch]

Thanks Lenny, ian, PA and Leisha. I suspected I was entirely misled... But I like the idea so I might have a play around and try and explain it anyway.