Clockworld Continued
Max and I were discussing how we thought that the clockworld thing would make a good campaign setting, and now I’m trying to figure out how a civilization could develop on a world like that.
Let’s see. Tides, heating, day-night cycles, outgassing and everything else would be closely controlled by clockwork, which means there’s no sun. It just gets light and then dark over twelve hours and then light again over the next twelve. This means that the planet isn’t close enough to a sun to support life, or it could not be in orbit at all, but that’s pretty irrelevant.
I suppose clock-based light-dark cycles imply some kind of dome. Heat would come from the ground and start to circulate as it got colder higher up. Logically there would be set areas for gaseous expulsion so that it didn’t become trapped, which means there would have to be a filter for air in the core somewhere. Oy vey.
Now, assuming people evolved by coicnidence, and that they’re humans for the sake of a good campaign setting, they would be superstitious of the areas where heat came out, but in a good way, probably building camps or cities around them, whereas the more dangerous gas vents would kill people. This system could probably translate into animism for humans, so there are good spirits, who provide heat, and bad ones, who kill people with their bad air.
There would be vents like these everywhere except for the Face, because on the Face airflow could disrupt the Hands’ movement and ruin timetelling. Therefore, the face would probably have a different chemical mix. It would be leftovers, so probably CO2, O3 from the upper atmosphere, and maybe gaseous nitrogen. Therefore, it would probably develop a spiritual identity as the centre of eeevvviiilll from the early humans, helped along by the gothic black steel scything through the sky all the time.
As the humans advanced, they’d discover that the evil spirits were really just gas that came out of the vents, and probably learn to cover them up, and then learn to filter them or build chimneys once they realized they’d screw stuff up if they blocked them for too long. Cities would end up being built around heat vents, in areas where it was temperate or subtropical as opposed to colder temperate areas. They’d develop a way of travelling between cities using the core’s power. Some kind of respectful religion might develop around the Face, and people would come in with masks to pray for their sick sisters or whatever.
So what I’ve got here is modern steampunk-styled campaign setting. I don’t know what would have developed aside from humans, but that’s a story for another day, preferrably one when I’m not dead tired at 12:00 at night…
Cool.