The Science of Atys

[sidusar]

Very interesting theories all, keep them coming. Replying to a few things that particularly caught my interest:

Maybe the sun as we think of is not the sun but Jena’s ship, forever station feeding our planet the light it needs. I do wonder if there is a Karvan City somewhere on Atys.

That's definitely possible. The Karavan call Jena the Goddess of the Sun, and most of us seem to agree the Sun of Atys is artificial one way or the other.

It was recently hinted at, by a Karavan Envoy, that the Karavan have their base of operations somewhere on the canopy (those huge branches we see in the sky).

Either way, I think the "dragon" of legend is simply the planet's core, and if we venture too far below the surface we risk exposing the core, either through the weakening of the shell allowing it to fracture, or exposing the terraforming "machine" and its energy source. Expose this superheated material to the atmosphere, and you have a catastrophic "fire" event the likes of which no living Homin has ever witnessed (The Dragon's Breath, the Fire in His Breast/Belly).

That's a very interesting theory that I haven't heard before. It sounds plausible. It would explain why the Karavan tell us that it is inevitable that the Dragon will eventually awaken and destroy Atys. They might know that energy is slowly building up in the core, leading up to eventual disaster, but be powerless to stop it.

If the karavan have such technoligy to make a star stay lit then why are that stuck here with little floating ships in terrible disrepair ?

It's my personal belief that the Karavan are a race in decline. Their technology is slowly falling apart (as technology tends to do over time) and they lack the means to replace it. Obviously they can't rebuild their technology on Atys, as there's no metal. So one has to assume the Karavan come from a larger civilisation elsewhere in the universe. Perhaps the Karavan on Atys have lost contact with their homeworld and have been forgotten about. Or perhaps their entire civilisation is fighting for it's survival, or has even already been destroyed.

It's obvious the Karavan want something from Atys. Maybe they hope to find a solution to whatever is threatening their race. Or maybe they just have nowhere else left to go.

Either way, I believe that in the days of Atys' creation, the Karavan had more advanced technology and better infrastructure than they do today.

Something I've always wondered about is what is said in the lore about the kitin wars: "Kami and Karavan forces did their best to give homins safe conduct to the rainbows until these too were destroyed by kitins. A Karavan task force was eventually sent in to counter the arachnid onslaughts." It sounds like the Karavan on Atys called for reinforcements to fight the kitin. So where did these reinforcements come from?

[raven41]

The last part if they don't have the means to repair.... The would rule out them keeping a star lit would it not ?

[katriell]

The last part if they don't have the means to repair.... The would rule out them keeping a star lit would it not ?

Unless that technology is self-maintaining to some extent. Maybe it actually is deteriorating, just much slower because it's in space instead of down on the surface of Atys.

[sidusar]

Not necessarily.

If I want to create gasoline, I'm going to need oil drilling rigs and refineries. That requires a certain level of technology and a fairly decent industry and infrastructure. But once I have a can of gasoline ready-made, and I want to obtain energy from it, all I have to do is expose it to air and set it on fire.

I think this is much the same. Back when Atys was created, the Karavan prepared the 'sun' in such a way that once it was ready, it would be relatively easy to keep it going or restart it. So that even if they lost the means to actually create such a 'sun', they'd still be able to use the one that was ready-made without needing advanced technology.