Nessia the pierced planet

[Shackled Slayer]

Size: 1.5 × earth
Garvity: equivalent to earth's
Magnetism: doubled
Atmosphere: high oxygen
Outstanding qualities:
>twin moons, one habitable and one likely to become habitable in a couple million years.
>Equatorial ice belt
>Ancient "dark steel" towers which create a secondary set of magnetic poles

Nessia is the third planet orbiting a young star in a system of 9 planets. It has 11 continents, Each of which have varied climates ranging from jungles, rainforests, deserts and arctic wastes, and everything in between. It's most noticable feature when viewed from space is it's dark steel towers, which seem to be perfectly opposite each other as though they were a single planet skewering structure. These towers are seeming indestructible, made of a substance dubbed "darksteel" for it's appearance.

It's largest continent is drayeomund, home to the human-elven empire capital of Neroth prime. Once the dominant superpower on nessia, they've recently faltered in power due to their military focused economy. Unable to successfully conquer and absorb other nations for an extended duration of time, they had an economic crisis, and were brought from the brink of destruction by the empire that rose to destroy them originally; the dragonborn-tiefling dominant Nivisivex empire. Currently, the two empires and their dominant races exist in an uneasy truce, both eager to destroy one another but both having interest in each other's continuing survival. Dwarves, gnomes, orcs and their half blood kin, and other races have typically been too unruly or otherwise unimportent to the empire for them to be subjugated, except as empirical territories.

The planet's technological development is varying, in certain gnomish and dwarven regions industrial technology and steam powered machinery are developed, and goblins have discovered internal combustion technology. For the most part cities and villages are distant from each other, and currently there is no sweeping empire, but individual kingdom holds.

The planet has 4 magnetic poles, one for each cardinal direction. Magnetic east and west are observed with specially treated quick-silver compasses, while north and south rely on traditional compasses with standard magnetic materials.

[Bartmanhomer]

What are the most important places in this world?

[Grimlocked]

Wow! I love the detail in this world. Very interesting. It does raise some questions for me though that could change my starting items.

Looking at the technological advances in this world, as it seems more steampunk than standard fantasy, would it make more sense to look at advanced weaponry, or do axes and swords make sense?

Are there any homebrewed or Modern20 techie stuff available?

Thanks and looking forward to it!

[Bartmanhomer]

This world is very futuristic though unlike all the other D&D 3.5 games I play so far.

[Mechalich]

Atmosphere: high oxygen

Your world is on fire. Also it's overrun with giant arthropods. Changing oxygen content by more than 1-2% does things to planetary ecology, big time things. At higher oxygen concentrations fires burn hotter, normally fire retardant substances ignite, and the effects cascade massively.

>Equatorial ice belt

How? Why is the warmest part of your presumably habitable planet covered in ice?

[Nion]

Your world is on fire. Also it's overrun with giant arthropods. Changing oxygen content by more than 1-2% does things to planetary ecology, big time things. At higher oxygen concentrations fires burn hotter, normally fire retardant substances ignite, and the effects cascade massively.

Aren't there already Giant Arthropods in most monster manuals?

Also:
https://geology.com/usgs/amber/

How? Why is the warmest part of your presumably habitable planet covered in ice?

Dude, don't ask questions that spoil possible plot secrets.
I could make up lots of reasons, but it's best to wait and find out.

[Knaight]

On magnetism - it sounds less like the planet has four magnetic poles and more like the planet has two non-interacting magnetic fields, which interact with different materials. Essentially it sounds like there's an entire new force that acts in a way roughly analogous to magnetism.

That's not necessarily a problem, but if that is what you're trying to convey it would be worth rewording the description a bit. This is particularly true if the poles do more than just magnetism on a different set of materials. Are there western and eastern lights? Does electricity interact with this other field? Is there an electricity analog that interacts with this other field (and for that matter, a light analog), and thus a second electric field as well? Basically any way these questions are answered could potentially have fun effects.

If they are just another two poles, and the "normal" compass has something about it that throws it off the usual behavior you can also get interesting effects.

[brian 333]

Multiple magnetic poles are not unknown or uncommon. Earth has at least two magnetic fields, and Sol has an ever-changing number of them. A conducting material piercing a planet might have some issues from a scientific point of view, but magnetic fields that interact on more than one pole is not one of them. However, since we're talking about a magical world, I don't see a problem with multiple energy sources either. Perhaps the antenna generates extra power for spells or powers a particular kind of magic.

[Xuc Xac]

Size: 1.5 × earth
Garvity: equivalent to earth's

It's much, much bigger but has the same gravity. That means that there is a lot of mass missing. The world is hollow or absolutely honeycombed with enormous caverns. It can't be a lack of heavy core material because it actually has much more heavy material in the form of the iron core and the darksteel spikes.

>twin moons, one habitable and one likely to become habitable in a couple million years.

Why would it "become habitable" and how is it "likely"? What is the mechanism by which lunar habitability is attained?

>Equatorial ice belt

How is there an ice belt on the hottest part of the planet?

It's largest continent is drayeomund, home to the human-elven empire capital of Neroth prime. Once the dominant superpower on nessia, they've recently faltered in power due to their military focused economy. Unable to successfully conquer and absorb other nations for an extended duration of time, they had an economic crisis, and were brought from the brink of destruction by the empire that rose to destroy them originally; the dragonborn-tiefling dominant Nivisivex empire.

I can see how a military focused empire can run into economic problems when they fail to expand. If their economy is based on continuous expansion and they hit a wall, they're going to have problems. What I can't understand is how a whole other empire can suddenly arise specifically to oppose them and then somehow save them instead.

Currently, the two empires and their dominant races exist in an uneasy truce, both eager to destroy one another but both having interest in each other's continuing survival.

Why are they in a truce? What possible interest do they have in the other's survival (especially if the second empire only came into existence to oppose the first)? If the first empire was facing economic collapse because they couldn't conquer new territory to prop up their conquest-based economy, how is a stalemate going to help?

Dwarves, gnomes, orcs and their half blood kin, and other races have typically been too unruly or otherwise unimportent to the empire for them to be subjugated, except as empirical territories.

So? Is there another way to be subjugated? That's like saying "rice isn't very important to China except as food". That's the entire point!

The planet's technological development is varying, in certain gnomish and dwarven regions industrial technology and steam powered machinery are developed, and goblins have discovered internal combustion technology. For the most part cities and villages are distant from each other, and currently there is no sweeping empire, but individual kingdom holds.

So there are two empires that control most of the world with primitive technology, while the small isolated rural kingdoms are the ones that have the technological base for mass transit and heavy industry?

The planet has 4 magnetic poles, one for each cardinal direction. Magnetic east and west are observed with specially treated quick-silver compasses, while north and south rely on traditional compasses with standard magnetic materials.

If you're at the north pole, every direction away from you is south. At the south pole, every direction away from you is north. That doesn't work for east and west, because east and west go all the way around the world. If you go north until you reach the north pole, you'll pass it and start going south again. If you go east until you get to the "east pole", you can continue past it and still be going east. You can keep going east until you come to the "west pole" and then continue until you come back to the east pole from the other side. Either the world is a big square with a "pole" at each corner or you need to come up with a different name for the east and west poles.

This sounds cool at first, but makes no sense after a moment's thought. It's almost like it was written by autocorrect, like "Harry Potter and the Portrait of What Looked like a Large Pile of Ash".

[Knaight]

Multiple magnetic poles are not unknown or uncommon. Earth has at least two magnetic fields, and Sol has an ever-changing number of them. A conducting material piercing a planet might have some issues from a scientific point of view, but magnetic fields that interact on more than one pole is not one of them. However, since we're talking about a magical world, I don't see a problem with multiple energy sources either. Perhaps the antenna generates extra power for spells or powers a particular kind of magic.

Multiple magnetic poles are not the same thing as multiple magnetic fields. All it takes to get multiple magnetic poles is putting some magnets near each other. Multiple magnetic fields is total fiction.

[brian 333]

Multiple magnetic poles are not the same thing as multiple magnetic fields. All it takes to get multiple magnetic poles is putting some magnets near each other. Multiple magnetic fields is total fiction.

And yet Earth has a magnetic field generated by its internal dynamo and a magnetic field which is induced by the solar wind in the upper atmosphere. These two fields interact, but they each exist independent of one another.

However, we're discussing a world which is very unlike Earth, in a universe with different physics. In a fantasy setting, he logic only has to be internally consistent. The magic systems of Nine Princes Of Amber and The Hobbit are vastly different from one another, for example, but internally consistent. Likewise, the hyperdrives of The Skylark Of Space is very different from that of Ringworld.

I'm more concerned about the darksteel. Can it be manufactured? Worked? Are there ore beds that can be mined?

[Knaight]

And yet Earth has a magnetic field generated by its internal dynamo and a magnetic field which is induced by the solar wind in the upper atmosphere. These two fields interact, but they each exist independent of one another.

The Earth has one magnetic field that can be mathematically separated into two fields generated by these sources (plus various very localized effects that can be neglected in most cases). The mathematically separated fields also don't interact, rather everything affected by a magnetic field is affected by both of them, almost as if there's only one real field.

That's also the point as pertains to Nessia. The two fields might purely mathematical objects corresponding to describing one physical field as on Earth, except in this case that works by one having a north and south pole that corresponds to geographical north and south while the other corresponds to geographical east and west (which need to be slightly redefined to make that happen, but it's an easy redefinition). This corresponds to the use of the term "magnetic".

The other possibility is that there really are two distinct fields, much the way that a magnetic field is distinct from a gravitational field. This is suggested by the special compass used to detect the second field, and by the way the normal compass works to detect the first field reliably.

[brian 333]

The Earth has one magnetic field that can be mathematically separated into two fields generated by these sources (plus various very localized effects that can be neglected in most cases). The mathematically separated fields also don't interact, rather everything affected by a magnetic field is affected by both of them, almost as if there's only one real field.

That's also the point as pertains to Nessia. The two fields might purely mathematical objects corresponding to describing one physical field as on Earth, except in this case that works by one having a north and south pole that corresponds to geographical north and south while the other corresponds to geographical east and west (which need to be slightly redefined to make that happen, but it's an easy redefinition). This corresponds to the use of the term "magnetic".

The other possibility is that there really are two distinct fields, much the way that a magnetic field is distinct from a gravitational field. This is suggested by the special compass used to detect the second field, and by the way the normal compass works to detect the first field reliably.

Excellent explanation.