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Status Report (16 April 2022)

April 17, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 2 comments

I’ve had some ups and downs so far this month, but at about the midpoint I do seem to be on track to reach some good milestones.

I spent the first week or so of April doing an overhaul of parts of the Architect of Worlds design sequence. I started out just trying to add an alternative mechanism for producing gas giant planets, but that ended up carrying so many implications that I eventually had to overhaul most of Steps Nine through Eleven. I’m still not happy with the smoothness of the revised text, although the model seems to be working well enough.

Once that was done, I went back to an extended test run for Architect, generating planetary systems for a reasonable cut of the stellar population near Sol. I’m working with the data set associated with the paper The 10 parsec sample in the Gaia era – this is probably the best census of the solar neighborhood available at the moment. As of this evening, I’ve gotten about to the five-parsec radius.

I started out systematically generating planetary systems for every star on the list. Mostly this was to verify something I suspected about red-dwarf and brown-dwarf systems – that they are very unlikely to generate planets where humans can comfortably settle. So far I think I’ve confirmed that suspicion. I don’t think it’s impossible to find an Earthlike world in a red-dwarf system, but those stars have so many factors stacked against them that such cases are probably quite rare. Scientific and mining outposts, maybe, but not prosperous colonies. So after I generated 19 red-dwarf and brown-dwarf systems, I dropped those and concentrated on the brighter stars, spectral type K and up.

I now have 13 planetary systems for those brighter stars, and I’m encouraged to see that Architect is doing a decent job of generating Earthlike worlds (generously defined) for them. If we want air with sufficient free oxygen in it to breathe without too much artificial aid, that doesn’t seem to be a problem.

Counting Earth, I have six habitable worlds within five parsecs of Sol:

Sol III (Earth)
Alpha Centauri A-III (a super-Earth with a helium-nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere)
61 Cygni B-III (tide-locked)
Epsilon Indi A-II (tide-locked)
Groombridge 1618 III (tide-locked)
70 Ophiuchi A-III (a true Earth-analog, no helium, not tide-locked)

Not bad. Looks like Architect is going to give us a fair number of tide-locked Earthlikes, and the occasional super-Earth with weird but breathable atmosphere. The variety even in this short list is nice to see.

Eventually I plan to work all the way out to the ten-parsec radius, but this will do for now as a stress test for Architect. For the bottom half of April I’m going to switch to writing up some of these worlds and planetary systems, as a first installment in the rough draft of the Atlas of the Human Protectorate.

So for my patrons and readers, here’s the likely release schedule for this month.

I do have a new interim draft (v0.9) of the main section of Architect of Worlds, but I think I’m going to hold off on pushing that out to everyone until I’ve had a chance to go through and polish up the text a bit. I think I also want to get to the long-delayed project of cleaning up all the mathematical formulae so that I’m using more standardized variable names and formats. You may see a v0.9 draft next month sometime.

On the other hand, I’m pretty confident I can have a first interim draft of the Atlas of the Human Protectorate ready by the end of April, with at least 10,000 to 12,000 words of material in it. That v0.1 draft will be a charged release for my patrons. I may charge for further additions to that draft, as I have with new sections of Architect or other book-length projects, but only if and when there’s enough genuinely new material to justify it.

More updates as things develop, as always.

New Models for Gas Giant Formation

April 6, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 1 comment

Protoplanetary disk of the young star AB Aurigae. Notice the distinctive spiral-arm-like structures. One of these appears to be associated with the formation of a massive gas giant planet, at an unusually large distance from the protostar.

I’ve spent the first few days of April working with the current version of Architect of Worlds, building planetary systems for nearby stars. Almost immediately, I’ve run into an issue which may be connected to recent scientific results.

It’s ironic that the process of writing Architect has been a little like doing original scientific research. The book’s main design sequence, when you get right down to it, is a big elaborate model that I hope will have predictive value, in that it will generate planetary systems that resemble what we’re seeing in the real universe. The goal is fictional plausibility, not true explanatory power, but the process of development is often the same. If I start comparing the model to the real universe (that is, to known exoplanetary systems) and the model seems unable to mimic the visible results, then there’s a problem and I need to adjust the model.

The immediate issue is that the current (v0.8) draft of the Architect design sequence assumes the core accretion model for planetary formation. That is to say, we assume that planets form in certain regions of the protoplanetary disk, when solid particles clump together and form protoplanets massive enough to start quickly accreting more material. We expect smaller rocky planets to form inside the “snow line,” in a region where water ice isn’t available. We expect gas giant planets to form outside, with the largest gas giant preferentially forming close to the line. We also play with planetary migration and the so-called “Grand Tack” model, so that the largest gas giant may move inward or outward from that initial position, but only within reasonable limits.

Our own planetary system seems to fit that model reasonably well, as do many of the other exoplanetary systems we’re aware of. There’s a catch, though. In some cases, we find what appears to be the largest gas giant forming far outside the snow line. Much further than the core-accretion model can account for, even with a generous “Grand Tack” hypothesis thrown in. Here are some examples I’ve pulled together over the past few days:

Star	Predicted Snow Line	Innermost Gas Giant	Ratio
Wolf 359	0.15 AU	1.85 AU	12.3
Proxima Centauri	0.17 AU	1.49 AU	8.8
Lalande 21185	0.56 AU	2.85 AU	5.1
Groombridge 34	0.59 AU	5.40 AU	9.2
Gliese 832	0.75 AU	3.46 AU	4.6
Epsilon Indi	1.75 AU	11.55 AU	6.6
HR 8799	8.10 AU	16.25 AU	2.0
AB Aurigae	23.30 AU	93.00 AU	4.0

Of all these cases, only HR 8799 is one that the current version of Architect could easily handle, and even that planetary system is problematic – because we know of four exoplanets there, and the one on this table is only the innermost of the four. Most of these gas giants are much further out than my current “Grand Tack” procedures could possibly account for.

Meanwhile, the masses of most of these exoplanets are a lot higher than we would normally expect for their primary stars. For example, several of these stars are low-mass red dwarfs – we wouldn’t normally expect them to generate gas giant planets at all. Some of the others have planets several times as massive as Jupiter, approaching masses more typical of brown dwarfs.

Notice the first few rows on this table are several of the stars closest to Sol. If I’m running into difficulty this quickly, that means I’m not seeing rare special cases here. There’s some way in which planetary formation just isn’t (always) working as I expect. Not the first time this has happened during the development of Architect of Worlds, and it won’t be the last.

Fortunately, there’s a new model that seems to help. That’s the so-called disk instability model for the formation of gas giant planets. Apparently, at least in some cases, gas giants don’t form close to the snow line via a well-behaved process of core accretion. Instead, especially if the protoplanetary disk is unusually dense, or if gravitational interaction from nearby stars stirs things up, the disk becomes unstable. Simulations of the process show that much of the disk can form “spiral arms” rather like those of a galaxy . . . and the result can be the rapid formation of unusually massive planets much further out from the protostar than expected.

We’ve actually imaged an example of this happening, as some very recent results show. The very young star AB Aurigae appears to be in the process of forming a massive gas giant, over 90 AU out from the protostar (the last line of the table above covers this case). This, along with some other observations, seems to lend some credence to the disk instability model for at least some planetary formation.

What this means for Architect of Worlds is that I’m probably going to need to add some material to the current Steps Nine and Ten, in which the structure of the protoplanetary disk and the arrangement of the outer planetary system are determined. I think I’ve already worked out some of the details, so I may be able to make the necessary revisions to my working (v0.9) draft within another day or two. Then I should be able to get back to the test run on which I had planned to spend the month of April.

All of which means that my patrons and other readers can reasonably expect a free v0.9 update to the main Architect document this month, along with anything else I produce.

Architect of Worlds: the “Special Cases” Outline

March 6, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 4 comments

A quick taste for what I’ll be working on this month. This is a section of the eventual book that will cover “special cases” in the design process, things that stand as exceptions or as extra details outside the main body of the world design sequence.

Hopefully this will end up being enough material (10-15 thousand words or more) to justify a new release for my patrons this month. Actually, now would also be a good time for any of my readers to suggest anything else that might fit into this section. Drop me a line if there’s some special topic that you want to see addressed that isn’t in this sketch outline.

Special Cases in Worldbuilding

Generating Stars in Unusual Regions
- OB Associations
- Open Clusters and Stellar Associations
- Inter-Arm Space
- Galactic Halo
Unusual Stars
- Massive Main-Sequence Stars
- Neutron Stars
- Black Holes
- Flare Stars
Planetary Systems for Non-Main Sequence Stars
- Brown Dwarfs
- Subgiant and Giant Stars
- White Dwarfs and Stellar Remnants
Planetary Systems for Multiple Stars
Special Features for Planetary Systems
- Asteroids and Comets
- Planetoid Belts
- Kuiper Belt
- Oort Cloud
- Rogue Planets
- Trojan Planets
Unusual Worlds
- Ammonia Worlds
- Carbon Worlds
- Chthonian Worlds
- Lava Worlds
Fine-Tuning World Climate
- Effects of Orbital Eccentricity
- Effects of Obliquity
- Effects of Daily Rotation
- Effects of Altitude
- Effects of Local Geography
- Tide-Locked Worlds

Two Planetary Systems

February 18, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Time for a quick taste of how the new Architect of Worlds version is turning out.

Long-time followers of this project will remember the two running examples in the draft: planetary systems named Arcadia and Beta Nine that are intended to demonstrate how the system works in practice. I’m in the process of re-working all of the examples, which should be the last step before I share the current draft with my patrons and my readers here.

Here are a couple of tables to suggest some of the results of the revised system.

Arcadia Planetary System
Orbital Radius	Planet Type	Planet Mass	Density	Radius	Surface Gravity
0.254 AU	Terrestrial Planet	0.26	0.75	4470 km	0.53 g
0.380 AU	Terrestrial Planet	1.75	1.09	7460 km	1.28 g
0.580 AU	Terrestrial Planet	1.34	1.10	6800 km	1.17 g
1.00 AU	Terrestrial Planet	0.22	0.74	4250 km	0.49 g
2.12 AU	Planetoid Belt	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
4.08 AU	Large Gas Giant	460	0.20	84100 km	2.64 g
8.12 AU	Medium Gas Giant	180	0.075	85300 km	1.00 g
12.0 AU	Small Gas Giant	52.0	0.14	45800 km	1.00 g
17.6 AU	Failed Core	2.80	1.13	8620 km	1.53 g

Not too many surprises here – this resembles the previous version’s Arcadia system fairly strongly. For some context, the primary star here is a singleton K2V, with about four-fifths the mass and one-third the luminosity of Sol. The third planet (at 0.58 AU) is the Earthlike candidate that I intend to use as an example for the last portion of the design sequence.

Beta Nine Planetary System
Orbital Radius	Planet Type	Planet Mass	Density	Radius	Surface Gravity
0.027 AU	Terrestrial Planet	1.22	1.09	6610 km	1.13 g
0.038 AU	Terrestrial Planet	0.94	1.01	6220 km	0.99 g
0.062 AU	Planetoid Belt	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
0.135 AU	Small Gas Giant	12.0	0.29	22000 km	1.00 g
0.390 AU	Failed Core	2.80	1.16	8540 km	1.56 g

The Beta Nine primary is an M4V red dwarf, with about 0.18 solar masses and less than 1% of Sol’s luminosity. It also has a brown-dwarf companion that cuts off planetary formation too far away from the primary. This planetary system is actually quite a bit different from the previous draft’s Beta Nine. The new model I’m using provides enough planetesimal mass for at least a small gas giant world, and it also allows for the possibility that some of that planetesimal mass “migrates” into the inner system to help form rocky worlds. So we end up with more planets this time, and the terrestrial worlds are considerably bigger.

One inspiration here is the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system. My old model didn’t have much trouble generating a planetary system like that for a small red dwarf, but it needed a pretty massive protoplanetary disk to do it. Under the new model, a red dwarf star doesn’t need an improbably big disk mass to have a chance at Earth-sized worlds. Given how many red dwarfs we’ve found with planets of significant size, I suspect the new model fits the facts better.

I’m hoping to have the new draft out as a free update for my patrons, and as an update to the version posted on this site, within a few days.

New Models for Planetary Formation

January 24, 2022 Sharrukin Comments 5 comments

Rings in the protoplanetary disk around the young star HD163296 (Image courtesy of Andrea Isella/Rice University)

The science of planetary formation has been advancing in leaps and bounds for the last decade or two, driven by the discovery of thousands of exoplanets and fine-detail imaging of other planetary systems. This has been giving us a lot of insight into not only the history of our own Solar System, but also the general case of planetary formation elsewhere.

With my Architect of Worlds project, I’ve been trying to keep abreast of the current science while designing a world-building system for use in game design and literary work. The current state of the system is pretty good, I think, but it’s a bit complicated. I’ve built a model that tracks the formation of a system’s primary gas giant (if any), follows that planet as it migrates inward (and possibly outward), and uses the results of that evolution to determine the mass and placement of the rest of the planets. Lots of moving parts there, and a few of the steps are kind of unwieldy.

Now there’s some recent research suggesting that I might be able to simplify the model and still get good results. The pertinent paper is “Planetesimal rings as the cause of the Solar System’s planetary architecture,” by Andre Izidoro et al., released in December 2021. Here’s a layman’s article from Rice University: “Earth isn’t ‘super’ because the sun had rings before planets,” published on 4 January.

The idea is that it wasn’t specifically the migrations of Jupiter that brought about the architecture we see of the inner Solar System. Instead, the protoplanetary disk probably had several “pressure bumps,” places where infalling particles released gases due to the increasing temperature close to the embryonic Sun. These pressure bumps tended to accumulate dust particles, and created an environment where planetesimals could form and coalesce, without continuing to spiral into the Sun. The authors of the paper predict the presence of three such “pressure bumps,” which ended up giving rise to the rocky inner planets, the gas giants, and the Kuiper Belt objects respectively.

The idea makes a lot of sense, especially since we’ve started to get fine-detail images of young stars and their protoplanetary disks, and we sometimes see exactly the system of “rings” that the model would predict. Take the image that leads the Rice University article, which I’ve included above.

Scientifically, speaking, the neat thing about this new model is that it explains several things that previous models (which assumed a more uniform disk and relied on Jupiter-migrations to make things work out) had trouble with – especially the specific isotopic composition of inner-system as opposed to outer-system material. The new model also doesn’t have any trouble producing a small Mercury or Mars, or a planetoid belt (with mixed composition) between Mars and Jupiter.

From my perspective, it may mean that I can simplify the model on which Architect of Worlds is built, making the whole thing much easier for people to use. I’m going to be reading the literature on this, and thinking about the implications.

Photosynthesis on Red Dwarf Planets

September 8, 2021 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Artist’s conception of a landscape on a planet in the nearby Gliese 667 star system (ESO/L. Calçada)

Here’s another interesting result that has a strong bearing on the Architect of Worlds project:

Super-Earths, M Dwarfs, and Photosynthetic Organisms: Habitability in the Lab

We’ve assumed for a while that the planets of red dwarf stars are poor candidates for habitability, for a couple of reasons.

The main problem is that any planet close enough to a small, cool red dwarf star to bear liquid water is going to find itself seriously sandblasted during the star’s energetic “flare star” era. Without a strong magnetic field – itself unlikely if the planet rotates slowly because it’s tide-locked – it’s going to have a hard time retaining any atmosphere. If there’s plenty of geological and volcanic activity, an atmosphere may reconstruct itself once the primary star settles down.

The more subtle problem is that red dwarf starlight is lacking in the shorter visible-light frequencies driving the kind of photosynthesis we’re familiar with. A red dwarf may produce most of its energy output in the near infrared, which doesn’t do much for green plants. If photosynthesis has a hard time taking off, you’re not likely to get a breathable atmosphere with plenty of free oxygen in it.

The current draft of Architect of Worlds addresses both of these factors, in such a way that it’s actually quite difficult to generate an Earthlike world circling any but the most massive red dwarf stars (maybe M0 V or M1 V, at most).

The paper linked above, though, seems to indicate that this is too conservative. The authors worked with certain kinds of extremophile photosynthetic bacteria found on Earth. They subjected them to simulated red dwarf sunlight . . . and found that the bacteria carried on photosynthesis quite well. Even some of the more common bacteria they tested were able to carry on some photosynthetic activity under simulated red dwarf starlight.

This may be one of those cases where we need to account for the possibility of “life not quite as we know it” being able to exploit a niche we wouldn’t expect. Assuming a planet can retain (or rebuild) its atmosphere after the primary’s flare-star era, photosynthesis that leaves it with plenty of free oxygen in the air may not be as unlikely as we thought. I think one thing I’m going to do this month is to adjust parts of the Architect of Worlds design sequence to allow for this possibility.

Two Starships

June 12, 2021 Sharrukin Comments 1 comment

I’ve been playing with the current (Mongoose Publishing) edition of Traveller, specifically their version of the High Guard starship design rules. Here are a couple of ship designs that might possibly be relevant to another project I’m working on. Also, hopefully, of interest to Traveller fans . . .

Niarchos-class Far Trader (Modified)

These small merchant vessels are based on the TL12 Niarchos-class far trader, but have been specifically modified to support covert operations. They may (appear to) make a profit through normal free-trade operations, but are also likely to be covertly subsidized by an interstellar state.

Tech Level: 12
Hull: 200 tons, streamlined (80 Hull points, MCr12)
Armor: Crystaliron, 2 points (5 tons, MCr1.2)
M-Drive: Thrust 2 (4 tons, MCr8)
J-Drive: Jump 2 (15 tons, MCr22.5)
Power Plant: TL12 Fusion, Power 105 (7 tons, MCr7)
Fuel Tanks: Jump 2, 4 weeks operation (41 tons)
Bridge: Standard (10 tons, MCr1)
Computer: Computer/20 (MCr5)
Sensors: Improved (Power 4, 3 tons, MCr4.3)
Weapons: Double turret with pop-up mounting, Pulse Laser x2 (Power 9, 2 tons, MCr3.5)
Systems:
- Fuel Scoop
- Fuel Processor – 40 tons/day (Power 2, 2 tons, MCr0.1)
- Cargo Crane (3 tons, MCr3)
- Advanced Probe Drones – 5 TL12 drones (1 ton, MCr0.8)
- Library (4 tons, MCr4)
Staterooms:
- High Staterooms x1 (6 tons, MCr0.8)
- Standard Staterooms x8 (32 tons, MCr4)
- Low Berths x6 (Power 1, 3 tons, MCr0.3)
Software:
- Electronic Warfare/1 (Bandwidth 10, MCr15)
- Maneuver/0 (Bandwidth 0)
- Jump Control/2 (Bandwidth 10, MCr0.2)
- Library (Bandwidth 0)
Common Areas: 10 tons (MCr1)
Cargo: 52 tons
Standard Crew: Pilot, Astrogator, Engineer, Gunner, Medic, Steward. Usual crew roster combines Pilot and Astrogator, Engineer and Gunner, and Medic and Steward.
Cost: MCr93.7, monthly maintenance cost Cr7810.

Chen Zuyi-class Corsair

These ships were designed for long-term operation and small-scale commerce raiding in hostile space. Most of them have been sold to pirates, mercenaries, planetary governments seeking to maintain their independence, and other “troublemakers.”

Tech Level: 11
Hull: 400 tons, streamlined (160 Hull points, MCr24)
Armor: Crystaliron, 4 points (20 tons, MCr4.8)
M-Drive: Thrust 3 (12 tons, MCr24)
J-Drive: Jump 2 (25 tons, MCr37.5)
Power Plant: TL8 Fusion, Power 250 (25 tons, MCr12.5)
Fuel Tanks: Jump 2, 4 weeks operation (83 tons)
Bridge: Standard (20 tons, MCr2)
Computer: Computer/15 (MCr2)
Sensors: Military Grade (Power 2, 2 tons, MCr4.1)
Weapons:
- Triple turret, Pulse Laser x3 (Power 13, 1 ton, MCr4)
- Triple turret, Pulse Laser x3 (Power 13, 1 ton, MCr4)
- Triple turret, Missile Rack x3 (Power 1, 1 ton, MCr3.25)
Systems:
- Fuel Scoop
- Fuel Processor – 80 tons/day (Power 4, 4 tons, MCr0.2)
- Cargo Crane (3 tons, MCr3)
- Breaching Tube (3 tons, MCr3)
- Forced Linkage Apparatus (2 tons, MCr0.075)
- Armory x2 (2 tons, MCr0.5)
- Medical Bay (4 tons, MCr2)
- Training Facilities x12 (Power 24, 24 tons, MCr4.8)
- Workshop x2 (12 tons, MCr1.8)
Staterooms:
- High Staterooms x1 (6 tons, MCr0.8)
- Standard Staterooms x4 (16 tons, MCr2, set up for double occupancy)
- Barracks x12 (24 tons, MCr1.2)
- Brig x1 (4 tons, MCr0.25)
- Low Berths x6 (Power 1, 3 tons, MCr0.3)
Software:
- Fire Control/1 (Bandwidth 5, MCr2)
- Maneuver/0 (Bandwidth 0)
- Jump Control/2 (Bandwidth 10, MCr0.2)
- Library (Bandwidth 0)
Common Areas: 13 tons (MCr1.3)
Cargo: 90 tons
Standard Crew: Pilot, Astrogator, 2 Engineers, 3 Gunners, Medic, 12 Marines.
Cost: MCr145.575, monthly maintenance cost Cr12200.

World-Building Exercise: St. Basil

June 2, 2021 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

Here’s a bit of additional world-building for the Scorpius Reach setting, mostly done with the current draft of Architect of Worlds.

St. Basil is the fourth planet of the A component of a binary star system. Its primary star is named Emmelia. Emmelia is a typical Population I star, somewhat more massive, hotter, and brighter than Sol. It possesses a substantial family of planets.

Emmelia

Mass: 1.06 Sol
Age: 5.7 billion standard years
Metallicity: 1.0 standard
Luminosity: 1.63 Sol
Effective Temperature: 5940 K
Spectral Classification: G0V

Mazaka (Companion Star)

Mass: 0.55 Sol
Age: 5.7 billion standard years
Metallicity: 1.0 standard
Luminosity: 0.06 Sol
Effective Temperature: 3850 K
Spectral Classification: M0V
Orbital Radius: 96.8 AU
Eccentricity: 0.25 (Forbidden zone at 24.2 AU)
Orbital Period: 750.6 standard years

Planetary System Summary

Planets and other major bodies in the Emmelia star system are named after people associated with St. Basil the Great.

Orbit	Name	UPP	Notes
0.20 AU	Meletius	Y7A0000-0	Tide-locked world with a hot carbon-dioxide atmosphere. No moons.
0.36 AU	Eustathius	Y8A0000-0	Tide-locked world with a hot carbon-dioxide atmosphere. No moons.
0.62 AU	St. Macrina	Y600000-0	Hot airless world. No moons.
1.28 AU	St. Basil	C645456-8	Primary world in the system, with a thin but breathable oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere tainted by biotoxins, a moderate amount of liquid surface water, and a temperate climate. Colony world. No moons.
1.85 AU	St. Gregory	Large GG	Spectacular ring system. One large moon, many moonlets.
3.83 AU	St. Petros	Medium GG	Moderate ring system. Two large moons, several moonlets.
7.17 AU	St. Naucratius	Small GG	Moderate ring system. One large moon, several moonlets.
11.61 AU	Julianos	YAA0000-0	Dense, bitterly cold hydrogen-helium atmosphere. No moons.

St. Basil

St. Basil is a marginally habitable world. It has a pleasant climate in limited regions of the surface, but the local ecology is somewhat incompatible with human biochemistry and airborne toxins are common.

Orbital and Rotational Parameters

Orbital Radius: 1.275 AU
Orbital Eccentricity: 0.08
Orbital Period: 12260 hours
Rotation Period: 21.50 hours
Local Day: 21 hours, 32.5 minutes
Local Year: 569.13 local days
Obliquity: 24° (unstable)
Satellites: None

Mass and Surface Gravity

Mass: 0.47 Earth
Density: 0.92 Earth (5.08 g/cc)
Radius: 5090 km
Surface Gravity: 0.74 standard

Geophysics

Geophysical Parameters: Mature plate lithosphere with mobile plate tectonics
Magnetic Field: Strong
Hydrographic Coverage: 50%

Atmosphere

Surface Atmospheric Pressure: 0.69 atm
Atmospheric Components (by Mass):
- Nitrogen 75.5%
- Oxygen 22.3%
- Carbon Dioxide 0.4%
- Argon 1.0%
- Water Vapor 0.3%
Atmospheric Scale Height: 11.6 km
Atmospheric Classification: Thin, tainted (low oxygen content, seasonal airborne toxins in regions of plentiful native vegetation)

Climate

Blackbody Temperature: 279 K
Bolometric Albedo: 0.27
Total Greenhouse Effect: 31 K
Average Surface Temperature: 289 K

Native Life

Age of Advanced Biosphere: 1.71 billion standard years
Dominant Life Forms: Sophisticated animals, both aquatic and land-based, including several pre-sentient species
Biochemical Compatibility: Poor

Human Habitation

Human Population: 50,000
Founder Groups: Eosi (100%)
Government Type: Feudal Technocracy
Law Level: 6
Starport Class: C (Routine facilities, repair yard for small ships)
Base Facilities: Scout base
Local Tech Level: 18
Trade Classifications: Non-Industrial

Notes

St. Basil is notable for its proximity to the massive gas giant planet St. Gregory. St. Basil and St. Gregory are in a stable 7:4 orbital resonance. While the gas giant’s influence stabilizes St. Basil’s orbit, it also causes the smaller planet’s rotational axis to undergo wild excursions over million-year timescales.

St. Basil is currently recovering from a mass extinction which apparently took place about two million years ago. The largest native land animals are about the size and sophistication of a domestic cat. The history of life on the planet is full of such incidents – the variability of the planet’s rotational axis means that its climate is also extremely unstable over long periods.

Native life on St. Basil is biochemically incompatible with Earth-derived life – the two can usually obtain no nutritional value from one another, and the very attempt is likely to provoke serious allergic or toxic reactions. Even the native plant life is prone to give off airborne toxins that can lead to serious illness or even death in Earth-derived animal life. The St. Basil colony tends to expand its territory by burning the native ecology to the ground, plowing the resulting carbon under, and then introducing Earth- or Eos-derived life forms. Humans venturing away from the protected colony are advised to wear filter masks and carry supplemental oxygen.

St. Basil was originally colonized in 2403, by founder groups of Chinese and Japanese origin. The original name of the colony was Guang. The Guang colony failed slowly after the Silence, with all human inhabitants deceased by 2600. The planet was rediscovered in 2833 and recolonized from Eos in 2840. St. Basil is currently organized as a semi-autonomous province of the Kingdom of Eos, ruled by a consortium of technical and scientific experts, with support from the Kingdom’s interstellar navy and scout service.

The local economy is more or less self-sufficient at a TL8 level. It is centered around scientific study of the native biosphere, which promises to produce a variety of useful pharmaceuticals. Prospectors have also recently discovered prodromoi remnants on the planet.

Architect of Worlds Status (January 2021)

January 6, 2021 Sharrukin Comments 0 Comment

For those who are interested in the Architect of Worlds project, here’s a quick summary of its status.

After several years of sporadic work, I finished the first complete version of the design sequence just before Christmas. Over the next couple of weeks, I did some intensive testing and made two pretty significant revisions.

At the moment I have a partial draft of the book that’s in an “alpha release” state (Version 0.3), covering just the sequence for designing star systems, planetary systems, and individual worlds. It works – I’ve been generating a series of plausible and often weirdly interesting worlds with it.

My readers should be aware that this is not the version that’s currently posted to the Architect of Worlds page on this blog. That’s Version 0.1, the first complete sequence, before the last two rewrites. That version works too, but there are some problems with it – you may not want to lean on it too hard. I’m considering taking it down entirely.

As of right now, the best way to get your hands on the current release draft is to sign up for my Patreon (see the link in the sidebar). I anticipate having a complete draft of the book ready for release sometime this year, so at this point, the project is moving out of the “free to the public” phase.

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