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| Kcinlive |
 Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:20 am Post subject: On the nature of Midgard |
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Joined: 30 Oct 2009
Posts: 4
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Given my understanding of the setting, Midgard is a flat disk surrounded by an impossibly large serpent/dragon/god/whatever, presumably floating through the void of space. Assuming that's true, and I please correct me if I'm wrong, what's on the "underside" of the disk?
I mean is there a whole other "world" there? Or if you dug down through the disk and come out the other side, would you fall off? Are there caves that could presumably lead through the planet? Is there a layer of molten earth sandwiched between the sides?
Not really expecting any answers. Mostly these are hypothetical questions. Just some random thoughts I came up with when thinking about the setting.
-Kcinlive |
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| Arknight |
| Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 8:40 am Post subject: |
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Joined: 07 Aug 2012
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| I'd like to know too, because I'm sure those questions would come up from any of the players in might have in a game... Lol |
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| xellos |
| Posted: Fri Dec 21, 2012 11:20 am Post subject: |
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Location: Austin, TX
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Some Midgard-related sources say that the elven Bright Lands are on the other side. But YMMV. ^_^
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-Carlos Ovalle |
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| tpetzie |
| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 9:00 am Post subject: |
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I *love* thinking about these kinds of things. 
Several places in Midgard-related publications have hinted that the Elflands/Bright Lands are on the other side of the disk.
Here are some more cool tidbits. If the world is flat, you would be able to see reeeally far (depending on how much particulate matter is in the air). Not only that, but very large things very far away could look like they were floating in the air because of the refraction of light.
There's also gravity to consider (perhaps a gift of the gods?) and magnetic fields as well (what anchors them to the north?). Even the phases of the moon could be strange looking depending on how exactly the Midgardian disk is blocking the light of the sun. 
I'm still coming up with answers to these questions on my own campaign, but for what it's worth I sort of imagine Midgard to be discus-shaped (thereby giving it some curvature and thickness, just not very much). I haven't yet incorporated the idea that you could conceivably see hundreds of miles on a clear day, and actually see the tops of mountain thousands of miles away in my descriptions to my players. I'm not sure how (if at all) it would impact the game. It would certainly lend a feeling of weirdness to things, and I'm not sure if that's what I'm looking to do.
There's also the question of how big is it? How much beyond the known-map is there? There are certainly other cool shapes to consider too, like contact-lens shaped (so the "top" has convex curvature, but the Elflands side has concave curvature, allowing you to see a near-infinite distance and trapping light and heat like a bowl. Absolutely-flat is another, (but then how thick is it?  ). It could be a demi-plane so vast that you could never hope to reach the edges of it, like a sort of two dimensional prime material plane that stretches to infinity.
I have also literally interpreted the idea the Ouroboros encircles the plane, so if you got far enough towards an edge, you would come up to the god itself, its body towering over you like a massive mountain holding the oceans in. I can imagine the entire plane being partially hollow allowing for transit between the Elflands and the other side through the heart of the demiplane, but I like to imagine that things would get reeeallly weird when you got really deep. You'd have to be insanely powerful to even try it (getting past the Ghoul Imperium would be a start) since perhaps Elder Gods slumber in the uncharted depths. Perhaps a partially hollow core with a giant sea all around the inside edge, fluid gravity.
I'm still thinking about all this, and I'd love to hear other ideas. And I would reeealllly love to hear Wolfgang's take on it. How have you been interpreting it all these years? |
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| Rondor |
| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2012 1:41 pm Post subject: |
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Joined: 05 Dec 2012
Posts: 7
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I dont think the current technology in Midgard allws digginbg thru to the other side. However, hidden somewhere...somwehere deep and secret and unknown is a passge down through the planet.
A great vertical cavern leading through grave danger to reach the Elflands.... |
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