The sky is falling!

[Shepard]

I have never really payed attention to what the SKY is really like in the game. I know we have two moons, and a sun, and now a third moon... BUT...

1) Is the sky ALWAYS red during the day, and is it red in the NORTH and SOUTH?
          -Is there clouds?

2) At night, could the sky be assumed to be black, and with stars?

[Marauder Moe]

Geographically, the Tuluk and Allanak really aren't all that far apart.  So the sky isn't significantly different in the two regions.

It's not always red, but definitely reddish.  High sun on a clear day it might be more orange/yellow.  Evening during a storm might be brown.

Any visible clouds would be dust clouds, and thus low on the horizon rather than up above like earthly water clouds.

The sky would be black at night.

There are no stars visible.

[X-D]

Slight correction.

Stars are not normally visible in most areas.

[Shepard]

. . . I am most intersted in the fact that stars are or are not seen in the sky . . .

It is mildly important to a character idea for me, so... how would I know if they are seen where I am? Because, I'd imagine there would be stars, if there are no clouds or dust storms covering the sky...

Not to mention, without stars, I am interested how those in Zalanthas know where directions are (I.E. North, east, west, south)

[spawnloser]

You can see them if the description of the room at night mentions them.  Otherwise, assume you can not.

There are other ways to keep directions straight without using the stars.

[Shepard]

Okay, fair enough. Thanks, everyone!

[Marauder Moe]

The official word(s):
http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,6022.0.html
http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,35265.0.html


Personally, I would take this to mean that you shouldn't use stars as any sort of significant character background influence, at least not without more explicit permission/clarification.

[Thunkkin]

The official word(s):
http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,6022.0.html
http://www.zalanthas.org/gdb/index.php/topic,35265.0.html


Personally, I would take this to mean that you shouldn't use stars as any sort of significant character background influence, at least not without more explicit permission/clarification.

Unless you have a tattoo of a six or seven-pointed one on the back of your hand.  Then it's OK.

[Marauder Moe]

That's just a geometric figure, though.  I'm not sure if it's associated with celestial points of light in any way.

[Sephiroto]

You've now tempted me to conduct Eratosthenes experiment IC.  So, if you see a loner with a measuring rod walking between Allanak and Tuluk, please leave him be!

If I'm not mistaken, the staff mentioned that PCs do not see stars in the sky unless explicitly mentioned in a room desc.  As X-D mentioned, most rooms don't have stars in room descs.  As the Known World is fairly small in geographic size I'd like you to keep in mind that there are "eternally blowing sands" very close to almost all major point of civilization.  It shouldn't be to difficult to surmise from that why we can't normally see the stars.

[Erythil]

I remember reading somewhere that the original intent was for the setting not to have any stars at all, but that it was eventually changed such that they are very rarely there.

[X-D]

There was none, but then somebody put them in some rdescs, and rather then change that...there are stars now.

[Bilanthri]

In the original Dark Sun setting, the planet was trapped within its own impenetrable crystal sphere (a la SpellJammer). This meant that normal D&D characters could not travel to Athas, and vice versa. Thus, the planet had no stars as it was alone with its sun.

I wonder if this original lack of stars, and subsequent sparse additions, was a reflection of this connection.

[Malifaxis]

In the original Dark Sun setting, the planet was trapped within its own impenetrable crystal sphere (a la SpellJammer). This meant that normal D&D characters could not travel to Athas, and vice versa. Thus, the planet had no stars as it was alone with its sun.

I wonder if this original lack of stars, and subsequent sparse additions, was a reflection of this connection.

Curse you with a thousand scorpions in your anus for mentioning JellSpammer.

I think it's more the thought of "Hey, not having stars is cool."  And then the thought of "Ohhh, stars would be pretty here, I'm putting them in!" 

And then Nessalin did this:



But lo, there were stars.

[titansfan]

Damn fine explanation if ya ask me.

[EldritchOrigins]

The standard answer to #1 is yes, but there is the exception that in a certain place the sky is blue.

[Sephiroto]

What a sad existence, being alone in your own little celestial sphere. 

I wonder if there are planets like Zalanthas orbiting close to dim stars that we can't see out in intergalactic space.  With real mantis and real kanks....

Ironically, if this were a true case then the planet's inhabitants would see faint galaxies in places of stars in their sky if they could 1) see through their atmosphere or 2) distant objects weren't obscured by dust in an accretion disk.