Physics & Natural Philosophy
NOTE: this is one of our old pages. It will be updated, for more information on those of you who - like us - are hypergeeks who think fantasy campaign settings also need some kind of physical logic.
Physics & Natural Philosophy of the Zara Sea
“Say whhhaaat? I was looking for something about physics (‘cause all gamers are concerned about the science of fantasy roleplaying, in worlds where the dead rise, people travel between planes of existence, gods muck about, and magic is everywhere) and now you’re saying “natural philosophy”?’
Well, first of all, I’m using ‘physics’ in the sense of the ancient Greek term where it basically means ‘nature’.
Second, the term ‘natural philosophy’ was the term commonly used for what we now call science until around 200 years ago. And I tip my pointy archmage hat to the University of Edinburgh, who still have Chairs of Natural Philosophy, though they sold out in the late 1960s and the Department of Natural Philosophy became the far less romantic Department of Physics.
I’m not a scientist (or a natural philosopher), and I certainly can’t do the math necessary to demonstrate many of the claims that will be made below, though I will provide links to those who can. And there is of course a limit to how far one wants to go in making fantasy worlds comply with physical laws. I don’t want to have to ‘prove’ how dragons really can fly, in spite of the wingspan/mass conundrum (though maybe my dragons have glands next to the spleen, that produce some lighter-than hydrogen bile. Just maybe). And making magic follow all physical laws would make games really slow, and really dull.
On this page, I attempt to explain how some of the major features of the world on which the Zara Sea exists are possible (if not probable). For simplicity’s sake, I will use the term from the Auld Tongue, ‘Ærth’; the Gardzyklar use the term ‘Vilag’, while the Indartsu call it ‘Lurra’. I’ll explore some of the basics of the astronomy, physics, geology, ecology, and evolutionary history of the Ærth. But first, it’s worth considering how the inhabitants of Ærth understand their own universe.
