September 2015 Challenge: A Cold, Cold War
I started with a literal interpretation of "Cold War". This setting is on an ice planet/moon, like Hoth from Star Wars. It's too far from its sun to get enough energy or warmth to live on, and it lacks any significant deposits of fissile materials for nuclear energy.
Humanity on this world relies on geothermal energy and biotechnology. Despite being covered mostly by an ice-encrusted ocean, the planet/moon has a hot magma core with four super-volcanoes. By careful engineering, selectively plugging some vents and using others, and extensive use of advanced bio-engineering, the inhabitants have built two thriving civilizations on an otherwise barren, frozen world. One civilization controls the bio-tech, while the other controls the geothermal tech.
For reasons that I need to invent, the two civilizations absolutely despise each other, but their hatred is held in check by their vulnerabilities. Each super-volcano contains enough destructive power to destroy the civilization that depends on it. One civilization controls the heat, and has the ability to make its rival's volcanos either erupt (for a quick death by fire) or shut down (for a slower death by freezing). The other civilization controls the bio-technology and can either kill its rival quickly with a lethal variant of the common cold or destroy its sources of food.
That's my initial concept. Here's a rough hack at the world map.
### Latest WIP ###
I used an image of Stephan's Quintet as the basis for my height map*. I've done a couple of galaxy-based regional maps, and this challenge seemed appropriate for this image. The ocean is a satellite image of a fairly flat part of Antarctica.
I need to do a little thinking on the physical geography; in particular, I need to figure out how to make the land and ocean look right together. I'd welcome any suggestions on this.
Otherwise, I'll focus mainly on the thematic elements of a sci-fi stalemate map from here on out. There's a Robert Frost poem, "Fire and Ice," that seems very appropriate.
*I had a video tutorial on how to do this 80% done for last month's challenge, but then my computer's video/graphics card and associated motherboard functions died. A new computer is on the way.
