WIP - Scintilla - First time map maker

[Diamond]

First of all, it's a really intriguing idea! How do people 'sail' the seas? Or are they pretty much impassable? I'm picturing explorers delving down the sides of the landmass lower and lower, finding relics and cities and unsavory beasties. Are there actual oceans? Because if you're going to have rivers on your mega-plateau they're gonna need something to drain into.

I would guess this land is colder on average since it sits much higher than the concealed lands below. Some questions to ask (that I can't answer by the way ) would be: Is the atmosphere thinner? If so, how has that affected life and the development of civilization? What latitude does the 'continent' sit at? Where do the prevailing winds come from? How do people build civilization(s) without an ocean? Historically, the first cities formed along rivers and sea shores - abundant fishing, ease of travel, etc. Why does the cloud cover never disperse?

It really is a cool idea, and I guess how realistic you intend it to be is going to inform how you develop it. You could opt for handwavium and say things are the way they are just because. Or you could go ultra-realistic and realize that some of the things you may have in mind for this setting just wouldn't work. Or some combination of the two.

[Moonborn]

Thank you.

These are very intriguing questions. A few I had answers for, a few got me thinking, trying to fill in the gaps.

Before I get to the questions though the topic of realism versus, as you put it handwavium. I am striving for realism, or as close as I can get to it. This is going to be a very strange world though! Pretty dang alien to our own. Realism is the goal but getting there is going to be tough. I do want to avoid over-explanation in the actual narrative as it is likely to get in the way of plot or a sense of wonder. The people of this world don't know themselves, they have only existed as a people and civilization for ~a century. Much of their world is a complete mystery to them! That said, I want the answers for myself to satisfy the world-builder and, probably more importantly, for consistency's sake!

Some of your questions did prompt me to draw up a little diagram. A cross-section of the world that hopefully helps with visualizing what the heck is going on and what I am going for. It is something I've meant to do for a while.



Probably should have labeled it, maybe I will. The top example is a normal crater. The bottom is something called a 'complex crater' where the edges of the bowl collapse inward and often settle in tiers. I am not sure which I will go for with the map yet. Considering this is a large impact the complex crater is the more likely result I believe.

As you can see there is the land above the cloud layer and within the bowl of the crater there is a pocket beneath it. This pocket would be habitable and populated as well.

The giant rock thing, that is a chunk of the planet's moon. Normally an asteroid impact would obliterate the ballistic object. It is probably not the least bit realistic that it is still partially intact. Can't say I'm an expert of the physics here. It is one of those things I want to have in the world so if Handwavium is all I've got to fall back on so be it. It is absolutely a case of I want this cause its cool to me and I will work backwards from the idea to find explanations. In this case I was thinking that the lunar fragment hit at a much lower velocity than the average asteroid impact.

Your Questions

How do people 'sail' the seas? Airships! Zeppelins, Hot-Air balloons, etc. Still working out the details but Airships are one of the core themes I want to focus on. Though, right now I am considering wonky 1920s ish inspired airplanes and conceptual flying machines.

Are there actual oceans? Probably, maybe. I am imagining yes, however, they are going to be near entirely inaccessible to the people living in this world that they're unlikely to be discovered anytime soon.

Rivers... Are something I have been struggling with. I imagine there would not be much rainfall at these higher elevations. Rivers are likely rare, or nonexistent. What rivers do exist would spill over the cliffs into the clouds.

Water scarcity is a big challenge people must solve for. Many communities likely get the majority of their water from the clouds, skimming for vapor and purifying before it is safe to drink.

The other idea I had was, keeping in mind this is a Science Fantasy setting, terraforming machines. Esentially this world is sort of a distant post-apocolypse setting. Previous civilization kicked the bucket for various reasons. They were trying to deal with climate change built a bunch of colossal machines intended to clean up the right state of things and those machines have just chugged on doing their thing with no one around to turn them off. There is a bit more to it than that but this is already going to be a long reply. Imagining a number of water creation/purification machines flooding large areas.


Is the atmosphere thinner? A little probably. The idea ofthe cloud ocean is that it is a layer of atmosphere that is heavier than the usual surface level composition that Humans are comfortable in. I am sure this is not how it would work but I imagine it pushing that breathable Goldilocks zone to a higher altitude. That or people have just adapted to living in a thinner atmosphere.

How has that affected life and the development of civilization? Drastically, there are a lot of factors in play here that have affected Human development but focusing on the topic at hand. As alluded to before, most settle around the rim of the Crater. This is both because inland travel, or surface level decent down into the crater/clouds is extremely dangerous. In addition, to the water source factor there is also food. A staple food being birds and bird-like creatures. 'Fishing' is alive and well despite there being no ocean.


What latitude does the 'continent' sit at? I was thinking ~30°-~40° N or S

Where do the prevailing winds come from? Hadn't given this any thought! Probably from the East.

Why does the cloud cover never disperse? A combination of apocalyptic tumult, most of the planet's oceans having evaporated and the aforementioned terraforming machines. Probably loads of mega-machines below pumping out raw ozone, many of them likely malfunctioning in just the worst ways.