Oerth's Solar SystemHas anybody ever given any tho

[Scott]

Has anybody ever given any thought to Oerth’s solar system?
Does the sun really revolve around the Oerth? Is it a star? Is it a mystical vessel piloted by the Maiar Arien?
Are the five wandering stars planets? One may be Barsoom. What about the rest?
What else?
Any thoughts?

[Falconer]

Have you read C.S. Lewis’s space trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, etc.)? I like his system. Basically, I think if you’re actually going to have space/planet adventures, you’re going to want to say the system is heliocentric, you can land on planets, etc., like standard Planetary Romance/Space Opera fare. Yes, a wandering star is a planet by definition. But for Lewis, each planet also had its own “god” (Oyarsa) as its guardian who lent a certain character to it. So for Mars it would be Mars, the god of war, and it's a warlike planet; for Venus it would be Venus, goddess of beauty, etc. FWIW, he had Satan as the god of Earth. It would be interesting to see Oerth as basically Tharizdun’s planet. More naturally, it would be Beory, though. You could give Tharizdun a sort of "Yuggoth" (Pluto), which would be a cool Lovecraftian feel.

Anyway, so in reality the Sun can be both “a flaming ball of gas” and “Pelor” at the same time. If your game never does get into spacefaring, you could stick to insisting on the geocentric view to which most inhabitants of Oerth surely adhere anyway. For all intents and purposes, Gary’s “joke” is spot-on.

[Falconer]

I think I would have one of the planets be Barsoom/Mars. It’s so ingrained in the story of Greyhawk now. Oerth is obviously an alternate Earth, so the fact that the existence of Barsoom assumes the existence of a basically normal Earth is something I wouldn’t over-think. Other planets would just be whatever planets seem fun to visit. A Star Trek planet? A Star Wars planet? A Battlestar Galactica planet? E.R. Eddison’s Mercury? Lovecraft’s Yuggoth, as I mentioned above? Whatever. As long as it was actually a planet that was meant to be reached as a planet. Worlds that are meant to be reached through magic should be reached by magic. Though planets can be reached by magic, too. *shrug*(

[GRWelsh]

I have always preferred the mythological view to the scientific, for Greyhawk. All matter is made out of the four classical Greek elements, for example. When I think of other planets, I think of such references in Burroughs, CAS, REH, Lovecraft, and Vance... they are all potential "alternate fantasy worlds"... Barsoom, Saturn, Almuric, Yuggoth, or the Far Star Achernar. I never purchased any Spelljammer stuff, but I like the premise assuming the medieval cosmology was (mostly) accurate, what with crystal spheres, phlogiston, etc.

There's something wonderful about the image of Numenoreans who sail to such far oceans that they were actually able to see the Sun pass through the dragon-carved Doors of Night... why does that image make me think of Baron Munchausen and Terry Gilliam? Maybe because he's one of the few film-makers who handles these sorts of visuals so well, IMO. Anyway, I've never put a lot of thought into it beyond what I thought would be more interesting in a game. I never had the feeling EGG came to a definite conclusion about this, himself. He may have envisioned a heliocentric and scientifically accurate solar system which was set into motion (or maintained in its motion) by divinities, yet which also had ignorant Oerth-bound mortals having many misunderstandings about it (geocentrism, wandering stars, etc.).

[Scott]

I’ve thought about a few options for the sun, one being a giant opening to the plane of fire. Another option is that the sun is Pelor, or another sun god, or maybe the burning remains of some forgotten old god, or maybe it is some artifact closer to vessel Arien pulls around the world. I haven’t decided yet, and it hasn’t become an issue. But it could come up if a cleric of Pelor or Pholtus make it to a high enough level.

[GT]

Well, Gary did "greenlight" the climate charts found in the Dragon and later in the Greyhawk Box Set (although he didn't use them), so the Oerth would be in a heliocentric system by that reasoning, along with its two moons. And Mars/Barsoom is a given, as per the gate in the Castle. Also, Yuggoth is a safe bet (with Pluto=Yuggoth as an actual planet, as it was unknown at the time that its moon Charon constituted part of its "diameter") as Rob who co-ran the campaign (as well as Gary...) was a big H. P. Lovecraft fan. I would say that Venus in one form or another (maybe the jungle version of ERB's "Carson of Venus" series) would also be there... ^__^

[GT]

Hmmmm... as far as the sun being Pelor, I would say that's a stretch--consider Pelor more a deitific representation of the sun and its healing proprties. As for a "lost god" concept, that might work (a la a Titan or somesuch...). In my campaign, it is simply a sun--perhaps with a magic component to its radiant energy that makes Oerth and the other worlds so different from other planets! BTW, did you know that Gary actually had at least one of Oerth's moons as having an atmosphere and having its own lifeforms? ^__^

[Scott]

Hey stranger,
I have Celene as a moon with an atmosphere, etc. Maybe Luna too, I've never considered it.

[GT]

Yeah... Retail plus Holiday Season equals "scarce GT"... ^__^ Just got off of work, as a matter of fact.