+Oltux72 Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 (edited) I didn't catch it the first three times. But at the fourth time it hit me. How can they possibly have wood? We have a biologist, but for now I am playing one. Wood is basically cellulosis and lignin. Cellulosis is biochemically speaking a sugar. Wood is considerable investment of energy. And plant form it to outcompete other plants for light and to last. But that makes no sense. The plants Sigzil observed lasted a few hours at most. What are they doing with wood? Whence did the refugee Threnodites get enough wood to casually waste it on temporary construction? @drunkenbotanist Invoking our biologist Edited March 26, 2022 by Oltux72 Calling in the scientist 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbulick Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 I assume like they harvest crops, the invested sunlight can grow trees quickly as well? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bzhydack Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 Maybe there are underground plants and their roots and stalks are good for wood. Or in polar regions of planet are forests with half the year vegetation time (and are burned by sulight in other half, like eucaliptus trees in Australia). Of course, they also need to grow very fast. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StormingTexan Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 That is an interesting observation! They spoke of "columns" to the north. I wonder if there is a different environment there that is less affected by the sun. Of course I do not know why anyone would be anywhere else besides that area if that is the case. I am also curious about metal. They obviously have it and must in-turn mine it. However it seems like the end goal for the Threnodites is to go and live underground. Why wouldn't they just live in the mines? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HSuperLee Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 9 minutes ago, StormingTexan said: That is an interesting observation! They spoke of "columns" to the north. I wonder if there is a different environment there that is less affected by the sun. Of course I do not know why anyone would be anywhere else besides that area if that is the case. I am also curious about metal. They obviously have it and must in-turn mine it. However it seems like the end goal for the Threnodites is to go and live underground. Why wouldn't they just live in the mines? If they can't get deep enough, being underground would basically just be like being in an oven instead of actually sheltering them. Plus the fact it seems like one of the major plot points of the book is that they're looking for the entrance to some underground Scadrian area might indicate that there are more complications with moving underground than are immediately apparent. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Oltux72 Posted March 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 14 minutes ago, StormingTexan said: I am also curious about metal. They obviously have it and must in-turn mine it. However it seems like the end goal for the Threnodites is to go and live underground. Why wouldn't they just live in the mines? You have opened the next can of worms. How would they smelt the ores? I cannot see a coal swamp developing on a world like that. I am afraid we must answer that question by saying that they do not have mines for reasons unknown. So do they have soulcasters? 5 minutes ago, HSuperLee said: If they can't get deep enough, being underground would basically just be like being in an oven instead of actually sheltering them. Plus the fact it seems like one of the major plot points of the book is that they're looking for the entrance to some underground Scadrian area might indicate that there are more complications with moving underground than are immediately apparent. Eathquakes? Are we sure the rings belong to the world itself? May we be looking at a gas giant's moon? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zibus Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 17 minutes ago, Oltux72 said: You have opened the next can of worms. How would they smelt the ores? I cannot see a coal swamp developing on a world like that. I am afraid we must answer that question by saying that they do not have mines for reasons unknown. So do they have soulcasters? Recall they have some sort of invested power source that seems to give off a lot of heat. Could probably be used to fuel smelting technology of some kind. 38 minutes ago, StormingTexan said: That is an interesting observation! They spoke of "columns" to the north. I wonder if there is a different environment there that is less affected by the sun. Of course I do not know why anyone would be anywhere else besides that area if that is the case. Lots of people might already live there and have pushed them out? Also, the foodstock plants might not grow there well if they have to compete with all the trees and have less access to invested sunlight. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Oltux72 Posted March 25, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 54 minutes ago, Zibus said: Recall they have some sort of invested power source that seems to give off a lot of heat. Could probably be used to fuel smelting technology of some kind. You still need a reductive agent. Smelting ores is not just heating stuff up. It is a chemical reaction. 54 minutes ago, Zibus said: Lots of people might already live there and have pushed them out? Also, the foodstock plants might not grow there well if they have to compete with all the trees and have less access to invested sunlight. Why not dig new caves? You could do it over multiple days. And yes, the plants may not grow ther, but then you need to send out expeditions and that raises the question why they wish to go under ground into predug Scadrian caves. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Bzhydack Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 4 hours ago, StormingTexan said: That is an interesting observation! They spoke of "columns" to the north. I wonder if there is a different environment there that is less affected by the sun. Of course I do not know why anyone would be anywhere else besides that area if that is the case. I am also curious about metal. They obviously have it and must in-turn mine it. However it seems like the end goal for the Threnodites is to go and live underground. Why wouldn't they just live in the mines? Maybe sunlight has also very powerfull radiation? Maybe even supernatural one? Like will kill not resistent life even hundreds meters underground. So is not just going underground, you also need shielding technology. 4 hours ago, Oltux72 said: You have opened the next can of worms. How would they smelt the ores? I cannot see a coal swamp developing on a world like that. I am afraid we must answer that question by saying that they do not have mines for reasons unknown. So do they have soulcasters? This is actually easy. Form sort of Furnace on the ground, fill it with all stuff needet, and wait for day. Go around planet and just collect metal - sun is doing all job for you. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teknopathetic Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 Anyone else feel that this is Invention's world? Invention made a bizarre world that demands people to come up with creative solutions to ever-encrouching problems. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+mdross81 Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 7 minutes ago, teknopathetic said: Anyone else feel that this is Invention's world? Invention made a bizarre world that demands people to come up with creative solutions to ever-encrouching problems. I had exactly the same thought when reading SP4. The ring around the planet reflecting the sunlight for some reason makes me think of Invention too: Quote He blinked, sweat and muddy water dripping into his eyes, and looked up at that ring again. Like most, it was actually a collection of rings. Brilliant, blue-and-gold, circling the planet—sweeping high in the air, extending as if into infinity. They pointed toward the sun, and tipped at a faint angle, reflecting sunlight down onto the landscape. Now that he had a chance to study it, a part of him acknowledged how stunning the sight was. He’d visited dozens of planets, and had never seen anything so stoically magnificent. Mud and fire below, but in the air...that was majesty. This was a planet that wore a crown. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiePie Posted March 25, 2022 Report Share Posted March 25, 2022 Everything they have feels scavenged. Perhaps the colony ship that brought them there was able to shield itself from the heat of the sun or in some way facilitate the growing of trees (which could be done extremely quickly if you could shield them from most of the heat but let the investiture through) but something went wrong and so they're reduced to hooking up scout-craft to create ramshackle cities using the scraps that are left. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Oltux72 Posted March 26, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 26, 2022 10 hours ago, DiePie said: Everything they have feels scavenged. Perhaps the colony ship that brought them there was able to shield itself from the heat of the sun or in some way facilitate the growing of trees (which could be done extremely quickly if you could shield them from most of the heat but let the investiture through) but something went wrong and so they're reduced to hooking up scout-craft to create ramshackle cities using the scraps that are left. So you think the plants they are growing are not native? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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