Let me start off by saying I am NOT a Flat-Earther or Geocentric believer, BUT I am creating a sub game in GURPS (the tabletop game). I was going to go to Veeky Forums, but I don't need neckbeards explaining rulings to me, I need people with STEM backgrounds to help me create an "as accurate as possible" mythical world.
So, looking at this from a mythological standpoint, I'm wanting a flat, disc-shaped world, the continents and land masses scattered across an ocean, and large ice walls hold all the water from "falling off" into the void below. This implies that gravity has a "source" below everything. Many mythologies believed that the earth was "domed" with "the firmament". This furthers the idea of "light mass". "Light things" weigh less than "dark things". Suns, moons, stars, planets, and other celestial bodies are... Separate of these laws?
I'm not sure... This is what I need help with. IF the science of this world could justify the existence of this kind of cosmology, how would it work? Sorry for the long post, just spitballing my ideas.
Try reading the "Discworld" series by Terry Pratchett. Aside from his eloquent use of the English language, he incorporates magic as a sort of force of nature to allow things to happen.
Other than that, first you'll have to explain how the disk is rigid enough to overcome gravity's force to render it into a ball.
Logan Thomas
I assumed I was going to make the "foundation" of the disc a fictional substance, for example, Adamant, that would be able to withstand the force and keep it a level platform.
"Magic" substances help fill the gaps where science would (obviously) prove this type of world wrong.
And I will definitely look into it.
Juan Ross
My faves: Mort Wyrd Systers Guards! Guards! Moving Pictures Small Gods Feet of Clay Night Watch Going Postal (they've mnade a game called "Clacks" based on that)
Gabriel Baker
Well one thing you could do is have the world be accelerating upwards at a constant rate. That would make it seem like there's gravity pulling down. Although this would soon lead to problems like the planet being sterilized by blue-shifted cosmic rays.
You could also just have it as a law in your universe that there is a unique direction called "down", and all objects accelerate downwards. This violates the principle of rotational symmetry though, and by Noether's theorem implies that angular momentum is not a conserved quantity. I don't know what kind of implications such an exotic physics would have, but if it's a fantasy setting maybe you could link it to magic.
Leo Anderson
>the planet being sterilized by blue-shifted cosmic rays. Not necessarily, the theory states the universe made of water, which would work different than our laws of physics. The flat earth thing will be around until affordable space becomes a thing.
Hunter Gray
geology Veeky Forumsentist here (and fa/tg/uy at my monments if it can help).
I'd more than happy to help you on the geological part of it, but you'll have to tell me exactly waht you want in your world.
For example I'm afraid you'll have to exclude any kind of plate tectonics in a flat world. which then forces us to find other ways to have volcanos, mountains and seisms if you want to have those. Furthermore, it would probably lead to a different ocean/continent repartition, but that depends on the exact way the world was formed. The same way, you'll have to adress gravity matters. Indeed, gravity on a disc, is strictly vertical at the center, but tilts in direction of the center when you approach the borders. It'll give you a minimal aspect ratio of your disc if you don't want the gravity to be too far off.
Although I'm more versed in intern geophysics than petrology, I'll could also help you describe the different rocks you'll find and the landscape they imply, depending from the history of the world.
Christian Smith
>The same way, you'll have to adress gravity matters. Indeed, gravity on a disc, is strictly vertical at the center, but tilts in direction of the center when you approach the borders. It'll give you a minimal aspect ratio of your disc if you don't want the gravity to be too far off.
That assumes the gravity is being generated by the disk. If OP wants he can just say that "gravity points down" is a fundamental postulate of that world's physics.
I'm interested though -- how could you get volcanoes and stuff to work?
Nolan Bennett
yes, of course, you can always use magic to do stuff for you. But the point is to use as less "Deus ex Magika" as possible.
I'm not sure exactly how to make it work, that's why I need OP to tell me exactly what he wants. For mountain ranges, I guess I could go for the good ol geosynclinals theory, but I'll need to re-read it through.
However, I think the easiest solution would be to be as near as possible to earth, aka a cylindrical world layered the same way Earth is, /w crust, layered mantle and core... etc, contained within a "magical stuff" that would stop lateral heat loss. Now that I think of it, given the right aspect ratio, this could allow for plate tectonics, and so pretty much an earth-like surface, only with probably a few geometry changes. However, this doesn't seems creative and interesting enough to me, and indeed would require a "gravity points down" Macguffin, that I really don't like. So It doesn't seems very satisfying to me.
Furthermore, no spinning would lead to no Coriolis effect so : -Outer "core" producing only a toroidal field, which would be screened by the mantle, so no outer magnetic field. -A stricly pressure-driven atmosphere circulation, so much less climate diversity, and no "fun" phenomenons like cyclones
If I maight make a suggestion, what would be way more interesting and original would be a slightly concave world, rotating fast enough that the centrifugal force makes gravity always perpendicular to the ground.
If OP
Josiah Foster
I suppose if your world is some sort of plaything, artificially created by a Tier V civilization, you can explain all the phenomena, that would normally only be possible on a round world.
That basically comes down to pic related, but you could at least come up with some Star Trek-tier tech babble explanations as to how the beast is held together and still simulate all that.
More importantly, from a game world perspective, it gives you a whole lotta weird stuff to pull from in regards to these mysterious gods, and maybe the occasional technological failure, when a mile thick cable suddenly bursts out of the ground and tears a kingdom in half.
Austin Lopez
world is infinitely going upwards because of some force pushing it up
world has a layer of magma undearneath
volcanoes are the result of the force being too much on certain weak spots of the world, causing the magma to be squeezed out
Aiden Edwards
you need very very specific PT conditions to maintain a layer of magma. A more earth-like model would be easier for this.
Plus I don't see the need for an upward pushing force, honestly.
Nathan Rivera
an angry dwarf living at the bottom of the world, constantly heating the "core" with sheer rage.
Ian Baker
All are good, some think about the disc-nature of the world less than others. "The Last Hero" deals with that as much as any of them.
Christian Cook
okay, I'd totally buy that just remember rage fuel can't melt steel beams
Dylan Robinson
>Plus I don't see the need for an upward pushing force, honestly.
Supplies "gravity" through acceleration. Of course,in a game setting, you may not care where gravity comes from, unless it is something the players can learn, and do something about.
A "set dressing" point -- you would have circumpolar stars over the center of the disk, but not over the rim that would correspond to the southern hemisphere. The "midnight sun" phenomenon would be possible over the center pole, but not at the rim. Sun would not set, it would just disappear, growing dimmer and smaller, moving into the distance, if you are using the usual flatist model of a small sun "orbiting" above the disk and only lighting the nearby portion at any given time.
Aiden Ortiz
a disc has mass, so there is already gravity. No need for an acceleration.
This sun model is 100% absurd. a sun orbiting around would make more sense.
Grayson Morales
>a disc has mass, so there is already gravity. No need for an acceleration.
wouldn't gravity near the edges act in a way so that the closer you get to them the more "horizontal" it'd be for people?
could be a neat feature of the world, but it's definitely not similar to our world in that regard.
As someone has already pointed out before, OP could use an upward acceleration. In my opinion the deepest layer of the disc could be made out of some material that is attracted by a infinitely distant point upwards. This would mean that gravity wouldn't exist and because the source of attraction is infinitely far then the deep disk would experience a vertical acceleration, since gravity would not exist then even at the edge of the disk you wouldn't be pulled to it's center of mass, you'd be pushed by the disk upwards. Meaning that instead of things in the air falling to the ground, the ground would accelerate towards the things in the air. I still don't know how to explain possible suns and/or moons.
Hudson King
But a disc with ENOUGH mass would collapse into a sphere.
Also, muh edge effects.
Anthony Jones
>ancient civilization actually lives in the edge of the world, past the zone of horizontal gravity >everyone thought they were gone, but they're simply unreachable
