Re: The Spelljammer (Was: HeroSpace and Planar Churches)

From: "George "Loki" Williams" <chaos93@?????????.net>

<snip>

> Good Idea, but I myself would rather work with fixing the flaws and preserve
> as much of the cannon material as possible. BEsides, if you take those ill
> written novels as gospel that incarnation of the Spelljammer has changed
> state and now only exists in some alternate reality.  That paves the way for
> a new smalljammer to grow up into something different in our reality.  The
> maps and othersuch (including the lifecycle ) are well worth keeping. As is,
> IMHO, the populace of stranded mariners. A bit more is in order however in
> order to make it plausible that even the Powers themselves remain quiet when
> asked about it.....

Why do the powers remain quiet about Spelljammer? Here are a few possibles:

1) Spelljammer's body is made from solidified Phlogiston and this prevents the gods from
seeing inside it.

Perhaps the crystal spheres are grown from the flow as well. The gods sight ends where the
crystal spheres start. In cosmic terms Spelljammer is so small that even if a worshiper of
a god told their deity about its location, they would find it almost impossible to notice
their blind spot.

2) Spelljammer is actually the avatar of a god (perhaps one more powerful that any other
god).

Spelljammer could be the avatar of a god that lives in the flow. Perhaps the god creates
the crystal spheres and lets the other gods fill them with planets. Wasn't there a
creature that looked like the spelljammer that accidently got killed off by something that
created the Spelljammer? If it was a god that did this then it might use the Spelljammer
and the smalljammers as a way to look inside the spheres without damaging them (again).

If this god has previously destroyed a crystal sphere, and killed all the worshipers in a
sphere, the other gods may fear angering the "lord of the spheres", especially if they are
unable to communicate and don't realise that any damage was accidental.

3) Spelljammer's powers are so strong it can effect the gods themselves).

I like this idea because those gods that have no interest in wildspace would remain
unaffected. They wouldn't be able to tell anything to their worshipers because they
wouldn't *know* anything.

On the other hand, when gods like Celestian and Ptah have a look at the Spelljammer, they
get affected by its power. They wouldn't be able to tell anything to their worshipers
because Spelljammer wouldn't let them.

The end result would be the same.

4) Because Spelljammer has the power to create or destroy worlds, the gods don't want
mortals to find it.

They say power corrupts. Spelljammer is *very* powerful. Perhaps the gods think it is too
powerful for mere mortals.

5) Spelljammer is a challenge from the gods to mortals and mortals must find it for
themselves as part of the test.

This idea comes from the "gods work in mysterious ways" angle. I don't especially like it
myself, but I think it is worth looking at. The only problem with this idea is that if
Spelljammer is the test, what is the reward?

David "Big Mac" Shepheard