Re: Herospace (Was: HeroSpace and Planar Churches)

I could see Herospace as something the gods set up to keep epicPCs from
killing them and taking there power...

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for the Spelljammer campaign setting
[mailto:SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com]On Behalf Of David Shepheard
Sent: September 8, 2004 2:15 PM
To: SPELLJAMMER-L@??????.???????.com
Subject: Re: [SPELLJAMMER] Herospace (Was: HeroSpace and Planar
Churches)


From: "Paul Westermeyer" <westermeyer@????????.net>

> I never completely worked it out, but I've always intended to
> correlate Herospace with the Planescape Factions in some way.  I know
> they don't match the alignments exactly, but as written Herospace is
> a ludicrous idea.  I hate to completely discard any SJ lore, since
> there is so little.  So, I prefer to alter things somewhat, and
> explain the discrepancy from published products as simply 'rumors'
> among the stars. :)

<snip>

I don't see how Herospace is a ludicrous idea. I think it is an inadequately
explained
idea. Instead of dismissing what is in the rules as "rumours" why not
instead infer a
better explanation from them.

(By the way there is no capital S in the middle of the name. I'm not sure
when the habit
of putting a capital S into sphere names started, but I don't recall seeing
it in any TSR
products.)

Lets have a play with Herospace. What do we know about it? Here are the
facts that I
pulled out of the blurb:

* Herospace is a unique sphere as far as is known,
* There are 9 suns each a different colour and orbited by a single planet,
* Each planet is reserved for people of a particular alignment,
* A magical key (called a crystal shard) is needed to penetrate the
forcefield around each
planet,
* The sphere is controlled by an organisation called the Rational Order of
Magistrates,
* The Rational Order of Magistrates are described as "merchants", the
planets as their
"investment" and "product",
* People pay a large tax to live in Herospace,
* The Order live on a moon (called Borden), which orbits the neutral world
(called
Ge'Neva*),
* The sphere has at least 30 Hammerships on each world and double that
number on Borden
(all under control of the order),
* The Order are able to detect any ship that enters Herospace (and send
ships to escort
*all* visitors to Borden),
* Nobody knows how the crystal shards and planetary forcefields work or how
the
Magistrates can detect ships (it is speculated that the Arcane are involved
somehow),
* There are 20 members of the Order (ten men and ten women) and they all
have a neutral
alignment,
* Nobody can determine the ages of the members of the Order and the members
never seem to
change,
* The Order is polite and very professional but impersonal and
* The Order is peaceful but when the sphere is threatened they will attack
quickly and
effectively.

Here are some things that I speculate from the above facts:

* The arrangement of nine suns and nine planets were not a coincidence (but
instead were
intentional),
* The fact that there is one moon orbiting the neutral world is not a
coincidence,
* The gods were involved in the creation of this unique sphere,
* The unknown magic protecting the planets is also the work of the gods,
* The crystal shards are the work of the gods (not the Arcane) and
* The magic that detects ships is also the work of the gods.

I propose that 20 neutral gods from various other pantheons got together and
created this
sphere where people off all alignments could live together in peace. They
created nine
suns and nine worlds to separate the differing alignments. Then created the
forcefields to
keep out people that would not agree to act by *their* rules.

They then created the moon of Borden so that there was a place for people
new to the
system to be taken and magically examined. The Rational Order of Magistrates
were put onto
this moon to do this work and hand out the crystal shards.

But this speculation leaves two unanswerd questions:

1) Who *are* these gods that created this unique sphere?

and

2) Who are the Rational Order of Magistrates?

Could they perhaps be one and the same thing? Could the gods *be* the twenty
ageless
Magistrates living on Borden? I think they are! Or rather I think the
Rational Order of
Magistrates are 20 avatars of the neutral gods that created Herospace.

(I'm sure that we could quickly find 20 true neutral gods from Legends and
Lore, and other
sources (like the three big spheres) to flesh this out. Merchant gods would
be best, but
as long as we got 10 male and 10 female ones it would fit in with my
speculations. If
anyone is interested, then we could start nominating gods.)

This, to me, makes a lot more sense than the speculation that the "Arcane
had something to
do with things", but doesn't contradict what is already written about
Herospace. I think
Herospace makes a great addition to the Spelljammer universe*, but don't
forget that it is
really intended as a retirement home for player characters that have
advanced too far.
There shouldn't really be many exciting things happening there.

* = The one thing I don't like about this sphere is the poor quality joke of
having the
neutral world named after the capital of the neutral country in the real
world. Anne Brown
(the editor) should have asked J Paul LaFountain (the author) to change this
name because
the silly joke spoils the suspension of disbelief in an otherwise *very*
good adventure.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard

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