Questions about Visitor

[Kappa]

This is amusing.

Regarding Downside, the world definitely started with ordinary physics, but has been modified to function with the infinite plane thing. I think the admin would consider it untidy if there was non-dirt under her dirt, and the catacombs extend indefinitely down and out, so she's probably written a local exception to the pressure problem as well as standardizing the gravity. As for the air, there could well be vacuum above it. Nobody goes up there except her and select invited guests anyway.

[Nemo]

Downside has an intelligent agent controlling its physics. That's cheating! Certainly helps with this, though.

For the Aristotelian gravity, the universe would need some way of defining a "thing" such that individual particles don't count. Otherwise the pressure happens anyway. And clouds can't count either, because if they have weight and the air around them doesn't then they just fall. Wait, do they even have clouds? Liquid water does have to count as a thing or you don't get rain, rivers, or ponds. Once it trickles down into the infinite depths of dirt there might still be places with arbitrary amounts of pressure, but if so then it's at least deeper than before and not happening literally everywhere.

And if air isn't pulled toward the ground then balloons wouldn't float in the Fairylands, hot air wouldn't rise, and fire would look like this. Heavier-than-air powered flight still works, though. It's weird, but I don't think we've seen anything to directly contradict this.
Also it might make an Earthlike ecosystem impossible somehow. But I can't think of how.

[DanielH]

My hypothesis about “things” falling down reminded me about Aristotelian gravity, but I don’t know enough about the latter to claim its the same. As I undurstand it, which isn’t much, Aristotelian gravity isn’t so much “things fall down” as “things seek their place”. A stone’s place is on the ground, a cloud’s is high in the air, and various balloons’ places would be higher.

[Nemo]

And the proper place for air is "anywhere above the ground"? In Earth-Aristotle's model, its place was "downward" but it got displaced by the heavier elements. You'd still end up with air trying to go down but pushing against whatever's at surface level, air above that trying to go down but pushing against the air beneath it, and so on for infinite pressure. Same thing with infinite depths if the proper place of the earth element is downward.

[Bluelantern]

Question to alicorn: Does the infinite plane of earth-dirt-rock-etc have some kind of appeal to you?

[Alicorn]

Yeah, it seems comfortably roomy and firmly fantasy-setting-esque to me in a way that spherical planets do not. Without the awkward "this is literally because when I was twelve I owned a lot of pieces of square paper, and drew a map on one" hacked-together-ness of, say, Elcenia.

[DanielH]

How do fairies generally choose nicknames (I assume it varies by individual amd probably type or other cultural element, but are there any common themes)? What about Promise specifically?

[Bluelantern]

Are there any type of fairy that can interbreed with mortals?

[Alicorn]

It varies considerably. River from the Emma sandbox just calls herself that because she lives by a river, for instance. Promise picked her nickname because she promises herself certain things - she's pretty keenly aware that she's a (morally) weird fairy and wants to continue to be a weird fairy rather than slipping into conformist evil. Most other fairies interpret this as either pure aesthetics or a statement that Promise is big on oathkeeping in general.

Fairies cannot interbreed with mortals per se, but some breeding kinds do not strictly speaking breed by having sex, and there could be breeding kinds whose child-arranging rituals could involve help from humans. The kids would still be fairies of the relevant kind though.

[DanielH]

How do ccntradictory commands interact? I can think of a few variables which might be relevant, but I'm not sure what actually happens.

• Order: if a master says “When somebody asks your name, claim it's ‘Bob’ [even though it isn't]” and then says “Never lie to me”, and later still asks my name, it seems like order might be relevant.
• Specificity: “Whenever any fairy asks your name, say it's ‘Bob’” is less specific than “when my vassals ask your name, tell them what it is”.
• Ongoing vs. Instant: “Never sit in this chair” is in effect when told to “Sit in this chair”.
• Vassal relationships between the masters giving orders: if King, Duke, and Serf have the obvious vassalage relationships, and both King and Duke give Serf ongoing contradictory orders, it seems King's might take precedence.

Edit: Spelling, also, this was answered in the Ari and Promise sandbox ssortly after I asked.