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[Question] [ Okay so we have the case: * My world is Earth-like(Spherical) * Slight fantasy, but also some science * It has a normal day-night cycle and seasons I need for a particular area to make the sky somewhat bright at night naturally(Magic is a last solution). You can define what I want as: * Local influence, ...
[Question] [ Once upon time, there was a shallow inland sea, leftover meltwater from a previous ice age trapped because of nearby mountain ranges. The arid climate with almost no rain and weak flow to and from the sea ensured that the water became salty over time. Especially common was the formation of brine pools at...
[Question] [ In the world I'm building there is a very dangerous creature that can pick up rocks or any solid object and make them deadly projectiles by throwing it with high speeds and very accurately. By accurate I mean they can hit prey like a gazelle or deer from long distances (100+ meters distance) with high co...
[Question] [ ## Setting A nuclear war between two superpowers happens, and nuke after nuke is fired at nearly every country on the globe. The war, which lasts for about 4 hours, kills over 3 billion people, and many more were killed from the resulting violence, pestilence and starvation. During that time, known as th...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by [editing this post](/posts/70253/edit). Closed 6 years ago. [Improve this question](/pos...
[Question] [ There’s a a decent sized kingdom that is situated between the ocean and a gigantic dried out seabed. The Priest-King and his lackeys want to flood the useless desert because who wouldn’t want more water access and bragging rights. The only issue is that they live in a world that’s in the Bronze Age...
[Question] [ There's a city that sits on a river, the intersections of several well-traveled roads, and a large rail line (back when that was worth something; the city is kind of a blend of the early 1900's). It's thriving, as you'd expect. I need to turn it into a near-ghost town, but without using disease, war, sup...
[Question] [ I am having a bar fight instead. 8 space marines are getting hammered when all of a sudden a cult shows up and starts a bar fight in the zero-G bar where the marines are. The cult is also rather inebriated, so it is a pretty fair fight. The marines are trained in zero-G combat and have enhanced reactions...
[Question] [ I am a self-made entrepreneur who runs an e-commerce giant which has morphed into one of the most powerful and wealthy companies in the world. However, my business is actually a front for my secret organization bent on world domination. We have successfully reached our tentacles into various nations, and...
[Question] [ The nation of Futurestan is a typical overly complex futuristic dystopian utopic society of the 23rd century. Fossil fuels are widely unavailable because only barbarians would think it was a good idea to destroy a non-renewable resource in a non-renewable way. This is great news for the environment and g...
[Question] [ I have been world-building a setting where a species of advanced aliens invades Earth, only to be forced off after the humans resort to guerilla tactics. In this setting, biological life is abundant in the universe, so Earth is not unique in that regard. The aliens are advanced, but not to the point wher...
[Question] [ **Would it be possible for a stable society to be built around the concept of theft as a positive action, and thievery as a virtue, while still having theft be technically illegal, but having the possession of stolen property be perfectly legal?** Say we have a society in which theft is widely accepted ...
[Question] [ So language drifts enormously over time. With the English of today, little drifts happen fairly quickly in slang, but over long periods of time languages drift and change and move, even changing important parts of grammar and pronunciation over hundreds of years; there’s a reason there’s an Old English a...
[Question] [ Magic is extremely common, it is essentially part of the dna of each race. Each race has magical power that allows them to better dominate their native environment. One race can shapeshift, other can create and control fire/heat, etc... One of these races evolved with a sea-faring lifestyle. They are spr...
[Question] [ The saying goes "*in dose venenum*", meaning that it's the dose to make the poison. This comes from the consideration that any substance, after a certain dose, becomes lethal. However, past the minimum lethal dose, the substance will stay lethal. I am toying with the idea of a two thresholds poison: this...
[Question] [ This question is inspired by Green's [Volcanoes in Orbit!](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/96943/627) The premise is that there is a 50-mile-high shield volcano (again, let's ignore the height implausibility) with a slope of about 2-3 degrees, at its base. In my case, this is a rare [pyroclasti...
[Question] [ In various fantasy settings, female combatants are quite common. There is a history of [women in the military](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_combat) in real life but such women were generally rare and often hid their identity. Warfare was generally seen as the domain of men in many different cul...
[Question] [ What could be reasons to use direct current in the distribution of power? I know that it is more efficient to distribute current at high voltages to reduce heat loss and that it is easier to step up voltage in AC. Regardless, what would be reasons to not use it (or at least not so wide-spread as it is no...
[Question] [ They are relatively rare in fiction but there are a few interesting examples, in fact I even remember reading about one in real life. I would like mine to be small and light (say less than 0.9 kg and less than 2 cm in diameter). Death must be assured if the conditions are not met. So, can we build it wit...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question needs to be more [focused](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it focuses on one problem only by [editing this post](/posts/148507/edit). Closed 4 years ago. [Improve this question](/po...
[Question] [ I've been working on a mostly-realistic story set, let's say, 500 years in the future. Humans have colonized the solar system and no longer live on Earth. Semi-automatic weapons with frangible rounds will be commonplace for combat onboard a spaceship, but these are severely lacking in penetration against...
[Question] [ For the sake of this question, the firebending is set similar to the one of [Avatar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender), except firebender cannot be a lightning bender. The setting is medieval, with villages, castles and such. There are fire, earth, water, and air bender. Bender ca...
[Question] [ Imagine you have any kind of conditions for the world, any time period — assuming airships are working on laws of physics (no steampunkish "deus ex machina" garbage), what would make an abundance of airships or balloons actually make sense? [Answer] A zombie apocalypse! No, wait! I'm not kidding. That...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question is [opinion-based](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by [editing this post](/posts/45779/edit). Closed 7 years ago. [Improve this question]...
[Question] [ In Renaissance period, would it be possible to safely bind ships together for extended periods of time? Imagine if there was a fleet of large ships (say, two dozen) that have been traveling over a vast ocean for a long time. No land is in sight, they don't know when they'll reach their destination. They ...
[Question] [ Stories often have prophecies using convoluted ambiguous phrases, unclear wording, or oddly poetic form. Things like saying "no man may defeat me" only to have the person defeated by a female dwarf, or "The greatest gift of humanity shall be discovered by the one who learns the see the dark lord's true f...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question is [opinion-based](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by [editing this post](/posts/128064/edit). Closed 5 years ago. [Improve this question...
[Question] [ A bigfoot is hiding in the Canadian Pine forests. Why haven't the thermal imaging satellites picked up the huge animal all this time? Is there some way an animal can hide from thermal imaging cameras? Maybe by putting snow on themselves? [Answer] Not all warm blooded animals stand out on thermal imagi...
[Question] [ If a small group of an advanced civilization got stranded in a medieval-like society on another planet and they start to interact in a peaceful way, what would be the first technologies that they could teach to them? For this, consider the following type of technologies: * They know FTL technology (altho...
[Question] [ I am looking at tactics for using missiles as space-to-space weapons. The missiles in question will be chemically fueled, higher acceleration but lower deltaV than the warships. Since they are essentially self contained, you can chuck your entire missile load out out a hatch, and fire them in one massiv...
[Question] [ Wouldn't they follow similar engineering principles? What forces them to create weirdly shaped structures in movies/games? [Answer] You appear to have a perspective problem. In this case, that can be taken quite literally. After all, we have some [really weird structures](http://pulptastic.com/33-wier...
[Question] [ A relatively common idea in Sci-Fi and especially speculative evolution is the idea of humans or some other intelligent species ending up losing their sapience(often done for the sake of horror). While the most common explanation(forced genetic modification) makes sense, I've always been skeptical of the...
[Question] [ The end has come and gone, and the survivors of humanity have adopted a new religion - dismantling the sins of the past. Dismantling the cities, roads, towns and relics of the past by hand. The resources being returned to nature as best they can. With no industrialised technology, how much work would it ...
[Question] [ I am working on a short story that will take place somewhere twenty and fifty years from now and I want there to be a civil war occurring in the United States. I have seen a lot of speculative fiction that depict intriguing dystopias but I feel like a lot of them aren't plausible. Like even when partisan...
[Question] [ There is a solid glass sphere that is 1 mile in diameter. It is completely covered in dirt and rock, except for one small room that is built adjacent to the sphere. One of the four walls of this room is the surface of the sphere. What would the sphere look like to someone standing in this room holding a ...
[Question] [ I'm writing a soft scifi novel that has its fair share "fi" but every now and then I feel it important to acknowledge some "sci." In this scenario, a spaceship is in orbit and about to land on Earth. It's also in communication with Earth, and under observation. But some characters want to "abandon ship"...
[Question] [ In the fantasy world I am writing, I have several species, including my [dozing bear farmers](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/189754/would-a-hibernating-bear-men-society-face-issues-from-unattended-farmlands-in-w) you may have already read of, but also much smaller, mouse-looking humano...
[Question] [ **Dateline**: 2067 **Setting**: A research base at the bottom of the [Marianas Trench](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariana_Trench) **Depth**: 10,000 meters. **Mission Duration**: Thirty days A research base lies at the bottom of the Marianas Trench, housing 10-12 scientists of both sexes and a cat. The...
[Question] [ Water does not exist. The two main liquids are lava, and some kind of "life essence" (let's call it mana). One random day, a rock solidified with the ability to produce mana through photosynthesis, and life appeared (only mineral lifeforms, nothing organic). Every living thing pretty much looks like a ro...
[Question] [ The setting I'm working on is in terms of tech levels and society best comparable to early 20th century Earth. But with several big differences. One being the existence necromancy and mad science that is used to turn human corpses into undead laborers. It generally speaking isn't in dispute that the Unde...
[Question] [ Assume that roughly at 1200 AD, Europe discovers a new metal (or alloy). By terms of various strengths and hardness it's comparable to high grade steel, however instead of steel's density of ~8 g/cm³, this material has a density less than even aluminum at ~2 g/cm³. The ease/difficulty to work it is rough...
[Question] [ Let's say a group of people in the 1850's had access to all modern knowledge of nuclear physics, but nothing else from modern technology. They have at their disposal resources equivalent to those of one of the major governments of the world at the time (such as the British Empire) Would they be able to m...
[Question] [ In the not too distant future, technology is developed that allows human minds to be scanned by nanobots, uploaded to a server, and then downloaded into artificially produced organic bodies, essentially undoing death for anyone with: 1. The foresight to inject or ingest some nano bots. 2. A strong inter...
[Question] [ *Ryan the privateer is tragically dying on the battlefield, bleeding wounds all over his body. As he sees the light fading away in the memories of his childhood, his faithful cabin boy Gumptree runs in the knit... nick of time to save him, holding a medical (not magical) spray can. Will the spray be enou...
[Question] [ I mean literally not sleeping for the rest of their life, not like giraffes that only require short rests, or dolphins that can sleep with half of their brain at a time, or like otters and sharks that sleep walk. An external solution like drinking caffeine or using other drugs is out of the question. I ...
[Question] [ ## Premise This is a world in which humans are blissfully unaware of their own vulnerability. Needless to say, there are many vulnerabilities to address, however, this question deals *only* with the vulnerability of cosmic objects impacting Earth causing mass extinction events. The people of this world a...
[Question] [ Consider an earth-like world without any flying species. What could be the possible (I'm looking for a physics or chemistry/biology answer) cause of this? Set aside trivial solutions as "random mass extinctions" and so on, I am willing to accept an answer that especially targets flying beings. [Answ...
[Question] [ I have a race of lizard people who live in an arctic climate (tundra/taiga). I just realized that this might be a problem, assuming they're cold-blooded, and I refuse to change the fact that they're lizards, because the language I've designed for them is all about reptilian hissing. I could rig up some k...
[Question] [ **Closed.** This question is [off-topic](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the scope defined in the [help center](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help). Closed 4 years ago. [Improve this que...
[Question] [ I'm trying to envision a creature that is highly dexterous, and adept at using tools, but every time I try to think of a possible grasping appendage, the only two I come up with are either tentacle like appendages (cephalopods) or jointed digits (humans). I want to create a sentient life form with neithe...
[Question] [ Would centaur cavalry be able to hold their own in an early 1800s setting? What kind of advantages and disadvantages would they have over the regular man-on-a-horse cavalry? What kind of niche would they fit in? **Information on Centaurs** Biologically, the centaurs have redundant vital organs in both th...
[Question] [ # Background It is the near future. After a major world war and limited nuclear exchange, the nations of Earth have consolidated into a few blocs. The threat of further war and the cumulative damage to the planet spur enormous private investment in colonization of space. Floating colonies surround Earth ...
[Question] [ **The bottomless pit** A multi-billionaire has decided to build a dungeon for real as a commercial venture. This is not your reasonably-convincing or VR version. It is a full-blown, full-sized dungeon based on a typical RPG. The instigator, whose name is Donald Munchausen (or DM for short), wants to make...
[Question] [ I had recently a silly idea when thinking about alternative ways of splitting property at a divorce time. Imagine a culture (thinking roughly renaissance setting, maybe late medieval, or later, but definitely pre-Victorian), where if you want a divorce, you have to fight your spouse to death in a public ...
[Question] [ **This question already has answers here**: [Could a Dwarven Civilization Exist?](/questions/9947/could-a-dwarven-civilization-exist) (11 answers) Closed 4 years ago. I've never ever seen even a suggestion of an idea of how dwarves actually can live how they are most often depicted - underground w...
[Question] [ For a fantasy race, or for bio-augmented humans, how durable would they have to be to walk away from a 1000ft free fall unscathed? And how would this logically translate to other forms of durability? Would it make gunfire from calibers like 9mm or .45 entirely ineffectual? What about more powerful rounds...
[Question] [ I am writing a story where two countries decide to merge into one larger country, but I am having trouble figuring out what they would actually name the new country. At first I though that they would stick their names together into one long name, which is what companies do when they [merge](https://www.i...
[Question] [ The trope of an ancient advanced civilisation that disappeared is as old as the hills, but it does raise an interesting question: what kinds of evidence would suggest that somebody else was here first? After a few hundred years, most buildings, bridges, and other structures would have collapsed, and afte...
[Question] [ In a novel I am writing, one of the characters is an immortal\* shape-shifter, called 'Creature'. Creature has been around since shortly after the beginning of life on earth. Its cells divide/replicate 1000X times faster than a human's, and it can consciously control this proccess to shape-shift and grow...
[Question] [ Diseases that cause changes in the behaviour of their hosts are nothing new. Rabies causing animals to bite others is the best known example, but there are plenty of other (often nightmarish) [behaviour-altering diseases](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior-altering_parasite). Scientists have discover...
[Question] [ How can 2 werewolves (or other secret/outcasts group members) with *current technology* find/confirm each other without meeting each other in person? Also, this *process is publicly known and voluntary* (eg. a government initiative to have werewolves meet each other, while the government *themselves do n...
[Question] [ In my hypothetical world, a bladesmith is challenged to create a sword with *supernatural* properties by the King, to prove his ability. The swordsmith wishes to present the King with a sword that **glows**. My first thought was that he could make a normal, strong sword, and then somehow 'dope' it with r...
[Question] [ This is a magic world question, and we certainly do not have anything on this planet which feeds on emotion. But if we did, I'm wondering how it might work with a look at science for something plausible. Feasting on particular pheromones in the air? It could eat other things as well, because just living ...
[Question] [ So I need a barren wasteland with some dead vegetation (mainly dead trees). There should be pretty much no living plants left but it should be apparent that it was a lush place for flora and fauna about 20-25 years ago. **What could have killed all the vegetation while leaving some dead trees still stan...
[Question] [ In the real world, sailing is undoubtedly dangerous, but 90% of that danger comes from either the weather, your mistakes, or other ships. Animals don't really count as a factor, unless you fall overboard into water with sharks in it, or try to go whaling (In which case you deserve everything that comes y...
[Question] [ The demigods are immortal individuals that protect our reality from eldritch abominations, such as Cthulhu, Niggurath, etc, on a plane that exists between our world and theirs. These battles against these eldritch forces and their minions happen on a daily basis to prevent them from breaching our world. ...
[Question] [ In the world I'm making, humans trade with a variety of species, one of which is a society of merpeople. Humans typically acquire goods and services in the form of fish, pearls, under sea flora for medicine, navigation assistance, and passage through merfolk waters. What I would like to know is **what wo...
[Question] [ **This question asks for hard science.** All answers to this question should be backed up by equations, empirical evidence, scientific papers, other citations, etc. Answers that do not satisfy this requirement might be removed. See [the tag description](/tags/hard-science/info) for more information. Pret...
[Question] [ The area of the earth covered by desert is more than 20%. (Sites range from 20-33%, I don't know why the wide range). With technology close to providing zero cost solar (not free, but declining each year by a substantial fraction) the ability to desalinate water and pump it over desert land will be viab...
[Question] [ I'm looking to use water as a radiation shielding device, but do not want to waste space on my ship with waste and other water byproducts. Rather than just storing waste, I plan to use it as part of my radiation shielding, particularly the urine. A bit of background on my ship. The ship is not large, and...
[Question] [ In the [1989 Batman movie](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096895/)[1], > > the Joker uses a gas that makes the muscles on your face contract into a "smile" to kill people. > > > My question is simple; is there currently, or is there a way to make, a chemical that can make someone "smile to death". I i...
[Question] [ It's 2016. A great evil threatens the world, and a great good--you--arises to stop it. Twitter and Instagram are set ablaze with stories of this heroic battle before the news media even has a chance to get on the scene. Collateral damage and casualties are high, but would have been much worse if not for ...
[Question] [ This question assumes that in any kind of magical world, any form of magi can create nearly anything, but especially -- using only magic, can create gold, silver, gemstones, other currency, etc. as well as any other kind of resource that plays a key role in that world's economy. So for example, this ques...
[Question] [ **This question already has answers here**: [Could a lingua franca be possible on a galactic scale?](/questions/18581/could-a-lingua-franca-be-possible-on-a-galactic-scale) (6 answers) Closed 7 years ago. While working on the world I talked about [here](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/ques...
[Question] [ Inspired by recent watching of *Shrek 2* and by *Lord of The Rings*: [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DgAk2.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/DgAk2.jpg) When talking about magical Orbs or Mirrors, we have mostly in mind above picture. Skilful mage operates hard to obtain device. B...
[Question] [ Hippo's are one of natures most efficient food > weight animals, making them perfect for food. Additionally they are arguably the most dangerous land mammal, meaning they are hard to domesticate, very very hard. now we have been able to them them like, Jessica the Hippo shes 18 years old and may still sl...
[Question] [ Let's say I have a race of humanoids (bipedal, roughly human proportions) that have tails like felines/canines. I'm trying to figure out how they would design seating... Assumptions: * Like cats/dogs, they can bend their tail close to 90° right at the base. * Like humans (but this is true of dogs, also!...
[Question] [ *In the wake of [this, my answer](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/70840/2746) to [this question about where to put a Dyson Sphere](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/70839/where-do-you-put-a-photosynthetic-dyson-sphere) an apparent issue came up. And it needs some good resolution...
[Question] [ Today, a major company gets itself listed on stock exchanges so that people can buy a portion of the company while it can raise money. While the distances and time lags involved aren't much of a concern in the small-ish blue marble we live on, it does create a problem for stuff like interplanetary stock ...
[Question] [ So, in a post-apocalyptic scenario I’m working on, one of the main things is that at the time, there were people dumping their entire life savings out the window and into the street. They just didn’t want them anymore, money couldn’t help them in this scenario, and millions of dollar bills still litter t...
[Question] [ Allow me to present Lyr, one of a handful of worlds crafted by artist Chris Wayan: [![enter image description here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PPGSt.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PPGSt.jpg) The one detail among a vast many that is important to this question is that its salinity is about 1.5%, roughly ha...
[Question] [ The singularity can make a lot of problems for those of us who like our sci-fi low, gritty, and human ... or our possible futures a little more reasonably calculable. So I thought it might be useful to a lot of people, myself included, if I asked **what might prevent the singularity?** **A technological...
[Question] [ Those of you who have been listening to the new [podcast](http://monkeylords.com/2017/11/17/Season0Episode2.html) will know that Andy came up with an idea for an Anemone Tree. The idea is that this *"tree"* would prey on small animals for some of its needed nutrients. In a vein similar to the [Anatomical...
[Question] [ If you look at religions in world history they are often a source of conflict. *Disclaimer: Obviously this is not true of all religions nor is it a judgement on those religions for which it was or is true.* Now, with that disclaimer in place, what is it about religion that can make it a vehicle for viole...
[Question] [ I am considering writing an alternate history story in which 1950s nuclear testing attracts the attention of benevolent extraterrestrials who do not want to see us destroy ourselves. However a misunderstanding ensues between the ambassadorial parties sent by the superpowers to meet the aliens; the whole ...
[Question] [ Imagine you have a weather-controlling device that you use to eliminate all lightning strikes. They're just too dangerous. What happens to the earth? Does lightning serve a necessary purpose to any ecosystems? My naive conception of lightning is that it's basically a byproduct of weather, but does it ser...
[Question] [ I've been trying to design a world and I have been running into some issues with a certain application for a piece of magic. Basically, it is the use of "heat rocks" to warm up fields so that crops could be grown for longer periods and in places normally too cold for them to grow. I'm wondering whether ...
[Question] [ **Closed.** This question is [off-topic](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- This question does not appear to be about **worldbuilding**, within the scope defined in the [help center](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/help). Closed 5 years ago. [Improve this que...
[Question] [ I'm a xenobiologist going on an expedition to a habitable planet about 14 LY away. We don't expect to find anything amazing - maybe some bacteria to study - but lo and behold, the place is *teeming* with all sorts of complex life. Looks like I'll be busy. How do I classify these creatures? Do I use the o...
[Question] [ [This question](https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/164490/could-the-sky-on-a-planet-theoretically-be-any-color) on Physics.SE asks whether other colors are possible for the sky. I would like my planet to be inhabitable by normal humans. It has 768 days and they are living in a temperate/Mediterr...
[Question] [ **Closed**. This question is [opinion-based](/help/closed-questions). It is not currently accepting answers. --- **Want to improve this question?** Update the question so it can be answered with facts and citations by [editing this post](/posts/102799/edit). Closed 5 years ago. [Improve this question...
[Question] [ [Vantablack](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vantablack) is very dark, absorbing 99.965% of light. I've also heard it absorbs waves beyond the visible spectrum. Does this mean planes painted with Vantablack would be invisible to radar? If yes, would stars or clouds affect the plane's stealth? Or will it be...
[Question] [ How would we compile our code if all the binaries in the world disappeared and we had only the source code? At first you might think “It’s all okay: I have my Roslyn code here”, but wait! It’s in C#! So you look at an older C# compiler which is in turn written in, say, C++, but wait... and so forth. Woul...
[Question] [ Assume Mars has developed an indigenous civilization of its own, perhaps as seen in Edgar Rice Burroughs' *A Princess of Mars*. Much like Earth, Mars' years and days would be significant for any indigenous peoples. These would drive the seasons and daylight periods, such as they are. But on Earth, ther...
[Question] [ In our solar system light and heat are, of course, provided by the sun. I was wondering if a comparable effect might be had by positing a burning moon instead? So rather than a true star, you'd have a much smaller but relatively close satellite with a surface that's just engulfed in flames. Please assum...
[Question] [ I recently played the game [*Mary Skelter - Nightmares*](http://maryskelternightmares.wikia.com/wiki/Mary_Skelter:_Nightmares), in which the protagonist after some time acquires a weapon that is called a [*Mary Gun*](http://maryskelternightmares.wikia.com/wiki/Jack) - a device that shoots his own blood. ...
[Question] [ In our non-magical reality, feudal nobility is postulated to have evolved from warlords - an armed man in charge of a group of armed men. Since they can intimidate less-well armed or trained people, they are effectively in charge. Then, as they must defend their territory against other warlords, they mus...
[Question] [ *I can easily set a story in a dystopian environment not subject to ethics, but I would rather try to create a backdrop that is as ethical as possible given the requirements. I feel that writing about possible deviations from an ethical starting point will give more interesting insight into human interac...
[Question] [ **NOTE:** I am aware of the recent Grenfell fire. While it inspired this question, I mean no disrespect to the victims of this tragedy. Centuries ago, before modern fire brigades, there were a number of cities where a small fire turned into an entire city being burned down. Events like the Great London F...
[Question] [ While constructing a planet, with the same mass, volume and overall composition as Earth, how do I know **how many tectonic plates should it have**? And **what does having more or fewer tectonic plates change**? [Answer] Obviously there are lots of unknowns here, but you can make some good guesses jus...