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 Posted: Wed Oct 01, 2008 12:05 pm
hypnocrown Thanks for asking Mel. I'm actually not sure on all those things cuz I am not a physics major or anything alike. I have ideas but I can't elaborate on them cuz I don't have the know how. IF I were to actually do the research, who knows how long it would take me to actually learn more about all this and return to post so, maybe I'll just let someone else answer this, he-he. sweatdrop I might be able to answer the first question if I make up my own material but, I'm not sure how to do that either. How lame am I? gonk
Terry Pratchett advised Matt (my ex), that the majority of a writer's work is the research. I've been researching tall ships for three years in order to get the knowledge I need to write about them, and I still don't know everything I want to know. I've presented some of the questions I want answered in the Writer's Circle as well, because I want to know what others know, and what they think as well. There are certain ideas I have that I want to add to the ship I am designing (and perhaps others as well), and I am investigating why things are and were the way they were around the 15-1700s, and whether I can adapt knowledge that came later in our world into the same era in my world. Sound confusing? Yes, but the reality is that's what has to be done in writing.
Sadly, if you can't put the research into your writing, there's really no point in trying to write.
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Posted: Fri Oct 24, 2008 11:34 am
DM_Melkhar  This is one I have trouble with. The only explanation for them can be "magic". A world just can't exist with ground that hovers around in the air.
I do like the idea, but because of its credibility I simply won't use it. It's a nice thought, but just not possible. Of course, fantasy is generally what you want it to be, and there are some companies that have pulled off the idea well - although they've never really explained it except for perhaps one.
Three examples of floating continents are:
* Bhujerba and Lemurés (Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings).
* Skies of Arcadia.
* The Granstream Saga.
In the Granstream Saga, the "magic" that keeps the contients afloat is failing, and they're gradually beginning to sink towards the ocean. The world consists of four little islands, each with a single town on it and a couple of areas to explore (the volcano island, Volcos, has two little towns and they have to keep the mountain balanced weight wise). The task of the main character, Eon, is to find the Lifting Verses and to have the main girl, Arcia, recite them in order to raise the continents again.
That's the only one that can vaguely be explained. We can only make assumptions about the other two. Unless there's some kind of gas that makes the continents float around, there's really no other way to explain it.
Oh, pardon me, there's another "sort of". It's not a continent, but it has some kind of credibility. That's the Valley of Corrupted Gravity in The Legend of Dragoon. It gets is name from what it does. Gravity is warped there and therefore rocks float around and you can even transport yourself on to rocks upside down because the place is just so damn weird.
---------------------------------------------
HEAVEN
Some of us also think of Heaven as being the paradise in the sky. We always look upward when we think of God, the Angels and Heaven. When I see a beautiful sunrise or sunset, I can often make out what looks like continents and seas in the sky. It's beautiful. People have of course looked for Heaven and can't find it. The reason being, it's not on this plane of existence. It's on a higher plane. It's also probably where Square Enix (when they were Squaresoft though) got the idea for the Ancient's "Promised Land". The Bible speaks of Heaven as the "Promised Land", or it could mean the utopia that's said to be created after this world falls.
It could be said that the "places in the sky" are floating continents, but we know they're not really, at least not in this plane. A Bible reference states that in the Lord's second coming, he will "come on the clouds with fire". Could that mean the gateway to Heaven lies in the sky? We don't know, but I'm simply speculating for some reasoning behind the fantasy idea of "floating continents."
In Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, there are a winged people called the Aegyl who come from the floating continent of Lemurés. There's another idea Square have played with.the pic is amazing!
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Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2009 1:09 pm
Hey Mel! I agree with you to a point. And by this I mean that what you said in yer latest post isn't entirely accurate. How many times has Stan Lee, the creator of so many popular characters, described on interviews how he didn't know anything about science so he merely made up things like "Cosmic Rays" and "Radioactive" stuff affecting the characters so they could develop super powers? I very much doubt the creator of Superman had a lot of knowledge on how a stars can be different colors and how they can affect the anatomy of a beings abilities or physical bodies.
When I write, I try to make things believable to a point. If I can't, I always try to make it so that it makes sense by pointing out that something unexplained is behind it all. I mean, what's magic and fantasy without a little mystery after all? Know what I mean? neutral
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Posted: Thu Mar 05, 2009 2:16 pm
That's all well and good - mystery I mean. However, entire continents....mmm, it'd require magic on an inhuman and practically godlike scale when regarding continents.
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Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:03 am
Oh, I see... you weren't exactly generalizing, you just meant when it came to floating continents then. I suppose that not every floating continent should have a mysterious explanation of why it's floating otherwise every story that has one would not be interesting.
I'm not sure if I should even try to come up with a floating continent on one of my stories cuz it seems like a lot of work to come up with something believable and original at the same time. You know?
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Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2009 1:47 pm
How can the concept of a continent floating NOT be mysterious. That'd only work if the entire world was like that as it is in The Granstream Saga and Skies of Arcadia. Even then gravity exists otherwise people would be floating around the place as if in space. Anything that has mass has gravity, so to make something like that float, it needs to have some form of magic involved.
In the Legend of Dragoon there is a place called the Valley of Corrupted Gravity where rocks float, smaller rocks bounce around and you can even walk upside down on the underside of some of the larger ones. Even though I've played the game a few times before I thought "it'd be nice to have an explanation as to why the place is like this" and there actually is. Rose says as soon as you enter that it's the backwash from the Dragon Campaign, because the magic power of the dragoons and winglies clashing can "distort nature quite a bit". However, this is just one small valley...not an entire continent.
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Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 5:05 pm
I see...
Well,I really haven't even tried Legend of Dragoon so I can't really get what yer talking about. Still, it sounds pretty good and I suppose magic is the usual cause and effect for floating things.
Guess what!? I just reached a point in Chrono Trigger where a magic kingdom has floating continents. I still don't know why they float but it seems as though they use a sort of technology to keep the continents in the sky. At least that's the way it seems cuz of a weird looking portal below the continents that teleports you to the floating lands. I'll keep playing it more and see what's up... 3nodding
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Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2009 1:56 am
I think for the Skies of Arcadia one -
The places that they live were made to float, the moonstones that they use to create energy for the ships I think they use it to keep the places afloat.
I aint sure, but with Legend of Dragoon, the valley you talk about, with the backwash of the magics then you can expect gravety to go a bit wonkey. But I dunno, it's strange to think about just because when you see it you think "Who the hell does that work? Why is it like that?"
It makes me wonder all the time.
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Posted: Thu Apr 23, 2009 3:03 pm
It's too bad I still haven't been able to play Skies of Arcadia for the cube. I have a cube but I just keep forgetting to see if I can buy that one.
Hey! Did you guys know that there's a whole continent in the sky in Final Fantasy 3? I had no idea till I got to a certain point in the story. I wonder if the story itself mentions something about how it's done cuz as of now, I haven't heard anything about it.
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Posted: Sat Apr 25, 2009 1:12 pm
My SoA went missing *cries* Oh well, I will find it at some point in my life. But I have noticed that in most newish games, and some old...even movies and such they have these man made floating islands.
Yet you never really know how they were made to be there, sometimes they do give an explination to some of them but not all.
Tis very weird.
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Posted: Wed Apr 29, 2009 3:58 pm
Really Mandy? That's gotta suck worse than the most potent vacuum cleaner. I feel bad for ya but I hope you find it soon.
Thanks for that comment! I wasn't sure if most games were like that. I wonder which other games I haven't played yet have floating continents. So far Rune Factory doesn't seem to fall in the category.
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