Forums of the Megaverse®

Hey guys,

I asked a question on this forum previously regarding peak-times of mystic energy on non-Earth worlds ( viewtopic.php?f=44&t=116979 ) and am very grateful for all the input I received (Thanks Galroth/cornholioprime). However, it did bring up another question which I asked in the above thread that went unanswered. I thought I'd post it as a new topic.

The previous answer mentions that planetary/lunar alignments, solstices/equinoxes, and other times where extra P.P.E. becomes available to magicians are relevant because of the "mystical significance of the events in question." Which I take to mean that eclipses and the like may have NO bearing on P.P.E. availability in any given planet; the RARITY of the astronomical event having something to do with it, I take it.

Questions:
1) Are some planets simply not magical or do all planets have the potential to become P.P.E. rich?

2) If 1 is true, could factors be manipulated to spark magical activity on any given planet?
For example: Could some powerful beings find a planet with ideal astronomical properties discussed in the previous thread, kill the entire population from orbit, recreating the factors that made Rifts Earth the magical crossroads that it's become?

3) If 2 is true, who could possibly oppose the powerful beings for such a heinous act?
a) Champions of good, yes, but would Cosmo Knights intervene if the act occurs outside the Three Galaxies?
b) The Pantheon of the Gods of the massacred people and their allies? Or would the loss of followers have potentially weakened them too much to enact revenge?
c) Anyone else I may be forgetting?

I know this question's a little crazy, but I wanted to use the above possibility as a story arc in a cosmic campaign. I want to have counter-arguments ready before my players try to debunk me.

Thanks in advance.

Grimlock wrote:1) Are some planets simply not magical or do all planets have the potential to become P.P.E. rich?

ALL Planets have the potential to become as "hot" as Rifts Earth (currently the most magically powerful world in Palladium Games by far), or as "cold" as the world/setting of "Splicers" (currently the least magically powerful one, by far).

The determining factor seems to be location; if the Splicers world was somehow switched in time and space with Rifts Earth, then we'd soon start seeing a whole bunch of "Techno-Wizardry Splicers."

2) If 1 is true, could factors be manipulated to spark magical activity on any given planet?
For example: Could some powerful beings find a planet with ideal astronomical properties discussed in the previous thread, kill the entire population from orbit, recreating the factors that made Rifts Earth the magical crossroads that it's become?

Only if the planet was Earth, or another planet transported to where Earth is now.

Note that it's not JUST the levels of magical energy present on Rifts Earth, it is also the fact that Earth is currently "sitting on top of" the largest number of Megaversal Dimensional Nexuses anywhere. In a manner of speaking, it is literally at the metaphysical center of all Palladium Universes.

If somebody waited for Earth (or any planet in the same place) to once again fill up with billions of people, and then killed millions of them on midnight of another 7-planet conjunction, then it could be done again here.....but probably not anywhere else even if all the other conditions were met.

At least, not until such time as another Planet comes to be the Celestial Axis (early Books state that the Earth will someday move out of this "alignment").

3) If 2 is true, who could possibly oppose the powerful beings for such a heinous act?

Most beings, even if they knew how, would NOT try to do such a thing.

Virtually NOBODY besides Ahriman -not even the most evil of the Alien Intelligences -wants to risk opening up the prison of the Old Ones....and even he doesn't want to try until he finds a way to control them.

On the other hand, if you want Lo Li, aka Rama Set, to give it a try (he is absolutely insane and wants the whole Universe to die), then give it a go. Off the top of my head, he is the ONE being who has enough brains and resources and drive to make the attempt.

(Yes, the Four Horsemen are also interested in universal annihilation, but they're not exactly the patient type.)

a) Champions of good, yes, but would Cosmo Knights intervene if the act occurs outside the Three Galaxies?
b) The Pantheon of the Gods of the massacred people and their allies? Or would the loss of followers have potentially weakened them too much to enact revenge?
c) Anyone else I may be forgetting?

Just have Thoth tell everybody of the importance of stopping this act from occurring, and you can use him as a plot device to gather together absolutely anybody you want, in virtually any numbers that you want.

Thoth is respected by SO many people of all types, good AND evil, that he can almost certainly get even Brahma and Zurvan to intervene, much less anyone else.[/quote]


P.S. Here's a possible Plot Twist for you:

Why don't you have your Main Baddie whip up a MacGuffin spell (which only he knows, of course), that requires planetary levels of blood sacrifice in its own right, and which mystically does the equivalent of "cloning the MAC address*" of Rifts Earth so that IF such a sacrifice occurs somewhere else with the same conditions, that it has the same effect of a Great Cataclysm!!


*For our less computer-savvy friends, there is a means by which one PC can be made to appear to be THE EXACT SAME COMPUTER on the Internet; normally, every single PC ever made -or at least their Networking Hardware -is absolutely unique. That unique value is the computer's MAC Address, and the process is sometimes referred to as "MAC Cloning."

I'm at a loss for words, sir. Really. Absolutely brilliant.

Just one question: Who is Lo Li aka Rama Set? Which book?

Grimlock wrote:I'm at a loss for words, sir. Really. Absolutely brilliant.

Just one question: Who is Lo Li aka Rama Set? Which book?

Rifts: Africa.

1) magic yes/no, any planet that has life, has magic.
Rich or poor, depends on cycles of drifting peaks and troughs of magic throughout the megaverse, and resent events ('has there been any almost extinction level events recently)
This is discussed somewhere in the flavor text in ether ing the RCB2 or the RMB.

2. the vast kill off of people sparked the coming of the rifts

3 these are the pretext for the story-lines that campaigns are built around.

drewkitty ~..~ wrote:1) magic yes/no, any planet that has life, has magic.

Not necessarily.

Remember that the Splicers' world is a magically dead one, and I think that the Seljuk's homeworld is yet another example (although the circumstances of their world becoming a dead one was a deliberate decision).

With the sljuk it is the race that spent it's ability to negate the overabundance of magic that the world had at the time.

Splicers....(inferred from the text) that the drastic changes to the world by the machines has affected the nature of the world.

cornholioprime wrote:

Grimlock wrote:1) Are some planets simply not magical or do all planets have the potential to become P.P.E. rich?

ALL Planets have the potential to become as "hot" as Rifts Earth (currently the most magically powerful world in Palladium Games by far), or as "cold" as the world/setting of "Splicers" (currently the least magically powerful one, by far).

The determining factor seems to be location; if the Splicers world was somehow switched in time and space with Rifts Earth, then we'd soon start seeing a whole bunch of "Techno-Wizardry Splicers."

Grimlock wrote:2) If 1 is true, could factors be manipulated to spark magical activity on any given planet?
For example: Could some powerful beings find a planet with ideal astronomical properties discussed in the previous thread, kill the entire population from orbit, recreating the factors that made Rifts Earth the magical crossroads that it's become?

Only if the planet was Earth, or another planet transported to where Earth is now.

Note that it's not JUST the levels of magical energy present on Rifts Earth, it is also the fact that Earth is currently "sitting on top of" the largest number of Megaversal Dimensional Nexuses anywhere. In a manner of speaking, it is literally at the metaphysical center of all Palladium Universes.

If somebody waited for Earth (or any planet in the same place) to once again fill up with billions of people, and then killed millions of them on midnight of another 7-planet conjunction, then it could be done again here.....but probably not anywhere else even if all the other conditions were met.

At least, not until such time as another Planet comes to be the Celestial Axis (early Books state that the Earth will someday move out of this "alignment").

Sorry for the late follow up, but I've been busy.

Mr. Cornholioprime, you mention that Rifts Earth exists because the massive World War that caused the massive P.P.E. release occurred when Earth's location and alignment were at "metaphysical center of all Palladium Universes." That being said:

1) Could other, albeit weaker, Nexuses exist within this Celestial fabric? [Phase World may be one such place...]
2) Could these Nexuses be mapped and the shifting of the Celestial Axis be anticipated, so as to predict where and when the next Dimensional "Hub" will be? [Perhaps by some 4th Dimensional Being...]

Grimlock wrote:

cornholioprime wrote:

Grimlock wrote:1) Are some planets simply not magical or do all planets have the potential to become P.P.E. rich?

ALL Planets have the potential to become as "hot" as Rifts Earth (currently the most magically powerful world in Palladium Games by far), or as "cold" as the world/setting of "Splicers" (currently the least magically powerful one, by far).

The determining factor seems to be location; if the Splicers world was somehow switched in time and space with Rifts Earth, then we'd soon start seeing a whole bunch of "Techno-Wizardry Splicers."

Grimlock wrote:2) If 1 is true, could factors be manipulated to spark magical activity on any given planet?
For example: Could some powerful beings find a planet with ideal astronomical properties discussed in the previous thread, kill the entire population from orbit, recreating the factors that made Rifts Earth the magical crossroads that it's become?

Only if the planet was Earth, or another planet transported to where Earth is now.

Note that it's not JUST the levels of magical energy present on Rifts Earth, it is also the fact that Earth is currently "sitting on top of" the largest number of Megaversal Dimensional Nexuses anywhere. In a manner of speaking, it is literally at the metaphysical center of all Palladium Universes.

If somebody waited for Earth (or any planet in the same place) to once again fill up with billions of people, and then killed millions of them on midnight of another 7-planet conjunction, then it could be done again here.....but probably not anywhere else even if all the other conditions were met.

At least, not until such time as another Planet comes to be the Celestial Axis (early Books state that the Earth will someday move out of this "alignment").

Sorry for the late follow up, but I've been busy.

Mr. Cornholioprime, you mention that Rifts Earth exists because the massive World War that caused the massive P.P.E. release occurred when Earth's location and alignment were at "metaphysical center of all Palladium Universes." That being said:

1) Could other, albeit weaker, Nexuses exist within this Celestial fabric? [Phase World may be one such place...]
2) Could these Nexuses be mapped and the shifting of the Celestial Axis be anticipated, so as to predict where and when the next Dimensional "Hub" will be? [Perhaps by some 4th Dimensional Being...]

1). The Palladium World, in some books, is hinted at as being a previous "Megaversal Nexus" in some books (for the life of me, I can't remember which). Through no apparent fault of its own -not even the fall of The Old Ones -it appears to be magically "cooling down." I seem to remember that it will take several tens of thousands of years more (or did I read that it will be millions of years?), before Earth gives up the crown and the title of Megaversal Nexus is handed off to something else (it doesn't necessarily have to be another planet).

Planets like Phase World, for one, and the Palladium World, for another, are said to be the Central Nexi for their respective dimensions (see Rifts Dimension Book Seven: Megaverse Builder), but I've never heard of more than one Megaversal Nexus.

2)I've not heard anything to suggest it; the very fact that this Celestial Axis is mystical in nature, and not affixed to a physical point in time and space as most of us understand the term, suggests that it is not something that can be "measured" or "calculated."


Of course, some GM could get one of his temporally-sensitive NPCs to have a "Time-Vision" of the far future and the next "location" of the Megaversal Nexus. For all the good that millions-of-years-in-the-future info will do him.