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Just wondering what you all think of this:

the Dominator home world was destroyed by a "black hole projector". If their home system was a hot, Wolf-Reynet type of star, then this doomsday weapon could have caused it to transform into a collapsar link.

This collapsar would then send out some kind of hybrid magical/gamma burst as it transformed, spreading outwards from its point of origin at the speed of light, wiping out everything in its path.

If this happened 50,000 years ago, then the wave could have covered the entire Thundercloud by -35,000 years ago... destroying any advanced civilizations in that entire galaxy.

The original collapsar sucks in it neighboring stars, and grows until it is (currently) about 100 light years across. Today, this object is called the Vortex.

The end result is the creation of many unique elements (killarytte, stardust, gantrium...) and a galaxy filled with under developed cultures with lower technology than the Anvil or Corkscrew.

Thoughts...?

Braden, GMPhD wrote:Just wondering what you all think of this:

the Dominator home world was destroyed by a "black hole projector". If their home system was a hot, Wolf-Reynet type of star, then this doomsday weapon could have caused it to transform into a collapsar link.

shrug your making a very large assumption right then and there. nothing indicates the star was big. heck, could have been a small one just as easially

This collapsar would then send out some kind of hybrid magical/gamma burst as it transformed, spreading outwards from its point of origin at the speed of light, wiping out everything in its path.

If this happened 50,000 years ago, then the wave could have covered the entire Thundercloud by -35,000 years ago... destroying any advanced civilizations in that entire galaxy.

The original collapsar sucks in it neighboring stars, and grows until it is (currently) about 100 light years across. Today, this object is called the Vortex.

The end result is the creation of many unique elements (killarytte, stardust, gantrium...) and a galaxy filled with under developed cultures with lower technology than the Anvil or Corkscrew.

Thoughts...?

Gamma ray bursts don't destroy entire galaxies. besides which, it could also have just as easially been in hte anvil or corckscrew galaxies.

So in summation: if ya wanna use that as a plot point for your game, sure. but there's absolutly nothing to support it, so I don't think we can in any wise try to claim it more than an individual campaigns idea.

which is fine. but sinse you didn't actually specify any sort of use in a campaign, I have to say, I don't think your theory here is particually plausible.

Braden, GMPhD wrote:Just wondering what you all think of this:

the Dominator home world was destroyed by a "black hole projector". If their home system was a hot, Wolf-Reynet type of star, then this doomsday weapon could have caused it to transform into a collapsar link.

This collapsar would then send out some kind of hybrid magical/gamma burst as it transformed, spreading outwards from its point of origin at the speed of light, wiping out everything in its path.

If this happened 50,000 years ago, then the wave could have covered the entire Thundercloud by -35,000 years ago... destroying any advanced civilizations in that entire galaxy.

The original collapsar sucks in it neighboring stars, and grows until it is (currently) about 100 light years across. Today, this object is called the Vortex.

The end result is the creation of many unique elements (killarytte, stardust, gantrium...) and a galaxy filled with under developed cultures with lower technology than the Anvil or Corkscrew.

Thoughts...?

Thoughts?...well...great idea!

I love the creative aspect of this entire concept. Keep it up!

Yes, this is an idea that will be working its way into my current project...

Braden, GMPhD wrote:Yes, this is an idea that will be working its way into my current project...

My only problem is a single gamma ray burst cannot wipe out an entire galaxy. no gamma ray burst is that long, or maintains it's full power that far.

gadrin wrote:according to "real science" the GR bursts we see are channelled into a specific arc, they also don't last super-long.

so if our scientists can see them on earth, then their range is significant since in RL they're coming from waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay on the other side of our dimension.

this is obviously a dimension-spanning "weapon" or "force".

I don't recall how many they saw/charted, but it seemed to be signifcant enough occurance to be able to chart them for the show.

Fortunately they seem to be "channelled" to certain areas and not "all consuming".

GR bursts generally channel along two specific arcs determined by the axis of the star at the time of it's death. they don't spray in all directions.

gadrin wrote:you're just repeating my words because you need to get your post count up ?

not quite. you said "a specific arc" when in fact there are two arcs going in seperate directions. I was clairifying.

actually, Braden's isea isn't unsalvageable. if the singularity bomb merely turned the star into a black hole of equal mass, it would first pass through the Nuetron star phase. (assumeing a relitively slow transformation, with the device just compacting the star. as opposed to the cataclysmic collapse in nature)

if the star was fast rotating, that nuetron star would be a Pulsar. a pulsar's energy beams rotate out at angles to the axis of spin, sweeping a path. and the strength of said beams would be sufficent to mess up planets anywhere in that galaxy. (ex. magnetar SGR 1806-20, which sent up a flare so strong it really messed up some sattelites here around earth...which is impressive since the magnatar is 50,000 ly away.) (neutron stars usually form from stars that lacked the mass to create a black hole. so one that did have sufficent mass would create some ultra-strong beams)


when the star hit the black hole stage, it would become a Collapsar (and it might even continue past that point, depending on how vindictive the attackers were.) the collapsar would put off the beams at it's poles like any.

glitterboy2098 wrote:actually, Braden's isea isn't unsalvageable. if the singularity bomb merely turned the star into a black hole of equal mass, it would first pass through the Nuetron star phase. (assumeing a relitively slow transformation, with the device just compacting the star. as opposed to the cataclysmic collapse in nature)

if the star was fast rotating, that nuetron star would be a Pulsar. a pulsar's energy beams rotate out at angles to the axis of spin, sweeping a path. and the strength of said beams would be sufficent to mess up planets anywhere in that galaxy. (ex. magnetar SGR 1806-20, which sent up a flare so strong it really messed up some sattelites here around earth...which is impressive since the magnatar is 50,000 ly away.) (neutron stars usually form from stars that lacked the mass to create a black hole. so one that did have sufficent mass would create some ultra-strong beams)


when the star hit the black hole stage, it would become a Collapsar (and it might even continue past that point, depending on how vindictive the attackers were.) the collapsar would put off the beams at it's poles like any.

with a name like "Black Hole Projector" and not "creator", I get the feeling it was more or less instantanious.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:
with a name like "Black Hole Projector" and not "creator", I get the feeling it was more or less instantanious.

Projector......sounds like they shot a singularity into the sun, and not turned it into one. in that case, you'd have to deal with the inevitable Nova as the singularity compresses the star into itself, with part of the fusing plasma exceeding the escape velocity as the rest is sucked into the event horizon.

and if the hole being projected wasn't over 3 stellar masses, the singularity will spontanously decay, releasing all the matter it consumed in a single massive explosion.


not enough to create a galactic extinction, but it would have that effect within a few hundred light years. however, odds are that any war fought with star killing singularity weapons started with mere planet busters. and since the Dominators were supposed to be galactic conquerors, odds are both sides 'nuked each other to oblivion',and took most of their galaxy with them. (not unlike in the Beserker Universe)

glitterboy2098 wrote:

Nekira Sudacne wrote:
with a name like "Black Hole Projector" and not "creator", I get the feeling it was more or less instantanious.

Projector......sounds like they shot a singularity into the sun, and not turned it into one. in that case, you'd have to deal with the inevitable Nova as the singularity compresses the star into itself, with part of the fusing plasma exceeding the escape velocity as the rest is sucked into the event horizon.

and if the hole being projected wasn't over 3 stellar masses, the singularity will spontanously decay, releasing all the matter it consumed in a single massive explosion.


not enough to create a galactic extinction, but it would have that effect within a few hundred light years. however, odds are that any war fought with star killing singularity weapons started with mere planet busters. and since the Dominators were supposed to be galactic conquerors, odds are both sides 'nuked each other to oblivion',and took most of their galaxy with them. (not unlike in the Beserker Universe)

Huh, it hit the dominators PLANET with a black hole projector, not the sun.

here is my thinking on this:

Before the War against the Dominators, the Three Galaxies were peopled by races no too different from the Dominators; that is, races of gods. So when the war broke out, it was fought with god-like weapons. building planet-busters is a no brainer to gods... we're talking weapons that wipe out star systems, doomsday beams with a blast radius of a parsec, maybe even temporal weapons...

As Arthur Clarke said: "any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic". Furthering this for the Phase World setting, I would say that any ridiculously advanced technology is magic...and vice versa.

Throw physics and real science out the window for this one. Who is to say that the projector did have an immediate area effect of 100 light years... leaving the Vortex as the only evidence of its one and only firing. The simultaneous collapse of every star for 30 parsecs would have the desired effect of killing just about everything across the whole Thundercloud, wouldn't it?

Nekira Sudacne wrote:
Huh, it hit the dominators PLANET with a black hole projector, not the sun.

when your dealing with a black hole, it doesn't matter. if a black hole were to be placed around earth, it would suck up everything out to neptune. the rest would just take a few decades. remember, a singularities gravity does not vary. only it's mass, spin, and magnetic feild. if you create black hole using one earth mass, the gravity will be the sameas a stellar mass one, it would just be a few meters across, as opposed to a few thousand kilometers.

this is just attempting to put my own, regretably layman-esqe, knowledge of astronomy to use to figure out how PB's fluff could work, and to see how Braden's idea could also work.

as for the tech, yeah, it's at the 'wow' level. super-tech like this is great for background and fluff, but you never want anyone to get it ingame. (unless it's a 'destroy the deathstar' campaign....)

No, you never want PCs or even NPCs to have this kind of ability.

What I am attempting to do is come up with a convincing back story as to why there are so many under developed species in the Thundercloud... and having them all wiped out or set back by a massive energy wave that covered the galaxy 35,000 years ago seemed a good one...

Braden, GMPhD wrote:No, you never want PCs or even NPCs to have this kind of ability.

What I am attempting to do is come up with a convincing back story as to why there are so many under developed species in the Thundercloud... and having them all wiped out or set back by a massive energy wave that covered the galaxy 35,000 years ago seemed a good one...

I agree with the principles Bradens theory is trying to support. The Thundercloud Galaxy has been colonized by every major power in the Corkscrew. It strongly suggests ther was no real opposition in that galaxy. Therefore there must have been some mitigating circumstance to cause this delay in development in that galaxy. Using the destruction of the Dominators homeworld or the Thundercloud galaxy for the battle field against the dominators is a good explanation.

Sometimes I just post to hash my ideas out into better form.


It beats talking to myself...

Braden, GMPhD wrote: Who is to say that the projector did have an immediate area effect of 100 light years... leaving the Vortex as the only evidence of its one and only firing?

BTW: this would mean that the Vortex is equal to about 173,000 solar masses, and is a super massive black hole.

Braden, GMPhD wrote:here is my thinking on this:

Before the War against the Dominators, the Three Galaxies were peopled by races no too different from the Dominators; that is, races of gods. So when the war broke out, it was fought with god-like weapons. building planet-busters is a no brainer to gods... we're talking weapons that wipe out star systems, doomsday beams with a blast radius of a parsec, maybe even temporal weapons...

As Arthur Clarke said: "any sufficiently advanced technology will be indistinguishable from magic". Furthering this for the Phase World setting, I would say that any ridiculously advanced technology is magic...and vice versa.

Throw physics and real science out the window for this one. Who is to say that the projector did have an immediate area effect of 100 light years... leaving the Vortex as the only evidence of its one and only firing. The simultaneous collapse of every star for 30 parsecs would have the desired effect of killing just about everything across the whole Thundercloud, wouldn't it?

doubtful, though it would be reasonably catastrophic.

Edit: I think prehaps it should be reasonably clarified as I don't think one discharge of a black hole projector will wipe out ALL life in the galaxy.


but it dosn't have to for your idea to work. wiping out even the majority, and leaving only low-tech to possibly still unsentiant beings around would have the same effect your looking for.

Basically the absolute of "All life in the galaxy" makes for a grandious story but isn't particually belivable.

killing off MOST of the galaxy, including all indengious super-advanced races, is much more likely and believable.

No, you never want PCs or even NPCs to have this kind of ability.

What I am attempting to do is come up with a convincing back story as to why there are so many under developed species in the Thundercloud... and having them all wiped out or set back by a massive energy wave that covered the galaxy 35,000 years ago seemed a good one...

Couldn't this epic war itself have stunted the growth of other races?

darkmax wrote:wouldn't a tinie tiny blackhole be enough to swallow a planet?

Imagine the much-feared blackhole projector is the size of a hand cannon.....

And of course it probably wiped out the people who activated it.

Ah, the "Noisy Cricket."