Ferochromon: the Ebisedian conworld (fwd)

I thought I'd save HS Teoh the trouble and forward this myself. It's quite
informative.  The only further complaint that I have is that the
con-physics are almost entirely conceptual and not at all mathematical,
which makes me suspicious. Physics just ain't right without some serious
number-crunching behind it.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 22 Jul 2002 19:04:09 -0400
From: H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...>
To: JS Bangs <jaspax@...>
Subject: Re: Ferochromon: the Ebisedian conworld

[Private reply]

On Mon, Jul 22, 2002 at 01:50:57PM -0700, JS Bangs wrote:

> About the Ferochromon, it's an interesting set of strange phenomena.  It
> actually sounds like a fabulous setting for some sf or fantasy
> writing--was that your intent?
Well, it actually arose out of a collection of story fragments that I made
over time. And yes, it does have a lot of fantasy to it, though I'm not
sure where you draw the line between sf and fantasy, if the laws of
physics in this conworld are pretty ... fantastic. :-P It's sorta like
fantasy-meets-SF.

> But it doesn't really answer my questions, because you don't say anything
> about what causes these phenomena, nor about the underlying physical
> differences between their world and ours. Without that, it does me little
> good to know about all this weird stuff.
[snip]

Well, I didn't want to flood the list with ramblings about an alternate
physics that cause these phenomena to happen. I thought people might find
it more interesting if I described the phenomena themselves, instead of
rambling on about convergences, divergences, transmittances, etc..

But if you *really* must know...

Ferochromon consists of quanta of space called _oo'si_ ["o:si], which
contain matter, and which are influenced by the "forces", called _k3Tai'_
[k@\t_ha?i]. These "forces" acts both on the _oo'si_, warping it into a
corresponding pattern, and on the matter contained in the _oo'si_, usually
causing motion.

Now, these three: space, matter, and "force", are not simple things; they
have various "modes" of function, and different behaviour, based on their
energetic state.

In particular, the different "modes" of _oo'si_ give rise to different
types of "spaces"; the mode that constitute the "space", the _kh0'si_,
which I described in the message posted to CONLANG is one of the more
stable configurations, where the _3kosii'_ (pl. of _oo'si) align with each
other in a gridlock, regular pattern. This produces an approximately
homogenous "space". Of course, when acted on by a _k3Tai'_, it will still
warp accordingly.

Another mode of _oo'si_, which one may think of as a "liquid" mode,
constitute a higher dimensional "space", where the _oo'si_ are only
somewhat aligned with each other. This higher dimensional "space", which I
have temporarily called the "ether" for lack of a better word, exists
alongside the _kh0'si_, and weakly interacts with it.

For the most part, this interaction is insignificant. Although energetic
matter do flow around in the "ether", the _kh0'si_ is impermeable to it
because it has a different configuration of _oo'si_. When the "ether" near
the _kh0'si_ contains large amounts of energetic matter, there may be an
observable, more energetic behaviour in the _kh0'si_. But all of this is
still not significant until the more energetic _k3Tai'_ in the "ether"
interacts strongly with the _kh0'si_.

With the right kind of interaction, the higher-energy _k3Tai'_ in the
"ether" may sometimes "poke a hole" in the _kh0'si_, allowing matter to
traverse between the "ether" and the _kh0'si_. (Actually, what really
happens is that the _k3Tai'_ causes the _oo'si_ in the _kh0'si_ to change
to a configuration compatible with the ether's _oo'si_ configuration, thus
allowing free passage of matter between the two.)

What happens next depends on what kind of _k3Tai'_ was involved in the
interaction. Divergent _k3Tai'_ will cause the high-energy matter in the
"ether" to be ejected into the _kh0'si_. (Matter in the ether often
accumulate around the regions with high _k3Tai'_ activity.) Thus, a
_Ka'l3ri_ is born.  This passage of matter may become self-catalytic,
which could result in a run-away reaction where the flow of matter becomes
increasingly intense.  This creates a _Ka'l3ri_ of the highly explosive
variety. Varying degrees of explosiveness/tameness of the _Ka'l3ri_ may
occur depending on how far this self-catalysm happens.

Convergent _k3Tai'_, OTOH, will draw matter in the _kh0'si_ towards the
point of interaction, creating a _vyy'i_. Depending on the nature of
interaction, this may be a slow, weak _vyy'i_, probably safe for the
Ebisedi to use as garbage disposal, or it may be a self-catalytic _vyy'i_
which may grow to gigantic sizes and swallow entire _3kacorii'_. Matter
drawn into the ether this way may or may not become part of the other
free-moving matter in the ether; depending on the source of the _k3Tai'_,
this matter may be drawn into another "layer" of _oo'si_. (But this is
unimportant w.r.t. the phenomena that occur in the _kh0'si_ itself, so
we'll just leave it at this.)

Transmittant _k3Tai'_ may also create _Ka'l3ri_ and _vyy'i_ with slightly
different properties. Mostly, it is centered around the pure transfer of
matter between the ether and the _kh0'si_.

Other interactions are possible. Regions of concentrated _k3Tai'_ activity
(not necessarily the kind that produces _Ka'l3ri_ and _vyy'i_) in the
ether may cause nearby _kh0'si_ to become energetic. This causes regions
of "disturbance" in the _kh0'si_, which is the _K0'n0ri_. Often, this
energetic state of the _kh0'si_ is much more permeable to the bombarding
matter in the ether; thus, it often has the appearance of a cloud or a
field of fire. (On that note, "fire" in Ferochromon is not necessary
anything analogous to the oxidation process in our world; it is _K0'ni_,
which is in fact a particular energetic state of matter.)

Yet another interaction, involving a self-sustaining transmittant _k3Tai'_
acting parallel to the hyperplane of the _kh0'si_, causes a "tunnel" to be
produced between two points on the _kh0'si_. At either end, self-catalytic
processes cause the _oo'si_ in the _kh0'si_ to become a permeable
"entrance" into the ether. This is the _jyy'i_. Depending on the nature of
the interactions at the endpoints, the "entrances" may be constant or
periodic, or just erratic.

The reason the _jyy'i_ are fraught with peril is because this "tunnel"
interaction is rather susceptible to interference; slight changes in the
ether around this tunnel may cause the "tunnel" to be disrupted while a
traveller is traversing it, causing the traveller to be stranded in the
ether; or it may be altered so that it connects with a different
destination point; or it could just denegerate into a destructive
interaction, such as a small-scale _K0'nori_, and cause severe injury and
death.

At any rate, this somewhat explains most of the large-scale phenomena in
Ferochromon. :-) There is still a whole lot about how matter ejected from
the _Ka'l3ri_ coalesces into a _kacoo'ri_, etc., but I'll save that for
another time.


T

--
There are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those
who can't.

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