 October 8, 2013 - 5:50pm | We're all more or less familiar with the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World 1. the Great Pyramid 2. Hanging Gardens of Babylon 3. Colossus of Rhodes 4. Statute of Zeus at Olympia 5. Mausoleum at Halicarnassus 6. Temple of Artemis 7. Light House of Alexandria In 2001 the New 7 Wonders Foundation launched a website to refresh the list which was essentially a popularity contest as people could send in multiple votes. The followed that up with the Seven Wonders of the Natural world. Fast forward to 2013 and Jedion buys a copy of LIFE's Wonders fo the World, 50 Must See Natural and Man Made Marvels. So what about the Wonder of the Frontier? First off the number "7" was chosen because in ancient times it was considered the divine number thus making the list 7 items makes it perfect. The significant number in the Frontier is 10 when you look at Galactic Standard Time and the credit and even base 10 math for that matter. So the wonders of the Frontier should be 10 in number. There are some things in the setting that immediately come to mind like the Tetrarch Ruins and Pyramids, Mount Spire and the Rings of Terledrom that can be seen from the planet surface. However I dont think we should have natural and "sapient being made" wonders as its going to become very obvious form some of the proposed wonders that there is not much comparison between some of the natural wonders and the being made wonders. So this means two lists of 10. I've put together some lists of cannon and fan cannon wonders but haven't fully fleshed them out yet. Lists Follow: I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 8, 2013 - 6:12pm | 10 Natural Wonders of the Frontier 1. Ebony Eyes: sure you could name a star, but they are a dime a dozen on the galactic scale of things and man how cool is twin black holes orbiting each other and causing light and physics to do weird things like make multiple copies of the ships in their vicinity appear. [Dragon Magazine] 2. Mt. Spire: Everest Schmeverest this mountain reaches the void of space dude and is the tallest in the whole Frontier. [planetary footnotes from Zebs and I think AD] 3. The Rift Valleys of StarMist: these are really unusual and probably are very visually stunning there is likely no place else in the Frontier like these natural wonders so they deserve to make the list. [Sundown on Starmist module] 4. The Rings of Terledrom: saturn like rings around Terledrom that are visible from the planet surface. My expert consultant tells me that the rings would not survive on a scale of time that solar systems exist so these are a relatively new feature to the Fromeltar system, some time in the recent past the rings were created- perhaps a couple of moons were ripped apart but what ever the source of the rings they are visually stunning and tourist bring back holograms of them from their trips to Terledrom. No doubt the rather large Terledrom militia is kept busy maintaining debris free travel lanes around the planet. [planetary footnotes in both AD and Zebs] 5. Fire Fountains of Laco- I wrote a brief of Laco and crafted a list of points of interest and paterned this off of the phosophous emmissions in the burning lands of Volturnus, here they are not random but rather a full fledged gyser that ignites possibly for the same reason as the random fire explosions in the burning lands. [fan cannon] 6. The Burning Lands of Volturnus, Rugged and dangerous they do posess a beauty and wonder and the light show is explosive. [Crash on volturnus] 7. The Fungal Forest of Ozak (I was running out of stuff from off the top of my head and then I remembered this from the Zebulon Guide project] Forest of giant fungus and throw in bioluminesence at night like in the Avatar movie. 8. 9. 10. Now I had debated including a wonder from the Rim since not everyone is sweet on Zebs material but I was so close to finishing this list with just stuff off the top of my head that I wrote it down during my brainstorm. None the less I'm looking for 3-4 more ideas. Something I missed or just didn't think of? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 8, 2013 - 6:53pm | The 10 Being Made Wonders of the Frontier 1. Tetrarch Pyramids and ruins- fairly obvious and deserves the top spot on the list. The new PGC logo in Zebs guide shows the pyramids to be patterned after the Great Pyramid which has stood the test of time and made both the ancient and the new 7 wonder lists. Also these ruins are 10,000 years old and all kinds of mysterious [Zebs Guide and perhaps one other semi cannon location] 2.Ark of Yazira [fan cannon] The gene bank to preserve all of the life form on Yazira during the Star Exodus as the yazirians were facing extinction from a wandering brown dwarf passing through their system. The mandate was to obtain samples of all life on Yazira but this was an impossible task and to be fair they did preserve samples of a huge % but it was estimated that 1000's of species of insect life and etc were missed. In the effort to obtain samples there were some new species of insects discovered. the ark resides now on Hentz and this is problematic as only yazirians are allowed on Hentzs but it truly is a wonder. 3. Beanstalk/space elevator this is an incredible engineering feat only made possible in the Frontier from the development of the alloy Federanium and from carbon nano tude technology to make a "cable' with the tensile strength for this. My reading on this is that current real world technology might be able to furnish materials to build this on a body with lower gravity then earth like say the Moon or Mars. There was a discussion of this a while back and I cant remember what came of that. We need a name for this wonder and a location, potentially not to high of gravity, a high population planet with an economy that would greatly benefit from this. 4. In the description of the population levels (both AD and Zebs) it mentions that high poplation planets can or could have a mega city. Since its mentioned I feel like we should have at least one and Port Loren is an obvious candidate. Others: could be Maze on Minotaur? If there is only one it certainly qualifies as a wonder. If its Port Loren then you throw in the Council of Worlds and mega corp towers of down town as part of the wonder status. 5. A major space station that would have to be a class 6 station ( the largest) and also happens to be a class 1 star ship construction center- those criteria mean Triad or Grand Quivera. Such a station would really qualify as an engineering wonder. It needs a name or the name listed somewhere in the canon or semi canon should be found. Random potential candidates 6. Monumental carved monuments have made the lists The City of Petra made the new list , Mt Rushmore was a runnerup. there is a mountain in the Black Hills being craved to represent Crazy horse and will be bigger than Rushmore (though some Native americans think its a desecration to do this) So I though the Frontier should have something carved and large and rather than do a Planet of the Apes Mt Rushmore in yazirian heads I decided that one or more large clans that settled on Guna Garu (mining economy) took a cliff face and carved it to represent the trees of yazira. the whole cliff face has become a giant mural in stone on a grand scale as there are reliefs of animals and birds and a clan village in the tree canopy. Not only that the clans involved have tunneled into the cliff and the entrances to the carved village structures are actually entrances to their clan halls and holdings. Its magestic and a colossal work of art. its also a major tourist attraction and has garnered great prestigue for the clans that did this. Need a name for this: Cliffs of X or Forest of Yazira 7. Submerged Saurian city - just because its unusual, probably domed or like the gundan city of Jar Jar Binks in star wars. 8. Opera House - well inspired by the Sydney Opera House which made the New list, first thought was to put it on Triad for some fan cannon reasons but with the vaunted osakar voice tallents perhaps it should be on Osak. 9. 10. So I'm sure someone has some good ideas to round out the list. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 10, 2013 - 8:57am | What about that one city in Minotaur? It is basically a city built on a canyon. The taxis need coordinates on 3 axis just to move around. That has to be pretty amazing. SFman 11 page 11 "...the major city “Maze” has grown beyond belief over the last few centuries, covering the entire equatorial region with tendrils reaching into both polar regions. In addition to spreading east and west indefinitely, the city has also grown both upwards and down, meaning that there is no “ground level” per se. Inhabitants navigate the megacity with a complex coordinate system that involves both the use of a compass and altimeter along with a grid layout. Aerial vehicles are the only transportation (with major businesses and military sections sporting private shuttle pads), although a complex series of monorails and subways exists. Only in the outskirts will ground vehicles ever be encountered. Two major starports can be found in the polar border regions, Port White Sail bordering the sea and Port Aegeus near the ice cap. Social class is determined by how “high” one's residence is...downtown (subterranean to sea level) is where the lower class and poor reside, midtown (sea level and up to 1000m) is the working middle class, and uptown (1001m+ high-rise) would be the wealthy and upscale types. Also spotted along Maze are numerous factory complexes, but business centers dominate the city. One notable section is a huge man made body of water (Aegean Sea) which is an enormous tourist trap, with scores of megaresorts and attractions including an amusement park (Ninland) that is beyond belief, thus earning the area the title of the largest vacation spot in the Frontier. Nearly every business in the Frontier has an office in Maze,..." |
October 10, 2013 - 9:00am | What about some type of monument like the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower? A man-made construct. As. on Minotaur they have one of the original colony ships for the humans! What about on Cassadine or Fromeltar an orignial Dralasite Colony ship? |
October 10, 2013 - 12:26pm | The description of the city of maze from sfman 11 is the very definition of a mega city and therefor qualifies as a wonder. We can scratch port loren as a mega city and go with maze or port loren could still be a mega city but not quite on the levle of maze thus Maze makes the list of wonders. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 23, 2013 - 3:22am | Maze is an Engineering Wonder of The Frontier, but Port Loren is still a more popular place to visit and study the City of Maze... (and not just because the ecosystem on Minotaur is so out of whack that 'exploring scenic vistas' and 'beautiful frontier resorts' are a bad joke, but...) mostly because it's large size is not a reflection of it's actual population, so much as a testament to the unceasing labor of unmaintained automation; this city was hit by the Blue Plague, and the Minotaur Civic Corp of Engineering that were responsible for the construction, lost control of the runaway construction AI, thus leaving much (nearly 90%) of the city a perplexing network of abandoned real estate projects, some of which have become dark hives of uncounted illegal refugees and unregulated alien squatters. The Prime Ministry of Minotauren Publicity has a particularly uncivil ruthlessness when it comes to perpetuating the ludicrous idea that the sprawling megacity was an intended project, and the often overestimated population is a reflection of theoretical capacities, not living realities. But rest assured, the fact that the travel brochures are telling the truth about this city being the most desired place to live anywhere in the galaxy... is obviously supported by the number of tourists that decide to stay permanently. There is Always Room For More In The Maze! The Cliffside Monument of Yaz at 'Arborhome' is both a good name for this monumental Engineering Wonder of The Frontier as well as the monumental engineering wonder of the chthonic city... not unlike Maze, only more intended, smaller, and more densely populated. Sk'Nibraj Raj is a nice name for the fabled city of the subaquatic Saurians. Sgyrdannedy ar'Koalsdo is often referenced as just the Osakar Opera House. anagrammed -- Sydney, Osakar, and Grand Old to name the opera house. The Indigo Maw is a 'yellow water' Geyser in the Blackrock Colonial Park, and the tallest and longest running geyser in the frontier. Located on a planet considered protected territory under Star Law's extended jurisdiction, it erupts every 3.14 months and sprays at 256 kph about 770 kilometers high for 186282.397 seconds. Oh humans!!  We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
 October 23, 2013 - 6:27pm | I think businessman would quickly turn off AI construction robots building extra stuff because they like their money and resources too much. -iggy |
October 24, 2013 - 9:47am | I think businessman would quickly turn off AI construction robots building extra stuff because they like their money and resources too much.
I tend to agree. With NET mega corp having, as Rattraveller pointed out, a computer AI as a CEO and being based on Cassidine I'd almost want to have uncontrolled AIs located there. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 October 25, 2013 - 10:00am | Remember the Winchester house? The lady who inherited the Winchester firearms company fortune and became convinced that if she didn't keep building on her house all the ghosts of all the people her family's weapons had killed would get her. So maze keeps getting built because the AI is convinced it needs to because of the plague/programming glitch/secret motive of the megacorp(building equals digging equals looking for somthing)/Sathar plot Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 25, 2013 - 11:10am | And the CEO/politician/environmentalists/whatever says, "These things are costing us" and forcibly shuts them down to protect his own interests. In reference to run amok AIs. -iggy |
October 25, 2013 - 11:53am | I think Maze's name would predate a run amok AI, so why did it get the name? Also a ghost town the size of a mega city? Would this be considered wonderous? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 26, 2013 - 6:27am | And the CEO/politician/environmentalists/whatever says, "These things are costing us" and forcibly shuts them down to protect his own interests. In reference to run amok AIs.
Maybe not. Have you heard of the "Ghost cities of China"? Seems in China investment laws prevent many people from investing in stock so they invest in real estate. This has created entire cities in China which are empty. Not that everyone left but no one has ever lived in them. They even have empty businesses some with very American names. The point is stuff happens and not always for cool logical reasons. Sometimes the logic is twisted and the results are very strange like the Maze. Here's some links: http://www.dailypaul.com/152442/why-is-china-building-empty-cities http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/empty-cities-emerging-in-china-warns-top-official-403956 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19049254 Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go? |
October 26, 2013 - 10:05am | I've heard of the ghost cities of china... often as not they are only 10% populated. For the most part they are a method for the Chinese middle class to invest in the future by buying property when its actually prohibited. Point taken Rattraveller, but I'm not yet swayed about putting a AI in controll. I wonder if there is yet another opinion in favor or this? I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 26, 2013 - 9:48pm | Here's a plausable line that is able to have mythos and reality. Minotaur was named by discoverers who liked the story of Theseus and possibly even compaired their lives to the story. They started a city likely not named maze but rather Ariadne or Naxos, refering to their new freedom. The colonists, awash in their freedom, started building the cities of their new home. None cared to cooperate with the other in their spirit of freedom. This lust for freedom breed a bit of anarchy and the poor planning that goes with it. Over decades of changing leadership each did it her own way. City planning was a mess. Business interests followed the desires of fashion, governments followed the desires of power, and citizens followed the desires of their hearts. People just built what they wanted where they could. There was competition, arguments, experiments, alterations, distructions, and everything else. Even the corporattion(s) who gambled on a few AI construction crews to build in the belief that, "if you build it they will come". They went bankrupt, the AIs broke down due to lack of mantanance and the assets were sold off. By the time Minotaur starts to gain a sizable population all of the bad habits are intrenched. The many failed experiments have become legend in scope. A new anarchist style of city construction is the norm. The mega city continues to grow with a communal lust for the odd , strange, counter intuitive, and new. Order and ease of navigation are not in harmony with this anarchist city construction style. Thus the people have started to refer to the sprawling mega city built from the merged cities of Ariadne, Naxos, Crete, and Athens as Maze because they joke they are lost in it and can not get out. Yet they imbrace this life style as liberating and expressive. A true citizen of Maze is a master of the labrynth and enjoys the game. Most outsiders just rush to the skyways or the underground for quick transports to and fro and never discover the wonders right around the corners, many corners. -iggy |
October 27, 2013 - 5:55am | @ Iggy, that was pretty poetic, "business interests followed the desires of fashion, government followed the desires of power and citizens followed the desires of the heart." Nice turn of phrase that was. I like the approach and would modify it a smidge. That things are not quite as bad as all that sounded (well perhaps they are depending on the individual describing them). but the reality is that Maze is the designation of the Mega city whereas during the process Iggy described individual communities were named X, Y, or Z but the processes that went on was very much like San Diego today people just built out instead of up and there was no real reason to build a new community kilometers away and even when that happened the intervening space got filled in with residential buildings. Once people began to talk in terms of a mega city to describe the cancerous outgrowth of this community some one floated the name Maze and it cuaght- partly because its a good description of what exists, partly because tourist described the situation in negative terms as a maze and the locals have turned that on its head and use the dericive term as a point of pride in much the same way Yankee came to us from a racial insult and nigger is now used in the inner city. Finally Maze caught on because it was a nostolgic harkening back to the colony's roots. All the individual little communities retain their names much like Hyde Park, Dorchester, Southie, East Boston, the North End, Allston, Readville and Charlestown retain theirs within the City of Boston. Ariadne or Naxos work for early community names at the heart of old section New Sauria is a "China Town" for the saurian refugees, originally it was one of those AI experiments that went wrong and it was primarily an industrial park. The saurian extended family/clan groups moved into old industrial space, sectioned them off for each extended clan group and overnight it became a ethnic barrio and the criminal/scavenger elements that were hiding/existing there were driven out. The saurian's initial experience dealing with the low life elements in this area has predisposed them toward a self righteous attitude that sort of came through in the original Dragon magazine article- they are very much about law and order and support both Star Law and Space Fleet with their attitudes and actions. The external structure of New Sauria is "post industrial networking" while the internal structure of the buildings is Kichsen Revival. Making New Sauria a fusion of badly programed AI directed industrial networks and classic (one could say nostolgic) saurian building patterns. At its heart is a temple initially dedicated to the saurian religion from Kischen but it has now taken on extreme nationalistic overtones due to the saurian desire to kill the sathar and retake their planet. I smell an Exploration article of the city of Maze in the offing here...Since the city grew up in hap hazzard fashion if a half dozen of us create communities within Maze the fact that we all dont have the same vision will play to that. Iggy or myself as editors with the magazine can compile the offerings into an article and even round up some art. I'm even envisioning a mega city symbol- a circle with a maze depicted on it and bulls head on top of that. the "city fathers" (that's an oxymoron) have added the phrase "Maze, The First Maxi-city" or mega-city if you like but I think in AD or Zebs it uses the word Maxi-city. EDIT: I think we may need to split off the indepth discussion of Maze to another thread perhaps in the Hitchhikers Guide project rahter than hijack this general thread for wonders of the Frontier. http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/7801 I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
October 27, 2013 - 9:58am | Cool, I'm game, Jed. I like the idea of Maze plus - what if some of the AI's did not shut down OR what if the Saurian reactivated one...Hook, Line and Sinkers....:) |
October 28, 2013 - 6:44am | Ok, here it is the posted link to Hitchhikers guide will be for indepth development of Maze. If what you are working on requires its own thread go ahead and start one in the Hitchhikers project (this mifght be best if you were doing something like a mini adventure). We're looking for 3-6 (or more) people to post an idea for an area in the city Maze. It can be just a couple paragraphs setting brief with maybe an NPC profile or and indepth area brief with plot hooks and map. It could actually be a mini adventure dealing with an accidently activated AI as was suggested. I'll be banging some planet/city maps together and welcome ideas for that- I'll do a pre discovery map and maybe a first common muster era map and a SW2 era map perhaps even a FY 111 era map. The maps will be classic traveller style hex maps of a planet so you can claim a hex or even just an area of a hex. Do as little or as much as you like for your area- were looking for community collaboration on this. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
November 10, 2013 - 4:03am | Sathartown, a little known population of about 30k Sathar that have integrated fully (but subtly and secretly) into a ward of Maze that is just about 100k strong... often considered a mecca of entertainment industries, it is in fact one of the major Sathar social manipulation programs, with the capability of reaching the entire sector with it's propaganda... The name of this ward is actually unofficially attached to about a dozen locations in The Frontier, and most of them are in Maze. it's one of the Great Urban Legends of The Frontier. Yes, I find it much easier to accept that Maze is only 10% used... like one of the many Ghost Cities of the world. The uncontrolled Civic AI is not as uncontrolled as it was in the decades directly after the plague, but the damage was done... and the roots of various factions less amiable to the continuance of the UFP and the Council of Worlds, have been given too much purchase to remove completely. The largest Vimh population is believed to be located here. You are invited for dinner at the largest banquet in the frontier... There is Always Room For More In The Maze! Come to the best getaway in the sector... and Get Lost in The Maze! We guarantee you won't be found... Among the most relaxing resorts in the known galaxy, let your problems get lost in The Maze and rest in peace that they will never leave with you. The Greenfields -- Retirement Biomes & Organic Hospice Spas are among the most lavishly appointed facilities in The Maze. Managed by an Osakar population that moved here for the amazing diversity of the sprawl, it is financially backed as a subsidiary of Soylent Subsistence Substitutes, in the Dralasite corporation known as Fabulous Fresh Foods -- as part of the Farley Family Foundation. One of the most visited places in the federation, we provide people with a dreamy vacation so relaxing, they could just sleep forever. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
November 10, 2013 - 3:24am | Doesn't the Yazerian space station qualify? I thought it's supposed to be a spectacular sight to behold.
...and seems there is a bias to ground based sites. I once used a glacial fed waterfall almost thirty kilometers tall for a dam on a (19.6% ocean/41.4% ice/36.4% watersheds (7.8% surface/28.6% subsurface)/2.4% atmosphere) desert world, and built an arcology city out of it. Might be interesting to make that a colony with a dominate population of Vrusk, Osakar, and Dralasite. Oh humans!! We discover a galactic community filled with multiple species of aliens, and the first thing we think about is "how can we have sex with them?".~ anymoose, somewhere on the net... so... if you square a square it becomes a cube... if you square a cube does it become an octoid? |
November 9, 2013 - 1:57pm | good point - it should be: land, air, sea and space. |
March 27, 2014 - 1:29pm | Nominating the diamond planet as a natural wonder of the Frontier see: http://www.starfrontiers.us/node/7940 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_planet I was going to tenatively place it as the Moon Asperon in the Pan Gal system which is used for mining and puts it in the tightly controlled Pan Gal system under PGC's thumb. However, such a planet would come about in a system low in oxygen and high in carbon so perhaps it should not be in a system such as Pan Gal with two inhabitable planets. So perhaps the binary system between Dixon's Star and Belnafaer. proposed names: Timantti (Finnish for diamond), Demantur (Icelandic for diamond) EDit: And for the being constructed wonders list the giant tank from Sundown on Starmist module (though it like many of the wonders of the ancient world has been destroyed) it was huge and still operated after 700 years And the ancient dralasite globe ship from my timeline project and since it needs to be a wonder lets say it was technically HS 30 and since the dralasites that settled Inner Reach began dismantling it for materials to build their colony it no longer exists as a ship but much of it is still in existance. If I'm not mistaken this means that we have a list of 10 being made wonders and a list of 8 natural wonders. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
