Official Waxworld Thread

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qwed117
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Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

So, I'm finally creating a thread for waxworld (cbb), my fantasy world made of wax and water. While science is still present on the planet, origins are not explained.

So, let's start with the basic sciences behind the planet:

1) Basic geology:

The planet most likely has 4 layers internally:
  • A metallic carbon core
  • A thick "heavy" wax interior/ likely liquid most of the time
  • An enormous ocean of water; like upwards of 7000 kilometers*
  • An extremely thin crustal layer
*I know that seems big, but for the planet to have the same gravity as the Earth, its radius would be roughly 35,000 kilometers, which is nearly 6 times that of earth (earth density/wax density). This thing's as big as Saturn (and about as gravitationally strong).

So, this planet is extremely strange; extremely large and extremely light. The gaseous atmosphere is still extremely strong, due to a beautiful effect of the planet's convection. The strong volcanism due to the core produces a hella CO2 and as a result, it's quickly converted into waxes again, and oxygen. This atmosphere is kept in, because the convection currents pull up extremely large amounts of metals, like iron, that retain their metallic properties on the surface. Ultimately the small magnetic sphere of the planet is pulled up by these metal plumes, like an extension cord.

One important thing may be that the carbonate-silicate cycle is extremely biased in favor towards carbonate production. This is good, as it prevents large amounts of carbon dioxide from gathering in the atmosphere. At the same time, runaway atmospheric effects are much slower on waxworld than on Earth. Roughly 36 times slower, based on just area, much less considering the effects.

One thing to think about might be the day-night cycle. Unless it's extremely short (ie 36 hrs or less) life could be stalled by the fact that ground simply said doesn't exist except at the poles. Luckily, a strong atmosphere could spread heat rather well, and allow for a worldwide redistribution of heat. This means that the day-night cycle could be significantly shorter. (For the sake of knowledge, the wax I'm considering melts at 67 Celsius and boils at only 320 Celsius.)

I'm going to estimate the amount of land on the planet to be roughly 12% of the land area, with water taking up a 88% of the area, much wetter than Earth. (In fact, there might be even more water, if the wax is unable to spread on top of water, if there are no cratonic areas, and if the land violently sinks under the ocean occasionally...

This is gonna be strange planet...
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by gestaltist »

This is my kind of project. Color me interested.
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by elemtilas »

gestaltist wrote:This is my kind of project. Color me interested.
I wax ever more interested! Although our two concepts of a waxworld are so very different, feel free to use any elements of the story in that thread, if they fit any culture you plan to have live on Waxworld.
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

qwed117 wrote: *I know that seems big, but for the planet to have the same gravity as the Earth, its radius would be roughly 35,000 kilometers, which is nearly 6 times that of earth (earth density/wax density). This thing's as big as Saturn (and about as gravitationally strong).
Just a quick edit; it looks like I forgot the customary conversions Haha, geddit? Customary

It's just between Saturn and Uranus in terms of size
Spoiler:
To be exact it's 9.82*3*10^11/pi/4/990/6.67408 meters. That turns out be 35500 kilometers (exact 35481.03 km). The formula is earth's gravitational acceleration divided by volume of a sphere formula (4pi/3), divided by the density (990 kg/m^3) divided by the gravitational constant. This implies that the radius varies inversely to the density of the planet
Last edited by qwed117 on 23 Mar 2017 02:43, edited 1 time in total.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by DesEsseintes »

I want to see more of this.
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by shimobaatar »

I'm not a very scientific-minded person, so I'm not going to pretend like I've understood most of what's been presented so far, but I'll definitely keep an eye on this thread, especially if you decide to make Waxworld inhabited by sapient life.
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

So, I'm pretty sure that I've already explained some of my current "problems", and I'm sure the rest are generic conworlding problems, but just to make sure I don't forget them I'm just going to dump it here:

  • Problem: Determining Continents
    • Requires me to understand the underlying currents and such
    • Heat distribution of the ocean
    • Heat distribution of the atmosphere
  • Problem: Determining Climate
    • Dependent on Problem 1
    • Heat distributions
    • Wax effect on atmosphere/insolation
  • Problem: Determining local geology
    • Rivers in a hydrophobic environment
    • How rocks work with no metals
    • Resource distribution
  • Problem: How life actually works on the planet
    • How plants and humans get minerals
    • How would life evolve based on the environment
    • How good would plant roots be in this scenario
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

A definite thing that ive worked out is that there is an extreme dependence on diamond mining. This is especially because the carbon in the waxes is heavily compressed. Therefore, diamonds are often encased in small floating bricks of wax. Divers often take dangerous dives under the islands in order to get the diamonds. Fishing boats trawl the dangerous waters of the enormous oceans. Mining operations risk destabilizing entire island chains and sending them plunging into the deep abyss.

There are likely few large fish in this world. Most aquatic animals are baleen-whale like, taking large amount of phytoplankton in every gulp of water.

I'm still unsure on how minerals reach the surface of the planet. Likely, small springs throughout the larger islands contain life giving elements, from boron to molybdenum. This limits life and human in habitation to the coasts of springs and dried springs.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

New thoughts:
Apparently I haven't said this aloud yet: The continents are shaped more like mushrooms than Earth like mountains. The reason that continents form like such is rather simple. Water has a heat conductivity much greater than that of air, meaning that the wax may spread only 7 or so meters from the opening of the plume. The inside will remelt when more wax comes, and will get pushed further to the surface, and will form a "bark" around a growing "trunk", full of hot wax that rises up. The bark insulates the trunk, allowing the trunk to stay liquid and less dense than water. The heat conductivity of air is significantly lower, meaning that when the wax reaches the surface, it spews out like a basaltic volcano, at temperatures reaching 135°C. A small pipe, only a foot wide underwater, can spread to a whole football field in length.
Most continents are not from a single pipe however. Generally apeaking, a large continent of maybe 30,000,000 km2 is likely made of a web of 30,000 different vents, and likely 300,000 different pipes. Thats roughly 1,200,000,000 miles of tubing under the continent.
Unfortunately, most of the landmass of Waxworld is in small islands. Some of the smaller islands can be held up by a single pipe. These islands are often extremely dangerous, for said reason. The largest island thought to be held up by a single pipe is nearly the size of Shikoku. These islands often have large quakes, if they are extremely large. The smallest island thought to have multiple pipes is likely around the size of Jersey
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

So a couple of weeks ago, me, gestaltist, and I believe DesEsseintes were working and talking about our conworlds. Here's a brief overview of what I found out/realized/told others and remembered:
  • There likely is a strong mineral deficiency on this planet. Luckily, most things on our planet are in excess (like humans).
  • Plants store metals within themselves, despite the enormous toxicity in some cases.
  • The world is either neofuturist, semifuturist or steampunk
  • There are definitely creatures, ranging from mammals to bacteria, that can consume the wax on the planet. Apparently this happens on Earth as well
  • The ocean is going to be more chaotically 'organized' than I thought
  • I'm definitely going for a 5-belt planet. I just have to figure out how climates work on that scale then...


Just a quick edit: I'm preparing this stuff to write a Micamo-like story. This is my story world: where interesting stuff happens. All my conlanging pursuits either go squarely into Aiga, Teles, or the void.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

New post:

Lots and lots of Ediacaran and Cambrian biota. I'll do a draw eventually. Here are some pictures courtesy of Wikipedia/media

Legend:

Picture
Terran Name
Status (is it assuredly on Waxworld?)
Description
Spoiler:
Image
Ausia
Status: Speculative?
Description: Known from one specimen. Maybe a sponge, sea squirt, or sea pen.

Image
Cloudina
Status: Likely
Description: Millimetre-scale conical fossil consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another. Maybe a worm.

Image
Trilobozoa
Status: Speculative?
Description: Similar to starfish, they are radially organized animals, but with only three or six spokes.

Image
Kimberella
Status: Likely
Description: Slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt.

Image
Wiwaxia
Status: Almost definitely
Description: While it looks like a blue durian, it's basically the hedgehog of the molluscs.

Image
Opabinia
Status: Likely
Description: This, one of the earliest arthropods, is an evolutionary disaster, with a weird stalk mandible and several stalk eyes; it's possible to see it's arthopodal heritage though.

Image
Anomalocaridid
Status: Likely
Description: Although it looks a good deal like a mollusc, it is actually an arthropod that hunted and was among the apex predators of the time
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by Lambuzhao »

Uranus/Saturn sized planet made of wax. [o.O]



Maybe a size that big would enable the wax to cool down enough to make the mushroom shaped continents.

Otherwise, I'm thinking of a geologically hyperactive 'pizza planet' like the Jovian moon Io.
But then again, Io's eternal lava-lamparie is due to competing combined tidal forces from Jupiter and the other Galilean moons.

A gas giant-sized planet of paraffins, etc. certainly ought to be more tectonically stable...

I was always a big fan of Io ever since Voyager. So... a wax planet certainly has what's behind my cerumen churning.


If I think of any good tidbits to add to this assemblage of paraffinalia (apart from bad puns) I'll be sure to post. [:P]
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by Lambuzhao »

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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by shimobaatar »

qwed117 wrote:New post:

Lots and lots of Ediacaran and Cambrian biota. I'll do a draw eventually. Here are some pictures courtesy of Wikipedia/media

Legend:

Picture
Terran Name
Status (is it assuredly on Waxworld?)
Description
Spoiler:
Image
Ausia
Status: Speculative?
Description: Known from one specimen. Maybe a sponge, sea squirt, or sea pen.

Image
Cloudina
Status: Likely
Description: Millimetre-scale conical fossil consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another. Maybe a worm.

Image
Trilobozoa
Status: Speculative?
Description: Similar to starfish, they are radially organized animals, but with only three or six spokes.

Image
Kimberella
Status: Likely
Description: Slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt.

Image
Wiwaxia
Status: Almost definitely
Description: While it looks like a blue durian, it's basically the hedgehog of the molluscs.

Image
Opabinia
Status: Likely
Description: This, one of the earliest arthropods, is an evolutionary disaster, with a weird stalk mandible and several stalk eyes; it's possible to see it's arthopodal heritage though.

Image
Anomalocaridid
Status: Likely
Description: Although it looks a good deal like a mollusc, it is actually an arthropod that hunted and was among the apex predators of the time
Cool! This is an aspect of conworlding I haven't heard much about, personally. The last two organisms on your list also happen to be two of my favorites from this era.
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by qwed117 »

shimobaatar wrote:
qwed117 wrote:New post:

Lots and lots of Ediacaran and Cambrian biota. I'll do a draw eventually. Here are some pictures courtesy of Wikipedia/media

Legend:

Picture
Terran Name
Status (is it assuredly on Waxworld?)
Description
Spoiler:
Image
Ausia
Status: Speculative?
Description: Known from one specimen. Maybe a sponge, sea squirt, or sea pen.

Image
Cloudina
Status: Likely
Description: Millimetre-scale conical fossil consisting of calcareous cones nested within one another. Maybe a worm.

Image
Trilobozoa
Status: Speculative?
Description: Similar to starfish, they are radially organized animals, but with only three or six spokes.

Image
Kimberella
Status: Likely
Description: Slug-like organism fed by scratching the microbial surface on which it dwelt.

Image
Wiwaxia
Status: Almost definitely
Description: While it looks like a blue durian, it's basically the hedgehog of the molluscs.

Image
Opabinia
Status: Likely
Description: This, one of the earliest arthropods, is an evolutionary disaster, with a weird stalk mandible and several stalk eyes; it's possible to see it's arthopodal heritage though.

Image
Anomalocaridid
Status: Likely
Description: Although it looks a good deal like a mollusc, it is actually an arthropod that hunted and was among the apex predators of the time
Cool! This is an aspect of conworlding I haven't heard much about, personally. The last two organisms on your list also happen to be two of my favorites from this era.
You don't like Kimberella, nor Wiwaxia? You mean nothing to me.


All jokes aside, thanks for the comment. Obviously this isn't a big compendium of the biota, but rather a general starting point that I want to go for. The creatures will be evolved from those archetypes.

I have some notes on my phone that I might show later. I have to condense them from the IRC question-response-discussion format.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by shimobaatar »

qwed117 wrote: You don't like Kimberella, nor Wiwaxia? You mean nothing to me.


All jokes aside, thanks for the comment. Obviously this isn't a big compendium of the biota, but rather a general starting point that I want to go for. The creatures will be evolved from those archetypes.

I have some notes on my phone that I might show later. I have to condense them from the IRC question-response-discussion format.
[:P]

Hopefully we'll get to see more!
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by eldin raigmore »

Any idea yet what cities will be like, or even if there will be cities?
How will population centers interact with the fauna you've pictured in other posts on this thread?
It's starting to look like fertile breeding-ground for stories! [B)]
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by shimobaatar »

Just realized: WiWAXia.
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by GamerGeek »

shimobaatar wrote:Just realized: WiWAXia.
...
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Re: Official Waxworld Thread

Post by eldin raigmore »

Possible highly speculative phyla and subphyla and superphyla:
qwed117 wrote:https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... hiidae.JPG
Trilobozoa
Status: Speculative?
Description: Similar to starfish, they are radially organized animals, but with only three or six spokes.
How about another subphylum of Trilobozoa with nine spokes?
Or one with twelve spokes (aren't there RL seastar-relatives with ten spokes?)?

What about another phylum -- perhaps in the same superphylum, assuming there is such a taxon -- with seven spokes? Heptalobozoa or some such thing, maybe?

What's the max number of spokes in RL radially symmetric animals (extant or extinct)?

If a Wax-World subphylum had 15-fold radial symmetry, couldn't it just as likely be another subphylum of Trilobozoa?

Could Wax-World have radially-symmetric animals with four spokes? Or would you call that "bilateral symmetry twice"?
They might have something resembling (at least superficially) octopada, with eight spokes. Or not.

If folk-taxonomy divides radially-symmetric animalia by number of spokes;
you might have a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a power of two; 2-fold, 4-fold, 8-fold, 16-fold, (possibly etc.);
Spoiler:
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a power of three; 3-fold, 9-fold, (possibly 27-fold, doubtfully etc.);
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a power of five; 5-fold, (possibly 25-fold, doubtfully etc.);
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a multiple of six (but not of any prime greater than three); 6-fold, 12-fold, 18-fold, (possibly 24-fold, possibly etc.);
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a power of seven; 7-fold, (doubtfully 49-fold etc.);
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a multiple of ten (but not of any primes other than two and five); 10-fold, 20-fold, (doubtfully 40-fold etc.);
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is a multiple of fourteen (but not of any primes other than two and seven); 14-fold, (possibly 28-fold, doubtfully etc.);
and a folk-phylum whose number-of-spokes is an odd multiple of fifteen (but not of any prime greater than five); 15-fold, (doubtfully 45-fold etc.).

The higher multiplicities might be popularish for legends, myths, folk-tales, etc. And/or for cryptozoids.
And they might be thought imaginary then turn out to be real, like RL pelicans and black swans.

All of the talk of symmetric animals' body-plans so far on this thread, has been about two-dimensional symmetry.
What about three-dimensional symmetry?
Are there any phyloids with all three of left-right and dorsal-ventral and head-tail bilateral symmetry, at least at some stage of life, at least in gross external anatomy?
Any with more-than-two higher-than-twofold axes of symmetry?
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