Late to the party

POSTED BY: Cazaril
UPDATED: Tuesday, January 12, 2010 18:18
VIEWED: 7958
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CAZARIL

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 10:10 PM

As the title implies, I'm coming a little late to the Firefly/Serenity party, and this is my first post here.

By way of introduction (skip if you're not interested) - I saw Serenity in the theater, not knowing anything about it, and really didn't fall too overly in love. But being me, I went to work and talked about it. One of my employees mentioned that it was based on the TV series Firefly, and I really ought to look into it. So I did.... and have never regretted it. My appreciation for the series continues to grow, and in hopes of gaining a bit more insight, I picked up a copy of the RPG right after Christmas.

So now I've got the RPG, and access to all kinds of learn'n, and my attention turned to understanding the setup of the 'Verse. After hitting a couple of fan sites, I hit a link that brought me to a wonderful piece of art, called "The Complete and Official Map of the 'Verse" by Quantum Mechanix Inc. I also stumbled on "The Verse in Numbers" version 1.1 which is a free supplement to the map (says so right in the file, and at QMX's website).

Times being what they are, I don't currently have the coin to purchase said treasure, but I figured I could make my own version. So I loaded up Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer (great little CAD program), and went to work. But then I found I needed a little help understandin' something.

*** This is the question part *** To anyone that possesses a copy of this map. Are Santo and Persephone really in orbit around White Sun (Bai Hu - White Tiger)? 'Cause that just don't make no kind of sense.

If White Sun is the "Core Worlds", Georgia and Red Sun the "Border Worlds", and Kalidasa and Blue Sun the "Rim Worlds", how can Santo and Persephone be in White Suns orbit?

Worse yet, Santo seems to be inside Ariel's orbit. Now Kaylee mentioned in Trash "First time in the Core....", but in Serenity they land on Persephone. And while I can't recall the episode, I distinctly recall Zoe mentioning something to Wash about "... seem to you we cleared out of Santo in a hurry.". All this indicates that they've been to this system before.

And then the RPG places those two worlds out among the Border Worlds, which completely contradicts the official map.

Other then... "Don't over think it".. Can anyone help with this?

Caz

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BYTEMITE

Tuesday, January 5, 2010 11:46 PM

Actually, Persephone and Santo are in orbit around the helioformed gas giant Lux, which orbits White Sun, but are not considered Core worlds. This is because they were developed after the Core worlds, despite being in the same system. Someone had to come up with helioforming technology before they could be inhabited (the first helioformed gas giant was in the Blue Sun system, which Miranda orbits... which I doubt is coincidential).

Georgia and the Red Sun system contains both border worlds and Rim worlds as does Kalidasa and Blue Sun. Beaumonde, a prominent border world, is in Kalidasa or maybe the Blue Sun system, depending on whether you go by statements in the movie or calculations from Firefly.

Border worlds are given that label based on their proximity to the Core planets around White Sun, too far away to be Core, but not far away enough to be Rim. Border worlds are slightly more developed than Rim worlds because of that proximity.

Oh, and welcome!

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CAZARIL

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 2:28 AM

But it seem you're classifying planets based on two different schemes them.

One, based on placement. Those in the White Sun system are Core planets, Georgia and Red Sun(which share the orbital path around the White Sun system)are Border Worlds, and Kalisara and Blue Sun being out on the "Rim of know space" become Rim Worlds. But that would mean both Persephone and Santo are Core, because the brown dwarfs they orbit, Lux and Qin Shi Yaung respectively, are in orbit around White Sun.

The other seems to be their level of progress, which would place Persephone and Santo as below the level of Core planets, being newly terraformed, but then you'd have a mix of Border Worlds and Rim Worlds mixed through the other four systems, and if one of those ever progressed far enough, you could have a Core world, outside of White Sun.

Planets like Rubicon (sixth around White Sun, and incidentally just inside Osiris' seventh place orbit), would then be considered a Rim World (once terraforming is complete), but it would explain how Beaumonde in the Kalisara system is considered a Border World.

I guess if you look at it as a level of progress, Border Worlds is short for "Borderline Core Level Worlds", and Rim Worlds short for "On the brink of making it , balanced on the rim of making it", which would be the first step after terraforming, where it is still uncertain if the planet will become a viable colony.

As for Miranda and the Brown Dwarf Burnham she orbits... It makes sense that they would experiment with helioforming as far as possible from the more populated systems, so if anything went wrong, it would limit the effects.

Speaking of Miranda, it's interesting to note that Miranda is listed as having a 30 million person population before the addition of the G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate and has a terraforming date of 2433 (which required a brand new process called helioforming to achieve). But Meridian, the capital world of Blue Sun, is listed as having a 7.5 million person population, and was terraformed 3 years earlier.

Caz

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NIKI2

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 2:36 AM

Nobody's had the chance yet, so I'll start: Welcome to the 'verse! This is the best fan forum around, in my opinion.

I'm a late comer like you (we keep coming in!). Saw Serenity via DVD rental, loved it, end of story. Later found Firefly via it being Joss' (previous fan of Buffy) and loved IT, then made the connection to it being the "prequel" to "that movie I enjoyed so much a couple of years ago" and bought both.

I also picked up "Finding Serenity" and "Serenity Found", two really great books with chapters on this or that by individual authors. I'm halfway through the third book, "The Psychology of Joss Whedon" and going to pick up a couple more when I'm through...Joss makes for creations people love to take apart, analyze, appreciate, and it's much fun to see what they come up with. I rarely read this kind of book, but Joss is so complex and his works have so many levels to them, it's been fascinating. I highly recommend both.

It's interesting to me; have as many books been written like this about other series? About the creator of the series, dissecting his works and the myriad meanings within them, the characters, etc.? I know Joss being an existential and "rabid feminist" makes him more interesting, but I've never seen so many books about a creator of TV series anywhere...!

No help with maps and stuff, tho', sorry. Just wanted to welcome the newest Browncoat and encourage you to stick around...this place FLIES!