Questions tagged [internal-consistency]
For questions that ask if a given concept is consistent, or being used consistently, in the context of the referenced world rules. Answers should say yes or no, with supporting info. This tag should not be used with the science-based, hard-science, or science-fiction tags. Comparisons to the real world should use the science-based tag. This tag may not be used alone. This tag may not be used with the science-fiction, science-based, or hard-science tags.
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Weather, climate, tides and meteorology on the internal surface of a sphere
In the world I'm building I have a something similar to a Dyson Sphere. This is a fantasy world, not hard sci-fi. However, to make the world immersive I want to make sure the physical environment is ...
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7
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How to justify a ban on exclusivist religions? [closed]
Certain religions are known for fervent persecution of other faiths and/or non-standard lifestyles. In a satirical reversal, the target society is going to persecute such religions with the same ...
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The Best Way to Build a Von-Neumann Replicator [closed]
What Von-Neumann replicator design is the most space and time efficient, in the fiction I'm working on, the civilization colonizes star systems by using interstellar ships to carry Von-Neumann ...
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Can my necromancer have this bridge built with those constraints?
Long story short I got a very powerful necromancer living on an island that is 33 kilometers from the nearest land mass. He wants to create a mega bridge to connect his island to the continent.
The ...
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How could a lone island on an ocean planet have a temperate climate?
Grenaplaza is an Earth-like planet populated by a race of half human half pig people called the Gammonfolk. Grenaplaza is unique in that it is an ocean world with one lonely island on its surface, ...
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How would wyrms develop culture, houses, etc?
By wyrm, I mean a large, snakelike dragon that completely lacks limbs of any kind. Is there any way they would be able to build houses, paint, weave, etc? Basically, how will they do anything to ...
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Does it make sense for giants to use clubs or swords when fighting non-giants?
Many settings feature creatures of vastly different heights; for the purposes of this question let 'giants' mean any humanoid creature that is significantly larger than a regular human. Let's say 'at ...
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Given the following planetary conditions, what would be the exact length of a year?
List of conditions:
it's an earth-size planet
it's located in a binary star system, where both suns have the same size and mass
the summed up mass of both suns is equivalent to that of our sun
yes, ...
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Is Tasting and Smelling Bad A Viable Way of Not Getting Eaten? [closed]
Would it be possible for humans to use some combination of soap, lotion, perfume/cologne, etc to deter most predators from eating you by virtue of your smell and taste? After all plenty of other ...
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designing an elven magic system that blends with a WW1-esque world [closed]
I'm having issues designing a balanced magic system.
let me elaborate.
a handful of nations have allied against a big empire, and the fighting has regressed into trench warfare. Tech level is early ...
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Would it make sense for an entity who can control tangible and/or intangible matterials be able to manipulate electricity but not light [closed]
I have this idea about people with "Psionic" power.
Psionics are primarily beings able to emit-, and/or manipulate a special energy field from within that takes physical form. They can ...
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Legitimacy of an army of neotenous amphibians
In my world, there exists a race of amphibians we'll call "phrogs". Phrogs were a relatively peaceful race, who evolved a kind of telepathy to allow them to communicate underwater, which got ...
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Could a small (15km radius) planet (disregarding physics) have enough material for intelligient life to build on?
The planet's radius is 15km and has a similar density and gravity to Earth. For this question, most laws of our universe do not apply, meaning this is possible without any serious consequences. Could ...
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Advice on designing an inconsistent magic system [closed]
I'm working on a story (see here) where the way magic works is ... difficult, to say the least. Most magic occurs naturally, either through ley lines (naturally occuring lines of magical energy that ...
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Why would two neighboring kingdoms fight over an island? [closed]
This story is set in a medieval-esque world, on a continent roughly the size of Australia that is separated into six different kingdoms/territories. Each territory is its own sovereign country and has ...
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Fish Tank For Merfolk [closed]
I haven't seen any questions like these, but please do tell me if it is a duplicate. What I need to know is:
How large would a tank need to be for a merperson -maximum length around 9 feet long from ...
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Sun-like star system with less water close to the frost line
Normally in sun-like planetary systems, there are small rocky planets around the habitable zone or closer and gas giants beyond the frost line. Typically these gas giants later migrate inwards due to ...
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Plausibility of humans turning into mythical creatures at random
TL;DR-Lore below
If humans have a gene that turns some of them into mythical creatures, how would I justify all humans having it and the transformations only starting in the late 1900s rather than ...
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What would mice use as raw materials for clothing?
This is my first question and I hope I didn't go beyond the scope of this forum.
I am working on an amateur tabletop role-playing game, and I'm wondering how to make clothing & architecture feel ...
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What would the climates/biomes on my fantasy continent be?
I've roughly marked out where I think a desert might naturally form according to the mountains, and plotted the rivers in a way that I think makes sense, but what other climates might I expect on this ...
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Life in the core of a rocky planet
Background
First of all, I’d like to state that I know the entire premise of this question is hypothetical and the life probably quite unlikely to form in the first place at best. Despite that, I’d ...
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Is my climate map plausible?
I've created an Earthlike planet and spent a lot of time trying to get the climate right. I have included a map of elevation and currents. Are these climates possible, given their surrounding factors? ...
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How could a hyperspace "ocean" work?
I've been working on a mostly hard sci-fi setting where there exists an extradimensional hyperspace that allows for superluminal travel and time travel called Deepspace or Darkspace, which has a very ...
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How do camouflage plates know what color to change to?
How could organic adaptive camouflage be implemented into materials implementable by humans?
I have already developed a general system:
the system is made of small plates that form larger plates. each ...
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16
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Why are scout bots only used for reconnaissance?
Why would scout robots be used for recon only, not general combat?
I have a situation in which scout robots akin to mars rovers are used for military applications by forces residing on a foreign ...
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How much of a small, isolated, civilization's culture would survive a magical cataclysm? [closed]
I'm starting with some background so the question can be answered in-context. Apologies if I veer into too much storytelling.
Pre-Cataclysm Setting:
A fantasy civilization, essentially only humans, in ...
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How does "innate magical power" fit into a magic system powered by emotion and memory?
In the magic system I've been workshopping, magic is powered by the caster's emotions and memories. Specifically, mages can shape spells by creating associations to their own memories, and strengthen ...
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How to recreate a "land" harp that can work in the deep sea?
Once again, I am asking questions based on my as of yet defined highly-evolved, human-derived "merfolk". But this time, I'm going towards deeper waters-- let's say about 5000 meters below ...
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Medieval Europe without animals [closed]
I'm working on a setting that in some ways looks like medieval Europe without domestic, or in general agriculturally significant, animals, and I'm trying to figure out what the implications would be.
...
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Non absurd way to lay a cable over light years of distance [closed]
This isn't entirely hard science but bear with me.
(Prologue) In the near future, a series of increasing heavy elements are synthesized building on the theory of islands of stability, incredibly ...
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Why would cyborgs, assuming they are rare, be found in the lower classes rather than the elite?
In my world, advanced technological body modification exists. Those with any sort of modifications are rare, and those with extensive modifications are even rarer. These rare and uncommon cyborgs are ...
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4
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How to make electro kinetic immune to electricity
In my hard science world there is a character that can output electrons around 30000 volts and around 50,000 amps.The problem is that they would instantly die every time they use their ability. So I ...
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Continent Formation and Volcanos
For over a year I've been writing about a fictional race of people that has taken on rather a life of its own. They live on an earth like world with similar geological processes to our own but I don't ...
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Is a species that mates by "tribadism" possible?
In real life, there are planarians that are hermaphroditic, which means that they produce both eggs and sperm, however, they have penises and scrotum without clitorises and vaginas. They sexually ...
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How can I incorporate both the metaphysics of the story and magic into a system without compromising one or the other? [closed]
I'll try my best to make this not so nonsensically long and give you the basics with brevity. I'll be summarizing ALOT.
In the beginning was an entity known as the Eternal Sovereign, a being whose ...
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What potentially breathable gas behaves the most like a liquid?
So I've already found that Neon seems to be the highest viscosity gas, at least that I can find. However, I don't feel like simply adding a lot of Neon to the atmosphere of my fictional planet of ...
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Practicality of engine-mediated magic
In another universe in which humans may exist but did not evolve, the laws of physics allow phenomena that we in this universe would call magical, where matter and energy may be moved, transformed and ...
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Plausibility, habitability and conditions of shell-system
I have some questions regarding the feasibility of this planetary shell-based construction. I have read other questions about shell worlds, but this case has some unique elements, so I thought I would ...
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Sustaining linear warfare in futuristic combat [closed]
In my sci-fi setting, I’m looking for a way to have linear infantry formations, or something similar, in a world where airplanes and machine-guns also exist. It is made possible by the existence of ...
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How can kaiju exist in nature and not significantly alter civilization?
I'm building a world where kaiju-sized creatures exist alongside regular-sized creatures. How these kaiju don't crumble under their own weight doesn't matter, and can be explained away by them being ...
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4
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Covert conflict between different organizations and paranormal groups [closed]
I was recently thinking of creating a reality very similar to the real world but which is under a supernatural "cold war", where scientists, researchers, wizards, techno-wizards, witches, ...
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The two societies of Hell - are they reasonable?
Once, thousands of years ago, there was a land called Dhelō. It was a bright, green, fertile land with rivers, lakes, plains, forests and farms. There was a great calamity, and the world broke into ...
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What medical problems would doctors in a far future setting, plausibly have trouble dealing with?
This is based on another thread in regards to how you can avoid having sci fi technology be a deus ex machina.
So when it comes to writing inorganic technology, IE spaceships and laser guns, the laws ...
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How Would a Spacefaring Civilization Using No Electricity Communicate?
I'm working on a civilization who was born out of a century-long interstellar war with an AI. So they had previously developed electrical and digital technology but now they're avoiding using any of ...
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How can a Leader Remain in Power, Despite being Excessively Cruel and Murderous Towards the Subordinates?
Question inspired by Batman: Arkham games - although this trope is definitely not limited to this series, it is very widely (ab)used in various media.
In Batman: Arkham, various mob leaders are ...
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Is it believable to store information in live DNA for billion years?
Imagine a civilization that approaches Kardashev II. They are deep into spacefaring, they live on a few less than one-hundred colonized worlds. They've not found evidence of other sapient life, so ...
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Would the presence of superhumans necessarily lead to giving them authority?
We all know the cliche from numerous comics, cartoons, anime shows, video games, etc: some members of the society are vastly more powerful than others. (These are called 'superheroes', 'wizards', '...
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Is it possible for rockets to exist in a world that is only in the early stages of developing jet aircraft?
More specifically, is it possible for rocket engines comparable to those of the mid 1960s to exist in a world where in atmosphere jet engines are only in their early stages of development?
This world ...
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17
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Rationale for sending manned mission to another star?
In the near future an ancient, derelict spacecraft or space station has been discovered orbiting Barnard's Star, 6 light years from Earth.
Why would Earth send a manned mission to Barnard's Star to ...
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Building a settlement in a place in temporal stasis. What problems the settlers would face?
In my low-fantasy world there is a place where the environment has been frozen by magic in some kind of temporal stasis. It's an antarctic type of environment, with mountains and huge ice sheets: ...
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