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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:17:25 GMT -5
This topic is a child of the Set article directory.MEATEOROLOGYThe land, sea, and the sky - Set's whacky all over. It's a miracle the planet is even habitable. All across the planet, something's falling from the sky that shouldn't have been up there in the first place. Meat, acid, junk - even people in a few places. Sometimes, it's just concentrated nothingness, gouging voids through the atmosphere. Space isn't safe, either. Between all the junk above and all the strangeness below, orbit's just as breezy as the planet itself. Whether it's mystical radiation or just flying trash, you can't go anywhere in space without seeing some kind of weather. The following is a list of most common weather patterns on Set. Some might be local phenomena or dependent on a specific kind of anomaly. Others might be global and seasonal. Not all weather types occur predictably; paranormal activity in some areas might cause abrupt, unpredictable shifts in weather. Localized geodisplacement events can sometimes stir up freak weather activity or transplant conditions to a non-native environment. Take any conditions in this list as guidelines rather than rules. This is an open topic.
If you'd like to invent a new weather type, feel free to post it here! Since Set is a big place with a lot of weird stuff, just about anything's possible. Go nuts!
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:17:54 GMT -5
COMMON WEATHER
Regions: Everywhere
Seasons: All
Frequency: Variable
Formation & Effects:
- Largely similar to that of Earth.
Set is special, but it's not so special it can just shirk thermodynamics - most of the time. If Earth had it, so does Set. Rain, snow, tornados, and hurricanes all touch off and die down across the planet. Most usually take after Earth's standard for their formation. Tornados favor open plains on Ventannen, east of the Knobbled Cutters. Hurricanes usually flow up the Riscadirran from Darimesa and the Pyretip Ocean between Grusgau and Ventannen. Blizzards are common in in the northern and southern continents. Other weather types follow similar patterns.
Set being what it is, normal weather usually isn't. Anomalous activity plays strange and confusing games with meteorology. Blizzards can sweep across deserts because something teleported halfway across the planet. Inexplicable vacuums can cut tornados short. Sometimes, rain goes up instead of down. Set's orbit is drizzled and shocked by gravity-defying thunderstorms on a regular basis. Snowstorms around the Comm Slice and low orbit are common near the poles. The golden rule on Set is to forget what's normal. The weather's not one to disagree.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:18:05 GMT -5
CAUSTIC WEATHER
Regions: Arctics, Meatscapes, Evispin, Zuhverl, Darimesa, Comm Slice, Low Orbit
Seasons: All
Frequency: Variable
Formation & Effects:
- Formed through common weather conditions.
- Roughly analogous to common weather in behavior.
- Tainted with corrosive compounds.
Set wouldn't be Set without something terrible coming from the sky. Caustic weather is precisely that. Thanks to Set's hateful lands of acid and death, corrosive blizzards and dissolving hurricanes have escaped the realm of nightmares. Acid rain is tame compared to the full force of a caustic tornado. There isn't much that can be said - or needs to be said - about Set's caustic weather patterns. They're roughly the same as their ordinary counterparts. They're just mixed in with inexplicable acids and bases strong enough to chew through spaceships.
It's hard to put it into perspective just how much Set's blights hate the people of the planet. Caustic weather will sometimes reach up into orbit and liquefy space platforms. Other times, acid tornados will slam right into base-ridden hurricanes and explode. Winds in the blights will occasionally whip up trails of fire behind them. There's a whole continent dedicated to all this spite. Scientific studies have been launched on the subject. No one's been able to explain how or why it all works.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:18:21 GMT -5
MEAT STORMSRegions: Meatscapes, Comm Slice, Low Orbit Seasons: AllFrequency: Common Formation & Effects:- Always centered on a meatscape. - Vary significantly by meatscape conditions. - Usually conjoined with another weather pattern. - Can spread the meat to new locations and hosts. - May forcibly relocate meat monsters. You can see the meat from orbit. It's wiggling and squiggling all across the planet. Big patches of crimsons and fleshy tans are all over the Crimson Expanse and Southern Veinlands. It's only natural that, with that much turf to its name, the meat would have its own weather. It's only natural that said weather would include meat, blood, flesh, monsters, and stomach acid. "Meat storm" gets the point across rather quickly, but there's more to it than just a rain of meat. - Blood rains are the basic of the basic when it comes to meat storms. They occur just about anywhere there's enough meat to taint the sky. They're something like a bowl of beef stew poured out over the planet's surface. Blood and life juices rain down with occasional chunks of gore and fat stirred into the mix. Compared to other meat storms, blood rains are innocuous; most of the meat they drop is too small to survive the fall and too weak to spread. All they bring is disease and disgust to anyone sorry enough to be stuck underneath one.
- A gallstone hail isn't much more than a blood rain on the rocks. Hail stained with blood and pus, frozen ichor, and just about every other meaty fluid all fall from the sky. Colder fluids are more common, usually with digestive juices at the top of the list. As you'd expect, they mostly happen in colder climates. The Crimson Expanse and northeast Darimesa are both under a consistent drizzle of gallstone hails. Compared to blood rains, gallstone hails aren't as disgusting to sit through. The lack of free liquids usually means they don't leave as many plagues behind.
- A gastric blizzard is a gallstone hail taken up another notch. The name says it right away; it's a stormfront of digestive juices, usually chilled into a runny, caustic snow. Little pieces of half-digested meat swirl around inside, some of them alive and hungry. What sets most gastric blizzards apart is how they start. Most are brewed up by meatscape stomachs or swarms of flying intestines in the colder reaches of the planet. Only a few are driven by ordinary weather patterns.
- Plague fogs are the meat of the meatscapes' native weather. They're a catch-all just the same as meat storms are. They encompass everything from blood fogs that carry around crippling diseases, on up to gastric mists that digest anything caught inside. Some are just useless clouds of vaporized pus, sweat, and other, lesser-appreciated bodily fluids. The Cult's lore values a special fog as one of its most sacred figures; the Great Crimson Cloud.
- Meat tornados aren't exactly tornados. The name is a bit more figurative than the others. Instead, a meat tornado is a massive swarm of airborne meat monsters, usually swirling in high-flying plague fogs. Most are usually busy killing eachother, but, every once in a while, the swarm sees something moving on the ground. It usually ends with everything chasing after the first monster to hit the ground. The result is a viscous vortex of formless, raging meat, thrashing after whatever it can find on the surface. Meat tornados can drift hundreds of kilometers before they finally touch down. Many are responsible for seemingly-random patches of isolated meat.
- Crimson miasmas are meat storms in orbit. Most are about the same as their counterparts on the ground, save for a few very pointed exceptions. Being in space, gravity isn't quite all there and pressure is close to zero. Consequently, they spread out to encompass vast swaths of the Comm Slice and low orbit. Some are nothing more than giant clouds of disgruntled blood. Others are meat tornados sending their monsters up to find victims in space stations. It's not entirely clear how the meat makes it all the way into space, but not many people are happy with it.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:18:36 GMT -5
RADIATION STORMS
Regions: Arctics, Antarctics, Mountains, Space
Seasons: All
Frequency: Uncommon
Formation & Effects:
- Almost entirely random. Sometimes dependent on Set's parent star.
- Planetary radiation storms are usually components of blizzards, hails, or barrier auroras.
- Orbital radiation storms are typically centered on clouds of debris, dust, or gas.
- Radiation content and dose varies significantly.
Set wouldn't be Set without something terrible coming from space. Radiation storms are all that and more. What sets a radiation storm apart from a catastrophe like a gamma ray burst is the duration. A radiation storm doesn't roll on through, kill everyone, and slam the door behind it. Radiation storms hang around. They cling to nebula in orbit and loiter around in upper-atmosphere clouds. They trickle down death and misery through barrier auroras and radioactive hail.
Most people have only basic theories on the hows and whys behind the storms. They're a bit of a toss-up as to what they'll do. Some are nothing more than radio interference that clogs up communications in orbit. Some are gamma death-balls of murderous dust that wipe out entire fleets of junkers. Some spread out and trigger continent-wide auroras lasting up to years at a time. Others are only declared a radiation storm by the time they've already dissipated. Most happen up in orbit, inside and around the Scuttler Slice, but not many happen above it. No one's quite sure why.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:19:22 GMT -5
BARRIER AURORA
Regions: Arctics, Antarctics
Seasons: All
Frequency: Uncommon
Formation & Effects:
- Often occur during or after radiation storms in orbit.
- Length usually dependent on radiation intensity.
- Distinct from common auroras; usually meets the ground.
- Can cause severe navigational difficulties.
- Often accompanied by atmospheric radiation storms.
When radiation hits Set's atmosphere, entrancing and majestic auroras result. Some stretch across the whole planet in awe-inspiring shows of color. Some even stretch down to ground level - for reasons no one's really been able to explain. The moment they hit the planet, they go from beautiful to deadly. The result is a barrier aurora - really just the same thing as above put down on the planet. It's not hard to see why that's a problem; it's impossible to see anything at all when one's down on the ground.
Barrier auroras usually land around the north and south after major radiation storms in orbit. Some bring down some of that radiation with them. Trying to navigate through a barrier aurora is something like trying to push through a pea soup fog swarming with angry rainbows. Eyes are close to useless in them. Sensors of all kinds usually have difficulty with all the radiation, even if it's not deadly. Radio communications are hit-or-miss. Some even come down with intense heat waves and kick off major fires or ice thaws. One way or another, they live up to their name - if an aurora's come down to play, it's a barrier not many are willing to push through.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:19:38 GMT -5
PSYWAVES
Regions: Husklands, Meatscapes, Underworld
Seasons: All
Frequency: Rare
Formation & Effects:
- Commonly occur as a result of a meatscape in distress.
- Occurrence in husklands not fully understood.
- May travel upwards instead of across the surface.
- Cannot pass through vacuums; occurrence in orbit is very rare.
- Travel in a straight line from their point of origin until fully absorbed.
- Absorbed by electrically-conductive elements in intervening objects.
- Effects vary considerably. Most are limited to living creatures.
Life on a planet full of mutants and anomalies wouldn't be complete without something trying to scramble your brains. That's where psywaves come in. No one's been able to explain how or why they occur. All people know is when and where - sometimes. Most psywaves scream out from meatscapes that are either suffering growing pains or being torn apart. Others ripple out from ruins and husklands, for reasons no one's yet been able to explain. In some areas, they occur at a steady rate that can be timed accurately. In others, it's pure potluck.
Psywaves do what their name implies. They slap around the nervous system, play havoc with thought processes, and give plenty of people bad hallucinations. It's hard to tell what the exact effects are going to be. Sometimes, it's a small one that only makes sorassan hungry. Sometimes, it'll hit like an electromagnetic pulse and drive machines crazy. About the only way to be sure it won't tear your brain out is to wear a helmet with a Faraday cage - and even that's situational, at best. The better option is to not be there in the first place. Space is a good choice; psywaves just don't happen up there.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:19:49 GMT -5
SLICER STORMS
Regions: Arctics, Antarctics, Husklands, Badlands
Seasons: Spring, Summer
Frequency: Uncommon
Formation & Effects:
- Formed by gravitational anomalies interacting with high wind speeds.
- Occur mostly at the foots of mountains, craggy regions, or near ice floes.
- Fling razor-sharp hail or debris at damaging velocity across large distances.
- Can last for days at a time until the region has been exhausted.
In some of the angrier arctics, wind, warm air, and terrorscapes conspire together to turn the snowy plains into a no-man's land of fast-flying hail. Frangible ice picks itself up in gusts and flies through a spot of slippery gravity like light through a magnifying glass. Sometimes, it's just a few pieces that hit nothing. Sometimes, it's a full barrage of hail that's been compared to a chorus of raging machine guns. It's not just icy territories that get it bad, either. Rough and rocky places with sloughing stone can send up torrents of deadly pebbles. Ruins with flaking buildings can do the same - and worse, if the storm picks up a few spikes of rebar.
Slicer storms get their name from the debris thrown up. On most occasions, it's flying fast enough to shear through trees, houses, and people. A spot of serious weather can change a town from a lively trading stop into a tattered skeleton in just a few hours. If the wind's right, the storm could even go on for weeks. Thankfully, major slicer storms usually only happen once in an area - at least, once in any given direction. By the time one's finished, any that might try to happen later won't have any ammunition to work with.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:20:09 GMT -5
JUNK STORMS
Regions: Everywhere
Seasons: All
Frequency: Rare
Formation & Effects:
- Made up of falling debris from orbit.
- Primarily related to garbage hauler activities.
- Occasionally ejected from the Scuttler Slice and low orbit.
- Highly variable in composition, duration, and impact.
There's not much to be said of junk storms. It's in the name. They're falling derelicts, dying space stations, and just plain trash crashing down from orbit. Slurries of de-orbited asteroids, garbage hauler produce, and harvester drone refuse come down to ruin the landscape. They're not always a one-and-done incident, either. Some junk storms can go on for weeks if the stars are right. Sometimes, it's not entirely accidental; spacers up above shoot their trash at Set all the time. Space Loonies use junk storms as quick-and-dirty orbital bombardment on problem targets. Whenever something reaches the ground, it's going to ruin someone's day - if it hits anything.
Junk storms are usually predictable results of orbital entanglement, but not everyone's got a chart for all the scrap up in orbit. Sometimes, it's planned derelict decommissionings, sent to land down in the sea. Sometimes, those derelicts slip the wrong direction and break apart into a shotgun blast across an unlucky town. Junk storms aren't just a problem for the man on the ground, either. The Scuttler Slice likes to shoot out garbage and space rocks all the time. Most of it has to pass through high and low orbit before it hits the planet. On a bad day, it'll cross right through the trajectory of a space station. On a really bad day, it might even be flying fast enough to slap a moving ship across the engines.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:20:26 GMT -5
GRANITE HAILS
Regions: Everywhere
Seasons: All
Frequency: Extremely Rare
Formation & Effects:
- Related to small-scale geodisplacement events.
- Completely random. Sometimes related to wormhole jumps.
- Shower an area with stones and other displaced debris.
- Can sometimes drop major landforms or subterranean structures.
A geodisplacement event doesn't always send something across the planet. Instead, it might send something straight up - even if there wasn't a straight line to connect it there in the first place. Most of the planet's underground is made up of rocks, dirt, and fire, so the end result is a shower of debris for no reason at all. The name might not be accurate, but most call them granite hails. They usually occur around the time of a jump, but no one's ever had a good way to see one coming. One way or another, it's random dirt and stones falling from the sky. It doesn't make any sense.
It's not always a little sprinkle of gravel. Sometimes, it's a full shower of fragmenting boulders dropping basketball-sized stones through roofs and skulls. Sometimes, the boulders make it all the way down and smite whatever they hit. On rare occasions, it might be a whole building instead - if it's underground, it's a valid source of ammunition. The Loonies have got plenty of footage of houses dropping out of the sky to smash Cult preachers and armored convoys alike.
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Post by Insano-Man on Sept 18, 2018 21:21:38 GMT -5
POD RAINS
Regions: Everywhere
Seasons: All
Frequency: Extremely Rare
Formation & Effects:
- Made up of crashing life pods or cargo containers from damaged ships.
- May or may not contain living occupants.
- Pods rarely survive impact.
- Crash site is usually completely destroyed in the process.
On Set, it really does rain men. Men, metal, and heavy machinery, all at once. When spacers build their lifeboats and escape pods, there's the lingering question of re-entry to contend with; one way or another, everything's got to come down eventually. When it lands, someone's going to have a bad day. Safe construction practices and harmless burn-up designs usually don't come up for discussion. If there's even a tiny, hopeless sliver of a chance that someone's going to walk away from a crash, that's all that matters. What happens to the dirt-eaters in the process is just tough luck.
The occasional result is a pod rain. When a ship starts pumping out pods in low orbit, most end up falling right down to Set's surface. Most hit like an orbital artillery barrage, one after another, blowing out huge chunks of land just by sheer velocity alone. Survival odds are about one in ten. The people who do make it down usually regret it. On rare, once-in-a-lifetime occasions, a big wave of pods lands together, intact, and somewhere sustainable. If the spacers aren't scooped up by someone with a ship, they usually end up settling down in a little pod village.
The odd fact about pod rains is that, in about half of all occurrences, not one living soul is involved. Derelicts fire out empty lifeboats on automated timers, years after being abandoned. Freighters are forced to eject cargo modules due to damage or fuel overruns. Dying garbage hauler facilities jettison containers full of scrap in a last-ditch attempt to save their salvage when gravity comes calling. Without some way to keep a steady orbit, all those empty pods find their way down eventually. Sometimes, it's a windfall of resources for the people on the ground. Most times, it's a nasty wake-up call to how much junk is lying around in orbit.
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Post by Insano-Man on Jun 23, 2019 16:43:36 GMT -5
BLACK BLIZZARDS
Regions: Darimesa, Patzaghd, Zuhverl, Antarctics, Husklands
Seasons: All | Winter (Cloneston Wasteland)
Frequency: Regular
Formation & Effects:
- Strongly related to intensive urbanization and garbage hauler pollution.
- A strong storm of particulate-laden snow with a characteristic leaden taste.
- Often causes severe whiteouts. May cause blackouts depending on particulate density.
- Strongly interferes with radar, radio communications, and many other ranging and communications equipment.
- Particulates may linger in affected areas for years after.
Down around Set's snowy hinterlands and radioactive swamplands, radio chatter is tricky. It's not just the lack of infrastructure, the radiation storms, or the raging AIs in the city. It's the snow itself. Down South, in Darimesa especially, blizzards hit full of little black grains of radio-absorbing runoff. They blanket the terrain, swallow up everything from infrared optics to radar, and cut visibility down just as much as an honest snowstorm. Locals and spacers alike know them best by a simple nickname; black blizzards.
Black blizzards are made up of snow, sleet, or hail wrapped around granules of pollutant particulates. Most granules aren't much bigger than a grain of rice, but heavy snowstorms can drop walnut-sized chunks down like a hail of asphalt. The grains are a source of major radio interference, light scattering, and infrared obscuring - all-spectrum screening like a Looney smoke grenade. To top it all off, the grains are toxic in bulk, which can leave snowy regions as scant for potable water as a desert in summer. Origin stories on the particles are a dime a dozen. Most say they're a leftover of the Splinter Wars. Some say they're a conglomerate of pollution from Cloneston and garbage hauler facilities. A few have even come up with the idea that they're some kind of anti-harvester weapon - and that it was the big city's senators behind the plan.
For the naked man, all it means is a whiteout that's harder to see through. For a stranded spacer, it means isolation like nothing else. Distress beacons go mute. Rangefinders stop just past the aperture. Radios break down. Radar returns a field of continent-sized contacts. LIDAR, light amplification, psywaves from the Southern Veinlands - nothing gets through. Even when the blizzard's gone, all the little kernels that came with it stay spread across the ground. They sit around, reflecting whatever radio signals they don't eat. Even when it seems like the wind or the rain'll carry them away, the water cycle picks them back up and ferries them off to the clouds for another go.
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