Life on Venus

[TheUdjat]

First, I will outline some actual information about Venus as we know. Then I'll move on to the setting, and how much of this data translates into the world.


Factual Venus
Venus, like every planet in our solar system, is quite different from Earth. I'm no expert astronomer, but my basic research has turned up substantial information - of particular importance is Venus' rotation/revolution cycles, and its atmosphere.

Structure - Venus is extremely close in size to Earth, as planets go. Its mass is about 81.5% that of Earth, and it is 650km less in diameter. It also has an extremely hot, high-pressure, dry environment. Being on the surface is literally like being 1 km underwater. It also has no tectonic plate activity, and for likely similar reasons, no magnetic field.

Atmosphere - Venus is positively covered with clouds of sulfur dioxide and immense amounts of carbon dioxide, giving it the strongest greenhouse effect in the solar system. There are no cold poles, no seasons - it's evenly hot, all around. Interestingly, the sulfur dioxide clouds reflect a ton of light away from the surface, so it doesn't experience any drastic increases and decreases in temperature. As mentioned, fairly even distribution of heat.

Orbit - Venus revolves around the sun once every 224 days (or so). It is the closest orbit to circular in the solar system. However, Venus rotates only once every 243 days - a day longer than its whole years. However, to an observer on the surface, the sun would appear to rise once in about 117 days. Venus also rotates backwards, so the sun rises in the West and sets in the East. (This rotation speed amounts to about 6.5 km/h at the equator - significantly slower than Earth's 1,600 km/h)

Earth - Venus's orbit is somewhat synchronized with Earth. Every 584 (Earth) days, Venus lines up with Earth. This also dictates when the planet appears as the 'Morning Star' to the Earth, and when it appears to be the 'Evening Star' (Venus is the brightest object in our sky short of the sun and moon).

And that's a short synopsis of actual information about Venus. Now, onto the fiction...


Fictional Venus
Obviously the real-world Venus, being uninhabitable, is unsuitable for this campaign. Therefore it needs to be adjusted - Terraformed, if you will. I don't plan to go into the scientific specifics of this, but merely put forth several broad ideas of how it was done, and what it resulted in.

Structure - The Venus of our setting has oceans. This causes one major, fundamental difference with real-life Venus: Tectonic plate activity. Many scientists theorize that, with the lubricating effect of water, tectonic plate activity would resume on Venus - and with it, a Magnetic Field would follow. This solves a couple of problems, but isn't a strictly vital element of the setting.

Obviously, the pressure needs to be reduced, and the atmosphere made hospitable. We can safely assume that this is done in whatever high-tech manner the future can allow, giving breathable air and an atmosphere ostensibly similar to Earth. With one caveat...

Atmosphere - Sulfur Dioxide, while toxic, does have the benefit of reflecting much of the sun's rays away, keeping the planet from getting overly cooked. With carbon dioxide reduced, it's not the heatbox it once was, but sulfuric acid rain still poses a problem.

For now, all I can assume is that the Terraforming process altered the clouds to remain reflective (to an extent), but kept the rain from being acidic. Perhaps water is particularly sparkling in Venus as a result. I thought it would be nice to keep some element of the acidic rain, however, and so theorized a wandering storm (like Jupiter's red eye) that occasionally wreaks havoc on those below. A Venus-specific natural disaster. Thoughts?

Orbit - The Venusian Calendar is going to be far different than Earth's. With the passage of a day more impressive than a year, and with fairly even distribution of heat (which should be maintained), seasons are a thing of the past. Rather, time is counted by 'Sols' - the equivalent of 120 days earth time (I rounded, for good reason). However, we need a shorter passage of time for game convenience, and thus, another creation of Terraforming.

Venus has no moon. However, in Venusian Skies, it will have one - a perfectly round, silvery moon. In the gameworld, this is a machine, an ancient computer created by those that terraformed Venus to keep its atmosphere under control (a nice, general catch-all). It also helps track time. The moon rotates once every 24 hours.

So now there's 'Sols' (120 days - 60 light, 60 night) and 'Lunes' (24 hours). Should be much more convenient for using the setting.

Earth - People on Venus don't know about Earth. They don't even know about space travel. They know about Earth as a distant planet, and it may hold some significance for them, but it is no more unique than, say, Mercury. I was thinking they might call it Ceres (to keep with current planet-naming theme), and be totally unaware of what happened to Earth's inhabitants.

Earth is not important to this story. This is about Venus, after all. However, doing something with that 'once every 584 lunes' cycles might be neat.


These are some of my initial thoughts. I will add more later. Feel free to add more on the information above, or other ideas about Life on Venus (not the customs of the people, though - that's another thread).

[TheUdjat]

Updated with some information to start discussion.

[VemuKhaham]

This information is good and I like it, but there's still a couple of questions I need to have answered before I totally understand what live on fictional Venus would be like.

First, does the presence of oceans and water automatically provide for furtile soils? In other words, what about the possibility of agriculture on Venus?

What about the flora and fauna? Has the terraforming process turned Venus into another Earth, with trees and cats and dogs and the like? Fish in the oceans? Birds in the sky? Or has a totally distinct natural world come to develop with the terraforming, with alien animals and plants?

Are there different climate types on Venus as on Earth? I assume so, but what types? I guess deserts are more prominent on Venus, and there will be no cold climates? Perhaps acidic rain is a phenomenon that occurs more in some areas than in others, this being an important reason for people to go live somewhere or not?

I ask all of this to know how and where people would be able to live. Most of it depends on how thorough and effective the ancient terraforming process has been.

I say there could be two extremes in answer to that question: the whole of Venus has been terraformed into a virtually second Earth, with acidic rains elimininated, nature being identical to that of earth, etc.

This is obviously not what you want, so I suggest something closer to the other extreme: the terraforming process has created ecological zones that are habitable. Most of Venus, possibly 90% (not counting the ocean surface), is still as it was before the terraforming, and your description of factual Venus applies there: acidic rains, barren lands, high pressure, mostly lifeless, etc. etc.

Then there are the ecological zones, sustained by sort of like an artificial ecology, carefully costructed during the terraforming process and now able to sustain itself amidst the Venusian environment, if left undisturbed by other factors... These zones are like an oasis in the desert, highly valued and densely populated, with fertile soil and termperate climates. Perhaps there could even be physical barriers surrounding these zones to protect them from the Venusian atmosphere, like a small earthlike atmosphere which covers these zones like a huge globe: imagine them to be small intra-Venusian atmospheric globes. There could also be walls on the surface to protect the zones from invading forces, some of them matching the Chinese wall of earth in size and length. These zones are like a prerequisite to sustain a decent civilization, and outside these zones live only barbarian nomads and the monsters that you want. Going there would require at least some form of protection against the high pressure for example.

But like I said, these are the extremes I think, and there are many roads in between.

[TheUdjat]

Definitely not either of the extremes. Actually, if anything, I'd like to be closer to the 'like earth' extreme than not. Ostensibly, the world should be able to feel and serve as an alternate earth - at least on the surface. It's in Venus's little quirks and differences where the true change in life thrives, and it's these things I'd like to focus on, rather than making the whole place alien. Though, I will say this - I do like the notion of certain areas being completely uninhabitable, due to sulfuric acid storms or other concerns - but flip the percentages. 90% of the world should be inhabitable, at least.

That said, 90% of the world is not, in fact, inhabited. Part of Venusian Skies is focused on exploration into the great unknown - wilds that parallel Africa, India, and the Amazon to the Victorians in their time. Missions to explore ancient ruins and uncharted caverns deep in the planet's bowels. I want to give players more places to go rather than less. And metropolises of any kind ought to be limited to: Cities of Aphrodite, and very major (perhaps one or two per culture) cities for the more unusual cultures. It's very much Civilized vs. 'Savage'.

But there are some other touches to be added. Elements of horror, for example, and steampunk. But we'll get to all of that in time, and a lot of that is for another thread (People and Cultures). This is more about the systematic 'tick-tock' of the world; what makes it tick. The foundation for the customs.

To answer your questions specifically:

First, does the presence of oceans and water automatically provide for furtile soils? In other words, what about the possibility of agriculture on Venus?

The thinking is 'Yes'. For simplicity's sake, agriculture and hunting and so forth are more or less the same on Venus. The oceans are non-lethal, most lakes are non-acidic, fresh water is accessible. There is one major caveat, though, as it concerns agriculture: Seasons. Venus doesn't have seasons, given its even distribution of temperature - in theory, plants could be growing all the time. However, Venus has a 60 day period of pure darkness, which is anything but beneficial for plants. These 60-day periods of time, day and night, can easily be associated with a sort of 'spring/fall' kind of system. Plants grow in the daylight, harvested at the end. They die during the night, to be sown again. Etc. This forms the foundation of systematic agriculture (a hallmark of civilization), and therefore a major time measurement for the world as a whole.

It's about twice as fast as our world (2 month cycles as opposed to 4 month cycles), but very similar. And since they don't really have years, 'Sols' are all they have to work with. A person would be '45 Sols old', rather than 15 years old. Changes things substantially.

What about the flora and fauna? Has the terraforming process turned Venus into another Earth, with trees and cats and dogs and the like? Fish in the oceans? Birds in the sky? Or has a totally distinct natural world come to develop with the terraforming, with alien animals and plants?

Again, for simplicity, most animals probably exist in much the same way as they did before, adjusting like humanity to the changes in climate and cycles. Birds no longer need to migrate for temperature, so maybe they migrate for light/darkness. Cold-weather herd animals can probably not exist in most of the world (I was thinking of making a very high-elevation place in the norther continent cold-weather, though). But there would also, in addition to the earth-known variety of animals, but Venusian mutations. Things that fit a niche very specific to Venus's ecology. These are the things that are more challenging for me to think of.

Are there different climate types on Venus as on Earth? I assume so, but what types?

Light/Dark, and to some extent Hot/Cold (altitude can compensate for some of that). In general, most of the planet is wet, though there can certainly be some dry spots - probably no massive deserts, though. Venus would be more inclined towards swamps, jungles, and even grasslands and lush vegetation over none. Water is very, very prevalent, and the storms frequent - heck, I would imagine plants to have become highly resistant to acid, due to the occasional storm.

I guess deserts are more prominent on Venus, and there will be no cold climates? Perhaps acidic rain is a phenomenon that occurs more in some areas than in others, this being an important reason for people to go live somewhere or not

Anything's possible. Weather is a funny thing, and it's safe to say we can say 'Sure, there's a desert there, 'cause this big mountain blocks the moisture'. Or, similarly 'the plateau is so high, it's cold on top'. We have some freedom to disobey science. But the above things I covered are what I've envisioned: a savage, thriving climate of flora and fauna, extremely active - though perhaps most so beyond Civilization's grasp (Aphrodite). Warm, wet, and wild.

I do still have a place in my heart for the Acid Storms. They will feature somehow. The best way would be to have them harmful to animals, but not so much to plants (being immobile, plants adapted - humans and animals moved away, though, or hid, and so became less adaptive top it). Things like that.

Keep the questions and ideas coming! Both of them help me flesh out things more.

[VemuKhaham]

Okay this has greatly helped me to get a better picture of the whole idea. Exploration really is a cool theme that I like to see worked out, and swamps and jungles are one of the coolest areas to do so. Now that I know this, I can start thinking about other things.