What’s Different

From Lunos

What’s different This section is designed as a guide for people to compare life on Earth to life on Savara.

People

Physically, the average human is about the same as an earth human. However, Savaran humans have a much larger range past that average. Heights between 3 feet and 7 feet are fairly common, as are occasional scales, feather, whiskers, vestigial claws, and other features of the original seven species. Their sense of smell can be much sharper than ours, as can lung capacity. Skin tones include what we’re used too, as well as actual white and black, red, pale blue, and green. Hair colors have almost infinite range (some rare people have been recorded with seemingly white hair that turned out to show up ultra-violet).

Politics

Magic means that the entire world is in a state fairly similar to nuclear standoff. Full-scale war with no rules would mean complete devastation on both sides and most of the surrounding territory. The Mage’s Guild provides this order, making sure that everyone holds to and does not abuse rules about the use of magic, treatment of civilians, ecological damage, and so forth. Also, people in general tend to be nicer, especially the people in power. People with sufficient magical understanding can avoid age, so such people only die if something or someone takes a direct interest, which tends to happen much less often with good, competent leaders.

Calendar

The Rift is a rather strange system to outsiders, although it makes perfect sense to the inhabitants. Due to the peculiar astronomical conditions of the planet, the day/night cycle and the seasonal cycle both happen at the same time across the entire Rift. Each year is made up of 350 days, divided further into 10 equal months with five 7-day weeks each.

Biology

Savaran species are better able to interbreed for unknown reasons, and so the concept of species is a bit wider than here. For example “goat” is a species. All of the different varieties of goat are basically the same. Additionally, magical healing has wiped out all harmful disease and most parasites. For a listing of specific new animals, see the “System” section.

Technology

Pretty much anything you can imagine is available, but it probably runs on magic and is thus much more expensive. Cars are floating platforms propelled by telekinesis, guns shoot fireballs, cell phones run on telepathy, etc. About the only things Savarans don’t have are computers and space technology. The materials necessary for explosives are quite rare, and most destructive technologies are not very cost-efficient. Swords and crossbows are still the primary weapons, and animals the common form of transport. Spire, on the other hand, is built on futuristic Sci-Fi tech, which most normal Savarans don’t understand.