Clouded beauty

[subplotkudzu]

Of course, Vulcan isn't the only planet that the Sons of the Ether have lost to the technocracy. Early scientific reports of Venus - especially after Mikhail Lomonosov discovered her atmosphere in 1761 - postulated it as a lush abode of Earth-Like life, perfectly in keeping with the Sons' ethos. The Russian Venera and Vega missions in the 70's and 80's were the final ten nails in the coffin of that image.

Other games have made use of that world, but as a battleground in the Ascension of Mage I believe that the fetid swamps of Venus remain untapped. Their loss would be a retreating action as the Sons of the Ether pulled back the main body of their work to Vulcan, only to have that stripped away from them by Einstein. By the mid 20th century they just had pockets of the other reality on Venus, losing them one by one. Of course if the game is set in the early 20th century, the PCs might have just lost Vulcan and are hiding out in one of those Venusian outposts.

More might come up on this game concept if Dava Sobel's The Planets continues to delight.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

Don't forget the asteroids as the ruins of a destroyed planet; that one was still around in the 1950s when Heinlein was writing his classic juveniles. It might have been one of the inspirations for Krypton's destruction. In any case, you could have a survivor of the ruined planet in suspended animation, or a desperate struggle over the similar destruction of Mars.