FIREFLY UNIVERSE

Question about the verse's planets

POSTED BY: NEEDY
UPDATED: Sunday, May 7, 2006 05:04
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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:43 AM

NEEDY

The road to Hel is paved with good intentions


I'm writing a fanfic story at the minute and part of the action is set on Londinium.
In my head, before I gave it much thought, I pictured the town where it is set to be dusty and not very pretty... you know, like most of the planet's visited in Firefly.

Trouble is Londinium I now realise is one of the core planets, so does that mean it would be sleek and shiny like we saw in Ariel?

Or does it even matter that much?
After all, England isn't all the same - you'd have some places with scenic countryside or lakes, you have places in cities where it may be clean and neat, whilst other places look more downtrodden.

So the question is, does it really matter?

Also, has Londinium really featured that much apart from the odd mention? Was it featured in the RPG or Serenity Novel?
Any descriptions/pictures of other core planets might help too.

-----
Needy. Male Companion:
First Boy Whore of Destiny
Incredibly Confused Companion of SereniTree
-----
www.myspace.com/needsalt
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Saturday, April 29, 2006 7:57 AM

EVILDINOSAUR


I'd say it's pretty unlikely you'd find a dusty rim world type town on londinium, but ya never know.

"Haha, mine is an evil laugh."

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 8:21 AM

THEREALME


Needy, Londinium and Sinon are the two big centers of power in the Alliance. I think it is doubtful that you would find anything but shiny Ariel style cities. But you never know.

I suggest that you move the action to one of the other worlds, a rim world or border world. The Serenity Role Playing Game has a nice run-down on many of the worlds of the Alliance.


TheRealMe, First Officer of the Sereni-Tree

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 10:04 AM

NEEDY

The road to Hel is paved with good intentions


Thanks for your replies

The thing was, I thought I had set up in earlier chapters (which have already been posted) that the setting was dusty, but upon looking at them, I merely stated that the companion house (where it is set) was "not much to look at".
So it was pretty vague.

The way I've written the last chapter (which is set outside the house) is not dusty, nor shiny... but around a wooded park that is close to the house.

Surely they exist... this is assuming that not everywhere is a shiny city, and that there are quieter, more scenic places.

However, having said that, I did refer to another area as being nicknamed "the digs" because it was more rough looking (kinda lke a rough part of the city)

If you folks could help further and believe it still sounds un-Londinium, then I'll just go back and change the name of the planet in previous chapters to another instead.

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Needy. Male Companion:
First Boy Whore of Destiny
Incredibly Confused Companion of SereniTree
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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:53 PM

VINTERDRAKEN


Londonium was the very first planet to be colonised, and is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the alliance. So I doubt you would find anything dusty there.

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:53 PM

VINTERDRAKEN


Londonium was the very first planet to be colonised, and is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the alliance. So I doubt you would find anything dusty there.

You can’t stop the Signal.
Keep spreading the word about Firefly!

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:53 PM

VINTERDRAKEN


Londonium was the very first planet to be colonised, and is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the alliance. So I doubt you would find anything dusty there.

You can’t stop the Signal.
Keep spreading the word about Firefly!

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:53 PM

VINTERDRAKEN


Londonium was the very first planet to be colonised, and is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the alliance. So I doubt you would find anything dusty there.

You can’t stop the Signal.
Keep spreading the word about Firefly!

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:53 PM

VINTERDRAKEN


Londonium was the very first planet to be colonised, and is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the alliance. So I doubt you would find anything dusty there.

You can’t stop the Signal.
Keep spreading the word about Firefly!

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 3:53 PM

VINTERDRAKEN


Londonium was the very first planet to be colonised, and is pretty much the jewel in the crown of the alliance. So I doubt you would find anything dusty there.

You can’t stop the Signal.
Keep spreading the word about Firefly!

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Saturday, April 29, 2006 7:13 PM

THEREALME


Then again, our own city "jewels" have some parts that aren't pretty. I would still suggest either moving it off, or mentioning that your place is in a special situation.

TheRealMe, First Officer of the Sereni-Tree

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Sunday, April 30, 2006 4:07 AM

NEEDY

The road to Hel is paved with good intentions


Thank you again for your help.

I think I'm going to go back and change the name of the planet where it takes place. Shouldn't be too much trouble

Maybe I'll feature a shiny Londinium some other time

-----
Needy. Male Companion:
First Boy Whore of Destiny
Incredibly Confused Companion of SereniTree
-----
www.myspace.com/needsalt
http://needsalt.livejournal.com/

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Sunday, April 30, 2006 4:33 AM

ZISKER


Oh, what the hell, I've got procrastinating to do:

From the RPG Book:

Of all the planets, Londinium is the most like Earth-That-Was and was therefore one of the first two planets to be settled, since it needed little work to make it ready for human habitation. Most of the original colonists from the European and American continents came to Londiniumm where they honored their roots by combining old tradition with new technology. All the buildings are constructed of the most modern material, but they look as though they were built of stone and are of archaic design. The general look of the cities is what book-smart folk call the "imperial gothic" style of London from Earth-That-Was. May not look so shiny to those from the Rim, but it still makes the place popular with looky-loos and picture snappers.

The Parliament building and government complex that surrounds it are the most impressive sights on the planet. As big as a small city, the Parliament building contains the great debate chamber ("The House"), while the surrounding building complex provides offices for the government or for businesses who deal with the government.

Government is not the only business of Londinium, however. The planet is also home to some of the greatest collections of western art in the system. The Londinium Museum, which contains the Museum of History and the Museum of Art, is a splendid building that holds all manners of treasures. Most come from the early days of colonization, but the most valuable pieces are the ancient artificats from Earth-That-Was.

As the center of Alliance control, Londinium has a strong military presence. The Alliance flagship, Victoria, patrols its space. The planet is home to the elite SAS (Special Alliance Support) troops. The Ministry of Intelligence also has its HQ here.

Londinium is heavily restricted with "no fly" zones above and around government buildings. Any ship venturing near these areas is shot down, no warning given. Tourists arrive on Londinium via shuttles that travel to and from the other Core worlds. Tourists may only visit those areas that are approved. Anyone caught venturing outside those approved areas without proper ID is immediately arrested.




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Sunday, April 30, 2006 4:46 AM

FINN MAC CUMHAL


I have no specific intelligence to offer on the planets, only a grip that might help your artistic rendition. In my mind, the most intrusive fallacy with the planets of the verse is their homogenous interpretation. This assumption not only flies in the face of common sense it also distorts the physics and unbalances the entire perception of the Firefly ‘verse. Any celestial body large enough to hold earth-like gravity or even be perceptively spherical for that matter would never be so small as to be defined by a single town/city or even probably culture, which is the assumption that is made in Firefly and the reason for the implausible number of habitable worlds. There is no reason to have 70 habitable worlds. All one need do is recognize that all planets in the ‘verse should have multiple cities/towns/cultures. The core planets like Londinium or Ariel can have large extravagant cities, but why not also have small cities and even rural area, that could be as dusty as the rim worlds or maybe even provinces, each with their own large cities/towns and rural areas. The Firefly ‘verse need not be a slave to a simplistic paradigm.


Nihil est incertius vulgo, nihil obscurius voluntate hominum, nihil fallacius ratione tota comitiorum.

Nothing is more unpredictable than the mob, nothing more obscure than public opinion, nothing more deceptive than the whole political system.

-- Cicero

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Sunday, April 30, 2006 8:13 AM

NEEDY

The road to Hel is paved with good intentions


Zisker - Wow, thanks a lot for going through all that trouble to writing it out! (Maybe the info could be submitted to the site and put it in the guide to the 'verse so others can read it to without having to look for this thread)
Whilst the information doesn't serve me at this point in the story, it's very handy as I do plan to move out the confines of the companion house and possibly to the main city

Finn - I thought the exact same thing.
Its like in Stargate when the team visit a certain planet and come across a village, I always think "well, that's not the enite planet's population surely. There's bound to be other towns and cities which are quite different to this one little village"
So I understand where you're coming from and when I thought about the fic, that's what I was thinking. There are cities which are probably nicer looking, but this would be set further out of those cities, and where it is a bit "quieter"

...
See now I'm torn. I think I'll give it some more thought, thinking over whether I'm likely to feature the "shiny parts" too, and mention the different ways of life from one area to another upon the same planet.
If not, and the scenery doesn't matter much, then I don't suppose there would be any harm in changing the planet's name - just to appease those who disagree.

-----
Needy. Male Companion:
First Boy Whore of Destiny
Incredibly Confused Companion of SereniTree
-----
www.myspace.com/needsalt
http://needsalt.livejournal.com/

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Sunday, April 30, 2006 10:33 AM

THEREALME


Well, a paragraph quote here and there is one thing, but I suggest that you do NOT type in the whole "worlds" section of the Serenity roleplaying game due to copyright infringement problems. Just go buy the role playing game.

TheRealMe, First Officer of the Sereni-Tree

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Sunday, May 7, 2006 5:04 AM

KIZYR


I figure Londinium is going to be full of cities like Washington, New York, London, Paris, Shanghai, Tokyo, Seoul, and Singapore like they would be at their peaks, and with more of their better than their worse parts (might want to emphasize the Tokyo and Singapore parts more).

That being said, any large city always has its seedier elements; so I like your idea of a "The Digs" section of whatever shiny city you might have worked up. Just because it's a Core world doesn't mean it's free from every kind of trouble imaginable; even places with incredibly low crime rates (Tokyo and Singapore, again) have their criminal elements, downtrodden population, and other problematic sources that might defy what a Border or Rim-worlder must think of the Core.

But yeah, dusty cities don't quite seem to fit Londinium... Foggy, yeah, but not dusty so much. KF


~KF

Lord, I'm walking your way. Let me in, for my feet are sore, my clothes are ragged.
Look in my eyes, Lord, and my sins will play out on them as on a screen. Read them all.
Forgive what you can and send me on my path. I will walk on until you bid me rest.
~Haven Prayer

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