Any consideration on Mystara being at the centre of an Infinitely big Universe and being the boundary to the great beyond?
Mystara is more than a hollowed out planetoid. The very boundary of Spelljammer Space is below the Surface. To venture into the flow, the Mystaran Explorer must travel deep into the earth and find an exposed inner surface of the Mystaran Sphere.
Any consideration on Mystara being at the centre of an Infinitely big Universe and being the boundary to the great beyond?
To answer your question in terms of basic logic, an infinite space has no centre. The centre, a point equidistant from all edges, cannot exist in a space without edges or borders.
Mystara is more than a hollowed out planetoid. The very boundary of Spelljammer Space is below the Surface. To venture into the flow, the Mystaran Explorer must travel deep into the earth and find an exposed inner surface of the Mystaran Sphere.
To be clear, this is a concept from your campaign. There are no canon connections between Mystara and Spelljammer. Not that I have a problem with discussing ways to connect the two, but I felt your post could be misread. IMC I think I prefer having Mystara-Space as a huge Crystal Sphere containing many solar systems.
If talking about an infinite space model, one might assume that if you travel far enough you would reach the planes? Probably the Ethereal Plane.
Havard
You are right xXphilosopherXx, but if the infinite space is comprised of a defined mass, with the rest of infinite space around it being only void, there can be a center to that mass, somewhat. Not that that would help with what he wants or anything.
Ah, that would indeed be a possibility. I was thinking of a spacial center rather than a center-of-mass. Thanks for reminding me to expand my thinking.
To be clear, this is a concept from your campaign. There are no canon connections between Mystara and Spelljammer. Not that I have a problem with discussing ways to connect the two, but I felt your post could be misread. IMC I think I prefer having Mystara-Space as a huge Crystal Sphere containing many solar systems.
If talking about an infinite space model, one might assume that if you travel far enough you would reach the planes? Probably the Ethereal Plane.
Havard
The problem with that is that Mystaran Space is infinitely big. It thus falls to Mystara (the world) to become a nexus for Speljammer movement. More importantly it makes it unique in that the Inner most boundary of Mystara is the inner most boundary of its crystal sphere. You are right though...until such time as Wizards uses this to allow Mystaran Adventurers to Explore Spelljammer Space it aint cannon.
The problem with that is that Mystaran
Space is infinitely big. It thus falls to Mystara (the world) to become a nexus for Speljammer movement. More importantly it makes it unique in that the Inner most boundary of Mystara is the inner most boundary of its crystal sphere. You are right though...until such time as Wizards uses this to allow Mystaran Adventurers to Explore Spelljammer Space it aint cannon.
I used to push quite hard for preserving the unique features of Mystaran cosmology. With regards to space, I'm not so sure I feel that strongly about it anymore. What I do feel is important is that Mystara is not as closely connected to the AD&D world planes. Mystaran Immortals do not hang out with the Powers/Deities of other settings. So Mystara could be a Crystal Sphere, or preferably a cluster of Crystal Spheres unique in the way that they are connected to their own set of Planes.
I'm saying Cluster of Crystal Spheres as Mystaran Lore gives lots of hints of whats in outer space. Also, to give a nod to the "Infinately Big Space" from the Gold Box, I would change how the Mystaran Crystal Spheres look, to give an impression of such a Space, whereas they too connect to the Flow.
What seems clear is that Mystara Space is far removed from the other Crystal Spheres and that none of the major SJ races have much of a presence in Mystara space. Mystara Space already has many space faring races such as Alphatians, Heldanners, Gren (Federation), Emerondians/Pyrithians, Planar Spiders and others.
Havard
...
Mystaran Immortals do not hang out with the Powers/Deities of other settings. So Mystara could be a Crystal Sphere, or preferably a cluster of Crystal Spheres unique in the way that they are connected to their own set of Planes.
...
Havard
I am going to make a suggestion here - what about if a little different cosmology is introduced, by making each (non-material) plane have a certain area of influence on the material plane (those areas of influence could overlap, of course)? That could account for the problem you have indicated.
Mystaraspace
Planets of Mystaraspace
Adjacent Solar Systems/Crystal Spheres
Planets of Mystaraspace - Valerias, the second planet
Does anyone here have any ideas about Mystara Space?
Havard
Mystara is more than a hollowed out planetoid. The very boundary of Spelljammer Space is below the Surface. To venture into the flow, the Mystaran Explorer must travel deep into the earth and find an exposed inner surface of the Mystaran Sphere.
You're going to have to explain better what you mean. Exactly what does our hypothetical explorer find, and where does she find it? Does it exist in a subterranean cavern, or in the Hollow World? Is is at the point where Mystara's gravity reverses, or somewhere else? What does the transition between cosmologies look like? Is it a door or portal? A shimmering field? A giant mouth?
What happens when our explorer passes through the barrier? Does the explorer fall into wildspace and die? What does "an exposed inner surface of the Mystaran Sphere" mean? Is there a complete solar system surrounded by a crystal sphere? Is Mystara in it? Is it the same Mystara the explorer just left? What happens if you travel underground in this version of Mystara; do they end up in the "infinite space" version again? Or perhaps a third cosmological structure, with a fourth one inside that universe's version of Mystara, and a fifth one inside that, and so on indefinitely?
What happens if the explorer tries to travel backwards? Can they end up underground again, or is the journey one-way only?
What does it matter if Mystara is in the "centre" of the universe or not? Couldn't it be off in the corner somewhere for the same effect?
Why did you decide to put this underground? It could as easily exist anywhere; on Mystara's moon (Matera, or the invisible one Patera); on one of the other planets in Mystara's solar system, in the center of Mystara's sun, in the Nightmare Dimension or other alternate dimension, in the Astral Plane, or in a random dungeon or castle somewhere. Mystara already has a very developed underground (including the Hollow World setting), so this isn't necessarily the easiest way to fit your transition in a campaign. Planar travel would make more sense as a way to transition between cosmologies.
If the barrier between the two versions of the universe is underground, is there a way traveling into that region and not ending up in outer space? Journeys between the outer world and the Hollow World are a pretty important part of the Mystara setting, and it might be difficult if everyone who tries to do that ends up falling into outer space.
Personally, I would prefer to just use one kind of universe or the other; I don't see how it would be useful to combine the two. If you want to include Spelljammer, simply put the world and its solar system in a crystal sphere (as Havard said, somewhere fairly distant from the Radiant Triad of Oerth, Krynn, and Toril). If you don't want to include Spelljammer elements, there's no reason to worry about crystal spheres and the like at all.
That's not to say that the S3 spaceship came from Mystara's space (although for all we know, it might have), just that a similar means could be used to transition from one kind of outer space setting to another - a ship falling toward a black hole somewhere in Mystara's universe might end up being spirited away by the Sisters before it becomes crushed by gravitational forces.
One potential problem with this is that this sort of travel would only be one-way; the Sisters connect to many other places, and you wouldn't want to go back to the potentially deadly black hole anyway (unless it always leads back to the Sisters, in which case the route is still one-way).
Another problem is that, if Mystara's stellar neighborhood is similar to Earth's, any black holes would probably be quite a long ways off (the closest stellar-mass black hole candidate is about 3500 light years away, according to Wikipedia), so you'll probably need some sort of magical gateway to get there, in which case you might as well use the gateway to travel to Spelljammer's space directly.
I'd prefer to just set Mystaraspace in a crystal sphere, and make travel to other spheres via the Phlogiston possible in the usual way.