Paradise Planet?

[Jester85]

So I have a "paradise world", an untouched, unspoiled natural paradise maintained as an exclusive vacation destination for the Emperor and select inner circle of an interstellar Empire from a dying dystopic homeworld.

I think this will only be seen "in the flesh" in one of the closing scenes, as one of the characters finally fulfills his seemingly impossible lifelong dream to make it there.

I'm looking for any suggestions to make this a more creative "paradise planet" than just generic pretty beaches and clear water.

Something that would make it really striking. Sand of unusual color, or upside down waterfalls, or something really weirdly beautiful about the sky, stuff really fantastical and striking that you won't find anywhere else, that really wows visitors.

 

[Mirannan]

Well... A few ideas:

The most obvious and spectacular possibility is for the planet to be ringed. Following on from that, how about a planet that is actually an Earth-sized moon of a gas giant in the Goldilocks zone? Spectacular skies, certainly.

Another possibility is for the place to be close to a major nebula, similar to the Orion nebula.

One more: the world is actually two worlds, so close together that their atmospheres merge (and thus aircraft can make the trip), with considerably different amounts of water on the two halves; perhaps a jungle and a desert planet orbiting each other. (This would make the place excitingly dangerous too; lots of vulcanism, probably.)

 

[Parson]

How about a planet where you do not age while living on it, but will only support a few thousand people or it becomes toxic?

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Surely what makes a planet a paradise planet is what you can do there. Think recreational activities. So imagine a world with rings and meteors where you can fly a ship or take a nail biting ride through them. Lower gravity where you can fly under your own power with a wing suit maybe. Wildlife that is beautiful / deadly / exotic which you can go and observe or hunt.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Brian G Turner]

Paradise is a personal experience - you'll need to relate it to your character, because I can promise you that you will never be able to convince all of your readers that this really is a real "paradise", merely one person's image of it.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

What about a world that was once heavily volcanic...several things with this, first, ancient, dormant volcanoes often are transformed over geological periods into circular lakes (crater lakes). Another, the soil around volcanoes is very rich (think Hawaii) so vegetation could be very lush and diverse on your planet; finally, gold and diamonds are often, I believe, found around volcanoes. You could perhaps have the world be mineral/metals rich, and have mountains covered in gold dust, or glittering diamond dust. Not sure how real-science you are trying to make this, so the gold/diamond stuff might be hard to justify.

 

[Vertigo]

One more: the world is actually two worlds, so close together that their atmospheres merge (and thus aircraft can make the trip), with considerably different amounts of water on the two halves; perhaps a jungle and a desert planet orbiting each other. (This would make the place excitingly dangerous too; lots of vulcanism, probably.)

Cute, but I don't think that one would be orbitally stable. The atmospheric layer of any planet with human sized gravitation is going to be so thin they would be virtually touching and as they would have to be orbiting one another the relative motions would create nightmare storms and climate.

Sitting on a beach all day gets boring even for the very rich so you need lots of leisure sports:

Have a/some big mountain range(s) offering fantastic skiing/mountaineering

Have a large mass moon (much more than ours) and you've got massive tides with huge bores in any estuary areas - great for surfing type games.

Have a mostly ocean planet - the huge expanse of water would permit equally huge waves so long as you have steady 'trade' winds; again offers great surfing opportunities.

Have a massive annual monsoon (maybe caused by the combination of that huge ocean and the big mountain range). The resulting storms and updrafts might offer great potential for gliding sports. In Hamilton's void trilogy there was one planet with a massive mountain (think like Mars' Mount Olympus) with, if I recall correctly, a notch or pass in it that channelled a massive, predictable, seasonal wind which the very brave would ride in a glider.

I like the rings idea - possibility for exciting slalom style spaceship races.

 

[Foxbat]

You say it' s the haunt of an emperor of a dying dystopic homeworld? What about simply making paradise what the homeworld could have been with different choices?

 

[Mirannan]

What about a world that was once heavily volcanic...several things with this, first, ancient, dormant volcanoes often are transformed over geological periods into circular lakes (crater lakes). Another, the soil around volcanoes is very rich (think Hawaii) so vegetation could be very lush and diverse on your planet; finally, gold and diamonds are often, I believe, found around volcanoes. You could perhaps have the world be mineral/metals rich, and have mountains covered in gold dust, or glittering diamond dust. Not sure how real-science you are trying to make this, so the gold/diamond stuff might be hard to justify.

A world rich in gold would probably be high in all manner of toxic heavy metals, too. As for the diamond dust, I suspect having that around in large amounts would be more hellish than paradisiacal. I remember reading an old story for which that was the main plot element; machinery exposed to diamond dust wouldn't last long. And almost all diamonds look rather boring - black or dark brown.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Inspired by Red Dwarf V and the episode Terrorform, why not have a paradise world that somehow moulds itself to the expectations of the person put there. Everyone that lands on it gets the paradise that they expect.

But you can't have too many people on the planet because all the paradises start to interact with each other, produce paradoxes and problems. Hence only a few can be on the world at one time at great distance from each other. i.e. So someone might get beautiful 'angels' being birthed that populate the locale near him/her - but if there is some one else nearby who produces different beings they might find these angels very tasty or worthy of extermination etc...

No idea how exactly such a world might work in 'hard science' (would be fun to try and sketch out what sort of tech might help though!) so then perhaps an ancient alien artefact that looks like a world but is instead a huge machine and can do miraculous stuff Always a good get out clause! Perhaps you are more leaning to the fantasy side anyway with your WiP.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

A world rich in gold would probably be high in all manner of toxic heavy metals, too. As for the diamond dust, I suspect having that around in large amounts would be more hellish than paradisiacal. I remember reading an old story for which that was the main plot element; machinery exposed to diamond dust wouldn't last long. And almost all diamonds look rather boring - black or dark brown.

Then a world of fool's gold, and cubic zirconia? Perhaps pyrite isn't as lethal as gold.

 

[LittleStar]

I remember hearing on a discovery channel programme a number of years back, and I haven't looked into any of it further (I'm sure someone else here will know the truth of it), but they said Titan had a much different atmospheric compostion and as such it rained liquid methane. Not only this but it had a low enough gravitational pull that the raindrops were the size of footballs and fell much more slowly, I guess like a lightish rock in water or something equivalent.
That all sounds pretty cool to me.

Or how about rather than the planet itself being the draw point, what about the flora and fauna being the paradise? I can think of some pretty amazing creatures (real, extinct or imaginary) I would love to see just floating around, or grazing on some trees etc

 

[paranoid marvin]

How about on the homeworld there are no animals or birds. On the paradise planet there are lots of every species, rare and wonderful creatures that the protagonist has never seen; and the emperor hunts and kills them.

Kind of a reflection of Earth in the medieval period when only the rich and famous were able to hunt.

 

[paranoid marvin]

What would make it a paradise though is to give it things that the homeworld doesn't enjoy - like animals as I mentioned above.

For example the home-world could be a barren wasteland; a planet that has plentiful water and plants/animals would seem a paradise. Or the homeworld could be blanketed by dust, making the sky a dull grey; never any sun, moon or stars. Imagine someone who has never seen a night sky, a full moon or shooting stars; again this would seem like a paradise, a world full of wonder.

 

[chrispenycate]

A psychotropic planet, that creates what the most powerful and organised brain around imagines. Be this a slap-up meal, or a monster to slay. Probably built especially for the emperor (or an earlier one), as I don't think this could arrive naturally.

 

[Mirannan]

Inspired by Red Dwarf V and the episode Terrorform, why not have a paradise world that somehow moulds itself to the expectations of the person put there. Everyone that lands on it gets the paradise that they expect.

But you can't have too many people on the planet because all the paradises start to interact with each other, produce paradoxes and problems. Hence only a few can be on the world at one time at great distance from each other. i.e. So someone might get beautiful 'angels' being birthed that populate the locale near him/her - but if there is some one else nearby who produces different beings they might find these angels very tasty or worthy of extermination etc...

No idea how exactly such a world might work in 'hard science' (would be fun to try and sketch out what sort of tech might help though!) so then perhaps an ancient alien artefact that looks like a world but is instead a huge machine and can do miraculous stuff Always a good get out clause! Perhaps you are more leaning to the fantasy side anyway with your WiP.

Advanced nanotech would do a lot of this, especially if it was invasive and distorted your sensory perceptions of the world around you. But that isn't completely necessary, as utility fog could probably do a pretty good simulation of most things.

One more interesting possible plot point is that a paradise planet that worked by tweaking your sensory inputs could become a hellworld by changing the settings...

 

[Juliana]

You could have something like The Fifth Element's Fhloston Paradise, where accomodation is off-planet on a cruise ship with daily excursions to beaches etc. This way the planet is not only kept pristine, but there would be no-one actually living there (save maybe only a small staff outpost), making it the perfect hideaway.

 

[Venusian Broon]

Advanced nanotech would do a lot of this, especially if it was invasive and distorted your sensory perceptions of the world around you. But that isn't completely necessary, as utility fog could probably do a pretty good simulation of most things.

Yes I like the idea of, say, landing on the planet and perhaps falling asleep - for the/a 'controlling entity' of the planet to examine your mind and then set an army of nanotech to construct flora and fauna (whether real biological or cyborg wouldn't matter I suppose), as well buildings and machinery that fit your desires and expectations.

Not sure on the illusionary/simulation side - after why not have it all illusionary (keeping the Red Dwarf theme, like Back to Reality!) It would certainty save a lot on energy & material costs and take up much less space



Another idea - why not have an alien world that is stuffed to the brim with organisms and plants that all produce wonderful narcotics (or it could be genetically engineered to be like that) so that humans wander the surface in a constant blissed out state seeing transcendental beauty (man ) in the most mundane objects and settings, and utterly amazing things in wonderful sights. Edible fruits and other plants could have different drug effects (a bit Alice in Wonderland) and there would be no OD'ing or negative consequences. Hallucinations bringing back long lost friends and relatives.

It would easy enough to build in negatives if you wanted - perhaps if you are on the surface too long you might starve to death because you are so happy and amazed at everything, that you don't notice your basic needs - so you have to be fetched by handlers after a set time.

 

[tinkerdan]

I think it would have to be a beautiful world with a harsh environment that would challenge the vacationers enough to limit the number who are willing to endure it for all the beauty that lies beneath the surface of something that could kill as easily as it can nurture. The key here is that the world they come from is already trying to kill the life that's on it so anything else could seem like paradise; so I'm thinking of this as being somewhat like Alaska.