Greg Stolze: Forums

The Short Version: How big does a bump in Heluso/Milonda's form need to be in order to have its own gravity?

The Long Version

Because of their gravity, people don't generally perceive Heluso and Milonda as contoured, the same way that you don't generally see the world as curved. The Ulds don't know that the reason the Truils live in darkness is that they live on the far side of Heluso's back, they merely observe that the further West you walk, the lower the sun dips until it finally vanishes behind the horizon. So, if a structure is big enough (ie. Heluso's butt), it has enough gravity that it's perceived as flat, but with weird aberrations of sun and the size of the horizon (which is larger on flatter, more contiguous areas and shorter on curvier areas - so the North/South horizon is longer in the Empire than the East/West horizon... weird).

However, we know that not every lump in Heluso's butt has its own gravity. Otherwise, everyone would perceive the whole world as a flat plain, and that would be boring. For example, Heluso's nipple - the Black Mountain Free State - and his knuckles - the rocky terrain of the Maemeck Matriarchy - both don't have their own gravity. Instead, they have Heluso's own, larger gravity.

The question, then, is what separates Heluso's butt - which has its own gravity - from his nipple and knuckles - which don't. Is it a matter of size? Is it something else?

I generally regard the gravity on Heluso and Milonda as working more like surface adhesion. In my mind, men are to the continents as skin mites are to men.

-G.