A very inspiring art by Naeddyr or Järventaus (?) about a solar system in his parallel universe, The Steamopera. It is something like a space age, but in a 19th-century universe.
What inspires me is, of course, the visualization of the solar system (especially the inner bodies). Interestingly, he includes all the real inner planets of the solar system plus some real historical hypothetical planet.
Glyph of Vulcan
Firstly is the appearance of Vulcan below Mercury’s orbit, or in his Steamopera’s term, Vulcanus. The symbol is probably derived from anvil or some sort with a fiery background. Vulcan is actually the 19th century creation of Le Verrier, hypothesized as a planet which orbits closer to the Sun than Mercury is, and perturbs Mercury’s orbit. Later, Vulcan is thought to be the parent body of the Vulcanoids, another asteroid belt which is rich in iron and nickel, and has similar albedo to Mercury. The bodies have never been observed and is likely non-existent, although some scientist still peers through this area looking for possibilities.
Secondly is the appearance of Nemesis as the alien exoplanet which orbits too close to the sun and destroyed by its gravity to form later, the “Nemesis-tail” (sort of the secondary Main Asteroid Belt). This event creates a period of “Rage” on Earth (Tellus) around the 18th century, where series of meteoric bombardments and volcano activities happens and destroys some of the great civilization. Interestingly he includes the “Asteroid Field” as well with a description “not very interesting”. Well I say it’s a pity since the 19th century concept of the Main Asteroid Belt is actually very rich in symbolism it self: it was previously thought as an area where four planets orbit the sun: Ceres, Pallas, Vesta, and Juno ... so.
Nemesis is actually a 1980s creation of a team of scientists who tries to explain an extraterrestrial origin for the mass extinction that was concluded to be periodically happens every 26 million years. It was hypothesized that this object, which later called Nemesis, was the cause for the mass extinction. Nemesis is hypothesized as either a red dwarf or brown dwarf star which is too dim and too far to be seen. Nemesis orbits the sun in a very eccentric orbit between 50,000 to 100,000 AU. On some point when it is closest to the sun, it perturbs the Oort Clouds, sending millions of falling comets to the inner solar system every 26 million years. Too bad today we know that most comets are from the KBO, which orbits 30 – 55 AU, closer to the sun than previously expected. But still, an interesting theory to be thought about.
Jarventaus’s glyph of Io (the cow), Europa (the labrys of the Minoan civilization), Ganymede (Eagle!), Callisto (bear’s paw)
Thirdly is the glyphs for the Galileans (I don’t know if this term exist in his parallel universe). For some unknown reason, I love how the glyph for Io turns out (simple and memorable). Ganymede is clearly from the eagle-related myth of Jupiter and Ganymede. Europa, now I know what is that. The labrys, a symbol that is closely associated with Minoan civilization.
Moskowitz’s Glyph of Io (Iota), Europa (Epsilon), Ganymede (Gamma), Callisto (Kappa)
Denis Moskowitz also creates a rather scientific glyph for the moons (including the other moon’s glyph). Far more scientific, simple, and memorable, but not as pleasant-looking as the Steamopera’s moon glyph.
Fourthly (lol I like using -ly for the 19th century feelings :P), is the very intimidating moons of the Icy Giants of Minerva. I don’t know why but Minerva sounds like an appropriate name to replace Uranus, but the moon Pallas, Arachne, Nike, and Medusa is all a very weird moon with a very intimidating symbol (as well as Minerva itself). These whole system seems to be a system of angry goddesses.
Glyph of Minerva and its moons, Pallas (the helmet-like one), Arachne (spider legs), Nike (trophy, wings? I don’t know?), and Medusa (obviously snake hair and an eye). But why Pallas and Minerva, same person name?
The last planet of the Solar System is Nox, an icy cold gas giant with its moon Thanatos, a gigantic rocky planet about three times the size of the Earth. Talk about potential for developing a story here.
Glyph of Nox and Thanatos, I have nothing to say
Too bad he seems to stop the blog-creation some where in 2007, no improvements. But I think he’s going to create some more stories for his parallel universe. I’m probably going to repost the glyphs in the future because I love symbolism.
Link:
Deviantart: http://naeddyr.deviantart.com
The Steamopera: http://naeddyr.googlepages.com/home
Denis Moskowitz Site: http://www.suberic.net/~dmm/graphics/astro/moons.html
Copyright all belongs to Kristian Järventaus, all him, HIM! FOR ETERNITY! Bwahahahaha! Glory to the Banana Kittehs!
Hullo, there, Rochelimit! Man, thanks for posting about Steamopera. I haven't done much on it in ages (it comes and goes, I'm doing a fantasy world at the moment...).
ReplyDeleteSome comments here:
Järventaus is my real surname (believe it or not), Naeddyr is just a pseudo-Welsh screen-name.
Nemesis in the Steamopera wasn't actually a planet orbiting the Sun, but an extrasolar floater that ended up... Well, it's about the pseudophysics of the setting, where matter has four different polarities of gravity, Earth is one, Sun another and Nemesis a mixture of the two others. When Nemesis was hurled too close to the Sun, the bits that the Sun repelled and the bits that the Sun attracted made it break apart (chemically these are indistinguishable). No civilisations were destroyed in the process, because the meteors were usually made out of polarity three, which is attracted by the Sun, the second polarity found on Nemesis, and is repelled by Earth gravity. It's complicated nonsense.
Io's symbol is a cow, Europa's is a Labrys or something, Minerva and Pallas weren't always seen as the same, Nike is a winged chariot or something etc. 19th century alternative scientists don't need to be good at ancient mythology to name stuff. Io's glyph was one of the first, btw.
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