From:	Jonathan Wright <jwrigh01@********.ca>
Subject:	Re: The "S" Files - Conspiracy Paranoia
Date:	Sat, 28 Sep 1996 15:17:29 -0400 (EDT)

On Sat, 28 Sep 1996, Steven A. Tinner wrote:

> OK I realize I'm starting to sound like a Horror paranoid, but it's 2 a.m.,
> and I just had a really odd idea. . .
>
> Has FASA ever really come out and said that the setting of ED is Earth?
> I was re-reading Threats, Portfolio of a Dragon, and the core rulebook, and
> some things started clicking in my head.

[snipped]

> Everyone knows the elves are up to something.
> We know the Horrors are coming from someplace else.
> DS:PoaD points toward the possibility of life "elsewhere"
> Horror Magic and Thread Magic are alien concepts to the SR world.
> Fovea (from Atzlan) and the Big D's "Manastorm could be either dimensional
> rifts, or rips in the time/space continuum.
>
> I realize that this is all very disjointed, and I apologize for that, since
> I'm posting in the wee hours of the morning. :-) (Why am I still concious? :-))
>
> I'd like some feedback on this notion.
> Where/when does ED take place?
> Is magic something alien introduced to the planet Earth by strange visitors
> from another planet?
> Are dragons really aliens in disguise?
> Are the metaplanes truly different dimensions?
> Am I totally flipping my lid?
> <flip. flip. flip. "Guess so!>

I believe that Earthdawn is set in the past of our world, in
approximately the same geographic location as what is now the Soviet
(Dis) Union. Funny story how I came to this conclusion, preparing some
Earthdawn background lore for one of my campaigns and I used the spell
checker on my word processor. Caucavic Mountains (in ED) got tagged as
incorrect and the suggested correction was Caucasic, not being a
geography buff it took me a couple of minutes and a comparison of the
maps to realize they were quite similar.

As for the dragons being aliens, I hope not. It would just seem so
cheesy to me to have this huge history of magical phenomenon (ED and
Horrors) to draw from and cop out and say it's all due to alien beings.

The metaplanes are kind of weird. The most blatant thing I find strange
about them is that a projecting wizard simply leaves the Astral Plane
when he journeys to the metaplanes. Does the magician return to the same
spot he left the Astral Plane from? What if he/she returns to his
physical body?

This seems like a great way to get out from under a FAB net or enclosure
("I'll go on a metaplanar quest now. Oops changed my mind I'll take a
bit of drain and return to my physical body...") Or does one need to
have freedom of movement in the Astral Plane to access the metaplanes?

Have the metaplanes been fully explained by anyone? The Astral Plane has
some rough sense of geography compared to the Physical (it coincides in
the same locations), but the Metaplanes are just whacked out, they can be
accessed from any point on the Astral Plane and bear no real symmetry or
relation with either the Astral Plane or the Physical World.

Jon Wright