Apologies if this doesn’t fit here, not sure where else to post something like this on lemmy
I think having gravity act like weather might be an interesting concept for a fantasy world, where each country has its own gravity patterns, some tend to be heavier some tend to be lighter, some are all over the place
For a few examples, there could be a desert with gravity so high you can get dragged down into the sand
Could be a country with gravity so low everyone uses personal aircraft that work like bicycles instead of land vehicles
Animals in higher gravity areas would have less dense bones, more muscle, etc and lower gravity would have far larger animals because they can support more weight
In a really high gravity area people might need exoskeletons to prevent long term damage
Instead of wind mills, you could have gravity mills. Pump water into a higher-altitude reservoir on low-gravity days, and let it flow down – turning a turbine – on high gravity days. At least electricity would be cheap.
Or if it varies by region, pump water horizontally (or let it flow slightly downward) from a high gravity region to a low one. Then pump the water upwards there, then horizontally again to the high gravity region. Then let it fall down to turn a turbine that runs all the pumps – perpetual motion (ish)!
Predicting tides becomes hard. Everything is going to be really windy all the time, as the atmosphere expands in low-gravity regions and contracts in high gravity ones. This makes tall buildings impractical, as they would also have to be built for some maximum gravity rating on top of the constant gravity storms.
The oceans would be weird, and violent. Hurricanes might get far more powerful than what we deal with, if the right gravity conditions occur.
For any sort of civilization to emerge, gravity would have to change/vary really slowly. I don’t even want to think of orbits. Kerbal Space Program would be like, really hard in that universe.
Oh man I didn’t even think about atmospheric pressure, could giant windbreakers not potentially be constructed to lessen the effect of this wind?
Or maybe in this fantasy world as it has formed originally with these gravity differences there are lots of natural windbreakers, raised areas and lowered areas, mountains etc due to earth getting compacted to different levels
I would imagine the gravity variance within an area would be fairly mild by comparison to the differences between areas - like how you tend to get warmer temperatures near the equator but can still get variances in temp around that
Oceans may become terrifying but it may be easier to travel by air anyway, instead of trying to travel by ocean you could attempt to plot a course through lower gravity areas and avoid the higher ones Could even spawn some badass hardened sea captains that are required to make certain journeys as they are impossible by air
Well if we are going for science…
Giant constructions will have a lot of wear and tear under varying gravity. On top of that, high winds and frequent storms are likely to weather geographical features a lot, making them more flat. In a fantasy world, you can just magic things away, so that’s fine :)
I don’t know about you, but I would find constant high winds fairly terrifying for air travel. Perhaps they are high enough to permit wheeled sailboats on land? That would be creative!
Looks like one more reason to read the 3 body problem by Liu Cixin, which is a masterpiece of Chinese sci-fi. I am not gonna tell you anything more, as it’s a spoiler book sci-fi/cycle, and I advise you against reading anything about-it, just read-it
Lumpy.
Of course, if this is a fantasy world you’re under no obligation to go with a world held together by self-gravitation, and you can even ignore the weight of air. Believable water is going to want to follow gravity as usual, though, so you need to figure out some sort of crazy hydraulic system to move it around. It could be a backstory for some cool canyons and things depending on what you decide.
More interesting questions might be related to how the residents adapt. I imagine lower gravity areas would be favoured, with groups living in the high gravity areas being specialised. Maybe unpredictable gravity could serve as an energy source for whatever civilisations are in your setting - you balance a very large weight somehow (against a non-gravitational force or a weight somewhere else), and have it work machinery as it adjusts to a new equilibrium. If it changes rapidly enough it might even be useful at small scales, like on vehicles.
More interesting questions might be related to how the residents adapt. I imagine lower gravity areas would be favoured, with groups living in the high gravity areas being specialised.
You could go with the low gravity areas being sought after, and mostly owned by the rich. Homes are much larger, with ‘floating’ rooms, where you can float around in the low gravity, similar to a private pool. The high gravity areas would be for poor people and manual workers, where everything is blocky and small to compensate.
On the other hand, the high gravity areas could be the most popular, as physical strength is valued, and the people living in the high gravity areas have underdeveloped muscles, so need support suits to be able to visit other areas, and are looked down on for it.
If OP could give other basic information about the setting that would be good. I was assuming there’s multiple people groups involved here, but if it’s all one society then yeah, gravity could be connected with class. The exoskeleton thing makes me think they’re leaning more futuristic.
On the other hand, the high gravity areas could be the most popular, as physical strength is valued, and the people living in the high gravity areas have underdeveloped muscles, so need support suits to be able to visit other areas, and are looked down on for it.
Usually culture follows necessity. I think it probably comes down to if the residents of heavy areas are a ruling military elite, or there’s a great deal of civilian mobility between areas which allows a civilian elite to migrate to easier conditions, and leave the dirty work for others.
Probably pretty dead since you couldn’t have planets with stable orbits.
Variable gravity means its not our universe, So anything is possible.
Maybe the world is on the back of a turtle etc.
If we don’t know what gravity does in this other universe, than talking about variable gravity would pointless.
It is called fiction. They are making it up, the only rules are the ones they decide work for the story.
It can be whatever they want.
See Star wars fighters flying in space like ww2 fighter planes flying in atmosphere.
It can be whatever they want
In fantasy sure. Doesn’t work that well for science-fiction, at least if you want it to be good.