Permian Civilization Resources?

[Doc Quantum]

I'm trying to sketch out a set of Permian civilizations as part of the history of my superhero world. A long-range alien patrol ship gets chewed up in a fight just outside Sol system and crashes into Earth. The aliens are a telepathic hive mind but use a crystalline-based comm system to boost the range of their telepathy. The aliens are killed and their comm system is shattered into dust.

 

 

GM handwave.

 

 

The comm system dust is still able to maintain a link between motes for a very long time even as it's absorbed into the food chain. Its first priority is to recreate a communications link for its masters. Since their aren't any, it tries with local flora and fauna. It fails but its attempts trigger massive genetic mutations. Most of these mutants are nonviable and quickly die. The rest become the Cambrian explosion. By this time, the dust has completely deteriorated but left an adaptation imperative in the DNA of all the lifeforms it influenced. In some species, the evolution continues at a greatly accelerated pace until true sentience is achieved. Tribes form, then kingdoms and empires. Wars are fought. At the end of this period, a saurian empire creates dinosaurs as part of their plan to remake the ecosystem in their own image. Their final stroke is a technomagical doomsday weapon to wipe out their enemies but they lose control of it and cause the Permian-Triassic extinction.

 

 

The surviving peoples scrape together what's left of their tech and culture and move to Mars, leaving Earth to the dinos. In the future, humans discover fossil evidence of these transplanted civilizations (including canals) and the remains of their terraforming machines (haven't decided if their should be a John Carter analog).

 

 

All I've been able to find is http://althistory.wikia.com/wiki/Permian_Extinction:_Civilization

[drunkonduty]

Re: Permian Civilization Resources?

 

Very cool ideas. I've got nothing to add at the moment, or perhaps ever, but if thoughts come to me I'll post them. Mostly, just wanted to say very cool.

cheers.

[Lucius]

Re: Permian Civilization Resources?

 

Energy resources

 

Solar.

 

Geothermal. Lots of geothermal available probably.

 

Wood. Hardwoods don't exist yet but conifers, treeferns, and gingkos all provide wood.

 

Fission. There would be more uranium lying around because it had not decayed yet.

 

No fossill fuel. The fossill fuels of the future are living and breathing. Since fossil fuels drove the historical industrial revolution, some would argue that their lack places a limit to technological development.

 

 

Building/toolmaking resources

 

Stone.

 

Wood. Again, no hardwoods.

 

Bone, shell, coral. The seas hold coral and various shellfish and bony fish, and the lands have a variety of early terrestrial vertebrates.

 

Metals. I am no geologist but I see no reason there would not have been abundant ore.

 

 

Human resources

 

Not exactly, but the existence of suitable nonhuman resources is part of the premise.

 

 

 

Capital/infrastructure resources

 

None to start with, but that goes without saying.

 

 

Lucius Alexander

 

The palindromedary asks why I said it then.

[Doc Quantum]

Re: Permian Civilization Resources?

 

Thanks! I think what I'm aiming for is having societies run off real-world power sources but with magical catalyst/control systems like a lite version of magic tech in Piers Anthony's Incarnations series.

 

Healing magic, magical construct household conveniences, etc are ok but the power grid and other infrastructure would be augmented and regulated with magical devices instead of magical streetlamps, toilets and other such things.