Megastructures

[NoXion]

Megastructures

Think Big


Planetary Scale Structures

These are structures of a planetary scale or less. They form the most ubiquitous of large-scale structures, requiring a relatively low technology base in comparison to larger constructs. As a result such structures can be commonly found in interstellar civilisations and advanced interplanetary civilisations as well as transgalactic civilisations.


Habdome: A large geodesic dome that can cover a small city. Successive domes can be built to interlock with the original, allowing larger living space without the need for airlocks or transfer tubes to connect them. Habdomes are often built on craters, the crater walls providing additional height and support. Habdome clusters can grow to cover entire planetary surfaces, constituting a form of paraterraforming.

Arcology: A massive self-contained building that can house entire societies. Recycling of water, the artificial biosphere within and atmospheric recycling is vitally important and carefully managed. Arcologies are commonly built on habitable worlds where space is at a premium, as opposed to Habdomes which are built on not naturally habitable worlds where terraformation is impossible or hugely inconvenient - but Arcologies built on nominally uninhabitable worlds are far from unheard of.

Artificial Landmasses: While all landmasses on artificial worlds such as Habitats and Ringworlds are such, they can also be found on naturally formed planets. The most common and easiest to construct are artificial islands built on continental shelves, but more advanced civilisations can also raise entire continents through the manipulation of a planet's crust. The ocean displaced by the new continent must taken into account to avoid flooding of the natural continents.

Space Elevator: A Space Elevator at it's most simplest is a cable connecting the surface of a planet or moon with it's geostationary orbit. Sending frieght up and down the cable takes a minimal expenditure of energy in comparison with taking off using orbital craft, and with a pulley-like system one can use the energy of incoming freight to facilitate movement of freight off-world. Advanced space elevators have thousands of cables and can move millions of tons of freight a second.

Space Tower: Sometimes a planet's rotational velocity forbids the construction of dynamically balanced Space Elevator. A Space Tower is a very tall tower, usually supported by a great many guy cables, that reaches into orbital distances. Space Towers are also built on Habitats and Megastructures where the construction of a Space Elevator is imposssible in the first place, providing low-energy access into space.

Planetary Halo: The Planetary Halo comes in two main forms - the first is a swarm of freely-orbiting satellites usually built for a specific purpose, such as defence. Sometimes such Planetary Halos form over time as the geostationary orbit of a long-established body becomesa crowded with satellites. Planetary Halos built for defensive purposes are usually manifold in different orbits and inclinations to cover all approaches. The second type of Planetary Halo is a solid ring around a planet that provides space for habitation and manufacturing, as as being excellent locations for vast particle accelerators or accelerators for launching spacecraft. A subvariant of this, known as a Docking Ring, is dedicated to providing facilities for visiting spacecraft and transferring freight down to the planet's surface via space elevators.

Moon Bridge: If a planet and it's moon are tidally locked, it is possible to build a physical connection between them, in the form of a Moon Bridge. Most of the time, only the moon is tidally locked to it's parent, so the bridge only extends from the surface of the moon to a transfer station usually located just above the geostationary orbit of the primary. In this case, a Moon Bridge is dynamically unstable and must be stabilised all along it's length with thrusters and similar.

Planetary Roof: A given moon or planet may not have enough natural gravity to hold onto an Earthlike atmosphere for long, or it may be too close or too far from it's primary to maintain such an atmosphere. In this case, a common solution among transgalactic and interstellar civilisations is to construct a Planetary Roof, which holds in an atmosphere and is kept up with atmospheric pressure. Cables may be used to secure the Planetary Roof to the surface. Access to the surface from orbit is provided by a number of Space Towers equidistantly positioned on the body's surface. If the roofed body is close to it's stellar primary, the Planetary Roof intercepts excess and harmful radiation and uses it as a source of power. If the natural rotation of the body is too slow or fast, the roof is opaque and provides a more natural day/night cycle by alternately lighting up it's interior surface. It also does this if the roofed body is too far from the stellar primary to provide sufficient light and heat.

Suprashell: This is a solid shell, usually constructed around a gas giant at a suitable height for gravity and terraformed to provide habitation. It is most commonly built around gas giants at a distance from the stellar primary so temperatures are comfortable comfortable for the species constructing it. They are also built around Brown Dwarfs, the heat of which is used as a source of heat and energy to power lighting, as most Brown Dwarfs are solitary or very far away from other, brighter stars.

Hollow World: A world may be hollowed out and the mass used for some purpose or another. the interior is usually used for habitation and has an artificial source of light within. Sometimes a an Earthlike planet may be hollowed out in this fashion, and gravity generators are constructed to maintain a suitable gravity on the outer surface. The interior may then be used for habitation as normal, or it may be put to other uses such as a massive internal shipyard, manufacturing space, etc.

Lagrange Clusters: The Lagrange points of an orbital system, especially L4 and L5, are ideal places for large orbital habitats, factories, etc - so over time, these areas can become crowded with a multitude of orbital facilities.

Megacities: On established terrestrial planets, cities may grow so as to cover entire continents. On larger and older Habitats, they can grow even larger and are known as Gigacities, spread across multiple continents. On Megastructures with enormous Hypercontinents, Teracities that cover their entire face can come into being. Unlike most structures, Megacities and the like are built up over time as opposed to being built all at once.

Electrosphere: This is a multipurpose infrastructure system than can cover an entire planet, Habitat or Megastructure. Titanic tesla coils reach up and transfer electricity into a body's ionosphere effectively turning it into a gigantic battery that machines and vehicles, no matter their size or function, anywhere on the body in question, can tap into as a source of power. Not only that, but an Electrosphere also functions as a broadband wireless network, relaying signals and transferring data all over the planet, Habitat or Megastructure.

Tether System: A synchronised network of Electrodynamic tethers, Momentum-exchange tethers and Rotavators provides a means of getting of the surface of a planetary body with a minimum of propellant expended. The electrodynamic components of the Tether System also provide power.


Habitat Scale Structures

"Habitat scale" here means anywhere between around planet-sized to anywhere smaller than a star.

Asteroid Habitat: By far the smallest of the types of artificial Habitat, Asteroid Habitats (or Rocks as they are sometimes known) are either asteroids that have been honeycombed with passages and chambers, or hollowed out with a cylindrical cavity along it's longest axis and spun for gravity. In both cases the outer surface is encrusted with domes, sheds, sensor and comms dishes, docking arms, landing pits and in the larger examples are even covered in city sprawls.

Torus Habitat: The interior volume of a torus-shaped habitat is terraformed and terraced (but sometimes a single flat surface is constructed in the interior), and spun to provide gravity. Light and heat can come from a central luminaire, or can be reflected from a local star by an accompanying mirror. A larger variant on this is the Hoopworld, where the exterior surface is terraformed and the Habitat spins not to provide gravity but to create a day/night cycle.

Spherical Habitat: A hollow sphere with the interior surface terraformed and an artificial source of heat and light to go with it. Not the most efficient form of Habitat, as if spun to provide gravity only a small band around the sphere's equator is habitable and gravity generators all along the interior surface constantly consume energy. In spite of this, Spherical Habitats can be among the largest, up to a million kilometres in diameter, making them akin to miniature Dyson Shells.

Cylinder Habitat: Another style of habitat that lends itself well to large sizes, a Cylinder Habitat can be arbitrarily long, but in practical terms they tend to max out at 6 million Km long and 1 million Km wide. An open-ended Cylinder Habitat can use the local star as a source of heat and light, while a closed-ended one has to resort to artificial means. It is extremely common for such habitats to have a "spindle" running the length of the Habitat, which provide docking facilities at each end and transport all along it's length.

Ring Habitat: The most common Habitat type of all, Ring Habitats come in a huge variety of configurations and sizes, the largest ones being akin to small Ringworlds. They are the most resource-efficient and easy to maintain of all the Habitat types, although the larger variants need a knowledge of super-strong materials in order to construct them.

Plate Habitat: Very rarely found on their own, Plate Habitats usually form part of a Dyson Swarm composed of thousands of other Plate Habitats, each one carefully turning in it's orbit so as to keep the inhabited side facing the star. A Plate Habitat is typically very large indeed, 10 million by 10 million Km, but paper-thin in comparison to it's other dimensions.

Balloon World: A massive hollow sphere composed of a superstrong but thin and flexible membrane that holds in an atmosphere. Due to their relatively simple construction and low mass, a Balloon World can be the size of the biggest gas giants at 200,000Km in diameter, although at the larger scales they need to be spun slightly in order to prevent the internal atmosphere from collecting at the centre due to self-gravitation. Balloon Worlds are very popular with Spacers and other micro-gravity adapted Transhumans, as their interior can support truly gigantic free-fall ecologies and biospheres.

Bead World: Bead Worlds tend be the size of terrestrial planets, although larger and smaller sizes are not unheard of. A Bead World is a solid sphere with a tunnel from pole to pole, through which an artificial light source pendulates up and down, alternately lighting the North and South hemispheres. Due to this setup, Bead Worlds look startlingly different to normal Earthlike planets - the hottest regions are the poles, which are closest to the source of heat and light and experience it for longer, while the equatorial region has a covering of ice!


Stellar Scale Megastructures

These are the biggest structures commonly seen in the known universe, and they are a source of immense pride for the transgalactic civilisations that build them. There is perhaps no greater statement of wealth and power that a galaxy-spanning civilisation can make. Many lesser civilisations look with awe upon these magnificent constructs, considering them miraculous.


Gossamer Ring: The least resource-intensive of the Megastructures, a Gossamer Ring requires no hyper-advanced material technology in order to construct, consisting of light framework of carbon nanotube spars supporting micron-thin solar cells. Because their sole purpose is to collect energy, Gossamer Rings can be built much closer to their stell primary than Megastructures designed for habitation.

Dyson Statite (Megastatite): Similar to a Gossamer Ring, but enclosing the entire star. Light pressure and the solar wind keep this Megastructure in place, meaning that unlike a lot of Megastructures there is no need for an active stabilisation system. A Megastatite only requires an amount of mass equivalent to a large moon in order to be constructed around a sun-like star.

Dyson Swarm (Megaswarm): Billions or trillions of indepentaly orbiting bodies surround a star, their orbits layered and synchronised so as to intercept the maximum amount of light possible emitted by the star. Not all Dyson Swarms start out as planned objects - some star systems may be inhabited by a civilisation for such a long time that the sheer amount of solar collector arrays and habitats constitutes a swarm. Depending on it's provenance and purpose, the elements of a Megaswarm may be arranged in a tight layer only a few thousand klicks in thickness, or they may be spread over trillions of kilometres. Dyson Swarms form the preliminary first step to creating a more massive Megastructure, as the construction materials and assembly machinery have to be carefully laid out before construction can begin. A variant of Megswarm used for habitation uses thousands of large Plate Habitats as noted above.

Ringworld (Megaring): The most famous of all the Megastructures, second in recognisability only to Dyson Shells. A Ringworld is the optimum balance of materials efficiency, maintenance requirements and technical sophistication. Megarings around Sunlike stars are very common, especially in the inner volumes of transgalactic civilisations. What is considered most impressive is the construction of Ringworlds around the most massive of stars, as they require significantly more mass and commensurately stronger materials in order for construction to be successful. Of all the Megastructure types, Ringworlds are THE choice for games of one-upmanship between Megastructure architects.

Megatorus: The Hoopworld, scaled up to stellar sizes. They function much in a similar way to Ringworlds, with the exception that spin is not used for gravity, which is provided by gravity generators on the star-facing surfaces instead. Megatorii tend to be more commonly used as free-fall manufactories, shipyards and military bases, as it really isn't that efficient to use up energy to provide gravity on the star-facing surface.

Stellar Cage (Megacage): A massive lattice englobing a star, which is used most often for manufacturing and shipbuilding purposes. Massive docking arms radiate off the exterior surface into space, providing services for incoming vessels.

Alderson Disk (Megadisk): A solid disk the size of the local star's inner solar system, with a central hole in which the primary star sits. Unless gravitational manipulators are used to move the star up and down, the opposite surfaces of the disk experience continuous twilight. The interior volume of the disk is often turned over to manufacture of exotic matter due to the vast particle accelerators that can be placed there.

Dyson Shell (Megashell): The archetypical Megastructure. The sheer immensity of the Dyson Shell boggles the imagination, epsecially when one considers the amount of living space available on the interior surface! Perhaps even more mindblowing than the sheer fact that these constructs even exist, is the consideration that some of them have been around long enough for their entire interior surfaces to be covered in city sprawls. Such urbanised Megashells require truly unimaginable imports of vital resources daily, and the effect of such ecumenopolitan Dyson Shells extends to a volume light millennia in diameter. Like Ringworlds, Megashells are a popular item in the informally competitive atmosphere of Megastructure construction.

Solid Dyson Sphere (Megasphere): A Dyson sphere that is solid all the way to approximately the surface of it's parent star. Not as famous as Ringworlds or Megashells due to being quite rare, but no less impressive for it - a Megasphere requires dozens of star systems' worth of material in order to be constructed.

Stellar-mass Cloud (Megacloud): A titanic swarm of massive spaceships, mobile shipyards and factories, city ships, civilisation ships and other vessels constituting hundreds of solar masses - in effect, an entire civilisation or two on the move. Such Megaclouds can be nomadic civilisations, manufacturing swarms, warfleets for galactic-scale wars, or any combination of the above. The largest can consume several solar masses worth of energy and matter every second.

Matrioshka Brain (Megabrain, M-Node): A Megastructure englobing a star that is devoted to housing computing substrate. It's most common form is that of a volumetric lattice that combines a maximisation of computing power and energy radiation for cooling. Often contains an AI of god-like intelligence.


Mobile Structures

Sometimes it not enough to stay in one place. An entire society may develop a wanderlust, or a structure may need to be mobile for some other reason, sometimes infathomable to outsiders.


City Ship: A massive ship, usually no more so than a planet, which may contain billions or trillions of permanent residents in addition to arbitrary number of passengers and visitors. City Ships are usually self-sufficient, but may stop off at a star system to pick up and drop off passengers, to get things it cannot for whatever reason, and for cultural exchanges.

Hollowed Asteroid: The transport of choice for early interstellar civilisations, Hollowed Asteroids are often multigenerational vessels. Although hollowed out, such vessels often still have megatons of usable material in it's rocky skin.

Mobile Moon: The smaller variants of these are simply scaled-up Hollowed Asteroids with more materials to spare, but the larger ones can be true civilisations unto themselves with significant development on it's surface and in the crust. Mobile Moons are usually pushed along by a series of thermonuclear explosions on one hemisphere, the blast crater created acting as a crude "nozzle" to better focus the shockwaves of the blasts - although a less risky option is to simply install a enormous array of mass drivers on one hemisphere that shoots off large amounts of slag and other materials useless to the passengers and crew in order to provide thrust.

Mobile Planet: Why not take the planet with you? Although this is a highly desirable option, Graviton Drives or some other suitable reactionless drives have to be used in order to move it along in order not to damage the delicate surface structure and biosphere. Mobile Planets are accompanied by an orbiting source of heat and light, as well as some moons in order to provide additional materials.

Mobile Megastructure: This type of mobile construct provides the most space for a civilisation to grow and develop in, and is usually used to cross intergalactic or universal distances. Mobile Habitats are included in this type, and tend to be used for intra-galactic travel or short hops to nearby galaxies.

Mobile Rosette: A Rosette of Planets, Habitats or Megastructures set in motion towards a destination. Relatively difficult to steer because of the delicate dynamic nature of the Rosette, this nevertheless provides a maximum of living space and redundancy.

Civilisation Ship: Perhaps the largest single constructs built by transgalactics in the known universe with the exception of GC-Rings, Civilisation Ships are enormous vessels that dwarf entire star systems. Often accompanied (or more correctly, orbited) by Stellar-mass Clouds that do the job of resource collection for the Civilisation Ship, as they are so large that they can disrupt local stellar architecture and tend to stay out of the galactic plane and star clusters.

Mobile Gigastructures?!: Gigastructures (see below) that have been made mobile. Since there is only one true example of a Gigastructure constructed by transgalactic in the known universe, it is difficult to see how such massive structures, which mass at appreciable fractions of galaxies, could be made mobile. But according to Deep Spacer rumour it has been done, somewhere out there in the fastness of the universe.


Gigastructures

Gigastructures are the next step up from megastructures, involving the masses of many thousands of stars and in extreme cases, galactic masses. At this moment in time, constructing Gigastructures is barely beyond the capabilities of the transgalactic civilisations. The limiting factors being the sheer amounts of mass required for construction of such objects, and technical sophistication - only one transgalactic AI of great renown has been able to synthesise materials strong enough for the task, and despite a great many Megastructure architects all but begging for the method of how to make it, the AI in question, known as Greatest Architect Part the Second, has refused to let the rest of the known universe in onto it's secret.


Globular Cluster Ring (GC-Ring): The brainchild of Greatest Architect Part the Second, this is the largest unified structure built by the known transgalactics. It consists of a ring 10 light years and 1 light year wide, with the mass of a globular cluster consolidated into the centre to form a small-scale quasar. The interior surface of the ring is intended to be habitable in the same manner as a Ringworld, but due to lightspeed delays terraformation cannot start for some years yet until the light and heat of the nascent quasar can reach the interior surface of the GC-Ring.

Multistellar Shell (M-Shell): These shells average about 6000Ly in diameter and can contain billions of stars within. The shell can be solid, trapping anything within, as indeed is their purpose - they are built by the Horologium Supercluster Super-Civilisation (HSSC) in order to contain upcoming interstellar civilisations within their sphere of influence. A variant on this is the latticework shells also built by the HSSC, within which they alter the laws of physics as they see fit. The latticework M-Shells also seem to serve a defensive function, drawing energy from hyperspace to strike at foes within many light millennia.

Galactic Shell: The trademark Gigastructure of the Starchitects, which englobe a galaxy and feed stars to the central galactic black hole, awakening the sleeping quasar within. It is suspected that the Starchitects use their Galactic Shells to create Dark Energy in order to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Habitation seems to be their secondary function.

Cosmic String Construct: A Gigastructure that uses cosmic strings. A variant of this are the rumoured Cosmic Gates which the Starchitects are said to use to travel to other universes. Other uses indicated by Deep Spacer speculations are vast time machines, galaxy-destroying weapons, and other products of the fertile imagination. Needless to say, not all Deep Spacer claims about the function of such mysterious objects are taken seriously.

Tipler Cylinders: Although the concept is proven, at present the known transgalactics lack the resources to construct a truly useful Time Machine that a massive enough Tipler Cylinder would constitute. Although some calculations say that one would have to build a Tipler Cylinder as long as the entire Universe is wide, other calculations suggest a much smaller Tipler Cylinder could be built and still be useful. Finding a functioning Tipler Cylinder is one of the life-defining goals of the Deep Spacer society, and they continue their search despite finding many failed and malfunctioning examples.


Rosettes

A Rosette is three or more objects of comparable mass spaced equidistantly about the same circular orbit. The objects will continue in orbit about the system's center of gravity, even if no object is occupying the centre of the system. In other words, the objects in an ideal rosette will circle endlessly in the same circular path, bound together but balanced equidistantly by each other’s gravity. Rosettes are prone to instability through gravitational perturbation over time. Depending on how well the Rosette is set up, these instabilities may not become apparent for centuries or millennia, but they will eventually have to be dealt with. Thus, Rosettes, like most Megastructures, need active maintenance and periodic adjustment.


Asteroid Rosette: The easiest and most practical of the Rosette types, Asteroid Rosettes are commonly found in the industrialised space of transgalactic, interstellar and even planetary civilisations. Setting up an Asteroid Rosette around a planet is a typical first step in the construction of a Planetary Halo.

Moon Rosette: A Moon Rosette is basically the same idea as the Asteroid Rosette, given an extra order of magnitude or two. They are commonly found around gas giants due to the ready availability of moons, but can also be found independantly as habitats in their own right.

Planetary Rosette: In it's most common form (at least among the transgalactics), a Planetary Rosette is a complete ring of approximately 32 artificial Earthlike planets around a sun-like star, although the number of planets can be increased if the star's habitable zone is wider than a typical G-type star's. A less materially fortunate civilisation may arrange all the terrestrial planets within a given star system into a Rosette in order to maximise living space.

Habitat Rosette: Rosettes of similar-mass Habitats can be commonly found around super-massive stars, and it is not unusual for a group of nomadic Habitats to travel in a Rosette formation.

Stellar Rosette: These kind of Rosette are rare due to their limited utility, but they are commonly found as artworks or centralised power sources for trans-Megastructures, such as the the 5-Star Megaring in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way, which is a Rosette of five A-type stars encircled by a suitably large Ringworld.

Megastructure Rosette: These often form the heart of especially large Stellar-mass Clouds. Perhaps the most infamous example of a Megastructure Rosette was the rogue factory complex "Smasher/Devourer" (formerly Munitions Manufactory #1923741), which was reprogrammed by Fang saboteours, with the suspected inside help of the pro-Fang terrorist organisation known as the the Chu-Faa (Committee for HUman-FAng Affairs). "Smasher/Devourer", as was the codename given to it by the task force with the job of dealing with the threat, inflicted grave damage on dozens of Megastructures, destroying six, in the Tree-Blind Mice open star cluster, and destroyed many Habitats at the cost of hundreds of trillions of innocent Transhuman lives.


Other Objects

There are a great many mysterious artefacts and large-scale enigmas in the known universe, and the following selection is just a sample. The provenance of some can only be guessed at, while others have a known history.


Chainworlds: The Chainworlds are a group of Megastructures located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, constructed by an unknown (and presumedly extinct) civilisation. Each chainworld consists of a series of interlocked Hoopworlds encircling a B-type star in a closed loop, held in place by ancient but apparantly still-functioning gravitic technology. Some Chainworlds have been colonised by the more daring Transhuman factions, but most of them are the subject of frenzied investigation by prominent transgalactic scientists specialising in Archeotech.

Ring Star: A star that has been rotated so fast it has stretched out into a ring/torus shape. They are known to have been constructed by a now-extinct civilisation known as the Marl, who had a morbid fear of the dark - in the center of each Ring Star is a graveyard planet housing their most illustrious rulers, who will have light shining upon them for billions of years.

Godspindle: A gas giant or brown dwarf that has been stretched perpendicularly into a long, almost perfectly cylindrical shape. Godspindles can be found throughout the known universe, and their origin is a complete unknown at this point, but it is without a doubt that they are artificial.

[Destructionator]

Matrioshka Brain (Megabrain, M-Node) [...] Often contains an AI of god-like intelligence.

Understatement of the day!

[Magister Militum]

I like the concept of a rouge munitions factory going beserk because of sabotage and causing mass destruction. What intrigues me, though, is the existance of the Chu-Faa. Are there other groups in Transhuman space with similar goals, and what kind of support do they get?

[NoXion]

I like the concept of a rouge munitions factory going beserk because of sabotage and causing mass destruction. What intrigues me, though, is the existance of the Chu-Faa. Are there other groups in Transhuman space with similar goals, and what kind of support do they get?

Well, the Chu-Faa are pretty much outcasts among Transhuman society, and there is more to them than meets the eye. Let's just say that the Chu-Faa have unusual techniques of increasing their membership...

There are other groups and societies dedicated to enhancing understanding and encouraging rapport between Transhumans and aliens, but the Chu-Faa are anomalous.

[Ford Prefect]

Matrioshka Brain (Megabrain, M-Node) [...] Often contains an AI of god-like intelligence.

Understatement of the day!

Something which is rather endearing about NoXion is his ablity to just write about something without acknowledging its significance in that same writing. Thus, we get comments like 'this is quite large' or 'this indicates impressive engineering ability' that seemingly lack irony entirely.

[NoXion]

Matrioshka Brain (Megabrain, M-Node) [...] Often contains an AI of god-like intelligence.

Understatement of the day!

Something which is rather endearing about NoXion is his ablity to just write about something without acknowledging its significance in that same writing. Thus, we get comments like 'this is quite large' or 'this indicates impressive engineering ability' that seemingly lack irony entirely.

Well, in writing in that manner I hope to put across the impression that megascale technology, re-weaving the fabric of reality and superscience methods and artefacts are "routine miracles" that are to the typical Transhuman what jet airplanes, skyscrapers, and desktop computers are to 21st century humans.

[Heretic]

*cough* Erm, can I steal one or two...ok, a couple of your unique ideas for my universe? Pweese?

[Ford Prefect]

*cough* Erm, can I steal one or two...ok, a couple of your unique ideas for my universe? Pweese?

No offense to NoXion, but very few ideas of these are entirely original. The Bead World is entirely his (I was there when he invented it), but I couldn't really say that for anything else. There's nothing strictly wrong with this, of course, this is science fiction.

However Heretic, my suggestion is that you don't co-opt any classical megastructures for The Hardcore Way.

[Heretic]

What do you mean by co-opt? I can't use them, or I can't claim any of them as my own work?

And aside from a few, I never even thought of most of these concepts, so I thought most of these were new.

[NoXion]

You can use the Bead World if you like. My only request is that if you use that concept in a story, you fit my username into the story somehow. Nothing major, just a passing reference would make me happy.

[Heretic]

Of course. Always happy to reference a sponsor :p