[Torg] Aysle horizon

[Saxon Brenton]

Jens asked:
> Yesterday I was pondering the appearance of the horizon i Aysle, and 
> how visual aids such as telescopes and spells would affect what a 
> character sees in the far distance.
> 
> Since the world is mostly flat, the field of vision goes on until 
> blocked by something, or until things appear so small as not to be 
> visible at all. Atmospheric interference should also enter into the 
> picture, making things appear hazy and indistinct (particularly 
> across warm water, hot deserts etc.).
> 
> I do, however, have problems visualizing this myself, and therefore 
> also describing it to others.
 
Hmm.  Okay, try this: things increasingly fade into pale blueness with 
distance.  The effect might be like on a foggy day, where things fade 
with distance, only in this case it would be over much greater scales 
and in a different colour.  Or perhaps like a stage set, where you have 
different layers of background as you move back towards the rear, and 
each layer is slightly less vibrant than the ones in front.
 
(For this I'm assuming that the practical end result of viewing things 
at a distance is much the same on Aysle as it is on Earth, even if things 
like a lower Tech level and the LoObservation make the actual mechanics 
of how it happens debateable.  Then, take away all other possible 
optical distortions like clouds in the way, heat mirages, etc. 
  
(Now, even under those conditions, it's still the case that in a 
breathable atmosphere things further away are going to fade to pale 
blue.  We know why this happens on Earth: the same atmospheric scattering 
that makes the sky blue in the first place.  I have no idea if that 
would be the mechanic on Aysle, but if the Aysish cosm has a superficial 
resemblance to Earth then that would be the obvious comparisons.)
 
On the other hand, if Aysle doesn't have that superficially similar 
mechanic, then the effect will be simply like looking at one of those 
paintings from Renaissance where they're playing around with perspective.  
As long as nothing like mountains gets in the way you'll be able to see 
a series of things receding to the vanishing point.
 
Either way, psychologically this would be probably rather freaky for 
someone from a round world, at least at first.  Depending on how the 
brain uses its pattern matching abilities...  Well, the first thing that 
springs to mind is that in day-to-day life we aren't used to seeing that 
far, and it would be like being on a much larger spherical planet with a 
more distant horizon.  You could say that the characters from spherical 
worlds (or places like Living Land, where the Deep Mist means you can't 
see very far anyway) might need to make rolls to avoid bouts of 
agoraphobia.
 
In the case of things not fading to blue with distance, the visual clue 
of being smaller might be overwhelmed by the fact absence of the visual 
clue of fading, in which case the characters might interpret it as a lot 
of things being packed in a geographically close area, and get 
claustraphobia instead.
 
---
Saxon Brenton