Rarely Asked Questions

Yes, actually. The USS Los Angeles was the only one of the great airships not to be destroyed in a storm. Not quite, anyway. It was stood on end once by a gust of wind.  Before it retired, it experimented with launching gliders. It could only do civilian exercises as part of the reparations agreement that obliged the Zeppelin company to build it as the ZR-III.

Celadon has a simple ring system, which has no moons to keep the ring particles in neat bands. Even if the Converts weren't mining them for metal, the rings would probably only last a few thousand years. 

Not so much. Celadon has less axial tilt than Earth, so the climate doesn't change much during the year. A much greater temperatue variation is due to elevation, and rather than a rainy season, there is more rainfall on the windward slopes. These small climactic zones, and the microclimates within them allow a lot of creative agriculture. 

Ringshadow occurs once or twice a year near the equator. Folklore insists that the cooling effect of the narrow belt of shadow intensifies storms.

The reflected light from the rings also cast faint, blurry shadows on a clear night. These are called ring shadows, two words.

Yeah, not really. You can get a broken bone set, or an appendectomy. Forget about open-heart surgery because there are no power tools, or even metal saws. One unusually advanced facility is the hyperbaric hospital. I't's located deep in the torrid zone where the air is thick, and it's cooled by an icy spring of glacial water. With a high partial pressure of oxygen, they treat victims of burns and smoke inhalation (common because candles, lamps and wood stoves). Still, the goal of most medical care is to keep you alive until the Converts come.

In the F.A.Q. I outlined how dynasty boys take their father's name, and girls their mother's. But what about kids who feel misgendered? Outside of the elite dynasties, who are obsessed with lineage, it doesn't matter. Many people change their names, for all sorts of reasons, and how you dress is a personal choice. Within the clique of the powerful dynasties, though, it might be a challenge, because of the importance of marriage and offspring. Just because it's a utopia doesn't mean everyone gets to be happy; ask Raisa. Still, I'd like to think some of the families would support their offspring, allowing them to change names and genders.