Oh thank god. After actually reading that wall post, this shouldn't take but a few minutes. Easy-peazy~

Procrastination Hooooo!

[quote]
In terms of comparing Rathe and Earth, should we just visualize two spheres side by side? Or do we want them somewhat parallel to hint towards some locations or geology mirroring one another? I'm kind of leaning toward them not being parallel because it's probably less complicated that way and that certain channels with highly contained energy/magic (cherry trees, for example) are the connective pathways.[/quote]

I actually view them as being parallel, but this is something important to remember: we're dealing wibbly-wobbly time-space shenanigans of the magical variety. Teleportation isn't a point-to-point transfer if you were to overlay the geography and topology because there's too many moving parts (atoms, planet's rotation, people moving, forces of nearby celestial bodies, etc). Cherry trees interconnect because magic doez what it [i]wants[/i] goddammit! D=< 
#Renegade4Life

In short, they can be parallel and STILL not match up nicely because time-space is poorly understood in both worlds. Not everything requires such a neat explanation. 

[quote]
The next conservation of reality, is fine with me but just to double check that I'm on the same page: A human from Earth may find themselves as another race in Rathe. I think I get that and that it's pretty randomized. And if someone from Rathe goes over as another race, they'll likely become a human but the alternative is vanishing from existence entirely. Do I have that right?
[/quote]
Pretty much. One could extrapolate that a bit further and say conservation of souls and energy still applies, so while the bodies gets eroded into nothingness, the atoms, energy, and soul get repurposed elsewhere. The universe likes to recycle things like a pretentious, environmentally-friendly neighbor from suburbia.

[quote]
I think our first focus should be the factions? I think a general history and major players will be all we need before we start making characters. I think when we kick the IC off, we can go back and further detail the factions' layout and such.

Should we try to go over a basic history of cycles between the two worlds? Should we assume one faction or maybe both together, decided to doom Rathe in the past, hence the prosperity being horded by Earth? [/quote]

Agreed. A rough outline should be sufficient.
I'll be frank. I won't have the time to help you delineate something as detail-oriented as factions and history until sometime next week. I'll try to keep some side notes, if I get a chance to read anything you post between now and then.

Fair warning: 
As much as I like world-building, and despite how long I've been GM'ing, I suck at making fictional histories. 
I have diarrhea of the brain, so ideas aren't hard to come by. But! Finding a reasonable beginning and end to a historical record is difficult task for me. Too much choice.

[quote]
And of course, we probably need to go over skill sets with magic, maybe a basic idea of currency/economy in Rathe, but we generally know things are on the down slope, so to speak so food/supplies/etc won't be as readily as normal.[/quote]

Currencies and economies, I would write off 'til later honestly. I doubt Rathe has a de facto currency or a dominant economic model. Earth sure as hell doesn't. Rathe's economic situation could be just as fractured and wonky.

I've always like magic as being based in language, where the grammatical construction defines how magic is manifested. Moreover, there is no "right way" to invoke magic, just like there's no "right way" to create a language. The language is simply the interface. Where lexicon of "power words" (or whatever you want to call them) can be constructed in a variety of ways. Perhaps there's more than one kind of magical language? Perhaps its define by culture and/or race? 

As for [i]what[/i] magic is..... that's always tricky. Our earlier discussion implied that magic was somehow tied to the environment. What if it's just a form of unbound energy, readily available in its raw form, but the physical body acts as a conduit to refine and shape the raw resource into a manifestation.

OR,
 
Magic could be an exercise in stealing aspects of reality from already existing objects. For example, suppose two mage's are dueling next to a river of lava. Mage A throws some pebbles at his opponent. She then temporarily borrows the heat aspect from the nearby molten rock and applies it to the thrown pebbles. If these objects were to impact, Mage B would have a very unpleasant day. 
So Mage B decides to jump and temporarily borrow the weight aspect of some rising gases, allowing him to dodge out of the way. 
The effects are fleeting because conservation of reality applies, and the universe fix these "mistakes".

OR,

Something else entirely!

There's a metric FUCK-ton (recall your SI units, this is 10[sup]FUCK[/sup] more than a metric ton ;3) of ways to do this. 

My advice? Treat it like the lesser of two or more evils: when making a judgement, choose the option you haven't tried before.


[quote]
And we did want to focus on the weather and seasons too.
[/quote]

Um, yes, but we can make that priority 3 or 4... somewhere after history, factions, and magic.

[quote]
Tomorrow I'm in class for four hours but before then I commute an hour each way. When I get home I usually don't go online unless it's pressing. But during class I can usually be online for a few hours, unless we have to do group/busy work or watch a film. And of course I have Tue off but I may go into the city to see a movie. But since two essays are done, this week looks a lot less congested for me. I hope things are going well with you and all your goals. I know you're even busier than I am so thanks again for getting our OOC started. *laughs*
[/quote]
No trouble~
I feel like I should reciprocate with an outline of my schedule for the next few days, but I don't even remember what all I have going on. I just know I'm slammed 'til next thursday. :x

Don't let my busyness deter you from writing cool stuff though. 

Edit: I check for updates at least once every 48 hours or so. I keep spark notes on my phone; thus, if I know I'll be stuck somewhere without interwebs and anticipate high levels of boredom, I'll work on brainstorming. Having inspirational nuggets available in this thread helps with that.

Currently trying to balance this and my friday night Pathfinder game, but I should be fine once exam season is over.