This account by Silverius was originally posted to to Sergio's longstanding forum in GoKrida, told from the point of view of the people of Red Catastrophe, minor souls who think of major souls as gods. The narrative discusses the environment, culture, and government of this imagined planet, including stories and rules for games. Some of the details were inspired by events and discoveries in GoKrida, while others must have been inspired by Silverius' other interests. The GoKridan planet Red Catastrophe Earth, commonly known as Legendary Red Catastrophe, was named in honor of this tale.
The Tower of Science
The tower of science is the university of Red Catastrophe. It's a huge round stone construction with a diameter of 100 ra and a height of 400 ra, making it the tallest building on Red Catastrophe.
Though the tower looks very massive from the outside it has in fact a large open space in the middle of it. Inside the tower is a hollow cylinder with a diameter of 40 ra. On each of the almost 80 levels a big platform is build in the middle of the open space and linked to the rest of the tower by 8 bridges.
The platforms or plaza as they are called are the heart of the levels. People come there to eat, enjoy the many plants or just to chat and have a bit of fun. All of the plaza have their own identity, some are more of a garden, some are more open and yet others are filled with art. There is a constant friendly competition between the levels about who has the best plaza, causing for much delightful sights.
The plaza are indoors and hence don't receive much outside light. Luckily there is a special type of stone called Luminum which acts like a kind of crystalized Aether, giving a natural light that becomes stronger and weaker like the light outside. The underside of the platforms are covered with Luminum so that inside the tower no artificial light is needed until the Aether goes dark.
To connect the various levels of the tower two walkways spiral up, forming a double helix. Due to the large radius of the inner cylinder the slope of these walkways is rather low so they are often used for transportation of just about anything with wheels. Most people however prefer to take one of the eight winding staircases in the tower.
The various levels of the tower each have their own function. Roughly said the lower levels are for the classrooms as it means the students can go out more easily and not make a lot of noise inside the building. Above the classrooms are the laboratories followed by the management floors. Spread around the tower are service levels with stuff like cantines and libraries.
In general ones office in the tower depends on ones scientific rank, the higher, the higher (though this has it's disadvantages for the old and wise). The scientific ranks start at Scholar of Science (where Science is replaced by something more specific like Physics). A scholar has mastered the basic theory of his scientific discipline. Many scholars leave the tower to work outside the scientific world as for example a master smith (one of the requirements for such a master title is a scholar degree).
Above the scholars come the assistents. These are basically scholars that have decided to continue working in the tower and now do the basic lab work and help with teaching new students (checking assignments and such).
After an assistent proves himself with a thesis he or she is promoted to Master of Science. Masters are both teachers and researchers, though they leave the basic research work to their assistents and focus on the bigger picture. Masters are members of the scientific assembly which governs the tower.
At some point a master can be promoted to Duke of Science. Dukes basically don't do any research of their own anymore but coordinate and manage the departments. Dukes are members of the scientific assembly and junior members of the Council of Science which is the management of the tower and the most important scientific advisory organ of the government.
Knights of Science are the highest ranking scientists. They are promoted from dukes by our Lord himself on advice from the Council of Science. They lead the various faculties and are as senior members of the Council of Science heavily involved in politics and management.
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