Dumb question - what is the order of the worlds? I know they rotate around Earth in this setting, but what is the sequence of the rest?
Also, aside from Atlantis, are there any other 'official' free/floating cities out there?
Thanks,

The order of the worlds is as follows:

Earth (the center, revolving around the Axis Mundi)
Sun
Moon
Mercury
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Jupiter
Hades

The "middle" seven worlds orbit much like spherical bodies would according to ancient astrologers. Hades, however, is more like the shadow the envelops the universe. It is a domain that surrounds the compass of the Nine Worlds, and contains both heaven (Elysium) and hell (Tartarus and Hades "proper").

Note that Jupiter is indeed the outermost of the "seven" planets, rather than Saturn. One of my fellow group players thought Saturn should be the outermost. However, Jupiter is for neato setting reasons. Because the Titans control Saturn, the have effectively blocked of Jupiter, and hence Zeus, from much of the rest of the universe. Bit of a power play there.

I thought it was moon/sun (thereby allowing eclipses)...

Actually, that is correct. Give the man a prize! I just rechecked my book source that inspired much of my so-called "lore" (Astrology, a History by Peter Whitfield, aka my mouse pad of late), and in at least one or more of the illustrations of old astrolabes and manuscripts from which I drew inspiration, the moon does indeed preceed the sun.

Oh ho! This helps immensely. And source material too. Time to visit my library.
Thanks Matt.

And just to show you how much of an in-progress work this is (and how much I'm a waffler), I'm reconsidering the order of Saturn & Jupiter.

On that Matt, I'd go with whatever order is accepted in the source material rather than altering it for game plot purposes. There are plenty of ways to isolate Zeus.

After all, the Aether is the body of dead gods...both of whom IIRC claimed Saturn as their "home". It would seem likely that the Aether is full of violent storms near Saturn and that these would spill over to nearby Jupiter.

In fact, the ongoing war between Neptune...and...<the other guy> might still be going on...fought by their "spirits" in the form of these violent storms where the aether seems to be "attacking" itself.

Posiedan was always a bit mad anyway...one could postulate that these storms are actually growing and expanding from where they started around Saturn and, fed by the eldritch energies released by the titanomachy, have now all but engulfed and cut off Jupiter and are beginning to move towards Mars. One might even go with the Aether storms as a sort of armageddon in the making, that will destroy everything if the war is not resolved somehow.

Just brainstorming at that last part.

Excellent points, all, Ralph. You're right on, and have some cool ideas there. I frankly can't recall what my "source material" indicates (things like old astrology manuscripts and writings collected in the book I mentioned above, Astrology, a History. I'm sticking with whatever those charts and writings indicate, but I can't recall the order off the top of my head (it's at home, currently). The reason I'm "waffling" is that I was convinced that Jupiter actually "precedes" Saturn, just as we think it does in the real world's solar system. I just plain ol' can't recall now either way.

One of the things I've become enamored of recently and plan to try out in the final version of Robots & Rapiers is the Metaplot seed. A column or two of text outlineing what could have been a huge, revealed-through-multiple-supplements, metaplot but which instead is just presented as a possibility for the GM to bite on or not.

One that popped into my head as I was writing the above was a mini plot line called "Poseidon must die". Start with the idea that niether Posiedan nor his titanic opponent (Oceanus?) are actually dead. Their physical form is destroyed (at least temporarily) but their power and being is fully sentient and aware as part of the Aether. From there go with Poseidon as being now completely mad, like in any of the ghost stories where the ghost is just a raving spirit seeking vengeance. The storms are then manifestations of Poseidan's anger as he lashes out at the similiarly disembodied (but much more sane) titan who shares the Aether with him, and also as he attacks ships at random in his rage at them still having a physical form while he does not. He likely also harbor a special hatred for Zeus who failed to help him.

At anyrate, as the storms grow increasingly out of control threatening to destroy entire worlds, the plot would eventually put the PCs in the position of having to destroy Poseidon forever...so he ain't ever coming back...in order to restore peace to the either.

Just some more random inspirational musings.

Saturn is indeed the outermost.

By the way, if you haven't yet, you should get ahold of "The Discarded Image" by C.S. Lewis. It's an informal introduction to medieval cosmology, intended for students of literature, so that they would be able to "get" the metaphors and such used in older works of literature (so that when a poet says that a woman's eyes "pour influence" upon someone, he is making an astrological allusion; "influence" was a technical astrology term, not yet a commonplace word, which designated the radiations from the Planets which they poured down on the Earth and which affected the fortunes of men.) Of course, in those days, this wasn't a matter of "Astrology" but of simple physics and cosmology, accepted by every educated person.

It's a fascinating book -- adapted from a series of lectures Lewis used to give first-year English literature students.

It has a lot about planets, and would make a great sourcebook for Nine Worlds.

And yes, it's Earth, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, then the Heaven of the Fixed Stars, then the Primum Mobile.

The Moon, interestingly, was seen as the boundary between the Changeable (Earth) and the Changeless (the heavens). That wouldn't apply in Nine Worlds of course. :)

BTW, here's a fun medieval book about the planets:

http://www.billyandcharlie.com/planets/

One thought on the order of the worlds is that the Titans may have moved Saturn since its capture and their assumption of power. An epic feat for even a Titan.

This could explain the isolation of Jupiter (it checkmates Zeus nicely) and the storms through the outer system.