Alternate Universe Cartoon for: April 26th 2002 C.E.

 

Fire is indeed a chemical reaction, just as fire is in our Mundis universe. However, as can be expected, it works a little differently in the Tryslmaistan universe. The net result is essentially the same, however.

Where Oxygen is the atom of choice for earthly fires, there are no atoms in Tryslmaistan...instead, taking their place are tratons, which are polyhedral compositions of force planes...rather than our 'nucleus with energy shells'atomic model.

Naturally there is a completely different periodic table, which, upon entering, all the terresrial matter was converted into....becoming the nearest analogues to their original atomic states.

The universe-wide atmostphere of the Tryslmaistan universe is dominated by three primary gases, two of which we have heard much about. There is Tranium and Parbon, which are the gasses that are affected by Plate Charge and link up to become Shatterel three times a year, and the third gas is Octan. Parbon is not entirely unlike our element carbon, which is why the lost Myrmilians named it a similar name....and Octan is clearly the nearest analogue to Oxygen. Indeed, Octan and Parbon can combine, to form a compound not unlike our Carbon Dioxide, which is what permits the elementally transmogrified humans to breath at all. Of note, however, the equivalent molecule to Carbon Dioxide is not just a traton of Octan and a traton of Parbon...no, following the general law of threes that permeates the Tryslmaistan universe, a third traton is part of the molecule. This traton is a somehwat rarer gas than the first three, called Trynion, and it has no earthly analogue at all.

Trynion is a very tiny traton, but it is required to allow Octan and Parbon to form a molecule, and it is part of the problem that makes Vlax so necessary...because earthly cells cannot quite use Parbo-Octa-Trynide in 100% agreement to what they are used to. Vlax does a myriad of things which overcome these little differences, some of which have been explained in other articles.

Now all of this stuff about how human cells use gasses is important, because to stay alive, most earthly life literally burns...combusts...sugars, in a slow chemical process. The result is waste...carbon dioxide, and heat...which is also what you get if you burn a piece of wood (actually you get even more chemical by-products, like water vapor, carbon monoxide, soot, and so forth, but you do get those basics elements that the body generates too).

In the Tryslmaistan universe, combustion of something like wood from a cone tree involves a chemical reaction a little different from that on earth. On earth, oxygen is the heart of burning things, of combustion, and all burning is is very dramatic oxydization. Very quick 'rusting', amazingly enough. Oxygen is a very hungry atom, and it likes to bond with things, so much that it rips them apart, and can be set up to do so in a chain reaction...heat being the thing that keeps the process going. The process generates heat, and that is why a fire will burn until you run out of one of the three ingredients: fuel, heat, and oxygen.

Tryslmaistan fire uses Octan, which, like the oxygen it is an analogue to, is a very hungry traton. Octan loves to react with just about anything, just as oxygen does, and it rips the crap out of things, also like oxygen does.

But, because the tratonic combinations are greater in number, and because they form molecules that are stable only in grouping of three or multiples of three, the fire is more...complex. It is a much more colorful and curious looking fire, and the by-products are interesting too.

Tryslmaistan fire is mostly violet and teal in color...unlike our jolly red and yellow tinted standard fires of earth. It also shimmers a bit, like the northern lights do on earth, with a ripple of the occasional rainbow effect running through it. Fires burn somehwhat more slowly, too, and if you saw a Gryrnese campfire, it would almost seem as though you were seeing a slightly slow-motion film of a fire. Fires do produce heat, and light, and they also release all manner of gasses as well, which produce an effective smoke. Unlike the smoke particles or ash particles we know on earth, such material is utterly weightless because of how Linovection (Tryslmaistan 'gravity') works. They never fall to the soil...but remain suspended forever, unless static charge causes them to stick to a surface.

Perhaps the oddest thing about fire in Tryslmaistan is something that I could not draw or represent well in the monocolor pixel art I use....the bulk of combustion operates in a sphere around the burning object. This is also how fire works in zero gravity here in the Mundis Universe, but sharp readers will quickly call me on how I have consistantly drawn fire as earthly looking fire in the strip. The reason is simple....Unicorn Jelly already deals with such bizarre things that if I drew fire correctly, absolutely no reader would have understood what the hell was being represented. In scenes where fire was visible, I considered drawing it accurately, with a little box and an arrow and words to the effect "Hey, this is actually fire, folks!"....but frankly, I figured that doing that would just tear up the narrative and lose the story in details that almost no one but I would actually care about. it was more important that the readers follow what was going on than get turned off by being baffled by something that made no sense at all, that was not important to the action.

Perhaps that was a wrong choice, or perhaps it was a wise choice. I do think it would have cause unnecessary boggling.

The ashes of a Tryskmaistan fire are grey and tan with flecks of red and silver and gold. Little shiny crystals can also be found in the ash, and they are the cause of the flecks of color.

 

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