What exactly is Glitterworld?

[H_D]

I've never heard about Glitterworld before RW, and as you can imagine google search doesn't help very much, so I assume it's not widely used reference I don't know about. It's mentioned several times in lore and appears to be common term for civilizations with advanced technology, but nobody in game actually says what is it.

[keylocke]

example of glitterworld advanced technology :

[LittleMikey]

From what I understand Glitterworld is basically an entire planet of basically Hollywood. A Planet Hollywood if you will. Think Hunger Games. Basically its a real Cyberpunk scenario with this very very wealthy upper class of people who all have not a square inch of un-cosmetically enhanced body, all the TV stars and Politicians and Generals. They all live on the topmost or surface level on the planet. Then beneath them is dozens and dozens of sub level which house billions of people in incredible poverty. These lower class are horribly treated, but they dream of joining the elite through any means.

[JonoRig]

I like to think of it like firefly, where the central alliance planets are the glitterworlds.

And a mix of warhammer 40k where you have hive worlds, where the entire planet is just a city of multiple layers (hence give)

Rimworld is exactly that, a planet on the rim of colonised space, undesirable due to location, environment or pirates/raiders making it too much bother.

[Darkfirephoenix]

From what I understand Glitterworld is basically an entire planet of basically Hollywood. A Planet Hollywood if you will. Think Hunger Games. Basically its a real Cyberpunk scenario with this very very wealthy upper class of people who all have not a square inch of un-cosmetically enhanced body, all the TV stars and Politicians and Generals. They all live on the topmost or surface level on the planet. Then beneath them is dozens and dozens of sub level which house billions of people in incredible poverty. These lower class are horribly treated, but they dream of joining the elite through any means.

And don't forget that Glittertech is the best Tech (freely) avaible, there MAY be some artifacts that are even more high-tech but in general glitter-tech is the highest

[Dr. Z]

The RimWorld Fiction Primer says the following about glitterworlds:
Very advanced and peaceful cultures. The peak of recognizable human society in terms of health, art, technology, and human rights.
I think LittleMikey's description fits more to the urbworlds or something in between of them:
Super-high density planets dominated by cities. Their population growth outstripped their sociotechnological development, so they tend to be overcrowded, polluted, violent places.

[Shinzy]

It's called glitter cause everything in there is amazing
it's like canada but in the future

[H_D]

The RimWorld Fiction Primer says the following about glitterworlds:
Very advanced and peaceful cultures. The peak of recognizable human society in terms of health, art, technology, and human rights. ]

Who wrote this? Is it fanfiction or official lore?

[Shinzy]

The RimWorld Fiction Primer says the following about glitterworlds:
Very advanced and peaceful cultures. The peak of recognizable human society in terms of health, art, technology, and human rights. ]

Who wrote this? Is it fanfiction or official lore?

Ty wrote it
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=4346.msg42650#msg42650

[Dr. Z]

It's wrote by the developer, so it's official lore.

[Cat123]

The term is taken from Alastair Reynolds, a science fiction writer.

For the next few centuries, the so-called Belle Epoque, humanity enjoyed a period of relative peace and prosperity, with several planets being colonised. The most successful planet of all was Yellowstone, a planet orbiting the star Epsilon Eridani, site of the Glitter Band and Chasm City. Technologies developed included the Conjoiner Drive, a gift from the Conjoiners (who resumed contact with humanity at an unknown time), advanced nanotechnology, and numerous other devices. With the exception of an attempted takeover on Yellowstone, no major incidents affected humanity during this time.

The Belle Epoque was terminated by the advent of the Melding Plague in 2510, a nanotechnological virus that destroyed all other nanotechnology it came into contact with. Only the Conjoiners were unaffected by this disaster, which devastated the civilisation around Yellowstone. War between the Demarchists and Conjoiners erupted as a result of the plague.

Glitter Band / Rust Belt, a conglomeration of 10,000 exquisitely unique orbital habitats around Yellowstone. One of the most famous locations in human history, it was the home to billions of people from across the galaxy. It was also a place of cultural, philosophical and physical diversity and a central hub of business and trade in human space. In regards to its socio-political organization and importance in the fields mentioned previously, the Glitter Band strongly resembles Classical Greece.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Revelation_Space_locations#Glitter_Band
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revelation_Space_universe


Essentially it means a culture with nanotech. In Rimworld, it's used to represent spacers.


If you've read any of A. Reynold's work, you'll also know that hostile AI wiping everything sentient out is a common theme of his.

[Dr. Z]

Be careful to not mix up fictions, if I understand this correctly, "Glitter Band" is the name of a conglomeration of cities/plantes/systems? This is a completly different universe than RimWorld takes place in.

[Klitri]

Yes, a Glitterworld is any world in the universe that has in a way reached the peak of human technological evolution. If our game had better technology, you could make your Colony a glitterworld in itself.

[Tynan]

It's called glitter cause everything in there is amazing
it's like canada but in the future

This made me lol!

And yeah, in Al Reynolds' books, the Glitter Band is a specific set of orbiting habitats around Epsilon Eridani. In RimWorld, a glitterworld is one of many planets which, at various times, have reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement.

[Cat123]

This made me lol!

And yeah, in Al Reynolds' books, the Glitter Band is a specific set of orbiting habitats around Epsilon Eridani. In RimWorld, a glitterworld is one of many planets which, at various times, have reached peak non-transcendent levels of sociotechnological advancement.

Thank Glitter (but not Gary). I had anxiety that I'd just pulled a "easy" comment and crapped all over Rimworld's lore.


p.s.

Very happy that Rimworld's creator is an actual science fiction fan. Geekgasm.