How difficult is the transition to multi-cellular life?

[iancampbell]

I have a vague memory of an EG article somewhere saying there are something like 256 garden worlds in the Terragen Bubble - but not sure if that article or statement still exists in the EG. Also not sure how that would or would not fit into the above guideline.

On a related note, we have never really said much about the number or frequency of non-terrestrial ecologies in the setting (e.g., gas giant ecosystems, Muuhome type ecosystems, T'oul'h type ecosystems, chlorine based ecosystems etc. We have mentions of specific worlds of these types (usually the homeworld of a xenosophont race) but don't provide any numbers on how common they are or whether or not they are included in the total number of garden worlds in the setting. We currently imply that the 'garden world' term applies only to Earth-like biospheres, which seems rather parochial really and might do with an update.

Todd

Eh, isn't Tohul Prime called "tohulian type garden world"? Sorry if I am wrong

I think the parochiality is reasonably acceptable - given that the EG as "quoted" on our website is written for the use of Terragen bionts, who have a varying degree of common ancestry.

If one allows for different types of biology, then the term "garden world" needs to be qualified when using it. To take an extreme example, a garden world in the opinion of Hildemar's Knots would be instantly lethal to any bionts made of conventional matter.