Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Dyson Sphere

 Dyson Sphere
type
FeatureClass
 Dyson Sphere
label
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere
page
DysonSphere
 Dyson Sphere
comment
Big Dumb Object or Planet Spaceship not big enough for you? Look no further. Science Fiction authors have made solar-system-sized artifacts into a trope of their own. A prime example to illustrate how (most) Science-Fiction Writers Have No Sense of Scale.
The Trope Namer is physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson, who theorized in a 1959 scientific paper that, given the ever-increasing demand for energy typical of industrial civilization, Sufficiently Advanced Aliens might need to capture all the energy radiating from a star.
While Dyson himself originally saw his concept as a network of many separate orbiting habitats and solar power-stations (sometimes called a "Dyson swarm" to differentiate it from the other type), most media depictions show a single continuous solid sphere completely enclosing its star. Constructing such an artifact would probably bring a civilization up to at least 2.0 on the Kardashev scale.
The technologies and resources needed to do it raise the question of whether a race that could build one would still need it. It has been estimated that constructing the sphere would require the energy equivalent of the lifetimes of several stars AND the raw materials of more than the entire solar system, which rather defeats the purpose of the initial construction.note But note that this is based on the assumption that the sphere has a radius of 1 astronomical unit (the distance between the Earth and the Sun). A smaller sphere would require less energy and materials to build.
The Ringworld concept was created by science fiction author Larry Niven as a mid-point between this and a true planet because, as Niven put it in his essay Bigger Than Worlds (a discussion of Ring World Planets, Dyson Spheres, and other possible macrostructures), "I like being able to see the stars at night". Something that a solid-spherical-shell Dyson Sphere would prevent.
This trope doesn't require an object to block all light from the star, but it does require construction on that scale. To be a Dyson Sphere, the artifact must:
Be an artificial structure. Naturally-occuring structures don't count, though a nest built by a Space Whale would.
Contain a star inside it. That is, a giant ball of gas lit by stable nuclear fusion initiated by the pressure on its core due to its own gravity, (not some little glowing speck, a mythological god with a lantern, or Bruce Willis, OK?)
Contain an inside surface where people can survive (possibly with space suits) without being burnt to a crisp by the star.
Be at least the size of a small solar system. Typically we're talking 100 million kilometers or more.
In fiction, Dyson Spheres tend to be abandoned and uninhabited. If they are inhabited, the residents are usually not at a tech level capable of building the sphere. This is because, if your protagonists run into a sphere whose residents are in the full flower of their technological might, they and their petty problems promptly get overwhelmed.
See the Analysis page for more information about how such an object might work in the real world.
Subtrope of Hollow World. Compare Big Dumb Object and Planet Spaceship. Not to be confused with the Dyson Ball, which is part of a vacuum cleaner.
 Dyson Sphere
fetched
2024-02-07T08:46:39Z
 Dyson Sphere
parsed
2024-02-07T08:46:39Z
 Dyson Sphere
processingComment
Dropped link to ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Dyson Sphere
processingComment
Dropped link to GameMod: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Dyson Sphere
processingComment
Dropped link to LawyerFriendlyCameo: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Dyson Sphere
processingComment
Dropped link to MidSeasonUpgrade: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Dyson Sphere
processingComment
Dropped link to SealedEvilInACan: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Dyson Sphere
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Dyson Sphere / int_14d341dc
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_14d341dc
comment
Star Trek Online: The Season 8 expansion "The Sphere" takes place inside of one as the Federation, the Klingon Empire and the Romulan Republic fight the Voth for possession of Omega Particles. We eventually learn that it, the original one from Star Trek: The Next Generation, and a third that is visited in "Uneasy Allies" were all built by the Iconians, the Big Bad of the first several years of the game's existence.
 Dyson Sphere / int_14d341dc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_14d341dc
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek Online (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_14d341dc
 Dyson Sphere / int_150d2b35
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_150d2b35
comment
Para Imperium: The New Pallas Republic built a small sphere around Proxima Centauri in order to produce the wormholes that allowed them to form a unified government with the other lost colonies.
 Dyson Sphere / int_150d2b35
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_150d2b35
featureConfidence
1.0
 Para Imperium
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_150d2b35
 Dyson Sphere / int_17bfcf60
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_17bfcf60
comment
Homeworld: One level takes place inside of a partially finished Dyson Sphere. The builders are nowhere to be seen and the area is filled with clutter and wreckage. Like most of the game, the level is sheer Scenery Porn with vast sections of plate in the background, still so distant they're unreachable. No explanation is ever offered; even the Precursors whose technology the third game revolves around didn't have anything remotely that advanced.
 Dyson Sphere / int_17bfcf60
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_17bfcf60
featureConfidence
1.0
 Homeworld (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_17bfcf60
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad1e0d2
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad1e0d2
comment
Imperial Radch: It's mentioned that the true Radch is an ancient Dyson sphere and the Galactic Superpower that shares its name exists primarily to protect it. Radchaai citizens outside the Dyson sphere don't know any more than that, given their strong xenophobia.
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad1e0d2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad1e0d2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Imperial Radch
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_1ad1e0d2
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad6e2b5
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad6e2b5
comment
Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL:
Christopher Arclight (called simply V most of the time) uses a monster called "No. 9: Dyson Sphere", which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. In fact, in terms of sheer size, it's no doubt the biggest Duel Monster in the history of the franchise, being the size of a small star, and it seems to be one of the most powerful Numbers.
Later in the series, while battling against Mizael of the Seven Barian Emperors, V introduces an evolved version of this monster, "Chaos No. 9: Chaos Dyson Sphere", which manages to be big enough to use a giant star as its power core.
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad6e2b5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_1ad6e2b5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_1ad6e2b5
 Dyson Sphere / int_1c2589fd
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_1c2589fd
comment
Transcendent Humanity has one for the Sol System in order to make the best use of the sun's energy and raw materials. It's made abundantly clear that materials required for it made it necessary for humanity to take material from the sun itself, turning a G Class yellow dwarf sun into at the very least a K Class yellow (or orange) dwarf in building it.
 Dyson Sphere / int_1c2589fd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_1c2589fd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Transcendent Humanity / Fan Fic
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_1c2589fd
 Dyson Sphere / int_1d7c23a5
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_1d7c23a5
comment
The Polity: Polity Agent features the Cassius Project, humanity's first attempt to construct a Dyson Sphere. One of the subplots kicks off when an antagonist tries to sabotage its construction.
 Dyson Sphere / int_1d7c23a5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_1d7c23a5
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Polity
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_1d7c23a5
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f13fcb9
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f13fcb9
comment
Kurzgesagt: Discussed. They dismiss a true "sphere" as impractical, instead opting for a "Dyson swarm" of mirrors built using Mercury's mineral resources that transmit solar energy to Earth and the Solar System's other inhabited bodies.
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f13fcb9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f13fcb9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Kurzgesagt (Web Animation)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_1f13fcb9
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f8978b5
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f8978b5
comment
Illegal Aliens by Phil Foglio and Nick Pollotta has two such sphere mentioned:
The inside shell of the first was covered in solar collectors, and its people lived inside the shell as well, as basically it was a big spherical shaped space station.
The second was discovered in a previously-unknown sector of space. When opened, it was found to contain a slightly smaller sphere. Which itself had another inside, and so on. The discoverers abandoned their investigation after going several layers deep, positing that "With so many amateur lunatics around the universe, nobody wanted to meet professionals."
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f8978b5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_1f8978b5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Illegal Aliens
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_1f8978b5
 Dyson Sphere / int_2acb12c5
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_2acb12c5
comment
X:
X 3 Terran Conflict: A plot leads you to the Hub, an ancient space station inside a Dyson sphere. However, the latter orbits a star, and, looking outside, you can see more of them, like in Dyson's concept.
In the Xtended Game Mod for the previous game, X3: Reunion, the Sohnen — the robotic representatives of the Precursors that built the Portal Network — possess a dyson sphere built around tiny star in a remote sector, which the player must dock with to interact with the friendly faction of Sohnen. Inside the sphere, the miniature star is surrounded by a massive gyroscope spinning at a rate that will crush any ship.
The games' fluff speaks of the Ancients, who have uploaded their minds into vast computer arrays called "Presence Clouds", which are more or less dust clouds that completely surround a star, feeding off of it for their energy needs. Though not a single solid object, this does qualify as a Dyson sphere as originally imagined.
 Dyson Sphere / int_2acb12c5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_2acb12c5
featureConfidence
1.0
 X (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_2acb12c5
 Dyson Sphere / int_2ae406c1
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_2ae406c1
comment
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: The Ascent to Transcendence ending suggests a variant: "stellar encapsulation", effectively bottling the star without dismantling the planets of the system or otherwise affecting their biospheres.
 Dyson Sphere / int_2ae406c1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_2ae406c1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_2ae406c1
 Dyson Sphere / int_353b7af3
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_353b7af3
comment
Star Trek: Discovery: The fourth season has a species that built several Dyson rings around their local star, presumably purely as a method of generating energy. When the biosphere of their homeworld was obliterated by a barrage of meteors, they abandoned the system, leaving only the rings and a few scattered ruins as evidence of their presence.
 Dyson Sphere / int_353b7af3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_353b7af3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Discovery
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_353b7af3
 Dyson Sphere / int_3a1209bd
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_3a1209bd
comment
The Journal Entries: While Pendor itself is "only" a ring world, at least one story is in fact set against the background of a Pendorian archaeological expedition exploring an abandoned Dyson sphere of unknown origin.
 Dyson Sphere / int_3a1209bd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_3a1209bd
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Journal Entries
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_3a1209bd
 Dyson Sphere / int_3bfe75fa
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_3bfe75fa
comment
Halo Wars: The final arc takes place in a micro Shield World, complete with a miniature artificial sun. Serina reacts appropriately upon realizing they've been pulled inside a planet only to wind up on another planet.
 Dyson Sphere / int_3bfe75fa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_3bfe75fa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Halo Wars (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_3bfe75fa
 Dyson Sphere / int_3cdcd366
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_3cdcd366
comment
The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman): Tony Stark pays aliens to build a Dyson Sphere for him as part of a alternate world destroying weapon he is preparing. Only a very small part of it is constructed before Tony is forced to fire the weapon to take out an invading alien fleet, which destroys the construction.
 Dyson Sphere / int_3cdcd366
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_3cdcd366
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman) (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_3cdcd366
 Dyson Sphere / int_3f3e5c06
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_3f3e5c06
comment
The Time Ships: The Time Traveler's second trip into the future sends him into a history where the Morlocks built an immense sphere around the sun, living in the near limitless — and, importantly for them, almost entirely dark — space within its thickness, while ancestral-type humans live within the sunlit interior.
 Dyson Sphere / int_3f3e5c06
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_3f3e5c06
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Time Ships
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_3f3e5c06
 Dyson Sphere / int_44f9d9af
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_44f9d9af
comment
Junction Point: It's offhandedly mentioned that the tianlong are considering it for the star that their capital planet orbits.
 Dyson Sphere / int_44f9d9af
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_44f9d9af
featureConfidence
1.0
 Junction Point
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_44f9d9af
 Dyson Sphere / int_49a88442
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_49a88442
comment
Final Fantasy XIV has Dalamud, which was treated before as the second moon of the world until the Calamity when it's revealed that it contained a royally pissed off Bahamut, sealed inside for thousands of years, who proceeded to unleash hell on earth. Had it not been for Louisoix performing a Heroic Sacrifice, there would be nothing left.
 Dyson Sphere / int_49a88442
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_49a88442
featureConfidence
1.0
 Final Fantasy XIV (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_49a88442
 Dyson Sphere / int_4a09e781
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_4a09e781
comment
Undocumented Features: The Republic of Zeta Cygni makes its home in a Dyson Sphere (which happens to be home to one of the most blatant Shining Cities in written fiction).
 Dyson Sphere / int_4a09e781
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_4a09e781
featureConfidence
1.0
 Undocumented Features / Fan Fic
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_4a09e781
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c1c835b
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c1c835b
comment
In one of the other non-canonical novels, part of the Star Trek: Millennium trilogy, O'Brien is trapped in one of these for what seems like years as the Fate Worse than Death meted to him by the Pah-Wraiths.
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c1c835b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c1c835b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Millennium
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_4c1c835b
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c566b76
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c566b76
comment
In Moonfall, the Moon turns out to be an artificial structure powered by a white dwarf star at its core.
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c566b76
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_4c566b76
featureConfidence
1.0
 Moonfall
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_4c566b76
 Dyson Sphere / int_50f64744
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_50f64744
comment
Evolve Idle allows the player to research the possibility of a Dyson Sphere after getting to space. Initially they're described as impractical, if not outright impossible and the player can instead construct swarm satellites to fulfill a similar function. Later a flexible Dyson Net can be constructed around a neighboring star as a superproject. Late game the player can upgrade it into a full Dyson Sphere, which grants an achievement.
 Dyson Sphere / int_50f64744
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_50f64744
featureConfidence
1.0
 Evolve Idle (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_50f64744
 Dyson Sphere / int_51b94c97
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_51b94c97
comment
AT-43: The Therians' eventual plan is to enclose every solar system in the universe in a Dyson sphere, specifically so as to be able to control their movement and prevent the universe becoming too dispersed to be inhabitable.
 Dyson Sphere / int_51b94c97
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_51b94c97
featureConfidence
1.0
 AT-43 (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_51b94c97
 Dyson Sphere / int_51d31800
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_51d31800
comment
In the Space Marine Battles novel Malodrax the titular planet is surrounded by a orbital coral reef, because the writers in this franchise will go to any length necessary to drive home the point that Space Is an Ocean. Interestingly, the reef does nothing to block out the planet's twin suns... though Malodrax is a daemon world, so it probably gets free sunlight from the Warp instead.
 Dyson Sphere / int_51d31800
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_51d31800
featureConfidence
1.0
 Space Marine Battles
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_51d31800
 Dyson Sphere / int_558b4c84
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_558b4c84
comment
Guardians of the Galaxy: The modern-day team visits one early on in Guardians of the Galaxy (2008), when a fissure in time and space opens up there. They arrive and find that the locals aren't there. And when they do find them, they really wish they hadn't. Note that only the tiniest fraction of the sphere's surface was inhabited, protected from the local star by a shell, which the team had to open to get rid of what they found. The trouble with that started when they wound up a good distance away from the control panel required to re-seal the shell.
 Dyson Sphere / int_558b4c84
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_558b4c84
featureConfidence
1.0
 Guardians of the Galaxy (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_558b4c84
 Dyson Sphere / int_56436136
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_56436136
comment
While not spanning an entire solar system, in Sol Bianca: The Legacy the Earth is like this, surrounded by a mini-Dyson sphere known as Lotus. The Lotus is roughly the size of the Moon's orbit; in fact, the moon is clearly visible sticking halfway out of the shell of Lotus. Interestingly, the government tries to hide the fact that the Earth That Was is already dead, and thus the people who think they're on Earth live ON the sphere, not shielded by it on the planet. One character alludes to the Lotus Eater myth before The Reveal.
 Dyson Sphere / int_56436136
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_56436136
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sol Bianca
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_56436136
 Dyson Sphere / int_5c897f4a
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_5c897f4a
comment
Schlock Mercenary:
The F'sherl-Ganni have built several of these. They call them "buuthandi", a shortened version of a F'sherl-Ganni phrase that roughly translates to "This was [expletive] expensive to build" (fully transliterated as "expensive and expensive-expensive [expletive] we built."). At one point, the characters gather a fleet to assault one. The author tried to depict them more realistically then a solid shell build around a star. In this setting Dyson Spheres (there are four, formerly five before one was destroyed) are constructed from a flexible material. They are practically bubbles around a star kept inflated by the solar wind. Habitats are anchored to the interior of the sphere. The setting also has widespread gravity generators, so that's not a problem either. Of course, when we say "more realistic"... the galaxy's general populace assumes the buuthandi to be more like the cloud or network of orbiting satellites envisioned by Dyson. One character goes nearly catatonic upon learning that they are fully contiguous.
Much later, the "All-Star" is discovered, which is a massive layered sphere around a star called a Matrioshka brain. It is mostly a computer dedicated to holding all the virtual minds of trillions of inhabitants; they could upload every single person in the galaxy without going over forty-five percent capacity — from a starting point of 44%.note Nothing is directly said about the population size of the previously uploaded inhabitants, but at least some of that is 'overhead', and the use of "probability manifolds" It's implied that all the survivors of previous galactic epochs created Dyson spheres of some flavor or another to hide from the rest of the galaxy.
 Dyson Sphere / int_5c897f4a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_5c897f4a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_5c897f4a
 Dyson Sphere / int_5e150650
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_5e150650
comment
Exalted: The Shard known as Heaven's Reach has the Primordials exist in this form and similarly scaled hyperconstructions. Malfeas in particular is a Dyson sphere wrapped around a green sun, with a demonic city on the inside.
 Dyson Sphere / int_5e150650
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_5e150650
featureConfidence
1.0
 Exalted (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_5e150650
 Dyson Sphere / int_61a39969
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_61a39969
comment
Avengers: Infinity War: The planet Nidavellir is a Dyson sphere surrounding a neutron star whose energy is harnessed by dwarves to make magical weapons.
 Dyson Sphere / int_61a39969
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_61a39969
featureConfidence
1.0
 Avengers: Infinity War
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_61a39969
 Dyson Sphere / int_61de95d6
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_61de95d6
comment
Freelancer: Shows up in the final level.
 Dyson Sphere / int_61de95d6
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_61de95d6
featureConfidence
1.0
 Freelancer (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_61de95d6
 Dyson Sphere / int_62570927
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_62570927
comment
Marvel Universe:
The Avengers (Jonathan Hickman): Tony Stark pays aliens to build a Dyson Sphere for him as part of a alternate world destroying weapon he is preparing. Only a very small part of it is constructed before Tony is forced to fire the weapon to take out an invading alien fleet, which destroys the construction.
Guardians of the Galaxy: The modern-day team visits one early on in Guardians of the Galaxy (2008), when a fissure in time and space opens up there. They arrive and find that the locals aren't there. And when they do find them, they really wish they hadn't. Note that only the tiniest fraction of the sphere's surface was inhabited, protected from the local star by a shell, which the team had to open to get rid of what they found. The trouble with that started when they wound up a good distance away from the control panel required to re-seal the shell.
New Mutants features a Dyson Sphere belonging to Cannonball's then-girlfriend, Lila Cheney. It was built and abandoned by unknown aliens, but Lila (whose power is intergalactic teleportation) found it and claimed it as her base of operations. Since she can only teleport over intergalactic distances, any short-range travel requires a double teleport, with the Dyson Sphere being a convenient transit point. It's featured in the opening and publicity artworks as a nice, yellow-greenish background.
 Dyson Sphere / int_62570927
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_62570927
featureConfidence
1.0
 Marvel Universe (Franchise)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_62570927
 Dyson Sphere / int_6909a0a9
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_6909a0a9
comment
In the non-canon novel series Star Trek: Titan, the crew of the U.S.S. Titan uncover evidence of the existence of what may be the largest lifeform in the galaxy, a living Dyson Sphere distantly related to an alien lifeform the Enterprise encountered in The Next Generation pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint".
 Dyson Sphere / int_6909a0a9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_6909a0a9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Titan
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_6909a0a9
 Dyson Sphere / int_69daf29
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_69daf29
comment
Grrl Power: When Sydney discovers her orbs' FTL function she winds up at The Fracture, an interstellar trade station that appears to be a Dyson sphere built around a neutron star and using it to power several gates, some of which are big enough for entire fleets of ships.
 Dyson Sphere / int_69daf29
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_69daf29
featureConfidence
1.0
 Grrl Power (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_69daf29
 Dyson Sphere / int_755b343f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_755b343f
comment
Halo: The Forerunners built quite a few of these. Known as "Shield Worlds'', they were intended to be bunkers where the Forerunners would take shelter when the Halo Array was triggered:
Halo Wars: The final arc takes place in a micro Shield World, complete with a miniature artificial sun. Serina reacts appropriately upon realizing they've been pulled inside a planet only to wind up on another planet.
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx has one that's Bigger on the Inside. Specifically, though the sphere itself is twice the size of Earth's orbit, it is contained within a slipspace bubble that is only 23 centimeters in normal space; due to this, time passes much slower inside the sphere than it does outside. Considering that the Forerunners were an interstellar empire ruling over a countless number of less-advanced sentient species, it's understandable that they felt like they would need a lot of room (a Dyson sphere that size would have over fifteen trillion times the surface area of Earth).
Halo 4 is mostly set within Requiem, the oldest known Shield World. It's similar to the Halo Wars example, but instead housing a star surrounded by an "inside-out" planet, Requiem's outer shell houses additionally layered shells, the outermost of which has an Earth-like environment on its surface.
Halo: Broken Circle features an incomplete Shield World similar to (if nowhere near as complex as) Requiem, named "The Refuge" by its current inhabitants, the Ussan Sangheili. It also has an experimental emergency feature where it can break apart and hide its various components in a nearby asteroid belt.
 Dyson Sphere / int_755b343f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_755b343f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Halo (Franchise)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_755b343f
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653a
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653a
comment
Mass Effect 2: Legion states that the end desire of the mainstream geth is to build a structure somewhat analogous to a Dyson sphere and upload each one of their individual programs into it. The geth gain proportionally in intelligence as they mass together, with more bodies or "mobile platforms" available meaning faster processing and higher thought processes. If every geth were able to simultaneously occupy one such super-structure, they would become nigh-omniscient.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7668653a
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653b
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653b
comment
As of Mass Effect 3, the geth have finished it... just in time for the quarian Migrant Fleet to roll in with a new weapon that disables geth, who then destroy the superstructure, which houses the majority of the geth "species" and utterly shattering their ability to process and analyze data. The geth revert to survival mode, and turn to the Reapers for code upgrades to protect them from immediate destruction by the quarians.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7668653b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mass Effect 3 (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7668653b
 Dyson Sphere / int_7988cb68
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7988cb68
comment
Mass Effect:
Mass Effect 2: Legion states that the end desire of the mainstream geth is to build a structure somewhat analogous to a Dyson sphere and upload each one of their individual programs into it. The geth gain proportionally in intelligence as they mass together, with more bodies or "mobile platforms" available meaning faster processing and higher thought processes. If every geth were able to simultaneously occupy one such super-structure, they would become nigh-omniscient.
As of Mass Effect 3, the geth have finished it... just in time for the quarian Migrant Fleet to roll in with a new weapon that disables geth, who then destroy the superstructure, which houses the majority of the geth "species" and utterly shattering their ability to process and analyze data. The geth revert to survival mode, and turn to the Reapers for code upgrades to protect them from immediate destruction by the quarians.
Mass Effect: Andromeda: The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Meridian, is one of these (albeit a tiny one, noted to be roughly the size of Earth's moon). Also, it's mobile.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7988cb68
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7988cb68
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mass Effect (Franchise)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7988cb68
 Dyson Sphere / int_79c43540
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_79c43540
comment
Seedship: You can find one of these during the game, and interacting with it will allow the player to enact the Simulation ending if they accept the alien's offer to take in the ship.
 Dyson Sphere / int_79c43540
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_79c43540
featureConfidence
1.0
 Seedship (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_79c43540
 Dyson Sphere / int_7d8c61a2
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7d8c61a2
comment
Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion has an artificial world called Iokath. A Dyson sphere constructed by an incredibly advanced ancient civilization, it completely engulfs its star, making both completely undetectable to the larger Star Wars galaxy.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7d8c61a2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7d8c61a2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Wars: The Old Republic (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7d8c61a2
 Dyson Sphere / int_7de8951a
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7de8951a
comment
Traveller. A Klemperer Rosette created by the Ancients exists in the Tireen system in the Vargr Extents.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7de8951a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7de8951a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Traveller (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7de8951a
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f220f02
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f220f02
comment
The USS Protostar from Star Trek: Prodigy gets its name due to being powered by an artificial protostar allowing it to travel thousands of lightyears in minutes.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f220f02
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f220f02
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Prodigy
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7f220f02
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f7ae36e
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f7ae36e
comment
Halo: Broken Circle features an incomplete Shield World similar to (if nowhere near as complex as) Requiem, named "The Refuge" by its current inhabitants, the Ussan Sangheili. It also has an experimental emergency feature where it can break apart and hide its various components in a nearby asteroid belt.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f7ae36e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7f7ae36e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Halo: Broken Circle
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7f7ae36e
 Dyson Sphere / int_7fadd8ef
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_7fadd8ef
comment
Fargate: One species has one of these as their home system. As these aliens possess no apparent mechanical technology but are the masters of biological manipulation, the entire double-layered Dyson Sphere is grown organically. It looks very fleshy.
 Dyson Sphere / int_7fadd8ef
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_7fadd8ef
featureConfidence
1.0
 Far Gate (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_7fadd8ef
 Dyson Sphere / int_8001652d
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_8001652d
comment
Commonwealth Saga: A Dyson Sphere made of a forcefield holds the Sealed Evil in a Can.
 Dyson Sphere / int_8001652d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_8001652d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Commonwealth Saga
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_8001652d
 Dyson Sphere / int_81692f99
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_81692f99
comment
Star Trek cartoons offer some vastly smaller versions:
The USS Protostar from Star Trek: Prodigy gets its name due to being powered by an artificial protostar allowing it to travel thousands of lightyears in minutes.
In the Lower Decks episode "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", Rutherford is trying to work out how Lieutenant Shaxs came back from the dead. One of his imaginary scenarios has Shaxs saying that a microscopic civilization brought him back to life and turned his body into a tiny Dyson sphere.
 Dyson Sphere / int_81692f99
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_81692f99
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek (Franchise)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_81692f99
 Dyson Sphere / int_84034d7f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_84034d7f
comment
Pantheon has a Time Skip to the very distant future in the final episode, where Maddie has constructed a Dyson Swarm around a star for the purpose of powering a vast simulation to model countless variations on human history.
 Dyson Sphere / int_84034d7f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_84034d7f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Pantheon
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_84034d7f
 Dyson Sphere / int_8a39c411
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_8a39c411
comment
Hyperion Cantos: In The Rise of Endymion, the Ousters are growing an organic Dyson Sphere around a star. It does not have gravity. While this particular one is heavily damaged by the Pax war fleet (at least, the narrator assumes the damage was heavy — he is not a very smart guy and only saw the start of the battle) it is revealed that there are more in existence.
 Dyson Sphere / int_8a39c411
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_8a39c411
featureConfidence
1.0
 Hyperion Cantos
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_8a39c411
 Dyson Sphere / int_8fd3db0b
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_8fd3db0b
comment
In the Lower Decks episode "We'll Always Have Tom Paris", Rutherford is trying to work out how Lieutenant Shaxs came back from the dead. One of his imaginary scenarios has Shaxs saying that a microscopic civilization brought him back to life and turned his body into a tiny Dyson sphere.
 Dyson Sphere / int_8fd3db0b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_8fd3db0b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Lower Decks
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_8fd3db0b
 Dyson Sphere / int_928a8b2b
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_928a8b2b
comment
The Death Gate Cycle: Pryan, the world of fire, is a hollow sphere with an internal surface covered by miles-high jungles and with four small suns at its center. As the suns never set or move, it has no true night (the closest most of the world gets are storms that move over its surface at regular intervals and provide some measure of darkness) outside of areas where darkness is provided by artificial means. Most of the characters are not aware of the world's nature for a while, resulting in some difficulty and confusion when navigating it, as most of them had a more "regular" world in mind. It is the biggest of the four worlds by far, having far more surface area than even the pre-sundering Earth. It's also the most sparsely populated, as there has simply not been enough time in the setting's relatively brief history for the its population to grow enough to inhabit more than a tiny part of its surface. This is also why Zifnab gets an elf inventor to start shooting rockets day and night to attract Haplo's attention when he enters the world — it's implied that, without some visual cue to head for, Haplo could have spent a lifetime flying over Pryan without ever coming across civilization. Originally, it was designed by the Sartan to be essentially an enormous power plant for the same reasons that it's theorized high-tech civilizations would be driven to build such spheres — its shape means that all the suns' energy is captured and channelled into its rocky crust, from where it is then directed into a number of citadels. From there, it's channeled into complex machinery that sends it off to the other worlds.
 Dyson Sphere / int_928a8b2b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_928a8b2b
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Death Gate Cycle
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_928a8b2b
 Dyson Sphere / int_97a77531
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_97a77531
comment
House of Suns: Dyson spheres made out of perfectly reflective Ring World Planets are used to encapsulate stars that are about to go supernova.
 Dyson Sphere / int_97a77531
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_97a77531
featureConfidence
1.0
 House of Suns
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_97a77531
 Dyson Sphere / int_98670fed
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_98670fed
comment
Tom Strong: The supporting character Johnny Future comes from a more realistic one, known as the Crepusculum, a cloud of space colonies orbiting a dying sun.
 Dyson Sphere / int_98670fed
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_98670fed
featureConfidence
1.0
 Tom Strong (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_98670fed
 Dyson Sphere / int_997cc3b9
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_997cc3b9
comment
Heretical Edge: At one point in the backstory, the Seosten found seven Dyson Spheres and connected each sphere to one of their champions so they could draw upon their power, creating the Archangels.
 Dyson Sphere / int_997cc3b9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_997cc3b9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Heretical Edge
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_997cc3b9
 Dyson Sphere / int_9a0c0ffa
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_9a0c0ffa
comment
The History of the Galaxy: An unfinished Dyson Sphere was built three million years ago by the Insects as a way to escape an oncoming swarm of Planet Eaters. The idea was to hide the star from the outside, as the swarm is attracted to starlight. They manage to build most of it, but the swarm still reaches them. Strangely, the Forerunners don't consume it but merely damage it. The sphere is part of the ancient Portal Network. Interestingly, one novel reveals that the "sphere" is a misnomer, as the structure is, in fact, an ellipsoid and looks like an American football from the side. The wider sides are the habitable ones. The Insects' modern-day descendants have forgotten all about their glorious past.
 Dyson Sphere / int_9a0c0ffa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_9a0c0ffa
featureConfidence
1.0
 The History of the Galaxy
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_9a0c0ffa
 Dyson Sphere / int_9e20ccb2
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_9e20ccb2
comment
Glorious Shotgun Princess: This is what Autochthon's worldform jouten looks like from the outside.
 Dyson Sphere / int_9e20ccb2
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_9e20ccb2
featureConfidence
1.0
 Glorious Shotgun Princess / Fan Fic
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_9e20ccb2
 Dyson Sphere / int_a0219faa
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_a0219faa
comment
There's also one in Star Trek: New Frontier, but called a Thul Sphere after the financier. Needless to say, it gets blown up.
 Dyson Sphere / int_a0219faa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_a0219faa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: New Frontier
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_a0219faa
 Dyson Sphere / int_a183d57f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_a183d57f
comment
Futurama: In "Decision 3012", Richard Nixon wants to build a Dyson fence to keep alien immigrants out of the solar system rather than collect energy.
 Dyson Sphere / int_a183d57f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_a183d57f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Futurama
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_a183d57f
 Dyson Sphere / int_a2a386c9
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_a2a386c9
comment
Orion's Arm: Many types appear. Most are swarms of oribiting habitats, housing either humanoid-friendly environments or computer systems home to AI. One is a suprastellar shell, a solid Dyson sphere (actively supported) that people live on the outside of. The one and only solid Dyson Sphere which people live on the inside of is called "the Impossible Dyson" and exists only in a virtual reality.
 Dyson Sphere / int_a2a386c9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_a2a386c9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Orion's Arm (Website)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_a2a386c9
 Dyson Sphere / int_a64f5d10
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_a64f5d10
comment
Men in Black: International: The MacGuffin turns out to be a star compressed into a handheld gun that's capable of destroying solar systems.
 Dyson Sphere / int_a64f5d10
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_a64f5d10
featureConfidence
1.0
 Men in Black: International
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_a64f5d10
 Dyson Sphere / int_a825da3e
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_a825da3e
comment
Magic: The Gathering has a plane called Pyrulea, which is a Dyson Forest. It's a hollow sphere around a star, with its entire inner surface covered by towering rainforests of massive, massive trees — "massive" here meaning that their individual leaves are large enough to build a small house on.
 Dyson Sphere / int_a825da3e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_a825da3e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Magic: The Gathering (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_a825da3e
 Dyson Sphere / int_a843aac3
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_a843aac3
comment
Polycon, a total conversion for EV Nova, contains several of these, including at least one Dyson cube.
 Dyson Sphere / int_a843aac3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_a843aac3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Polycon (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_a843aac3
 Dyson Sphere / int_aa188702
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_aa188702
comment
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx has one that's Bigger on the Inside. Specifically, though the sphere itself is twice the size of Earth's orbit, it is contained within a slipspace bubble that is only 23 centimeters in normal space; due to this, time passes much slower inside the sphere than it does outside. Considering that the Forerunners were an interstellar empire ruling over a countless number of less-advanced sentient species, it's understandable that they felt like they would need a lot of room (a Dyson sphere that size would have over fifteen trillion times the surface area of Earth).
 Dyson Sphere / int_aa188702
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_aa188702
featureConfidence
1.0
 Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_aa188702
 Dyson Sphere / int_ac8b90f5
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_ac8b90f5
comment
Mage: The Ascension has a Dyson Sphere that belongs to the Void Engineers; the Copernicus Research Center functions as an Earth-away-from-Earth for a large number of Engineers, researchers, and their families. This actually puts the Void Engineers under suspicion: People started thinking that it'd be unlikely they managed to build "the Cop" on their own, and some wonder if they got it from some... "friends"... they met beyond the stars. In one outcome of The End of the World as We Know It, the Void Engineers retreat to the Sphere en masse and leave the Universe in their own portable biosphere.
 Dyson Sphere / int_ac8b90f5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_ac8b90f5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_ac8b90f5
 Dyson Sphere / int_b295cab3
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_b295cab3
comment
Aeon 14: The Last Bastion of Star City: The eponymous settlement is a Dyson sphere built around a neutron star. The inhabitants have reportedly fended off a number of Orion Guard attacks by dumping matter into the star to produce a targeted X-ray burst.
 Dyson Sphere / int_b295cab3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_b295cab3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Aeon 14
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_b295cab3
 Dyson Sphere / int_b5298d8
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_b5298d8
comment
Mission Critical: The ending cutscene has the protagonist travel to the future (a positive one this time), where humans and ELFs live in peace. Earth is gone and has been replaced by a Dyson Sphere, with the humans living on the inner surface, while the ELFs live on the outside, as they don't need air or heat.
 Dyson Sphere / int_b5298d8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_b5298d8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mission Critical (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_b5298d8
 Dyson Sphere / int_b995397d
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_b995397d
comment
Space Pirates and Zombies has stars encased in glass cages as window dressing for some maps.
 Dyson Sphere / int_b995397d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_b995397d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Space Pirates and Zombies (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_b995397d
 Dyson Sphere / int_bcadd7cb
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_bcadd7cb
comment
Warhammer 40,000:
One of the C'tan star-gods is sealed inside a Dyson Sphere. Whether it was imprisoned or sealed itself there is not quite clear (although the background seems to suggest the latter).
In the Space Marine Battles novel Malodrax the titular planet is surrounded by a orbital coral reef, because the writers in this franchise will go to any length necessary to drive home the point that Space Is an Ocean. Interestingly, the reef does nothing to block out the planet's twin suns... though Malodrax is a daemon world, so it probably gets free sunlight from the Warp instead.
 Dyson Sphere / int_bcadd7cb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_bcadd7cb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Warhammer 40,000 (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_bcadd7cb
 Dyson Sphere / int_c346fa94
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c346fa94
comment
New Mutants features a Dyson Sphere belonging to Cannonball's then-girlfriend, Lila Cheney. It was built and abandoned by unknown aliens, but Lila (whose power is intergalactic teleportation) found it and claimed it as her base of operations. Since she can only teleport over intergalactic distances, any short-range travel requires a double teleport, with the Dyson Sphere being a convenient transit point. It's featured in the opening and publicity artworks as a nice, yellow-greenish background.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c346fa94
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c346fa94
featureConfidence
1.0
 New Mutants (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c346fa94
 Dyson Sphere / int_c399cd39
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c399cd39
comment
Eclipse Phase: One exoplanet is believed to be a Dyson sphere. Who built it, and why, and why the Pandora Gate is on the outside, and why it shoots down any attempt at orbit, and at least a hundred other things about it, is not known.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c399cd39
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c399cd39
featureConfidence
1.0
 Eclipse Phase (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c399cd39
 Dyson Sphere / int_c433d063
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c433d063
comment
Final Fantasy:
Final Fantasy XIII takes place mostly within one called "Cocoon" run by the fal'Cie. It even has its own miniature fal'Cie sun inside.
Final Fantasy XIV has Dalamud, which was treated before as the second moon of the world until the Calamity when it's revealed that it contained a royally pissed off Bahamut, sealed inside for thousands of years, who proceeded to unleash hell on earth. Had it not been for Louisoix performing a Heroic Sacrifice, there would be nothing left.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c433d063
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c433d063
featureConfidence
1.0
 Final Fantasy (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c433d063
 Dyson Sphere / int_c43df4d8
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c43df4d8
comment
Doctor Who: The episode "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS" reveals that the TARDIS itself is a Dyson Sphere. The TARDIS is Bigger on the Inside, and one "room" contains a massive star frozen in time at the moment it collapses into a black hole. This is the "Eye of Harmony" that powers the TARDIS' engines.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c43df4d8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c43df4d8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Doctor Who
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c43df4d8
 Dyson Sphere / int_c675b3d7
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c675b3d7
comment
Star Trek Expanded Universe:
A Star Trek novel about the sphere in TNG: "Relics" indicates that the area around this sphere is nearly devoid of other star systems, because the ancient builders of the Dyson sphere had consumed them (stars and all!) for raw materials. It also implies that the sphere's builders would go on to become the Borg.
There's also one in Star Trek: New Frontier, but called a Thul Sphere after the financier. Needless to say, it gets blown up.
In the non-canon novel series Star Trek: Titan, the crew of the U.S.S. Titan uncover evidence of the existence of what may be the largest lifeform in the galaxy, a living Dyson Sphere distantly related to an alien lifeform the Enterprise encountered in The Next Generation pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint".
In one of the other non-canonical novels, part of the Star Trek: Millennium trilogy, O'Brien is trapped in one of these for what seems like years as the Fate Worse than Death meted to him by the Pah-Wraiths.
The Star Trek: Destiny trilogy features the Caeliar. They build a sphere around their sun to hide it from the rest of the galaxy and another smaller one around their planet which draws energy from the sun's sphere allowing them to make the Omega Particles which power their civilization. It's later shown that a civilization in one of the first galaxies ever formed, in reality an offshoot faction of the Caeliar which had been sent back in time billions of years, by an accident which nearly destroyed their civilization, built spheres around every single star in that galaxy, thereby harnessing not just the full power of a single star, but the full power of an entire galaxy. They do this in order to create a Stable Time Loop and CAUSE the 'accident' which sent them back in time to begin with. The Enterprise E briefly visits this 'shrouded galaxy' by traveling through a subspace corridor and realize any race capable of doing such a thing is one best left alone, and very quickly gets out of there.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c675b3d7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c675b3d7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek Expanded Universe (Franchise)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c675b3d7
 Dyson Sphere / int_c758b6fd
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c758b6fd
comment
Voidskipper: These are a common construction project for inhabited star systems, albeit in the originally intended "huge cloud of space habitats and power satellites" sense. When fully completed they can easily accommodate a population in the quintillions.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c758b6fd
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c758b6fd
featureConfidence
1.0
 Voidskipper
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c758b6fd
 Dyson Sphere / int_c7c2113d
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_c7c2113d
comment
Mighty Orbots: Umbra, the Big Bad, is a Dyson Sphere. He's the core of the Shadow Star, a world so large that it contains its own internal sun.
 Dyson Sphere / int_c7c2113d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_c7c2113d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mighty Orbots
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_c7c2113d
 Dyson Sphere / int_cc4d8da5
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_cc4d8da5
comment
Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon contains the first known instance of this, long before Freeman Dyson came up with it and gave it a name. During the travels of the narrators, they encounter several of these that range from uninhabited spheres, spheres composed of artificial beings and artificial-but-sentient spheres that share a symbiosis with their inhabitants who are also artificial and sentient beings. It's even more complex than it sounds.
 Dyson Sphere / int_cc4d8da5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_cc4d8da5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Maker
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_cc4d8da5
 Dyson Sphere / int_d109f322
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_d109f322
comment
Andromeda: The Magog Worldship is somewhat closer to the original concept of a Dyson Sphere but even more fantastic in some ways. It consists of twenty inter-connected planets surrounding an artificial sun. If the stresses involved in connecting twenty planet-sized bodies in stable orbits around a sun isn't enough, the entire thing could move.
 Dyson Sphere / int_d109f322
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_d109f322
featureConfidence
1.0
 Andromeda
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_d109f322
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5166b45
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5166b45
comment
Halo 4 is mostly set within Requiem, the oldest known Shield World. It's similar to the Halo Wars example, but instead housing a star surrounded by an "inside-out" planet, Requiem's outer shell houses additionally layered shells, the outermost of which has an Earth-like environment on its surface.
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5166b45
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5166b45
featureConfidence
1.0
 Halo 4 (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_d5166b45
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5505073
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5505073
comment
Uplift: Retired species live in fractal worlds that are similar to Dyson sphere built around red dwarf stars from hydrogen snow impregnated with carbon fibers. The structure also extends inward towards the star in fractal patterns to maximize "window space".
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5505073
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_d5505073
featureConfidence
1.0
 Uplift
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_d5505073
 Dyson Sphere / int_d79407e3
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_d79407e3
comment
Blame! takes place inside of one. This is hinted at throughout the story, but the biggest piece of evidence comes later on when the protagonist finds a chamber that is absolutely massive. Its measured diameter is the same as that of the planet Jupiter and possibly where it was entombed until all of it's matter was eventually stripped away.
 Dyson Sphere / int_d79407e3
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_d79407e3
featureConfidence
1.0
 Blame (Manga)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_d79407e3
 Dyson Sphere / int_d930a4c7
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_d930a4c7
comment
Spelljammer: First, Crystal Spheres often take this appearance (e.g. Realmspace has pseudo-stars, walking cursed people and big magical scroll-like writings on its inner surface, while Herdspace's inner surface is out-and-out inhabitable and home to colossal megafauna). Also, while Penumbra's Stellar Well isn't a Dyson Sphere, it's a large enough part of it, and the disk behind it is of Dyson Sphere scale.
 Dyson Sphere / int_d930a4c7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_d930a4c7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Spelljammer (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_d930a4c7
 Dyson Sphere / int_e1a2f696
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_e1a2f696
comment
Valvrave the Liberator: The series descriptions say that 70% of humanity is now living in space "thanks to the development of the Dyson Sphere". Though the story never delves into the nature of the sphere, it has the characters living on one of many modules that are territories of Earth nations (they are from JIOR, which is essentially future Japan). Theirs is Module 77, and it appears to be big enough for just their school and a small town. They end up disconnecting their module from the sphere, and moving it to the Moon, which is neutral territory.
 Dyson Sphere / int_e1a2f696
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_e1a2f696
featureConfidence
1.0
 Valvrave the Liberator
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_e1a2f696
 Dyson Sphere / int_e235270c
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_e235270c
comment
Stellaris allows you to build your own Dyson Spheres as of the Utopia expansion, though doing so is a massive undertaking. They can only be built in uninhabitable systems (because blocking the sun like that freezes every world around it), and are constructed in six stages that take a total of 55 years and tens of thousands of alloys to finish - but once you are finished, you can basically forget about building power plants for your Energy Economy ever again. You may also find ruined Dyson Spheres left behind by some Precursor civilization, which can be repaired for faster and cheaper than building your own from scratch.
 Dyson Sphere / int_e235270c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_e235270c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Stellaris (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_e235270c
 Dyson Sphere / int_e7afca1f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_e7afca1f
comment
Infinite Space: The Dyson sphere covers the Sun, absorbing its energy to empower the True Void Gate. Taranis successfully destroyed it in the end of the game at the cost of his own life, preventing the Overlords from destroying the universe further.
 Dyson Sphere / int_e7afca1f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_e7afca1f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Infinite Space / Videogame
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_e7afca1f
 Dyson Sphere / int_e8bca4f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_e8bca4f
comment
Eldraeverse: The Empire of the Star has built two, which they refer to as Cirys bubbles or swarms after the eldrae who devised the concept. One is a "bubble" made of light-sail material used to power antimatter production facilities, the other is a "swarm" that houses the Transcend's central processing node.
 Dyson Sphere / int_e8bca4f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_e8bca4f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Eldraeverse
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_e8bca4f
 Dyson Sphere / int_eac6616d
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_eac6616d
comment
Dyson Sphere Program: The player takes the role of an engineer sent to a star system to construct a Dyson sphere for humanity to inhabit, as the far future civilization can no longer supply its energy needs with what's available on Earth. Building it also requires strip-mining the resources of an entire cluster of up to sixty-four star systems, including all their planets, and you have to accomplish this all on your lonesome. Also of note is that the game features a Dyson swarm as an intermediate stage between planet-bound solar panels and the rigid Dyson shell that is the final goal.
 Dyson Sphere / int_eac6616d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_eac6616d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Dyson Sphere Program (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_eac6616d
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb0dd02a
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb0dd02a
comment
AI War: Fleet Command: Zenith Dyson Spheres can be found around the galaxy as a minor faction, who usually just want to be left alone. They will attack anyone that bothers them by sending endless Zenith vessels, and may actually make a brief alliance with anyone that helps keep their surroundings free of pesky owners (thus, liberating without capturing is usually a good option). You can mess with them through hacking, but anything you try will get them pissy. Interestingly, knowing how Zenith work, it's very likely the sphere is an actual, living creature, or at least was one once.
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb0dd02a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb0dd02a
featureConfidence
1.0
 AI War: Fleet Command (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_eb0dd02a
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb3f3551
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb3f3551
comment
Mass Effect: Andromeda: The Very Definitely Final Dungeon, Meridian, is one of these (albeit a tiny one, noted to be roughly the size of Earth's moon). Also, it's mobile.
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb3f3551
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb3f3551
featureConfidence
1.0
 Mass Effect: Andromeda (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_eb3f3551
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb6802b4
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb6802b4
comment
Final Fantasy XIII takes place mostly within one called "Cocoon" run by the fal'Cie. It even has its own miniature fal'Cie sun inside.
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb6802b4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_eb6802b4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Final Fantasy XIII (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_eb6802b4
 Dyson Sphere / int_ec9965ca
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_ec9965ca
comment
The Culture: Dyson spheres are referenced in the casualty list of the Culture/Idiran War at the end of Consider Phlebas.
 Dyson Sphere / int_ec9965ca
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_ec9965ca
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Culture
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_ec9965ca
 Dyson Sphere / int_edbc9738
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_edbc9738
comment
Transmetropolitan has an inversion: instead of building the sphere around the Sun, the planet Mercury was covered in solar panels in order to supply the gargantuan energy needs of Earth (such as household appliances that reconstitute atoms into electronics and food).
 Dyson Sphere / int_edbc9738
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_edbc9738
featureConfidence
1.0
 Transmetropolitan (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_edbc9738
 Dyson Sphere / int_f2db390d
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_f2db390d
comment
Prey (2006) takes place, for the most part, in an organic/cybernetic living Dyson spaceship, the "Sphere". It's essentially a smaller version of this trope, with a small dwarf star at its core.
 Dyson Sphere / int_f2db390d
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_f2db390d
featureConfidence
1.0
 Prey (2006) (Video Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_f2db390d
 Dyson Sphere / int_f367511c
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_f367511c
comment
Yu-Gi-Oh!: There is an Xyz Monster called Number 9: Dyson Sphere, a Real Life version of the card used by V in the anime, as well as its upgraded form, Number C9: Chaos Dyson Sphere. Both card artworks are shown on a space background, and both are shown to have an actual sun in their cores to power them.
 Dyson Sphere / int_f367511c
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_f367511c
featureConfidence
1.0
 Yu-Gi-Oh! (Tabletop Game)
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_f367511c
 Dyson Sphere / int_f7e78a6f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_f7e78a6f
comment
The Star Trek: Destiny trilogy features the Caeliar. They build a sphere around their sun to hide it from the rest of the galaxy and another smaller one around their planet which draws energy from the sun's sphere allowing them to make the Omega Particles which power their civilization. It's later shown that a civilization in one of the first galaxies ever formed, in reality an offshoot faction of the Caeliar which had been sent back in time billions of years, by an accident which nearly destroyed their civilization, built spheres around every single star in that galaxy, thereby harnessing not just the full power of a single star, but the full power of an entire galaxy. They do this in order to create a Stable Time Loop and CAUSE the 'accident' which sent them back in time to begin with. The Enterprise E briefly visits this 'shrouded galaxy' by traveling through a subspace corridor and realize any race capable of doing such a thing is one best left alone, and very quickly gets out of there.
 Dyson Sphere / int_f7e78a6f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_f7e78a6f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: Destiny
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_f7e78a6f
 Dyson Sphere / int_fd74a791
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_fd74a791
comment
Doctor Who New Adventures: The Also People has two.
The main plot is set in a Dyson Sphere inhabited by a society which seems suspiciously similar to Iain M. Banks's Culturenote And by "suspiciously similar" we mean the dedication is "I'd like to remind everyone that while talent borrows and genius steals, New Adventure writers get it off the back of a lorry, no questions asked." and who have orbited a planet inside it. As a mark of the dwellers' sense of humour the planet is called Whynot and is home to a massive supercomputer named God.
The other appears in a brief flashback to Bernice's past when she was a field archaeologist. It is an abandoned ruin, slowly disintegrating, and its current inhabitants are a species that evolved in it after the start of its disintegration and abandonment.
 Dyson Sphere / int_fd74a791
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_fd74a791
featureConfidence
1.0
 Doctor Who New Adventures
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_fd74a791
 Dyson Sphere / int_ff9ab17f
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere / int_ff9ab17f
comment
Star Trek: The Next Generation: In "Relics", the ''Enterprise' encounters such a sphere, that was abandoned after the encased star became unstable, rendering the inner surface uninhabitable. The characters themselves, even with all their advanced technology and having encountered far more advanced aliens, are astonished that anybody would be capable of building such a thing.
 Dyson Sphere / int_ff9ab17f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Dyson Sphere / int_ff9ab17f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Trek: The Next Generation
hasFeature
Dyson Sphere / int_ff9ab17f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Dyson Sphere
processingCategory2
Futuristic Tech Index
 Dyson Sphere
processingCategory2
Heliotropes
 Dyson Sphere
processingCategory2
Settings
 Dyson Sphere
processingCategory2
Shapes and Symbols Tropes
 Dyson Sphere
processingCategory2
Speculative Fiction Tropes
 Dyson Sphere
processingCategory2
Tropes in Space
 Sol Bianca / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Valvrave the Liberator
seeAlso
Dyson Sphere
 Valvrave the Liberator / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Far Sector (Comic Book) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Sins of Sinister (Comic Book) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Storm (Don Lawrence) (Comic Book) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Geostorm / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Men in Black: International / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Moonfall / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Stellaris Invicta (Lets Play) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Aeon 14 / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 All Tomorrows / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Axiom's End / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Halo: Ghosts of Onyx / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Hyperion Cantos / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Pandora's Star / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Sister Alice / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Space Marine Battles / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Spinneret / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 SporeWiki Fiction Universe / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Star Maker / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 The History of the Galaxy / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 The Time Ships / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Unfettered
seeAlso
Dyson Sphere
 Voidskipper / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Xeelee Sequence / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Ptitleoredu8eg
seeAlso
Dyson Sphere
 Discord Plays Stellaris (Roleplay) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Corporation (Tabletop Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Eclipse Phase (Tabletop Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Gramarie System (Tabletop Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Numenera (Tabletop Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 The Splinter (Tabletop Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 A Final Unity (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Dyson Sphere Program (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Evolve Idle (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Gigastructural Engineering And More (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Gigastructural Enginnering And More (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Gradius (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Halo Wars (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Homeworld (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Mission Critical (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Overload (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Seedship (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Space Pirates and Zombies (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Isaac Arthur (Web Video) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Stellaris Invicta (Web Video) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Burgess Shale (Webcomic) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Grrl Power (Webcomic) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Multiverses Wiki (Website) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Orion's Arm (Website) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Pantheon / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Star Trek: Prodigy / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Undocumented Features / Fan Fic / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 The Death Gate Cycle / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere
 Space Empires (Video Game) / int_b91be405
type
Dyson Sphere