Quote:
Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl
Considering that the desperate would include everyone being colonized by Europe, that is the vast majority of humanity. South Asia would have likely used its mystical traditions to toss the East Indian Company out on its ear, effectively destroying the British Empire. The tribes of Siberia and Far East Asia, and their shapeshifter allies, would have used their mystical traditions to roll the Russian Empire back to the Urals. Within a couple of decades, the European colonial empires would be only a traumatic memory, soon forgotten as magical empires fight over resources.
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Why?
Without institutional expertise in administration, law and all the boring stuff that polities actuslly require to function at more than tribal level, there is no reason to assume that there would be coherent entities like South Asia or even that tribes in Siberia or South East Asia would be capable of working together effectively.
In fact, there is every reason to suspect that only the strongest institutions could survive the upheaval of supernatural powers emerging. Areas with little infrastructure and limited organizational traditions would be more likely to collapse into bloodsoaked anarchy than to be able to make any kind of efficient use of individuals born within their borders with esoteric abilities.
Social organization is technology, the most powerful technology possessed by any polity in the 19th century, and it will act as an enormous force multiplier for any exotic abilities.