New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The generally unrecognized factor in the Habsburg rise to power was Fugger bankers, especially Jakob Fugger. However, in this Q6 world, Jakob Fugger died young and the Welsers couldn't bridge the gaps. This lead to the House of Valois having a shot at the Imperial Throne.

By 1585, France, Spain, The Holy Roman Empire, and the vast majority of Spain's overseas empire, is ruled by the king of France. Henry III is that king. Read the article, the situation is less than ideal.

Centrum wants to hijack Elizabeth of England, wed her to Henry and have James of Scotland get the throne. Four-fifths of Europe would kill to stop that. Homeline just wants the France superstate to fall gently down and not take Europe's future with it. The Homeline French want Henry IV to inherit smoothly, which is not quiet as unpopular as Centrum's plan. The Swagmen want a major series of wars so they can loot freely.

[fchase8]

Infinity has just found a Q6 world, and I-Scouts have determined that it's 1933 - and FDR was just assassinated. Like, days ago, just before Infinity found the world.


Infinity is worried that this world could turn out like Reich-5 (same divergence point). But how to stop that? John Nance Garner is going to be inaugurated President of a shaken United States, but how can Infinity get him to the New Deal, Lend-Lease, etc.?

Infinity doesn't have agents on the ground, and there's already a power struggle going on in the White House & the Democratic Party, immediately on who is going to be the new Vice President. There are a million names out there, from segregationists to socialists.

(Note that it's too early for Henry Wallace, as he had held no office before becoming Secretary of Agriculture in 1933. Not to mention that Infinity knows that he did a bad job as President, 1941-1945, on Reich-5)

And what about killing Hitler and/or Stalin? If there was ever a time to break Infinity's no-killing rule, it would be during Hitler's rise to power and Stalin's famines & purges. But then maybe someone just as evil, but not as crazy/incompetent, comes to power...


Then there's the timing: FDR assassinated, Infinity discovers the world. Did his assassination make the world 'accessible' to Homeline? Did Infinity observation somehow 'cause' FDR's assassination?

And was his assassination a 'natural divergence', like the ones that create more regular parallels? Or did an outtime actor kill FDR?

At Q6, it's reachable by Centrum. Surely Interworld wouldn't go this far - but they don't have Homeline's history with Nazis, and don't know about Reich-5.

What about The Cabal? Or even someone from Homeline?


And is this world an echo or parallel? Infinity hasn't been able to determine yet.

Could the assassination have been an attempt to 'move' it upwards by Centrum? Can Infinity's attempts to stave off another Reich 'move' it downwards?

Or what if saving the world from Nazis 'moves' it upwards?

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Infinity has just found a Q6 world, and I-Scouts have determined that it's 1933 - and FDR was just assassinated. Like, days ago, just before Infinity found the world.


Infinity is worried that this world could turn out like Reich-5 (same divergence point). But how to stop that? John Nance Garner is going to be inaugurated President of a shaken United States, but how can Infinity get him to the New Deal, Lend-Lease, etc.?

Infinity doesn't have agents on the ground, and there's already a power struggle going on in the White House & the Democratic Party, immediately on who is going to be the new Vice President. There are a million names out there, from segregationists to socialists.

(Note that it's too early for Henry Wallace, as he had held no office before becoming Secretary of Agriculture in 1933. Not to mention that Infinity knows that he did a bad job as President, 1941-1945, on Reich-5)

And what about killing Hitler and/or Stalin? If there was ever a time to break Infinity's no-killing rule, it would be during Hitler's rise to power and Stalin's famines & purges. But then maybe someone just as evil, but not as crazy/incompetent, comes to power...


Then there's the timing: FDR assassinated, Infinity discovers the world. Did his assassination make the world 'accessible' to Homeline? Did Infinity observation somehow 'cause' FDR's assassination?

And was his assassination a 'natural divergence', like the ones that create more regular parallels? Or did an outtime actor kill FDR?

At Q6, it's reachable by Centrum. Surely Interworld wouldn't go this far - but they don't have Homeline's history with Nazis, and don't know about Reich-5.

What about The Cabal? Or even someone from Homeline?


And is this world an echo or parallel? Infinity hasn't been able to determine yet.

Could the assassination have been an attempt to 'move' it upwards by Centrum? Can Infinity's attempts to stave off another Reich 'move' it downwards?

Or what if saving the world from Nazis 'moves' it upwards?

A grand set of fiendish traps fchase8!

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

This world seems like a myth parallel, it's got magic (Path/Book) and active magic users, dragons, elves, dwarfs, goblins, etc. The geography is nothing like Earth, the planet (while having the same gravity and day/night cycle) must have a circumference of at least 100,000 statute miles! And thus around sixteen times the surface area of the Earth!

However, all attempts to land in this parallel take the conveyor to the same vast plain drained by a set of rivers that make the Nile, the Amazon, the Mississippi/Missouri/Ohio, Volga, the Don, the Congo, and the Dnieper, collectively look like cute garden decorations. This plain is called Afonmaa and its central river is the Uisce.

The Uisce, a river flows into a vast swamp much like the Sudd and this swap is more than just malarial, it has several types of sentients that actively fight to keep all others away from their homelands. These swamps empty through vast marshes into the sea without ever having reformed a navigable river. Thus the civilization of the plain of the Uisce is totally cut off from sea by river transport. Other routes away from Afonmaa either face arctic wilderness or vast mountain ranges, so travel is rare and trade nonexistent.

However, a Cabalist who got to this world long ago saw that the swamps where caused by a vast mountain range, tall as the Andes, several hundred miles wide, and made of granite of unusual hardness. So crafting spells and gaining the services of powerful spirits, he started turning mountains to fine dust and having air elementals (and in special circumstances water elements) take the dust away. And thus created a two mile wide canal to the sea. The swamp, being about thirty feet above sea level, soon cut a channel through the soft silt to allow the vast rivers of Afonmaa to drain through the mountains to the sea.

The Cabalist has built a city at the harbor at the mouth of the Uisce, he's called it Tairseach, the door both ways.

The people ruling Tairseach are sending out ships to explore the world beyond the plain of Afonmaa. Homeline wants some of it's agents on these ships to learn the secrets of this strange vast world. Centrum has similar goals. The Cabal doesn't mind haven't the help going out, but they'd be less interested in either Homeline or Centrum agents ever returning alive.

This is a Q6, Low Manna (or at least Low Manna in known areas) world, that has been at the border between Tech Levels three and four for a long time. The possible economic and cultural exchanges that could be brought about by this new opening to the world might lead to rapid change.

[Emerald Cat]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This world seems like a myth parallel, it's got magic (Path/Book) and active magic users, dragons, elves, dwarfs, goblins, etc. The geography is nothing like Earth, the planet (while having the same gravity and day/night cycle) must have a circumference of at least 100,000 statute miles! And thus around sixteen times the surface area of the Earth!

I'm confused. Why does this world only "seem" like a myth parallel?

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This is a Q6, Low Manna (or at least Low Manna in known areas) world[...]

I would expect a supernatural anti-gravitational force on this world for it to have the same surface gravity as Earth.

Tying such a force to the local mana level seems natural. Mana itself having an anti-gravitational or gravity shielding effect would be interesting. No Mana zones would be uninhabitable due to the strong gravity. I'd personally make regions of Normal Mana +1/2 g, High Mana 0 g, and Very High Mana -1 g. Falling into the skies would be an occupational hazard for anyone who wants to cast in Very High Mana zones!

Alternatively, the anti-gravitational force could be mana consuming. In other words, gravity is strongest where the mana is. Anyone casting in a Very High Mana zone would need some good protective spells to survive the crushing gravity!

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Emerald Cat

I'm confused. Why does this world only "seem" like a myth parallel?

Mind slip, I forgot that a myth parallel can merely follow the tropes of fiction or myth without having to be a close copy of a given myth, legend, or work of fiction.

I would expect a supernatural anti-gravitational force on this world for it to have the same surface gravity as Earth.

Tying such a force to the local mana level seems natural. Mana itself having an anti-gravitational or gravity shielding effect would be interesting. No Mana zones would be uninhabitable due to the strong gravity. I'd personally make regions of Normal Mana +1/2 g, High Mana 0 g, and Very High Mana -1 g. Falling into the skies would be an occupational hazard for anyone who wants to cast in Very High Mana zones!

Alternatively, the anti-gravitational force could be mana consuming. In other words, gravity is strongest where the mana is. Anyone casting in a Very High Mana zone would need some good protective spells to survive the crushing gravity!

Fun ideas all. Myself, if I'm playing with the setting, i'd take the group back to when the last bit of the mountain barrier for the canal is gone and the swamp starts to change. The swamp folks, beasts, spirits, etc, would be on the warpath and not know where to strike.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

Several earthquakes have altered the courses of rivers in Central Asia and crushed civilizations. Instead of that, let's assume a different internal topography for Central Asia and have massive Earthquakes create a functional river trade route, with a fairly short portage, connecting China and the Caspian Sea in the Hellenistic period. By "Short Portage" I mean that the distance between where the river flowing to the Caspian Sea stops being navigable and the river flowing to China becomes navigable is fairly short and easy to deal with. Yes I know this is a vast and unlikely divergence.

What I'm going for is that Post-Alexander pre-Roman Conquest Greek Culture would be in regular contact with China and Vice Versa. Basically, a far more active and easier to traverse Silk Road. If we assume that the Spinning Wheel, the magnetic compass, the Stern post Rudder, the Push-Pedal Loom, and the Box Bellows (all of which came from China) travel down the trade route to the Mediterranean before the Roman Conquests, perhaps with Oranges, paper, cotton, Mulberries, Silkworms, sericulture, and other goodies coming along, and China gets glass and a few other goodies early. You could have a Tech Level 4 Rome and a Tech Level 4 China exploring the world, maybe even meeting each other at sea around India and Indonesia.

Swash your buckles with a side of Arabian Nights and some Lankhmar seasoning.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Nazi victories in WWII are so overplayed that I think the genre pre-dates the war. Japan is the go-to replacement, and then you get the USSR. I already did a bit on Italian victory (which required the direct intervention of rather confused Roman gods), so that's out. The one major combattant who is exceedingly rarely depicted as the sole superpower victor of WWII may be China, but no matter which China wins, you still end up with a dogmatic China that leaps onto the world stage even earlier.

So who's unusual, yet plausible among the minor combattants?

How about France?

Yes, they were a great power before the war, and yes, they were defeated embarrassingly quickly. But what needs to happen in order to make France come out of the war looking stronger than ever?

I can see three routes.

In the first, the French extend their historically limited occupation Germany, and put it further and further under their control. Britain puts pressure on their ally to not push too far, but their is little they can actually do. Germany falls under french dominion in a rather messy fashion, and Eastern Europe looks like its going to follow suit.

The Soviets aren't going to like this, and such a french government is more militaristic and right-leaning than the historical one. The Fascist wave of the 30's will lack the Nazi's and be more tempered (and considerably more catholic) than historically. In 1940, the soviets and the french allies of continental Europe go to war.

I think I'll leave Versailles-1 there. I don't know if it counts as a WWII change though.

The second route is the french (successfully) invading Germany when they first declared war in 1939, and the third involves a more competent French military turning back the invasion of 1940, probably with their historically superior tanks deployed in a more effective manner.

All three of these methods need a way to "solve" the french political dysfunction of the period.

I'll be posting more Versailles seeds later.

[Astromancer]

Historically, had France struck when they had the chance (during the Phoney War) Germany might have collapsed fairly quickly. On paper, France was the stronger power, and even after the events at Dunkirk the French scored major victories in the field. The problem was that Édouard Daladier was determined that the war would never touch French soil. If Daladier had been more fatalistic and realized that he couldn't keep the oncoming war away from France, he could just try to win it quickly, France could have beaten Germany. Hitler often left Germany overextended and vulnerable. If Édouard Daladier had gone for the jugular early in the war, Hitler would have been brought down by his poor planning and arrogance.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Historically, had France struck when they had the chance (during the Phoney War) Germany might have collapsed fairly quickly. On paper, France was the stronger power, and even after the events at Dunkirk the French scored major victories in the field. The problem was that Édouard Daladier was determined that the war would never touch French soil. If Daladier had been more fatalistic and realized that he couldn't keep the oncoming war away from France, he could just try to win it quickly, France could have beaten Germany. Hitler often left Germany overextended and vulnerable. If Édouard Daladier had gone for the jugular early in the war, Hitler would have been brought down by his poor planning and arrogance.

There is also the problem that French industry and transportation was heavily centered around Paris. Once Paris was lost, French victory became far more difficult. You could get around this via an attack during the Phoney War, or prewar by having France shift its center of industry away from the border, or at least distributing things more defensively. Another possibility is the extension of the Maginot line along the Belgian border, but that leads to quite a few diplomatic complications.