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Old 10-18-2018, 12:54 AM   #1121
PTTG
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Money grows on trees in Aboria-2.

Well, actually, EVERYTHING grows on trees in Aboria. The worldline is TL-0+8, based almost entirely around a series of tree species that produce material goods of all kinds.

Early society discovered a tree that produced woody growths that could be shaped into simple tools and more complicated shapes using little more than twine, splints, cutting, and time. Think bonsai but larger scale, and somewhat faster. When mature, the growths took on a stony strength.

Later developments lead to stronger (metal-like) consistency. The trees also were bread to be more adaptable.

The results are more than mundane but unlike the magic of other worlds. At present, this society has access to great orchards that grow specialized organic circuits allowing pods that function as computers. The fruits of the artifact trees are diverse and common, capable of easily replicating any feature of a TL-8 society, with the exception of a few very high-energy phenomenon (nuclear weapons, high-powered explosives, and spaceflight), but times are changing, and genetic engineers anticipate a day when a tree is grown that allows access to orbital altitude and the construction of a wooden world-ring.

They know of metalic elements, but see them mainly as a suppliment to biological processes, not as structural elements themselves. The idea of advanced technology
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Old 10-18-2018, 04:11 AM   #1122
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

In Wyrd-1, every individual seems to possess an unknowable, unavoidable, and weird fate. For example, JFK did not die due to an assassin bullet in 1963 but, instead, was declared unfit to be President and put into an asylum after brain damage due to a stroke caused by a new pain medication for his back pain caused to believe himself to be the reincarnation of Alexander the Great. Despite the weirdness, the history of the timeline has generally followed the history of Homeline, though the USA election of 2000 was decided in favor of Al Gore after a six year old boy running into the street after his pet frog caused a tanker truck carrying liquified natural gas to smash into the US Supreme Court building and explode, killing everyone inside, during a session earlier that year. The year is 2018, it is the second year of the Hillary Clinton campaign, and the world is dealing with the consequences kf an extrasolar object that appears to be an ancient and derelict STL alien spacescaft that got caught in the gravity well of the Earth in 2017 and become a very small satellite.
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Old 10-18-2018, 07:26 AM   #1123
malloyd
 
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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The results are more than mundane but unlike the magic of other worlds. At present, this society has access to great orchards that grow specialized organic circuits allowing pods that function as computers. The fruits of the artifact trees are diverse and common, capable of easily replicating any feature of a TL-8 society
Since they are magical trees, maybe. The real problem with replicating our economy with biology is probably sheer volume. A big box store might get a truckload of stuff in every day. How big an orchard would you need to produce 300 truckloads of fruit a year to replace each one of those?

You could certainly have a different kind of TL8 with much less stuff per person - there are plenty of people that argue we should do that even with the factories - but it's not a drop in replacement of the modern world.
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Old 10-18-2018, 10:37 AM   #1124
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

Feelgood-1

A parallel where saying you feel like something happened, or you feel that that's how it works, for example, is accepted as empirical fact by society even when there is literally no factual backing for it.

This has created many situations where mass-murderers are acquitted of all crimes done by saying that they "feel they didn't actually do it" or a war swiftly averted by one side saying that they "feel it was a simple accident". Other forms of lying have the same chance of being believed as on Homeline.

It seems the inhabitants of Feelgood-1 are fully aware of this effect, but consider it a normal part of human psychology. History has mostly followed Homelines', even with this quirk in human behaviour.
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Old 10-21-2018, 11:21 AM   #1125
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

These are a subset of Myth parallels, the twisted parodies. Think Bored of the Rings then either go puerile or witty according to the mood of the players.

Sure these make one-off goofy settings, but why not?
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Old 10-21-2018, 09:51 PM   #1126
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In Demon-13, the Earth became a vacation destination for the demonic races after a series of portals opened up in 1999 after 5,000 years of being sealed. After the initial shock, the nations of the Earth decided to cash in on the tourism earnings because the demonic races were much wealthier than the human race. The fact that the demons knew nothing about damned souls and are more civilized and powerful than the human race has caused a dramatic increase in the number of atheists and agnostics throughout the Earth.

A number of humans have adopted demonic religions because the demon gods answer prayers on a regular basis without requiring any sacrifices beyond devotion to their codes of morality. While the demonic races have their deviants and their lunatics, they have a better understanding of psychology than humans and one percent of the violent crimes as humans. Evil seems to be more common among humans than demons, which was one of the reasons why the demons did not try very hard to open the gates when they were sealed 5,000 years ago.
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Old 10-21-2018, 10:09 PM   #1127
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If they aren't evil, and they don't know about damned souls, how are they demons? Are they lying?
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Old 10-21-2018, 11:45 PM   #1128
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If they aren't evil, and they don't know about damned souls, how are they demons? Are they lying?
Maybe their foes the angels are the liars.
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Old 10-21-2018, 11:55 PM   #1129
David Johnston2
 
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Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl View Post
In Demon-13, the Earth became a vacation destination for the demonic races after a series of portals opened up in 1999 after 5,000 years of being sealed. After the initial shock, the nations of the Earth decided to cash in on the tourism earnings because the demonic races were much wealthier than the human race. The fact that the demons knew nothing about damned souls and are more civilized and powerful than the human race has caused a dramatic increase in the number of atheists and agnostics throughout the Earth.

A number of humans have adopted demonic religions because the demon gods answer prayers on a regular basis without requiring any sacrifices beyond devotion to their codes of morality. While the demonic races have their deviants and their lunatics, they have a better understanding of psychology than humans and one percent of the violent crimes as humans. Evil seems to be more common among humans than demons, which was one of the reasons why the demons did not try very hard to open the gates when they were sealed 5,000 years ago.

I would just go with a single "demon" race since clearly they have no individual differences.
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Old 10-22-2018, 05:39 AM   #1130
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There are physiological differences that make them different, much like the demons of legend, and the portals in specific regions of Earth go to the native worlds of the demons of their legends. For example, the demons associated with South Asia are the Rakshasa while the demons associated with East Asia are the Oni. Of course, the 'universal' religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc) transcended the regions of their origin, so their demons do not necessarily reflect regional demons.

Of the thirteen demon races, each with its own native world, the Lilin of West Asia had the most troubles due to conservative religious elements. In 2001, a wave of terrorist attacks triggered that killed hundreds of Lilin tourists an armed response by the Lilin Empire that destroyed Saudi Arabia. When the US attempted to come to the aid of its ally, the Lilin Empire easily destroyed the US Fifth Fleet with its superior weaponry. In 2002, the Lilin Empire divided the former territory of Saudi Arabia among its neighboring countries in exchange for agreements to suppress terrorist activity. In 2003, the Lilin Empire arranged for cessation of hostilities with the US, paying the US $20 billion in gold for the destroyed equipment and the families of the dead sailors and marines $200 billion in gold.
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