New worlds for Infinite Worlds - Page 6

Xenarthral · 09-16-2007, 02:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by combatmedic

Dictionary of Imaginary Places? I own that! Of course. I'll grab my copy and start working this stuff up.

If memory serves there is at least one set? series? of entries that actually
is from a Mandeville-type weird travelogue from the late 17th century, but
that one is probably lacking in Plinian races.

Xenarthral · 09-16-2007, 04:29 AM

Like almost everybody else who has Infinite Worlds I have more worlds than I’ll ever need (in various states of completeness/usefulness). Here are the ones that really need new names.

Alchemy-2
This is a jungle- and swamp-covered fantasy parallel where otherwise stone/copper age tribes of humans and lizardmen wield primitive chemical weapons and alchemy. It has a very rich ecology, but few domesticable animals and mineral deposits. It seems quite likely that the two human civilisations – still recognisably Chavin (Andean) and Sumerian (Mesopotamian), respectively, originated elsewhere. Their more primitive amphibious lizard man neighbours clearly evolved on this world though.

American Mandeville
Like Mandeville has the Empire of Prester John, this parallel has a Mythic West filled with all kinds of Native American tribes, lost cities representing virtually any culture that could have made it to North America (and many that couldn’t), monsters and wonders. The Mythic West is technically from roughly 90 degrees west to 120 degrees west and 50 degrees north to 30 degrees north, but covers an area much larger than these borders would hold. Obviously, the USA is much smaller here, although were the border between it and the Mythic West goes is hard to tell, especially since some communities in the West, one way or another, bow to the federal government in Philadelphia.
California is independent, Spanish-speaking and reaches about 45 degrees north, and the rest of the west coast is nominally Russian America (although the Hudson Bay Company holds much of the power locally), and all of them, together with Argentina, Brazil, Australia and South Africa are benefiting demographically from the US difficulties with expanding into the Mythic West.
Known non-Native American groups in the Mythic West includes the “16th century” Spanish-Zuni of Cibola, the immortal Irish monks of St. Brendan’s Valley (unaging as long as they stay in their valley in the Rockies), the Norse homesteads and villages along the Missouri river, the Steampunk Egyptians in the Oklahoma oilfields, and the Ming Chinese on the stretch of coast that falls within the Mythic West. It is also home to several nexus portals, mostly to other Mythic Wests or comparable parallels – Infinity lacks the personnel to keep them all in check.
Divergences elsewhere includes the existence of several “Ruritanian” principalities in central and south-eastern Europe and a Kafiristan ruled by a British soldier turned wizard-king (and self-proclaimed descendant of Prester John).
The current year is 1877.

(Nowhere near Mandeville enough.)

Apokalips
Hellworld, presumably high-inertia since getting the world in this state if following anything resembling Homeline history (in particular the 1980s pop culture aesthetics of many of the factory settlements) would be tricky.
The continents (including Antarctica) are covered with vast, mile-high cities (but apart from architecture, automated factories and a few treasured artefacts the timeline appears to be only TL6) and even higher pillars/geysers of fire and smoke periodically belching from miles-wide holes in the surface. The air is breathable and actually safe but foul-smelling/-tasting and smoggy, but most natural resources are exhausted – the only metal available is scavenged from the buildings (with little apparent concern for the risk that the buildings will collapse) or from the vast rusting vehicles found in some places. Humanity consists of packs of degenerate cannibal dark-dwellers roaming the empty cities, heavily armed fortifications centred around those automated factories that still work (primarily gun and ammunition factories), and small groups of decadent and degenerating supers on the higher levels, raiding the others for food, slaves and entertainment. They share the world with a vast number of mutant rat, pigeon, spider and insect species.

Autoduel-5
Buddhism is the dominant religion (introduced in Rome in the 1st century BC) on this timeline with an "Autoduel meets wuxia" flavour, which was unified at TL5 under the Chinese Song dynasty (the current Imperial dynasty (in 1988) is Afro-Roman in origin). Nominally ruled by an Emperor and an Imperial Scientists’ Council, it his falling into anarchy and corruption. Vehicle-borne knights errant and warrior monks are wandering the world fighting bandits, petty warlords and corrupt officials using armoured cars and cinematic martial arts.

Baron-3
Although technologically advanced, this world, with the exception of the isolationist Inca Empire and Japan, appears to have never become politically centralised – it is a muddle of small, de facto autonomous, states paying lip service to ineffective kings, emperors and caliphs. (Studies of history reveals that every attempt at centralising or conquering larger realms, from at least Alexander the Great and on, have been crushed by either temporary alliances between “everyone else” or foreign adventurers carving out realms of their own.)

Sidenote: Despite the decentralisation there are good multilane highways on Baron (the Silk Road, for example, although it varies in size (never less than four lanes) and quality (from decent to excellent) from realm to realm). In western and central Europe, these roads are owned and funded by the church (with support from merchants) and known as Church Roads. The lack of centralization makes this likely to have several Autoduel features.

(The parallel is so named because, regardless of the actual title, the barony is essentially the highest level of functioning political-geographic entity.)

Biopunk-1
This is essentially a cyberpunk parallel, dominated by European, Brazilian and Chinese megacorps, and with worldwide endemic social unrest and constant small wars in sub-Saharan Africa and the former USA, except that it uses biotech and biomodifications instead of bionics (naturally, there is no cyberpunk-style cyberspace).

With all this unrestricted and unscrupulous biotech, a lot of unscrupulous people are interested in what it can produce, especially in the form of designer babies and sex slaves. Fortunately, since it’s on Quantum 2 it’s not easy to get to, the primary way being the “Paris-Dakar nexus line”, which ends here and has more than its fair share of dangers for travellers, with Nexus Oversight (operating in strength along the network of roads making up the line) being only one and far from the most dangerous one. (Baron-3 and Autoduel-5 are two of the safer worlds along the road.)

While genemods are readily available and biogadgets increasingly so, geneengineering humans is far from perfected, despite being more advanced. Technology outside of biotech and medicine is seriously lagging behind Homeline. TL12 in most germline genegineering, but Secret Disadvantage (Mental Instability) is common despite claims of the opposite, and biomods. TL9 in brain modifications (brain, behavioural and sleep-state), neuromods, other biotech and medicine. TL7 in everything else.

Gameboard-5
Much points towards this once being a fairly ordinary, if highly magical, parallel as the coastlines remain the same, but the aftermath of an out of control magical war has left it a patchwork of random, self-sufficient climate/terrain zones (10-mile hexagons, putting burning deserts next to frozen tundras and fetid swamps), ravaged by banestorms (mostly delivering outsiders) and magically mutated monsters, including large numbers of parachronozoids. Warlords, archmages and high priests of all flavours and species are constantly trying to carve out kingdoms and raising motley armies – their realms rarely outlive them.

(Called Gameboard because its geography reminds people of a boardgame.)

Valusia
A low-mana TL1 (with patches of TL2) fantasy world with commonly known spirit magic, with added and adapted flora and fauna from at least four alternate ecosystems each including a sentient race (trolls, snakeheaded “lizardmen”, small racoon-featured “goblins”/”kobolds”, and “harpies” (small wings, feathered and clawed lower body) as well as some variants and remnants from earlier “Homeline” eras, like Paranthropus hominids at least as intelligent as Homo Sapiens (bringing the number of human-type sentient species to six).
The snakemen, with their main empire in south-east Asia and kingdoms along the Kongo, Amazon and Mississippi, and in the Yucatan, are the only non-humans numerous, organised and aggressive enough to count as a major civilisation and serious rivals to humans.

Wasteland-4
The current year is 1896.
At first look, in daylight, this timeline appears to be one of those were human life was quickly and cleanly wiped out – quite recently looking by the state of the cities left behind. Once darkness falls the truth reveals itself (and raises more questions) as the tattered and fading ghostly remnants of the population come out to play in the towns and cities. With each other and with anybody they can find.
In other words, this is a zombie parallel with a twist (e.g. the zombies are semi-tangible, only appear at night and slowly fading from existence by themselves – there’s only about a dozen in any but the largest cities).
But humanity has not been reduced to a handful of insane ghosts as some areas are virtually untouched, though currently isolated from each other by the vast virtually unpopulated areas – Tibet, North Caucasus, Abyssinia, New Zealand and Utah-Colorado (Provisional Government of the USA).

(How and why some areas remained untouched is as much of a puzzle as what happened to everybody else, even to them.)

Flyndaran · 09-16-2007, 08:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Cameron

Fredo01,

Paul Drye did this one for The Pyramid already. The primary result of the paleo-Indians not killing off all their large fauna domestication candidates is that the Amerinds will have enough urban populations with enough domesticated animals for enough time to develop their own diseases.

That means the Columbian Exchange goes both ways and the New World and Old World swap 'slate wipers'.Bill

Then the only "plausible" solution would be to give the new world old world diseases in the far enough distant past so they could have a few centuries to recover before the main european landing.
Maybe a mini-banstorm throwing just enough people to spark an pandemic but not enough to impart long term cultural influences?

Flyndaran · 09-16-2007, 09:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bill Cameron

Fly,

That will allow the New World withstand the Old World slate wipers, but how does the Old World then build up resistence to the New World-specific diseases in return? A revolving banestorm of sorts?Bill

I thought the point was to postulate a way for those of the new world to kick butt, not to create a stalemate between them and the old world dudes.
Sorry if I musunderstood.

09-16-2007, 04:29 AM	#52
Xenarthral Join Date: Aug 2005	Re: New worlds for Infinite Worlds Like almost everybody else who has Infinite Worlds I have more worlds than I’ll ever need (in various states of completeness/usefulness). Here are the ones that really need new names. Alchemy-2 This is a jungle- and swamp-covered fantasy parallel where otherwise stone/copper age tribes of humans and lizardmen wield primitive chemical weapons and alchemy. It has a very rich ecology, but few domesticable animals and mineral deposits. It seems quite likely that the two human civilisations – still recognisably Chavin (Andean) and Sumerian (Mesopotamian), respectively, originated elsewhere. Their more primitive amphibious lizard man neighbours clearly evolved on this world though. American Mandeville Like Mandeville has the Empire of Prester John, this parallel has a Mythic West filled with all kinds of Native American tribes, lost cities representing virtually any culture that could have made it to North America (and many that couldn’t), monsters and wonders. The Mythic West is technically from roughly 90 degrees west to 120 degrees west and 50 degrees north to 30 degrees north, but covers an area much larger than these borders would hold. Obviously, the USA is much smaller here, although were the border between it and the Mythic West goes is hard to tell, especially since some communities in the West, one way or another, bow to the federal government in Philadelphia. California is independent, Spanish-speaking and reaches about 45 degrees north, and the rest of the west coast is nominally Russian America (although the Hudson Bay Company holds much of the power locally), and all of them, together with Argentina, Brazil, Australia and South Africa are benefiting demographically from the US difficulties with expanding into the Mythic West. Known non-Native American groups in the Mythic West includes the “16th century” Spanish-Zuni of Cibola, the immortal Irish monks of St. Brendan’s Valley (unaging as long as they stay in their valley in the Rockies), the Norse homesteads and villages along the Missouri river, the Steampunk Egyptians in the Oklahoma oilfields, and the Ming Chinese on the stretch of coast that falls within the Mythic West. It is also home to several nexus portals, mostly to other Mythic Wests or comparable parallels – Infinity lacks the personnel to keep them all in check. Divergences elsewhere includes the existence of several “Ruritanian” principalities in central and south-eastern Europe and a Kafiristan ruled by a British soldier turned wizard-king (and self-proclaimed descendant of Prester John). The current year is 1877. (Nowhere near Mandeville enough.) Apokalips Hellworld, presumably high-inertia since getting the world in this state if following anything resembling Homeline history (in particular the 1980s pop culture aesthetics of many of the factory settlements) would be tricky. The continents (including Antarctica) are covered with vast, mile-high cities (but apart from architecture, automated factories and a few treasured artefacts the timeline appears to be only TL6) and even higher pillars/geysers of fire and smoke periodically belching from miles-wide holes in the surface. The air is breathable and actually safe but foul-smelling/-tasting and smoggy, but most natural resources are exhausted – the only metal available is scavenged from the buildings (with little apparent concern for the risk that the buildings will collapse) or from the vast rusting vehicles found in some places. Humanity consists of packs of degenerate cannibal dark-dwellers roaming the empty cities, heavily armed fortifications centred around those automated factories that still work (primarily gun and ammunition factories), and small groups of decadent and degenerating supers on the higher levels, raiding the others for food, slaves and entertainment. They share the world with a vast number of mutant rat, pigeon, spider and insect species. Autoduel-5 Buddhism is the dominant religion (introduced in Rome in the 1st century BC) on this timeline with an "Autoduel meets wuxia" flavour, which was unified at TL5 under the Chinese Song dynasty (the current Imperial dynasty (in 1988) is Afro-Roman in origin). Nominally ruled by an Emperor and an Imperial Scientists’ Council, it his falling into anarchy and corruption. Vehicle-borne knights errant and warrior monks are wandering the world fighting bandits, petty warlords and corrupt officials using armoured cars and cinematic martial arts. Baron-3 Although technologically advanced, this world, with the exception of the isolationist Inca Empire and Japan, appears to have never become politically centralised – it is a muddle of small, de facto autonomous, states paying lip service to ineffective kings, emperors and caliphs. (Studies of history reveals that every attempt at centralising or conquering larger realms, from at least Alexander the Great and on, have been crushed by either temporary alliances between “everyone else” or foreign adventurers carving out realms of their own.) Sidenote: Despite the decentralisation there are good multilane highways on Baron (the Silk Road, for example, although it varies in size (never less than four lanes) and quality (from decent to excellent) from realm to realm). In western and central Europe, these roads are owned and funded by the church (with support from merchants) and known as Church Roads. The lack of centralization makes this likely to have several Autoduel features. (The parallel is so named because, regardless of the actual title, the barony is essentially the highest level of functioning political-geographic entity.) Biopunk-1 This is essentially a cyberpunk parallel, dominated by European, Brazilian and Chinese megacorps, and with worldwide endemic social unrest and constant small wars in sub-Saharan Africa and the former USA, except that it uses biotech and biomodifications instead of bionics (naturally, there is no cyberpunk-style cyberspace). With all this unrestricted and unscrupulous biotech, a lot of unscrupulous people are interested in what it can produce, especially in the form of designer babies and sex slaves. Fortunately, since it’s on Quantum 2 it’s not easy to get to, the primary way being the “Paris-Dakar nexus line”, which ends here and has more than its fair share of dangers for travellers, with Nexus Oversight (operating in strength along the network of roads making up the line) being only one and far from the most dangerous one. (Baron-3 and Autoduel-5 are two of the safer worlds along the road.) While genemods are readily available and biogadgets increasingly so, geneengineering humans is far from perfected, despite being more advanced. Technology outside of biotech and medicine is seriously lagging behind Homeline. TL12 in most germline genegineering, but Secret Disadvantage (Mental Instability) is common despite claims of the opposite, and biomods. TL9 in brain modifications (brain, behavioural and sleep-state), neuromods, other biotech and medicine. TL7 in everything else. Gameboard-5 Much points towards this once being a fairly ordinary, if highly magical, parallel as the coastlines remain the same, but the aftermath of an out of control magical war has left it a patchwork of random, self-sufficient climate/terrain zones (10-mile hexagons, putting burning deserts next to frozen tundras and fetid swamps), ravaged by banestorms (mostly delivering outsiders) and magically mutated monsters, including large numbers of parachronozoids. Warlords, archmages and high priests of all flavours and species are constantly trying to carve out kingdoms and raising motley armies – their realms rarely outlive them. (Called Gameboard because its geography reminds people of a boardgame.) Valusia A low-mana TL1 (with patches of TL2) fantasy world with commonly known spirit magic, with added and adapted flora and fauna from at least four alternate ecosystems each including a sentient race (trolls, snakeheaded “lizardmen”, small racoon-featured “goblins”/”kobolds”, and “harpies” (small wings, feathered and clawed lower body) as well as some variants and remnants from earlier “Homeline” eras, like Paranthropus hominids at least as intelligent as Homo Sapiens (bringing the number of human-type sentient species to six). The snakemen, with their main empire in south-east Asia and kingdoms along the Kongo, Amazon and Mississippi, and in the Yucatan, are the only non-humans numerous, organised and aggressive enough to count as a major civilisation and serious rivals to humans. Wasteland-4 The current year is 1896. At first look, in daylight, this timeline appears to be one of those were human life was quickly and cleanly wiped out – quite recently looking by the state of the cities left behind. Once darkness falls the truth reveals itself (and raises more questions) as the tattered and fading ghostly remnants of the population come out to play in the towns and cities. With each other and with anybody they can find. In other words, this is a zombie parallel with a twist (e.g. the zombies are semi-tangible, only appear at night and slowly fading from existence by themselves – there’s only about a dozen in any but the largest cities). But humanity has not been reduced to a handful of insane ghosts as some areas are virtually untouched, though currently isolated from each other by the vast virtually unpopulated areas – Tibet, North Caucasus, Abyssinia, New Zealand and Utah-Colorado (Provisional Government of the USA). (How and why some areas remained untouched is as much of a puzzle as what happened to everybody else, even to them.)