Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by a humble lich

What about having a divergence earlier, say Italy gaining the Dalmatian coast, a larger chunk of Austria, and maybe a couple of the German colonies in Africa after WWI.... I also don't know if this parallel has any fewer holes than what has been suggested so far, but it does keep the alien space bats away.

A very intriguing approach. The biggest hole I see is that the NAZIs were inspired by Italian fascists... Maybe they did arise and wrote some books, but never got to power. Since the war is so very short, maybe Europe as a whole never funnels investment through the USA, so the US remains isolationist and inward-focused.

Originally Posted by Jasonft

How about someone learns to summon the ghosts of Julius Caesar and Augustus back from the great Beyond. They start giving Mussolini advice on (respectively) how to win wars and fix economies. Depending on when this started and how it developed, Italy might well be the power to beat in Europe when the war finally starts.

The Nazis, of course, get wind of this and this sparks their own mad hunts for Relics and occult lore. Unfortunately for them whoever is feeding the Italians advice is a lot better at this stuff than the Germans and manages to trick the Nazis into one or more massive blunders just before the Italians stab up from the south.

Eventually the secrets to this sort of occult activity get out and every government has covert operatives developing their own tools. You end up with the cold war being fought not openly, but rather covertly using magic.

The general public has no idea what is actually going on in the shadows and there would be religious uprisings if they did...

[[specifics of who/ what/ how the Italians have a hidden Weird advantage vary to GM taste. On the surface at least the effects are the same.]]

I'd say have the anchient figures be public. Use them to rally the populous to the might of the Roman Empire and terrify Homeline into thinking they might have access to the Secret in some form or another.