New Reality Seeds

[fchase8]

There could be a timeline where either WWII went nuclear or post-WWII did, and China emerged as the leading state over the devastated Western world. It would be akin to the pacifist Indian Republic that was dominant in an official timeline.


I had an alternate world where Mao died during the Cultural Revolution, and things went the other way - China stayed ultra-communist and in the Soviet sphere, U.S. lost even worse in Vietnam (and in the pull-out under McGovern), went reactionary anti-communist, and nuclear war erupted in 1984.

It was my 'Ragnarok' timeline (though I later found out there's an official Ragnarok world, I think), where ten years after the end of the world Infinity showed up and started moving people from the polar bases on this Q4 timeline to an empty Q4 world, Terranova.


I would add that naming a world 'Dragon' might confuse it with the official Wyvern timeline, where dragons are real (not to mention fantasy parallels).

Infinity, being a U.N. organization, would probably want to give 'China dominant' parallels a more native Chinese name, like Ming. Infinity would probably shy away from any 'Mao' designation, with him still officially revered in Homeline China (unlike Lenin in Homeline Russia), except maybe for a world where he is still in power.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by fchase8

I would add that naming a world 'Dragon' might confuse it with the official Wyvern timeline, where dragons are real (not to mention fantasy parallels).

Infinity, being a U.N. organization, would probably want to give 'China dominant' parallels a more native Chinese name, like Ming. Infinity would probably shy away from any 'Mao' designation, with him still officially revered in Homeline China (unlike Lenin in Homeline Russia), except maybe for a world where he is still in power.

I chose 'Dragon' because it does reference China (albeit obliquely), and it doesn't refer to any particular leadership, be it communist, nationalist, Yuan or restored Qing. I suppose you could call it Yat-sen (both communists and nationalists like him). Or you could call it Xinhai, because presumably the Xinhai revolution happened in all these timelines.

[PTTG]

Ford dies in a firey auto crash early in the production of the Model T. Between the bad press and loss of the greatest marketer, the personal automobile never takes off in the United States. It sounds good at first - US cities are much more livable than their contemporary Homeline equivalents - but without a massive auto industry, the US has weaker supplies of rubber and machined parts for the coming war. Labor unions are also probably weaker.

[Astromancer]

Try this mystery. You know about Chaucer, you read some of his stuff, but did you know that we don't really know when he died? Terry Jones wrote a book on the subject of this mystery. Finding out the fate of the greatest Medieval English poet, and maybe rescuing him, would be a great adventure.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, in a Q6 echo, the local year is 2016, early April to be exact, a high temperature superconductor is unveiled. This fairly cheap material is both ductile and stays a superconductor up to a temperature of 187 degrees F (85c). The team that developed and patented the superconductor says they have discovered the basic underlying principals of superconductivity and how to make dozens of new specialized superconducting matterials.

Homeline wants this, Centrum wants this, heck the Cabal knows that this stuff is worth big money on a thousand worlds. Neither Homeline or Centrum want that to get into the hands of the other two.

Go rob Silicon Valley, while keeping anyone else from robbing Silicon Valley.

[PTTG]

That would be the messiest thing ever. I would definitely play that as the Cabal just to keep the PCs on their toes. Infiltrating a modern world with magic just sounds so fun...

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by TGLS

True, without the success of communism in China, communist movements throughout Asia lost much support, though the Russians backed different movements. And of course, without the Chinese intervention in the Korean War, North Korea was defeated by Christmas.

Besides, China was busy; purging out the radical nationalists and communists was not an easy task. Nor was the revision of the constitution to the People's Republic. The Americans and Soviets did help though; aid to China was a major boon to the Chinese economy, which was one of the ten largest by 1970.

[...]

Korea replaced America in the Pacific, then expanding their sphere of influence into North America.

What did Japan do in this timeline? A shorter Korean War means less money going into Japan to pay for supplies, a significant boost to the Japanese timeline in OTL. And without the threat of North Korea, Korea has less need to stay on good terms with Japan. And there is a lot of anger in Korea over Japanese rule.

Has the Japanese economy never recovered from WWII? Do they not have a military, as opposed to a "self-defense force"? Or did they break out of the limits and become a paranoid garrison state?

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I chose 'Dragon' because it does reference China (albeit obliquely), and it doesn't refer to any particular leadership, be it communist, nationalist, Yuan or restored Qing. I suppose you could call it Yat-sen (both communists and nationalists like him). Or you could call it Xinhai, because presumably the Xinhai revolution happened in all these timelines.

I suppose you could call the timeline series 'Han', referring to the dominance of the Han Chinese. Yes, its a particular leadership, but its far enough back in history that its also used to refer to a group of people...

Then again, why use a single name for all the ways china could have succeeded over the west?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by cptbutton

What did Japan do in this timeline? A shorter Korean War means less money going into Japan to pay for supplies, a significant boost to the Japanese timeline in OTL. And without the threat of North Korea, Korea has less need to stay on good terms with Japan. And there is a lot of anger in Korea over Japanese rule.

Has the Japanese economy never recovered from WWII? Do they not have a military, as opposed to a "self-defense force"? Or did they break out of the limits and become a paranoid garrison state?

My thoughts are that Korea favoured realpolitik enough that when they absorbed the American sphere of influence that they ignored racial problems with the Japanese. After all, if they joined Mercosul or some other power, Korea would be hemmed in entirely. In the timeline, I figure the economic boom that would have happened in Japan happened in Korea because of Western aid.

In Japan, with China essentially in the American bloc, and North Korea eliminated from South Korean concerns, the Treaty of San Francisco was much harsher on Japan, adversely affecting the economy and disarming the state completely. This set the stage for the radical Buddhist movements in Japan.

Originally Posted by ericthered

I suppose you could call the timeline series 'Han', referring to the dominance of the Han Chinese. Yes, its a particular leadership, but its far enough back in history that its also used to refer to a group of people...

Then again, why use a single name for all the ways china could have succeeded over the west?

Han could work, but Infinity names Chinese timelines for the dominant dynasty. After all, the Ming timelines are definitely dominated by Han Chinese.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I chose 'Dragon' because it does reference China (albeit obliquely), and it doesn't refer to any particular leadership, be it communist, nationalist, Yuan or restored Qing. I suppose you could call it Yat-sen (both communists and nationalists like him). Or you could call it Xinhai, because presumably the Xinhai revolution happened in all these timelines.

I do see why 'Dragon' would be a good name, U.N.-politically. But not only would it confuse with timelines with actual dragons, but Homeline China would want China-dominant parallels to have name(s) in Chinese ('Beijing', not 'Peking').

I looked up the Chinese word for 'dragon', but apparently it's 'lóng', which would also be confusing [that is from an online search, and could be completely wrong...]. Possibly some other Chinese word. Both Infinite Worlds did seem to try to have a dominant native language word used as the timeline name, such as Shikaku-Mon (Japanese/French) or Ezcalli (Aztec).

I love the idea of naming a timeline 'Yat-sen', but I bet that would be a political issue (Homeline China and Homeline West both like him, but for differing reasons). Though perhaps a timeline where the initial republican revolution went a different way (such as Sun Yat-sen lives longer), and post-Manchu China becomes a stable republic that can stand up to imperial Japan, shortens WWII in the Pacific and is a major independent power immediately post-WWII.

'Xinhai' seems like a great name - in Chinese, agreeable to all Security Council powers, relevant to such timelines. It could even extend to nineteenth century Chinese revolutions, the way 'Lenin' extended to nineteenth century communist revolutions. Though you know someone would want to name a timeline 'Boxer' or 'Tai-Ping'...

Originally Posted by ericthered

I suppose you could call the timeline series 'Han', referring to the dominance of the Han Chinese. Yes, its a particular leadership, but its far enough back in history that its also used to refer to a group of people...

'Han' does work for a very generic title. It would work for the long ago shifts that result in a dominant China, like 'Rome' timelines. But perhaps not with more recent shifts, which could get the 'Xinhai' designation.

Originally Posted by ericthered

Then again, why use a single name for all the ways china could have succeeded over the west?

It wouldn't be for every China-dominant parallel. Infinite Worlds has shown that not every parallel with the same dominant nation has to have the same designation - Cornwallis is Britain-dominant, but isn't a 'Britannica'.

But Infinite Worlds also has show that Infinity will sometimes lump together very different worlds, at different points in time, even different divergence points. They did screw up 'Attila'...



(is it bad that I'm fascinated by how a fictional Infinity, an arm of a future fictional U.N., would name ultra-fictional alternate timelines?...)