New Reality Seeds

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

Technically, mana is an Australasian term that doesn't mean "source of power".

The fact is really that we need a new word.

It is technically Melanesian/Polynesian for spiritual force (variations of the word exist from New Guinea to Hawaii).

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

It is technically Melanesian/Polynesian for spiritual force (variations of the word exist from New Guinea to Hawaii).

I was skimming the intro. My mistake.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

I'm sorry, but this has been bothering me for a while. "Manna" is bread from heaven. The word for magical energy is "mana".

I never could spell. Ad my spell check prefers the two n version.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this one...

Garamantes

In most worlds, the Garamantes were a people who lived in the Sahara and had a nation that Rome couldn't conquer. This was mainly because the well-fortified cities of the Garamantes (the name itself meant "castles".) were far out in the desert. The Garamantes thrived using water from ancient aquifers. It was the failure of these aquifers in the 5th century CE that brought down their culture.

However, on this Q6 Low/Normal Manna (90%/!0%) parallel, the aquifers are still going strong in the 16th century CE. Your Renaissance Swashbucklers have heard that there are ancient libraries in the cities of the Garamantes with many Roman, Greek, and Egyptian texts, as well as other obscure ancient languages and peoples. Your patrons have sent you south through lands dominated by the Barbary Pirates on the Coast and wild tribes inland to buy copies of rare texts from the still pagan warriors of the desert wastes.

Basically, Swashbucklers in Arabian Nights territory exploring off the edge of their maps.

Would the Garamantes be Christians (according to Wikipedia, converted in 569), or Muslim (presumably not conquered on this world)? Or their own religion?

Infinity would be very interested in this surviving lost civilization - though couldn't speak the language (but educated Garamantes would probably know Latin).

Actually, Infinity would be interested in their regular civilization on echoes.


And I bet Centran Anglic spells it "manna"...

[AlexanderHowl]

Monster-7

A Q3 timeline, Monster-7 suffered a catastrophic magical disaster five centuries ago that transformed every monster species into attractive humanoid versions of their previous species that find human attractive and are capable of interbreeding with humans, as well as making humans attractive and attractive to the humanoid versions of monsters, with any resulting children take after their mother. Since then, humans and monsters have embraced a 'make love, not war' philosophy and, while cross species fertility is 1% that of fertility within species, people are active enough to keep populations stable.

While such a timeline would normally be ripe for tourism, especially since the monsters are quite friendly with humans, Infinity discovered that humans from other timelines permanently become monsters of the opposite sex when they visit the timeline. What is even worse, their cross species fertility is preserved when they leave the timeline, meaning that the monster species could potentially spread throughout the timelines if travel was not forbidden to the timeline. Unfortunately, agents from Reich-5 have stumbled upon the timeline, though the resulting transformation into female humanoid monsters has made them very cautious about exploring the timeline.

In addition to the transformative effects of the timeline, the catastrophic magical disaster that transformed the inhabitants of the timeline also transformed the nature of magic. Before the catastrophe, the magic seemed to have been similar to standard magic. After the catastrophe though, the magic changed to something similar to RPM.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Would the Garamantes be Christians (according to Wikipedia, converted in 569), or Muslim (presumably not conquered on this world)? Or their own religion?

I assume that the Garamantes, being cut off from Europe, would, like Ethiopia, would have their own Church. I assume it's autocephalous (self-headed). There would be a Muslim minority and for drama and style (this is a swashers setting after all) some pagans as well.

Infinity would be very interested in this surviving lost civilization - though couldn't speak the language (but educated Garamantes would probably know Latin).

They would know Latin and Greek, or their scholars would. For trade and scholarship, Arabic would be popular. As this is happening in the 1500s I assume Italian or French would be known as well.

Actually, Infinity would be interested in their regular civilization on echoes.

It wouldn't be seen as identical, but knowledge of the parallel Garamantian cultures would allow effective interpretation and a deeper understanding of the remains of Homeline's Garamantes.

And I bet Centran Anglic spells it "manna"...

My spellchecker dislikes "Mana" and lets "Manna" pass. So that makes sense.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

...Infinity discovered that humans from other timelines permanently become monsters of the opposite sex when they visit the timeline.

Sign me up.

By that I mean: you will be able to find people willing to do it.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Michael Cule

They called themselves 'the United States': that's the name on the peace treaty with Britain. (1783 five years before the final ratification of the Constitution.).

The Continental Congress liked it, though not uncommonly with lower case on united. It's not on either of the major documents the first Congress put out in 1774, but they used it in the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and relatively commonly afterward. And of course it's right there in the first Article of the Articles of Confederation in November of 1777:

Article I. The Stile of this confederacy shall be, “The United States of America.”

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

Sign me up.

By that I mean: you will be able to find people willing to do it.

I do not think Infinity would find such transformations acceptable, even if they had volunteers. Infinity seems to have a rather conservative viewpoint on identity issues, which makes sense because it was developed in the 1990s by someone who was born in the 1940s and was too powerful for external actors to force change. By our standards, Infinity (and Homeline) would likely be quite regressive, as its society would have not had to have evolved out of the 1990s because dissidents would have been able to escape rather than having to live in a system that they despised.

That being said, there would be agents in Infinity that dealt with identity issues (or who knew people who suffered from them), and the knowledge of the timeline might leak out. You could have a secret railroad of people escaping Homeline to become humanoid monsters of the opposite sex in the timeline, as Homeline would not offer them the solutions that they needed. Of course, one of them could be the child of an important Homeline politician, meaning that Infinity might need to figure out a way of 'rescuing' them from the timeline.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I do not think Infinity would find such transformations acceptable, even if they had volunteers. Infinity seems to have a rather conservative viewpoint on identity issues, which makes sense because it was developed in the 1990s by someone who was born in the 1940s and was too powerful for external actors to force change. By our standards, Infinity (and Homeline) would likely be quite regressive, as its society would have not had to have evolved out of the 1990s because dissidents would have been able to escape rather than having to live in a system that they despised.

Sounds like we need a modernized Homeline.