Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[AlexanderHowl]

I actually like the idea of Shift because it would have dramatically increased the incentives for doing automation right, meaning that technology would have advanced just as quickly due to economic necessity rather than just through the Brownian Motion of normal technological advancement. Of course, the focus would have likely been on mechanical and electromechanical automation rather than digital automation, as they are easier to do in the laboratory because you do not have to worry about conflicting updates or crashed operating systems.

[Prince Charon]

According to the Cabal, this world is in a strange time-loop: every time Queen Victoria dies, whatever the date or cause, the worldline resets to sunrise over the English Channel on the morning of her coronation... and the worldline's mana changes randomly. It might have no mana one loop, be continuous and high but Death aspected the next, and be a ley-line or zoned mana world in a third. So far, no attempt to predict or control the change has been successful. It appears that this was a no mana or very low mana woldline before the looping started, as the locals need time to learn magic (generally a mix of existing traditions and trial-and-error, usually leading to multiple branches of Path/Book magic) when the mana level is high enough for a lot of people to get results.

Objects and life-forms from outside the worldline will tend to find themselves in nearly the same geographic location if present while the reset happens, with the interesting oddity that if the location in the past would be unsafe in some way (such as being in a local submarine or aircraft, a high floor in a building not yet built, or even a cave that was sealed off back then), they will instead find themselves in a nearby safe location, on land (in one case a party of Cabalists found themselves on a beach in County Kerry, Ireland, having previously been on a ship a hundred miles out at sea).

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I think the biggest giveaway would be weather. In the course of an instant, it goes from a bright sunny day to the far side of a snow storm.

The sudden jump in the position of the moon is relatively obvious too. It's inevitably obvious to everybody in fairly short order. That's a pretty general rule really, trying to make stuff that is interesting to (and discoverable by) cross-world travelers unknown to the locals is quite hard to make plausible.

[ronwit]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

The immediate consequence would be an subjective doubling of lifespan, an objective halving of resource consumption, and a subjective halving of the length of the year. I think that everyone would know what is happening, they would just accept it and move on with life. Of course, they would need proper best control to deal with animals not impacted by the skip.

Actually this could be a Lucy parallel. Farmers in more primitive land and times would have half the time to plant, tend and harvest their crops as well as leaving them exposed to the elements every other day. Also all of the food would rot twice as fast. The halving of the consumption rate could easily be over-matched by the loss in production.

[PTTG]

One of the only ways to hide stuff from locals but not outtimers is to make it technologically impossible for them to detect it, such as by having it be a radio-wave signal or hidden in the deep ocean or orbital space (and that second one only if it's small enough to be nothing more than a point of light).

[Flyndaran]

Or combine all three for small groups of aliens hiding in Earth's oceans communicating via radio and small orbital satellites.

Can cross-timers be certain they're only hiding from primitive local humans?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Or combine all three for small groups of aliens hiding in Earth's oceans communicating via radio and small orbital satellites.

Can cross-timers be certain they're only hiding from primitive local humans?

In the IW setting, cross-timers can be absolutely certain they are not successfully hiding from things ranging from Atlantian Masters to Elf-Lords to outright Gods. It's one of the problems of the setting really. There's always a temptation to add vast hidden powers to an SF setting, they make great allegorical opponents, but it's better to resist the temptation lest you face the Star Trek question: why do all these god-like beings let us puny mortals buzz around in our spaceships harassing them?

[PTTG]

ELF/ULF radio bands would be appropriate for that sort of worldline, and those require huge transmitters. Fun to see how those look.

Speaking of undersea settlements:

Project Demeter. Starting in the 1960s, a black-budget team of researchers developed submarine living facilities throughout the depths of the Atlantic and Pacific. These bases were designed to be self-sufficient in case of anything that would cause a loss of contact with the surface, and would preserve some kind of civilization after even the most devastating military or cosmic disaster. It's not Project Nemo or Neptune or anything like that because then the name of the project itself is a bit of a giveaway, isn't it? In fact, it was so secretive that the space program and nuclear research projects were used as cover for it.

Possible Demeter worldlines:
D-1: The bases remain secret in this 1988 worldline, but the Soviet Union is still holding on by a thread and American planners think this may result in aggressive action against the USA. If tensions cross a red line, the President may be informed of the existence of this unassailable fortress for the worst-case situation.

D-2: The bases were discovered and revealed to the public in January of 1979. The solar flare later that year was mistaken for a soviet first strike in response, and a US retaliation started a global nuclear holocaust. The bases, which were in the process of being opened up to broader access due to their unveiling, are now overcrowded with senior military leaders, submarine crews, and a few swiftly-evacuated legislators. A portion of the bases were destroyed by soviet counter-attacks, but as not all bases were declassified, some survived. The bases are now trying to organize the reconstruction while also scavanging for enough resources to prevent them from starving under the weight of the VIP refugees.

D-3: In 1993, astronomers detected an eminent supernova that would soon annihilate all surface life on Earth. The bases were (cautiously) revealed to the public at large and the critical technologies to their success were declassified. It is currently 1998 and new undersea cities are being built at breakneck pace.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by malloyd

In the IW setting, cross-timers can be absolutely certain they are not successfully hiding from things ranging from Atlantian Masters to Elf-Lords to outright Gods. It's one of the problems of the setting really. There's always a temptation to add vast hidden powers to an SF setting, they make great allegorical opponents, but it's better to resist the temptation lest you face the Star Trek question: why do all these god-like beings let us puny mortals buzz around in our spaceships harassing them?

That's why I think it would be interesting for the aliens to be, for the most part, understandable. Not impossibly advanced, just a bit more technological.

[Ottriman]

Rhetoric 1

We have all heard "cutting remarks" or "fiery rhetoric", however in this world these descriptions are more literal. Words can produce a wide variety of effects on the environment or on people, such as burning, cutting, shocking or more based on the words, the context and how they're spoken.

The date is currently 1916, the first world war is in full swing and really demonstrating the devastation of modern rhetoric warfare. Troops are often horrified, inspired, shocked, burned or more all in one day of serious action. The trench lines constructed from sound barriers and counter-sonics to negate enemy pun-artillery are a formidable defense, and little ground is gained.

Everything looks surprisingly similar to our timeline, just powered by words spoken by people. The industrial revolution happening once recording technology came online, suddenly words could be repeated all day much more easily and the power of society skyrocketed.