[IW] Centrum before the final war?

Frost · 07-01-2009, 01:41 PM

While tinkering with ideas for a non-infinity IW game I came across several fairly heavy hints that The Centrum or a very close predecessor actualy engineered the conditions for the final war. Having read it the idea seems to be a natural driver for an adventure or adventures on Centrum Beta.

Of course the big questions are:
How would Centrum organise its self within the configns of the empire?

How would it promote a situation that would lead from a relitively stable society (by fuedal standards) to nuclear war in about ten years?

Would the founders of Centrum realy destroy society as they knew it (and the greater part of humanity) in order to start again?

In the unlikely event that they wouldn't, what were they trying to do when they did?

My first thought would be to make The Centrum in this era a fairly conventional conspiritorial organisation within sections of the inteligencia, millitary and lower nobility. In terms of motivation I don't see the idea of the group as elitist utopians planing to rebuild society litteraly from scratch as being so implausible.

However I need some inspiration on the how part. I can't shake the idea that if the empire was going to slide spontainously into a genocidal global civil war it would have done so long before anybody could push it that way.

Any sugestions, alternative aproaches or comments would be very welcome.

capnq · 07-01-2009, 06:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frost

While tinkering with ideas for a non-infinity IW game I came across several fairly heavy hints that The Centrum or a very close predecessor actualy engineered the conditions for the final war. Having read it the idea seems to be a natural driver for an adventure or adventures on Centrum Beta.
[...]
Would the founders of Centrum realy destroy society as they knew it (and the greater part of humanity) in order to start again?

This idea is probably too far out of left field for what you have planned, but I'll toss it out anyway.

It wasn't the founders of Centrum who engineered the war; it was some faction of the Cabal.

One possible motivation for this would be to create a rival to Infinity to keep them occupied and off balance, to reduce Infinity's interference in the Cabal's other schemes.

(My idea was primarily inspired by the illustration on p.12 of GURPS Time Travel for 3rd ed.)

Frost · 07-02-2009, 11:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnq

This idea is probably too far out of left field for what you have planned, but I'll toss it out anyway.

It wasn't the founders of Centrum who engineered the war; it was some faction of the Cabal.

You are right its not realy what I am looking for. There are two big reasons for this, firstly I don't realy want to make it a high magic game (so no cabal) and secondly I realy want to make the threat native to the timeline and integrated into the power structure.

capnq · 07-02-2009, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frost

You are right its not realy what I am looking for. There are two big reasons for this, firstly I don't realy want to make it a high magic game (so no cabal) and secondly I realy want to make the threat native to the timeline and integrated into the power structure.

OK, within those boundaries, I'd replace the Cabal with the local equivalent of the historical Bavarian Illuminati, or the Narodna Odbrana and its radical offshoot, the Black Hand. (I think those three organizations at least bracket the time frame you're looking at.) Any group that was trying to change the political landscape could have Something Go Horribly Wrong, leaving Centrum to pick up the pieces afterwards. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

Frost · 07-03-2009, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by capnq

OK, within those boundaries, I'd replace the Cabal with the local equivalent of the historical Bavarian Illuminati, or the Narodna Odbrana and its radical offshoot, the Black Hand. (I think those three organizations at least bracket the time frame you're looking at.) Any group that was trying to change the political landscape could have Something Go Horribly Wrong, leaving Centrum to pick up the pieces afterwards. "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions".

Still doesn't realy work. Given how widely divergent a timeline this is none of the historical organisations you sugest are likely to have ever come into being.

In any case creating another conspiritorial organisation also leaves me with the last three questions too answer and a another one on top of that namely 'what exactly is the first lot of dangerious radicals doing while all this is going on?'.

Xenarthral · 07-04-2009, 08:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frost

Still doesn't realy work. Given how widely divergent a timeline this is none of the historical organisations you sugest are likely to have ever come into being.

Local equivalent does not necessarily mean the local version of the specific organisation.
If a parallel has had freethinkers and Enlightenment - which Centrum pretty obviously has had - it has had the seeds for a "Bavarian Illuminati" even if
they are the Ligurian Perfectabilists or whatever instead.
If a parallel has empires - which again Centrum obviously had - and nationalists, possibly of the pan-[ethnicity] type, it has the seeds for one
or more Narodna Odbrana-type organisation.

Quote:

'what exactly is the first lot of dangerious radicals doing while all this is going on?'.

Dying miserably from exposure to any number of bioweapons.

Frost · 07-05-2009, 06:43 AM

What I have so far:

The Centrum was founded in the early 1860's by small cabal of service gentry (non-hereditary nobles deriving status from their employment in the upper ranks of the army and civil service) and industrialists as a response to a shift in political influence toward the traditional nobility in the aftermath of the Asian wars of the 1850's. Its primary goal is to carry out a quiet revolution within the upper reaches of the government replacing the current 'chaotic' heirachy of dictatorships with a more 'rational' centralised oligarchy (composed of its leadership, naturaly).

Through much its thirty odd years of existence The Centrum has configned its self to low level operations designed to create an, easyly manipulated, political front with the intention of affecting their chainges within the existing legal framework.

Recently this strategy has been questioned by a number of more influential younger recruits particularly the organisations newly appointed leader Savant Dame Lynda Minott. Under Minott the organisation has moved toward two parralel strategys. Firstly a new more agressive campaing of infiltration and manipulation ultimately calling for the placement of a Centran puppet candidate on the throne. Secondly as a contingency plan and sop to the most radical members of the new guard Dame Lynda has authorised preliminary work to be undertaken on staging a military coup.

The latter strategy will ultimately plant the seeds for the resulting global war.

07-01-2009, 01:41 PM	#1
Frost Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Shropshire, uk	[IW] Centrum before the final war? While tinkering with ideas for a non-infinity IW game I came across several fairly heavy hints that The Centrum or a very close predecessor actualy engineered the conditions for the final war. Having read it the idea seems to be a natural driver for an adventure or adventures on Centrum Beta. Of course the big questions are: How would Centrum organise its self within the configns of the empire? How would it promote a situation that would lead from a relitively stable society (by fuedal standards) to nuclear war in about ten years? Would the founders of Centrum realy destroy society as they knew it (and the greater part of humanity) in order to start again? In the unlikely event that they wouldn't, what were they trying to do when they did? My first thought would be to make The Centrum in this era a fairly conventional conspiritorial organisation within sections of the inteligencia, millitary and lower nobility. In terms of motivation I don't see the idea of the group as elitist utopians planing to rebuild society litteraly from scratch as being so implausible. However I need some inspiration on the how part. I can't shake the idea that if the empire was going to slide spontainously into a genocidal global civil war it would have done so long before anybody could push it that way. Any sugestions, alternative aproaches or comments would be very welcome.

07-05-2009, 06:43 AM	#7
Frost Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Shropshire, uk	Re: [IW] Centrum before the final war? What I have so far: The Centrum was founded in the early 1860's by small cabal of service gentry (non-hereditary nobles deriving status from their employment in the upper ranks of the army and civil service) and industrialists as a response to a shift in political influence toward the traditional nobility in the aftermath of the Asian wars of the 1850's. Its primary goal is to carry out a quiet revolution within the upper reaches of the government replacing the current 'chaotic' heirachy of dictatorships with a more 'rational' centralised oligarchy (composed of its leadership, naturaly). Through much its thirty odd years of existence The Centrum has configned its self to low level operations designed to create an, easyly manipulated, political front with the intention of affecting their chainges within the existing legal framework. Recently this strategy has been questioned by a number of more influential younger recruits particularly the organisations newly appointed leader Savant Dame Lynda Minott. Under Minott the organisation has moved toward two parralel strategys. Firstly a new more agressive campaing of infiltration and manipulation ultimately calling for the placement of a Centran puppet candidate on the throne. Secondly as a contingency plan and sop to the most radical members of the new guard Dame Lynda has authorised preliminary work to be undertaken on staging a military coup. The latter strategy will ultimately plant the seeds for the resulting global war.