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Old 09-06-2014, 06:27 PM   #141
Fred Brackin
 
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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Originally Posted by Flyndaran View Post
Even more importantly they match exactly until and unless cross-time interference alters them.
I do not believe this is accurate. As far as Infinity can tell Britannia 6 was an echo until it reached its' divergence point but that occurred before it was discovered. Its' divergence point is also not something easily changed by out-timers.

The only sure indicator of an echo is that it is exactly similar to Homeline history and hasn't changed yet. That it will never change without outside interference is unknowable. Many lines appear to have been identical until they reached a single point but show no signs of interference.
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Old 09-06-2014, 06:39 PM   #142
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

You're forgetting that echoes can change quanta when influenced by cross timers. No other alternates do that.
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Old 05-22-2015, 09:02 PM   #143
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

Halley-3:

Halley's comet's arrival coincides with mana surges from this time lines' no-mana baseline to very-high-mana for one weeks every 76 years (stepping up one level per week and then back down afterwards). The worldline appears to have high inertia... only legends diverged until the 1910 appearance, when a number of skeptics met to disprove the phenomenon and ended up accidentally conjuring a magical diamond six feet across, healing seven volunteers of blinding afflictions, and opening a portal from Lisbon to San Fransisco.

There was a brief surge in "manamania" for the next decade or so, but it faded. Nonetheless, the records were then on paper for the 1986 appearance. This was the first major deviation, but nonetheless history progressed much the same. Nazis sought to use "astral metals" to enhance magic, but failed (only 1P/Halley has the effect, or perhaps it's more of a signal than a cause). Same in the cold war; MK-ULTRA lost a lot funding to MERLIN.

In 1986, scientists and astronomers attempted to use the event to advance understanding and produce materials that would be otherwise impossible.

It's now 2005. All of the enchanted or mana-dependent objects and materials have faded to mundane forms, but a few effects linger. Several tons of rare elements were conjured, and some technologies were kicke up to a higher level by the magical manipulation... but one of the more common artifacts produced were blue roses. Genetically engineering them into existence is really tough, but a simple spell could do it, and they were able to live without mana, too. They can't cross with regular roses. Infinity sells them as the product of "alternate evolution."
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Old 05-23-2015, 12:08 PM   #144
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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You're forgetting that echoes can change quanta when influenced by cross timers. No other alternates do that.
An otherwise ordinary Parallel, which is almost an Echo of Homeline's 1968, Humphrey just won the presidential election because Nixon's manipulation of the peace talks was exposed early and low mana is the norm, ossalates among Quantuums 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Agents from Centrum, the Cabal, and Homeline, all want to have bases here. Centrum and Homeline want to keep everyone else out. Crosstime crooks also want to establish bases here since it is cheaper than a paratime conveyer.
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Old 05-23-2015, 02:06 PM   #145
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

Even better if/when it settles down in a really weird quantum. Or merely if experts state that it will.
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Old 05-30-2015, 12:00 PM   #146
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

Try the idea of a Near Echo with small areas of Mana. Picture a nearly Homeline like world with a New Agey resort in the Bahamas called Poseidonais (after the capital of Atlantis). The locals call the resort's customers "The Mental Patients" or the "Paying Crazies."

The resort is a front. The island is a school of magic on a world that is 95% no mana.

Whether this school is run by Homeline, Centruum, the Cabal, Reich-5, or some other power, is up to the GM.
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Old 05-30-2015, 12:23 PM   #147
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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The resort is a front. The island is a school of magic on a world that is 95% no mana.

Whether this school is run by Homeline, Centruum, the Cabal, Reich-5, or some other power, is up to the GM.
Why not a local cult that claims to be able to give people astonishing powers it they buy enough treatment and initiation levels? They'd be all over this, and vulnerable to infiltration by out-timers.
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Old 05-30-2015, 12:29 PM   #148
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It isn't an echo. Echoes match Homeline history exactly up to their current date.
Some line's history. Not necessarily Homeline's history (and for a loose value of "exactly")
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Old 05-30-2015, 12:31 PM   #149
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Why not a local cult that claims to be able to give people astonishing powers it they buy enough treatment and initiation levels? They'd be all over this, and vulnerable to infiltration by out-timers.
But no local has magery, so their methods are completely useless... for them, but innovative and effective for actual mages.

Vaguely like Bedknobs and Broomsticks where the charlatan sells snippets of a real magic book to a real witch not knowing any of it's real until he meets her.
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Old 05-30-2015, 12:40 PM   #150
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Default Re: [IW] Ordinary Worlds with valuables!

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Some line's history. Not necessarily Homeline's history (and for a loose value of "exactly")
Canonically, all of them match Homeline's history exactly enough that differences have been found to be errors in recorded history. See Infinite Worlds, p85, and that's the view Centrum has too, p53.

Now, altering the IW setting such that echoes of other worlds exist is an obvious possibility, and I've done something related in Infinite Cabal, but it isn't in the basic setting.
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