Alternate Earths 3, What Worlds? (hypothetical)

[ardashir]

Say, what's this 'Nergal' you're talking about? I get the idea that it revolves around the ancient Middle East by the name.

[Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2]

Originally Posted by ardashir

Say, what's this 'Nergal' you're talking about? I get the idea that it revolves around the ancient Middle East by the name.

One of the alterante histories in Infinite Worlds. In Nergal, the Assyrian Empire achieved total hegemony over the Middle East in the Bronze Age, wiping out the Hebrews (and monotheism), the Phoenicians (and the concept of the alphabet), and everyone else. All following civilizations in the region followed the rather brutal Assyrian model. Nergal is a rather dark and unforgiving world, full of brutality and savagery. It has two interesting pints, though - one is an anomalous ice age that appears to be starting; the other is the civilization that worships the agents of the Infinity Patrol as "Sky-Gods" (one of their less ethical operations, IMHO).

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2

One of the alterante histories in Infinite Worlds. In Nergal, the Assyrian Empire achieved total hegemony over the Middle East in the Bronze Age, wiping out the Hebrews (and monotheism), the Phoenicians (and the concept of the alphabet), and everyone else. All following civilizations in the region followed the rather brutal Assyrian model. Nergal is a rather dark and unforgiving world, full of brutality and savagery. It has two interesting pints, though - one is an anomalous ice age that appears to be starting; the other is the civilization that worships the agents of the Infinity Patrol as "Sky-Gods" (one of their less ethical operations, IMHO).

Agreed! The patrol shouldn't be interfering in this World Line's cultural development. Nergal should be studied in it's purest state with no cultural contamination.

[Mgellis]

I'm hoping that the new Pyramid will dedicate one issue a year to timelines, the Infinity War, etc.

(I'd also like to see more issues dedicated to particular settings like Banestorm, Technomancer, etc. I have no idea if these would sell well or not, though; they might be "too narrow" in focus.)

Mark

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Mgellis

I'm hoping that the new Pyramid will dedicate one issue a year to timelines, the Infinity War, etc.

(I'd also like to see more issues dedicated to particular settings like Banestorm, Technomancer, etc. I have no idea if these would sell well or not, though; they might be "too narrow" in focus.)

Mark

I'd start buying issues again if they did that. >.> I'd uh... also like to see PDF's put out detailing one specific world line that's been mentioned before in previous books such as IW for instance. Much like what was done for Britannica-6. What a 'fantastic' book!

[martinl]

Originally Posted by Rowan

Agreed! The patrol shouldn't be interfering in this World Line's cultural development. Nergal should be studied in it's purest state with no cultural contamination.

I. This is the IW setting. Freaking ambulatory statuary sneaks across timelines alongside it's Nazi-Juicer brethren. Cultural contamination isn't inevitable, it has almost certainly already happened.

II. Although I can see some small scientific benefit from studying Nergal in as pristine a state as possible, I can see a huge humanitarian benefit in doing something about it, and it would be hard to make Nergal worse without making it a full on disaster parallel. This is a clear job for Miracle Workers. If you're one of those"only people from Homeline are real" types, have some ISWAT folks who'd like to discuss the reality of their families with you.

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by martinl

I. This is the IW setting. Freaking ambulatory statuary sneaks across timelines alongside it's Nazi-Juicer brethren. Cultural contamination isn't inevitable, it has almost certainly already happened.

Just because contamination may happen, doesn't mean I think Infinity should be one of the ones that do it.

II. Although I can see some small scientific benefit from studying Nergal in as pristine a state as possible, I can see a huge humanitarian benefit in doing something about it, and it would be hard to make Nergal worse without making it a full on disaster parallel. This is a clear job for Miracle Workers. If you're one of those "only people from Homeline are real" types, have some ISWAT folks who'd like to discuss the reality of their families with you.

It's not about real people are from X, etc. I just believe the world line should be studied without miracle workers contaiminating the world Line. If they were able to do it covertly, that's good. But just swooping in and shutting things down left and right. I'm not crazy about.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Tom Kalbfus

How about an alternate Earth that was physically different. For instance what if the continents of North and South America were submerged but all the rest of the contents are the same as in our world. The Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are merged to form a single ocean which is called the Atlantic. The Atlantic laps on the shores of both Europe and Asia, ahd there is a very long chain of island stretching from where Alaska would be all the way down to Chile. These Island chain is called the Rocky Islands, and some of those islands like St Helens are actually volcanic. These areas provide good fishing grounds if nothing else.

There is already such a world in Infinite Worlds. It is under the myth parallels and has a Prester John along with other pieces of weirdness.

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Rowan

It's a foot note kind of in, um, Infinite Worlds? Near the end of the Puzzle World's section? Inifinity thought it was just a close parallel to Homeline's Edwardian era with an odd fixation on Dragons. So they started tours there. Two years later they find out the dragon's everyone's talking about are in fact real and can use magic to dominate acolytes and whole nations without leaving their caves.

Infinity freaked.

They stamped the world with a Z rating and pulled out of there quickly. Now I hear they're running around trying to find everyone that took a trip there to find out if someone let the secret slip to the dragons.

The passage mentions more details can be found in GURPS: Dragons. So I'm not sure how developed the world is. ^_^ Sounds like a neat place.

I agree. One idea I would like is a world that doesn't follow the rules Homeline or Centrum think apply to Parachronic Theory making them realize that they don't know as much as they think they do.

Another idea is a sort of anti-Reich where thanks to a gas inspired fever dream in 1918 Hitler went for the diversity end of Darwin's message rather than the racial purity one. It would still be dedicated to eradicating the weak, the stupid, useless, and insane as well as the strong should rule the weak as OTL Reich was but the whole anti-Semitic element would be missing.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by maximara

...
Another idea is a sort of anti-Reich where thanks to a gas inspired fever dream in 1918 Hitler went for the diversity end of Darwin's message rather than the racial purity one. It would still be dedicated to eradicating the weak, the stupid, useless, and insane as well as the strong should rule the weak as OTL Reich was but the whole anti-Semitic element would be missing.

Antisemitism was disgustingly common before Hitler showed just how disgusting it could be. Having Hitler not go street rat crazy on self-identified jews, then there would have been no back lash against antisemitism.
I think this concept is mentioned in the AE world with wierd Tesla based tech where WWII never happened.

How about a world where the legitimate science of eugenics was never sullied by Hitler at all.