New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea. I'm taking it from a posting I made on another thread. Serpent people from a reality outside of the quantum known to Homeline and Centrum, break into a Q4 parallel strongly similar to Homeline in the year 1895.

These Serpent People bring plauges and fell beasts to crush humanity. However, like Well's Martians, the Serpent People get a microbial surprise. They fail at conqest but shatter both the Earth's governments and their own.

It is now the year 1957.The world has experienced warming and the seas are rising, sea level is up 25 feet. Sea level is raising about four feet every ten years at this time. The present population is around 300 million. The world is a steampunk post-apocalyptic world of magic and steam tech. Conan and Krull meet After London and Things to Come.

More later...

For the Serpent Folk stats use either the Kaa (if you have GURPS Aliens) or the Reptile Folk. In either case give then Magery-0 as a Racial trait. For the Reptile Folk raise Racial IQ to 10. In their old world, the Serpent Folk had IQ stats in the mid twenties, but the transfer seems to have radically lowered their intellects.

The Serpent Folk are having serious trouble breeding. On their old world they'd given up sexual reproduction as a sacrifice to their deities. They bred parasitically planting their lava in hosts like wasp lava. That doesn't work on this parallel. Most males have their reproductive organs surgically removed as a sacrifice to create a link with a patron demon/godling. Intact males are seen as lowly slaves and disgraces to their families. Females fear sex, because of ancient curses any sexual activity is brutal torture for the woman, and pregnancy always ends in ugly death. However all births are multiple (1D6+2 hatchlings). None of the Serpent folk admit to having relatives, it is too disgraceful.

Serpent folks escaping breeding duties would be logical allies and/or plot hooks. The disgrace of breeding or being possible breeding stock is far to painful for most Serpent People to face. The communities in question do not let breeders escape lightly. someone else would have to take their place.

Further notes on the planet's governments. The Serpent Folks rule in Europe. Their strongholds are in France, Germany, Spain, and Northern Italy. Egypt, Palestine, Iran, and Arabia are also held by the Serpent Folk. Switzerland, Ireland, Morocco, Scotland, and the Caucasus mountains, are human strongholds.

Australia is too hot to live in but New Zealand is the most advanced human nation. Largely because it took the least damage in the invasion. The Kerguelen Islands are fertile in this parallel and are the stronghold of French culture and civilization. Iceland is far more fertile and green in this parallel, and Greenland has more arable land than at any time since the Greenland ice sheets formed. These are the strongholds of Germanic and Nordic culture.

The Greenlanders are finding strange ruins in the melting ice. The people who the Kerguelen Islanders have sent to Antarctica to search for minerals to mine bring back strange tales of fertile valley and a strange mountain in the distance never seen before. Throughout the southern hemisphere mediums speak fearfully of "Kadath in the Cold waste."

More later.

[Astromancer]

I intend to do more with the Swords and Sorcery meets Steampunk world, but for now try this...

This Q6 parallel was assumed to be another distant parallel that diverged from Homeline more than a billion years ago. The thing that kept bringing researchers back was how similar, mainly and overwhelmingly identical, the plant and animal life was to Homeline flora and fauna. Given the simple fact the that continents were radically different from Earth such close parallel evolution seems impossible.

Answers came quickly. First a mystery. Geological research shows the parallel has no fossils, and that this world was lifeless less than a thousand years ago. Second, groups of people have been found.

The people in question mistook the researchers for explorers form the planet EARTH!

The locals claim that their ancestors were sent to this world from the Earth seven hundred years ago. They were among the survivors of a nuclear war. Soon after the early camps and bases were established contact stopped. They assumed there were either further wars or a crisis of another kind stopped spaceflight.

The people of this Parallel breakdown into five major groups.

The Slan: The name is partially humorous and partially a warning. The Slan are mutant parahumans (Think the Tyranians from Genesis II, only these double belly button people are no worse than ordinary humans). They are impressively physically superior to ordinary human, have longer lifespans, and are somewhat smarter (measurable but not all that impressive IQ 11) and more perceptive ( +2 to Per and the Sensitive advantage) than ordinary humans.

Most Slan look for areas isolated from other human groups but allowing trade and other contacts. They want to increase in numbers and build their own civilization. They pursue science, the arts, and scholarship as much as possible. They are prepared for war but prefer trade and diplomacy.

The Outcasts: Mutants, genetically damaged by the ancient wars. These are small tribal groups and bandit gangs forced to live on the edges of society. As the generations go by, each new generation is less deformed, and more likely to pass on the few positive mutations.

Basically these guys are the barbarians. If you wan to build a Conan/Krull type with ST 20, IQ 9, and telepathy, go ahead, have fun.

The Thalassocrats A group of basically normal humans who pride themselves on control of the sea lanes and trade. They switch from pirates to merchants to raiders as the opportunity comes up. Like the other groups mutations are common enough. Those that aid the maritime livestyle of these sea rovers tend to be more common.

The Alliance A group of more or less democratic city states. The people are mainly human with mutations common, but several groups of parahumans live within their societies.

The Clans A group of more or less allied tribal nomadic societies that follow large herds of bison, raise dairy cattle, and practice transhumant farming and gardening. They often raid the other groups for slaves and plunder.

The local tech level is normally TL4. The Clans are TL3 in many areas and the Outcasts are normally TL2. The Alliance is early TL5 and the Slan are TL6. The main limits on tech are that the systems to use tech aren't built. Even the Slan use Sails to propel their ships. Industry is still not industrial. But those with settled lifestyles are working toward this.

There are several universities, only in the past few decades becoming real schools again, were records of Earth civilization, science, and technology are kept.

All these groups show pisionic powers on a low level. Psionic Perks are commonplace. Higher levels of power are rare and training is rarer still, but people do try.

Several mysteries are part of this world, mainly, who have the tech to terraform this parallel and bring these people here so long ago. Are they still out there? What was the point of this project? Was it really a rescue mission? It doesn't make good sense that a nation trying to survive the aftermath of a nuclear war would have the resources to ship tens of thousands of colonists to another parallel. Let alone the resources to terraform a world.

Was it a breeding experiment? Are the mutants the point of the exercise?

The records these people have of Earth show a basic change from Homeline History in the 1970's. Space Exploration continued and technology rapidly advanced, the final wars coming in the early 21st century. Most of this seems like a sci fi movie or TV show from the 1970s. Is this history fake? What was it meant to hide?

Anyone like this?

[Astromancer]

Oh, the natives all speak forms of English. The more primitive the group's technology, the further the language diverged. This fits with most of the people saying their ancestors came from the USA, Canada, or Australia. Or as the local say it Merica, Kanda, and Stralia ( some Stralians say their ancestors came from the Sea Land).

When I think up some smaller groups and geography I'll post that too.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Oh, the natives all speak forms of English.

This is the kind of thing that makes Infinity people in Infinite Cabal roll their eyes and mutter about "postmodern explanations."

This is their jargon for explanations of the Infinite Worlds that involve mass illusion, the Simulation Hypothesis, serious solipsism or bad scriptwriting.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

This is the kind of thing that makes Infinity people in Infinite Cabal roll their eyes and mutter about "postmodern explanations."

This is their jargon for explanations of the Infinite Worlds that involve mass illusion, the Simulation Hypothesis, serious solipsism or bad scriptwriting.

Linguists recognize the locals as speaking forms of English. The Clans and the Outcastes speak something that clearly evolved from 20th century English but has to be learned as a separate languages, about twenty or so. Both the Thalassocrats and the cities of the Alliance speak forms of English as different from modern English as Mallory's. The Slan are closest to Homeline English. But it still often a chore to understand them. The tendency to evolve slowly linguistically comes with mass literacy.


The historical records available to these peoples, or at least to the settled folks, show that they came from a world pretty much identical to Homeline until the 1910s. The main differences that can be found before 1914 are A) Chaucer writes about five more Canterbury Tales, B) Shakespeare writes two more late Romances, C) Dickens finishes Edwin Drood and another novel called Sarah Jane Westbrook (this featured a young woman in conflict with both ghosts and fraudulent mediums, a lively satire of British politics), and D) Edgar Allen Poe lived to be fifty-four and completed nearly as much poetry and fiction as in the rest of his life.

The main difference after 1914 seems to have been faster technological growth and more art works completed and of high quality. After 1968 the records become less consistent. The locals assume competing propaganda efforts scrambled the historical records. Some researchers on Homeline wonder if the locals might have come from more than one parallel.

Of course the avaible records are limited and not always in the best condition.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea. I'm taking it from a posting I made on another thread. Serpent people from a reality outside of the quantum known to Homeline and Centrum, break into a Q4 parallel strongly similar to Homeline in the year 1895.

These Serpent People bring plauges and fell beasts to crush humanity. However, like Well's Martians, the Serpent People get a microbial surprise. They fail at conqest but shatter both the Earth's governments and their own.

It is now the year 1957.The world has experienced warming and the seas are rising, sea level is up 25 feet. Sea level is raising about four feet every ten years at this time. The present population is around 300 million. The world is a steampunk post-apocalyptic world of magic and steam tech. Conan and Krull meet After London and
Things to Come.

More later...

I will include needed links and notes on tech and magic.

This parallel is now named Thulsa, after Thulsa Doom.

A major cultural group on this world are the Airship sailors. They are the most cosmopolitan group going. They are among the very few people who do any traveling. Other than working airship crews, travel in this world is as difficult as in Europe's early medieval period.

The airship folk are the people most likely to produce adventurers that seek adventure for its own sake as opposed to unlucky people fighting to survive.

Mages identified with Mercury are commonly navigators, although mages identified with Jupiter, being weather mages, often get that role. Mages identified with Minerva dominated the engineer slot.

Airship port facilities are were those travers GMs like to start gaming sessions in, are found.

Meanwhile, the American west, in spite of the magic and dinosaurs, looks and seems a lot like Homeline's Old West. These towns are, in spite of their ages, still frontier settlements. Even with magic and Airships.


,

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This Q6 parallel was assumed to be another distant parallel that diverged from Homeline more than a billion years ago. The thing that kept bringing researchers back was how similar, mainly and overwhelmingly identical, the plant and animal life was to Homeline flora and fauna. Given the simple fact the that continents were radically different from Earth such close parallel evolution seems impossible.

This parallel has been named Fors after the title character in Star Man's Son.

Some notes on the geography. Most of the attention and exploration of this world has been focused on a continent shaped a lot like North America stretched to be 30% wider and with Mexico below Sanora and the northern four fifths of Canada loped off.

Rivers are more common than in North America and generally more navigable than North America's rivers. North of the main continent are chains of islands like Indonesia or Northern Canada. These island chains stretch far to the East continent. The Thalassocrats say that the people there claim to be Irish and say they walked under hills to get to this land. Both the Slan and the Thalassocrats say that golden skinned people with almond eyes live in the far west. Those folks say that the August Elder of Jade turned a rainbow into a bridge and they walked up into the sky to get to this world.

More later, I have to go...

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This parallel is now named Thulsa, after Thulsa Doom.

A major cultural group on this world are the Airship sailors. They are the most cosmopolitan group going. They are among the very few people who do any traveling. Other than working airship crews, travel in this world is as difficult as in Europe's early medieval period.

The airship folk are the people most likely to produce adventurers that seek adventure for its own sake as opposed to unlucky people fighting to survive.

Mages identified with Mercury are commonly navigators, although mages identified with Jupiter, being weather mages, often get that role. Mages identified with Minerva dominated the engineer slot.

Airship port facilities are were those travers GMs like to start gaming sessions in, are found.

Meanwhile, the American west, in spite of the magic and dinosaurs, looks and seems a lot like Homeline's Old West. These towns are, in spite of their ages, still frontier settlements. Even with magic and Airships.


,

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It's later. Europe is trashed, it's the main area the Serpent People came in through. Most of Africa and Latin America are too hot for humans to live in. China is also infested with Serpent folk.

India is doing fairly Well. One of Victoria's grand daughters made it there an was declared Empress. Her son, the King/Emperor, married a prominent Maharani, and his son has done the same. Most of the remaining Europeans are marrying high caste Hinds. Christ is now seen as an Avatar of Vishnu, as are St. Francis, St George, and St. Joan. St Paul, John the Baptist, St. Patrick, and Henry VIII, are Avatars of Shiva. Moses and Elizabeth Tudor are counted as Avatars of Brahma.

Giving that Conan is in many ways a cowboy projected into an imagined barbarian past, it fits this world that the Old West has moved north, climate change, and six guns and sorcery is a common flavor of much of this world's North America. Pirates and revived Indian nations also thrive. TL6+1^ cities thrive behind their walls and other defenses.

Tech is influenced by Serpent Rune Magic. Airships (can you have an Alternate history without airships?) use Runic enchantments and function as TL6+3 airships. The use of Fire Runes to boil water dominates power generation.

Sea travel is deadly because of mysterious vast beasts brought by the Serpent Folks. Thus intercontinental travel is by airship. Trains, steamboats, wagons, ect are still around, but mass manufacture is rare.

The core skill that Magic works off of in this reality is Rune Lore-VH. The Runes cover Twelve Roads, Entropy/Luck, Correspondence/Space, Time, Life, Forces, Matter, Mind, Spirit, Quintessence, Society, Information,, and Fate/Purpose. Mages generally chose to identify with a deity to gain a deeper understanding of magic and thus greater power. The deities available to Western Mages are Astrological ones, the Sun, Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, Minerva( the seventh planet got a different name in this parallel), and Neptune (they haven't discovered Pluto). Such identification can lead to transformation. High level initiates often are more like their deities than their former selves. Example, all Mages that identify with Venus end up as fertile beautiful women even if they were born men.

Each level of identification with a deity adds to Magery and other talents. Fifth level initiates of Venus have plus five to all medical, artistic, and social skills as well as Plus five to Magery. The fifth level initiate of Mars is plus five to all combat (Martial) skills. There are ten levels of initiation. High level initiates are called on for far more than their magic skills.


More later.

What is the general tech level? IIRC, the city-states are like TL (6+1)^ or something but what is the outside like?

Like what would someone like Conan or Krull find for weapons or armor in this worldline? And what is it's Aquilonia?

Because it sounds almost like a steampunk The Day After Ragnarok. :D

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by warellis

What is the general tech level? IIRC, the city-states are like TL (6+1)^ or something but what is the outside like?


Like what would someone like Conan or Krull find for weapons or armor in this worldline? And what is it's Aquilonia?

Because it sounds almost like a steampunk The Day After Ragnarok. :D

The tech level outside the cities is generally TL5 or lower. Picture the old West slowly becoming Conanesque. Remember TL5 runs from 1720 to 1890, TL5 covets a lot.

This world uses both six guns and blades. Mainly because it's easy to run out of bullets.

More details later.

[warellis]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The tech level outside the cities is generally TL5 or lower. Picture the old West slowly becoming Conanesque. Remember TL5 runs from 1720 to 1890, TL5 covets a lot.

This world uses both six guns and blades. Mainly because it's easy to run out of bullets.

More details later.

So it'd be revolvers and sorcery~?