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Old 05-09-2015, 06:11 PM   #1051
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Default Re: New Reality Seeds

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"Uncleftish beholding" could also be a response to the French Language Institute.

"What a grand idea! Rid ourselves of that horrid French that was forced on us by the Normans!" --said, ironically, by someone who had mostly Norman ancestors.
A somewhat alternate Henry VIII (or a descendent thereof), throwing off the last connection to Rome, perhaps, or even a Harold II victorious at Hastings.
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Old 05-10-2015, 01:51 AM   #1052
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I believe that de Camp had the AU being that the Normans never conquered England. However that is the only thing he wrote in that AU so that's just from an author's note.
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Old 05-11-2015, 09:44 AM   #1053
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Try this idea, there was a Spanish Armada in 1596, it's not well known, it was crushed by storms before it got north of France. But unlike the 1588 Armada, it wasn't known about until it was too late to do anything about it.

Remove the storms and Spain conquers England in 1596. But where a conquest in 1588 would have had ten years for a mainly healthy Phillip II to consolidate it, a 1596 conquest has just two years for a sick Phillip the second to pull things together before Phillip III gets the throne. No one in Europe would tolerate the sheer power spain would have if it holds England. And since Elizabeth is either dead or prisoner, James of Scotland would want the English throne.

You could have a nasty little set of wars in an alternate Britain in this parallel.
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Old 05-11-2015, 07:38 PM   #1054
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You could have a nasty little set of wars in an alternate Britain in this parallel.
I really like this idea. I'd be tempted to make it a low mana parallel, with John Dee leading an underground of rebellious Britons and continental agents in a sorcerous campaign against Spain, while the Spanish import sorcerous items and reality shards from a Highly Weird new world to fight back.
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Old 05-11-2015, 08:05 PM   #1055
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No one in Europe would tolerate the sheer power spain would have if it holds England.
Toleration for spain probably wouldn't have changed at the time. England was not actually a great power in europe at that time: It was certainly no more important than the dutch (which spain already owned) or naples (which spain already owned) Or that spain's cousin and firm ally had bohemia, Hungary, and a good deal of influence in germany. The power the hasburgs had at that time is what made the 30 years war drag on so long, and what finally broke the 'catholic vs prodestant' paradigm.

Just saying.
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Old 05-12-2015, 08:19 AM   #1056
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I really like this idea. I'd be tempted to make it a low mana parallel, with John Dee leading an underground of rebellious Britons and continental agents in a sorcerous campaign against Spain, while the Spanish import sorcerous items and reality shards from a Highly Weird new world to fight back.
Hite included a world where the Armada of 1588 led to that sort of world. Steal what you can from his world then turn the political chaos up to 11 or 12.
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Old 05-12-2015, 08:23 AM   #1057
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Toleration for spain probably wouldn't have changed at the time. England was not actually a great power in europe at that time: It was certainly no more important than the dutch (which spain already owned) or naples (which spain already owned) Or that spain's cousin and firm ally had bohemia, Hungary, and a good deal of influence in germany. The power the hasburgs had at that time is what made the 30 years war drag on so long, and what finally broke the 'catholic vs prodestant' paradigm.

Just saying.
I know England wasn't a big power in Europe until fairly late in the 17th century or early in the 18th, according to who you read. But the isles were strategically important. Phillip II came fairly close to universal rule of Europe. certainly closer than anyone scince the fall of the Western Empire. Phillip III wasn't able to hold on to what Phillip II got in our world. In this world it would fall apart quicker.
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Old 05-13-2015, 08:48 AM   #1058
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Try this idea, bubonic plague became endemic in Africa (or at least in South Eastern Africa) after the 435AD event. Try the idea of an Africa where the multi-mammate mice never carried bubonic plague. A minor tweak in evolution.

in this world Southeastern Africa's Swahili coast culture, instead of being confined to the coast, would spread inland. Southern Africa would have it's own high culture, strongly influenced by India and the Islamic countries.

This would radically alter interactions between Europe and Asia in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Atlantic slave trade might still occur relatively unchanged, but Africa would have a far greater influence on World culture.
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Old 05-14-2015, 09:36 AM   #1059
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Thinking further on a Null-African Bubonic world, Coconuts, bananas and yams would get to Africa a couple of centuries earlier and spread faster once they got there. Mainly because of impoved trade routes. This would lead to higher populations earlier. The crisis of state formation that followed the introduction of these crops in our history (and made the slave trade so very important to the African Kingdoms) wouldn't occur in tandem with the age of exploration.

The Atlantic Slave Trade would still exist, but it would be vastly smaller and less profitable. The introduction of Maize, which in our history accelerated the crisis, might calm it down. The first Europeans weren't interested in slaves and generally had to be blackmailed to take them as cargo. In this altered timeline, there'd be little reason to push slaves off on to European merchants.

Many scholars now say that Slavery created modern Capitalism and financed the Industrial Revolution. You could decide how true this is in your parallels.
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Old 05-14-2015, 11:48 AM   #1060
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So it's fall of 1983. The soviets shot down a South Korean airliner with several Americans aboard, including a senator, and intelligence reports that the US is running a wargame- Able Archer 83- which simulates escalation to a nuclear war.

The Soviets have an untested satellite system to detect incoming missiles, capable of detecting US launches within minutes, a vast improvement on land radar.

Just after midnight of the 26th, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov receives a warning from the satellite array- one launch. He dismisses it as a false alarm- the Americans would never start a war with a single missile.

Within minutes, four more launches are detected by the satellites. Petrov stands by his decision, and reports no incoming missiles.

Twenty minutes later, land-based radar detects the first missile entering range, headed straight for Moscow. Able Archer was a ruse for American preparation, and a gun-happy Regan saw a perfect casus belli. The first missile reaches Moscow and beheads the Soviet Union, resulting in sporadic responses. The four other missiles strike other key Soviet missile sites. Nonetheless, dozens of missiles are fired at the united states, but in the five minutes it takes to ready the remaining Russian response, the primary "saturation" stage of the American attack has begun, firing at the remaining Soviet silos and military sites. Many soviet missiles are destroyed in silo, or simply unready to launch and too contaminated to service. Regan's planners refer to the attack as "The plan with no name," and US propaganda sells it as "shooting the guns out of their hands."

An hour later, the Soviet Union has been annihilated. Europe has suffered missile attacks in every country, mostly military targets. London was directly hit. The United States saw direct hits on New York, Washington D.C., and LA, but otherwise only military targets. The upper leadership of all NATO countries is mostly intact, as is the United States' industrial and financial leadership, because of preparations undertaken under the guise of Able Archer. The Soviet military and political infrastructure is totally destroyed, and the population devastated.

Over the following months, prevailing wind patterns send fallout over Europe, and the Russian refugees moving west bring upheaval and destruction.

US reconstruction is swift to begin, but it lost the most productive parts of its economy. It takes longer for the bulk of the Russian fallout to reach the US, but it does arrive. Russian submarines keep in deep cover for months before surfacing briefly for their retaliatory strikes; only a very small number surrender to the USA, as radio chatter reveals that it was an intentional American first strike. Once they've expended their missiles, they beach in neutral nations and try to go native, or, infrequently, attempt to infiltrate the USA to continue their retribution.

Soviet retaliatory strikes are only partially effective; the USA retains air and naval control and is able to intercept or prepare for most incoming missiles. A few coastal and central US cities take additional hits.

By 2015, the TL is still firmly 7, with the USA as the only significant power on the planet, still cleaning its own bed. Europe is crumbling under the damage inflicted in the war, the fallout, the nuclear winter, and the drifting populations of refugees and bandits. Russia is a wasteland with only scattered survivors, and the third world, especially in the south, is strengthened by the rich educated refugees from the north and the ex-soviet, unused missiles sold to them by deserting sub crews.

Politically, the world is far more religious and conservative, as many cities saw serious losses while rural areas were largely unchanged.

Last edited by PTTG; 05-14-2015 at 12:06 PM.
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