New Reality Seeds

[AlexanderHowl]

Sorry, meant Q3.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The late 1950s Flu pandemic was far worse on this Q5 parallel. The USSR and China collapsed into warlordism. As did many other nations. Western Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and the USA took massive hits but held together. Medicine and transport were socialized even in the USA. As trade withered and stock and bond markets stagnated the traditional rich lost power. This led to forms of Market Socialism becoming the norm.

After twenty years new flu vaccines and better antibiotics ended the plague. Still the changes lasted. As the nations that collapsed in the pandemic were aided to recover, they were guided into similar molds.

The local year is 2017 on this low Mana TL8 parallel. Society is safe stable and careful, and somewhat dull. Which is were one shy unassuming Swagman comes in.

John Patrick Trelawny, is a Swagman, but he is a Smee amount Captain Hooks. So he has come to this quiet parallel to make a safe quiet dishonest living.

Trelawny sells technology. He carefully scans the markets and catalogs and sells exotic tech that less than "twenty minutes into the future" but still very useful. His activities however are getting noticed. The parallel's technology, which only achieved TL8 in 2005 has leaped forward. The general tech level resembles 2000 on Homeline. From twenty-five years behind to only 17 years on a world where technology and science where deemphasized has gotten Homeline and the Canal noticing. Meanwhile, many local governments know something is up. The general rumor is that aliens are behind it all.

Basically, a once quiet parallel that is a threat to the secret. On the upside. The planet and it's three billion inhabitants are enjoying a boom. On the downside, skilled people are looking for the same mysterous influence the PCs are. Some of the competition is deeply brutal.

[AlexanderHowl]

In Wyrm-5, humans are the subjects of the Sovereign Dragons. While the local year is equivalent to 2020, humans have not progressed beyond TL 3 because of the might of the Sovereign Dragons. In addition, the Sovereign Dragons maintain a stable human population by eating any excess, starting with the adult males, keeping the population globally at a stable 400 million humans.

The Sovereign Dragons exist in a wickedly complex feudal structure, where status and wealth is shown by the beauty of their human ornaments. They will take the most beautiful local human females as their concubines and servants. In exchange, their ornaments receive immortality while they please their patrons, and a generous pension when their patrons grow bored with them.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

In Wyrm-5, humans are the subjects of the Sovereign Dragons. While the local year is equivalent to 2020, humans have not progressed beyond TL 3 because of the might of the Sovereign Dragons. In addition, the Sovereign Dragons maintain a stable human population by eating any excess, starting with the adult males, keeping the population globally at a stable 400 million humans.

The Sovereign Dragons exist in a wickedly complex feudal structure, where status and wealth is shown by the beauty of their human ornaments. They will take the most beautiful local human females as their concubines and servants. In exchange, their ornaments receive immortality while they please their patrons, and a generous pension when their patrons grow bored with them.

I could see this world being known to the Cabal. They could be friendly enemies or friends who don't really trust or respect each other or some unstable mixture of the two. Dragons are very unlikely to either trust mages or want to offend them.

[AlexanderHowl]

Or the Sovereign Dragons could be powerful enough that they have kept out the Cabal. They might not want to competition and might have enough magical power to successfully defend themselves from the Cabal.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Or the Sovereign Dragons could be powerful enough that they have kept out the Cabal. They might not want to competition and might have enough magical power to successfully defend themselves from the Cabal.

It's not the Cabal's kind of world. They operate in the worlds where magic is real at least part of the time, but exists in the shadows. They got no use for high fantasy settings.

[AlexanderHowl]

In my mind, the dragons of Wyrm-5 use a form of RPM rather than the standard magic of the Cabal. When they hatch, they possess IQ+2, Magery (RPM) 2, Ritual Adept, and Thaumatology at IQ+6 (among other traits), making them quite capable magicians from birth. As they grow older though, they automatically improve their IQ, Magery, Thaumatology, etc., until they become one of the 100 Dragon Sovereigns. Each of the 100 Dragon Sovereigns possesses a minimum of IQ+12, Magery (RPM) 12, Ritual Adept, Thaumatology at IQ, and the nine Paths at IQ (among other traits), making them equal to the greatest magicians of the Cabal.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by David Johnston2

I was thinking in terms of the pilot believing that he'd travelled back in time and being afraid of changing history.

Why would he be afraid of that? Changing history to the advantage of the United States seems to be both his clear duty here, and something he'd probably find desirable in itself.

The logic on "erasing yourself" as a risk is so obviously flawed I can never manage to suspend disbelief when somebody worries about it (if you erased yourself, you couldn't take the action that erased yourself), and frankly if you were familiar enough with time travel stories to worry about it, aiming for a really *major* change seems like your best option even if you don't much care, since the Time Police coming to stop you seems like your best shot at finding a way home.

[TGLS]

Null-Dixie
1865, Q3
After defeating the Union in the Civil War, the Confederacy (and perhaps the entire world) now faces a far more dire threat; invasion by the United States of 2025.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Null-Dixie
1865, Q3
After defeating the Union in the Civil War, the Confederacy (and perhaps the entire world) now faces a far more dire threat; invasion by the United States of 2025.

If the USA 2025 is a nearby parallel in a skerry of worlds, then it fits better in the Infinite Worlds setting. If the 2025 parallel believes that the 1865 parallel is the result of interference by other out timers, then they are motivated by the will to survive. I could see a wide variety of other nations in the 2025 parallel being ready to line up with the USA rather than take the risks of having history changed. Although some nations will wonder if they might do better with a broken America. Still, even Russia and China would be unlikely to want a world dominated either by the Kaiser Reich or Hitler's minions.