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Old 12-16-2018, 05:25 PM   #1241
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Does the planet not rotate on its own axis?
Yes, but the axial tilt is 90%. Thus, at midsummer, the North Pole points toward the sun. At the winter solstice, the South Pole points at the sun. The planetary rotation doesn't really affect the day/night cycle.
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Old 12-16-2018, 10:59 PM   #1242
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Yes, but the axial tilt is 90%. Thus, at midsummer, the North Pole points toward the sun. At the winter solstice, the South Pole points at the sun. The planetary rotation doesn't really affect the day/night cycle.
But at the equinoxes the axis would be perpendicular to the direction to the sun, and there would be 12 hours of day and night each across the whole globe. (Well, points proximate to the poles wouldn't see the sun fully set though.)
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Old 12-17-2018, 03:10 PM   #1243
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Invasive Inertia would be an interesting threat.

Imagine if a worldline itself were expanding throughout the Infinite Words, pulling other timelines into alignment with it.

It would start with small things -- people feeling like the world is 'off' somehow. Coincidences keep happening that make no sense, as the two inertial forces clash. Someone keeps dodging deadly accidents at the last second, or ever assassination attempt fails, or an organization keeps drawing recruits even when it's a global pariah. Or perhaps a fine and useful technology is rejected by nearly all for little reason.

Eventually either the old inertia perseveres, or the new one takes over, and history slowly yet inevitably takes a new shape. The remaining bastions of the old order fall to "chance" happenings and butterfly effects, sometimes outright reality quakes (these worlds are inevitably full of reality shards). Records of the old timeline are lost, or "corrected," or reinterpreted as fiction.

Make this invasive timeline be something antithetical to both Homeline and Centrum. Maybe it's a theological, pastoral global order that sees this world as only the antechamber of a heavenly kingdom; ritual suicide is common and encouraged above everything except proselytism. Within a few generations, the human race is extinct.... but the infiltration moves on.

Homeline and Centrum must work together, with Homeline providing the ground game and Centrum providing the cliodynamic expertise needed to reassert the normal inertia. But can Homeline trust Centrum to provide accurate information? Can Centrum trust Homeline to keep its factions under control?

And how long until the inertial shift reaches a homeworld, and what would that mean?
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Old 12-17-2018, 05:25 PM   #1244
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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I'm reading the book The Pagan Christs. My main annoyance with the book is that the author assumes that if a myth is told about someone then they are purely mythological. His thesis is, Christ is purely mythic because people tell mythic tales about him. People from Lincoln to Hitler have mythic stories told about them, many of these are treated as true even when they are known to be fantasy.

So try this. A world where J M Robertson was right. If anyone tells a mythic story about you, you are purely a myth with no reality whatsoever. Figures like Washington, Lincoln, Edison, Elizabeth I, Napoleon, Newton, Shakespeare, Homer, and Joan of Arc never existed, but everyone believes they did.
Actually per Archibald Robertson Jesus: Myth Or History (1946) J M Robertson's position was "The myth theory is not concerned to deny such a possibility (Jesus lived as a flesh and blood man). What the myth theory denies is that Christianity can be traced to a personal founder who taught as reported in the Gospels and was put to death in the circumstances there recorded".

Like Remberg Robertson was not arguing against Jesus the man but the Jesus of the Gospels.
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Old 12-17-2018, 06:51 PM   #1245
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Invasive Inertia would be an interesting threat.

Imagine if a worldline itself were expanding throughout the Infinite Words, pulling other timelines into alignment with it.

It would start with small things -- people feeling like the world is 'off' somehow. Coincidences keep happening that make no sense, as the two inertial forces clash. Someone keeps dodging deadly accidents at the last second, or ever assassination attempt fails, or an organization keeps drawing recruits even when it's a global pariah. Or perhaps a fine and useful technology is rejected by nearly all for little reason.

...
This has a group of interesting jumping off points.
Infectious timelines, non-random or progressive reality quakes, and purposeful corruptions.
Any one of them could make for entire weird parallels.
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Old 12-18-2018, 09:03 AM   #1246
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Actually per Archibald Robertson Jesus: Myth Or History (1946) J M Robertson's position was "The myth theory is not concerned to deny such a possibility (Jesus lived as a flesh and blood man). What the myth theory denies is that Christianity can be traced to a personal founder who taught as reported in the Gospels and was put to death in the circumstances there recorded".

Like Remberg Robertson was not arguing against Jesus the man but the Jesus of the Gospels.
Clearly, he refined his thesis. Still, the idea of anyone who has a "mythic story" told about them isn't real, even if they were real before the tale was told of them, is an interesting Weird Parallel.
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Old 12-19-2018, 11:40 PM   #1247
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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Clearly, he refined his thesis. Still, the idea of anyone who has a "mythic story" told about them isn't real, even if they were real before the tale was told of them, is an interesting Weird Parallel.
Murder by rumor? Spread enough tales of a mythic quality about a living person and they will eventually reach the "Myth Threshold" and cease to exist?

That would make politics, sports, and the theatre arts dangerous high-risk professions. Not to mention that many historic persons would be erased at the height of their careers (Neil Armstrong, Marilyn Monroe, John Kennedy, etc).
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Old 12-20-2018, 12:31 AM   #1248
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

How would anyone break a world record or perform anything groundbreaking if they cease to exist soon after doing so?
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Old 12-20-2018, 12:40 AM   #1249
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How would anyone break a world record or perform anything groundbreaking if they cease to exist soon after doing so?
The reason anyone does such a thing ...

Megalomania. Sheer obsession. The desire for acknoledgement and immortality through fame. To such a person, the risk of vanishing would just be seen as "Transcendance" instead of "death".
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Old 12-20-2018, 07:10 AM   #1250
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Default Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels

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The reason anyone does such a thing ...

Megalomania. Sheer Obsession. The desire for acknowledgment and immortality through fame. To such a person, the risk of vanishing would just be seen as "Transcendence" instead of "death".
To back the Dark Lord up, maybe they think they become gods or guardian angels. Seeking Transcendence might be a religious duty. Arete might be as important as honor or compassion in their worldview.
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