11-02-2017, 09:51 AM | #41 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
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11-02-2017, 11:23 AM | #42 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
Based on the history of enslaving and killing foreigners, particularly different-looking foreigners, quite a long time.
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11-02-2017, 11:44 AM | #43 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ronkonkoma, NY
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
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Think of them as France and England during the age of colonialism. The non-European people they each exploit are just things to them, but between each other they have complex relationships, even while being enemies. |
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11-02-2017, 11:46 AM | #44 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
An interesting alternative world for both Homeline and Centrum to discover would be a parallel where the Central Powers won the First World War because Wilson never became president of the USA (which would have ironically been a net positive for American non-whites, as civil rights might have happen twenty years earlier). Since Germany and Ottoman Turkey would have likely taken the most damage, the Austrian-Hungarian Empire would have likely become the dominant power in Europe. If the ascendant Austrian-Hungarian Empire discovered paratronic physics a few decades later, then you would have a competitor that sought to create a trans-dimensional empire where every member was an equal citizen under the rule of the Emperor and by the time that Homeline and Centrum encountered them fifty years later, the Empire could contain hundreds of Earths.
Imagine Homeline or Centrum reaction if the found such a polity already in control of hundreds of Earths and expanding through hundreds of Sol Systems. The wealth of that society could be staggering, making Homeline and Centrum seem pitiful by comparison. The trans-dimensional Empire would likely consider Homeline and Centrum to be amateurs who are wasting opportunities through maintaining the Secret. Last edited by AlexanderHowl; 11-02-2017 at 11:58 AM. Reason: Name correction |
11-02-2017, 12:00 PM | #45 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
No. They aren't. They're enemies because Centrum regards the chaotic multipolar structure of Homeline as a recipe for armageddon and the mere existence of any other reality traveling culture with weapons of mass destruction as a threat that Centrum will be destroyed. It doesn't matter whether they are "real people" or not. It matters whether the nukes are real. If I were a Centrum bigwig, then my suspicion would be that Homeline got reality travel just in time to avert their self destruction...as happened on so many Hellworlds, and what's keeping them from self-destructing is that reality travel made them aware of Centrum, giving them an outside threat to give them a bit of temporary unity. Once they destroy Centrum or are flung away from contact with a credible external threat, I expect them to turn on each other. As for inhabitants of the other realities the only thing that is wrong with them is that they haven't been raised in the perfect rationality of Centrum, but some day their descendants will be.
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11-02-2017, 12:23 PM | #46 | |
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: San Francisco, CA, USA
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
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Maybe they already know and cautiously respect each other from a long history in dealing with the weirdness/world(s). Maybe they're strangers, and circumstances throw them into a situation where they *have* to work together, and they learn a lot of (player-created/embellished?) details about the "enemy" culture while the GM handles the current setting. Maybe their expanding worldviews trigger enough dissatisfaction with their nominal home cultures that it plants the seeds of rebellion? Maybe *they* and their comrades will become the seed of that third parachronic faction that vicky_molokh wants to see in the material, uniting (some of) the outworlds and revealing the Secret, preventing exploitation and manipulation by the major powers. Last edited by transmetahuman; 11-02-2017 at 12:27 PM. Reason: Typo |
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11-02-2017, 01:22 PM | #47 | |
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: LFK
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
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But it's so easy for people to distrust and hate The Other, and feel that they can't be safe while the Other is around. |
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11-02-2017, 02:17 PM | #48 | |
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: New York, NY
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
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Both parallels likely look at the other as 'would have turned bad if not for parachronics'. One aspect of the Homeline/Centrum relationship is that, for the most part, there simply isn't one. There's no embassies, no formal contact, no visiting the other, and any defectors are kept very secret. Even at the height of the Cold War, or European 19th century rivalries, opposing states had lots of contacts and knew a lot about each other. To put it another way: real world America has more actual contact with North Korea than Homeline and Centrum have with each other. The only information most citizens on both worlds have about the other is what is released by the parachronic security agencies, Infinity & Interworld. And even their information is patchy and suspect, not to mention easily manipulated. And then throw in parachronic technology, which makes nuclear tech look like safety scissors in terms of a threat. Oh, and their shared history ended a thousand years ago... A Centrum Light/Homeline Dark campaign could be done without major changes, with Interworld PCs, just by keeping in mind how little the two sides know about each other (which would require the players suspending their own knowledge of Homeline). Just have the Interworld PCs be carrying out a well-thought out plan to uplift a parallel (ending chaos, prejudice, inequality), and have I-Cop NPCs opposing them in the name of liberty to hurt others, the rich's property rights, and Secundus' right to interfere. And throw in some exploitative Secundus corporation, maybe Secundans sympathetic to odious regimes from their history. |
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11-02-2017, 02:56 PM | #49 |
Join Date: Feb 2016
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
What would a planned uplift look like? I imagine that Centrum would want to reduce the threats of ecological devastation, economic inequality, global climate change, mass overpopulation, etc in reduce the incentives for developing paratronics. I would also think that they would quietly encourage the development of space exploration technology among advanced worlds so that they look outwards towards the stars rather than look inwards towards parallel worlds. Other than that, I really do not know.
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11-03-2017, 03:48 AM | #50 | |
GURPS FAQ Keeper
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Kyïv, Ukraine
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Re: Centrum Light, Homeline Dark.
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