Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[sjard]

<Moderator>
The political tangent has no place on these forums. Please take it elsewhere.
</Moderator>

[AlexanderHowl]

Freya-1

Freya-1 is a weird parallel where every animal generates magical power through sex and reproduction. While nothing seems to be born with Magery, every animal is capable of developing energy accumulation Magery (Path/Book) through study. Animals gain one hour of study for every hour of consensual sexual activity and eight hours of study for every day of pregnancy (or brooding eggs) for the purposes of developing Magery (Path/Book), Ritual Magic, Paths, or Books. While humans possess a hundreds of traditions which bases Ritual Magic, Paths, and Books off IQ, every other animal species possesses one natural tradition which bases Ritual Magic and Paths off HT. Every Path except Gadgets exists in Freya-1.

Freya-1 is considered to be a Q7 myth parallel, though the myths in question relate to animals using natural magic. The technological level is TL4, but the civilizations and languages of Freya-1 have no surviving analogs in Homeline. Due to the advantages inherent from bearing children for the purpose of developing magic, the human societies of Freya-1 are matriarchal and matrilineal.

When the penetration team ended up trapped on Freya-1 for ten years due to a change in its coordinates due to a Q6 echo shifting to Q7, the five men ended up developing modest magical capabilities while the five women ended up becoming quite skilled mages. None of the members of the penetration team desired to return to Homeline when contact was reestablished and Infinity loses a few dozen agents every year to the lure of Freya-1, where consensual sexual activity and reproduction offer magical power.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Shiny jumpsuits everywhere.
For "serious" fiction, Esperanto everywhere.

Though a parallel where conlangs are all the rage may be interesting. Even most Americans know more than one language, if only one their social group created.
Great for recruiting linguists that have some experience with intentionally alien forms.

Homeline wants to move it down a quantum notch or two to keep the english-speaking linguists out of reach from Centrum.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea. A parallel that looks like a fairly normal 20th century parallel, only normal variations. Mainly somewhat less brutal than Homeline's history, but not always. However this world is a gameboard for a group of gods. I leave you to pick your deities to taste. The problem is that the gods find the outsiders an interesting new development. They want to test these outsiders and then find out where they're from.

Getting free and keeping the gods away from Homeline should be a challenge.

[AlexanderHowl]

Tao-1

Tao-1 is a Q6 weird parallel where practitioners of the philosophy of Taoism discovered that they were capable of developing supernatural abilities through the development of their chi. The followers of the religion of Taoism are no more capable of developing chi than the followers of any other religion however. The practitioners of philosophical Taoism are capable of developing Cinematic Advantages (as well as Cinematic Perks and Cinematic Skills, Energy Accumulation Path/Book Magery (as well as the related Paths and Books), and Powers with the Chi Modifier (including Imbuement and Imbuement Skills).

King Nan of Zhou Dynasty was the first ruler to recognize the mystical superiority of Taoism and had his army trained in the philosophy of Taoism so that they could develop their chi (and expanded his army to include an equal number of women because of the nature of their chi). With the superior defensive capabilities of his army caused by their development of chi, he was able to unify Zhao under his control and broke the invading armies of the other warring states. After destroying the armies of Chou, Han, Qi, Qin, Wei, and Yan, King Nan of Zhou was able to gain their submission through a series of defensive alliances that eventually led to King Nan of Zhou becoming Emperor Nan of Zhou in 280 BC.

It is now 954 AD, and the Zhou Dynasty is celebrating the two thousand years anniversary of its foundation. While the Zhou Empire directly controls a significant proportion of East Asia, its influence extends through its trade networks and practitioners of Taoism are found throughout Asia. Since women are equally capable of developing chi, female practitioners of Taoism possess equal rights as male practitioners of Taoism within the Zhou Empire (and female practitioners of Taoism are respected throughout Asia).

While Tao-1 is only a TL3 timeline, the inhabitants of Tao-1 have developed an impressive array of supernatural abilities that make Homeline and Centrum nervous. The penetration teams of both powers found themselves hunted by practitioners of Taoism within hours of arriving on Tao-1 and barely escaped capture. Since then, Homeline and Centrum have been very careful about their operations on Tao-1.

[PTTG]

Actual extra-terrestrial batlike creatures from space appeared in the skies above Brooks. The appeared in 1941, bringing with them a treasure trove of technologies, information, and raw resources, which they heaped at the feet of Chogyal Tashi Namgyal of the kingdom of Sikkim.

Though the magnificent technologies were the envy of the world, they were also sufficiently powerful to prevent any other nation from taking them by force. The ASBs disappeared as mysteriously as they arrived, leaving the world to adapt to its newest superpower.

[AlexanderHowl]

Mel-1

Mel-1 is a weird parallel in Q7 where all of the events in the Mel Brooks movies (with the exception of any movies taking place after 1932) occurred. It is currently the year 1932 and the USA is a paragon of racial harmony due to the election of Sheriff Bart to become the first Black governor of California in 1888 and then the first Black president of the USA in 1900 (with Teddy Roosevelt as his VP). With the reforms of the Bart administration, the Native Americans, Hispanics, and Jews received better treatment, when he left office in 1908, Teddy Roosevelt improved upon his policies.

The USA avoided involvement in WW1 and, with the money earned from supplying both sides of the conflict, managed to become the wealthiest nation on Earth. A modest policy of economic isolation combined with educational investment meant that the USA was insulated from the Great Depression and, with the most stable economy on Earth, it is attracting scientists and intellectuals from every corner of the world. With nascent superscience and psychic research, Mel-1 is advancing quickly enough in both fields to worry both Centrum and Homeline.

[Flyndaran]

That world sounds almost the exact opposite to Mel Brooks' movies just with similar named characters.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That world sounds almost the exact opposite to Mel Brooks' movies just with similar named characters.

I'd agree. The thing about Mel Brooks movies is that they have a lot of idiots in them. Beside if the Mel Brooks movies happened, then that means High Anxiety and Silent Movie happened, and neither of them depicted that kind of utopian United States.

[Alonsua]

Originally Posted by PTTG

I considered adding these to the venerable History Seeds thread, but they aren't really historic. Nor are they luciferian nor just general hells.

No. These are the weird ones. They're similar to the Lizardia simply because they don't make any damned sense at all. I'm putting a lot of narrative load onto reality quakes, Q-entities, assortive quantas, and waving my hands. That said, once the weird situation is established, things should remain fairly explicable; people will act like people unless otherwise established.

OK, here we go:

Chandler:
Current year 1998. Best guess is that a psionic shock wave from the collapse of a nearby worldline changed human culture in 1996; people barely even acknowledge the change. In this worldline, cannibalistic dominance challenges are accepted and respected. I.e., one may eat the heart of your superior to obtain his or her social status. Only a formal challenge and duel with short knives is acceptable, however; there is a range of responses to a formal, public challenge, and the duel itself may be delayed by up to a month by the superior, etc., etc.

In all other ways, the societal and geopolitical situation is identical to that of the late 1990s. Many bosses were decent enough that their underlings are quite happy working for them, and no two world leaders have dueled eachother in this way. The sitcoms, however, are surprising.


Duplicate:
Starting in 2001, every human being became sterile. However, people occasionally duplicate asexually during sleep. The effect is unpredictable, but works out to be a 2% chance of duplication per year, resulting in about the same growth rate as before. The resultant clones are totally indistinguishable. The present year of 2021 is mostly adapted, but is still struggling with the long-term consequences.


Invisible:
Human beings are completely invisible, including their attire and equipment. Would make a superb recruitment ground for spies and soldiers, if either side could operate there with any subtlety at all. It seems that the transition occurred in 987 CE, following an unusually intense aurora. Current year is a substantially changed 1450.


Scramble:
The earth's surface is broken into 2km x 2km squares (based on a quadrilateralized spherical cube map) and randomly shuffled in 2016. Most alarming is that this happened the exact same instant the first scouting party arrived! There's no way this could have been caused by our visit, right?

The atmosphere stayed in the same place, and the shuffling seems to have 1: surrounded anyplace on land that was below sea-level with a safe border wall of higher-elevation blocks, and 2: ensured that no two adjacent blocks were more than 200 meters different in altitude. Other than that, the mixing seems totally random.

All networking cables are, naturally, cut, as are all power supplies, etc., etc. Falling tree branches are a somewhat-serious hazard along the borders.

One last thing, no animals were directly harmed; they just ended up on the side of the line they were either mostly on. Vehicles, however, were, hmm... occasionally cut.

If they just duplicate, as being undistinguisable, then there are no kids anymore and the youngest person in the world is about 20 years old.