New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Aliens try to invade Earth in 1890. They choose the vast productive farmlands of India and China (North America looked good but too isolated for their tastes). Like H.G.Wells' Martians, they collapse from Earth diseases. However, the diseases they brought plowed through Earth's population. The remnants of the Aliens (think culturally retrogressive warrior-priest elites, serf-acolytes, and a tiny group of people who kept the ships together) are looking to survive. These are rather Star Trek type aliens, they look mainly human and can breed with humans. Some of the remnant engineers and techs have TL10+ knowledge (the species was once TL12 with super-tech, but they've lost much of that) and are looking to join with humans and build a viable life.

Think of the Tech subcast as having pluses in each attribute and telepathy. The Serf-Acolytes have enhanced ST, and HT plus three in each, and three levels of Weak Will. The Warrior-Priests have the same advantages as the Serf-Acolytes plus Strong-Will +3. Most of these aliens have intolerance and delusions that promote contempt for outsiders. The Techs are the least likely to have these bigotries because the Warrior-Priests had the least respect for them, they were literally Out Castes in that they had no place in the casts systems of the Warrior-Priests.

The local year of this world is 1937, Homeline calls this world Mongo because of the mixtures of medieval primitivism and high tech blended with strange monarchies and odder republics.

The Cabal is interested in the Telepathic and Psionic lore of the Warrior-Priests and the Techs. They also would like to see if they can grab off some Serf-Acolytes for themselves.

[Astromancer]

Someone has interfered with history on a Q5. They introduced a genetically engineered grain with the flavor of wheat, the resistance and durability of Rye, the nitrogen-fixing bacteria of a legume, and enhanced nutrition. The present year in this world is 1290AD and the population of Europe is fifty percent larger. Finding when, where, and why, this genetically engineered crop (called Mazlin) came about is vital.

The higher population combined with the oncoming Little Ice Age seems like a plot. But is it to collapse Europe with more brutal famines, to help Europe make it through the famines and plagues of the 14th century, to alter the future center of power, what is the point?

You can send your PCs all over medieval Europe chasing the non-domestic geese. Or, push the clock along and set the adventure in the chaos of the insane rains and other weird phenomena of the end of the Medieval Warm Period.

[Astromancer]

Try this...

On one Q6 world, a German spy in Moscow in June of 1914 manages to let his superiors know that the Russians really think they need to attack soon or be crushed. The Germans in Homeline history found out the Russians were mobilizing for war just early enough that the Russians lost any advantage of secrecy. In this parallel, the Germans attack before the Russian mobilization is more than just started. The main German attack is back towards France which declared war as soon as they knew Russia was attacked. A declaration given only as the troops started mobilizing. In this world, the Germans high command takes the British view of Belgium seriously. They don't risk touching Belgium soil and thus don't panic Britain early.

By early 1915 Russia has collapsed and Germany is at a massive advantage in France. Lacking a two-Front war, Germany pushes hard against France. Britain demands that all parties go to the negotiating table. The Kaiser mistakes British arrogance for fear. And the Brits mistake self-confidence for aggression. The Kriegsmarine is quickly and soundly beaten by the Royal Navy, but France, which never recovered from an early attack, falls hard.

This is basically a very nasty anti-glamourous Cold War with lots of Napoleonic qualities thrown in. Britain rules the seas and Germany, with Austria and Italy for allies (Italy decided to join the winners once they knew who would win, which was obvious early in this world) rule the continent of Europe. Neither France nor Russia is easy to hold. The Tsar is a prisoner in Bavaria and Lenin and Stalin have been shot. However Rosa Luxemburg, with Trotsky and Emma Goldman as her lieutenants, is proving to be more than the German state bargained for. Russia is a mass of pretty furious revolts and bleeding Germany slowly dry. Britain's economy is a mess and German submarine warfare is slowly collapsing the food supply.

Homeline favors Britain, Centrum sees the Kaiser as the path to world unity, the Cabal sees easy pickings.

[PTTG]

Due to a complicated series of events, slavery and the slave trade was banned throughout all British territories in 1730, and well-supported by the British populous (a combination of philosophical, religious, and economic thoughts converged in an unlikely way in this world, cliodynamists are still working it out).

The North American colonies rebelled at the very notion, ultimately declaring independence and igniting revolution. The rebellion was lead primarily by southern colonies unwilling to part with their slaves.

In the fighting, the British offered aid and citizenship to former slaves that rebelled. The notion alone horrified the leadership of the rebellion, but their response -- a crackdown on the slaves -- only spread the word farther and faster, and incited more slave revolts.

In this history, Britain was able to break apart the nascent federation of states and weaken the ideological leaders of the revolt with a well-armed and well-trained slave counter-rebellion. Britain quelled its rebellious colonies, executed the traitors, and rewarded loyalists with land, property, and freedom.

The result was that by the late 1700s, much of the American south is now governed by Black Britons. Most of society is vastly more egalitarian.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by PTTG

Due to a complicated series of events, slavery and the slave trade was banned throughout all British territories in 1730, and well-supported by the British populous (a combination of philosophical, religious, and economic thoughts converged in an unlikely way in this world, cliodynamists are still working it out).

The North American colonies rebelled at the very notion, ultimately declaring independence and igniting revolution. The rebellion was lead primarily by southern colonies unwilling to part with their slaves.

Why? While the American colonies always had a labor shortage, slavery was not particularly profitable in North America in 1730. Note that the cotton plantations don't exist yet, being largely a product of the Industrial Revolution and the cotton gin. The people in the Empire in 1730 who were really invested in slavery were sugar producers (though its early even for that, it's another couple decades before it comes to dominate the transatlantic trade, and the climate in North America is mostly wrong for it anyway, it's Barbados that has a problem there) and the South Seas Company (that secured the right to the slave trade with the Spanish territories in America as part of the settlement of the War of Spanish Succession).

The North American colonies weren't all that dependent on slaves (and incidentally at this point slavery in the future US isn't exclusively black, in 1730 about a third were native Americans and a couple percent were something else, indentured Europeans mostly). Nor overly independence minded yet, being less detached from policies at home (the Whigs ran England from the Glorious Revolution until about 1760, and you'll recall pro-Independence Americans considered themselves Whigs when the Revolution finally came around). If the Whigs have an abolition policy good enough to prevent the people at Home whose fortunes depend on the sugar islands or the only remaining revenue stream of the South Seas Company after the bubble burst from rebelling, it probably works in the Twelve Colonies (Georgia isn't founded until 1733) too.

[Astromancer]

Got to give Malloyd the point here. A campaign to end slavery in 1730 would be a triumph of Enlightenment values. It would have probably caused some grumbling in parts of the colonies that became the USA in most worlds, not Georga though, it wasn't founded until 1733, and its founder was passionately anti-slavery.

You've probably got a USA that is going to move toward either apartate or racial integration. Note, racial integration can be justice, or it can bring with it subtle forms of racial bigotry which in being amorphous are nearly impossible to deal with without a massive welfare state and decades of focus on reducing bigotry.

[Astromancer]

Try this idea...

On this Q7 parallel groups of adepts have come up with the means to create limited and controlled Reality Quakes. They can slowly and gently move reality in a desired direction. The discovery seems to have been made in the late 19th century the present year may or may not be 2010, it isn't always easy to tell.

Almost from the start, there were splits among the groups seeking to use these arts. At first, the main split was between techno-utopians ala H.G.Wells and those seeking a medieval romantic vision. Then William Morris mixed things up and demanded his own wild and beautiful mix of the two. One KKK group tried to both undo the South's defeat and enforce racial stereotypes by magic.

This world is a patchwork of competing dreams fighting to own reality. Whistle the wrong happy tune and you're a reality criminal out to crush the world.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

A campaign to end slavery in 1730 would be a triumph of Enlightenment values. It would have probably caused some grumbling in parts of the colonies that became the USA in most worlds, not Georga though, it wasn't founded until 1733, and its founder was passionately anti-slavery.

In fact that's arguably the root of political abolitionism. The first slavery debates in Parliament (1740 and 1742) were triggered by the fact South Carolina merchants and expansionist minded settlers were enraged Georgia was preventing them from importing or selling slaves in its territory.

Any time you use some "iconic" feature of a society, you need to keep in mind that there is a real chance that it's actually a temporary (or even utterly marginal) thing that's gotten fixed into people's perception of that culture because it mattered for the big thing about it outsiders cared about (in this case the US Civil War). Black slavery was only really critical in the southern US economy for a bit over a century, and not even all of it all the time.

If there *were* a pro-slavery rebellion in 1730s America, there's no reason to assume it has any southern focus. It would be just as likely to be centered in Boston or New York as Charleston or Virginia. Actually I think at that point there may have been more slaves in New York than South Carolina.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Any time you use some "iconic" feature of a society, you need to keep in mind that there is a real chance that it's actually a temporary (or even utterly marginal) thing that's gotten fixed into people's perception of that culture because it mattered for the big thing about it outsiders cared about (in this case the US Civil War). Black slavery was only really critical in the southern US economy for a bit over a century, and not even all of it all the time.

However, as slavery in the USA was becoming more profitable ahead of the ACW, and Sharecropping was close to serfdom and had elements that resembled slavery, and lasted long after Slavery, it could have been worse.

If there *were* a pro-slavery rebellion in 1730s America, there's no reason to assume it has any southern focus. It would be just as likely to be centered in Boston or New York as Charleston or Virginia. Actually, I think at that point there may have been more slaves in New York than South Carolina.

New York's slavery system was more profitable than the South's right up until it was abolished. The New York elites knew they couldn't fight the abolition so they acquiesced, with little grace but little violence either. An independent New York, allied with Britain, against a New England confederacy and a Pennslyvania based nation, makes sense.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

The Roman attempt to build a Rhine-Danube canal worked in this Q6 parallel. There is no record in our history is to why the canal failed in our history, the general assumptions are too few resources and poor planning and management. In this world, the Rhine-Danube canal was completed by the year 157AD. The increased trade between the Western Empire and its economic core in the Eastern Empire has prolonged the vitality of the Empire. Still, even as rich as Rome is in this parallel's twelfth century from the founding of the city, the fifth century for the rest of us, the Huns are still the scourge of God.

Basically, a strong Rome with crack legions versus Attila and his Huns. Note: The Romans were developing heavy cavalry toward the end of the Western Empire, so maybe there are Roman Knights in shining armor.