New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by awesomenessofme1

Honestly, I don't see the need for the setting to have magic at all. I really like the idea. It can stand on its own. Also, I still don't understand the line about how somehow it's advanced technologically at a ridiculous rate.

The magical element is simply to include the Cabal. As for the tech level, why is half a decade (five years) so odd. It just means the local technology is more like Homeline in 1922 than 1917. It's still Tech Level Six, the radios are better and the cars break down less often.

[awesomenessofme1]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

The magical element is simply to include the Cabal. As for the tech level, why is half a decade (five years) so odd. It just means the local technology is more like Homeline in 1922 than 1917. It's still Tech Level Six, the radios are better and the cars break down less often.

The existence of normal mana, even in contained areas, is a very big deal. If you go through the worldlines in Infinite Worlds and other books, there's pretty much none that has normal mana where there isn't an impact on the story.

Because there's literally one year of divergence based on the numbers you gave? One year of divergence that wouldn't seem to have an impact on technology means that five years of advancement past Homeline doesn't make any sense at all.

[AlexanderHowl]

I have to agree. Even 2% of the world being normal mana is a big deal if it is spread out. One way to avoid changing the history dramatically though would be to concentrate the mana in specific areas. For example, if Zealandia is normal mana, it would account for nearly half of the normal mana on Earth, and it would not have really mattered for world history if New Zealand had possessed magic (other the Maori would have likely avoided nearly being annihilated). The British would have likely still taken over New Zealand, the consequences for the natives would have just been more like India rather than like Australia.

Anyway, the Cabal is stated as preferring low mana areas because their knowledge of the decans allows them to negate the low mana penalties. Since they usually suffer none of the disadvantages that their competitors do, they are capable of playing anywhere that is low mana or better. Now, if the world was no mana with 2% low mana, then magic would be practically unknown, and the Cabal would likely only keep to the low mana areas (and would probably avoid the timeline like the plague).

[TGLS]

It isn't obvious at first why Connecticut (Q3, 502) got it's name. Having a late Roman military leader in Britain named Artorius holding the title of Pen Draig calls to mind "Camelot". The nascent Eboracum-centric Roman Empire calls to mind "Rome". The swallow powered, coconut shaped, flying contraptions might appear more defining than either of those put together. But Connecticut is named for something more interesting; the mysterious advisors to Artorius, with knowledge of advanced technology and thick New England accents.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

That's similar to my idea, except mine didn't require the two explosions to happen at the same point in time: the first one sets up something like a "weakening of the manna fabric", and then the second "punches the hole".

So the second bomb causes both Hellstorms?

I can see that, though it would mean that any other A-bomb would also cause a Hellstorm. Might even make bigger & bigger Hellstorms.

Though perhaps there's someone who believes that another A-bomb in the same place(s) would stop the Hellstorms, and tries to smuggle nukes into the heart(s) of the Hellstorm(s).


Side idea: The Technomancer America had a crosstime special ops team, so what if this world did, too? And/or a post-war Japan?

And it's first encounter is a late WWII echo, so either team tries to prevent the A-bomb being deployed, prevent the Hellstorms.

And that team encounters the I-Cops, who are trying to keep history on the Homeline track. The I-Cops have no idea who this crosstime magical interloper is - too magical to be Centrum, but too technological to be The Cabal.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by fchase8

I can see that, though it would mean that any other A-bomb would also cause a Hellstorm.

Hence my "no other atomic explosion has caused a Hellstorm since" clause.

Though, alternatively, you could also have it that the "Hellstorms get bigger every time" thing doesn't happen, so there's no need to worry the subsequent storms will one day destroy the world. (Nations still might not want to deliberately cause Hellstorms for other reasons, probably.)

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

In Homeline history, after the Flu pandemic of 1918 there wasn't a major pandemic until 1957. But on this Q6 Low Manna world, another major Pandemic broke out in 1937. In New Deal America the public Health system was in excellent condition and reasonably well funded. Even so, the "Russian Flu" (it was early on supposed to have come from Russia but the earliest cases were later shown to have come from the Iranian coast of the Caspian Sea) cut down millions, mainly in the less economically developed Southeast and Mountain West. FDR got National Healthcare passed.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Russian Flu came earlier and hit harder. Hitler and Stalin were both among the early victims. The British House of Lords, including Lord Halifax was decimated. Churchill was catapulted into the PM's office by attrition.

In Asia, the wars in China left the population in chaos and unable to defend themselves from the pandemic. Japan thought they'd won the war, but soldiers and sailors brought the Russian Flu to Japan. The carnage included Tojo and vast numbers of other military men. As harsh as the plague was in Europe, Asia and Africa endured far worse.

The main side effect of all this was that the struggle between Fascism, Communism, and Democracy, as well as the collapse of European Colonialism, was delayed for about 20 years. But the sides were subtly different.

The USA embraced FDR's Second Bill of Rights is a social-democratic society. The main focus of American Society in this World is the Civil Rights Movement (local equivalents of the major sixties Civil Rights Bills have just passed Congress and been signed into law).

The UK never had anything like the Beverage Report or Clement Attlee's government. The deaths of Gandhi and Nehru in the Pandemic of 1937 split the Congress party and let Britain hold on for two decades more. This Britain is Imperial and reactionary.

Germany and Russia have gained new dictators, both men who died in Homeline's WWII. Each is determined to achieve the goals of their revolutions.

Centrum is deeply worried. They don't like democracy, which is mainly forgotten in this Europe but they fear that Britain might either lose the coming war with Germany or lose the peace to Russia after the War. Either one would destroy the British Empire. They're determined to get Britain the resources they'll need in manpower and material. That means getting the USA into the coming war by any means needed.

Meanwhile, Homeline sees the war as preventable. Or at least containable. Homeline is trying to get Germany and the USSR to fight each other. They've done a good deal of research that suggests neither nation will win.

The local year is 1959, this world is still TL7 as in Homeline's 1957, but Rocketry is considerably less advanced than on Homeline and, although Thorium generators are becoming commonplace in North America, the British Isles, and the Antipodes, nuclear weapons are unknown.

Basically, espionage and military action in a delayed WWII. Both Germany and Russia have more competent leaders, Britain and America get less competent leaders, but America is much richer.

[AlexanderHowl]

In Spark-3, the priests of the Greek Orthodox Church developed a long distance area effect spell during the 14th century that was capable of igniting gunpowder from miles away. While a simple spell, it was brutally effective in negating the effectiveness of cannons and firearms, meaning that the nations who embraced the Greek Orthodox faith gained a massive advantage in combat. With it, they were capable of destroying the Ottoman artillery during the Second Ottoman Siege of Constantinople, allowing for the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

In Spark-3, the priests of the Greek Orthodox Church developed a long distance area effect spell during the 14th century that was capable of igniting gunpowder from miles away. While a simple spell, it was brutally effective in negating the effectiveness of cannons and firearms, meaning that the nations who embraced the Greek Orthodox faith gained a massive advantage in combat. With it, they were capable of destroying the Ottoman artillery during the Second Ottoman Siege of Constantinople, allowing for the resurgence of the Byzantine Empire.

Well, that'll be different. What other spells are common, and are you using the standard system, or something else? Do other faiths get magic, or only the GOC?

[AlexanderHowl]

Magic is the standard magical system and around 1% of the human population possesses Magery, it is just that the Greek Orthodox Church believes that Magery is an obligation to the service of god, either as laity or clergy, and requires its clergy to possess Magery. Unlike OTL, the medieval Greek Orthodox Church in Spark-3 allows women to become clergy, though they are encouraged to devote themselves to developing spells from feminine Colleges rather than masculine Colleges. Mages who are not in some service to the Greek Orthodox Church, either as laity or clergy, are greeted with suspicion within GOC communities, and are often encouraged to leave.