New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

On this Q6 world a series of high temperature Superconductors were discovered/synthesized in the 1890-1920 period. A form of Polywell Fusor was developed in the early 1920s and became ubiquitous by the late 1930's. The local technology is functionally Tech Level 7+2^ in the local year of 1942.

History on this world should be wildly off-track but in a truly weird display of historical inertia WWII is in full swing with largely the same actors! Luckily a certain young German Rocket Man imigrated with his family to the USA as a child and is a passionate New Dealer. Only the USA has a functioning Moonbase.

The local tech looks very Raygun Gothic/Captain Future. However the mindset is totally WWII. Homeline wants to have the war come out mainly like it did on Homeline. Centrum thinks a Kalterkrieg world divided among three to five powers would make it easier for them to take the place over and preserve the British Empire. Whitestar lines notices that the local superconductors can't be synthesized on Homeline, but they still work there just fine. The Cabal wants to keep a hand in in case Psionics shows up on this world. The parallel is so Space Opera it seems like a good bet.

[Astromancer]

Centrum is beside themselves on this Q6 world. It was a fairly standard Homeline Echo until their was and Anglo-American war in the 1870's. It seemed to blow up out of nowhere. America wasn't prepared and got beaten. Britain took Alaska and Washington and Idaho territories.

The American elites decided they needed a large navy, as large as Britain's and with ships in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. They've also reached out to the Russians, always wanting an ally against Britain in this period. With the New Kaiser wanting a powerful Germany navy the USA reached out to them as well.

Britain is in a state of misery. They can't keep up with both German and American naval expansion at the same time. Moreover, America now seems to see getting an empire as a matter of defending their right to trade and their territorial integrity. They want their lost territories back and Canada into the bargain so as to make it harder for England to attack again. This radically increases the military cost of defending Canada. Moreover someone convinced the American congress that only a nationally funded education program to guarantee every American child an education to high standards would make it possible to keep America independent. Given America's rapid population, economic, and technological growth, Britain fears being totally outclassed.

This was the plan of one German nationalist out-timer. He's a mutant from a post-apocalyptic parallel. He had been working with a Midwinter Aton cell. But he decided they'd outlived the usefulness.So he killed them. He has no need of Nazi's. He's has already sterilized both of Hitler's parents, as well as the parents of several other key Nazis.

He figures that there will be no Anglo-American alliance in this world. France and Britain will be kept in check by an American, German, Russian, accord. He assumes he's got more to do to prevent WWI, but he feels he's made a start.

Meanwhile, the Cabal traced the MidWinter Aton cultists to this parallel and is determined to find them. Centrum wants to keep Britain in tact and strong at all costs. Homeline wants to knows why this world is so odd. And MidWinter Aton wants to know why they haven't heard from their local cell lately.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Centrum is beside themselves on this Q6 world. It was a fairly standard Homeline Echo until their was and Anglo-American war in the 1870's. It seemed to blow up out of nowhere. America wasn't prepared and got beaten. Britain took Alaska and Washington and Idaho territories.

So Britain fought a war in North America with a US awash in Civil War military equipment and veterans under President Grant, and *won*? Badly enough for the peace treaty to not only give them back eastern Canada but additional territory? Er, right.

[dcarson]

I could see them taking and keeping Alaska. Not much in the way of local defense and it hadn't been US territory long so giving it up in a treaty would be easy. Stuff US troops can get to overland would be hard to keep.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by malloyd

So Britain fought a war in North America with a US awash in Civil War military equipment and veterans under President Grant, and *won*? Badly enough for the peace treaty to not only give them back eastern Canada but additional territory? Er, right.

Okay, after Grant is replaced by Hayes. And they used their navy to bombard both New York and Boston. They also invaded the West Coast from Canada. Better?

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by malloyd

So Britain fought a war in North America with a US awash in Civil War military equipment and veterans under President Grant, and *won*? Badly enough for the peace treaty to not only give them back eastern Canada but additional territory? Er, right.

So...don't have a civil war. The Democratic Party doesn't split and manages to squeak out a victory, leaving a United States that still at odds with itself but unprepared for war.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by malloyd

So Britain fought a war in North America with a US awash in Civil War military equipment and veterans under President Grant, and *won*? Badly enough for the peace treaty to not only give them back eastern Canada but additional territory? Er, right.

(Eastern Canada?)

I can see some rationalization if our Evil Mastermind had managed to foment both Southern and Mexican trouble at the same time, and possibly encouraged secessionist tendencies in the West. I mean, we're starting to get into space bat territory, but it's possible.

It's a lot more possible if you present it as an outgrowth of the Pig War in 1859, though; suppose that conflict, instead of getting resolved peacefully, simmers bitterly for a year or so. It's quiet enough not to distract from the 1860 election and subsequent secessions and outbreak of civil war, but hot enough to give opportunists in the Empire reason for hope. Prodded by our out-timer mastermind, they foment secessionist feeling in the Washington Territory and in Oregon, promising a "province free from the strife of the Union and sins of the South" or some such malarkey.

In, say, 1862, rebels in the Washington Territory declare independence from the Union as the Republic of Columbia and appeal to the UK for protection. Fighting is mostly between militias along the Columbia River and up in the Puget Sound area, though a British expeditionary force does penetrate south and seize the Willamette Valley for a while. British naval superiority in the Pacific prevents the US army from reinforcing by sea, and the Transcontinental railroad hasn't even been built yet. So... within a year, Britain settles with the US. The Washington Territory is sold to Britain for a hefty chunk of change and a promise by Britain not to aid the Confederacy. As it's negotiated by the Secretary of State, this purchase is blistered as "Seward's Folly," and creates a bitter rift that cuts across party lines.

The rest of the Civil War proceeds as normal; the PNW was never contributing much to the Union effort, and the South is doomed. After the war, Anglo-American relations are pretty sour. The Empire's new British Columbia is soon overtaxed by a number of gold rushes that the local infrastructure can't keep up with, and which draw in far too many American adventurers for comfort.

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

When she knew she was dying Empress Dowager Cixi ordered the poisoning of Zaitian also known as the Guangxu Emperor. But in this Q6 world a eunuch prevented the killing and arranged to have word of the Emperor's Death sent to the Dowager.

By the time that the ruse was discovered, Cixi was dead and Zaitan had escaped the palace. The new Emperor went to Sun Yat-sen and allied with him to reform China. The local year is 1920, the team of the Emperor and the Radical have brought great changes to China. Their program isn't working as smoothly as that of Japan still China is flourishing.

Neither the new Russian state nor the Japanese like this, and the Western powers are seeing that the unequal treaties will soon be rejected. But if the times are looking a little too interesting, China has rapidly grown in strength and wealth. They aren't the pushover they were.

Crentrum doesn't like the idea of a multi-polar world. A rising China in the early 20th century might keep Japan from getting into WWII and might delay America's entry into that war as well. Homeline, aware of how brutal China's twentieth century was, is pleased that China will be less brutalized and likes were the new Chinese parlementary democracy seems to be going. The Cabal sees a China were it will be easier and safer to get around and occult secrets will be more available to sincerely curious outsiders.

[Astromancer]

Whatever happened on this Q6 world is terrifying. It's as if someone tore up a map of the world and randomly assigned the different parts of the word to different years. All of the years seem to be between 1895 and 2027. The world's history seems mainly like Homeline's although technological progress seems to accelerate after 1942.

The Moon seems to be the most stable place. It's whole surface is in the year 2027. The lunar settlements are self-sufficient, or became so quickly. The USA dominates, but the EU, Russia, China, India, and Japan, all have bases.

Much of Europe is in the year 1941. The exceptions are Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and Northern England, which are all in a highly prosperous TL8 version of 1967. Spain and Protugal are in the year 1910.

Must go now, more later.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

It's as if someone tore up a map of the world and randomly assigned the different parts of the word to different years.

What happened from the point of view of the inhabitants? Did it all change suddenly, or gradually, or have there always been these disparities?