Catalog of the Weird Parallels

[AlexanderHowl]

Night-1

Night-1 is a Q7 world in the year 1600 AD. Within the world of Night-1, humanity shares the Earth with the People of Night, who are humanoids descended from the gigantic flightless bats that evolved tens of millions of years ago on the continent of Australia of Night-1. A nocturnal species, the People of Night are unified under the Empire of Night, which rules Australia, Oceania, and Southeast Asia. The People of Night also possess a natural mastery of Path/Book Magic, which has allowed them to resist humanity for over five hundred thousand years (the Empire of Night is only five thousand years old though).

While they are nonhuman, the People of Night possess an exotic beauty that makes their females popular among the more jaded elites of Asia, and Asian nations often sponsor slaving raids into the Empire of Night. The fact that no more one ship in ten returns from the slaving raids (and mo more one in one hundred with a full cargo of slaves) only makes the value of female slaves of the People of Night equal to their weight in gold in India and equal to their weight in jade in China. Despite the attempted slave raids, the Empire of Night allows trading for its exotic herbs and rare spices in the trade cities where favored humans are allowed residence.

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Night-1

Night-1 is a Q7 world in the year 1600 AD. Within the world of Night-1, humanity shares the Earth with the People of Night, who are humanoids descended from the gigantic flightless bats that evolved tens of millions of years ago on the continent of Australia of Night-1. A nocturnal species, the People of Night are unified under the Empire of Night, which rules Australia, Oceania, and Southeast Asia. The People of Night also possess a natural mastery of Path/Book Magic, which has allowed them to resist humanity for over five hundred thousand years (the Empire of Night is only five thousand years old though).

While they are nonhuman, the People of Night possess an exotic beauty that makes their females popular among the more jaded elites of Asia, and Asian nations often sponsor slaving raids into the Empire of Night. The fact that no more one ship in ten returns from the slaving raids (and mo more one in one hundred with a full cargo of slaves) only makes the value of female slaves of the People of Night equal to their weight in gold in India and equal to their weight in jade in China. Despite the attempted slave raids, the Empire of Night allows trading for its exotic herbs and rare spices in the trade cities where favored humans are allowed residence.

IIIInnnnteresting. Definitely weird, of course. Frankly I find it hard to imagine anything even remotely descended from bats to be attractive to humans, but then again, cultures do vary over time, and a concubine from a dangerous foreign power is a totally reasonable way to show off wealth.

If they're human-enough to actually be Attractive or better, then the question of some kind of magical influence arises (it's not needed, after all weird means weird, but still).

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

The problem being that natives wouldn't know it save through weird hard to understand divination.
"Okay, the fates tell me things we don't have would work there, but not here."

Magic working usually has the conceit that things people were doing but ineffectually suddenly function. Hard to equate that to technology.

Unbidden visions of strange wonders aren't out of the question, though. True, it would be tough (and maybe the spells need to be limited in order to make the tech all that interesting), but the combo of magic and technology can be just as interesting from the other side.

[Astromancer]

Many Myth parallels are Weird Parallels parexcellance. Some are weird from familiarity others simply because of the strangeness of how they worked their ideas out.

Take SPACE 1999. Physics in this universe makes no sense. The LOGAN'S RUN tv show was as bad. LOST IN SPACE was famously worst.

Remember BEWITCHED? Picture landing in what looks like an ordinary late 1960s earth and then accidentally annoying Endora. Or worse Uncle Arthur. Picture that Serena has become smitten with one of the conveyer's crew.

[PTTG]

Heh. That's almost the inspiration for this thread. Chandler way back in the OP was all about a worldline where sitcoms like FRIENDS featured things like Chandler gaining weight thanks to a rapid climb in position, or Ross ineffectually practicing his knife-wielding abilities. Or everybody becoming collaborative landlords of the building by accident after Phoebe bakes the previous one into a pie and everyone comically sneaks a mouthful.

[Flyndaran]

The existence of myth parallels is also a wonderful way to justify your PC's pop culture trivia skills.

[Astromancer]

Anything to do with a certain style of 1970s sci fi ( I think of it as the white pants suits and bad science genre) would be a truely weird parallel.

[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.

[Astromancer]

Just changing the local stereotypes could create a weird parallel. I don't suggest changing the people only the typical stereotypes about them. Don't change the French, just have everyone talk about how polite and considerate they are. Have everybody gas on about how decent Americans are or talk about Russian charm and glamor.

The PCs will have mental whiplash.

[Flyndaran]

Stereotypes don't develop in a vacuum. They generally rely on cultural history. The idea that Jewish people are greedy partly comes from centuries of working as money lenders in areas devout Christians and Muslims weren't allowed to.
People will demonize those they owe money to, especially if they're part of a minority.
Altering the stereotype would requires altering that history.
I think it would require quite a bit of work to make only a few changes that keep such major changes plausible rather than just silly.

I like silly realities, but don't think they're right for this thread. Then again, the line between silly and creepy weird is a blurry and highly subjective one.

[Astromancer]

In

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

Stereotypes don't develop in a vacuum. They generally rely on cultural history. The idea that Jewish people are greedy partly comes from centuries of working as money lenders in areas devout Christians and Muslims weren't allowed to.
People will demonize those they owe money to, especially if they're part of a minority.
Altering the stereotype would requires altering that history.
I think it would require quite a bit of work to make only a few changes that keep such major changes plausible rather than just silly.

I like silly realities, but don't think they're right for this thread. Then again, the line between silly and creepy weird is a blurry and highly subjective one.

Each of the altered stereotypes I used was an old stereotype about that group that fell out of fashion. We Americans used to be seen as a decent lot, but decades of anti-American propaganda and Great Power politics ended that. In the 16th and 17th centuries the English had a reputation for being wild and dangerous and oversexed into the bargain.

Stereotypes misdirect perception. We learn to disregard stereotypes we know are stereotypes, but those we don't know about can trip us up.