Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Still a four-way Out-Timer's struggle to control this world (hereby dubbed Merlin-4) could make good gaming. Plus much of the action would take place durring a period of crisis and dislocation. A Europe just after WWII, with no Soviet Union of any coherence. The USA would find itself more and more alone as France and the UK struggled to rebuild their colonial Empires.

Simply dealing with the struggles between the UK and the USA in this world would be interesting. With no Soviet threat the two nations really wouldn't be that likely to stay close. And the 1940's USA generally saw the European colonial Empires as the cause of the World Wars. France and Britain's drives to rebuild, and if possible expand their empires (as they did after WWI) would put fantastic stress on the allience. It might become impossible for Truman to maintain the Marshall Plan.

All in all, a good multi-threat environment.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Another thought on Merlin-4 are we so sure that it's Merlin-1's CIA that's an influence here? MI5 and MI6 or the French intellegence agencies are also possiblities. With the USSR out of the running and a vast area from central Europe deep into Siberia in collapse, neither the French nor the British Empire is under anything like as much pressure.

Further, the USA, both before and after WWII, was undergoing a strong isolationist movement. With no Soviet Union and a more isolationist USA, maybe France and Britain keep their Empires.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

I might be wrong, but didn't the other 3 Merlin's have nuclear explosions cause drastic shifts in mana? If so, isn't it a little wrong to call this world Merlin-4?

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Err, hang on. Are you saying that the increased interest in the occult of the OTL 1960s and 1970s - including biorhythms, channelling, and the like - was something people took up as part of a "progressive" worldview? To me, it has always seemed to be a reaction against a more complex world, seeking explanations that weren't part of badly-explained science and rebelling against traditional certainties.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

These are not mutually contradictory positions. At least in the USA, interest in the occult (including the items you mentioned) correlated very strongly with anti-war activism and progressive activism on racial matters duirng the 1960s and 70s; which doesn't prevent it from also being an irrational reaction to an overcomplex world. It may also have expressed differently outside of the USA.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Generally, a belief in religion/magic increases in times of strife and war. The exact cultural effects and causes may differ radically.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

It's cannon that the name tags are a little sloppy. So if it is wrong, it is the kind of mistake that matches the setting well.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Occultism is a weird attractor. From the end of the Middle Ages until around 1815 the Occult was generally left-wing and a broad general sense. From circa 1815 to the present the Occult has been generally right-wing/conservative. The 1960's (that weirdly lovely and seriously cracked decade) was a period when the Occult was strongly present on both the Left and the Right.

Now, most present day Occult movements, whether they are political or apolitical, left or right leaning, are regressive. But not all Occultists are. In fact some people seem to use Occultism to move themselves from regressive to progressive worldviews, and what research there is favors the idea that those who use Occultism to move from a regressive to a progressive worldview as the majority of present day serious Occultists. However, the term serious Occultist doesn't cover the average New Ager and most conspiracy theorists are clearly Right-Wing in effect if not in rhetoric.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

At least for the British, that's unlikely. The British Empire was creaking between the wars, as the subject countries had seen the hard time that the British had had during WWI, making their power seem less absolute. The Westminster Declaration had laid the foundations for independence and the Commonwealth, and the Indians were learning to argue their case for independence on British terms, to which the British had no good answer.

During WWII, the British had looked vulnerable again, and the USA had done serious damage to the ideas of Empire. This wasn't through actions planned to have that effect, but by providing an example of a people who were richer and more powerful than the British, yet did things differently. Being British was clearly not the only path to success.

With no Soviet Union, the subject countries have no need to be defended from that threat, removing a reason to keep the British around, and an isolationist USA is not going to stop selling abroad - that's far too profitable - so it will carry on being a counter-example to the need for British "guidance."

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

yes but its not mandatory in an AH,

Also if the USSR issue is a concern, its perfectly possible that without slavery Communism and its offshoots would be just as strong or stronger, Marx wrote much about labor as anything else and even without slavery, abusive work conditions would continue.