Re: New Reality Seeds
 

The same as it did with James II: remove an unacceptable monarch and pick another one. Parliament has that power in the UK. The political strength of republicanism is basically irrelevant: they wouldn't be trying to establish a republic, that not having turned out well last time.

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What can I say? Everyone thought a war between the USSR and the USA was inevitable. Everyone thought a conflict between Britain and France in the 1850-1900 (when they colonized the world) was inevitable. Doubtless there are other cases of such things. Wars aren't inevitable, in fact there's data to suggest they follow a Poisson distribution, meaning they start more or less at random.

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And the artillery would be more accurate with the aid of the gunnery tables generated by the difference engine (funded by the British admiralty). Would tanks have made it past the trial stages with better artillery to compete with?
I can see aircraft having an earlier advantage without the machine gun to shoot them down.

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Doesn't matter as much as you might think. IRL, tactical doctrine for the employment of artillery in WWI never quite caught up with what was technically possible. Increasing accuracy without improving doctrine would just be a waste.

I expect so: reliably killing tanks with artillery takes guided warheads or multiple submunitions, neither of which were technically feasible. Without that threat, the factors favoring the development of tanks remain much the same.

Advantage for what, though? Bombers would still be vulnerable to lighter, faster aircraft dropping (e.g.) grenades on them. Those pursuit aircraft are still vulnerable to sniper fire or free-flight rockets. You might not have dog-fighting, but an arms race in the air would still occur and limit the application of air power.

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What if the right guy was a observer during the Civil War. Someone who had the ear of senior officers and could convince them that modern weapons meant that tactics had to change. You wouldn't get the full change to what they were late in WW I but if one of the armies had even made some changes to tactics and were predisposed to changing them because they expected to need to. Any good candidates? For which country?

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Why wouldn't they have the tactics used at the end of WWI? While the Bolsheviks and the White Movement weren't particularly involved in that conflict (being busy actually fighting the Civil War), they could see what was going on there.

Hmmmmm... Aiding the Bolsheviks would lead to what happened in our timeline, so let's assist the White Movement. Even with the edge in tactics, logistics, and strategy, they'd have a long fight ahead of them. And some of the White Movement were tsarist; they might not let Poland, Finland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia declare independence. But at least there wouldn't be a huge Communist "Red Menace" in the 1950s - and that would change politics halfway around the world, in the USA.

(Or are you thinking of a different Civil War, not the one in Russia in 1917?)

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I think he means the U.S. Civil War.

What if there had been a North-South split in 1783? From what I understand, the states weren't always a big happy family but more of a regular family.

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I don't think that the lack of machineguns offers much of an advantage (or at least as much of an advantage as you suppose) to early aircraft.

The conditions specified still permit quick firing artillery on high angle mountings firing case shot i.e. early anti-aircraft guns and this is before we consider the potential for fighter craft.

Counter attacking with smaller armed aircraft remains perfectly viable. Even without machineguns there are a wide range of possible strategies for interception. Thrash has already mentioned a selection including attacks with grenades or darts, rockets and conventional rifle fire.

If anything the lack of machine guns will be felt more acutely upon the defending side. Aircraft are not ideal gunnery platforms for handheld weapons (or those on flexible mountings), particularly when you are firing at fast moving and fairly agile targets. Even with machineguns defensive fire from bombers was less effective than the offensive fire from the fixed guns on fighters. The same should hold true for rifles, bunches of rockets or small cannon (assuming that the aircraft can support a flexible mount for one at all).

On top of this faced with the threat from aircraft there is nothing to stop somebody from going back to weapons using a simple conical bullet trading off long range accuracy for ease of handling and employing some sort of fast cycling repeater mechanism.

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Grenades, darts and rifle fire were all tried early in WWI, and were replaced by machine guns, because they hardly ever hit the target. Rockets might do you some good, but are fairly heavy, and firing them from a wood-and-cloth aircraft without setting it on fire is challenging.

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Without machine guns Zeppelins and other airships, may become more viable. It was the MG with incendiary bullets that ended the Zeppelin threat, but some other weapon may prove as effective.

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Looking at Whitworth's design, I don't think hexagonal bores would have survived the introduction of smokeless powder. The higher velocities that made possible caused solid lead bullets to come apart in conventional rifled barrels, and that's going to happen at least as badly in hexagonal bores.

The answer to that was stronger bullets: the FMJ bullet was invented in Switzerland shortly before smokeless powder. FMJ bullet envelopes are made by drawing, and doing that for hexagonal shapes is going to be harder than round ones.

So a success for Whitworth may create a diversion from a straightforward technological trajectory - rather like the way the British Royal Navy used rifled muzzle-loading artillery from 1860 to 1880 - but it seems unlikely to last. Maxim may not invent machine guns on schedule, but someone else will.

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I hadn't known that about King Ernest of Hanover. It's been awhile since the UK has had a really rotten monarch. Edward VIII could have been a major pain durring WWII. Whether or not you think that he and Wallace were under Hitler's sway, Edward wanted to be King and RULE. The man thought that the role the dictators filled on the continent, he could fill in Britain. Kicking this twit out of office would have been a major burden/propoganda loss for the UK at a time when they had burdens enough.

Had Edward VIII provably committed treason (there are those who say he did, and others who say he came very close), what would that have meant durring WWII?

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If it was treason committed before an abdication more or less on schedule, it would depend on the nature of the treason, when it came to light, and the political expediency of the time. Being royal does mean that your life is subject to political expediency, it's one of the downsides of the job.

There was a faction of opinion that his duty was to part from Wallis Simpson and remain monarch. Over time, that faded into the general view that things had turned out fairly well.

If you mean committing provable treason during WWII while still monarch, that depends on what it is and how widely it becomes known. Unless it was blatant and widely known, he'd probably have retained the throne but with all his power (which is mostly soft power) suppressed.

There is a moderately developed wargaming setting, "A Very British Civil War" based on the idea of Edward VIII not abdicating, appointing Oswald Mosley as Prime Minister, and presiding over a collapse into civil war in 1937-38. It has an implausibly large number of factions and little consideration of the arms supply situation, but it's somewhat interesting, although very little of the material is on the web.

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Throught the 20th century and today as well people have feared a return of the Spanish Flu. Try the idea of a Soviet scientist (purged and dead in most worlds by 1937) finding a frozen corpse of someone who died of the Spainish Flu in 1950. While studying the corpse he recovers viable flu viruses and makes them antibiotic resistant.

Now this less than sane scientist thinks he has a way to vaccinate the Soviet people against the flu (he's wrong). Stalin, thinking that an epidemic only as bad as the 1918 pandemic but with Russia excluded would be no bad thing, releases the virus once the vaccine is ready. He's amoung the first to die. 20 percent of humanity follow him in six months.

This pandemic rips through the planet. Truman isn't effected, but both the congress and the supreme court are hit hard. Truman, appoints twelve justices to the court (three die soon after appointment and are replaced). Thurgood Marshall is one of them and lives to become Chief Justice and remains on the court until 1990. Because of the emergency, Truman is granted the right to appoint emergency members of congress. Both the state govenors and the supreme court sign off on this as an emergency measure. Socialised Medicine goes through the congress as do bills for Hawaii and Puerto Rico statehood. Many programs resembling the Great society programs on most worlds go through congress before the elections of 1952, including serious civil rights and voting rights bills.

As hard as the USA is hit, most of the rest of the planet suffers worse. However the ecconomic recovery is felt everywhere by 1960. The Communist block is pretty toothless and Eastern Europe gains independence from Russia in the 1960's. The Korean war happens later, the pandemic riped through China prolonging their civil wars and killing Mao and key nationalist leaders. Korea unites well before China does.

It's now 1970. The main problem of this world is that a toothless USSR is still seen/known to have nukes an is deeply paranoid. Their foci for keeping up with the West are the Space Race and biomedical research. The KGB is known to be obcessed with germ warfare and getting nukes into orbit to defend Mother Russia. America is researching antibiotics and starting a Moonbase. Decolonialisation is only now getting seriously started. Meanwhile Civil Rights has progressed very well in the USA (think of race relations in this world's 1970 being as far along as they were in our world in 2007) leading to a nasty side effect of millitia groups who say that the 1950 Civil rights Acts were the product of an illegal congress. They seek the aid of their White Brothers in Russia to kill the ZOG!

Reactions.

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That's an exceptionally easy task in Bioengineering/TL7. Viruses are already immune to antibiotics, which are for bacterial infections, and there are no antivirals worth the name until the mid-seventies.
This specifically requires that the vaccine is not honestly tested. This may well be possible under the political circumstances, but the medical services of whichever of the GRU and NKVD aren't running the operation will be screaming about it.

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The setting does assume a bureaucratic foul-up. But the point is a wildly altered Cold War. Nuclear death is replaced with germ warfare and the arms race is focused into the Space Race.

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Try this idea. A Human from a Q15+ world, who thinks he's traveled to his past, arrives on a Q6 world in that world's 1950's. He has the goal of scambling all future history in order to save humanity (imaginative fiction was banned from the research base where this man was raised, so time paradoxs aren't something he understands).

The traveller unleashes in the San Francisco Bay area a nanotech-virus hybred, which functions as a Proteus Virus. His goal is to turn all humans born after 1957 into advanced parahumans. However the difference in the physical universe between his quantuum and Q6 leads to his sudden death and a slight malfunction of his tools.

Roughly 50% of US and Canadian children born after 1957 are modified. Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Western Europe, and the European Mediterranian, including Turkey and Cyprus (because of trade ties) are at 40%. The rest of Latin America, the Carribean, Australia, N.Z., Southern and Southeast Asia, are at 35%. West Asia, North Africa, and Sub-Saharran Africa, are at 30%. The Soviet block, Red China, and other similarly isolated areas are at 10%.

The ParaHuman modifications, because of malfunctions, aren't what they were meant to be, but they are all positive. Plus two to all stats, a (+5) resistance to Disease, the Zero point traits of No Genetic Defects, No Mental Defects, and No Unattractive (all as defined in Biotech and Transhuman Space), plus Intuitive Mathematician, Edetic Memory, Language Talent, Sensitive, and Versitle. But the traits that bring the big surprises are Extended Lifespan(with the zero point trait of a regular length childhood, i.e. maturity at 18) and Longevity. Although geography and degree of contact/isolation effected the spread of the nano-virus, all racial and ethnic groups were effected with no apparent differences.

That there were large numbers of unusual children was understood by the mid-1960's (the new agey term STAR CHILDREN was applied to these kids in the popular press). It's not until the late 1970's that doctors learn that Star Children and regular humans can't interbreed (the StarChildren are parahumans).

It is now the late 1990's people are begining to notice that the oldest StarChildren, who are nearing 40, don't look as if they've hit twenty-five yet. Added fun, PSI exists on this Q6 world, and the Star Children tend to be good at Psionics.

Fear and paranoia are becoming more and more common. In the USA and Canada were Star Children are the most common in the population, and were many Star Children emmigrate there are legal protection banning discrimination based solely on genotype. In many areas of the world the Star Children are either persecuted or trained to be the new elites. Democracy is under attack from all sides because equality can be disproved.

Meanwhile both Homeline and Centruum want to know what happened and how to make it happen when they want it too.

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What does legal/ethical equality have to do with a nonsensical idea that everyone has the exact same abilities?
That might fly in dictatorships where the very concept of democracy is never properly defined. Otherwise it's a very absurd straw man.

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My issue with that is the Space Race was more of a "war head delivery" race. Militarys were convinced to fund it as long as the governments knew what it was really for; not sending men into space, but delivering H-bombs across the globe.

Without nuclear death as a primary motivator there is no reason for an expensive space race. You might get communications satellites funding, but its just as likely to be high altitude balloons or even ultra-high altitude communications planes. All that money spent on rocket programs would go instead into conventional forces. And THAT, along with the lack of the MAD Doctrine, would make the world a far more violent, unstable place.

But that just makes it more interesting :)

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That's a matter of opinion. There might be far fewer proxy wars that turned much of our world into a dictator run propaganda ridden ****-hole.

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Actually it's about racism and hysteria in a different mask. I'm stealing from the X-Men.

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Well, we haven't seen the rise of a widely popular figure, or message, in the modern period. I don't think communism or capitalism, during the period, could overtake the world on the strength of its message alone. I'm loath to introduce another change to the timeline that doesn't stem from the point of divergence, so I really don't see why dictators would be any better at dishing out propaganda, or any better at military restraint.

There is the observation that since the end of the Cold War, and the retreat of the certainty of nuclear armageddon, the world has become much more violent, with regional wars flaring up. Without the idea those wars could become doomsday, there is less likelihood of restraint or outside intervention.

And with extra billions of dollars in military contracts on the line, money freed up from going to the military-industrial complex and the space program, the arms dealers are going to push for a reason to spend that money. What better way than to stoke wars?

Sure, they might introduce the current idea of security and espionage based spending, pouring billions into (non-overtly-military) defense networks. But that doesn't seem likely in the post-WWII environment. At least not at a level any more than we saw in history, such as the CIA build up.

IMO

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But one divergence would lead to others. Try the idea of Napoleon taking Robert Fulton seriously. Fulton offered Napoleon the steamboat before he made his prototype in America. Napoleon blew off Fulton as a crank.

But try the idea of Napoleon taking fulton seriously and being able to pull off a surprise cross channel attack in 1810. Russia seeing Britain humbled comforms to Napoleon's wishes and Napoleon rules Europe, for a while.

Napoleon's ecconomic and political systems were actually fairly primitive. A Napoleonic state could conquer Europe, but it wouldn't make a stable long term ruler. So the collapse of the Napoleonic state and the nature of the successor states would be a major secondary divergence point. As would be the cause and timing of the collapse of the Napoleonic system. A collapse in the mid-19th century from a series of nationalistic revolts, a defeat in the mid-20th century from a much larger USA, or a series of lost colonial engagements in Islamic West Asia leading to a loss of confidence and a series of radically overdue reforms followed by a reactionary counter-revolution and collapse, would all lead to different outcomes and problems.

The first divergence must lead to more divergences.

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The cold war was all about stoking wars that didn't involve U.S. or Soviet nations directly.
I would have to see objective numbers to believe that modern day politics results in more deaths than all the constant "small" wars of back then.
And Iraq doesn't count as that was purely pulled out of W.'s butt for personal reasons, not political.

I think it's more that the cold war allowed Americans to hide in a cubby hole of denial that we were separate and safe from the violence of the rest of the world.
Changing that aspect early should have a profound effect on American cultural development. I imagine at least.

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But that's just it. I don't see how the first divergence (no nukes) leads, necessarily, to the next (less international violence). I'm not saying that isn't a legitimate world line, just an unlikely one given what we know about the end of the Cold War.

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But many if not most where proxi-wars, with the major powers basically directing the action. The wars stayed "focused" on economic and broad cultural differences. Considering the resources available, I'd say the wars during that period were far more effective at killing whole gobs of people.

Todays wars have no sponsors, or only weakly linked sponsors, so violence tends to concentrate and become very local, pitting one tribe or regional group against another under the umbrella of a broader, regional war.

I think the American concerns in Iraq were more nuanced than that. But that is flame war material if I ever saw it, with everyone piling in an opinion. So lets concentrate on what might have beens.

I think America WAS safe and seperate for too long a period. Some sort of foreign inspired disaster earlier on would have had a huge effect, I certainly agree. But lets keep with a the one timeline, the Spanish-Flu mutation.

As outlined by Astro, the US seems like a pretty nice place overall, aside from the very radicalized racist groups. Sure its socialized, but it doesn't sound worse than much of Europe. I still don't see moonbases, or much space exploration either way, but that's my issue :)

I guess you can get propaganda backed dictatorships, instead of a constant supply of minor wars, if you assume people would get tired of buying their kin after the plague. Again, I don't see that in human nature, but thats my issue. So instead of more violence and death, many groups decide to just believe whatever General/President for Life is saying. Maybe out of the ashes of the plague a new ideology springs up? It doesn't have to be unifying, just generally accepted, like Diving Right of Kings, or one or the other major economic theories currently popular. So the local General/President is given a lot of leeway, and doesn't rely on external wars to keep the populace in line.

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I think it gets much more interesting if you put the changes in a different population. What happens if the epicenter is in a post colonial location. Africa or India would be fun, but my favorite is south america, one of the centers of the 'covert' cold war.

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Try this alternate; Nixonian America
The POD is HR Haldeman. In our history he did the very unlikely thing of NOT destroying the infamous White House tapes as he had been repeated ordered to do. Here, he did burn the tapes. With no "smoking gun" the impeachment of Nixon goes no-where, but stalls the government as Congress is locked in endless hearings. Nixon in the meantime doubles down, and is able to use the IRS, FBI and CIA to attack his political enemies. Woodward and Bernstein end up being audited, losing their jobs, homes, etc.

Seeing the increasingly autocratic Nixon, many foreign leaders give great credence to the Madman theory. Expecting the US to deploy nukes in Vietnam the Soviets deploy their own. Quickly discovered by the Americans, this is seen as a major violation of the Paris Peace Accords, followed by a carpet bombing of Hanoi, then a limited nuke exchange with Saigon, Haiphong and Hanoi all suffering nuclear attack.

Nixon declared marshal law, suspending most of the Constitution "during the grave emergency". Further jockeying by the Superpowers leaves Cairo and Tel Aviv as radioactive ruins. Dissent in the US is stifled, harshl.

Its now 1976 and Nixon is NOT allowing elections. Everyone is holding their breath as high altitude bombers wait for that one last order. Soldiers patrol the streets of major cities, hippie-style dress is outlawed and rock music is banned from the airwaves. Nixon has allies, and a lot of them have their own agendas, agendas Nixon doesn't really agree with, but can't turn from as many in his own Party have disavowed him, at least in private.

Adventures in this alternate would be based on saving the world by diffusing the tensions between the Soviets and West. Centrum would love to aid Nixon and his team, except they have no more desire than anyone else to be nuked. Opening up dissent could be a way to soften the US stance; so breaking Carl Sagan, Bob Woodward and Joan Baez out of jail to lead the propaganda campaign might be a good start.

Actually, ours might be the alternate and this one the main timeline - Haldeman was a loyal supporter until near the end, and I don't know why he wouldn't have burned those tapes.

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Agreed. Superheros all seem to be American, but what if you're main heros are Anasi-man, Hombre de Fueraz, and Team Pandava ?

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I think you'd blend The Slan with the kind of anti-colonial politics that inspired Planet of the Apes. Only now the snide third-world types speaking about American inferiority wouldn't just be everywhere, they'd also be right in a limited way.

By spreading the transformation around, even if America is the epicenter, you get a wider variety of reactions. A wider variety of adventures.

Re: New Reality Seeds
 

Smurf will no doubt love this.
http://www.comicbooknoise.com/wp-con...tribunal-2.jpg


Did you mean martial law?


:)

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Ha! OK, for all his faults Nixon could, after all, write in proper English.

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I say "A"
I say "M"
I say "E"
I say "R"
I say "I"
I say "C"
I say "A"

I say "N"...


One ready-made protest song, already banned at the White House. (On Pat Nixon's request, not Richard's, but still banned.) And it won't be just draft-dodgers who cross the border into Canada.

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Nixon was once quoted saying that he thought Canada should have been a part of the USA. Who is to say that Nixon doesn't force Canada into the USA in this world. "For their own good" of course?

Which leads to this thought. Several Soviet Analysts in the late 1970's and early 1980's felt that Quebec was bound to leave Canada fairly soon. They also assumed this would lead to all of the rest of the Provinces joining the USA except Ontario. But eventually both Ontario and Quebec would need to join the USA anyway.

It's interesting that the USSR, in the 1980's, was so worried about the break-up of another nation. Isn't it?

However, if it would have happened, American politics would have been moved to the Left. Bush II wouldn't have been President. Iraq would be in some other nasty mess.

Who would have been the first Canadian to be president of the expanded USA? And what party would they have been from?

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Lots of Americans think Canada should be part of the USA. Generally, these are people with no actual first-hand experience of Canadians, but there are a lot of those nevertheless.

while 1976 on this Nixonworld would be a fine adventure, might it not actually be more fun to set it a little farther forward? Nixon's staff were very loyal and a little crazy, but suspending elections in order to extend a second term extraconstitutionally ought to really upset some of them. Assuming Vietnam came to an end much like Homeline's, some people will be unhappy with Nixon for that too. Someone (pick your favorite Nixon staffer) tags and bags him and retires him to a room in Bethesda, due to "tragic health problems" and Ford becomes President; there are still no elections, of course, and some very creepy staffers in the West Wing. Memos go in, memos come out, and they have Ford's signature on them. Soviet Americanologists get even more ulcers. The hearse races go differently, since different ideas will be in vogue in the Kremlin.

Come 1980, Ford will attempt to re-establish elections, win a re-election campaign legitimately or else arrange a legitimate transfer of power. Half of "his" staff are trying to stop it altogether and the other half are trying to rig it. The rot is starting to spread to Congress and the Governor's mansions (the Supreme Court is thoroughly Nixonified already). Lots of people will be interested in reinvigorating American democracy, but their choices are Ford the puppet and bumbler who became President without being elected, and springing Nixon from his padded cell...

Nixon has called up something he can't put down. Isn't it actually more fun after he loses control of it?

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If your job is to study the nation that seems to be the primary threat to your own, then if you've got the idea that a change in borders is plausible from somewhere, trying to figure out what it would mean is only sensible.

I clearly remember the day I realised the USSR was doomed. It was the day after the anti-Gorbachev coup collapsed. The receptionist at work was a Lithuanian exile, so she took a strong interest in the matter. The new news was that Ukraine wanted out of the USSR. "Well, that's torn it."

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Successors to those who believed in Manifest Destiny?

One thing these people probably won't like is that if Canada does join the US chances are people will lose the right to bear arms

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Balkanization of Americanization... Interesting.

Eventually, the military would act- power-hungry or Patriotic, it doesn't matter, because then the Pentagon would crack down and start a purge of their own. We don't have Siberia, but we do have Minnesota, which is just as cold and has a worse night life.

Things get worse, of course, and sooner or later some region is going to try to get out while the getting's good. It could be anyplace, but I always like to say Texas leaves first; they never were a state, just an allied republic anyway. The South might leave, but only if they're feeling put-upon. Maybe Ford pursues civil rights too harshly, or maybe the governor is just getting greedy for more power.

The problem is California, because while he may be the homicidal, paranoid crook who put this administration in the white house, he's our homicidal, paranoid crook. Rough and Ready and Jefferson would split, though. Once that happens, the whole state could disintegrate...

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Try this, General George McClellan seriously concidered rejecting Lincoln's orders to stand down and thought about a march on Washington. His men would have suppoted him at that time. Same tune, 19th century horror.

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A further point on my setting with the StarChildren. Societal chaos is a major part of the setting. Chaos within societies particularly. Place a kid with the same set of genetic mental advantages as the StarChildren in any 20th century school and they're going to shine, and outshine anyone else. Just look at the acedemic side of the StarChild advantages. Even a standard StarChild is going to look like a genius. Only a few of the other kids would be able to compete. In any society where college admissions are anything like open the StarChildren would dominate the schools. In nations were class rigidly decides who can go to college, the StarChildren would be a major focus of unrest and a major threat to class systems. Repete with caste systems, races, religion, or ethnicity.

That just looks at accedemics, remember the StarChildren all have SENSITIVE,VERSITILE, and +2 to all stats. These kids will have serious advantages in all areas of life. They learn faster and about a much wider variety of things and they are more social, more creative, and more physically competent. The StarChildren automatically reshuffle society's deck. And society would fight back, and probably fight dirty. Oh, and about forty years after the first StarChildren are born, people figure out they age much more slowly too.

Civil war is very nasty. And large numbers of people will have all sorts of motivations to join in the fights.

Also, this is a Q6 world. Both Homeline and Centruum want to know what happened and also recruit some talented agents.

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Darwin-2

Several worlds are notable mainly for their 'living fossils'. Most of these worlds are assumed to be echoes or near enough parallels to be indistinguishable. Darwin-2 is indisputably a far parallel on a scale few if any worlds can match: the fauna has been different since at least the Devonian, and quite possibly the Cambrian. And from the location of the continents, its quite apparent the date is close to modern.

On homeline and almost every other echo, the land was only really conquered by two types of creatures: Vertebrates and Arthropods. Sure, there are other animals that occasionally show up, like earthworms, snails, or velvet worms, but they lack the diversity, numbers, and visibility of the other two. Here they are challenged by a weird group of mollusks known mostly as 'shell beasts'.

Shell beasts have a series of shell plates on their back and the outside of their limbs that form something their skeleton-- the weight of the creature hangs from it (a few internal plates help as well. They have leathery skin where they don't have shell. pseudopods, suckers, and tentacles are common around their mouth and feet. They have 8 legs and a round, hard tounge (radula) in their mouths. Toxins are common: the question is not if they have toxins, but weather the toxins are delivered through the radula, a stab from a sharpened foot, contact with the skin, or by ingestion. They don't seem to grow much past 20 lbs in weight, but dominate small animal niches commonly occupied by lizards, shrews, rodents and snakes.

Vertabrate evolutionary history also looks strange. There are no mammals or birds, and only the rarest lizard (though a healthy population of large amphibians). The dominant form has crocodilian skin, but heavy jaws with canines, incisors, and molars, and warm blood. They walk upright, lay eggs, and while they aren't dinosaurs, the difference is lost on many.

The niche of birds and bats are filled by vertebrates, these ones are covered in hair, flap membraned wings, lay eggs, and use a beak.

This world is designated as a research world: a profitable world to study that's relatively safe. It has many stations, and all kinds of biologists. It also has acquired an 'invasive species' problem. Somebody has been dumping people from other world-lines here. They mostly stick with low tech worlds, and move people directly across. The newcomers are thriving, but in the process they are wrecking the kind of havoc on this world only man can accomplish. Resources have been requested to move the tribesmen, and many of them have been successfully moved, but catching all of them is a major undertaking and Infinity is preoccupied with centrum and policing other crimes. Meanwhile, ecologists are trying to gain support for their cause: unlike the fauna of other worlds, this one is unique.

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Following the idea of intertemporal travelars as the change point (this is for IW after all), try this idea. Another travellar from outside of the normal Infinate Worlds setting has gotten to a parallel which they think is their distant past. He/she is a cyborg with gallons of nano. The cyborg can shapeshift and has other powers. The Cyborg's goal is to massively disrupt Earth's history, again this travellar has never heard of Time Paradoxes.

The Q6 world the cyborg lands on is an echo experiencing the year 1880AD. The Cyborg, useing it's telepathic abilities and it vast databanks first gains a backer and then starts bringing out a large series of TL6 inventions. When Edison tries to buy the cyborg out, the cyborg goes to meet Edison.

During the meeting the Cyborg kills and replaces Edison. Now a Cyborg with millions of Gigabites of TL6 though 12TL technological data owns Edison's company. By 1920 the tech level of this world is TL8. Both Homeline and Centruum want to know why this world is advancing so quickly. Both governments want to prevent a repete of the 1914 atomic missle exchange that eliminated Paris, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg, amoung other cities.

Centruum is of course focused of taking over the British Empire but this world's USA is also an attractive traget. Meanwhile, a Tech Level 12^ war cyborg is out there. The cyborg knows about Panchronomics and can detect out-timers.

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1811 AD - Michael Faraday is given the boot when tries to woo Sir Humphrey Davy. As a result, practical applications of electricity are delayed by 20 to 50 years.

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Outtimers changed time lines could be a bit more subtle.

How about putting Tesla on some anti-psychotic medications?

Or putting Edison on some pro-psychotic meds to destroy his reputation in a macabre poetic justice kind of way?

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The first one is fun. Yes, out timers should be subtle. But I prefer subtle changes to come from withing the timelines. Outtimers are for over the top changes.

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Try this one. A room temperature superconductor is developed by an eccentric scientist who in most worlds is allergic to anti-psychotic medications. The RTSC hits the market in the year 1997. The local year is 2020 on this Q7 parallel. Both Homeline and Centruum want the formula, notes on how the formula was worked out, and as much tech as they steal.

A good RTSC (Room Temperature SuperConductor) would cause another industrial revolution or something alot like it. Thus, each wants the data for themselves and for no one else.

The politics of this world are dominated by the ecconomic collapse of the oil/energy exporting states. Power transmission and transport are so radically changed that international politics can't really keep up yet. War is a serious threat everywhere.

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Over 30% of America's power production is from coal. Petroleum is still mostly used for vehicles, something that superconductors aren't going to change.

Why do so many alternates have near Armageddon occur whenever any event goes slightly worse than it did in our history?

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What if poor Tesla developed mental illness due to an allergy rather than purely genetic reasons?
If his love of pigeons was his downfall, then a purely in time event could change his entire life.
Traumatized by a flock of birds as a child or something.

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Drama addiction. It's endemic amoung RPGers.

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It might be interesting to take the opposite approach. The world is inarguably better than ours, but the inhabitants are for some reason more pessimistic or judgmental about it.

We are almost blasé about "merely" one more local war. Maybe their not being shell shocked into complacency and numbness makes them bemoan wars' very existence more.

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I like that approach. Its so easy to fall into the war/spies trope, but it can get boring. I'm sure in an IW setting the characters can get blase about merely another threat of nuclear war.

My favorite IW type story is H Beam Piper's The Last Enemy. While the setting descends into civil war during the course of the story, it still deals with mainly psi-related themes and is more thought provoking than a gun fest. Don't read the wikipedia article, btw, since its basically the entire story; just read the story itself.

But its a great challenge. A world line had basically discovered something that would likely effect every world line with humans in it. The challenge for the PCs would be how they approach the information and what do they do with it.

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I grant you. A Room Temperature Superconductor would make our world better. Just the massive saving in power transmisson alone would allow a serious reduction in CO2 emmissions. The possibilities of vasty improved control of magnatism could lead to massive savings in transport cost and time. However, any sudden change in the ecconomy, and an easily produced, cheap, and durable, RTSC would bring vast changes quickly, destabilises politics. War is an outcome of long term destabilisation.

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OK, 1997 you get RTSC. It takes a few years to be work into the production line, so history goes pretty much as in homeline. You still get 9/11, George Bush, Senegal takes the World Cup. Then the economics of cheap power start to be felt.

Russia slides back into cleptocracy as Putin is driven from power. The long simmering troubles in Saudi Arabia explode as the tribes realize the House of Saud can not ensure an easy economic future - despite the fact they currently own enormous wealth. The Iraq war falters, as even though the economy of the US suddenly expands, people question the reasons for sending so many working age men into a poorly defined war. China's economy matches the US expansion and then some.

I see troubles in some otherwise peaceful Mid-Eastern and Russian areas, and some South American states, but at least at first the First World countries and China get a huge boost. Populations will probably give their leaders the benefit of the doubt as everyone has "a chicken in every pot".

Longer term you get issues, but normally people are loath to endanger their wealth. I don't see a lot of violence in the First World, except that stemming from ideological differences. Granted you still have economic stratification in the US, and that only accelerates with the new riches. The question is how comfortable is the underclass in the supercharged economy? And what ideologies become worth fighting over? The whole crusade mentality of the Iraq war comes up, and might become the focus of US foreign policy.

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If RTSCs require some exotic elements (likely) then that might become the new scarce resource everyone wants. "No blood for Gadolinium!"

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If it's only found on asteroids, then space exploration could become a major theme.

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Europium sounds like a nice alternative. A little odd chemically, rather rare, etc.

An interesting alternative is if the element is radioactive. This would mean you'd have to replace the wirings every x years. The conspiracy nuts would say it's to keep a perpetual demand up. They might be right.

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How would scientists have figured out that such ********ium exists then?

Though anything that promotes real post space-race space funding rather than our world's tiniest drop is nice.

Edit: Or unobtanium for those averse to the -ium I used.

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That's one way to go. I imagined a cheap Super Conductor. I wanted maxium effect quickly.

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You make good points. A RTSC introduced in 1997 has overwhelmingly good effects, although the same effect that supercharged the housing market (with the profits of the IT revolutions) will be accellerated. It's the same phenomenom that was set off by the railroad boom in the mid-19th century, and the electrical and automotive booms of the 1920's.

But a RTSC will make itself felt for a long time in every industry that uses electricity. So it's mainly very good.

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Thank-you! Spaceward HO!!!!

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But it would take a long time and huge budgets for large infrastructure nations like the U.S. to replace all the antiquated wires. Small European nations would see results in savings very rapidly.

It would make electric cars less toxic to use and manufacture. But they might need cooling to keep them room temperature.

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As the money flows the desire to act grows. With the possibility of big profits, while announcing how "Green" you are, big things can happen.

I don't think electric cars run that hot. Besides, you'd want to use magnetic levitation and glide a foot or so off the ground.

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Changing infrastructure is hard no matter how much salesmen tout the eventual returns.

Maglev works for trains on metal rails, not cars on asphalt.
Any heat will be much hotter than room temperature. Unless you mean above room temperature to include hotter than death valley summers.

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I was going to mention that; gamers and SF writers are always quick on the draw. Tech changes always seem to have their effects dozens of years if not decades after we think they should.

A quick fix for maglev cars would be to lay rails in the streets. At least until the tech was mature enough to support "better" floating cars, whatever that means :)

BTW - I know this has come up before, but wouldn't such a great super conductor be just as destablizing to Homeline as it would be for the Alternate? The I-Cops might not want such a 'great' idea coming through, at least not right way.

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I tried to make an upbeat world. I ended up with a really dark and messy history (including the genocide of scores of millions), but an interesting world resulted. It may be a little out there, but hey, its alt hist.

Han - 4 (1949)
TL 5

there are a lot of Chinese parallels, all with strong Chinese influence. Not many of them resulted in the world government of Han-4.

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2500 years after the birth of Confucius, and 200 years since the last ethnic-based revolt, there is only one kingdom: the middle kingdom. While there are many languages, the only one that matters in mandarin, and the only script in use is mandarin. The capital of the world is Nanjing, where the emperor of the Pou dynasty rules inside a city of his own. 2,000 years of blood have repaid themselves with world peace. Armies no longer exist: such units are police, guards, or strike forces against bandits. The balance of power doesn't even rest with the emperor anymore: he is secluded in his palace, kept entertained in lavishness and his mind off of ruling, and far away from replacing the bureaucracy that currently runs things. The world is run by the mandarins, striving (in name) for the ideals of Confucius.

The military duties have been displaced by civil ones: the greatest mandarin is the richest mandarin with the happiest people. An industry has sprung up on ways this may be acomplished. The improvements to daily life effected by the mandarins have been enormous: irrigation is a wide spread practice. The evolution of the concept of 'Miasma' into something close to germ theory has led to widespread sanitation efforts and a reduction of disease throughout the world. Many logistical and malnutrition problems have been solved, and communication across the globe uses a combination of ships and something every like semaphore. In fact, the mechanization of industry is slowly kicking off.

This isn't to say humanities problems are solved: Most of humanity still lives short, hard lives of physical labour and famines still kill off large numbers of people periodically, triggering waves of refuges across the globe. corruption runs deep, and the occasionally riots can turn into revolts (and from there into massacres). The two sources of conflict are organized crime and governmental conspiracies -- ability to pass the tests defining virtue do not depend on virtue itself! There are world-wide class differences (mostly wealth based an informal, but a rich man's son gets the best tutors for the state examination, and some own enough to not need any rank), women have no rights at all (except through a husband who chooses to stand up for his wife and/or concubines), and freedom of expression is pretty limited.

About three decades ago (1918-1929) the world was swept over by a plague -- one that spread in spite of wide-spread sanitation efforts (a much worse version of our spainish flu). It killed over 25% of the population, and left a major manpower shortage. Some Nobles are experimenting with a machine that is said to make up for the labour they have lost: the steam engine.

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Centrum has a hard time coming to an official stance on this world. On the one hand, they seem to have accomplished many of centrum's most important goals: a unified culture, a mostly racially blind society, a world government, a responsible (cautious and top down) view of technology, and even the shape of a meritocracy. On the other hand, they display a propensity to corruption, have no concept of gender equality, a strong class system, and the culture and language is certainly not the one centrum would pick. Debates rage on the higher circles, but the agents on the ground are still trying to overcome the language barrier. The main focus for now is on technology: Centrum expects the industrial revolution to hit soon, and would hate to see such a beautiful society turned upside down.

Infinity has a much easier time with this world, as the mandarin languages are close enough and have enough variation on the world to throw native Chinese speakers in without much language training. Some consider it ripe for widespread technological 'nudging': The main obstacles at this point are likely to be political, and infinity looks forward to what industry may do to boost the standard of living here, as well as hoping the social upheaval resulting can be channelled into social change. The main drawback is its appeal to centrum: The world is ripe to become their ally, and many homeliners feel that aiding the world is as good as aiding centrum.


The dark history of the world: I found it necessary to write, but long, reasonably boring, and not essential to display to understand the world. The short story is that the chinese conquered and assimilated the world. By force and deportation. Its not the theme of the world, its how they got there. The seeds of more parallels are in there though.

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Yeah, anytime I introduce anything into IW I first ask myself: how does this affect infinity? is it going to break my setting. I then do one of three things: decide its not worth it and chuck the idea, place restrictions on the laws of physics to limit the utility of the cool tech/magic, or rarely decide that the setting will use it and decide what stage of proliferation the technology is in.

As for why this technology won't break homeline as much as other worlds: remember than homeline's economy is not based on homeline. That's right, they're just a bunch of middle men trading from world to world. They don't do their own research, they don't build their own cars, and while they kind of mine their own metals, they don't do it on their own world. Their core industry is transportation.

Homeline is already in a state of flux: they are always getting new technologies and industries coming in. The energy industry is already turned upside down by off-world energy and cheap nuclear fusion. The transportation industry is already booming. A RTSC just makes the building of all those trains all over infinity transporting a huge amount of the world's traffic that much cheaper.

This is a technology that would be fun to use in a homeline campaign as a way of exploring its wacky economy. The players have discovered this new tech, and now need to add it to home-line's tech base. . They have to find the equivalent owners of the tech on homeline (or deal with a bunch of lawsuits when the owner does find out). They have to compete with ships that deal with land by switching to an alternate where the land configurations are different. They have to either get the offworld inventors to design devices compliant with homeline saftey regulations, or pay through the nose to have homeline engineers do it. And worst of all, they have to market it on homeline, where all sorts of strange things clamour for attention!

And now I have a new parallel:

Ocean - 3

Ocean three is an alternate earth without continents and whose life was limited to bacterium -- though home-line ships accidentally bearing algae, mussels, barnacles, jellyfish, and other life are slowly changing that. Ocean 3 has been leased to several shipping companies who use the alternate to transport goods without going through infinity, whose ports and sea lanes have become quite crowded. The ability to sail right through asia without waiting at the suez has proved popular as well.

The cities on Ocean 3 are mostly anchored platforms where cargo is unloaded and loaded to other worlds, and where freighter crews spend their pay. They have formed their own government, which mostly performs police duties and serves as a 'flag of convenience' Sometime the platforms are used to avoid homeline: In the middle east, it can be a lot easier to go from a platform in the ocean to a platform in the ocean with a load of weapons than from Terah, Iran to Constantinople with the same load. Its also used as a security precaution with toxic waste, and as a haven for smugglers.

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People have trouble driving friction based cars now. Adding Newtonian physics involved hover cars would not a be good thing, in my opinion.

Superconductors would on their own allow greatly improved batteries without dangerous acids and toxins. Less risk of explosions though, so movies would lack the omnipresent running from car accidents while gasoline leaks.

Space probes and stations would get a big boost from mag sails.

Homeline probably controls out time technologies specifically to slow the degree of destabilizing effects. The common explanation being that research is needed to fully vet it for unforeseen consequences, and often that being completely rational. Physics does differ in many realities after all.

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I would think so. But I don't think Homeline, or Centruum for that matter, would be willing to pass up the benefits of a robust room terperature Superconductor just because of someone else's problems. Neither would believe that they could be vunerable to the same issues.

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This is seriously cool! A 21st century Libertatia that has a logical ecconomic function in Homeline's ecconomy. Three cheers for you!!!

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What keeps it a "security precaution" rather than just a dumping ground for toxic waste?

I assume the former is means it is transferred through Ocean-3 to the location that transfers it to some hell world timeline.

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When I made it its own country, I wasn't really thinking along those lines. I just asked myself 'what country would logically run this world?'. And I came to the conclusion that the people would object if it was a powerful nation, that the whole thing would fall apart if each nation ran stations in their 'sea space',

I've been looking at that-- and the only reason to not dump your waste directly onto the hell line is because someone actually wants it for something or because you can't dump on the hell line in the place where you are at the time.

I'm assuming there are enough Hell lines to rule out the latter case. But when you're transporting used nuclear reactor fuel from a world line that produces it to a worldline with reactors that use the waste -- its easier for everyone when you transport it on a world that isn't homeline.

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Very nice. I like this world. It might suggest a steampunkish set up, but I'm getting tired of steampunk, for one thing, and for another there is no real punk element. A non-Victorian alternate steam technology setting? A singular occurrence.

Ocean-3 is also pretty cool. Great way to tie the homeline into a setting. I usually think of homeline as the "old tavern" where the players get their marching orders, and if they are lucky get occasional supplies or assistance, but otherwise it stays in the background.

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Thanks!

I will say, It never ceases to amaze me what genres people think I'm working with when compared with what I actually aim for. I was setting up for intrigue in a very bureaucratic setting based around either preventing technology or focused on social upheaval. But yes, It can certainly be spun that way. Thats what groups are for.

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Trying my hand at an interesting world that a good/pleasant world I'm rifting off the long term Cetiomania of the New Agers and my presantly reading a book on the 1689-1727 period in Britain. I make the assumption that Queen Anne was RH negative and her husband George was RH positive (I've no proof of this but it fits with Anne carrying 17 children to term and only one of them surviving infancy).

Celtic-1

The "Celtic" designation is reserved for worlds where there are stronger survivals of Celtic cultures and languages into the modern world. Some parahistorian dislike the term because it links worlds by an effect rather than a cause. But the term is still used.

In Celtic-1 George of Denmark, who in Homeline history was the husband of Queen Anne, dies in infancy. Anne is instead married to a minor German Princeling a younger son named Lancelot (because of his mother's love of Arthurian lore).

Lancelot and Anne have seven healthy children including their youngest son Merlin (since he had no chance of being king they named him to please his paternal grandmother, a well loved member of the family). Merlin was a quiet studious child who went to the Scots Universities (Oxford was moribund in this period) and there developed a deep love of Gaelic culture and the people of the Highlands. Because Lancelot was a close friend of William (there were rumors that he was husband to both the Princess and the King), William never met the little gentleman in velvet and lived to be 75 dieing in 1725.

Both of Merlin's older brothers died a few months before King William. This placed King Merlin I on the throne of England, and he reigned for thirty-eight years. As the king favored Scots Bards and Irish musicians Celtic culture experienced a revival in this world. Because the Staurt family stayed on the throne, and the King of England was proud of his Scots blood, there were no Jacobite uprisings. Highland culture lasted pretty much in tact until the 1920's.

Celtic-1, A Q5 world, is highly popular with New Agers, Scots nationalist, fans of Celtic Music, and romantics of many stripes. Local year 1968 (yes pop music is just as wild in this world in that period as it was in ours, but due the the Celtic influence, none of these great sounds sound the same as they did on Homeline).

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Empire - 638 AD
TL 3

The divergence point for this world is unknown: experts are unsure of any one or even half dozen changes that could have created this world, but it exists: A world of empires. Roman and Han empires should be long gone, but they have instead crossed massive barriers to fight each other in India. No Mongol empire should exist at this point, but one dominates central asia and harries both the Romans and the Chinese. The Mayans have a much larger civilization than they ought to, and the Carthaginians shouldn't be able to survive the diseases of West Africa, let alone carry out wars with the Mayans and Romans or send ships to Indonesia.

Looking closer has revealed a few deep differences on empire:

Empire natives are extremely resistant to disease. This extends to most vertebrates on the world, but humans have it stronger than most (resistant to disease +8 for humans, +5 for most animals).
The grains of the world perform better than expected, providing 50% more food than would be predicted by the tech level
Not only are plauges less common, but the weather is statistically more mild: fewer droughts, fewer storms.

Technology is well developed: the romans have a good understanding of many TL 3 technologies, and use more heavy calvary than historically -- but they still rely mostly on the strength of the legion. Carthaginian boats look like something between a traditional galley and a viking long boat, and their navigation and astronomy is quite excellent. The Mayans have inferior metal working skills, but they do have them: iron weapons are the norm, and their knowledge of medicine and poisons is inexplicably advanced. They've picked up sailing from the Carthaginians, and maintain an empire stretching from Peru to California. They'd own more in the Caribbean and Brazil but the Carthaginians contest them for those territories.

The primary export of this world are animals: a disease resistant livestock sells for quite a lot on other low tech worlds. This ironically leads to the most important economic areas of the world being on the fringes of the great empires or in Mongol territory, rather than in Rome or China.

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Celtic-2

In this parallel Mary Tudor, in an attempt to prevent a Protestant succession to the Throne of England after her death, forces her sister Elizabeth to wed an Irishman. Mary had had a high-ranking O'Neill grabbed, brough to Winchester, and given the choice of marrige to the Princess Elizabeth or death.

At first Elizabeth and her husband Padhrig O'Neill fought constantly. Then they figured out that they enjoyed fighting each other more than anything else in life. Mary requiered them to name their first child Patrick, refusing to let her sister name her son Henry.

When Patrick Prince of Wales was told his first son was born, he named him Henry, to please his beloved Mother. Padhrig and Patrick aided both in submitting Ireland to the British crown and in the conversion of the Irish to the Protestant faith, much to the chagrin of the English lords that wanted Irish lands.

It's 1925 in this Q4 Low Mana world, Celtic lore is popular and well known here and Druidical magic was key in putting Thaumatology on a scientific basis. The Cabal is fascinated with this world, Homeline sees the local understanding of Magic as a vital tool they need to exploit.

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The Union designation is given to worlds where either the Civil War leads to better more honorable outcomes in reguard to American racial issues or Reconstruction was far better handled with similar benefits.

Union-7

Union-7 may or may not deserve the "UNION" designation. The local year is only 1866, however Lincoln is alive and well (the prevailing theory amoung the ICOPS is that Mary Sarratt figured out how much of a threat John Wilks Booth was to her family and poisoned him). Lincoln is fighting to get both the 14th and 15th amendment to the U.S. constitution through Congress and the states. Reconstruction is in full swing and Lincoln seems to be going for a try anything approach.

Those large planters who supported the CSA have generally lost their lands. These confiscated lands are being redistributed to poor Whites and recently Freed Black folks. Fourty acres and a mule is very real in this new South.

Centruum is of two minds about this Q6 world. On one hand they want the USA broken and subservient to the British Empire. On the other hand they like the idea of a major state fighting against racism in the late 19th century.

The ICops like this Parallel ("Lincoln isn't shot and justice might not have to wait for a century or more!") Similarly the USA, the UK, and Russia (remember they supported the Union) all like this parallel too. The Chinese and the French are mainly focused on aiding this parallel's versions of their own nations. USA focused on internal problems isn't interesting or troublesome to them.

In the jungles of Venezulea an broken offshoot of the Ringroad has been found by Reich-5. The Nazis are still exploring, they aren't likely to approve of this world. If either Centruum or the ICops find out about Reich-5 infiltraition this world will be a major focus of attention.

By the way. Union-7 is on interest on Homeline because this mainly no mana world has a few small areas of low to normal mana. Most of these areas are in places like Egypt, India, Ireland, and Haiti, with reputations for Occult happenings. However, the Bahamas have several small islands with normal mana levels that would make excellent sites for a magical training and research center. Homeline is determined to get control of these islands.

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Wealth redistribution sounds bound to create unrest. Giving it to blacks is the way to create nation wide revolt orders of magnitude greater than the civil rights violence in the 1960s.
The civil war wasn't about slavery, and trying too hard to make the after effects about equal rights would leave an even more bitter taste in the mouths of southerners, in my limited historical knowledge opinion.

The cynic in me thinks Lincoln would have backed down from pushing equal rights post war as it wouldn't have been politically prudent then.
As it was, he pushed for attacking the south in ways to make it more like the north. He wasn't really negatively impacting his side with his decisions.

Edit: sorry I only know enough history to criticize others, but not enough to come up with plausible alternates myself.

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On this world it's turning out differently. Or maybe your critique points up where the conflicts and adventures are.

Maybe powers outside of America are threatened by America's experiments with racial equality in this world. Europe's colonial empires might seem threatened by both America's democracy and now her radical egaliterianism. Louis Napoleon couldn't get people to ally with him to invade America during the American Civil War, maybe reconstruction is his chance?

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Union-3

Divergence point was the failure of William Gilmore Simms to become a novelist, instead returning to his legal practice. In Homeline, Simms, described by Edgar Alan Poe as America's greatest novelist, was a leading author, historian and proponent of slavery. Without Simms "Southron" spirit and culture had one less (major) voice, and the support of the common man was that much less. By the time of the First Civil War, 1861 to 1863, support had eroded to such an extent that Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee, initially supporting secession, sued to rejoin the Union after the fall of Kentucky.

Short and violent, this War did not resolve many issues. Lincoln had not freed the slaves, and many bills passed during the years without Southern participation in Congress, such as funding the intercontinental railroad, the Banking Act and the introduction of income tax, were blocked with their return. Lincoln himself was still alive, hated and feared in the South, the Hero of the Union in the North.

In 1872 American forces help Cuba defeat Spain. In order to keep European support, Lincoln finally frees the slaves. This is the last straw for many Southerners, dependent on the slave economy, who again attempt secession. The Second Civil War, with nearly a decade of industrial modernization of the military after the lessons learned from the First war, is generally considered the most horrific war in human history.

From 1872 to 1879 the largely stalemated war resembles World War I. Even lighter than air craft are used in bombing campaigns, while submarines break through naval blockades. Washington is destroyed, and New York and Philadelphia suffer extensive damage from long range strikes and bombings. But in the end the South is roundly defeated, Sherman's March had nothing on the tank divisions that rolled through Georgia and across Texas. Atlanta, burned to the ground, its population largely killed or dispersed, is rebuilt as New Washington. Jefferson Davis is seized and murdered by over enthusiastic Union soldiers.

Lincoln continued to be a force to restore and rebuild the Union. As Supreme Court justice, he directed the reconstruction of the South. Freed slaves were settled across the devastated southern states and the Western and Caribbean territories. Washington DC is rebuilt grander than ever, the white marble and burnished copper of the Dome an iconic image of federal power.

Current year is 1938. African Americans have held public offices, have been professionals and well represented in the arts for a generation or more. It is true that the northern cities such as Chicago and New York have very few black citizens, and they face discrimination there, but cities such as San Fransisco, Denver, Los Angeles, Savannah, Houston and Havana are centers for the so-called African Renaissance.

Across the Atlantic Hitler rails daily about the purity of race and the degeneracy of the US. So far America has sought to stay at peace, but the arms industry is busy supplying the British with Ford Thunderchariot Tanks, while the new Grumman jet fighters are still kept top secret.