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Old 09-09-2019, 12:32 PM   #4330
Astromancer
 
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: New Reality Seeds

COLD SNAP

The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora was bad in most worlds, as it created the Year Without a Summer a period of genuine misery and pain. In this Q6 parallel the eruption was simply worse in being larger and placing more fine ash and other particulates in the atmosphere. The led to a decade without a summer.

Famine drove emigration from Northern Europe to the new world, especially the southern USA. Canada found that it lost much of its population to famine, plague, or emigration. Iceland lost 70% of her people and Scotland 50%.

Industrialization, democracy, literacy, and many other important 19th century trends were halted or reversed by the crisis. Plague, famine, and brutal weather, drove an occult revival and religious fervor.

Even though the young Queen Victoria was crowned at a period when the weather was returning to normal much of the damage was done. Still, many of these changes were baked in long before Tambora went up in smoke.

The present year in this parallel is 1860. The long period of stagnation caused by the cold snap is ending. Technology is jumping forward. South Carolina has just abolished slavery leaving only Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, as slave states. Abraham Lincoln has won the Presidency and will be sworn in next March. Meanwhile, the transcontinental railroad will be completed between Independence Missouri and San Francisco within a year or two. The technology is generally behind where Homeline's was in 1860, but science was slightly ahead.

Meanwhile, German Unification is well ahead of schedule and Europe looks like it's rapidly moving toward a fight over it. Centrum certainly wants the newborn German Empire squashed. Meanwhile the Cabal is focused on manipulating the Russian Empire into conquering certain Central Asian provinces so that they can do extensive archaeology in certain exotic ruins. Homeline's focus is on Asian folk art which seems to be vibrant and thriving in this world. Homeline doesn't know why that is, but they love the artwork.

Neither Centrum nor the Cabal understand why Homeline is buying up all the Asian folk art they are. Each suspects dark motives. Each will kill to know the truth!

Basically, this is a 19th century cliffhangers setting with the dials turned up to eleven. The Victorian age is rushing to catch-up to itself. Meanwhile, Homeline art buyers are being hunted by agents of Centrum and the Cabal and Homeline demands to know "WHY."
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