Alternate History Thought Exercise: Dungeon Fantasy Earth

[Jürgen Hubert]

In honor of the latest issue of Pyramid: What would an Alternate History timeline look like where you could use the Dungeon Fantasy series as written? How would history have gone off the rails to produce an Earth like that?

The rule is that all the stuff in the Dungeon Fantasy series must be permissable. You can add additional rules material, but not take any away.

[Michele]

Well, I suppose you could do worse than start with Yirth. You need the races, you need the magic, right? Then you'd be tinkering from there.

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by Michele

Well, I suppose you could do worse than start with Yirth. You need the races, you need the magic, right? Then you'd be tinkering from there.

Yrth is not exactly an Alternate History, though - more like a parallel world.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

Yrth is not exactly an Alternate History, though - more like a parallel world.

Which comes with its own history.

[Polydamas]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

In honor of the latest issue of Pyramid: What would an Alternate History timeline look like where you could use the Dungeon Fantasy series as written? How would history have gone off the rails to produce an Earth like that?

The rule is that all the stuff in the Dungeon Fantasy series must be permissable. You can add additional rules material, but not take any away.

Well, just the existence of magic, a wide variety of corporeal and incorporeal sentient beings, etc. would produce a world so different that it would only look like ours by fiat. (I certainly wouldn't take it for granted that a DF world is part of a galaxy or formed billions of years ago from an accretion disc, or that epidemics and volcanic eruptions are natural and were major influences on history).

[Phantasm]

First, I'd assume that every ancient mythology was true, even when they contradicted each other.

Then I'd move the overall TL up to 4, but in keeping with DF assumptions rule that gunpowder is the purview of alchemists.

Personally, as a lot of the DF stuff assumes a "medieval European" mindset, I'd focus my worldbuilding efforts to Europe and the Middle East.

Elves? Germany's Black Forest, but apparent everywhere there's forests across Northern Europe.
Dwarves? Concentrated in the Swiss Alps, but can be found almost anywhere.
Halflings? Any pastoral rural area will work, as will any number of urban areas.
Orcs? Let's put them originating somewhere harsh with little room for expansion, leading to incredible overcrowding leading to a "life is cheap" mindset. Norway seems appropriate. And hey, Viking Orcs are cool. ;)
Faeries? See "Elves". ;)

(As I don't have DF3, I can't go beyond those stand-byes.)

[Mateus]

Originally Posted by tbrock1031

Halflings? Any pastoral rural area will work, as will any number of urban areas.

I always think in Halflings as small englishmen!

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Mateus

I always think in Halflings as small englishmen!

Living in the Shire - but is that Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire, Berkshire, ... ?

Of course they're English!

[hackbarth]

I always tough that Orcs where a literary device to represent Barbarians. Not DF barbarians, but the foreigner, someone you can't reason with because you don't share customs, language, culture.
The vikings fit the bill for medieval England. The mongols are more like it for the rest of Europe that wasn't near the North Sea.

[vitruvian]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

In honor of the latest issue of Pyramid: What would an Alternate History timeline look like where you could use the Dungeon Fantasy series as written? How would history have gone off the rails to produce an Earth like that?

The rule is that all the stuff in the Dungeon Fantasy series must be permissable. You can add additional rules material, but not take any away.

In order for all the stuff in Dungeon Fantasy to exist, first and foremost you need magic. The divergence point for that could be back at the Big Bang, or the advent of magic could be a much more recent, possibly local to Earth, kind of thing. However, for reasons below, it probably needs to be around for at least a couple of millennia.

Then you need to account for all the fantasy races and monsters. If they're the result of evolution, that pushes your divergence point back by millions of years, and means magic needs to be around for their evolution in the case of those with innate magical traits. Or, given the existence of magic, they can just as easily be far more recent results of magical experimentation, accidents, or other effects.

Then you need to account for the dungeons themselves. In order for them to make much sense, you need the magic and monsters to have been around for a few millennia, so that ancient cultures had time to make use of them, mine or create massive amounts of gold, silver, and precious stones, build humungous complexes (either underground to begin with or buried later), enchant huge numbers of magical items, and so on, then fall into decay and ruin, whether because of war, or disease, or magical disaster, or possibly ascension into the clerical gods of the present day.

In short, the divergence point involves there being magic, which then results in Magic Transhuman Earth, then some form of apocalypse, with the Dungeon Fantasy setting being the somewhat rebuilt post-apocalypse world where the vast majority of wealth and usable magic exists in the ruins of the old world order, making dungeon delving a worthwhile endeavor.