New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

I was using a deep past event to radically alter something much nearer. Switching Hitler from anti-Semitism to Islamophobia thus radically switching his battle plans.

I would say that the most likely outcome of Kara Mustafa conquering the city of Vienna would be the French winning the War of Spanish Succession and France becoming the long term dominant power in Europe. "One Faith, one Law, one King" preventing the Enlightenment and strangling America in its cradle.

But this crowd seems to enjoy alternate WWIIs, so I gave them that.

[Astromancer]

Byzantium-12

This world is a Myth parallel with a history weirdly similar to Homeline's It is generally a "Print the Legend" version of Homeline history. This Q6 Parallel has Normal Mana in most areas, the British Isles and Egypt have been confirmed to have High Mana. The connection between Homeline history and this world's history seems to have recently collapsed.

The local year is 1185, the Crusades have been happening more or less on schedule, although resembling glamourous fiction a bit more than Homeline history. However, Saladin has now gotten the Pope to order the crusaders to obey his commands as Islam and Christendom stand together against the hoards of Gog and Magog. There are reposts from Wales that Arthur is waking up from his long slumbers and that both Morgain Le Fay and Merlin stand with him.

Basically, can Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, Arthur, Morgain, and Merlin, turn back the forces of Gog and Magog?

Meanwhile the Cabal is in a massive stir, the Daoine Sidhe are getting ready to join the battle standing beside Saladin and Arthur. The Hosts of the Djinni are getting ready to do the same. What threat to the multiverse could bring them all forth? Centrum and Homeline are just as curious as the Cabal. Can your PCs learn the truth and help turn the tide?

Note: This parallel was named for Byzantium because the first contact party sent most of their time in that city and believe they had some kind of contact with the Olympian Gods. It is possible that the gods exist in this parallel. They might be real deities or, at in certain early modern worldviews, they could be faery creatures as powerful as the Daoine Sidhe, or even moreso.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Basically, can Saladin, Richard the Lionheart, Arthur, Morgain, and Merlin, turn back the forces of Gog and Magog?

Medieval Avengers, Assemble!

[Phil Masters]

The problem with this kind of scenario is that the obvious first step is for Infinity to drop a few drone probes into Central Asia and find out how things look there. I mean, the situation might still be terribly bad, but the mystery part might be easily short-circuited.

It makes more sense as an historical fantasy setting, where the massively Eurocentric setup is more par for the course.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Phil Masters

It makes more sense as an historical fantasy setting, where the massively Eurocentric setup is more par for the course.

Gog and Magog were names of horror in Medieval Islam. I admit that I probably needed to bring in figures from medieval Arab, Greek, Persian, Hindi, and Russian, legendary. But I was posting to this website not proposing a new GURPS book.

[Inky]

I think Phil might have meant that it's literally "Eurocentric" in that the premise only works if the characters start out in Europe. Whereas in a standard Infinite Worlds setting, it seems that starting out in Central Asia is as easy as shipping a projector and conveyor to Homeline's Central Asia - which doesn't sound easy at all, but sounds easier than trying to get from Byzantium-12's Europe to Byzantium-12's Central Asia with an army in between.

To make it work as an Infinite Worlds setting, you might have to think of some way to stop the world-jumpers from scouting Central Asia first to find out who or what Gog and Magog are. With that much magic going around, though, it seems like it would be easy enough to add a "conveyors can't get to this area and we don't even know why" handwave.

Actually, that might be even more reason for Infinity to get involved, since they'd be worried whether the barrier was specifically designed to keep world-jumpers out (i.e. someone in Gog and Magog's territory knows that there are such things).

Or maybe it's just the drones that don't work because magic. Humans could go through and scout, but that might be the game in itself!

Or it might work even without it being a mystery what Gog and Magog are. When you said "What threat to the multiverse could bring them all forth?", did you mean that the Cabal, etc., are mobilising to fight Gog and Magog, or is that something else? Possibly Infinity scouted Gog and Magog, briefed the PCs that they would be facing magic-wielding Mongol hordes or whoever, and the PCs don't find out that what the Cabal, etc. are worried about is something else entirely until they're already in it up to their necks. Apparently in a lot of the legends, Gog and Magog are supposed to be released just before the end of the world!

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

I actually thought what was meant was that all the conveyers ended up in Europe/North Africa/Middle East because something was making that area the only place to go, as if the rest of the world didn't exist. Given that this is a myth parallel, it seems plausible the lands of Gog/Magog might not be "reality stable" enough for parachronics to register them.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

Given that this is a myth parallel, it seems plausible the lands of Gog/Magog might not be "reality stable" enough for parachronics to register them.

This is a problem for a lot of myth parallels, given that many stories involve changes to quite small regions, and arriving somewhere outside the area described in the source myth or story often wouldn't even allow you to identify the story in the first place. If you do your initial penetration missions in China, it's unclear how you would ever determine you were on a Camelot or Nottingham parallel.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

By 1870, when Germany unified, Turkish rule in Austria was long over, but not forgotten. Adolf Hitler saw the violation of the German lands by the Turkish hoards as the greatest evil in history. He proposes a final solution to the Islamic question!

I doubt a Hitler using this issue would rise to power. The OTL Hitler could build his apparatus of prejudice from the bottom up, oppressing the Jews who lived in Germany and Austria. He made use of the anti-Semitism that had existed in both regions for centuries, although he made it far worse

This Hitler would have the problem that the Ottomans had never ruled Germany (as opposed to Austria) and there are comparatively few Muslims in Germany or Austria to oppress. To make it believable, you need half a million or so Muslims still living in unified Germany as of the 1920s, some of them in positions that can be represented as culturally dominant.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

I doubt a Hitler using this issue would rise to power. The OTL Hitler could build his apparatus of prejudice from the bottom up, oppressing the Jews who lived in Germany and Austria. He made use of the anti-Semitism that had existed in both regions for centuries, although he made it far worse

This Hitler would have the problem that the Ottomans had never ruled Germany (as opposed to Austria) and there are comparatively few Muslims in Germany or Austria to oppress. To make it believable, you need half a million or so Muslims still living in unified Germany as of the 1920s, some of them in positions that can be represented as culturally dominant.

This was an alternative world were the siege of Vienna took place in 1694 after Kara Mustafa had time to properly plan. The Ottomans did rule in this Germany.

Ottoman rule still fell apart because of structural issues in Ottoman rule and military organization. And also because advancing European ship technology made sea trade safer, cheaper, and far more reliable, than overland trade through the Arab and Turkish lands.