New Reality Seeds

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

What does the group on this board think would have been the outcome of an early Suez canal?

I'm not sure the canal is really a big deal, it's not like stuff wasn't shipeed overland through Ottoman territory. The big change point here may be that the Ottoman Empire has started to *care* what's happening in the Indian Ocean and the ports of India. None of the great powers of Asia were naval powers much, anything that starts the change that is important, and I can't imagine the Persians or north Indians wouldn't react. Though this is a particuarly low point for both regions. The Timurid empire is in the process of collapsing, with a final fall in 1506, and Dehli Sultanate has been shrinking for a century, and no longer controls any of the coast, white the Mughals won't arrive for another 25 years. There's a reason the Portuguese were so amazingly successful, they arrived at a real weak point for the local Imperial competition, and faced off mostly against smallish successor statelets. The fact that it is such an unstable period means there's a [lot] of room to butterfly the situation in any direction you'd like really.

I also wonder who in the struggle between Homeline, Centrum, and the Cabal would have a motive to push against the Religious Scholars (the main opposition to the plan of reopening the canal) to get the Sultan to build the Canal?

Does it need to be any of those? How about a secularist government in Homeline Turkey or Egypt? Or a religious one trying to convince said scholars they are wrong.

[Astromancer]

Your idea of having a Homeline government, or a powerful part of one is a solid one. It severely hampers the PCs in interesting ways.

[PTTG]

John Adams, it just be said, was obnoxious and disliked. One can imagine that his great capacity for personal enemity could weaken support for the federalist sedition act. Allow it to be challenged in the supreme court and then dismissed with extreme prejudice, and for centuries to come you could end up with the first amendment being held as utterly inviolate.

Perhaps that produces a feedback loop of an already laid-back American culture becoming even more unconcerned with censorship. If nothing else,
A generation of silent films and talkies featuring swearing, the law defeated, and other licentious content would be a popular novelties...

[Astromancer]

In most parallels The Knights of the Golden Circle were a noxious flash in the pan. In this Q6 low mana parallel George W. L. Bickley had the luck of gaining a partner who supplied the organizational skills Bickley sorely lacked. Patrick Cabell Breckenridge, an uncle of John Cabell Breckenridge (a one time Vice president of the US, and a major figure in the Confederacy), made the Knights a functional organization. Thus the attempt to conquer Mexico in the late 1850s actually led to a war.

When Lincoln became president he asked Mexico if the USA could ally with them against the Knights. Largely because of the successful organization of the Knights, the Secession movement was a damp squib. The organizers were arrested and Lincoln was able to push through serious legislation to restrict the spread of Slavery. As Justice Tainey (author of the Dredd Scott decision) had joined the Knights, Lincoln's law was judged constitutional.

The situation in this parallel's America doesn't please certain outtimers. Centrum would prefer a weaker USA in order to preserve the British Empire. But they want a US military that's strong enough to aide Britain in time of need. This America doesn't fit that bill. Multiple Homeline groups want a quicker end to Slavery. Lincoln has set things up to strangle Slavery as an institution. With large numbers of prominent Southerners in Northern Mexico the political ability to resist Lincoln and his allies is much weakened. This reduces the need for violent struggle and the appetite for it as well.

Basically, spy versus spy in 1860s America.