New Reality Seeds

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by fchase8

But Infinite Worlds mentioned the U.N.'s attempt to do just that, I think the colony world's name was Sanctuary, and it hasn't worked well. There's not enough money/experience to settle the empty worlds, the minorities don't necessarily want to be moved, etc.
...

Exactly. The PLO wouldn't want a new homeland for the Palestinians - the PLO would want a new homeland for the Israelis. It's the Israelis who'd want a new homeland for the Palestinians. But how does one side get the other to move?

Sanctuary is a pretty idea, but it doesn't hold up upon meeting political realities.

[cptbutton]

Originally Posted by scc

What would Infinity and Centrum do if they discovered Hell's Gate/Multiverse by David Weber, Linda Evans, and Joelle Presby? Two cross-time civilizations that are a war with one another, entire strings of worlds where the Secret is broken permanently.

In the "Drakas!" anthology, John Barnes did a crossover with his "Timeline Wars" series.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by TGLS

Gateway-5 Q2: In 1983, a late TL9 high energy physics experiment at Cambridge created two gates about 3 feet apart. This led to an unfortunate incident during a bowling ball pendulum demonstration at a lecture later that day. Local year is 1986; the balance of power is fracturing as the United Kingdom of Great Britain and the Netherlands has announced the ability to create gateways between any two points in the world, rendering the missile shields of the Mexican Confederacy, Qing China, and Syndicated Poland moot. Infinity discovered the worldline using the Alea (IW30); some elements in Infinity are inclined to start a nuclear war before any of the Gate research programs accidentally (or possibly deliberately) create a gate to another worldline.

Lovely, just lovely.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by robkelk

We're not Homeline.

The GM needs to know: Why isn't Centrum working that way?

Okay, the Cabal is fascinated by the alien ruins on Mars AKA: The Red Territories. Not only is the Doctor Who knockoff interested in what might be ancient alien techno-magic, but Cagliostro is fascinated by the synthetic gems with mystic powers, and John Dee has some agent named "Q" (who has a weird pal who says his last name first and then repeats his whole name for dramatic effect) are interested in The Red Territories too.

The Cabal got Homeline USA to discover this parallel first, they can be tricky, and have worked behind the scenes to aid the Homeline Americans to protect the local America from Centrum infiltration. Centrum and the Homeline Americans keep each other busy and the Cabal has a free hand.

[Astromancer]

A few notes on recent history of Gateway-1.

The CIA in the 1960's saw the Gateway as a major focus requiring lots of attention. After some serious internal debate the CIA decided that Vietnam was simply not important enough for America to waste time on. Both Kennedy and Johnson fully agreed (on Homeline Kennedy was dead against involvement in Vietnam and Johnson was hard to persuade). Without the Vietnam War the USA remained focused on Space and Civil Rights.

Because Johnson got another term in 1968 Unions got more time to adapt to America's political changes. The Left didn't ditch Unions in 1969 and the generation gap lessened in America as it widened in Europe.

Humphrey was elected in 1972 and was a highly successful one term President who left because of ill health. Reagan beat out Humphrey's lackluster successor for the Presidency in 1976. The Oil Shocks came late and Reagan got the blame for what was beyond his control and was treated (unfairly) as a laughing stock by 1980.

Mondale with Ferraro for Veep won in 1980. At the same time Europe went to the right. Centrum seems to have gotten to this parallel at this time and started using the rightwing turn to take over Europe. The Cabal seems to have shown up in the 1950 or maybe sooner.

The Red Territories are a major theme in popular culture on Gateway-1. The same basic themes as the American Western get played out in fiction, films, and TV shows about The Red Territories.

[Astromancer]

The major cities of Mars are Burroughs, which is near the Gate (Helium narrowly lost the vote). Bradbury, near Cydonia (where else?) And, on the far side of the planet, Brackett. Many small towns are named for Sci Fi authors and their creations, official names tend to be either classical or give the nod to astronomers.

On this Mars the "Face" is actually a vast carved face. The ruins of the ancients are rare, but they are out there. The Ancients are assumed to be from another star system.

Food production on Mars is in greenhouses. In the last few years Mars has gotten very good with growing high quality crops. Homeline is seriously researching Gateway-3's indoor agriculture.

[PTTG]

Gateway-7? (One of them, anyway)

At some point in the past, 37 stone archways were scattered around Long Island by unknown beings, each one to an empty world similar to earth, but utterly different in terrain.

Though many were buried or sunk to the seafloor by chance, some 8 were discovered by the natives before the arrival of westerners, and their worlds settled by a variety of New World polities.

The gateways were discovered by the west in the early 1500s, following translated local legends of a powerful place, although comprehension was slow. Some wiser groups responded to the slaving invaders by sealing their gates in caves or using immense effort to float them deep out to sea and sink them.

However, westerners did eventually understand the significance of the portals, and even managed to discover one of the empty worlds' portals overgrown in the jungle, in 1552. These worlds became the "overflow" destination not only for England's unwanted "surplus population," but also for troubling minorities of all of Europe....

[PTTG]

Midgard-1:

The solar system is passing through a thick nebula here, resulting in a small but significant decrease in isolation; the terrain is not earthlike, and humans are not apparently naturally present. This otherwise normal worldline, however, is apparently the site of strange crosstime manipulation or natural warps banestorms.

Around 900 AD (Homeline Time), a small wave of Norse travelers and colonists thought lost actually arrived in Midgard-1, and settled around the equator in the single, broad temperate band. Unfortunately for them, they were not the only inhabitants of Midgard.

Sometimes considered trolls or giants, the older inhabitants are mostly human-like, but they do not speak, nor are they greatly affected by cold, and they have stronger bones and greater strength pound-for-pound than any man. Outtimers would recognize them as neanderthals.

For centuries, the two groups of refugees lived in peace, for the most part, segregated by the permafrost. However, there are now two great changes underway. One, earth is plunging deeper into the nebula, further chilling the climate and driving even the hardy trolls out of the increasingly hostile poles and into formerly warm lands (which causes some Jarls to suspect the Trolls of bringing the cold with them as they grow bolder).

The second: The Norse settlers had been growing faster than the Trolls for as long as they'd been here, but only in the past few decades have they built great cities (the population of some 20,000, taken over a 5-year period and the entire area of scandinavia, reached about 200,000 only a few years ago -- "Great Cities" is subjective). These great cities demand productive farms, and the growing cold brings the specter of famine once again.

[Prince Charon]

Katalysator-1 (Q5, current year 1977) diverged on March 27th, 1945, when a group of scientists in Berlin accidentally discovered a form of psionic catalyst drug (which gave this and similar worldlines its Infinity designation, from the German word for 'catalyst'). Realizing what they had, they attempted to produce large amounts of it in a hurry (having a negative effect on quality), and give it to as many of those they believed were loyal to the Third Reich (or strongly opposed to the Soviets) as they could. It didn't take them very long to realize that doses large enough to produce truly impressive powers also left the victims quite mad, often leaving them useless, or even a threat to their own side (especially if given lower-quality drugs). By the time the scientists and their SS supervisor knew of the problem, a few of the test subjects had either defected to the Allies (including one nurse who brought the formula for the drug, along with a small case of samples, to Field Marshal Montgomery), or had made a mess, intentionally or otherwise, of Berlin's defences... and defenders, in some cases. Berlin was captured by the Soviet Union on May 8, 1945 (about a week later than on Homeline), with some of the new psychics inflicting significant casualties on the Red Army, abough 27% more than in Homeline's history; near the end of the battle, even some Allied prisoners were given the drug, so long as the telepaths read them as strongly anti-communist. Hitler appears to have committed suicide on May 5; the doctors were unable to save the Fuehrer's life, though rumours abound that with the help of one or more of the new psychics, they saved Hitler's brain.

Of the scientists who knew how to make the drug, one was captured by the Soviets, two were killed (or had committed suicide), one had been transferred to an unknown location before the battle, and the last had injected himself with a fairly large dose of the catalyst on May 6, and vanished immediately upon waking up.

Following the war, the British traded the formula for America's data on the atomic bomb, and a serious reduction in Britain's war debt - they had sufficient 'relatively stable' telepths and probability alterers that they could have just taken the information, but in the face of the Soviet threat (and learning from their espers and other intelligence assets that Russia probably had at least one of the scientists who developed the drug), Churchill wished to maintain good relations with the US. Even this could not allow the British to keep India in the Empire, although it did delay their leaving until 1950, and result in a less united subcontinent, with the Princely States retaining independence with British backing, and in several cases, being strong supporters of the new Imperial Commonwealth.

In Europe in 1950, Heligoland gained a status similar to the Channel Islands, while the British Occupation Zone was leaning closer to Britain. In 1954, Elizabeth II was crowned Queen of the Dominion of Hannover. French opinion on this was somewhat ambiguous: on the one hand, keeping Germany divided was very much in their national interest; on the other, potentially being surrounded by Perfidious Albion was very much not. The Americans and Soviets were even less pleased, but Eisenhower was not inclined to go against the will of the German people in that area, and Beria did not bring sufficient pressure to bear to prevent it (it is debatable whether he even could have, as he was struggling to stay in power, and thus alive, since Stalin's assassination in 1952; the complete failure of the communist revolution in France in 1955, and the reactionary government that rose in response, sealed his fate: he was assassinated on October 25th of that year). 1955 was also the year that the formula for the catalyst drug ceased to be Top Secret - not because the various governments did not want it to be, but because too many people that they did not control knew it, including some in the employ of organized crime.

On June 17, 1949, a gestalt of British teleporters successfully sent a rotating TV camera, battery, and a powerful radio transmitter from Whitehall in London to Mons Bradley, on the Moon (previous, secret tests had used film cameras, or transmitted on rarely-monitored frequencies). They retrieved the lot after about an hour. Less than a week later, the same group sent a scientist in a prototype counterpressure spacesuit, having previously sent (in many stages) the various parts and supplies for a prefabricated moon-base, designated Royal Moon Station Bradley; he was safely retrieved two and a quarter hours later, having begun the assembly of the base, and collected several moon-rock samples. The Soviets claimed to have had a man on the Moon prior to this, but could not offer adequate proof; the earliest confirmed presence of a Russian on the Moon is in June or July, 1950 (the approximate date of death of an unidentified body in a spacesuit bearing the Soviet flag, found in Firmicus crater in 1953), and the earliest Soviet known to have visited the Moon and returned alive was Georgy Beregovoy in August, 1950. The US, having fewer reliable teleporters at the time, but better psi-tech, especially in the area of psychokinesis, demonstrated a flying saucer (Convair X-5) on July 4, 1949, which made three orbits of the Earth, transmitting voice and images from on-board (the vehicle had to be manned, as it could only amplify existing psychokinetic forces), as well as filming several reels in technicolor, and performing a few experiments. A larger and more advanced saucer (Selene 1) took five Americans to the Moon, landing in Mare Serenitas on September 7, 1950, with US Army Space Corps Captain Donald K. Slayton being the first American to walk on the Moon.

The Soviet Cosmic Fleet was discovered by the CIA to have built a monkey-copy of the Selene saucers in 1951 (prompting some very serious invetigative work by US counter-intelligence services), but did not officially disclose their use of saucers until 1958, when they showed off the long-range Venera 1 saucer in October. The vehicle, commanded by Vladymir Komaraov, left for Venus on November 2, and arrived on May 7, 1959 (the distance was and is too far for reliable teleportation, even at closest approach), making contace with the primitive (late TL0^-early TL1^) natives on May 15. The new United States Space Forces (amalgamated from the USASC and USNSS) managed to land the saucer Aphrodite 1, commanded by Major John Glenn, on Venus in August of that year, also meeting the natives, but prior to that, President Eisenhower ordered the USSF to have a man on Mars 'before anyone else.' They succeeded in this in March of 1966, with Lt. Col. 'Gus' Grissom taking the first steps on Mars while all of Earth watched. The Martian natives sought them out, and proved to have highly eccentric technology, being mostly TL3^, but with a few items and some knowledge from much higher TLs, evidence of a fallen civilization.

In 1953, a Jump Beacon was installed in Serenity Base, finally allowing the US to teleport to the Moon (similar beacons are in place at US Army Space Corps and US Navy Space Service bases on Earth); these beacons would be replaced with sets of Psychotronic Teleportals in 1960. Mass producible psi amplifiers appear to have been an American monopoly until 1957, when the Soviets began making them, and spies from both the UK and China stole the plans, and photographed the factories. Psychotronic Generators appear to have been among the first psychotronic devices invented, but it was not until 1958 that generators that did not need to be frequently or constantly 'primed' with lesser amounts of the same power (or even the same ability) were developed - though they do still require the user to have a psi ability of some type, even if just a perk. By 1959, it had been confirmed that the children of active psis consistently gain powers of their own around puberty, though it was already known that just being around psis for long periods could potentially lead to abilities deveopling. In 1968, archaeologists at Cydonia Planitia on Mars found a treasure trove of ancient Martian technologies; while very little is currently understood about them as yet, some items that are still operational have made it onto the black market, giving people in this worldline access to various poorly understood examples of TL11^ self-repairing technology.

By the time Infinity found this TL(7+1)^ world, during the local year 1971, they had developed top-notch mental health services, excellent trauma medicine, and sophisticated psi tech, including a range of psi drugs. Most major nations have moon bases and orbital stations, and each of the six Great Powers (Brazilian Empire, British Imperial Commonwealth, Republic of China, Third French Empire, USA, and USSR) have landed people on Venus and Mars. Their understanding of mundane rocketry lags well behind Homeline in the same period, being closer to 1957 than 1977, due to the availability of teleporters and psychokinetics. Computer science also lags behind Homeline's 1970s, though not as far, being roughly around 1967's technology, apart from a few bizarre one-offs that appear to be psionically assisted.

The Cabal does not appear to have any interest in (or perhaps awareness of) this no mana world.

[Prince Charon]

I hate the character limit.

(Unknown to Infinity, most intelligence services are aware that they've been visited by agents seemingly arriving from the future, or possibly from alternate worlds - the latter is believed to be less likely - and their respective governments have had high-level meetings about it. Worse from Infinity's PoV, some Gadgeteers in this worldline have been trying to reverse-engineer the conveyors from what little their Espers have been able to determine about them, and are making progress.)


I've got three other Katalysator worldlines as works in progress, and a fifth that the Cabal has been studying, but Infinity has yet to discover (and I'll try to keep them at one post, each; they're smaller than this was, at least). I also have a more detailed write-up on the variant catalyst drug these worldlines are named for, but to summarize it: the bigger the dose, the more power you tend to have on average (and the more likely you are to die of an overdose), but for every ten points of psi abilities or skills you get from the experience, you get an average of -1 points of mental or psionic disadvantages. A minor problem if you only have 25-50 points of power, but if you're empowered on the scale of a four-colour super, you tend to be very nuts.



Looking at Midgard-1, that looks like a place for various disaster relief or even interworld transport groups.