New Reality Seeds

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

In the early 19th century, when many details of the interior of North America weren't well known in Western Europe or the United States, both US explorers and British ones looked for the "Mississippi of the West." The great river that would open the interior of Western North America up the way the Mississippi opened up the center of North America. In folklore this mythical river was called the "San Bonna Ventura."

Of course there is a river that sort of actually does this - the Colorado. It's just a lot less navigable than the Mississippi. Changing that maybe isn't impossible. You could get more water into it without twisting the geology too severely if you can divert the Snake river (draining Lake Yellowstone) into the Green river in Wyoming, which doesn't look like an impossible ridge to cut across, especially if you can slap some sort of obstacle upstream of Idaho Falls - and this is not too far south for fairly major glacial reworking rather recently after all. Not a lot more water, but maybe enough to justify some broader valleys and higher flows. Unfortunately the basin is otherwise pretty hard to push anything else into it. On a map it looks like you could get from some of the lakes in west Utah to the upper edges of the Colorado drainage basin, but it's deceptive, it's about 3000 feet uphill.

[Astromancer]

If Lenin were to die just before he could return to Russia in 1917, the Russian Civil Wars would still occur, but Russia breaking up into multiple minor states would be the most likely outcome. The fascist parties of Europe, all of whom were founded in direct opposition to Boshevism, would have been a harder sale. WWII would likely have occurred later. A war between Japan and either China or a Sino-American alliance would have been likely. Although a weak post Russian Imperial state in East Asia could also have been a target.

[Astromancer]

Gustavus-5

Gustavus Adolphus is a very underrated historical figure in Anglophone nations but five worlds get the Gustavus designation because his life and actions were a major change point.

Gustavus-5 is a low mana Q6 parallel were Gustavus Adolphus survives the Battle of Lutzen. Wallenstein is caught soon after and Austria has to sue for peace.

The present day is March of 1633. Centrum is trying to eliminate Gustavus Adolphus. They look at an early and decisive Protestant victory as a threat to universal imperial forces. Also an early victory to end the war might mean a less authoritarian Germany. Centrum wants to end Gustavus Adolphus. Meanwhile, the Cabal wants to promote its agenda. Their problem is they haven't figured out what benefits them. This makes them a wildcard. Meanwhile, Homeline doesn't want either Centrum or the Cabal making 16th century grimmer and nastier.

[Ramidel]

The Cabal has an agenda, you say? Not a half-dozen alternate lodges with mutually-contradictory goals and schemes to settle old scores without opening each other up to new vengeance? :)

Hmm. So Centrum is going for a strengthened HRE and-or "no Westphalian system" as their vehicle to dominate this timeline? They've decided that England is not yet strong enough to be worth working with? That's interesting.

Personally, as a Centran colonial coordinator, I'm not sure that that's how I'd do it - the HRE is too much of a mess to work with if you're trying to get a stable government (see...well, the Thirty Years' War). If Centrum wants to work with Germany, they'd want a Prussian Kaiser (military technocracy? Yes please - even if the nationalism is a pain in the patootie) and right now, Brandenburg-Prussia is still one of many German princes and doesn't even have a standing army yet. If anything, Centrum's best move would be to back a Swedish Empire - Gustavus Adolphus is just introducing centralized government to Sweden, which Centran advisors could help shape into a Prussian-esque technocracy. Consider the potential of a stronger, earlier Swedish Empire dominating the Little Germanies and possibly getting Poland early, upsetting the European balance of power. Also, a Protestant victory would obviously weaken the Catholic Church, which Centrum is all for.

[Astromancer]

Peter the Great was the single most transformative ruler Russia ever had. Catherine the Great got more done, Stalin had more raw power, Ivan the Terrible got the ball rolling, but Peter changed Russia the most. But if Peter had died as a child (several people wanted to kill him as they preferred that his developmentally challenged half-brother should rule, as he could be controlled) then Russia follows a path like Iran or the Ottoman State.

This scenario probably always leads to a larger and much longer lived Swedish empire. Picture 18th century Swedish naval captains fighting the Cossack Pirates of the Volga! Naval wars between Sweden and Iran in the Caspian Sea.

[Astromancer]

One of the easier periods for out timers interfering in a Parallel's history in the early period of Printing. A substantial number of classical texts got printed with no surviving copies prior to the text first being printed. Some such texts are now known to be forgeries, but others have been proven legitimate by textual evidence.

If an out timer posed as a skilled recoverer of ancient texts, they could start by offering legitimate (just smuggled in from another parallel) texts. Euripides wrote more than ninety plays. We only have nine of these until chance discoveries in the 20th century brought nine more to light. Gather those nine plus what could be found by trips to parallels in Hellenistic times. The Italian printers would be over the moon. Then you could easily bring in either real classical works that would aid your chosen agenda, or simply make more.

The actual fakes will be exposed. But by then they would probably have had the desired effect.

[Astromancer]

There are multiple cultural reasons why China's last dynasty couldn't copy the Japanese. In fact just about everything that promoted Japan's success could be used to point to a reason China's Qing dynasty failed. But try this idea. Allow an outbreak of plague in the Forbidden City to eliminate several contenders for the throne and give China a clever visionary Emperor who gets just how dangerous Western technology is to Chinese independence. The next bit gets a bit Alien Fruit Bats, but allow this Emperor to be skilled at pushing through his agendas in spite of the Confucianan Bureaucracy.

I'm not looking at much, just having China make some useful progress in the 19th century. Picture a Calcutta to Beijing Railroad by 1920. And substantial progress in literacy among the masses.

A China that actually attempted an achieved some degree of modernization and industrialization in the 19th century would have had a far less brutal 20th century. Japan, looking for opportunities might look elsewhere.

But try the idea of a Qing dynasty looking for military glory to shore up their rule of China suggesting to Japan that Revolutionary Russia might be a tempting target. In our history, Japan got its ears pinned back when they tried invading Russia in the 1920s. However, a Sino-Japanese alliance could focus far more resources on the attack because the wouldn't need to defend against the closer foe.

The Sino-Japanese alliance versus Revolutionary Russia in the 1919-1925 period would make a fascinating alternative Asia. Add Pulp style weirdness from Mad Scientists to Mysterious Tibetan monks and you got a gorgeous weird war going.

[Astromancer]

Stevenson-2

Stevenson-2 is one of a small number of parallels were Eisenhower doesn't run in 1952 or doesn't win. Adlai Stevenson is president of the USA. In Stevenson-2, Eisenhower had a fatal heart attack in September of 1952.

In most ways it's a fairly normal parallel with only minor divergences from Homeline history. However this Q5 parallel is undergoing a change. In the parallel's 1953 the worldwide mana was Low with areas of no mana. But now there are areas of normal mana, and large ones in 1957. These areas are mainly places with a long term reputation for being magical. Egypt, Persia, Ireland, Haiti are all prime examples. Smaller areas of normal mana are around places with a local reputation for mystical qualities. Places like haunted houses, healing springs, wishing wells, and the like.

Homeline has no idea why this is happening but the Cabal has clearly found out and is out in force.

Basically, this is an infiltration mission set in the late 1950s. Maybe in America, maybe Australia or Britain. It's set wherever your players associate with 1950s normalcy. As paranormal investigators from the future you're PCs are basically the Addamses and the Musters infiltrating normal society in the time where they stick out.