New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Deluge

For reasons not clearly understood sea level rose one hundred and fifty feet between 1650 and 1810 in this Q5 Low Mana parallel. The rise started faster. The Commonwealth organized shipping it's people to America. The Dutch made a deal with the Commonwealth and exported its population as well. In fact a higher percentage of the Dutch crossed than the English. In Germany, France, Spain or Italy, the people moved to the high ground.

It's now the year 1975. English and Dutch have blended into one language. Chicago has become the center of the American Commonwealths. Although both the treatment of Native Americans and African Americans was harsher in this world, differences in the political system have rewarded cooperation and assimilation very strongly.

The TL is five, more or less resembling the technology of the 1880s.

More later....

The Danes, partially because they had a monarchy, waited a few decades before making a similar deal with the Commonwealth to that of the Dutch. But as most of Denmark sank beneath the waves, they flooded over in droves as well. The Danish King moving to Norway.

Thus Lutheranism competes with various forms of Calvinism for dominance in the American Commonwealths.

After most of the British navy was in the Americas on a regular basis. France invaded Britain to restore the Monarchy. Charles II allowed all those that could not be reconciled to the Monarchy to leave for America. This lead to a depopulation of Britain and a considerable exodus from Ireland. Large numbers of Catholic Germans (mainly from Bavaria) settled in Britain where the dominant language is now German.

More later.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Deluge

For reasons not clearly understood sea level rose one hundred and fifty feet between 1650 and 1810 in this Q5 Low Mana parallel. The rise started faster. The Commonwealth organized shipping it's people to America. The Dutch made a deal with the Commonwealth and exported its population as well. In fact a higher percentage of the Dutch crossed than the English. In Germany, France, Spain or Italy, the people moved to the high ground.

More later....

Because the east coast of North America had far less flat land, Western expansion started earlier. Intermarriage between European settlers and Native Americans was always more common and respectable in this world. Between the Danish, Dutch and English settlement and the lack of monarchies in their lives society is highly egalitarian. But on the negative side, without the American Revolution the movement from a society based on Lockean property rights to a society based on Scots Enlightenment concepts of human rights ( pursuit of happiness) have been seriously slowed down.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the lack of a French Revolution has allowed a far more hierarchical society. And also one that is far more imperialist and colonialist. France, Germany, Spain, and Russia, all see the American Commonwealths as the richest and most desirable targets for colonization.

However, the American Commonwealths are well able to defend themselves. In order to take control of the American Commonwealths the European powers will need allies. In an egalitarian nation transferring from a society based on property rights to a society based on human rights, the rich often make good allies against their country folk.

Basically, European spies seeking traitors to help them take over America.

[Astromancer]

Nippon -4
The Nippon worlds are worlds were post Meiji restoration Japan is the major change point.

In this Q6 world the Japanese Navy decided their endless fight with the Japanese army wasn't worth getting into a war with Washington while they were still fighting China. In fact the Japanese diplomats came up with a simple plan to throw Germany under the bus.

In the early 1940s FDR was seeking an incident in the Atlantic to get into WWII. The Japanese simply convinced Hitler that the mysterious sinking of an American freighter with the loss of all hands (something Homeline now knows was done by a Japanese sub in European waters) was being blamed on Germany by the British and the British had first rate fake evidence no one would challenge. Hitler decided that the war with America, which he had long believed was coming, couldn't be held off anymore. And he declared war on America in November of 1941.

Meanwhile, Japan, preferring that all of America's attention be focused in Europe, took diplomatic steps to mollify America. And as soon as America and the Brits were totally absorbed in the European War, Japan refocused on China.

China, lacking active allies, was worse off than in Homeline's WWII. Japan, able to focus all their energy on China, was stronger. By 1944, China was conquered. Mao and Zhou Enlai both were killed in a disasterous battle. Chang Kai Shek fled to the West.

It's now the year 1955 in this low Mana parallel. Japan is allied with the USA against the USSR. New Chinese Communist groups are rising, largely supported by Homeline's China.

Centrum, seeing that colonialism is less disrupted by the war on this parallel, doesn't want a vast replay of the Vietnam war (which, without Chinese allies went well for the French) in this parallel's China. Centrum is backing Imperial Japan.

Meanwhile, both Homeline and the Cabal are trying to help this parallel's America head off a European war between Russia and an Anglo-French alliance. Germany doesn't know whether to side with the Americans or the Anglo-French.

Basically, a fairly wild espionage campaign in the right timeframe and social conditions for James Bond style action.

[TGLS]

Here are some more divergences:

Nippon-1: Shizuichi Tanaka joined the Kyūjō incident instead of berating the officers for invading the palace. The war continued for another two years, resulting in the division of Japan into multiple zones of occupation between the allied powers, the loss of confidence in atomic bombs as war winning weapons, and the deaths of several million Japanese people.

Nippon-2: During the March Incident, a communication failure rendered Kazushige Ugaki unable to contact his collaborators in the Sakurakai. The radical nationalists in the Sakurakai instead marched troops out of the barracks under no one's authority to deal with the supposed riots, which in turn led to a standoff and crushing of the coup. In the wake of this incident, Prime Minister Hamaguchi Osachi was given sufficient pretext to purge the armed forces of radical elements, protecting the Taisho democracy. The current year is 1944: the war in Europe is over. The Koumindang, unable to eliminate Communist guerillas, is slowly collapsing. The western powers (including Japan) jockey for influence with the Chinese warlords, while attempting to contain Soviet aid to the Communist guerillas.

Nippon-3: As opposed to being completely destroyed as in our timeline, the revolutionaries of the Chichibu incident were able to persuade the elements of the Tokyo police and Japanese army to defect and were able to withstand the counter-attack by the Japanese government. News of the insurgents success spread quickly around the country, prompting further outbreaks of revolution. Within two years, the Empire of Japan had been replaced by the Republic of Japan. The Japanese Republic soon became a hotbed of revolutionary thought, with exiled radicals of all stripes often finding asylum there. The current year is 1917: the Russian revolution is just beginning. WW1 is drawing to a close. In Asia, Japanese volunteers are busily aiding the rising Republic of China. European powers are beginning to resent Japan's status as refuge for anti-colonial agitators, and a war in Asia could be on the horizon.

[Astromancer]

Those are grand. And I envy your knowledge of Japanese history. I also like that you saved Japan's Taisho democracy in one of your worlds.

[Astromancer]

Madoc

This Q6 Low Mana parallel is often treated as a Myth parallel. Certainly having Prince Madoc successfully settle in the Americas is a low order of probability. What was going on among the native peoples of the northeast is unknown. However, the pigs that the Prince's people brought with them caused a brutal population collapse among the Native Americans, just as the introduction of pigs into North America did in Homeline history. Other European plants and animals, like apples, wheat, bees, cattle, and blackberries, all went wild. Each changing the world of the Native Americans permanently.

The Welsh community was able to sail back to Wales and Ireland and pick up loads of new settlers. Soon, English fishermen and merchants sailing out of Bristol (whom many scholars assume learned of America from the Norse) were regularly trading with the Welsh and Irish communities. This brought over most European domestic animals and plants, and copies of most European literary works. By the early 15th century, like the contemporary Greenland Norse, the Celtic Americans wore the latest European fashions.

The Celts, being more open to marriage alliances, soon intermarried with the Native Americans. European technology freely moved into the Native American cultural sphere. Eventually getting to Mesoamerica.

Now the Aztecs have horses, pigs, wheat, saddles, stirrups, metal working, and paper. They rode north to conquer the Mississippian peoples.

The Celtic Americans can't allow such horror to befall their noble and well respected allies.

It's the year 1442, the Aztecs are faced off against an alliance of Welsh, Irish, Iroquois, and Cherokee knights. The chivalry of America will stand against these monster heathens and their human sacrifices!

Basically, Chivalric romance and glory in the valley of the Mississippi!

[Astromancer]

Antillia

This Q6 Low Mana 70%/Normal Mana 29% world seems to be a myth parallel with a variation of the legend of Antillia, a mythical island in the Atlantic. In most Homeline versions Antillia is an island about the size of Ireland settled by Spanish Christians fleeing the Moorish conquest. However in this parallel Antillia located in the area of Homeline's Azores and is about the size of Ireland and Great Britain together and was settled by the Greeks in the 7th century BCE. Later conquered by Rome, but after the time of Justinian left in isolation.

It seems that mulberries, silkworms, and paper all got to Antillia in late antiquity. There must have been limited contact between the Arabs and the Antillians as all aspects of the Arab Agricultural Revolution are present in Antillia. But Antillia seems to have been totally isolated from then until recently.

The cause of the rediscovery of Antillia is Prince Henry the Navigator's program of sailing around Africa.

At first the discovery of Antillia was seen as nice enough. Someone new to trade with. The church hoped to convert the pagans (Christianity and Judaism being minority faiths in this land). But the real jolt came when the Europeans discovered how much classical literature and science was preserved in Antillia. This led to cultural exchange and a lively interest in Antillia by the whole of Europe.

Soon, English merchants out of Bristol, Irish and Breton fishermen, and Hansa ships as well, all came calling to Antillia. Soon Antillia's technology included TL4 ships and the printing press. And works like Archimedes work detailing a proto calculus, were printed throughout Europe. Then rare rumored works like those of Porphyry of Tyre and Democritus were being printed and shocking the world.

At the same time, attempts at religious conversion of the Antillians weren't going well. Communities of Christians, Jews, Manicheans, and Muslims, were all part of Antillia. Altogether these formed about a twentieth of the population with almost all of them living in port cities. The local pagans weren't interested in conversion and the local Christian groups weren't interested in joining the Catholic Church. This was leading the Papal Court toward proposing a Crusade.

However, attacking a nation that's that hard to get to and has its own navy isn't easy. And few kings trusted their neighbors not to take advantage of the absence of a rival's army and navy. So little happened. However, once Columbus brought back the news of a new world to explore and plunder things began to change.

Basically, it's a wilder more Clockpunk and Urban Legend take on Swashbucklers. More players, strange tech, maybe some Path/Book magic. Assume a Tech Level of TL4+1 (with a little TL4+2 tossed in for thrills). Drunken pirate Captains with Ridiculous Luck optional but fun.



More later....

[PTTG]

Toroid is a very, very strange planet. Earth is a toroid shape, with the familiar continents from the west coast of North America to the east coast of Asia covering only about a third of the outer edge of the torus. The entire interior and outer two thirds are unknown lands, blocked to the north and south by impassable polar regions and to the east and west by vast Pacific and Taiheiyō oceans. Strangely, the curve of the planet seems very normal until you reach the long, linear poles, where map geography is heavily distorted. It is believed by some that the planet is in fact some form of 4-torus, and thus from our perspective it may have normal nights and days in the inner regions...

It is populated only very sparsely with some iron-age civilizations. But there are satellites in orbit and traces of radioactive fallout in the air. What's going on over the edge?

Sink is just like earth, but it is a frequent destination for banestorms. Averaging one or two hundred people per year, globally, it doesn't seem like much. But it is enough to ensure that regions have their own form of inertia.

Some regions, such as China and Egypt, are placidly accepting of some kind of eternal dynasty. Others, such as Europe and Japan, have many familiar names in strange combinations. And the Americas are a hefty mish-mash. The majority of incoming storm-ites are from TL1-5 near parallels (1700 BCE to 1700 CE, though the peak is more like 300 CE). A few TL7s brought rumors or, by this point, myths of electronics and nuclear power, but there isn't enough industrial base to support past TL4. TL8s are uncommon and, frankly, generally unprepared to survive in a TL4 society, so it's unsurprising that they aren't in evidence.

Any major and old city is likely to have a counterpart by the same name here, but few nations do. A few significant exceptions below:

China here is ruled by the Dèng dynasty; the head of the dynasty, however, has adopted the title of "Chairman" as part of a series of reforms that have been ongoing for the past fifty years. Chairman Dèng occupies a magnificent palace in Bejing and sees the Silk Road as the key to unifying his China.

Egypt, likewise, simply has so many centuries of dynasties to pull from that people tend to expect it. In fact, upper and lower Egypt are presently at war over dynastic succession. Lower Egypt is Islamic, while Upper Egypt is vigorously Pharonic.

This brings us to Europe. Any city of note built before 1600 has a replica here, but no buildings are the same and only a few states are the same. Britannia is... Britannia. Too isolated and wet to invade effectively, and with an exceptionally strong self-image, banestormed Britons (despite their internal conflicts) generally fit in relatively well; if they happen to have stories about "the world wars," they may never need to pay for drinks in their life.

No, there's no celtic/american mystical phenomenon going on here. There's quite enough of that in other worldlines, thank you. (Meant in friendly jest)

More notable is the strange agglomeration that is the Holy Roman Empire... focused mainly along the Mediterranean coast and featuring the Hellenist gods rebranded as saints. They are not presently in a holy war against the Frankish/French Catholics, but it's a recent ceasefire as they both prepare to deal with Umayyad Hispania. Again. After about three thousand years of fighting, it's not expected to end anytime soon.

Northern and Eastern Europe are broken up into many smaller kingdoms, most of them not actually resembling any historical state.

North America's only nation in common with Homeline is Mexico, which is a new state built out of the reconquest of a variant Aztec Empire. The United States does not exist, but New York, Boston, and a number of other east-coast colonist cities have appeared. They have a distinctly colonial flair. Los Angeles is the only west-coast city to be transferred, and it is quite small but one of the highest-TL regions in the world, as anyone who is familiar with the city is from TL6 at least. At the moment it is mostly theoretical, and they mainly work to record knowledge.

The rest of North America is made up of a richly populated and highly technologically skilled spectrum of tribal compacts, small kingdoms, and ceremony groups, almost all of whom have gunpowder, horses, and steelmaking, and are acclimatized to European diseases. New Banestormites who appear on the continent are greeted in one of three ways; some are adopted, given simple inoculations and teaching; some are guided to New York or Detroit and asked politely and firmly to stay there; and some are shot to bits and left for the buzzards.

In short, the world looks a bit like you took a very faint transparency of a global political map from every century and stacked them one atop the other. No history gets lost... and if a nation didn't stand the test of time, the population generally knows it, more or less.

When I am not more than an hour past my bedtime, I will do better research and revisit this. I'm enjoying this idea even though I'm quite sure I have made grave mistakes.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Merlin-F: Take the Fallout universe, then say the nuclear exchanges of the Great War opened Hellstorms and turned the place into a post-apocalyptic Technomancer. Players won't know if that fire-breathing giant lizard is a dragon or a deathclaw with biological napalm.

[Apollonian]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

Merlin-F: Take the Fallout universe, then say the nuclear exchanges of the Great War opened Hellstorms and turned the place into a post-apocalyptic Technomancer. Players won't know if that fire-breathing giant lizard is a dragon or a deathclaw with biological napalm.

Or, indeed, if there's a difference!

I like that one. Makes for some good cross-time scenery.