New Reality Seeds

[Prince Charon]

Really hating the character limit.

Medicine is fairly advanced, not only because of alchemists producing healing potions (generally psi boosters that promote faster healing), but due to the development of an early microscope in Italy in the late 1550s (both Florence and Venice claim to have invented it first), and from there, the germ theory of disease (the germs are considered very small worms, or bugs). Distilled alcohol is used as both a painkiller (get the patient very drunk before surgery) and a germ killer (hands, surgical instruments, and the wound are washed with it before and after surgery). Some chirurgeons do still make a living as barbers, when not called on to cut into people.

Fluidic and other mechanical computers (mostly Analogue and Dedicated; Complexity 4 maximum, or 2 for computers that are not Dedicated) are fairly common, now, especially at universities, on ships or airships, and in the possession of artillerists, bankers, and so forth. As a result, some Cyberpsi abilities exist, but falling under Psychokinesis, rather than Ergokinesis; most or all of them should probably be renamed for setting flavor. Note that there is no Internet in this setting, although small numbers of (quite slow) local area networks may exist in universities and some cities. Automatons are mainly used as toys for the rich, though the useful devices from Fantasy Tech 1 have sometimes been made. Those that are fetishes (which in this context means a Spirit Communicator has talked a thoughtform into binding itself or another thoughtform to the item) tend to be rather more effective, as well as resisting Cyberpsi abilities with the spirit's Will.

King Henry IX (great-grandson of Edward VI and Jane Grey), rules England, Wales, and Ireland in his own right, and Scotland through his marriage to Queen Mary Stewart (an entirely different woman from either Mary Stewart/Stuart those familiar with Homeline history might be thinking of, the latter of whom was never born on this worldline). Through his mother, he claims the throne of France, but many of the French dispute this, most particularly his Huguenot cousin Philip, who also claims the throne of France as Philip VII (though his mother is the younger sister of Henry's mother), and their more distant (and Catholic) cousin Robert, from a cadet branch of the Valois descended from Francis I. War is expected to come soon, though even seers are uncertain how soon, and there is at least some hope for peace.

Pope Stephen X, a cousin of King Charles III of Spain (grandson of this worldline's Charles II, a more stable man than his Homeline counterpart) is attempting to drum up support for a Crusade to restore the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. This business over the French throne is a distraction he neither needs nor wants, but he has written to Henry, promising his support if the king at least converts to Catholicism, and preferably supports his Crusade; this is very unlikely to happen, and so the Pope is expected to travel to Aix-en-Provence next year, if not sooner, to crown Robert as King Robert III of France. The aforementioned Charles III has even less interest in the approaching war over the French throne ('a land of barbarians pretending to be Christian, even the French Catholics are hardly any better than the British,' in his opinion). He's far more keen on the idea of reclaiming the Holy Land, and seems very confident that it will work this time.

In the Germanies, Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian III is quite looking forward to a War of French Succession, as he likes a good war, and hopes it will nicely distract his subjects from their various grievances against him (imagine a sixtyish Brian Blessed playing Robert Baratheon, in German, loudly; quite charismatic in person, but fully capable of really aggravating people, and much better at handling war than peace). He fully intends to support whomever will pay the Empire the most, something even a lot of his Catholic subjects don't object to. He isn't adverse to the possible Crusade, either: he can work to extend his Hungarian territories south and east, and claim he's supporting the Crusade by making the Ottomans divide their forces.

In the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Ibrahim II very much hopes that the Christian powers will exhaust themselves warring over the throne of 'Frankistan,' because while he's pretty sure he'd be able to defeat another crusade, the cost in lives would be rather greater than he wishes to pay. This is also why he has not tried to push further into Southeastern Europe. His brother Mustafa is a more aggressive fellow, but has so far not managed to plan an accident for Ibrahim that he does not worry would be traced back to him - the Sultan's sons, being seven and three, are less of a concern (though honestly, Mustafa isn't sure he could have a child murdered).

This is a TL(4+1)^ world. A few individuals or groups may have Craft Secret perks for some TL(4+2)^ inventions. Psi drugs are the only type of psi-tech common on this Earth; psychically-enhanced bioengineering exists (hence, for example, the dragons), but is relatively rare. At the GM's option, some psi-boosters may be functionally identical to some of the elixirs in GURPS Magic pp213-219 (with some adaptation, e.g. Magic Resistance (p216) instead provides Psionic Resistance (not that the locals know the difference), and I recommend that Resurrection (p218) be either unavailable, or need to be applied within minutes of death, barring any use of suspended animation effects). Also, see the Old-Time Psi box on Psionic Campains p5 for help dealing with psi in lower tech levels, and the World-of-the-Mind that goes with them. Note that a large number of EK abilities are useless here, and thus do not exist. Those Cyberpsi abilities that do exist fall under PK rather than EK.

It is currently believed that Centrum has not yet discovered this parallel. The Cabal is known to operate on this worldline, however the mana level is mostly very low, with only a few areas of even low mana, which somewhat limits both their interest and ability, here.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by DocRailgun

Can we leave the Space Gods out altogether? The concept takes away from Earth"s Storm Knights.

I like the nondestructive Reality powers of the Reality Trees. But your game goes your way.

[Astromancer]

Further thoughts on TORG 1935.

Sir Winston has to become an Aylish Warrior Wizard. Anything else wouldn't be fair to the man.

De Gaulle needs to become a Cybernetic Holy Warrior. At first he'd fall for the Cyberpope, and then he'd wise up and get MAD!

Pius XI learned to late that Fascism was his immediate foe. In this world, the transformations hinted at for John Paul II, would occur to Pius.

Hitler would cut deals with both the Cyberpope and Doctor Mobious. Each would seek to betray the others.

Orrosh should land in India rather than Indonesia. Ghandi, Nerhu, and many others would become Orrosh style Swamis and Holy Warriors.

How would Hollywood exploit the Living Land.

[Prince Charon]

Should I create a thread for my Katalysator worldlines, or more than one thread? I've been thinking about it since I got inspired to write up some characters for them.

[robkelk]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Should I create a thread for my Katalysator worldlines, or more than one thread? I've been thinking about it since I got inspired to write up some characters for them.

Going by the precedent set by the "orichalcum universe" threads, I'd say more than one thread, with a common tag.

[Astromancer]

A lesser version of TORG world. Suppose the existence of special trees, we can call these Yggdrasils. These trees create an area of High-Mana five miles in radius for every ten feet of growth, and area of Normal Mana ten miles in radius of every ten feet of growth, and an area of Low Mana twenty miles in radius for every ten feet of growth. This is a whole ten feet, a nine foot tree gets you nill. If you have a forty-nine foot high Yggdrasil tree, you've got a twenty mile radius of High Mana, forty miles beyond that of Normal Mana, and eighty miles beyond that of Low Mana.

All this assumes a world of Low/No Mana with 90% of the Earth No Mana and the other areas with wildly shifting Mana. The Yggdrasils provide steady Mana.

Now toss in the Cold War and Nations desperate to have Mana in order to enjoy the benefits of Magi-Tech.

If we assume a TL7 were Magi-Tech functions as TL7+2^, then whoever wins the Yggdrasil planting race, wins all.

Is this tasty?

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

If we assume a TL7 were Magi-Tech functions as TL7+2^, then whoever wins the Yggdrasil planting race, wins all.

Biological warfare coming up... Seriously, if a slow-growing, initially rare tree gives such advantages, which can be taken away if the trees die, developing diseases targeted on such trees is the obvious tactic for any power that feels it may suffer a Magic Gap.

Yes, you take great care to contain these diseases within the experimental establishments. You also try to steal your opponents' diseases and develop resistance to them in your own strains of tree. But this has the potential to spiral into full-scale biowar.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Biological warfare coming up... Seriously, if a slow-growing, initially rare tree gives such advantages, which can be taken away if the trees die, developing diseases targeted on such trees is the obvious tactic for any power that feels it may suffer a Magic Gap.

Yes, you take great care to contain these diseases within the experimental establishments. You also try to steal your opponents' diseases and develop resistance to them in your own strains of tree. But this has the potential to spiral into full-scale biowar.

Certainly one way to play it. Kill your competitor's trees, nurture your own.

Try this idea. The Russians plant their trees in isolated areas far from population centers, in order to control access to magic. The West plants its trees near population centers in order to allow the maximum number of people to use the trees. The nonaligned world plants any trees it can get.

Thus it is harder to get to the Russian and Chinese trees, but they get far less use of them. The West gets by far more use from the Yggdrasils, but they are more vulnerable.

[Astromancer]

I've been enjoying Garments of court and Palace a brilliant but flawed book. Which leads to the notion of a rath of worlds based on Machiavelli.

Niccolo isn't the guy you think he is. He never said "The Ends Justifies the Means." A better translation would be, "Actions Must be Judged by their Outcomes." He valued ethics, but he valued things that turned out in an ethical fashion over the things that merely looked ethical at the time. Substance always beat form with Machiavelli.

Machiavelli's goal was to create a state in central Italy that could defend both Italy and the ideal of the Republic. His flaw was relying on a Prince to create the State he was after. But then, what else was available?

If Florence had given Machiavelli's troops some respect and rights, instead of Machiavelli's triumph at Pisa being cancelled by his loss at Prato, Florence under Soderini could have stayed a Republic with Machiavelli taking a Cromwell-like role in 1500's Italy.

Alterations in who gets elected Pope and when could also give Machiavelli a chance to form a powerful state in central Italy under Medici patronage.

Either way, Niccolo, with help from his pal Leonardo, would be a challenge for either Homeline or Centrum.

[fchase8]

A 'Machiavelli' timeline (that would almost certainly be its name) would be interesting front in the dimensional war between Infinity and Centrum. Machiavelli would seem to be an ideal leader to Centrum (though perhaps more the idea of Machiavelli than the actual man).


There probably wasn't a Machiavelli in Centrum history, right? It seems like he would have lived too long after the divergence (born 1469; White Ship divergence was 1120).

Though there was some sort of Kingdom of Italy in Centran history (indeed, I believe it helped save the Anglo-French Empire at one point). Perhaps there was a Machiavelli, or someone like him, in Centran history.