New Reality Seeds

[PTTG]

In the mid 130s BCE, the Roman senate decides against attempting assassination of Tiberius Gracchus, instead planning to continue styming him. This, however, cannot continue without overthrowing the office altogether.

As Tiberius' policies are popular with the soldiery and the populous, the following months wear dramatically on the stability of the Senate. When they finally attempt to put their delayed plan into action, it fails spectacularly; several senators, attempting to attack Tiberius when they believed him alone, were instead captured and slain by loyal Graccites.

Then followed a brief civil war. The final upshot was dramatically increased plebeian control and a significant increase in citizenship beyond that scale. The Roman Republic became something it would once have considered horrifying: The Roman Democracy.

Gaius Gracchus would serve as the first High Tribune (his elder brother having been slain during the war). He was a skilled leader and deft diplomat, and helped wed the army to the power of the Tribune and to the newly-reestablished Senate (now also a popular organization). Every time the patricians tried to reclaim power, the military (its upper ranks quietly purged and replaced with more amenable officers) would push it back.

After serving as High Tribune for 16 years, Gaius Gracchus is stepping down, and a new kind of campaign is gripping the population. Who will they elect? And what baroque games will it take to win the office now?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by PTTG

After serving off as High Tribune for 16 years, Gaius Gracchus is stepping down, and a new kind of campaign is gripping the population. Who will they elect? And what baroque games will it take to win the office now?

Will it be someone the junta of military officers strong enough to repeatedly put down the patricianate will allow to hold office for more than a week? Has the tradition of rulers selected by the legions and/or Praetorian Guard started early? Ave Imperator Sextus Julius Caesar.... (historically praetor urbanus about this time, so actually a pretty reasonable candidate)

[PTTG]

That's definitely the most likely outcome. It would take a special team of highly driven individuals to avoid the slide into despotism... but to do so is not impossible.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

What about an timeline where chemurgy pulls through and delivers an alternate present where we use bioplastics instead of steel whenever possible, and many vehicles run on biofuels rather than fossil?

Would that lead to anything interesting?

[Astromancer]

Try this one...

I've done several different non-Atomic WWIIIs, but here's a distinctive one. In 1947 Iran had been occupied by Britain, Russia, and America, for several years. The reasons for the occupation were simple. First Reza Shah Pahlavi was sympathetic to Nazi ideas and goals. Although the Iranian people have always called their nation Iran among themselves in their own language, they understood that the West calling their nation Persia was what we call today "good branding." They understood the associations of the name Persia with Poetry, Luxury, High Culture, Ancient Wisdom, and Fine Art, the Iranians are nothing if not sophisticated. Reza Shah changed the name his country was known by in the West to Iran because it's basically the same word as "Aryan." And Reza Shah embraced those ideals. The Second reason was to protect both British and Russian sources of oil.

The allies replaced Reza Shah with Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (he refused to change the name of his nation back to Persia for the same reason that the Ayatollah Khomeini kept the name Iran, they both admired Nazi ideals. Khomeini was in fact a fan of Heidegger because of Heidegger's racism, sexism, and anti-democratic values).

More Later....

[PTTG]

Tentatively termed Null-Zandt lines, this a small collection of otherwise contemporary worldlines very close to Homeline in date but lacking in Van Zandt's presence. However, they have a number of very low-probability commonalities that Homeline is investigating as a sign of crosstime tampering. Notably, a major treaty organization is in the process of breaking apart for no apparent reason, and advanced artificial intelligence is developing far faster than is expected.

Null-Zandt-2 is one of a few that saw a different outcome in the 2016 election. One of the major parties ultimately selected a different candidate. The debates were fiery, and ultimately it made all the difference -- the right-wing candidate lost the 2016 election, which is out of character for Van-Zandt lines. The following years saw a great deal of right-wing agitation and lengthy litigation, further driving public opinion away from the right.

In Null-Zandt-3, an unpopular US president suffered a stroke in 2017. It's unclear how severe it was, but compared to other Null-Zandt lines, the individual in question was very rarely seen in public thereafter and had a greatly reduced public presence in general. In the pandemic of 2020, the administration worked closely with the rest of the continent and, in the next year, performed extensive vaccine outreach, largely blunting the pandemic in North America. Over the following years, the republic drifted along fairly stably and the POTUS was re-elected by a narrow but clear majority of the popular vote.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

In Null-Zandt 5, a lack of an Elian Gonzalez issue may have allowed Al Gore to edge out Bush Jr. in the 2000 election via Cuban immigrant votes in south Florida. This appears to change little on its own, other than a greater emphasis on climate change agenda, but evidence implies the lack of a terrorist attack in the following year (and resulting change in airline security) may have crosstime meddling.

[fchase8]

I've always these worlds the designation, "Non-Parachronic Close Parallels," whether or not Van Zandt existed, as long as he didn't invent parachronics.

I would figure that Infinity would keep a tight hold on them, given all the chances for crosstime kidnapping, technology transfer (they have the tech to handle The Secret), and general 'what if' seeing of what one's life (or parent's life) would have been like otherwise. Access to them would be tightly controlled, as probably even the Security Council wouldn't want to open up those cans of worms.


Note that such worlds would include Reality Abzu, a.k.a. GURPS Horror: Madness Dossier, with its plentiful ancient tablets and catchy jingles. And other GURPS worlds with secrets, like GURPS Conspiracy X & GURPS World of Darkness (both of which I'd done world write-ups for earlier in this thread).

A good question for those would be how much does Infinity know about the secret world beneath the seemingly normal veneer? It apparently doesn't know anything about Abzu's secret war for reality in the Madness Dossier write-up, but perhaps knows that something is up in a world of super-powerful security services with impossibly advanced tech & psychics, or one with lots of goths & missing persons.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by fchase8

I would figure that Infinity would keep a tight hold on them, given all the chances for crosstime kidnapping, technology transfer (they have the tech to handle The Secret), and general 'what if' seeing of what one's life (or parent's life) would have been like otherwise. Access to them would be tightly controlled, as probably even the Security Council wouldn't want to open up those cans of worms.

There's also the self reference problem, as alluded to by Voyeur
--
Null-Zandt-7
This world followed the history of Null-Zandt-4 more or less identically until 2010, with the only apparent change being a Tunisian Street Vendor having his scales returned to him. More drastic divergences followed.

Insurgencies began to crumble at a startling rate, despite stepped up foreign support. The failures of supporting counterweights in Iraq led Iran to invade the country, with the support of Syria, in 2014. Most Western sources called it "Gulf War III", in part because of heavy involvement of Gulf States, such as Saudi Arabia. The war was protracted, which forced the Obama administration to deploy ground troops into the conflict in late 2014.

Heightened sensitivity and a drawing away of forces led an incident in the Korean DMZ to hot in early 2015, forcing the United States to fight a two front war. Heavy artillery bombardment and a nuclear attack on Busan created an enormous refugee crisis. Seeking a way to retake the initiative in the Middle East, the US made heavy investments in cyberwarfare. They made quick results, shutting down the power grid in Tehran for a month. These developments were viewed with some interest in China and Russia.

In early 2016, riots broke out in Taiwan after allegations that China had sabotaged the DPP in the recent presidential election. While denying these allegations, China decided to take advantage of Western distraction, and sent forces to "restore order". Unrest had been so severe that the government of Taiwan was effectively forced to legitimize this action.

The current date is August of 2016. Allied forces are pushing into North Korea. Iran is collapsing and has withdrawn from Iraq. Election interference and closing the Korean War dominates public discourse. Countries on the South China Sea are edging towards America over fears of China. Gaddafi is calling on China to form a bloc against American Imperialism. No one knows what Putin is planning.

[cptbutton]

Weird one that popped into my head today:

In the "Game of Thrones" books/series, the Citadel and the maesters are a front for Centrum's Interworld service, trying to promote science, rationality, peace, and internationalism without being a religious organization. And quietly getting rid of dragons and other supernatural stuff.

Which in turns means the Melisandre and the religion of R'hllor are a front for the Cabal...