Alternate Crosstime Organizations

[maximara]

Paradox

Home reality: Paradox-1 (Quantum 5) 1980

Named for the reality it was first found, Paradox is a host of headaches all rolled up into one nice little package-the Secret is shot to blazes, its homeworld is high mana, its people have been stumbling around who knows how many echoes for decades, the method of travel the reality uses doesn't seem to fit the rules of cross timetravel, there is a war going on between a Reich reality and this world, and it was created by another crosstime world some 60 years ago in its 2013.

Paradox is an extension of what appears to be an even older Time Travel organization called Topaz who it was originally thought had created a divergence in 1899 when a Jewish girl of about 20 became involved in the young Adolf Hitler's life. But closer study has shown very subtle historical differences as early as the 1880s. In any case, in 1900 the young Jewish girl saved his brother Edward and, from there on, his life took a dramatic turn. In 1906 instead of going to Vienna, Hitler went into the military as an officer and became noted as the "crazy commander" for his ideas on how fast troops could move. When the Great War broke out, however, everyone was stunned when the men in Hitler's command suddenly got equipment that made his "Blitzkrieg" plans practical. By the end of 1915, Austria-Hungry had won the Great War and, when the Kaiser tried to impose harsh treaty agreements, the very forces that had won the war quickly overthrew him. In the Kaiser's place the Phoenix Republic was set up along with League of Other Worlds which was to study mystical powers and contact other realms which they did in 1922 finding what appeared to be the Aryan tribe responsible for the Hindu religion there followed a mad crosstime/dimensional seek and find quest by the Phoenix Republic that continues to this day

Even though the mysterious benefactor simply known at Topaz seemed to cut back on its supply of miracle machines in the 1920s it still supplied enough that the Phoenix Republic pounded the Italian fascists out of existence within a year of them coming to power. In 1923 Hitler wrote Erbe des Phoenix (Legacy of the Phoenix) that stated that the many religions of the world were in fact the memories of the last surviving tribes of the Aryan race. He then went on to say that knowing it was dying these last tribes of this Aryan race had seeded the varied races of man with certain aspects of themselves. The time had come to reunite these traits so the Aryan race, the godlike superpeople of the past, could again walk the earth. Ten years later as the PR was conquering the USSR, Hitler wrote Unser Kampf, which detailed a horrific alternative history that he stated, had been their destiny before Topaz.

Unser Kampf is in fact a study on the rise and fall of the Third Reich in great detail even to including the names of the people involved. This gives Homeline at least some idea as to the history of the Topaz timeline up to that point in its history.

In 1931 prodded on by invading Nazi forces from another history various Chinese warlords tried enlist aid from mystic forces they barely understood and had even less control over. The result turned China into total war zone with warlords fighting each other along with the otherworldly forces they had hoped to control. By 1945 China as secured and an attempt to strike back at the Nazis was made. That was when things got complicated.

--

Infinity's main headache is Paradox uses something it calls Trinity Chronal Theory to travel quanta which doesn't seem to follow Parachronic Theory in any way Homeline understands. By 1950 the Nazi invaders were defeated but they had blown up their crosstravel equipment, so thinking it was simply creating alternate timelines Paradox tried to change the out come of the battle so a timeline where they captured the equipment intact was created. On the 25th try they succeeded and incorporated what they found into their own technology. Thirty years later Infinity quickly recognized what the Nazis had left behind: a two quantum Parachronic conveyor.

So the average Infinity agent dealing with Paradox has the prospect of dealing with 25 "alternate timelines" (Paradox echoes) ranging from what Infinity's measuring devices say range all the way from Quanta 2 to 22 all happily communicating with each other and a Nazi world (dubbed Reich-6) that had Parachronic travel some fifty years ago that was able to reach Quantum 5. Then there is Topaz which assuming the same rate of time as on most worlds would be around 2073 putting it in Homeline's future.

[Mark Skarr]

Originally Posted by fchase8

And wasn't there another RPG in like the eighties & nineties that had a similar idea - pockets of other realities showing up on Earth?

Yeah, it was called TORG, which we always thought was an acronym for "The Other Rifts Game."

[starslayer]

Author

Officially author is listed as 'Satan-675' a hell world with active interference by a mad godlike entity. Only a very select few at infinity know the truth...

The author world gives those at infinity who know of its existence intense nightmares. Everything about this world puts it as an echo of infinity in its late TL8 era before the discovery of inter-dimensional travel, except that there is 'fiction' written in that world which EXACTLY chronicles inter-dimensional activity. Worse still, things that are written on author that have not happened to infinity yet have about a 15% chance of happening, EXACTLY AS WRITTEN.

Far more problematic is that there are several 'revisions' of the story which while somewhat similar are missing individuals from previous incarnations- and some non-homeline jumpers who have visited homeline have asked to see some of the individuals from previous 'revisions', and seemed genuinely confused when no one on homeline can even find record of there existence.

The obvious conclusion is that infinity is being manipulated by Author in some way, potentially even having set up the circumstance for the original discovery of inter-dimensional travel. However, more concerning is the concept that homeline is not real, instead they are some sort of manifestation of latent psycics, mages, or other reality warpers on author; both concepts are so disturbing it has led to the false classification of the world while infinity scientists try to figure out what to do with the information.

[David Johnston2]

Apex: Apex is what Homeline calls a worldline inhabited by technologically advanced hirsute apes who are currently engaged in invading what used to be a 1970s echo using their own unsubtle technology which involves firing particle accelerator that rip open rifts in spacetime. Apparently having first peeped through using smaller pinhole rifts, they are angry about zoos. It seems likely that as their technology improves they'll learn how to "tune" their portal makers to find other targets.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by starslayer

Author

Officially author is listed as 'Satan-675' a hell world with active interference by a mad godlike entity. Only a very select few at infinity know the truth...

The author world gives those at infinity who know of its existence intense nightmares. Everything about this world puts it as an echo of infinity in its late TL8 era before the discovery of inter-dimensional travel, except that there is 'fiction' written in that world which EXACTLY chronicles inter-dimensional activity. Worse still, things that are written on author that have not happened to infinity yet have about a 15% chance of happening, EXACTLY AS WRITTEN.

Far more problematic is that there are several 'revisions' of the story which while somewhat similar are missing individuals from previous incarnations- and some non-homeline jumpers who have visited homeline have asked to see some of the individuals from previous 'revisions', and seemed genuinely confused when no one on homeline can even find record of there existence.

The obvious conclusion is that infinity is being manipulated by Author in some way, potentially even having set up the circumstance for the original discovery of inter-dimensional travel. However, more concerning is the concept that homeline is not real, instead they are some sort of manifestation of latent psycics, mages, or other reality warpers on author; both concepts are so disturbing it has led to the false classification of the world while infinity scientists try to figure out what to do with the information.

Now imagine how Infinity would react if they read that post.

[Dr. Beckenstein]

The Caravanserais

Basically, this is "The Ancients" trope applied to the IW setting.

About 5,000 years ago, an unknown cross-time society flourished for a few centuries. Ruins of towss and trading stations have been found on worlds in all quantums, but most of their traces were discovered on Quantum 6. Most ruins were found around the Mediterranean Sea, but outposts also existed from Central America to China. Findings hints at a TL 2 society, with slightly advanced ceramics. On worlds with mana, magical artefacts and traces of potions were found. Inscriptions were discovered, but could not be deciphered today. There dead were cremated, the ashes that seem to be the remains of normal humans.

Homeline and Centrum scientist think that they used natural portals and pathways to travel from world to world. They probably had maps for this journeys, if any of them could be found it could change the whole balance of power in the inter-dimensional war.
Rumor has it that the Cabal is really obsessed with the caravanserais.

[Flyndaran]

Quake It's a highly unpredictable world beset by relatively common reality quakes altering nearly all aspects. Strangely it also rectons natives and some items they create even if off world at the time.
All histories have one thing in common; expansionism and some instinctive understanding of parallel realities and natural methods of traversing them.

How do you deal with a foe that's pure magic today, but ultra tech next month? They remember the main bits of how they fought you, but anything you know about them is highly unreliable.

The only thing that keeps them from conquering so much is that anyone born off home world, even if from two natives, won't retcon with their parents. They see it as foreign realities altering their children though.

[jovos]

What about a group like the monitors from dc comics

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitors_(comics))

[Phantasm]

Originally Posted by jovos

What about a group like the monitors from dc comics

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monitors_(comics)

You may want to fix your link... move the closing ) inside the url tags...

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Dr. Beckenstein

The Caravanserais

Basically, this is "The Ancients" trope applied to the IW setting.
snip...

I also imagined ancients. But even what species they were is not known. They seemed to occupy a few world lines experimenting on local paleolithic species for strange reasons. They created synthetic chromosomes that only fully express when received from both parents, otherwise they hide with some changes.
Amphibious forms that create Creature From the Black Lagoon when fully expressed.
Ogre forms that require some primate flesh to survive, but enhanced human cannibals if only awakened in a one chromosome having individual.
"Werewolf" forms of High strung, hairy, rapid healing regrowth having individuals, but even double chromosome individuals could usually pass for basic human.
Etc.
It is possible to inherit more than one type, but the genes often interacted in odd ways. The few populations hide from basic humans with rules against "incest" to avoid full expression forms.

The few magical worlds they occupied had more overt forms along with dying and extinct "failed" experiments.

It seems that 10 thousand years prior something made them leave in a hurry removing most signs of their existence and only a few running experiments left to fend for themselves.