New Reality Seeds

[Stephen Day]

On Homeline when Pablo Picasso married his first wife, Fernande Olivier, he insisted that she give up her life as a model for the various artists of the period. She agreed and from that point on only posed as subject for paintings done by Picasso.

On Picasso-7 on the other hand Olivier turned down the marriage and continued her career as an art model. As a result, many unique paintings from a variety of artists with Olivier as the subject exist. They have become a commodity of high value on Homeline. A movement among the art community on Homeline has developed that sees these paintings as something that needs to be saved from the looming rule of the Nazi Party. Most of the paintings are of the kind that will certainly be declared to be degenerate art by the Nazis and thus will be in danger of being destroyed. For a number of years there have been frequent trips by citizens of Homeline to Picasso-7 with the intention of acquiring as many of these paintings as possible.

The current year of Picasso-7 is 1931 and Infinity has become increasingly worried about the escalation in the chances members of this movement have begun to take in their efforts to save these paintings. Infinity fears that someone will eventually do something that will reveal the Secret. Picaso-7 is in Quantum-5 and these are those within Infinity that are vary concerned about a potential new version of Reich-5, but this time right on Homeline's doorstep. Movements are currently underway to prevent the Secret from potentially being revealed.

[Astromancer]

The key reason Russia keeps falling apart is that it is run by an oligarchic elite. This oligarchy is determined to prevent democracy and hold power. The oligarchy enriched itself by corruption, skimming vast amounts of wealth off the Russian state. This is why the Russian Navy was a total disaster in the Russo-Japanese war of 1905, it's still why Putin's armies are tripping over their own feet in the Ukraine war. (I don't disparage Ukrainian arms and armies, but when a mouse fights an cat, no matter how valiant the mouse, it helps if the cat is both unarmed and starving).

Their were two times in the last 100 years when the oligarchy could have been ousted. First, Stalin stopped and reversed the removal of the oligarchy as part of how he rose to power. Eliminate Stalin early and keep Lenin around for a few more years and, although Lenin was still a monster, the oligarchy would have at least been kicked out of the halls of power. The second chance would involve Khrushchev, himself a product of the oligarchy, succeeding in his program to make the Soviet Union live up to its stated ideals. The oligarchy kicked Khrushchev out and put in Brezhnev. They only wanted to have the reputation of being revolutionaries. The oligarchy never liked "commies."

The struggles in Russia post 1970 have been exclusively struggles within different factions of the oligarchy. The main dominant faction, the faction that every post Brezhnev leader of Russia has come from, is the intelligence service (what was once called the KGB).

Now, altering the rise of Stalin massively alters WWII. So you'd want to challenge the oligarchy during Khrushchev's time.


My question is, how to do it. The key to an altered Russia is the elimination of the oligarchy. But how do you eliminate something so entrenched into the Russian state without destroying Russia?

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Their were two times in the last 100 years when the oligarchy could have been ousted. First, Stalin stopped and reversed the removal of the oligarchy as part of how he rose to power. Eliminate Stalin early and keep Lenin around for a few more years and, although Lenin was still a monster, the oligarchy would have at least been kicked out of the halls of power. The second chance would involve Khrushchev, himself a product of the oligarchy, succeeding in his program to make the Soviet Union live up to its stated ideals. The oligarchy kicked Khrushchev out and put in Brezhnev. They only wanted to have the reputation of being revolutionaries. The oligarchy never liked "commies."

I think you're downplaying the importance of central planning in causing corruption at all levels of society. I find it difficult to imagine Khrushchev doing much more about the corruption (he took little action in response to Brezhnev's coup and quietly went away).

--

Ealth-Beta
Superficially resembling Earth-Beta, this world has three key differences that trip up homeliners.

1) All L sounds are replaced by R sounds and vice versa
2) All left turns and right turns have been swapped
3) All elements with an L or an R in them that have a matching element by swapping L for R have been swapped. This makes a few rare and ultra heavy elements more abundant than on most other worlds. Particularly crucial is the possibility to naturally extract Flerovium.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by TGLS

3) All elements with an L or an R in them that have a matching element by swapping L for R have been swapped. This makes a few rare and ultra heavy elements more abundant than on most other worlds. Particularly crucial is the possibility to naturally extract Flerovium.

Swapping abundances by chemical symbol? There's essentially no natural Fr either, maximum half life is 22 minutes.
And I have a feeling multiplying the amount of chlorine on the planet by a factor of 15 would be a more serious issue. 100,000 times as much radium probably isn't good either, but it's rare enough to start with most of the universe's chemistry probably still works OK, but the Cl/Cr and Al/Ar (only a factor of 4 though) exchanges will matter.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by malloyd

100,000 times as much radium probably isn't good either....

Everyone has super-powers. (This is just me joking around.)

[patchwork]

If you're trying to build a less-corrupt Russia in a recognizable world, I suggest building it around Anastas Ivanovich Mikoyan. Let's say that during the War or just after, Malenkov stumbles a bit and part of his portfolio gets transferred to Mikoyan. Mikoyan takes Malenkov's place in the Tetrad after Stalin's death, Khruschev becomes convinced that the old Bolshies won't accept an Ivan-come-lately like him and throws his weight behind Mikoyan once Beria is dead, and Mikoyan is General Secretary in 1957. Instead of Ambassador to Mongolia, make Molotov the editor-in-chief of Pravda again; when it was under him, it was one of the two finest newspapers in the world, and only deteriorated once he went to the Foreign Ministry. Mikoyan and Molotov had a good personal relationship so the more comfortable "exile" seems plausible.

Mikoyan is by far the most ethical of the Old Bolshies. He protested the deportations and gulags to Stalin in writing twice, which is twice more than any other member of the Politburo. Malicious compliance with the law is one of his primary strategies for dealing with others, which inadvertently strengthens the rule of law. You've got a bureaucracy that cares about human rights (Mikoyan is Armenian, and the Armenian Genocide happened when he was a young man; he takes this stuff way more personally than most of the Old Bolshies do, and would hammer home the evils of the Holocaust in a way similar to the West, unlike our Soviet Union). Khruschev is his hatchetman. Pravda is reporting truthfully and engaging in high quality analysis again under Molotov. You get a much more open and civil society in the 60s, which leads to things we can hardly predict in the 70s. Actually, no, let's predict: the striking thing about this administration is that it is almost entirely rooted in the civilian bureaucracy and emerging civil society. its ties to the Red Army are not strong and its relationship with the KGB is not good. The KGB are happy enough playing in decolonialized Africa and Asia during the 60s, but as the shine wears off and stagnation sets in, they attempt something dramatic and unwise. The Red Army comes to the administration's rescue and a new balance of power is negotiated.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Swapping abundances by chemical symbol? There's essentially no natural Fr either, maximum half life is 22 minutes.

I am probably overstating the chance of mining Fl a little, though 10^-22% is still much more than "build a particle accelerator and produce 2 atoms".

Originally Posted by malloyd

And I have a feeling multiplying the amount of chlorine on the planet by a factor of 15 would be a more serious issue. 100,000 times as much radium probably isn't good either, but it's rare enough to start with most of the universe's chemistry probably still works OK, but the Cl/Cr and Al/Ar (only a factor of 4 though) exchanges will matter.

We must be working off different data, my figures say there's 43 million times as much Radium, 1.4 times as much chromium (i.e. there's less Chlorine, but not much less) and 23500 times as much Argon...

It's probably a really messed up place

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by TGLS

I am probably overstating the chance of mining Fl a little, though 10^-22% is still much more than "build a particle accelerator and produce 2 atoms".

Not all that much more. The largest Fr samples yet assembled contain a few hundred thousand atoms, fractions of a picogram, extracted from tons of nuclear waste.

Originally Posted by TGLS

We must be working off different data, my figures say there's 43 million times as much Radium, 1.4 times as much chromium (i.e. there's less Chlorine, but not much less) and 23500 times as much Argon...

There are several different common lists - for the Earth as a whole, for the Earth's crust, for the universe, and for supernova synthesis. There's also the issue of whether you measure abundance by weight or number of nuclei. Stuff can easily move an order of magnitude depending. Still that Ar/Al difference is much bigger than I'd expect any of them to explain, argon is already pretty common (both in the universe at large and here on Earth). If there were 20,000 times as much of it, the atmospheric pressure would exceed that of Venus, and with 20,000 times less aluminum the Earth would have a very different crust.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

In Thornton-1, William Thornton's plan to resurrect Washington worked. By turning Washington into the first of the walking dead! In current year 1812, the US has collapsed, while the British and the French hold off the horde across the St. Lawrence and Mississippi, respectively.

In Thornton-2 it also works, but Washington ends up normal. Seemingly normal: he gains the vigor of a man several times his junior. It's only after he begins running for a third presidential term on a platform of fire and blood do people start worrying. Rumors spread that Washington's has been replaced by a demon.......rumors which don't prevent most who can afford the procedure from going through with it!

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Originally Posted by SilvercatMoonpaw

In Thornton-2 it also works, but Washington ends up normal. Seemingly normal: he gains the vigor of a man several times his junior. It's only after he begins running for a third presidential term on a platform of fire and blood do people start worrying. Rumors spread that Washington's has been replaced by a demon.......rumors which don't prevent most who can afford the procedure from going through with it!

Sorry, got called away before I could finish this:

The concept would be of a setting where something is causing the resurrected into malicious demagogues with enhanced physical abilities, but the PCs wouldn't know whether they're dealing with demons or aliens or brain-damage. Even if it ends up being supernatural, it always stays low-key -- e.g. the possessing demons never manifest or give any conclusive proof the PCs can point others to -- so the story is always on the edge of "Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane".

(As with all things I post, this may need a lot more work. Feel free to expand, pick it apart, or convert the idea to a new mileu.)