New Reality Seeds

[Astromancer]

Play with this idea. A geographical difference. Place an island well to the south of Iceland on the mid-Atlantic ridge. Basically a temperate Iceland with trees you can build ships out of and capable of supporting large populations closer to those of Ireland rather than Iceland's fairly small numbers.

The Vikings would have settled this island too. They'd have stayed independent longer than Iceland was able too, and they'd have explored for a longer time. Upshot? Knights and Indians!

Can't you just see the jousts in your mind's eye?

[PTTG]

What if we have humans die out in Eurasia about 10,000 years ago? Maybe via a mega bird flu or something.

Assuming that the Eurasians before 1200 have no measurable effect on global climate, then American history will remain untouched until 986 or so.

EDIT: Africa too.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by PTTG

What if we have humans die out in Eurasia about 10,000 years ago?

It will get re-populated from Africa within a couple of thousand years.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

We see eye to eye here. Certainly the Ahnennerbe would love to have done so much more in Egypt. I could see Midwinter Aton sneaking Runes into a undiscovered tomb to be found in the 1930's and freak the whole world out.

Wouldn't that be before the divergence point, Hitler dying after the Fall of France/before invading Russia?

Perhaps this world was an echo, where Infinity noticed some unusual archeological work, and then Hitler dies after the Fall of France.

Initially Infinity naturally suspects Centrum intervention (while Centrum suspects Secundus - 'they do hate Nazis...'). But instead of the world moving quantums, it goes from no-mana to normal-mana! Maybe throw in some Taft radiation for good measure.

[QUOTE=Astromancer;2037821]Getting Rommel the job would be harder. I don't think he was ever in line for the top spot.

Yeah, and he might be harder to manipulate. There's probably some grey high level Nazi who could be made leader, but in reality lack anywhere near Hitler's authority. So even more infighting and scheming.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

On the whole, they simply realize they can't run all the universes and look the other way.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

I'd investigate, but protecting Hitler would be a low priority, unless he was still a child. In that case he might still have a chance to be something other than a monster. But if Centrum is after putting a tougher madman in place, then I'd protect Hitler in order to keep worse from happening.

Infinity probably would just accept that Hitler had to happen on the echoes. But maybe there are others on Homeline who won't accept that. Infinite Worlds says that Homeline Israel doesn't interfere with echoes (when it saves crosstime endangered Jews), but there could be individuals who don't agree with that policy.

So there are I-Cops with the unenviable task of protecting Hitler on the echoes...

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea, a Greek genius achieves all the innovations of the Islamic Agricultural Revolution in the 2nd Century AD. Rome holds together much longer, and the Arabs, even if the conquer North Africa, never replace the older cultures or faiths.

Christian Europe still benefits from Arab ideas but never experiences the Dark Ages.

The industrial revolution comes centuries earlier.

I tried out creating a random world via the methods in Infinite Worlds, and came up with a world of high-tech dictatorships (and supers!). I never created a specific turning point, but guessed that it was something like the Dark Ages being skipped by an early industrial revolution.

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This seems more like an Ordinary world with valuables. Mainly from people taking Iconic characters and using them in more polished or innovative settings. Example: Superman's original creator wanted to change from the "Two people in a Love Triangle" motif to something more like an action adventure take on the "Thin Man" films. Lois was to be shown to have always known Clark's identity, and the two were going to adventure together with Lois show as a master level detective. The publishers fired the author and forbade any change for forty years. In your world, not only did this go forward but Captain Marvel never got smashed either.

This would be a great world for alternate versions of popular fiction & art. Homeliners could take copies of alternate Superman stories and the like, and sell them on Homeline.

Indeed, it wouldn't even be 'stealing', since it's all publicly owned (technically by an alternate America, but close enough...).

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, in our world the city of Mekkah (Mecca is now a bad/evil spelling according to Wahhabist religious authorities) is going through a major rebuilding. The main point of this rebuilding is to erase Mekkah's past, especially any trace of alternate forms of Islam. Wahhabism is deeply puritanical and totalitarian, the very streets of Mekkah deeply offend Wahhabist religious leaders.

In the IW setting, followers of other forms of Islam would want to have alternative Meccas (note spelling shift) mapped physically, culturally, and in any other possible way. By holding the record of the existence of other ways of being Islamic reflected in Mecca they could challenge the Wahhabist Mekkah and the limited and truncated view of Islam it stands for.

The Wahhabist wouldn't take these map makers laying down. Alternate views of Mekkah/Mecca would be declared idolatrous. Idolatry and idol makers must be crushed. Thus a simple research program becomes a fight to the death.

[chaotic-nipple]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

Try this idea, in our world the city of Mekkah (Mecca is now a bad/evil spelling according to Wahhabist religious authorities) is going through a major rebuilding. The main point of this rebuilding is to erase Mekkah's past, especially any trace of alternate forms of Islam. Wahhabism is deeply puritanical and totalitarian, the very streets of Mekkah deeply offend Wahhabist religious leaders.

In the IW setting, followers of other forms of Islam would want to have alternative Meccas (note spelling shift) mapped physically, culturally, and in any other possible way. By holding the record of the existence of other ways of being Islamic reflected in Mecca they could challenge the Wahhabist Mekkah and the limited and truncated view of Islam it stands for.

The Wahhabist wouldn't take these map makers laying down. Alternate views of Mekkah/Mecca would be declared idolatrous. Idolatry and idol makers must be crushed. Thus a simple research program becomes a fight to the death.

Clarification: It's not that the spelling 'Mecca' is "evil", it's that it's phonetically inaccurate according to current standards for transcription Arabic words with Roman letters. A native English speaker with no knowledge of Arabic will probably pronounce that spelling as "MECK-uh", as opposed to the more accurate "Ma-KAH".

[Astromancer]

Try this idea, instead of the Middle East becoming more desiccated global weather shifts cause it to become much wetter. The deforestation that has dried up most of the rivers in the Arab lands instead means that flash floods become a regular event. Programs of flood control and reforestation become obvious and desperate needs. Instead of an early 21st century of collapsing Arab states, the Arab states grow stronger because people see why they need them to survive.

This would lead to a radically different Near East Politics. With many ways to set up a game.

[PTTG]

Making Europe arid over the same time scale might be an interesting tweak to the concept.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by chaotic-nipple

Clarification: It's not that the spelling 'Mecca' is "evil", it's that it's phonetically inaccurate according to current standards for transcription Arabic words with Roman letters. A native English speaker with no knowledge of Arabic will probably pronounce that spelling as "MECK-uh", as opposed to the more accurate "Ma-KAH".

Yes, but most English-speakers would still pronounce Mekkah as 'MECK-uh.'

[PTTG]

Darkly-1:

Current year 1936. The United Confederate States, the British Empire, and France under the Parti de l'Action Française (known as LAFs) have allied. Meanwhile, the Communist People's Republic of Germany works feverishly to establish an axis of international cooperation with the P.R. of Italy and the emerging power of Japan's Pacific Worker's Prosperity Sphere. The Russian Republic has only just emerged from the chaos of its civil war, but democracy is taking firm hold hand in hand with capitalism. No one knows who they'll side with, but so far they've had cordial relationships with the Axis, despite political differences.

The three philosophies are precariously balanced in China, with President Mao's long march only recently ended, and a careful stalemate exists between the USA-allied Communist government and Mao, backed by his fellow democratic Russian government.

The world waits for just the right spark to cause it to tumble into chaos...

Oh, and black goatees are inexplicably popular in this dimension. No one knows why.