New Reality Seeds

[Dargaron]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

My initial concept has no lightsabers--at least at first. However, people are parrying bullets with swords, or simply being where the bullets are not. Having lightsabers might come about later. With or without lightsabers, it's cool. Of more impact is having some Jedi wannabes in the schools. Back then, bullying was seldom seen as a problem, and the nerds and geeks were frequent targets. They are also the ones that most often become Jedi, since they're the right age, and interested in films like that to the point where some obsess over it. Of course, failure to solve the problems peacefully might be where the first Jedi that turns to evil comes from.

People only become Jedi of the really obsess over the film--a casual interest doesn't do it, and they learn slowly, at the rate they might if they had a real teacher.

Strictly speaking, lightsabers (at least in Legends) aren't by nature associated with the Force: it's just that they're a ridiculously difficult weapon to use without force-sensitivity or some other enhancement (see: General Grievous).

Frex, the Sith originally used alchemically-treated swords with similar properties (called, cleverly enough, Sith Swords) before they adopted lightsabers.

Of course, none of this had been established by the time of Empire Strikes Back...

[YankeeGamer]

Originally Posted by johndallman

"Interesting," thinks a geologist who works for the Scout Service, "how can they tell when it's going to happen so accurately? Since there's a geological fault running through the Straits of Gibraltar -- which is responsible for the straits opening and closing -- the flood will almost certainly be started when the fault shifts, and that depends on conditions tens of miles underground."

"So I think someone at Time Tours may be planning to trigger it. I wonder where he got the drilling kit and the nukes? Probably better get this passed up the line to the I-Cops."

Or is a member of the Cabal (or another mage) going to trigger it with an earthquake spell or ritual in exchange for who knows what?

Or a more prosaic option: Studies have narrowed down that the Zanclean Deluge always starts at a particular time, or close to it, since geological events are not significantly influenced by anything but the most major of man made events.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Agreed. I mean, England could remain a primarily Catholic nation, or it could go Lutheran or Calvinist in a later generation, or do something totally other.

The Church of Spain idea is a potentially interesting one. Anyone have thoughts on how it might come about?

In our history Francis I, king of France, seriously thought of declaring a Patriarch of France to counter Hapsburg control of the Papacy. So, have the Florentine exiles ready to strike when Alessandro de Medici is killed by his cousin Lorenzo. With France running Italy and the Papacy, Spain might find itself treated as the enemy of the Church. This could lead to Spain declaring the Pope an Anti-Pope! After such a declaration they would set up a Spanish Pope.

This would give you a Church of Spain.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

Huh. Any OTL Spanish kings (or could-easily-have-been kings) who seem likely to go there?

Pretty much any of the Hapsburg ones could have. Charles V and I, whose election as Holy Roman Emperor had been actively opposed by Leo X, and Philip II who declared war on the Papal States at least partly in response to Paul IV openly expressed hatred of Spain, seem particularly plausible.

[AlexanderHowl]

Carthage-3

Carthage-3 is a Q7 world. In Carthage-3, Carthage receives advanced warning of the Roman legions coming to relieve the seige of Massana from their spies in Rome at the beginning of the First Punic War. The generals of Carthage withdraw from Messanna with their allies from Syracuse before the arrival of the Romans legions and the admirals of Carthage and Syracuse ambush the Romans fleet before they can enter the harbor of Massana. With the Roman fleet destroyed and two legions drowned in wrecked ships in sight of Massana, Massana surrenders to Carthage.

With control of Sicily, Carthage unleashes a wave of piracy against Rome and invests in the military inventions of Archimedes. After ten years of Roman fishing ships and trading ships being unable to access the Mediterranean, the Romans surrender to Carthage and pay Carthage a tribute of 1,000 talents of silver. Its Italian allies break with Rome and ally with Carthage so they can gain access the lucritive trade networks of Carthage.

It is now 218 BC. Rome has rebuilt its legions, but its former allies also have legions, and they have prospered in their alliance with Carthage. Carthage also controls the Western Mediterranean and the Western Atlantic, having expanded its trade networks from the Northern Europe to West Africa, and is easily twice as strong as during the First Punic War.

[YankeeGamer]

Did you mean Eastern Atlantic, or has Carthage built something that can reach the Western Atlantic? Both have great potential.

[AlexanderHowl]

Originally Posted by YankeeGamer

Did you mean Eastern Atlantic, or has Carthage built something that can reach the Western Atlantic? Both have great potential.

Sorry, meant the Eastern Atlantic.

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Sorry, meant the Eastern Atlantic.

Would be neat to throw in a Carthaginian discovery of the New World in the present day. Infinity might suspect it's a Centrum plot, and vice versa.

To boot, have some obscure Cabal sect that's associated with Carthage, which on other worlds died out with Carthage, but here is the premier Cabal sect.

[AlexanderHowl]

While the Carthaginians had good ships, I think that they would have had issues traveling to the Americas in the 3rd century BC. They could have discovered an settled the Azores, the Canary Islands, Madiera, and Sao Tome though, which would have given them a dominant position for trading with Western and Central Africa, as well as giving them areas for plantations and settlements. They could have traded exotics, gold, and slaves with the Bantu and Nok.

An interesting possibility would have been if the Carthaginians had traded with the Pygmy Cultures of Central Africa before the Bantu destroyed them around 0 AD. While we know practically nothing about them, they would have been able to trade the ivory that they harvested from the skeletons of African Forest elephants and the natural rubber that they harvested from the forest for iron weapons from the Carthaginians. I could imagine a 200 BC Congo Empire where the Pygmies are battling to keep the Bantu out of their ancestral lands.

[tshiggins]

Originally Posted by fchase8

Would be neat to throw in a Carthaginian discovery of the New World in the present day. Infinity might suspect it's a Centrum plot, and vice versa.

To boot, have some obscure Cabal sect that's associated with Carthage, which on other worlds died out with Carthage, but here is the premier Cabal sect.

Make it a series of associated lodges that boosted the energy available to them through the use of human sacrifice.

amp.theguardian.com/science/2014/jan/21/carthaginians-sacrificed-own-children-study