[Infinite Worlds] What If: Timelines can't be shifted by mortals.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by malloyd

I've thought before Van Zandt has a pact with Yog Sothoth would explain a lot about the setting....

I have never found the details of the setting, as presented, at all convincing. But I've never found A. Bertram Chandler's SF (which seems to have been a major influence) convincing either.

Various bits in the 4e version, notably "The Williams-Khor Hypothesis" (page IW21) seem to be explicit signs that the within-the-setting story is wrong, in something like the way geocentric cosmology was wrong, but accepted, for centuries. That means that an ambitious campaign needs to deal with that issue, and I'm working through that in my current Infinite Cabal campaign. I'm fairly sure that there will be several models, from different philosophical viewpoints, and I'm slowly inventing those. I have a theory as to what Van Zandt told the UN, which he could clearly substantiate, since it was damn convincing, but since my players read the forums, I'll keep it quiet for now.

But the theory they learned in Rome-6 is interesting. They went looking for it when they worked out from astronomical observations and History spells that the real date was 1700 AD, even though Rome-6 thinks it's 248AD (1000 AUC). They were also a bit worried about the strange phenomena in the sky that were visible to their world-walker, notably the vast unblinking eye that observes Rome from above. It's good when the players decide they ought to be making fright checks without the GM raising the issues.

They found an answer from a Persian priest of Mithras. Incidentally, there is definitely no political reason why a religion that seems designed to undermine the traditional Roman religion, but takes some of its names and ideas from a major religion in the Roman Empire's major long-term rival. Definitely no reason why priests from there would emigrate and spread a different religion. "Nothing to see here, move along."

There is something that lives between the worlds in some way. The astral plane is its dreams, the worlds are its fragmentary memories. It is a god, of some kind, on a very large scale, dealing not with the many mundane portfolios of the Greco-Roman gods, but with deeper essentials.

Some worshippers of this entity somehow persuaded it to forget about life in the world of Rome-6, so that all life was ... suspended. Those worshippers took advantage of this to loot Rome, and after a while, they left for some other world. It is not known where they went, but "IT", as it is known to the few who know of it, eventually remembered about life after 1452 years, and a couple of generations later, the earthquakes that must have happened to explain the damage are becoming forgotten.

[David Johnston2]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

This idea just occurred to me on the train, and I was wondering how it would change the Infinite Worlds setting.

What if Centrum couldn't shift timelines? .

Then the war would just be about foiling Centrum's attempts to take over timeline governments for it's own sake.

[Michael_Malus]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

What if Centrum couldn't shift timelines? What if it was either natural or caused by horrible supernatural events (Lovecraftian Gods doing Terrible Things, Cabal rituals requiring the blood sacrifice of a god to power, and so on).

Then Centrum starts breeding gods, of course. 'Tho, from the sound of it, The Cabal and Reich 5 are both better placed for that.

[Not another shrubbery]

Originally Posted by Tyneras

If Centrum could no more shift Homeline away than the United States could hurl the Soviet Union to Venus, would there even be a secret war? Would it be an open war? Would there even be a war? Aside from the war, I imagine most activities would continue mostly unchanged.

I would imagine the conflict would turn into something of a cold war, with the two sides trying to bring other timelines into their own sphere of influence.

Playing off your US-USSR allusion.