Wait, this world has used tens of nuclear weapons in a world war?
Last point, it seems societism is a lost cause, the presence of diversitarianism after 'the LAST war of supremacy' certainly suggests it. If not, is it too much to ask for a societist space colony? Ok yeah, it probably is. If you're in need of such a spinoff though, I'll do it
Well, for all we know, the notion Last War of Supremacy may merely be the result of historiographers who are keen to declare that we have reached the End of History, and that now we've reached some sort of stable equilibrium where not much will happen. Like, in OTL, there were many people who were of this attitude after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Then 9/11 happened.
And of course, people used to call it the Great War to signify that that had truly been the largest and most influential war ever and that so unlikely was it that any military conflict as great and significant as that were ever to happen again, at least happen in the near future, that no further qualifiers to the name was needed. It had truly been the Great War, period. And then... well, shit happened.
Tha name Last War of Supremacy does not mean that there won't be another war of supremacy any more than the name Second World War implies that there will be a Third or Fourth World War.
Also, yikes, 49 nuclear weapons. The bit about the 'origanl method of delivery' to Russia which was supposedly pretty heinous makes me wonder a lot. My first though is some kind of suicide bomb, or maybe some kind of betrayal under the flag of truce a la Pearl Harbor, but I am stumped as to which of their enemies would have the wherewithal to develop a nuke and deploy it 1959 is a bit late compared to OTL but even so, you need uranium, genius scientists, and advanced industrial infrastructure to develop a bomb if nobody's done it before. That gives you a pretty short list of candidates. The US managed it largely because it is so huge it had plenty of surplus capability even while fighting WW2, and because it managed to collect all the best physicists from Axis Europe. TTL I think the ENA is going to be too worried about its own hemisphere to go traipsing in Russia and ditto for the South American Combine. Germany sounds like the most likely candidate but they still need to source their uranium somehow which iirc is pretty limited in Germany.
Part #200 said:Most scholars consider this to be nothing more than crude propaganda and clearly born of the popular climate of vitriolic rage in Russia following the Sunrise War, albeit not exclusively directed at the Combine of course.
Also ITTL doesn't the term "war of supremacy" mean a fight between cultures for supremacy, not to defend against Societism.
Especially since it mentions the Sunset War, which isn't a war of supremacy.
Also, can I just say how much I love Vanity Fair becoming a combination of 18th Century-style Gossip mag and Buzzfeed
Despite the psychological trauma, I do wonder whether the Empire of North America is any significant way weaker than it was before the Great American War. It stretches from sea to sea, and has pretty much boxed in all its plausible opponents, while having access to a lot of industry and personnel. Its got to be one of the world's largest economies.
The French-hybrids of middle America are probably underpopulated with no ties to the outside world save through ENA territory.
Well, for all we know, the notion Last War of Supremacy may merely be the result of historiographers who are keen to declare that we have reached the End of History, and that now we've reached some sort of stable equilibrium where not much will happen. Like, in OTL, there were many people who were of this attitude after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Then 9/11 happened.
And of course, people used to call it the Great War to signify that that had truly been the largest and most influential war ever and that so unlikely was it that any military conflict as great and significant as that were ever to happen again, at least happen in the near future, that no further qualifiers to the name was needed. It had truly been the Great War, period. And then... well, shit happened.
Tha name Last War of Supremacy does not mean that there won't be another war of supremacy any more than the name Second World War implies that there will be a Third or Fourth World War.
Are you talking about the Republic of Superior? They have ties to Russian America and, by extension to the global empire of the RLPC.
They have ties over the Rocky Mountains and a population base made up of...
...a mish-mash of lots and lots (and lots) of Indian tribes, Métis from Canada, escaped criminals from the old Susan-Mary Penal Colony, some Russian fur traders and even a trapped Carolinian regiment.
Just a little something I knocked up for Look to the West. The absolutely humongous version is here.
Just out of curiosity, was this something that was added at some point as a reference to the Wedge, or, is there actually some border dispute as to who hold jurisdiction over that little strip of what is OTL eastern Avoyelles Parish?
Well, basically that should be Carolinan, but the logical point for a 'de facto war boundary' is the Red River. New Spain is, of course, demanding that Carolina withdraw from their de jure territory, so both sides have a vested interest in not occupying that in order to et the best deal in the larger disputed territory (not to mention the practicalities of making the crossing there). Louisiana of course has signed away all rights to it.
From what Thande said during the consultations on the map it'll probably be gone pretty soon, but it just works too perfectly for one of those 'post-war borders drawn without quite realising the actual situation on the ground' cases.
So, basically, you and Thande have by accident created the inverse of the Wedge, that is, a small piece of land that it could be argued belongs to one of three separate jurisdictions, but where all of the three powers actually have a vested interest in not claiming that they own the piece of land?
Hell, it would essentially be a sanctuary for criminals and other people wanting to escape authorities.
I am hoping to finally see more about those Moronites in Patagonia, it's been a while since we have.
Don't tempt fateAnother new thread, eh? Looks like I'll have to subscribe to this one as well!
One more and you'll be tied with the number of British Kings named George (IOTL). Unless, of course, Prince Charles takes that regnal name... but will he do it before you reach Volume VII?
The toise (I assume that was your phone autocorrect). I should point out that this isn't actually the OTL one but rather a later metricated version. France in TTL has eventually adopted a universal and partially metric system (more based on 12s than 10s) but uses the old terms, as has been used in e.g. China in OTL. The Jacobins had come up with a 'proper' metric system but that was naturally avoided due to association with their nastier aspects afterwards (yes, I know, we still use Geiger counters, shut up)I'd never heard of the noise before reading this. On the one hand, it seems like a sensible basis for unit measurement given it applies to length, area and volume, but it raises a thought - do the Diversitarian nations even subscribe to the idea of an international standard, or does it carry too much of a Societist stench?
I honestly don't know what the prefix signifies, but I named it after this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopædia,_or_an_Universal_Dictionary_of_Arts_and_SciencesAlso, why is it a 'Cyclopedia'? How does the 'En-' prefix affect the meaning?
Thanks. Well, wars are often not named (or renamed) centuries after they happened, so really in TTL I guess historians are just going through a more theatrical phase. I like to make the point that historiography determines how we name and see past wars, like how the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were most commonly called "the Great War" until 1914.- How do you come up with these cool names? Especially the wars. Things like the Pandoric War, the Sunrise War or the last war of Supremacy just have this almost mythic sense to them.
Yeah, I put a bit in the last volume when Sanchez complains about them having adopted a black flag, though the Threefold Eye came in after his death: we'll see its origins in this volume.- The threefold eye looks menacing, yet it clearly goes against old Sanchez in being a symbol for something that should not have one (in his opinion). Though from what has been hinted,
the Societist Combine is a corruption of 'pure' Societism.
I would like to, wherever possible.- Will you continue to be more varied in your choice of sources? Not that you haven't been, but I still remember the leaflet on that Heritage Point of Controversy fondly, and now using
a children's cyclopaedia is cool too. Just making more updates a 'format screw' could be cool. It's your call
Heh, good point.Also, I must say I really like the whole Privatization of Bengal idea and the situation in India as a whole. It was in Volume IV stated that in the decades that we'll see unravel now, the Russians, Chinese and Coreans are going to come into India and set up shop. This wonderful clash of cultures, authorities being owned by private enterprises, etc. gives the whole thing an interesting sense of "cyberpunk in the 19th century that isn't steampunk".
Well, I would argue this source is actually better than most similar books in OTL - usually English-language children's books of this type don't even acknowledge the fact that other countries don't agree that the Wright brothers were the first in flight. Diversitarians of course have a motivation for doing so.A children's book? Really? This is messed up... I did not notice it as much in Prelude, but here...
Wait, this world has used tens of nuclear weapons in a world war?
I guess we'll find out about those in the chapter entitled "Planet of the Dead."
I actually slipped a reference into the final part of volume IV (if you look back) to the Thande Institute staff back home having a similar (and natural for someone from OTL) misconception to the one Faeelin makes here, and Wostyn irately telling them to stop sending radiation treatment pills. (I have now updated the definitive Finished TLs thread to the end of volume IV if you check the link in the first post of this thread).Yes, tactical nuclear weapons.
Using strategic nuclear weapons seems to be even less accepted than in our world (no nuclear-armed ICBM).