Maybe one of the Goodyears takes him in? If I recall, the Goodyear name was as beloved as Custer's name.
"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
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Maybe one of the Goodyears takes him in? If I recall, the Goodyear name was as beloved as Custer's name.
I don't, it just suffers under the reign of nutters so mad that no matter what, it overshadows whatever the PM will do. I have read my whole life about GB and they were firmly a constitutional monarchy. But royals were taken much more seriously then by the outside world.
"Did you hear about the new reforms put forth by the Prime Minister?"
"That sounds interesting. DID YOU HEAR THE KING THINKS HE'S EMPEROR OF PLUTO?"
It would be like if the President was an industrious hard-worker deeply entrenched in a reform battle. He passes a revolutionary clean energy act. His VP meanwhile, who holds no real power, kills his own brothers with an ax in a fit of hysteria. What will make the news more? Lol
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THE EPIPHANY OF 1826
THE FOURTH BOOK OF MANIFEST DESTINY
(from left to right) Edward Everett, Aaron Burr, and Milo Miles being visited by the Angel of Destiny in 1826
It was early on the fall morning of October 1, 1826. The Prophet Burr, Boston Reverend Edward Everett, and their newest protege, Reverend Milo Miles of New York, were taking a stroll through the property surrounding Burr's massive estate in Philadelphia. The City of Brotherly Love was capital to not only the Republican Union, but also the stronghold of the American Fundamentalist Christian Church. The spires of the ever-enlarging National Church, located just a block from the Liberty Bell, gleamed in the distance, their new copper jackets reflecting the sunset of that cool, clear day.THE FOURTH BOOK OF MANIFEST DESTINY
(from left to right) Edward Everett, Aaron Burr, and Milo Miles being visited by the Angel of Destiny in 1826
Burr, Everett, and Miles were engaging in an intense debate over whether or not the Southrons could ever be brought back into the fold without wholesale slaughter, when Burr began slurring words and acting strange. The other two men, thinking he was having some sort of a stroke or seizure, quickly put their arms under Burr's. Slowly, Burr's eyes rolled up in his head and he sank to his knees. Crimson blood dripped from his ears and nose, just as it had in 1777. Then, as his eyes closed, the Prophet spoke to the two preachers. "Gentlemen, let us pray. For we are in the presence of an Emissary from the Trinity. Beg for your unworthiness to be spared destruction." Immediately, true believers that they were, the two men began feverishly praying as Burr chanted in tongues. In about two minutes of time, Burr spoke again:
"OH! Angel of Destiny! We are your humble servants! Pray tell how we humble mortals can be of any use for your holy deeds! Lo! For Manifest Destiny shall heal our wounds and sorrow, so sayeth the Angel of Destiny those many years ago! I do hope, dear holy one, that I have followed my God's instructions to spread the Word of the New Jerusalem!"
No one present actually saw or heard anything except Burr, but Everett and Miles would insist until their dying days that they had experienced epiphany and "holy visitation."
The Angel spoke (according to Burr):
"Be at peace, Aaron my Prophet. Thou hast done well. Verily every word have you followed and spread to the masses. But thy life is not yet over. Thou art needed by Our Father to write a new book! A Fourth Book of Manifest Destiny shall flow from thy pen, and indeed Brothers Everett and Miles shall spread this Book and its teachings. Yea, for long after thou hast returned to dust shall thy brothers spread the Good News of this Fourth Book of Manifest Destiny."
Burr, paralyzed in place, his glasses resting atop his thinning gray hair, begged of the Angel, "Oh joy of joys, dear Angel of the Lord! Show me the words that I may write!"
The Angel responded, saying to him, "Faithful servant, thou shall lift thy pen this night and every night for seven nights. Only then shall the Fourth Book of Manifest Destiny be completed. Go, do these things in God's name now, and Everett and Milo shall soon useth their silver tongues to preach these words to the Holiest Nation upon the earth."
Just like that, Burr snapped out of it, the flow of blood from his ears and nose stopping, his eyes rolling back down. The Angel was gone. Neither Everett nor Miles wanted to admit they had not seen the Angel they believed in so greatly, so both would insist from that day on they heard the Word.
Burr quickly returned to his palatial house, "running like a man possessed" in his old age, and locked himself away in his study. In one week, on October 8, 1826, Burr came out of his study with a stack of papers in his hand. The Fourth Book of Manifest Destiny, The Book of Purity, was complete. He immediately summoned Everett and Miles to come read them. American culture was about to change forever.
***
It was a sunny, crisp morning in Boston. Now at the zenith of fall, it made preaching outside a pleasure. Fresh air was abundant and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Reverend Edward Everett addressed the citizens and churchgoers under the convention awning behind his AFC Church of Boston. Upon hearing he was speaking about the new Fourth Book of Manifest Destiny, just published a week before, thousands came to hear Everett speak about these latest divine revelations.
"Some have said what the Prophet has recently written on the practice of taking multiple wives as a sin! I say, it is not! The Lord says it is not! Even Martin Luther said it is not against God's commandments! I say it is a rebirth of the American people! It is God's will and so let it be done! How else should we achieve our Manifest Destiny? Think about it this way, folks: If every man in the Union took another wife, our population would possibly triple in 20 years! If he took three, well, you can do the math, and I'll do the preaching! We would have Armies of Christian Soldiers, ready to take on the forces of Satan! We would have scientists, bankers, and engineers by the tens of thousands. For the Lord has instructed us to be fruitful and multiply! The Bible tells us this. The Book of Purity also instructs this, in vivid detail in verses 10 through 15, when the Angel of Destiny says to the Prophet, 'May God's Chosen People be fruitful. May they multiply and covereth the face of the earth with their seed. May Man take Wives in Christ's name and rear up many children. May millions upon millions be brought up with the Word of God in their mouths and hearts, and may they take that what has been prepared for them by the Lord. For the Inferiors breed copiously, with no care for marriage or sacred rites, and they shall attempt to drag our people into the muck and mire of sin and misery with their abundant evil offspring. Yea, these Inferiors are working against the People of God. But those Inferiors that know their rightful place as workers shall be elevated to a higher place in death. For idleness is the Devil's plaything, and may work set them free from the wages of sin and barbarism.'"
Loud hissing and booing filled the meeting place upon mention of the foreign hordes. Everett continued:
"And so I say to you, my fellow Americans, we are in the End of Days and we must gird up our nation to weather this coming storm. The Lord has spoken through his Angel of Destiny, through the Prophet, and I was there for it all! I saw the golden gleam of the Angel speak to the Prophet! I saw it appear and disappear and I saw it's divine power. America needs to change. If we are to build the New Jerusalem we need builders! And soldiers! It is time for America to change forever. Polygamy is now a Church doctrine, and all who partake sin not, but prepare us for a glorious future when All shall Hail the name of the Republican Union! My brothers and sisters, go forth and multiply! The New Jerusalem won't build itself!"
***
Cincinnati Riot of 1826
Cincinnati Riot of 1826
Out west, Reverend Milo Miles was having a much harder time selling the Fourth Book to Union citizens. He was chased out of Cincinnati by an angry mob calling him an apostate and liar. Discouraged but not down, he went north to Chersonesus and had more luck in the city of Crawford, formerly known as Detroit. On December 3, 1826, Miles officiated the first polygamist marriage in Union history between Charles Shores, Lucinda Gertude, and Victoria Lewis, all three die-hard followers of the Prophet. Next, after Miles crossed Lake Michigan to Milwauckie, Michigania, he had more success with these new revelations. Now with a trail of polygamist unions under his belt, he traveled on to Oshkosh, where a revival meeting was cut short by a mob of horseman armed with swords and long rifles.
Miles kept on pushing, though, and eventually Federal troops came to "supervise Miles peacefully practice his religious freedom." This was unbelievable to some, who saw it as the government stepping in to rubberstamp the AFC for the first time. Yankee troops guarded revivals at several small cities, and a shootout occurred at one in Green Bay between soldiers and several Catholics and anti-AFC radicals. Known as the Green Bay Christmas Massacre of 1826, it devolved into full-scale civil unrest in the region. No one could report with accuracy who fired the first shot, but before the day was over mass rioting and rolling gunfights and looting.
Reverend Milo Miles dictating to his secretary, a young man named Millard Fillmore
Illustration of the Green Bay Massacre of 1826
When all was said and done and order was returned to the streets in late December, over 100 people had been killed and an entire area of downtown Green Bay had been turned to ash. However, this would prove a boon to the AFC, as newspapers began reporting of "devious hoodlums and assassins trying to kill Reverend Miles, who was peacefully preaching to the people of Green Bay, Michigania." Miles was practically martyred and sanctified alive, and when he returned to Philadelphia in February, 1827, he received a hero's welcome. Thousands of AFC loyalists called him true saint, facing down death itself to spread the Good Word.
As the years would go on and the AFC would gain in power, there would be no shortage of resistance to the cult and its polygamous ways, but it would gradually become more and more mainstream. By the end of the 19th Century, an American man with more than one wife barely turned heads. It was the New America, and the changes weren't over yet. With the creation of the Council of Jehovah in 1829, the changes were just beginning.
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That was a special chapter before we get to the Congress of 1826 and get more European focus. I felt these new ideas very much fleshed out more of what makes the AFC and the Union tick, and it shows not all Americans just sat on their rears doing nothing as they swept the nation. However, it also shows some early violent attempts by Catholics and nonconformists that the AFC can take out of context to make anyone opposing them look like a terrorist. It will only get worse when the anarcho-socialism that is Meinrad Beutel makes his appearance. And also the stage is now set for Goodyear to push the living daylights out of foreign workers because if you push the "Inferiors" into work, you are literally helping them to rise to a higher plain after death because work will set you free. And when I introduce the "Father of Union Phrenology" in the 1840s, it will only get much worse.
"Benedict Arnold University of Boston asks you to attend a lecture on September 9, at 2 pm, on the Definition of Humanity and the Folly of Equal Treatment for the Inferior Races. This lecture will be hosted by Conrad Goldstein, acclaimed Anglo-Jewish scientist of London, a recent citizen of our fair Union."
"Benedict Arnold University of Boston asks you to attend a lecture on September 9, at 2 pm, on the Definition of Humanity and the Folly of Equal Treatment for the Inferior Races. This lecture will be hosted by Conrad Goldstein, acclaimed Anglo-Jewish scientist of London, a recent citizen of our fair Union."
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Strictly for demographic and economic reasons, I imagine polygamy would still be reserved largely for elites and people substantially favored by the Church hierarchy. I can easily imagine multiple wives and broods of children being a mark of status and aspirational goal as a result, because they're walking signals that you're 1) prosperous enough to support a family that size, 2) have the favor of God to be 'blessed' in such a manner, and in a chauvinistic patriarchal society like the 19th-century RU, 3) are overflowing with 'masculine prowess and virility' to head such a household. It'll also be interesting to see the effects of that kind of society on its neighbors, as I remember the Southron states were much more progressive (generally speaking) by the time of their conquest in the OG timeline, and having the RU promoting polygamy might be a further spur for the women's movements in those countries.
This is EXACTLY what I was thinking. A lower-class man in upper New York might be able to afford two wives at most. Meanwhile, Boss Tweed-type Yankee aristocrats can have as many as they can fit in their mansions. Later on, the Union might put some sort of tax breaks in place as an incentive to have bigger families...
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I can only imagine how much Catholic, and for that matter normal protestant, outrage will be generated in Europe if the RU goes full on Polgamy. It will cast the RU as a paraiah before they even go into world conquest.
I promised this TL divert from Classic, it would just take a while.
It's not a straight-rewrite, it's about to be a whole other game entirely the way its going right now.I'd start wondering now how long the outrage will last before it becomes simply, "Oh those crazy Americans with their multiple wives" to some European protestants. And what it might entail for rich crazy white dudes who like the sound of multiple wives deciding to move to America...
I like seeing how there is a bit of a backlash against the AFC. Grounds it more in realism. The defeat in Boston, plus a brave prophet equals propaganda points that will help the church to spread across the RU. Would also be interesting to see the RU break away from British English and it's "Papist Frog" influence through the introduction of Anglish (called American ITTL). If you want a link to more info on Anglish, let me know via message.
Ya know, this latest chapter really gives new meaning to these Yankee Doodle lyrics:
Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy, mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy!
Yankee Doodle keep it up, Yankee Doodle Dandy, mind the music and the step, and with the girls be handy!
While I was the one who suggested a Mormon connection, I'm not so nuts about this polygamy aspect: it makes the AFC seem far too alien far too early. I don't see how a Church preaching this wouldn't just get driven out like the mormons were. I would think it would be something secretive, reserved for the Council of Jehovah (which I also have some problems with at this stage).
Polygamy? Well, I suppose there’s worse religious practices to adopt. (Although I suspect that worse will come later.)
The Custer Youth Brigade will be indeed back! They're one of my favorite aspects of WMiT. Made even creepier by the thought that they might be the children of polygamists in the future, with so many children being sent off to go "camping" because the parents are sick of having 10-20 children around at all times.
I'm divided on polygamy being in the TL this early. I love the chapter and it sounds legit like some cooky Victorian cults out there, but I also considered a bizarre plot element:
What if the Council of Jehovah decrees "Plural Marriage" is acceptable sometime in the, oh, 1850s or 60. This sets up the North against the South with the Yankees preaching "an end to slavery!" (as pretext for a land-grab as well, perhaps at least Maryland) and the Southrons preaching "An end to Northern apostasy" (because the North is flipping nuts and has to be stopped). In the ensuing bloodbath, which might end in eventual Union victory or a long drawn out stalemate, the population is depleted enough to where the Yankees just go ahead and accept Plural Marriage is the way forward to rebuild and crush the South once and for all (maybe around the turn of the century or 1910s). Perhaps a real dud of a Bonaparte is on the Imperial throne and dealing with Russian or Prussian problems at that point and bungles North America, leaving the Southrons with minimal assistance. This would result in America seizing perhaps Louisiana, Nova Scotia or something as well, much earlier than Classic, giving them time to build into a true superpower with access to the Pacific and the riches of South America, where Goodyear Enterprises would secure rubber and oil, making way for a future unstoppable war machine. The millions of Inferiors added in by conquering Central America and maybe the upper tip of South America like Classic would further fuel the supply of almost free cheap Inferior labor long after the supply of immigrants from ireland and the Slavic countries dries up. The war against the South could also be started by the weird blips of Virginia into RU territory from ancient colonial claims.
I could redo that last chapter and have the most major epiphany be that "work will set you free" for the Inferiors, and then a rogue sect of AFC begins practicing polygamy, setting it up for the Council of Jehovah to deal with later in the century. Perhaps Milo Miles leads this sect and break off in a schism.
I'm divided on polygamy being in the TL this early. I love the chapter and it sounds legit like some cooky Victorian cults out there, but I also considered a bizarre plot element:
What if the Council of Jehovah decrees "Plural Marriage" is acceptable sometime in the, oh, 1850s or 60. This sets up the North against the South with the Yankees preaching "an end to slavery!" (as pretext for a land-grab as well, perhaps at least Maryland) and the Southrons preaching "An end to Northern apostasy" (because the North is flipping nuts and has to be stopped). In the ensuing bloodbath, which might end in eventual Union victory or a long drawn out stalemate, the population is depleted enough to where the Yankees just go ahead and accept Plural Marriage is the way forward to rebuild and crush the South once and for all (maybe around the turn of the century or 1910s). Perhaps a real dud of a Bonaparte is on the Imperial throne and dealing with Russian or Prussian problems at that point and bungles North America, leaving the Southrons with minimal assistance. This would result in America seizing perhaps Louisiana, Nova Scotia or something as well, much earlier than Classic, giving them time to build into a true superpower with access to the Pacific and the riches of South America, where Goodyear Enterprises would secure rubber and oil, making way for a future unstoppable war machine. The millions of Inferiors added in by conquering Central America and maybe the upper tip of South America like Classic would further fuel the supply of almost free cheap Inferior labor long after the supply of immigrants from ireland and the Slavic countries dries up. The war against the South could also be started by the weird blips of Virginia into RU territory from ancient colonial claims.
I could redo that last chapter and have the most major epiphany be that "work will set you free" for the Inferiors, and then a rogue sect of AFC begins practicing polygamy, setting it up for the Council of Jehovah to deal with later in the century. Perhaps Milo Miles leads this sect and break off in a schism.
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