"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
One idea I had is maybe around the turn of the century, more progressive elements of Europan society perhaps, using a weird form of crypto-Beutelism, liberalize the Empire to a degree and want to eventually create an *EU with the countries not in Europa proper, only to face backlash later on. I'm considering them literally being the second coming of the Illuminati. I can already imagine America's reaction. I first thought of maybe Friedrich Engels* and some other theorists living in Paris and being like "we can slowly illuminate the world if we slowly take over." Just imagine it! A psuedo-Beutelist secret society trying to put its people at the highest positions of power all across Europe.
There will actually be a chapter about this soon.
Last edited:
The next chapter is gonna be about CoCaro! Prepare for the second coming of one of my alltime favorite fictional names from Classic, Adelbert Upjohn Gamble IV!
There will actually be a chapter about this soon.
Glad to hear it, the fact that this stuff weirds me out is a good thing this world should feel alien. I do advise you to tone down a bit with some of the references, when it goes a bit too on the nose it takes you out of the story.
To give an example the fact that the Book of Manifestum refers to nuclear weaponry in a deluded, coincidental and prophetic way is really genius, when a certain Jewish AFC fanatic stumbles upon E=mc2 he is going to froth at the mouth. Russian interference in the Greek war resulting in someone being refereed to as a 'Russian agent' or there being an 'Economic Union' in Europe is just too blunt in my opinion, when used frequently anyway.
I am personally excited to see what you will do with African de-colonisation. Oh and what about artistic mediums like Anime or Rap music, how will the Union deal with them?
I also hope that Super-Brazil will not just be written off, a unified Rio de La Plata will (eventually) twist geopolitics in ways that have never happened historically.
Do consider my 'Dark Enlightenment' plot twist as well, in the original the story petered out when there no more threats to the NUSA, something like my idea, though obviously very different may help with that problem in the 21st century parts of this TL.
I also hope that Super-Brazil will not just be written off, a unified Rio de La Plata will (eventually) twist geopolitics in ways that have never happened historically.
Do consider my 'Dark Enlightenment' plot twist as well, in the original the story petered out when there no more threats to the NUSA, something like my idea, though obviously very different may help with that problem in the 21st century parts of this TL.
Last edited:
*Screams Belligerently in Carolinian*
GOD BLESS JOHNNY GAMBLE, SAVIOR OF OUR CONFEDERATION! UNDER HIS LEADERSHIP, THE VULTURE SHALL LET OUT A SCREAM HEARD ROUND THE WORLD! HARK THE SOUND!
^ I was waiting to see how long it would take you.
These are fun to make and inspire me to bring in new characters. Johnny Gamble is completely fictional, and I'm about to do another purely fictional one again.
These are fun to make and inspire me to bring in new characters. Johnny Gamble is completely fictional, and I'm about to do another purely fictional one again.
^ I was waiting to see how long it would take you.
I have.... CAROLINA-SENSE! (patent pending).
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Will we see any of these people in any of them? If not in them, anywhere in this timeline? I could see them as some of the most heroic figures in the fight against fundamentalist republican fiends and their fellow travelers. (And maybe the last one is better known for their Beutelism, but then again maybe all three don't exist thanks to butterflies or are killed off sometime during the Great War.)
I can already see the hype building in the eyes of @Murica1776.
Last edited:
I only recognize the first one, though I can't remember the name. Answer in spoilers?
The second one is Michael Collins I believe..Don't know who the third is.
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Here you are.
First guy is Josip Broz, pseudonym Tito. IOTL, he led a partisan army and largely liberated Yugoslavia from the Nazis and collaborators alike with limited Soviet support. He ruled from 1945 until his death in 1980, and claimed that he famously said this to Stalin in 1948:
Josip Broz Tito said:
Second guy is Michael Collins, IOTL an Irish republican famous for his role in Ireland's fight for independence from Britain after World War I. Assassinated in 1922.
Third guy is Nestor Makhno, Ukrainian anarchist who started the Free Territory of Ukraine, and kicked out the White Army from Ukraine with some help from the Bolshevik Red Army. Eventually the Red Army was rodered to crush them, and Makhno fled to exile where he died in France of tuberculosis in '34.
CHAPTER 51
CHAPTER 51
HARK THE SOUND
Confederation troops on parade through Newport News before departing for the colony of Jacksonland
Hark the sound of free men's voices
Ringing clear and True
Singing Carolina's praises
Freedom for me and you
Hail to the brightest Star of all
Clear its radiance shine
Confed'ration priceless gem,
Receive all praises thine.
'Neath the oaks the sons true hearted
Homage pay to thee
Time worn halls give back their echo
Here in the land of liberty
HARK THE SOUND
Confederation troops on parade through Newport News before departing for the colony of Jacksonland
Hark the sound of free men's voices
Ringing clear and True
Singing Carolina's praises
Freedom for me and you
Hail to the brightest Star of all
Clear its radiance shine
Confed'ration priceless gem,
Receive all praises thine.
'Neath the oaks the sons true hearted
Homage pay to thee
Time worn halls give back their echo
Here in the land of liberty
The mere fact that the Confederation of the Carolinas, one of the "victors" of the Great American War, was still independent was nothing short of a miracle. The fact that it reached the 20th century and even had Bermuda and the African colony of Jacksonland under its belt was nothing short of divine intervention. Despite the success of continual existence, the Confederation had a troubled history post-Great American War.
When President Lincoln demanded they end slavery by 1880 or be put down, it was a rough time for the Southron nation. But the Chancellery and the House of Citizens knew the threat was very real, even after Lincoln was assassinated. Even Hamilton Fish, the weakling, would have been happy to snuff the Confederation out in the blink of an eye. So it was that the Emancipation Act of 1870 was signed into law, finally and forever freeing blacks across the Confederation. It was not a moment too soon, as militant blacks had long been trying to create another massive insurrection as they had years before under Nat Turner. This, however, was not the end of the problems, or even close. The newly-freed black population was treated like dirt and shown little respect by their white former owners. Their freedom was seen as a direct threat to the Southron way of life, one of the only elements keeping the culture of the Confederation separate from that of the Yankee bastards. In 1870, with the creation of Jacksonland in Africa, Wade Hampton III and Nathan Bedford Forrest were placed in charge of "Denegrification." Every day, ships departed the major Carolinian ports loaded up with freed slaves, offering them transit to the old homeland. Once in Jacksonland, they would find themselves little more than slaves again, working away for little pay for the Carolinian West African Company and other corporations that controlled vast amounts of land in the colony. After a while, Hampton III returned home to become Chancellor of the Carolinas. This was following the poor performance of Polk's successor, James Johnston Pettigrew, whose reputation for corruption almost destroyed the Jacksonian Party single-handed.
Chancellor James Johnston Pettigrew
The Jacksonian Party ruled the Confederation almost like a one-party state, have lost only the 1845 election to Irving Wade, the first and only Chancellor to hail from the People's Party. Irving Wade served only one term before his "limp-wristed chicanery" lost him the Chancellery, giving way to the bombastic and fiery 18-year reign of James K. Polk, who led the Confederation through the storm of the Great American War.
LIST OF CHANCELLORS OF THE CONFEDERATION OF THE CAROLINAS
**Finished term for Forrest
Jacksonian Party
People's Party
Common Sense Party
- Andrew Jackson (1801-1827)
- Ezra Belmont (1827 - 1833)
- Malcolm Jeremiah Morris (1833 - 1845)
- Irving Wade (1845 - 1851)
- James K. Polk (1851 - 1869)
- James Johnston Pettigrew (1869 - 1875)
- Wade Hampton III (1875 - 1887)
- Nathan Bedford Forrest (1887 - 1891*)
- Wade Hampton III (1891 - 1893**)
- Nehemiah Baker (1893 - 1899)
**Finished term for Forrest
Jacksonian Party
People's Party
Common Sense Party
Wade Hampton III would prove himself to be a very capable Chancellor, serving two terms and remaining head of the Jacksonian Party upon his exit from office. However, it was under Hampton III that the extremist "Normanist" ideology took hold inside the Confederation. Founded by Zebulon Baird Vance, an anti-AFC radical writer, Normanism was a reference to the ethnicity that historically opposed the Anglo-Saxons back in the Middle Ages. His bestselling book, Our Ancient Heritage, was an inflammatory call to arms for war against the Union. According to Vance, every Carolinian should consider themselves a Norman and opposed to the cruel, barbarous Anglo-Saxons of the North. This meant one hundred percent total rejection of Union causes, absolutely zero tolerance for Union companies to operate in the Confederation, and called for the ouster of the Jacksonian Party as "puppets of the Yankee apostates." Though a minority, the Normanists were very vocal in their opposition to Hampton III and the Jacksonians, and during the 1881 elections Normanists took 15 out of the 100 seats in the House of Citizens. Vance's followers also highly favored an open alliance with Caesar and an annexation of Cuba from the Union as "rightful Confederation soil our forefathers bled for against the Virginian swine."
Zebulon Baird Vance
As can be imagined, the Jacksonian Party was on edge. Upon his reelection that same year as Chancellor, Hampton III spoke before the House of Citizens, a huge portrait of Andrew Jackson behind him on the wall:
"Gentlemen of the Confederation, no man adores our bountiful realm as much as I. I cherish our people, our culture, and our heritage above all else. But, let me tell you all something which some of our recently elected House Citizens forget: we cannot fight the Union. Let me be clear, as we stand here today, with the world the way it unfortunately is, the Confederation does not have the coldest snowball's chance in hell of surviving some goll-damned idealistic crusade against the Yankees. The Union is superior industrially, economically, and militarily. Their population is many times the size of ours. No amount of do-gooding or foolish pretentious beliefs can possibly reverse the outcome of the Great American War. We were told that by not attacking the Union, we would be allowed to take back West Carolina and live in peace. We did what had to be done to unite our fatherland. The Vulture of the Confederation spread its wings and seized back what was rightfully its own. We took Bermuda and Newport News and carved out a beautiful colony in Africa. Though faced with Union supremacy on our land borders, Carolinian ships once again steam up and down the Mississippi. The Moon and Stars flutters over an untamed dark continent, ripe with resources that will be attained through hard work and the sweat of our brows. The Negro, our biggest problem both domestically and internationally, was freed, and any who wish can travel back to their ancestral homeland to make a new life and to live as free men. And through all of this, not once has the Union attacked us or made moves to destroy our country. I do not agree with the Cultists of the North, and indeed I strongly stand against Fundamentalism, but there is no possible situation where our best bet for handling the Yankees is war, unless they suddenly come crashing south, foaming at the mouth like rabid dogs, giving us no choice but to defend home and hearth. The thing to remember about the Yankees is that they are family. Whether we admit it or not, we are not Normans. We are not Anglo-Saxons. We are Americans. We share a common heritage and, aside from the more extreme elements, a common faith and belief in right and wrong. I believe the Yankee shall be redeemed one day, and we shall live in peace as neighbors, God-willing. And so I finish today by saying I do not wish to see Zebulon Vance bring about the end of the Confederation thanks to his extremist philosophy. When we engage in extremes, we are no better than Abraham Lincoln or Aaron Burr. I, gentlemen, hold my head up high in my desire for peace, and peace I call for today. Thank you all, and may God bless the Vulture of the Confederation."
The House of Citizens, still vastly Jacksonian, gave a standing ovation to Hampton III, while the Normanists sat glumly in their high-back oak chairs. Despite his speech, the divide would continue to widen between the average Jacksonian Carolinian and the "Red Shirt" followers of Vance and the Normanist Party. By the time of the 1887 elections, Hampton III announced he was stepping down for his former Lieutenant Governor of Jacksonland, Nathan B. Forrest, to run. The 1887 election was one of the nastiest in American history. Vance continued to peddle his demagoguery to all who would listen, and the "Red Shirt" party radicals would roam the streets of the major cities, trying to intimidate citizens into voting for Vance, who was officially now running for the Chancellery himself. By now, he had published two new books. The first, Song of the South, was a complete history of the South since the days of British rule and glorified the days of Andrew Jackson, ironically the founder of the Jacksonian Party, as the "last and only Jacksonian who would ever say 'no' to the Yankee devils. It also continued to bring home the idea that Cuba was the Confederation's by right and was, at the time, the most definitive history of the Cuba War ever written. The second book, A New Empire of the Vulture, was an explanation of what the Confederation should do to fight back against Yankee Supremacy. It proposed a "Grand Confederacy of the South" that would begin by sponsoring unrest and insurrection in Old Georgia. When the people there finally were close to throwing off Union rule, the Carolinians would sweep in and declare that Old Georgia was now officially a part of the the Grand Confederacy. It also called for a universal male draft to make the country a "Modern Sparta," always prepared to fight against the cultist apostates.
As most historians will say, this was literally the worst idea ever. But this election was actually far closer than the last, as the Union had just invaded Mexico and begun its merciless campaign of ethnic cleansing there. Though no one in Carolina knew how bad the situation was in the killing fields of the Sonoran Desert, the rumors were enough to propel many voters to the polls in favor of the Normanists. Forty of the one hundred seats in the House of Citizens were now Normanists, and the Jacksonians were feeling the pressure hard. In the end, Vance lost with 42% of the vote. Despite recent market troubles and an economic recession, Forrest squeaked in for the victory. Of course, this did not set well with the Normanists who denounced the election as a fraud.
Three days after election day, October 4, 1887, the Red Shirt Riots erupted in Raleigh. Normanists burned Union flags and effigies of Hampton III and Forrest, while chanting "We Voted Vance!" Tensions were high as government troops deployed to handle the rapidly escalating situation. The Jacksonian supporters, who very much feared a universal male draft, also then joined the boiling fracas with billy clubs and rocks, pelting the Normanists. As scuffles broke out across the capital, the government forces and police struggled to keep up with the violence. Fearing total civil war, Forrest cracked the whip (pun intended) and marched two thousand more troops into the capital and forced the Red Shirts to disperse by using brute force. Thinking that his country's very existence hung in the balance, he declared he would do "whatever necessary" to end the mobs.
Depiction of the Raleigh Red Shirt Riot
By the end of October, Red Shirt demonstrations were still raging in the streets. At last, Chancellor Forrest signed Executive Order 28 and declared the Normanist Party an enemy of the Confederation and a terrorist group. Faced with charges of actual treason, many of the less devout Red Shirts began to pack it up and call it a day. Vance himself, having been tipped off of the coming Order 28, quickly made his departure for Europe to escape arrest, taking some core followers with him.
Forrest was still facing massive unpopularity for his brutal take-down of the Normanist Party. Not only had he declared it illegal, but he had had the elected and sitting Normanists arrested inside the House of Citizens itself. Their seats, almost half the House, would remain empty until the next election. Slowly, however, the nation began to recover. Several excellent trade deals opened up and brought with them ways for the economy to recover. After four years in office, the Confederation was standing strong once more under Forrest's unitary rule. This was not to last. On the morning of February 19, 1891, Chancellor Forrest was speaking before a crowd of local tradesmen in Charleston when a man walked up the platform, pulled out a sawed-off double-barrel shotgun from underneath his coat, and blasted Forrest directly in the chest, killing him instantly. As the Chancellor fell dead, the man shouted, "This is from the Red Shirts, you son of a bitch!"
Miles McSweeney, assassin of Chancellor Forrest
Chancellor Nathan Bedford Forrest
Two-time Chancellor Wade Hampton III
Pandemonium broke out as security tackled and beat the man senseless. His name was Miles McSweeney, and he was a radical supporter of the exiled Vance. Wade Hampton III, now 73 years of age, came out of retirement upon unanimous decision by the House of Citizens. Normally, the Citizens were to decide from among themselves who would be the next leader if the currently serving one should die, but many knew Hampton III would be angrier than anyone else, as he and Forrest were actually quite close and longtime friends. Hampton III, now looking like the European tradition of Santa Claus with his snow-white beard and mane of hair, solemnly accepted the offer to finish Forrest's term. Now elevated as a martyr against the Normanists, Forrest became one of the most respected figures in the Confederation. Hampton III signed Executive Order 35, ordering all copies of Vance's books be publicly burned. The man he selected to place in charge of this roundup was a Charlotte native of old aristocratic stock named Adelbert Upjohn Gamble V. He gave him the title "Protector of the Public Virtue," a title which Gamble was proud to have and took deadly serious. His first act was to execute Miles McSweeney for high treason. The execution was conducted with a firing squad a week after his appointment.
Adelbert Upjohn Gamble V (b. 1861), Protector of Public Virtue
For the next weeks, Gamble traveled across the Confederation with his force of policemen and confiscated and burned tens of thousands of copies of Vance's works, leaving almost none left in the state. The penalty for possessing a Vance book was up to five years in prison and a one thousand greenback fine. When some questioned whether such brutal steps were necessary, Hampton III would simply ask them "why they supported terrorism." Following his successful campaign to eradicate Vance's writings, Hampton III placed Gamble in charge of the newly-created Department of Public Virtue. He then tasked Gamble with another important duty: breaking up the illegal distilleries all across the country that were producing unregulated booze and dodging taxes. Armed to the teeth and on a mission as if from God himself, Gamble quickly busted up many of the backwoods bootlegging operations across the land. Though quite tyrannical and rabid in his pursuit of law and order, no one could doubt Gamble's intentions. In his mind, he was a servant of God and the Confederation and was the no-nonsense supreme policeman the nation needed.
Agents of the Confederation Department of Public Virtue take axes to an illegal distillery in Wilmington
As Hampton III finished up Forrest's term, the elections of 1893 arrived. Without Red Shirt gangs roving the streets, the election was far more calm and peaceful. However, things were not going well for the Jacksonian Party. After titans like Hampton III and Forrest, they could find no excellent candidate to put forth who could hold a candle to those men's legacies. They ended up putting forth Furnifold Fiddler, a man far less interesting than his name would suggest. While they Fiddler expected the traditional challenge from the People's Party, which hadn't won an election since Irving Wade, the People's Party also had a dud of a candidate by the name of Heddley Jackson Attwood. Atwood was a rich banker who had about as much to do with a party of the people as Charles Goodyear. Faced with such poor choices, many desired for a third party to arrive on the scene. This would indeed happen as the "Common Sense Party" was created just in time for the campaign season. Their champion was Nehemiah Baker, a devout Christian and family man who owned a chain of restaurants across the country. Baker was seen as a Godly man who simply loved his country and wanted to bring the people together. Baker would win the election and the next after that, serving until 1899. He oversaw massive modernization at home and in the colonies, began to reform labor laws to encourage fairness in the workplace, and lowered taxes. Interestingly, he also raised the living conditions of blacks and former slaves in the Confederation proper and in Jacksonland, earning him precious support. He declared:
"Andrew Jackson is almost a deity down here in the Confederation! He is our Founding Father and eternal champion, but just because y'all want to proclaim yourselves Jacksonians you think that'll get you elected. I say Jackson, despite the name of your party, was never a member of it. It was named that posthumously. Ya know what he did have? Common Sense. He had common sense and was a man of action, and he would not have wanted to see the Chancellery become a parlor for rich old aristocrats to play at politics! A vote for Baker is a vote for common sense!"
Chancellor Nehemiah Baker
It was 1899--when he stepped aside after the typical two terms--that things became truly interesting. The Common Sense Party had virtually snuffed out the People's Party and had taken a chunk out of the Jacksonians. For the first time ever since its creation, the Party of Jackson was now a minority. To succeed Baker, the Common Sensers had to find someone in line with their mindset and core beliefs. They needed someone of upstanding and untouchable moral character to lead the country into the next century. They found just these prerequisites in Mr. Adelbert Upjohn Gamble V.
The election of 1899 was a landslide, with Gamble facing Heddley Attwood's second try for the Chancellery. Gamble won with 73% of the vote and the Common Sense Party held an eighty percent majority in the House. The new Chancellor graciously turned around and appointed Attwood as Foreign Secretary. As the world moved toward the outbreak of the Great World War, Gamble V would face tough times indeed, making many important decisions that could save or destroy the Confederation and the neutrality he so desperately desired. At the same time, he would place William "Rusty" G. Bunker as Protector of Public Virtue and put him in charge of keeping the public's view of the hostilities as neutral as possible.
Chancellor Adelbert Upjohn Gamble V
Rusty Bunker, Protector of Public Virtue
Heddley Jackson Attwood, Confederation Foreign Secretary
Carolinian missionaries in Jacksonland pose for a photo outside of the First Presbyterian Church of New Charlotte
Last edited:
As a big Makhno fan, seeing him get a batshit crazy Madness duplicate would be horrifyingly creepy in the proper Madnessverse spirit.
The part that actually surprises me is that this moment of actual sanity isn't immediately followed by the guy getting assassinated as soon as he finishes talking and then CoCaro getting taken over by a batshit crazy revanchist war cult.
Just saying, Rusty Bunker is one of my favorite names I have ever created, hands down. lol I use the BehindtheName name generator sometimes. I knew I wanted the first name to be Rusty and when the Bunker name popped up it was a match made in heaven. Also, he looks derpy as hell and I love it.
Nah, just his successor.
Also, I'm just waiting for Murica1776 to get on and see his favorite faction get the coverage it deserves, lol. I pictured it being in my head like the part of the LEGO Movie when Benny the Spaceman is told he can finally build a spaceship. lol
Nah, just his successor.
Also, I'm just waiting for Murica1776 to get on and see his favorite faction get the coverage it deserves, lol. I pictured it being in my head like the part of the LEGO Movie when Benny the Spaceman is told he can finally build a spaceship. lol
Last edited: