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And yet the worst possible thing for an American slave was to be sold to the Spanish Caribbean plantations, where working to death was the norm rather than the exception.
"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
And yet the worst possible thing for an American slave was to be sold to the Spanish Caribbean plantations, where working to death was the norm rather than the exception.
I totally agree, the US as a whole has been a force for good most of the time. This TL is just taking OTL US atrocities to over 10,000.
And as for what I just said about trauma, I'm not referring to it making people evil, I was referring to my personal childhood traumas (which I won't get into on here) which turned me into a reclusive teenager who didn't trust anyone and thought everyone was waiting to hurt me too. (Btw, nobody worry about me, I am a normal guy now with a happy life, lol). I actually don't believe much in Freudian stuff. Never been a fan. I just know that villains who have believable backstories are far better than one dimensional "Hail Hydra! characters, which is more like 1.0 where the Union was obviously the bad guy vs. everything else, which I felt was a major weakness. Also, most of the most evil people in history I've read about had very messed up early lives. Ghenghis Khan killed his brother over a fish. Hitler grew up with a psycho dad who beat him severely (youtube reference). Kaiser Wilhelm II blamed his withered arm on his British doctor. It's compelling.
Prophet Burr is a literal extreme PTSD case crossed with further mental problems. He doesn't have a Freudian excuse. Honestly, I don't even know if you could call him evil. He's just sick and nuts and probably has early on-set dementia. Goodyear has a traumatic childhood and has a reason to resent Canada, France, and the South for the death of his father, but that doesn't give him a reason to hate "Inferiors." He does that out of his own Victorian mindset. He's just evil who happened to have an awful childhood. So did millions of Americans thanks to the Shatter of 1801 and the War of 1812. People aren't having good times, he just happens to be one of them. Not every person who lost a loved one or home in 1812 has turned into an evil genius psycho obviously. That just happens to be what occurs with Goodyear. Maybe the pain of 1812 is what made him evil, or maybe he was already gonna be Lord Business regardless, or maybe he was going to be a mostly-failure like OTL. That's why he is a compelling character. It's interesting to think about why he's evil.
But all in all, WMIT is entertainment. Don't take it all literally or completely seriously. Some things in this TL are there purely for story or to be weird/funny. Entertainment is my primary goal, and all my friends know me as the "funny history nerd guy."
And as for what I just said about trauma, I'm not referring to it making people evil, I was referring to my personal childhood traumas (which I won't get into on here) which turned me into a reclusive teenager who didn't trust anyone and thought everyone was waiting to hurt me too. (Btw, nobody worry about me, I am a normal guy now with a happy life, lol). I actually don't believe much in Freudian stuff. Never been a fan. I just know that villains who have believable backstories are far better than one dimensional "Hail Hydra! characters, which is more like 1.0 where the Union was obviously the bad guy vs. everything else, which I felt was a major weakness. Also, most of the most evil people in history I've read about had very messed up early lives. Ghenghis Khan killed his brother over a fish. Hitler grew up with a psycho dad who beat him severely (youtube reference). Kaiser Wilhelm II blamed his withered arm on his British doctor. It's compelling.
Prophet Burr is a literal extreme PTSD case crossed with further mental problems. He doesn't have a Freudian excuse. Honestly, I don't even know if you could call him evil. He's just sick and nuts and probably has early on-set dementia. Goodyear has a traumatic childhood and has a reason to resent Canada, France, and the South for the death of his father, but that doesn't give him a reason to hate "Inferiors." He does that out of his own Victorian mindset. He's just evil who happened to have an awful childhood. So did millions of Americans thanks to the Shatter of 1801 and the War of 1812. People aren't having good times, he just happens to be one of them. Not every person who lost a loved one or home in 1812 has turned into an evil genius psycho obviously. That just happens to be what occurs with Goodyear. Maybe the pain of 1812 is what made him evil, or maybe he was already gonna be Lord Business regardless, or maybe he was going to be a mostly-failure like OTL. That's why he is a compelling character. It's interesting to think about why he's evil.
But all in all, WMIT is entertainment. Don't take it all literally or completely seriously. Some things in this TL are there purely for story or to be weird/funny. Entertainment is my primary goal, and all my friends know me as the "funny history nerd guy."
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^ Great convo going on up there. Anywho, here's another meme before I go to bed:
Murica1776 after reading about Carolina's alliance with the Union.
Murica1776 after reading about Carolina's alliance with the Union.
One suggestion I'll make is to give Europa and the Nordreich more transparently evil figures. Napoleona from classic was decent, but given that most of the top Nazis and Stalin's goons are showing up in the RU TTL, you should definitely put some real crazies in charge of the European powers. Georges Valois (a French fascist who's perhaps best known for his role in Kaiserreich as a potential Commie Nazi leader of communard France), Ulrike Meinhoff, Charles Maurras, Vikdun Quisilng, guys like that. Germany should get lunatics like Gregor Strasser, scum like Kurt von Schleicher, etc. My 2 cents, anyway.
Anyway--when I say Freudian excuse, I mean, "I was hurt personally when I was younger and that's what made me evil". I hate that shit, it's way overused, and used improperly at that (only way it works is if you're using it to explain the backstory of an antagonistic character who is clearly established to have a decent side beforehand, and that's hardly ever bothered with). Which is why I've been pushing for Madness!Heydrich to be just as psychopathic and born-evil as OTL Heydrich--the man was so comprehensively and utterly vile on every level that literally just copy-pasting him all the way down to the part where his private journals were such an unholy Necronmicon of evil that they turned a diehard Nazi into a dissident who smuggled Jews out of Germany in less than 24 hours, is the only real way to do him right here IMO. Even your fertile imagination can't possibly come up with something worse than Reinhard Heydrich, because Reinhard Heydrich's complete lack of empathy would give the devil nightmares.
IMO, the best villains you've written here are the ones that are still straight-up irredeemable monsters, because you give 'em interesting backstories and funny twists like "literally Stalin" and "evil JFK on crack". They're multidimensional, rounded characters, but they're also cheesily straight-up vile. And giving the European powers more like that should really help (Tsar Evil Kaiser Wilhelm-Khan is already a great start!).
CHAPTER 57
CHAPTER 57
ASHTON'S ASH HEAPS
Quebecois cavalry parade by one last time in Quebec City before heading to the front
On the Plains of Abraham the trilliums blow
Between the crosses, row on row
And in the grass and dirt and soil
lay the bodies of Yank and Royal
Through shrapnel, steel, and fire they flew
Just ordinary boys like me and you
What madness, that they should die
And be forgot as time rolls by
On the Plains of Abraham the trilliums blow
Between the crosses, row on row.
Montcalm and Wolfe and then redux
Just ordinary boys like me and you
- Unknown
The men of the 1st Cohort, 2nd Legion, advance to meet the enemy
To the southwest, the worst fears of Quebec's monarch were coming true. The heavily fortified border was antiquated. The defenses had been built up around 1890, when Marie was sent by her father Napoleon III to rule Quebec, shortly before his death. She and her brother Napoleon IV, her elder by one year, had never been on the best of terms. Their constant bickering back in France was one of the reasons their father had shipped her off to rule Quebec. When her brother became Caesar, she begged him for more help in fortifying the border with America. She told him of the horror stories coming from Mexico. She had seen first-hand the rise of the Republican Union from regional powerhouse to a killing machine. Now it was too late. With the situation spiraling into a three-way war on the Continent and the likely prospect of a Britannic Union between England and Scotland, it was unlikely that any further aid would be incoming. She would have to make do with what she had. And it wasn't much.
Just seven hours away, the Union Army Group I, the legendary "Lincoln's Hammer" was assaulting the border near the old town of Peterborough with a full force of 10 cohorts of 2000 men each (the American army had finally phased out "regiments" in favor of "cohorts" except for a few very old regiments that kept their original title). The mostly wood and brick fortifications the Quebecois had along the border did little in the face of American artillery barrages and aeroship assaults. The attack had commenced at 6 o'clock that morning. Now, as 120,000 men, the heart of the Grand Army of the Republic, pressed on, the Quebecois were reeling. They had never seen anything like this. The Quebec Army had mustered up a total of 250,000 men, but most were barely trained. Of that total, only about 100,000 were professional soldiers. Most had never seen combat. Wave after wave of Americans advanced, screaming "For the Prophet!" and "God Bless America!"
As the 3rd Maniple, 1st Cohort, 2nd Legion, made a break-through through the heart of Peterborough, the Quebec infantry were panicking. The onslaught was driven by pure hatred. No matter how thick the hail of grinder and rifle rounds flying through the cold air was, the Yanks would simply press on. Though they were taking heavy losses, Lincoln's Hammer, was still whipping the defenders solidly. The small Quebec Royal Aeroforce was taking to the skies, even utilizing new machines named "aeroplanes" in combat for the first time. While this proved to be an ordeal for the Union aeroships, losing the USS Mad Anthony and the USS Zephyr very quickly on, the fragile planes were quickly destroyed by ground guns and the advance pressed on in a frenzy of blood and lead. The brave troops of the 3rd Maniple were the spearhead of this Union attack, their 120 men quickly being cut down to 50. But they still managed to take out key bunkers and grinder nests.
Quebec Royal troops on the march in Peterborough
Legate General Acme Ashton smiled as he watched the militia break finally. Ashton was watching the assault from the observation deck of his flagship, the USS Hellfire. It was from this state of the art vessel that he surveyed the carnage and directed his forces via a new invention known as "walkie talkies." Colonels were in charge of cohorts, and he walkied Colonel Buford Sims, the man directing the 1st and 2nd Cohorts of the 2nd Legion, Group I, and ordered him to show no mercy to those who resisted or who could be deemed a threat. "This is a war, not a charity operation. We have a enough damned Infees back home that barely their God-given station in life to start bringing in more that just took up arms against us.' Colonel Sims took this to mean any able-bodied man over the age of 15. As the Royal Army shattered and began to run north, Peterborough fell to the Union invaders. Troops went house to house, looting at will if they were Catholic, Inferior, had resisted, or were a mix of all three, but an unusual order came down to not trouble any Protestant Churches or known Protestant citizens. But as for the rest, which was the vast majority, their fate was swift and brutal. Squads roamed the streets, hanging Inferiors as they went. All through the night there was resistance. No matter where you were, you could here the pepper of Quebec grinders opening fire on Yankee invaders in the distance, or perhaps right next door. But the battle was tactically over. Despite initial bravery, the Quebecois were outgunned and solidly defeated. No amount of courage could save them from the guns and knives of American troops who thought the Return of Christ was at hand.
Acme Ashton landed that night and set himself up a headquarters at the local jail. After an hour or two, a telegraph line was setup so he could wire McClellan in Philadelphia.
"Cracking success STOP Papist dogs run like scared sheep STOP Will continue advance at first light STOP Will alert if sitrep changes STOP Naming town after Prophet STOP ALL HAIL STOP"
Telegraph dated 11 pm, Friday, December 1, 1911, from Legate General Ashton to Supreme Marshal McClellan
McClellan was very happy. Army Group I's assault was progressing wonderfully. However, it was a pain to lose the Mad Anthony and the Zephyr, but such losses were to be expected when assaulting a defended border. Despite heavy losses, American troops had not taken a single step back through the entire Battle of Peterborough. Immediately, Ashton had the town renamed "Prophetsborough" in celebration and to send a message. The Words of the Prophet were coming true. Manifest Destiny was surely at hand.
This was hardly the only fighting raging that first day of December. On the contrary, the Battle of Kawartha Lakes was raging twenty miles northwest, with the 4th Legion handing the Royal forces there a vicious beating. The next day, Ashton regrouped his forces early in the morning and pushed on toward the crucial St. Lawrence River. The Battle of Belleville saw much of the Royal Army that had retreated the previous day finally receive reinforcements. However, many of these reinforcements were cavalry. They were very quickly about to learn a lesson in modernity. The Battle of Belleville was also a complete disaster. The cavalry were mowed down by Yankee grinders as fast as the gunners could pull the trigger. Horse and man were ripped to shreds and the screams of the dying were barely audible over the banging of the guns. Belleville was a Catholic town, and what had happened in Peterborough was nothing compared to the fate Belleville was destined for. Yankee troops once again killed all the men over 15, rounding them up and executing them en masse. Once again, Colonel Sims was largely responsible for carrying out the atrocities.
The "Fightin' Fourth" Legion advances to meet the enemy at the Battle of Kawartha Lakes
Acme Ashton walkied his subordinate from atop the Hellfire and told him, "Colonel Sims, I'll be damned if you aren't one hell of a soldier. I have received estimates that over half this den of iniquity has been wiped from the face of the planet. Is this correct? Over."
Sims was responding with a crank unit mounted in the back of his personal wagon and said, "Yessir, those estimates are correct. I know we need to press the attack, but my boys want to tear this papist shithole down. Even the very name of this backwater smacks of Becky frogs. Heard the redskins used to call it Asukhknosk. Sodom in one hand, Gomorrah in the other, I say. Over."
Ashton reviewed the timetables on the desk in front of him. About a dozen officers were scuttling around the maps and charts, positioning markers and writing down information as it came in. "Well, the advance is going ahead of schedule. We didn't think the Beckies would give up so easy. If I was them, I would have built a big beautiful wall on my border. But if they want to make it easy and only throw a few grinder nests at us, then I say we have time for some demolition. Colonel Sims, strip everything of value from that town. Every crucifix and coin. I will send up the quartermasters to collect whatever your men round up. Then burn it. Burn it all. I don't want a single cell alive in that town, do you understand me? Tell everyone to get the hell out, or get the hell beat out of them. Shoot immediately if they resist. Over."
Sims laughed heartily and replied, "That's the Legate Ashton I love to fight for! I will see to these orders immediately, sir! I don't think my men will complain much. All hail! Over."
By the end of the second day of the war, Belleville was ablaze. An entire town over a century old was completely wiped out. As news began to hit Quebec City of the total annihilation the Yankees were bringing to innocent civilians, anger overpowered their fear. Men, women, and children rallied and picked up arms, determined to take the fight to the murdering invaders. The war wasn't over yet. And the people of Quebec weren't going to go down without a fight, and an unseasonably warm winter was about to finally turn frigid. But even in winter, the 13th ORRA Mechanized would have cold coffee and hot lead as they came in from the east....
Legate General Wilford Acme Ashton, Army Group I
Colonel Buford Sims, Commander of the 1st and 2nd Cohorts, 2nd Legion, Group I
"The Butcher of Belleville"
Yankee firing squad executes a Quebecois civilian for resistance
A Negro cohort on the move during the St. Lawrence River Campaign (American units being segregated was one of the only leftovers of slavery by 1911, and was really only in place to pacify Southron hardliners)
Exhausted Quebecois troops take cover behind weak defenses amid the bodies of their own dead
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Poor Quebec or I guess we'll be calling it "Keybeck" or something if the Americans have their way.
Poor Quebec. So far from God, so close to Philadelphia.
Maybe Marie can embrace the madness a little too and suddenly decide she is Joan of Arc reborn
Maybe Marie can embrace the madness a little too and suddenly decide she is Joan of Arc reborn
Nazi Germany: "Look at what we did to Lidice and Lezaky!"
Republican Union: "How dare you outmatch us in atrocities! We'll one-up you! Just watch!"
Nazi Germany: "I'd love to see you try!"
Republican Union: *kills 5,000 people, razes a town over one thousand years old, makes 35,000 homeless*
Nazi Germany: "Good try! But what we did to those two towns was just appetizer!"
Republican Union: "You shouldn't have killed any Protestants! They should have been converted to the AFC!"
Nazi Germany: "I don't care about your pointless anti-Catholic demagoguery. Get a life."
Republican Union: "You filthy Papist! How DARE you sully the name of Prophet Burr!"
Fifteen minutes later
Greece: "Why are they still fighting?"
Turkey: "What useless quarreling."
Republican Union: "How dare you outmatch us in atrocities! We'll one-up you! Just watch!"
Nazi Germany: "I'd love to see you try!"
Republican Union: *kills 5,000 people, razes a town over one thousand years old, makes 35,000 homeless*
Nazi Germany: "Good try! But what we did to those two towns was just appetizer!"
Republican Union: "You shouldn't have killed any Protestants! They should have been converted to the AFC!"
Nazi Germany: "I don't care about your pointless anti-Catholic demagoguery. Get a life."
Republican Union: "You filthy Papist! How DARE you sully the name of Prophet Burr!"
Fifteen minutes later
Greece: "Why are they still fighting?"
Turkey: "What useless quarreling."
Poor Quebec. They'll be the first to experience the stormy twisted horror of the Union Army, but they won't be the last.
Now that is just sad.
Ironically enough having horse cavalry is not such a bad idea during this time period. Nazi propaganda aside its a good way to provide mobility if you lack complete mechanisation.
Nice job on editing some of those images if my results on reverse image search are correct, though I do think that some simple maps of where the battles/frontlines are would be nice.
"We shall fight in the mountains! We shall fight in the streets! We shall fight on the hills and streams! We shall defend the stands of maple trees! We shall defend our nation, whatever the cost may be! We shall never surrender! And if, a thousand years from now, historians look at this war and see how we won, they will say, this was our finest hour!"
In Mexico the Republican Union showed the world exactly what they can expect when they surrender to the tender mercies of the Yankee. They can expect nothing but death or slavery, rape and murder. Thus the people of Quebec will fight with the ferocity of the Spartans; they will fight not for Queen, not for country, but that their children may grow up and experience that which life has to offer, that their daughters not have their innocence horrifically stolen by the Yankee ogre, that they will not die in Goodyear's death camps! The Republican Union has shown the world what will come of surrender; that is their weakness.
Well.... Quebec may be boned, but at least they seem to be going down swinging. Great update as always. May California spare better cause it's about to get real war crimey in here.