So I found some old religious tapes of my dad's. I put one in and let me tell ya, the emergency alert system looking screen reading "Christ has returned" is a little bit eerie on a 1960s TV console at 2am. I instantly thought of Madness. Lol
"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
RUMP Judge Burr, protector of ‘Merica-City One.Unrelated, but I really feel like in the future, TTL's big American cities are going to bear more than a passing resemblance to Mega-City One from Judge Dredd. The violent cities, very American fascism, hyper violent law enforcement, and the overall aesthetic seem like a perfect fit.
I found this in the Ameripol thread, and I think it may be the path the RU is on. They are already into "Spiritual Marxism", using it in medicine isn't too much of a leap; Brazil is going Eduist and is full of Infies; and Nippon is already another state in the Union which may well become a place where the pioneers of atomic energy in the RU go to experiment in a place where people in the continental RU won't care quite as much what happens to the locals. As a result Nippon may form the base of the RU's atomic infrastructure, and is likely to start exporting reactors in large numbers once the RU hits its oil crisis in the 70s or sooner due to bad relations with Europa (if they control the Levant) or Imperial Persia.
I am reminded of that one scene from the start of the 2012 dredd movie, where he pursues and kills a criminal in a mall. As he is walking out, we are treated to scenes of dead civilians being carted out in a garbage bin, a regular sanitation worker cleaning up the blood while an announcement over the intercom tells people that the food court will reopen in 30 minutes (after what was effectively a mass shooting). That level of complete and utter apathy for human life seems right up their alley.First of all, I love that Patton is A.) VP and B.) A Dr. Strangelove expy. If you want this to be another example of the RU's insanity working in its favor, maybe have him and his ORRA goons lay the foundations for stem cell research decades early in their quest.
Oh dear. I feel like any new rules are gonna be designed to make the sport more violent. Just a hunch....
Unrelated, but I really feel like in the future, TTL's big American cities are going to bear more than a passing resemblance to Mega-City One from Judge Dredd. The violent cities, very American fascism, hyper violent law enforcement, and the overall aesthetic seem like a perfect fit.
All the while, everyone is popping government mandated Joy from We Happy Few to keep themselves from breaking down at their own hell
AeroTheZealousOne
Monthly Donor
Well, you did have blood sports introduced in Pax Atomica. It's natural to expect this. That, and I don't see American football existing as it does in our world, thus another way of taking out anger in a legal manner.
Definitely a Madness-esque type of thing! I love all of these findings you make randomly! If the screen were a tad bit more blue it would look more like an answer on my personal favorite TV show "Jeopardy!".
Sorry I haven't been actively chatting here as much as everyone else, and I do enjoy the timeline, just college is starting and the work load is quite... existent.
Since it is Patriot Saints Day:
A Levin's talkiebox commercial (imagine a Motel 6 commercial).
*Begin music with fiddle playing a slow but happy tune*
"So it is Patriot Saints Season again, time for yelling, fist fights and lots of food and drink, but enough about dinner at my in-laws, this is Faith Cropper for Levin's, your local neighborhood store. While other stores have long lines, crowds and promise a good deal, you know your local Levin's stocks the same goods at the same prices. Come see our clean, well lit and well stocked stores with plenty of parking and friendly faces to help you. So whether you need some food for when the family comes over, some last minutes gifts for work or something for yourself, come to Levin's. Where you are not just customers, you are family!"
A Levin's talkiebox commercial (imagine a Motel 6 commercial).
*Begin music with fiddle playing a slow but happy tune*
"So it is Patriot Saints Season again, time for yelling, fist fights and lots of food and drink, but enough about dinner at my in-laws, this is Faith Cropper for Levin's, your local neighborhood store. While other stores have long lines, crowds and promise a good deal, you know your local Levin's stocks the same goods at the same prices. Come see our clean, well lit and well stocked stores with plenty of parking and friendly faces to help you. So whether you need some food for when the family comes over, some last minutes gifts for work or something for yourself, come to Levin's. Where you are not just customers, you are family!"
D'aww...that was downright wholesome.
See it used to be that this whole place was a stadium. And two teams would meet and play a game called baseball. One team would beat the other team to death with things called Baseball Bats, and the best bats were called Swatters. True fact. There was the Diamond City Demolishers. Big brutes of guys. Played in full Power Armor with special pneumatic arms parts for swinging. Then you had the Lexington Ladies. An all female team, with coach Bloody Mary Sue at the helm. Highest kill count in the league. I could spend all day talking about the Concord Crushers or the Quincy Killmeisters, but you get the idea. It was a hell of a sport.
- Moe Cronin, Fallout 4
Sorry for the delay, guys! I've been waiting to hear back from my potential new job and working my current one and it really has me on edge. Kinda saps your writing abilities. lol
Stuff for the next couple chapters:
A Patton Chapter. I really want to delve into his character, as he's effectively vice-president at this point. I want to showcase the stuff that he's working on to cure his paralysis. A never-ending search for the Fountain of Youth or weird science would really make his character stand out.
A Rounders Chapter. Finally! One of the most requested things for the whole TL! I've been delaying it till we finished the 1920s, as the late 20s and early 30s are when it's going to really take off. I might really screw with the rules, this time around, and make it not just baseball repackaged but some sort of Pinnacle Sport based on baseball. Perhaps traditional baseball is confined to its birthplace in Britain.
The Rise of Egoism and the Perraultists. Self explanatory. It'll also cover what has been going on lately in Europa and how Caesar is.
And... above all... what Austrian mustache boi has been getting up to lately.
Also, a conclusion to the little Pennsylvania Jack ministory.
Great! I hope you get the job...and I also hope to read what's being going on in Russia, the Rump Tsardom/khanate and the Illuminists.
So I had half of a chapter on Europa finished delving into what triggers this TL's great depression, and my computer crashed. I'm a little traumatized right now. 
So I had half of a chapter on Europa finished delving into what triggers this TL's great depression, and my computer crashed. I'm a little traumatized right now.
Sounds like the work of treacherous Beutelists to me.
In all seriousness, damn that sucks.
It's okay. The second version is coming along better anyway.
It'll catch us up on the global economy and will enter into the Patton and baseball chapters I am going to follow up with.Attachments
Sounds like the Illuminists are trying to silence you. Stay strong, brother, and Jehovah and the AFC will protect!So I had half of a chapter on Europa finished delving into what triggers this TL's great depression, and my computer crashed. I'm a little traumatized right now.
Honestly, that always the worst thing and I’ve had it happen far too often. Google may be an evil megacorp hiding under a cheery face but at least their docs program does regular saves and reduces soul destroying doc loss
Can we take a moment to talk about the Amazing logo of this Italian company from OTL?
They produce agricultural machinery, but I feel like they should make tanks.
They produce agricultural machinery, but I feel like they should make tanks.
SUPERCATHOLICS, AN ASSASSINATION, AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION
SUPERCATHOLICS, AN ASSASSINATION, AND THE GREAT DEPRESSION
A member of the Supercatholic Party speaks before war veterans and radicals in Paris (1930)
A member of the Supercatholic Party speaks before war veterans and radicals in Paris (1930)
The events of the 1920s would have had even the most skeptical analyst believe that a resurgence in Europan strength by the 1930s was almost certain. Despite the 1919 Referendum that broke Austria-Hungary away from the Empire once more under the last Hapsburg heir, Queen Sophie I, Europa's economy and political stability had greatly increased under Prime Minister Fabian Perrault and the greatly weakened Caesar Napoleon V. When a 55 year-old Napoleon IV died in 1914 of stomach cancer, it was his 24 year-old son who succeeded him, but he was so afraid of an overthrow or abolition of the monarchy at the hands of the popular Perrault that he basically delegated all of his responsibilities to the Imperial Diet and the Prime Minister following the post-war Constitutional reforms. Due to his aura of respectability, his wartime service as a field hospital medic (against his father's wishes), and his refusal to jump into political debates, he restored some of the people's confidence in the monarchy. The 1920s could have been a time of great upheaval, economic stagnation, and civil war, but instead the economy seemed to roar back to life. While lacking the Rheinbund and Austria-Hungary, Europa was still a massive juggernaut capable of coming back from the brink. They still held India, the Levant, half of Africa, and hundreds of islands both small and large.
But all was not well. It was Perrault--reelected in landslides in 1920 and 1926--that held the globe-trotting Empire together. His personal dedication to preserving Catholic Franco-Europan culture and strength was boundless, as were his hopes to never again repeat the disasters of 1911. Never again did he see a world war as a profitable affair. Another war would likely be a war against the Illuminist bloc, and that conflict would certainly make 1911 look like a joke. If the Russians fought to the last man at Budapest in the name of Viktor, he did not want to imagine how they would fight for their own personal liberty and belief system of "Every Man a God." What made it even more dangerous was the growing agnostic and atheist movement within Western Europe. From Italy to Sweden, people jaded by war and destruction began to see life as meaningless and religion as a mere opiate with which nobility controlled them. This was bad--very bad--for the Empire and other monarchies, all of which claimed to rule in the name of God. If this movement was allowed to expand, an Illuminist fifth column could destroy Western Europe from within. But forcing Catholicism down the throats of the unwilling could just as easily have caused disaster. Truly, the wise Christian European politician of the 1920s trod lightly upon the matter of the "Lost Generation" and its growing disbelief in God.
But while there were many who were abandoning religious fervor, still more were whipped into frenzies by Pope Peter II and the 1928 best-seller Deus Vult, by the previously little-known author Giulio Cesare Evola. Evola was of the generation just too young to fight in the war, and like many devout Catholics of that generation he viewed the setbacks of the war as entirely the fault of traitors from within, atheists, Beutelists, Illuminists, and Jews. Evola loved and admired Perrault, and even called upon his name often as a fellow patriot and antisemite, despite Perrault greatly fearing the young author's growing fanbase in Southern Europe. He worried that Evolism would bring about another war.
Giulio Cesare Evola
"The degree to which the International Yankee Jewish Illuminati Clique was allowed to manipulate and control our affairs is mind-boggling. So, too, is the extent to which they still meddle. Never before have such scum infiltrated the halls of power since the days of the French Revolution and that dreadful Judeo-atheist movement of the time. The Yankee Jew utilized the poor and illiterate hillfolk of Eastern Europe to bring us to our knees in the war. Then their puppets grew too ambitious for even them to control, and thus we are faced with the Godless East. The existence of the scum within our own precious Empire should rightfully boil the blood of every true Europan. This degeneracy from within is truly to blame for our setbacks. Some call me a fascist, but that is laughable. I am antifascist and against all for which that dreadful, devious Yankee invention stands. I am a Supercatholic, and in the name of the Blessed Pope Peter II I call upon all true Catholics to begin a new era of Catholic might. Not one step back to the Godless cultists. Heaven is for martyrs. Deus Vult!"
-Introduction to Deus Vult, by Giulio Evola (1928)
While the good times seemed to keep on rolling in Western Europe as the anthrax problem began to fade, economic prosperity continued, and ruins were rebuilt, there was now a steady growth of the Evolist movement. In Italy, the Southern German nations, and the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary, they usually were forthright with the term Evolist, but in France-Spain itself they favored the term Perraultist and had slight disagreements with the Evolists. In late 1928, following a surge in growth with the publishing of the Deus Vult follow-up book, Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Supercatholic Party was founded in Rome by Evolist fanatics Pompeo Salvato and Crescente Galla, urging for Perraultists and Evolists to unite around a message of antisemitism, anti-Illuminism, and fear of foreigners. Salvato was the ringleader and was a veteran of the campaign against Grand Serbia (one of the most successful Europan fronts of the war) and Galla was a former priest turned "Evolist superstar" who ran the day-to-day operations. In early 1929, Supercatholic Party branches started to pop up all over Europa, and sales of Supercatholic literature were sky-high. In preparation for the 1932 elections, the Supercatholics began to build quite the war chest, not only procuring large donations from the faithful but also endorsements from Pope Peter II and the pledges of countless campaign personnel.
Pompeo Salvato
Crescente Galla
But all was not by the books. While the Supercatholics desired to take the Empire by storm politically, they were prepared to do whatever necessary to preserve "Catholic civilization." This meant also forming brigades of thugs nicknamed the Supershirts. These men, often clad in black, would appear at political rallies for opposing parties, Jewish synagogues, atheist meeting houses, and homosexual bars, where they would proceed to beat their victims with truncheons and whips, sometimes to death. Obviously, it did not take long before their opponents also began to arm themselves, with numerous street battles and murders ensuing.
Supershirts march in formation through Rome (1931)
Rome headquarters of the Supercatholic Party bearing an image of Pope Peter II and the motto "YES" (1929)
Despite many of the Supercatholics acting in his name, Prime Minister Perrault greatly feared their influence. He had fallen to ill health beginning in 1927 and worried he would not make it to 1932. In early 1931, he told Napoleon V, "If the Supercatholics succeed, we are all doomed. The next war will be a matter of when, not if, and it will be over some damnfool thing in Eastern Europe. Mark my words." What made Perrault's position even more perilous was the fact that if he acted against them, he would almost certainly see the Pope turn on him, the total collapse of his Christian Conservative Party in the Diet and his reelection or succession by his right hand Jean Ponte would be doomed. He merely hoped that continued economic prosperity and stability would cement the CCP into a 1932 victory and the Supercatholic movement would peter out. With 6 year gaps between elections, the next vote would not be until 1938, and there would be plenty of time for the Evolist flame to burn out. And so he prayed every night, begging God to spare Europa from the movement many of his old soldiers now loyally clung to.
Even though much of Europe was falling to radicalism, the last bastion of Old World class and sensibilities was the Kingdom of Austria-Hungary, under Sophie I. While the Supercatholics had made inroads, it was still quite moderate in its stance. The elderly Hapsburg was a perfect mix of class and humility that endeared her to a people so badly scarred by the war. Hungary was still very much rebuilding itself from the destruction the League of Tsars had brought upon it over a decade earlier. Budapest was slowly becoming more than a fragment of its former self and culture and art were flourishing. New architecture, unlike any seen in Europe before, was being experimented with in the rebuilding effort. The Queen had one heir, the modest and moderate middle-aged Johann, her only surviving child. All in all, with new laws and freedom in tow, Austria-Hungary was not the worst place to live in Europe by any means. But it would all come crashing down in 1931.
On June 4, 1931, Queen Sophie I and Crown Prince Johann were disembarking from their personal train and greeting some visiting dignitaries from Romania and Bulgaria at Budapest Station. In one of the most shocking moments of the 20th Century, one of the Bulgarian officers drew his service pistol, aimed it at the bald prince and ailing mother, and pulled the trigger three times, hitting the prince twice (once in the face and once in the chest) and the Queen once in the stomach before he was shot and killed by the Austro-Hungarian security detail. Despite attempts by the foreign delegations to calm the situation, the furious Royal troops fired into them, killing five before everyone regained their senses.
Last known picture of Prince Johann von Hapsburg
Two hours later, telegraphs began to deliver news that the Hapsburg family had been murdered. Prince Johann had a daughter, but she was only three years old. This was very unfortunate for all involved. Royal police released details about the shooter, one Colonel Radu Gaina, a veteran of the Budapest Front so many years before. Apparently, he was actually a man obsessed with the idea of eternal fame but also suffered from intense nightmares and post-traumatic stress from the war. Wishing to go out in a moment of glory, he decided the upcoming visit was the ideal moment to accomplish his goals.
The economy of Western Europe went into freefall. Though politically separate from Europa, Austria-Hungary was joined at the hip economically, and still used the Euro as its official currency alongside the Adler. With a three year-old little girl preparing to become Queen, confidence was at an all-time low in the government. Overnight, the Austro-Hungarian economy collapsed. Stock brokers were seen leaping from windows as the news came in on the ticker machines in their offices in Vienna and Budapest. Mobs formed, burning Romanian and Bulgarian flags and calling for war once more against the League of Tsars. Conspiracy theories abounded that the League had planned the assassination as revenge for losing the war. Pope Peter II decried the killings as "an attack on God-ordained monarchs and friends of the people." Perrault and Napoleon V began to panic as the Europan economy reeled from the loss of confidence. Everyone held their breath to see what would become of the governments of Catholic Europe. In Bavaria, King Rupprecht called for his "Teufelhunden" followers and "all true Bavarians" to stand with their South German brothers in grief and anger at this treacherous double-murder. In Wurttemberg, Prime Minister Wolfgang Zeigler and Queen Pauline announced they would be calling for all Catholics and Patriots to march to Vienna to commemorate the noble lives and tragic deaths of the Hapsburgs. Over 20,000 made the trek, torches in hand as they descended upon the Austro-Hungarian capital.
As the fires were set once more in Europe, and the alarms began to blare, one man stood ready to seize the moment from out of post-war obscurity. Count Adolf von Braunau peered into the future and saw potential. Potential for an Iron Reich that would change the world. As the world exploded all around him, von Braunau got in a car bound for Vienna, taking him to a meeting with none other than Giulio Evola himself. Next year, the Hero of the Siege of Budapest would be meeting with Pope Peter II in Rome to discuss plans for the future of Austria-Hungary. Von Braunau, going by his 1919-awarded title of Baron of his home town, was a fanatical Supercatholic and an ardent supporter of the Pope. In March of 1932, von Braunau was invited to the Vatican itself to meet with the Holy Father. The two men got along splendidly and viewed current affairs in the same light. Above all, they formulated an idea of a new government, one in which the Pope would once again rule with an iron fist over Europe, with von Braunau as his faithful servant. With the Pope's blessing, the Austrian Prime Minister founded the Superkatholisch Partei of Austria-Hungary and found himself rapidly ascending to the position of Prime Minister with help from the Papal coffers. Dreaming of destroying the League of Tsars once and for all and retaking the Rheinbund to unite Christian Europe against the Illuminists in a final glorious crusade, Adolf began to wonder why he was settling to be a Prime Minister for a little queen who still played with dolls. In late 1934, he asked the Pope for support of a coup to overthrow the child-monarch and install himself as a new Holy Roman Emperor, Defender of the Faith and Servant of the Papacy. With the Pope's blessing, and with Europa too busy dealing with the Great Depression to make a move, he made his move....
Austro-Hungarian Prime Minister Count Adolf von Braunau
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Well, all I have to say is that this liberal interlude was good while it lasted. At least Perrault, despite being admired by Evola, thinks he's a bit too crazy.
Poor Europe, never a moment of peace. Maybe they'll get one when everybody'll be dead...