"What Madness Is This?" - A Timeline

[Tprynn]

My little contribution to the Madnessverse.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starship Titania was an American science-fantasy talkiebox production which ran from 1966 to 1970. Conceived in 1965 by the Patriot Eagle Studios in response to the growing american enthusiasm for space and expansion, the show was the brainchild of producer Robert Roddenberry. The show followed Captain George Custer-Steele and his all-american crew in their adventures, expanding and defending the Fascist Proletariat Of Humanity. Designed primarily as a mouthpiece of american propaganda, the show also aimed to teach children the importance of science, race and american history.

However, a series of disputes over pay and content quality resulted in Roddenberry quitting Patriot Eagle after just one season. Production responsibility thus shifted on a young associate producer, Harlan Ellison. Under Ellison, production and story quality rose dramatically, adapting many classic works of fiction to a sci-fan setting. Ellison also dropped several of Roddenberry's darker and more jingoist elements. However, Ellison's new approach proved popular enough for Starship Titania to receive prime time billing on several major networks. Under Ellison guidance, Titania would run for three more years and rake in millions of dollars, quickly becoming Patriot Eagles biggest success.

Ellison's success would also quickly prove to be his undoing. Already suspicious of possible anarchist and anti-american leanings, a series of episode drawing parallels from the Peruvian Naval Crisis prompted ORRA to raid Ellison home. There they found several pieces of banned literature, including Dragomir's Cabin and The Guns of Atacama. Ellison was immediately arrested and imprisoned in an Ohio Reeducation Camp, while Starhship Titania immediately banned throughout country. The controversy surrounding Ellison also lead to the collapse of Patriot Eagle and it's assets sold. During the Crash of '71, Starship Titania became an underground success among Southrons and Beutelist. With the collapse of NUSA in 1975, the rights to Starship Titania reverted back to the Ellison family. There have been several attempts to revive the series, but ongoing legal problems as well as the shows own legacy have hampered these efforts.

 

[Napoleon53]

Woah, that's awesome, Tprynn! Very well done. The only thing that doesn't fit is the NUSA wouldn't persecute Ellison or hold him in suspicion for being a Jew. Antisemitism is something exclusive to the post-NUSA Third Republic. Jews were quite accepted and obtained high positions during the days of the RU and NUSA.

Behold, the long-promised Expanded Universe thread! https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=310169 Now we have a place to put all the awesome side-information, short stories, propaganda, infoboxes and extra content. Also, if someone would like to be a huge help to me and everyone else, would anyone care to edit in the missing chapters from the chapters list and the spelling of "entertainment" on the wiki? http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/timelines/what_madness_is_this That'd be awesome if anyone can do that.

And the FARNE flag is the most awesome alt American flag I've ever seen.

Thanks a lot, Balkanizer! I don't even consider flags to be one of my strong suits.

What will happen to genocided lands? Will the UN remove all Anglos and force the native languages(literally reverse everything America did)?

Nope, but they'll remove all traces of American supremacist culture. Anyone who still wants to "All Hail!" his old American flag will be flogged.

Hey Napoleon, think we could get a post showcasing the flags of all the current nations? I keep losing track of which ones are current and which ones have changed.

Sure can! I was actually already planning just such a post.

 

[Tprynn]

Woah, that's awesome, Tprynn! Very well done. The only thing that doesn't fit is the NUSA wouldn't persecute Ellison or hold him in suspicion for being a Jew. Antisemitism is something exclusive to the post-NUSA Third Republic. Jews were quite accepted and obtained high positions during the days of the RU and NUSA.

D'oh! Must have gotten a wired crossed and remembered the Goldstein/Reeducation camp post. I'll edit that part. Also considered using some recaptioned TOS screen shots but they didn't seem to have the right oomph to them

 

[The Uchronian]

Woah, that's awesome, Tprynn! Very well done. The only thing that doesn't fit is the NUSA wouldn't persecute Ellison or hold him in suspicion for being a Jew. Antisemitism is something exclusive to the post-NUSA Third Republic. Jews were quite accepted and obtained high positions during the days of the RU and NUSA.

Behold, the long-promised Expanded Universe thread! https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=310169 Now we have a place to put all the awesome side-information, short stories, propaganda, infoboxes and extra content. Also, if someone would like to be a huge help to me and everyone else, would anyone care to edit in the missing chapters from the chapters list and the spelling of "entertainment" on the wiki? http://wiki.alternatehistory.com/doku.php/timelines/what_madness_is_this That'd be awesome if anyone can do that.



Thanks a lot, Balkanizer! I don't even consider flags to be one of my strong suits.



Nope, but they'll remove all traces of American supremacist culture. Anyone who still wants to "All Hail!" his old American flag will be flogged.




Sure can! I was actually already planning just such a post.

Fixed the spelling for ya, Napo. Might also have time to fix the missing chapters issue as well, unless somebody else gets to it.

 

[Napoleon53]

D'oh! Must have gotten a wired crossed and remembered the Goldstein/Reeducation camp post. I'll edit that part. Also considered using some recaptioned TOS screen shots but they didn't seem to have the right oomph to them

I might have to play around with Starship Titania in the Expanded Universe thread. Maybe do a brief outline of some typical episodes.

Fixed the spelling for ya, Napo. Might also have time to fix the missing chapters issue as well, unless somebody else gets to it.

Thank you! Much appreciated.

 

[Napoleon53]

EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Funeral of Kaiser Helmut Wilhelm I of Prussia (April 3rd, 1973)

When Kaiser Helmut Wilhelm I of the Prussian Empire died at age 60 in 1973 of lung cancer, all of Europe mourned. Just weeks earlier, King Gustaf VI Adolf of Sweden had died and had been succeeded by his son, Carl XVI Gustaf. Caesar Napoleon VI considered Helmut Wilhelm a former worthy foe and a close personal friend. All European leaders and politicians (including the Russian ones) came out for the funeral in Berlin. Old Great War soldiers watched with teary eyes as the the procession went by. Helmut Wilhelm had helped end 150 years of tensions with the Tripartite Empire, and even though they had fought a war in the 1950s, since then he had helped start the movement for a united Europe, where all the monarchs were held equal and disputes were peacefully solved in international court. Philosophers hailed Helmut Wilhelm as a truly enlightened monarch, caring for his people and promoting German culture.

Kaiser Helmut Wilhelm II of Germany
​

The 40 year-old Kaiser Helmut Wilhelm II was an unknown quantity. A military genius during the Great War and responsible for the defeat of French units who had had a perfect record of victory going back to the 1700s, Helmut Wilhelm II had been proclaimed Marshal of the Reich in 1957. But his political skills and beliefs were largely unknown. Europe breathed a sigh of relief when he called for even closer ties between the European monarchies at his coronation and expressed admiration for Caesar Napoleon VI.

But things were not all on the upswing in Europe. The depression which had hit America had largely missed Europe, but another economic crash happened just a few months after the coronation as stocks plummeted on the floors of the Amsterdam Trade Building. Millions lost their jobs and oil prices went through the roof. Several of Europe's largest auto manufacturers closed for good. Russia and its allies, however, were unaffected, causing the Russian economy to go up and up. To make matters worse, an anarchist revolt was sweeping Prussia's Abyssinian satellite. The Imperial Army was deployed to take control of the situation. A bloody insurgency developed that would continue for the next eight years in various degrees of intensity until Abyssinia finally became a Prussian colonial protectorate outright in 1981. Even though Prussia was not involved in any major wars, the colonial adventures and participating in United Nations missions in Liberia and Central America made sure there were many Prussian boys going off to fight somewhere and never coming back.

​

Prussian troops in Abyssinia (1980)
​

Helmut Wilhelm II's popularity went up a bit, however, during the Persian Gulf crisis of August, 1976, when Omani and Trucial States pirates tried to board Prussian oil tankers at the Straights of Hormuz. The nearby Prussian Fleet of the Indian Ocean, coming from their small naval bases in southern Persia, was on the scene in hours. Hundreds of pirates were killed and Prussia announced a large-scale bombing campaign on their home regions in Arabia. Qatar was almost leveled by bomber wings and several of Oman's best ports were destroyed. The United Arab Empire hotly protested these events at first, but realized an opportunity when it saw one. After several decades of quiet isolation, the remaining independent regions in Arabia were declared to be part of the United Arab Empire. Egyptian forces took advantage of the damage done by the Prussians and sent in troops, arresting and exiling the former leaders of the regions. Yemen, which had been neutral during the Prusso-Pirate War, was also invaded and its government removed. Arabia was finally united.

Meanwhile, in the Tripartite Empire, Napoleon VI, now in his later 50s, was still going strong. In the face of growing Chinese expansionism in the mid-to-late 1970s, he invaded Tajikstan and Kyrgyzstan in 1975 and 1978, annexing them into his greater Indo-Asian Empire. The Chinese were a growing threat to the safety of these colonies, however, as the Chinese officially annexed Vietnam and Cambodia in 1975, Burma in 1977, and the almost defenseless Tibet, Nepal, and Bhutan in 1979, essentially returning the borders of the Chinese Empire at its height. Fascist former American satellite Indonesia actually aided these Chinese conquests to hurt Russia, which had also been considering an occupation of Tibet. China, which had faced coordinated Western efforts to keep it from ever getting a nuclear weapon, was on the verge of developing one in 1979. The United Nations and Russia (Russia and China had been feuding over the former American state of Korea for years) cooperated to slam sanctions down on the growing Asian empire and demanded it halt its nuclear weapons program. Sergei Romanov II, the dictator of Russia, told his advisers in secret in the June of 1979 that, "So help me, I will turn China into a radioactive hell if its keeps those slant-eyed devils from getting their own nukes. They can't be trusted. We just finally got rid of the bloody Americans as a threat, and I don't want these Chinks taking their place." The aging Chinese dictator, Chiang Kai-Shek, was about to die, and many expected an even more radical leader to take power next. The world watched nervously as the potential for the first real nuclear war loomed.

Chinese troops on the advance in Burma

EUROPEAN CULTURE AND THE BIRTH OF THE EUROPEAN POLICE STATE

The glamorous Princess Napoleona, who influenced the entire era of the 1960s-80s

The average European in the 1970s was making a hard working, well-educated person with a medium-sized family. Baseball was still hugely popular, and the royals were almost worshiped, with the press hounding them everywhere they went. Princess Napoleona was the talk of all the people of Europe, and was set up as the ideal woman. Her husband Franz, the former King of the Confederation of the Rhine, was also quite popular, but not on the same level at all. Napoleona had four children, all sons, Napoleon (born 1956), Louis (born 1957), Francis (1959), and Charles (1961), who were all darlings of the press. However, rumors swirled of numerous affairs between Napoleona and several military officers. When several tabloids had the nerve to print these stories, Caesar didn't hesitate to imitate Napoleon I by sending the Imperial Guard in to ruthlessly bust up the magazines. No one questioned Napoleona's faithfulness to her husband after that.

Once the 1973 Recession was resolved around early 1975, and the European economy went back up, the standard of living in Europe, especially in the western and northern nations, dramatically rose. By 1977, the average family lived in comfort and relative security, and the hellish nightmare of fearing nuclear obliteration at the hands of the Americans made people more optimistic about the future. Fallout shelter companies, which had been big business since the early 1960s, had fewer clients, and many people spent their money instead on vacations to the ever-popular Denmark and the Two Italies and on cars and luxury items. For the first time, color photography and televisors became common (although many insisted black and white was the best, classical way). Church-going, which had been at an all-time high since before the start of the Great War, fell greatly as people were not constantly plagued by thoughts of being murdered by Oswald. Morals changed over time. People "let their hair down." The smoking of mild drugs from India became fairly accepted. Women went to the beach and could be seen in public topless. Religious and philosophic movements inspired by Indian mysticism experienced a brief popularity, which ended in the horror-filled collapse of the "Church of the Scientific Universal Truth."

Founded in the Prussian countryside by Goddard L. Hubert a mentally disturbed English immigrant to Prussia, the so-called Church of the Scientific Universal Truth preached meditation, equality of the races, and that Hubert was a prophet and an alien god-emperor. Hubert revealed to his small group of followers that a race of space gods had created humanity, and that they would return soon. In a series of insane pamphlets, Hubert laid out a timeline of history going back "two million years" that detailed how the "God-Emperor Thraj-Nagul" had once ruled over the solar system, but he had been exiled by his rebellious generals. Hubert, by this point having around 400 followers, then revealed that he himself was the Second Coming of Thraj-Nagul, returning to claim his rightful place as Lord of the Earth. The followers of the Church began stockpiling military surplus, explosives, and weapons for the "coming overthrow" of the Prussian government.

The Prussian government, already having placed Hubert on a watch list, moved in on September 18th, 1979. At the CSUT compound in the Black Forest, several thousand police and soldiers trapped Hubert and his followers and demanded they give themselves up. After a month-long stand-still, the Prussians moved in, torching the compound, blowing up the weapons stockpile, and killing almost every man, woman, and child in the place. The country was shocked by the bloodshed and lunacy, and the Kaiser and the Parliament immediately signed several new bills outlawing "religious cults in all forms." This cracked down on everything except Protestantism and Catholicism and outraged many liberals. Prussia also established a secure database on the Ultra-Network of all "politically or religiously dangerous persons." The other nations of Europe soon followed Prussia's example and, suddenly, Europe's liberalization came to a halt and began moving toward becoming a police state.

The Church of the Universal Scientific Truth erupts into a ball of fire
​

 

[Tsar of New Zealand]

Well...that's a mixed bag if ever there was one.
On the plus side, yay for the de-escalation of tension.
On the other, massive side...well, take your pick from reaffirmed imperialism, economic stagnation, and a growing police state (leave it to the Germans, and Prussians of all people ). So basically Jonestown, but with the government as the bad guys? Inasmuch as TTL leaves room for a concept like 'the good guys'...

 

[Warpath]

A European police states? Heh, I can live with that. (Unless it goes totalitarian)

So what's the current tech level of the Madness-verse at this point in time?

 

[Clandango]

I trust we will soon see the Omani, Yemeni, Shia, and others causing trouble in the United Arab Empire?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Madhhab_Map2.png

And did any of the leaders of the former states agree to play along with the UAE and try to get a United Arab Emirate sort of level of autonomy? Or to replace their government officials with those from Cairo? And for the future children of the Princess, will they lay claim to the Rhinebund? I believe it is soon time for the Germans and Italians to join the empire.

 

[Tprynn]

So as far as I can tell, CSUT is a fusion of Scientology, Branch Davidians, Cthulu and Dune mythos. Well they sound like a right pleasant bunch
And you weren't wrong when you warned the ending would suck for everyone.

 

[Xanthoc]

Yknow what surprises me? We never saw Vermont try and make a comeback. Or the Skull-and-Bones flag show up

 

[Lapsed Pacifist]

Yknow what surprises me? We never saw Vermont try and make a comeback.

Too deep in the RU/NUSA heartland probably.

 

[RedinaRedState]

Well...that's a mixed bag if ever there was one.
On the plus side, yay for the de-escalation of tension.
On the other, massive side...well, take your pick from reaffirmed imperialism, economic stagnation, and a growing police state (leave it to the Germans, and Prussians of all people ). So basically Jonestown, but with the government as the bad guys? Inasmuch as TTL leaves room for a concept like 'the good guys'...

It actually seems to be based entirely on the Waco Massacre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege

 

[Tsar of New Zealand]

It actually seems to be based entirely on the Waco Massacre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege

Ah, of course. Not one I know much about: Texan cultists hardly being part of the history syllabus on this side of the world.

So, when can we expect an update? Keen to see how the successor states to NUSA interact with one another and the world, and whether the UN forms an EU that's closer to 1984 or Brave New World than OTL ramshackle democracy (which is at least democratic).

 

[Napoleon53]

So what's the current tech level of the Madness-verse at this point in time?

About 15 years ahead of OTL, with a few wacky elements that just never really happened OTL, like thousands of commercial airships which would undoubtedly be amazing.

I trust we will soon see the Omani, Yemeni, Shia, and others causing trouble in the United Arab Empire?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Madhhab_Map2.png

And did any of the leaders of the former states agree to play along with the UAE and try to get a United Arab Emirate sort of level of autonomy? Or to replace their government officials with those from Cairo?

And for the future children of the Princess, will they lay claim to the Rhinebund? I believe it is soon time for the Germans and Italians to join the empire.

Oh, yeah, there is going to be conflict between the Sunni and Shia in the future. Right now, the UAE is an unstoppable force in the Middle East, and the Muslim faith is on the downhill slope as far as number of devout followers.

Doubtful that they'll lay claim to the Bund, but it will be a place of divided loyalty. But all in all, the Europeans play "by the rules," so Caesar has recognized the Fall of the Bund. Plus, he took the Eastern European countries from Prussian orbit, so the balance of power was restored. The Great War basically convinced them it's pointless for a war, because neither side will win. Thus, the consensus is for European unitity.

So as far as I can tell, CSUT is a fusion of Scientology, Branch Davidians, Cthulu and Dune mythos. Well they sound like a right pleasant bunch

It actually seems to be based entirely on the Waco Massacre.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waco_siege

You're both right, actually. I just threw in a bunch of ideas together to make something crazy and random, because that's what most cults seem like OTL.

Yknow what surprises me? We never saw Vermont try and make a comeback. Or the Skull-and-Bones flag show up

Too deep in the RU/NUSA heartland probably.

Not gonna lie: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AbortedArc

So, when can we expect an update? Keen to see how the successor states to NUSA interact with one another and the world, and whether the UN forms an EU that's closer to 1984 or Brave New World than OTL ramshackle democracy (which is at least democratic).

Very soon! Perhaps tonight.

 

[Bartholome de Fonte]

Oh, yeah, there is going to be conflict between the Sunni and Shia in the future. Right now, the UAE is an unstoppable force in the Middle East, and the Muslim faith is on the downhill slope as far as number of devout followers.

Where is Islam on a "downhill slope", what is replacing it, and why is this occuring? I am genuinely interested in this developmemt.

 

[Napoleon53]

Where is Islam on a "downhill slope", what is replacing it, and why is this occuring? I am genuinely interested in this developmemt.

I believe I covered this in an older chapter, but I haven't brought it up in a while, so that's a good question. I'll have to see what I've last said about it.

Basically, Islam, as a "religion," isn't going downhill in amount of believers, but Islam as a religion with very devout, fundamentalist followers is. Sort of like the end of the Ottoman Empire OTL. People still call themselves Muslims in the UAE ITTL, but many aren't very devout, and it's acceptable in the big cities to not be Muslim at all. Many are Christians or are nothing.The government in Cairo is very worldly and nearby regions, such as Italy's North African provinces, put a heavy Christian presence in Egypt. Plus there are the Jewish peoples who fought on Egypt's side before, and the Christian Syrians who have their own country.

EDIT: https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showthread.php?p=8728642&highlight=islam#post8728642 Found it. I'm going to elaborate on this further during the next chapters.

 

[John Spangler]

I'm curious about Italy: is it really indipendent or is it just another Bonapartist puppet state?

I also hope that TTL's italian politicians are better than OTL ones.

 

[Bartholome de Fonte]

I believe I covered this in an older chapter, but I haven't brought it up in a while, so that's a good question. I'll have to see what I've last said about it.

Basically, Islam, as a "religion," isn't going downhill in amount of believers, but Islam as a religion with very devout, fundamentalist followers is.

So Wahhabism isn't a force in the UAE? Cool. But how are the OTL Sunni of the UAE "very devout fundimentalists"?

The government in Cairo is very worldly and nearby regions, such as Italy's North African provinces, put a heavy Christian presence in Egypt.

Why didnt this occur OTL, with Egypt being occupied by Christian UK, and having fellow Christian nations occupying their neighboring lands?

 

[Napoleon53]

I'm curious about Italy: is it really indipendent or is it just another Bonapartist puppet state?

I also hope that TTL's italian politicians are better than OTL ones.

Yep, the Empire of the Two Italies is a very independent nation that makes its own decisions, even if it does work in coordination with the Tripartite Empire. I'd say the Italies is the Canada to the Tripartite Empire's USA.

So Wahhabism isn't a force in the UAE? Cool.

But how are the OTL Sunni of the UAE "very devout fundimentalists"?

Why didnt this occur OTL, with Egypt being occupied by Christian UK, and having fellow Christian nations occupying their neighboring lands?

Wahhabism was indeed crushed and largely forgotten ITTL.

Not sure what you mean about the fundamentalist question.

Well, Egypt ITTL has just been moved in a secular direction, not necessarily Christian, though. It's not that a huge amount are Christian, it's that they've been influenced more and consciously try to imitate Christian/secular nations. Trust me, there are going to be major problems about this going down the road.