Beedok's Maps Thread

[Beedok]

Can I use those city things at the top of this thread?

Sure. Glad you like it.

 

[Beedok]

Invaded Earth, Part 1: Martians!

Humanity had long wondered if we were alone. October of 1899 saw that question answered as the Martians launched their invasion of the Earth. After great success, reaching the maximum shown here of by the spring of 1900 the Martian offensive ground to a halt. Their lack of manpower, shortage of supplies, and Earth diseases shattered their offensive, though the human powers would later claim ingenuity and determinations won the war.

Round 2: The World 20 Years After.

Humanity had a decade of unity in the face of the still present Martians, however it was not to last. France and Germany have fortified their borders, while Britain has craved glory to make up for her devastation in the Martian War. Unfortunately she's not the super power she once was, and has been dragged into the Balkan mess due to an Egyptian rebellion.

We now see the world on the eve of the second invasion.

Actually Scotland is a Martian protectorate. Depopulation that far north was pretty severe, and the Martians managed to set up a puppet state.

Part 3: First Scalies

The Race fleet arrived 20 years early due to favourable gravitational alignments. Their invasion force caught humanity off guard through the use of nuclear warheads and combined arms that the Martians had lacked the resources to properly implements. 6 months in the Race are discovering the destructive power of stolen Martian death rays and other terrifying weapons of war. Something more terrifying for the human psyche will soon be discovered.
View attachment 249002

Round 4: The Draconians

Many millennia ago, in a distant star system, a radical political movement was losing a war. Realising retreat was their only option they scouted the stars to find a race primitive enough to manipulate but advanced enough to be useful. Eventually they stumbled upon the Sol system. Two worlds held life there, the ancient and dying 4th planet held a race advanced enough to threaten the Draconians. The 3rd planet's neolithic inhabitants however had potential. Eventually the Draconian exiles set up camp on Earth, secretly taking control of the primitive race. They had no means to compare, so the Humans did not realise their technology was growing faster than most races.

The Martians had seen it, and while they didn't realise the cause they did realise they would have to attack Earth sooner than planned. The Martian invasion had been in the Draconian plans though, the endless plagues of Humanity had been an engineering project to make the planet dangerous for the Martians, though they hadn't realised the determination of the Martians and underestimated their medical technology.

The Race however was another issue. The Draconians had suffered a few set backs (the French Revolution, the Meiji Restoration, etc.) but usually these were mere blips by comparison. While the technology of the Race sat well below that of the Martians or Draconians numbers, tactics, and surprise made them a far greater threat. If the Race had been a bit quicker and more adaptive they've have likely secured victory.

Unfortunately for everyone the Race dawdled. The Draconians however panicked, believing this to be some sort of holding and securing move until more forces arrived, and launched their secret nuclear stores against a number of Race outposts. The Draconians however over played their hand as a number of Human officials worked out what was happening (to a degree) and the news spread that a third alien race had infiltrated many nations. In the ensuing confusion as German and British commanders tried to oust their Draconian superiors a number of other Draconian regimes decided to end the charade so they could better focus on the Race, however a number of others defected to the Martians, Race, or free Human governments in the confusion. Others likely remained hidden, a number of suspicious assassinations of Draconian defectors in Russia and the United States lead some to suspect the Draconians there had abandoned the cause but still hold sway over those nations.

We see the world a year later as the Race regains initiative, Martians keep trying to build their empire, while Terran governments have split between Draconian and Human nations fighting each other and the Race (mostly, the Germans and English being caught in civil war sold off most of their lands the Race might want).

Round 5: Cold Blooded Warfare

Germany is a shadow of what it once was due to both Draconian and Race victories against them. The UK is no more. France has bled, but continues to fight the Draconians. Russia and the USA both fight the Race as it tries to steal their warmer and dryer regions. Japan, France, and the Pan Human Worker's Front battle the Draconians in China. The bulk of the world's fighting however is between the Race and the Draconians (or more accurately the Humans in Draconian run nations). The Race have better weapons on average, and have begun to acquire Martian technology (the Martians are happy to sell the Race weapons, the two have very different territorial aims after all). The Draconians have the occasional example of high powered technology which can almost always secure victory against Race forces, but these wonder weapons are too rare to do much more than slow the Race advances against the more poorly armed human soldiers of the Draconians. (Those humans fight on either out of fear or a belief that the Draconians didn't seem to have been too bad when they ran things historically.)

After 5 years of fighting all the main powers are growing exhausted, however the Race and Draconians are both planning for a long conflict and are quite reluctant to negotiate. The Communists in Asia however are drawing enough of the Draconians attention and manpower that they might just concede to negotiations soon.

View attachment 249204

Round 6: A Cold Peace

Well Europeans and Americans felt like calling 1927 the start of the Cold Peace, but as we see the world in 1935 India and China remain embroiled in civil war leaving nearly a third of the world's population at war.

Both the Race and the Draconians want to shorten their borders, but both were too exhausted to keep fighting. The Human powers might claim peace, but their military production has barely slowed with new nuclear weapons, deathray equipped tanks, and other technologies they barely understand rolling off the assembly lines with terrifying speeds as they prepare for round two. Their might be no money for it, and democracy may have vanished to emergency military governments, but Humanity has learned the stars bring sorrow and expect another invasion or outbreak of war any day now.

Many of the Race's commanders have felt a rut of depression after the failure of their invasion, and worry about the degree to which they've disgraced the empire. Gingery prices are up.

The Martians are quietly trying to egg on nuclear proliferation hoping for a nuclear winter to start. Unfortunately for them haphazard industrialisation across the planet will probably warm things up instead.

The Draconians have suffered a number of internal power struggles as they try to come to terms with the end of their era. Perhaps to vent rage they've enacted . . . well Draconian laws in their empire. Widespread propaganda efforts have helped to break the wills of much of their population, but discontent over food shortages and a surplus of dead young men after over a decade of war takes its toll on any populace.
View attachment 249235

Round 7: Grey Skies

The so called Secret Invasion was an odd affair by Earth's standards at the time. For the first several years it wasn't even clear if the so called 'Greys' existed or not. By 1945 however it became clear that something was indeed happening. A number of regions around the world became major hotspots of sightings and supposed abductions. Classified papers show that Race and US governments were finally able to prove something happened following crash near the border of New Mexico, the wreckage site spreading across both nations (and causing a few small border skirmishes as recovery teams misjudged distances in the sparse desert). We see here the world in 1946 a day before the Novosibirsk Affair.

Round 8: All is Grey in Motherland

The Greys terrified everyone. Their technology was ahead of any existing power on Earth, as proven by the wreckage studied by the Americans and the Race. The Russians however had had enough and would not stand for this violation of their territory. Finally after months of quiet preparation a Grey ship flying over Novosibirsk was shot down by Russian death rays.

The Grays didn't like that.

Negotiations were not an option as no one could open a dialogue with the Greys. When the Greys struck at Russia military installations near the Russian-Draconian borders the Draconians panicked and fired on the Greys as well. The rest of the world decided the only way to show they weren't friends with the Russians or Draconians was to attack, the Race being the first to try it in a panic as Grey forces approached their borders. Surprisingly it actually worked. At least for now.
View attachment 249409

Round 9: Snatch

The Greys felt they'd taught what had to be taught and halted their offensive. Other nations began moving into the wide abandoned regions, however something was just . . . wrong. Most nations merely nosed slightly before stopping. They've also accepted Grey abductions as just being a thing.

Meanwhile the Martians found . . . something in Antarctica. They didn't share any information, but the use of their new orbital death rays on the target and ensuing quarantine has everyone on edge.

Finally the Americans are suffering an invasion they don't yet realise is happening. All they know is that some regions have seen productivity fall, but officials sent insist nothing is wrong. Those officials have been acting a bit odd since returning to Washington, and the low productivity zone seems to be spreading.

Round 10: Seek and Destroy

The Snatchers cut a swath across the United States. They were eventually discovered by Draconian elements in the US government (the pods apparently aren't as good at mimicking reptiles). As panic spread the US was placed under quarantine by all neighbouring powers, League, Race, and Japanese navies were forced do sink several vessels which may have contained fleeing refugees or may have contained pods. Land borders were heavily fortified.

In a state of complete panic the remnants of the American government managed to contact the Greys. While the rest of the world was oblivious to it the Americans signed a deal with the devil for their survival. A range of technologies were provided in exchange for regular shipments of several thousand humans a year.

In a depressing twist another mysterious object landed in the US heartland not long after the US signed their deal. This object contained a strange blobbish organism capable of digesting almost any matter but especially the pod beings. It was discovered that the bodysnatchers could not respond to issues out of thought range of their hosts (excluding pod reproduction apparently the only thing their own psychology grasped independent of hosts) so the blob was simply ignored by the bodysnatchers as their attempt at disguising ignorance, which has simply allowed the blobs to spread across bodysnatcher held lands.

In eastern Europe meanwhile Berlin has launched a major diplomatic initiative, attempting to create a more militant answer to the Paris' League, believe the French dominated organisation is too weak to preserve humanity in the long term.

In the middle of all this the Race colonisation fleet has begun to arrive, having benefited from the same stellar alignment as the invasion fleet ~20 years earlier. Atvar tried to cancel the colonisation, but was too late to turn them around. Now they have to try to keep the settlers safe. Trying to hedge their bets the Race purchased territory from the Martians on Mars. It might be cold, miserable, and airless, but it's free of Greys, Body Snatchers, and whatever the Martians have been finding in Antarctica now (something about eggs and pyramids).

Round 11 (I think): Calm At Last

A period of peace has started at last. The remaining Human powers have tried to unite. The Race have been settling their territories and don't want trouble. The Martians are still nervous. The Draconians meanwhile have been struggling to hold their empire down after repeated failures at war. The Greys have been mysterious as always, and have been seen around the US with suspicious photos of Greys and US officials.

The Martians did turn something on in one of the pyramids they found though, so life will be changing soon.

Sure, I guess so. One positive is that racism/nationalism has mostly vanished.

Martian Protectorates: Foreign policy is run by the Martians and they've got a deficit of rights if the Martians want to arrest them, but usually things aren't too bad. Local governments are usually democratic, and technology is on average about 1980s levels. Arts and Sciences aren't really an employment option.

Communist Asia: It's similar to a more militant USSR. Tech outside the military is mostly ~1950s USSR civilian levels.

USA: Well, with body snatchers still around people simply 'disappear' with a somewhat unsettling frequency (not enough to really impact demographics, but still enough that most people know of someone who vanished). Elections have been postponed until the 'pod people' crisis has been 'dealt with'. Attempts to resettle the old heartland are going slowly, especially with the occasional blob attacks or sleeper pods. Outside of the resettlement zone living standards are decent over all. Some foreign tech has pushed civilian tech to ~1970s levels.

Race Territory: It varies, with some populations being seen as 'trouble groups', but over all if you accept the Emperor you can usually get equal treatment to other subject races. Tech is roughly ~2000s level but infrastructure is often lagging.

Thailand + Friends: A semi-functional democracy with a slightly too politicised military. Technology is about late 50s levels.

Japan + Friends: There's clear "Yamamoto Privilege" to be seen, but nothing on the levels of WWII Japan. All nationalities are in theory equal, they claim it's mostly generational relics. The government is quite akin to Thailand's, though the Navy and Army rarely back the same party making things a bit messier. Civilian tech is early 60s level.

French League of Humanity: Probably the best place to be human (excluding maybe Race technology advantages). Elections are still a thing, and the military honestly listens to the elected officials (usually, at least there's been no coups). The African holdings and military districts aren't as good, but infrastructure investment is under way. Tech level is roughly late 60s for civilians.

Germany's Terran Order: Basically a cult of militarism. They're a little fanatical to be honest. Tech level is early 60s for what civilian stuff there is. Everyone is in the military, and that is the government. Alien immigration does not exist (excluding maybe some sneaky pods).

Draconian holdings: Humans can't run anything. All advances were Draconian guidance. Physical labour is all you're good for. Tech levels for humans are barely 20th century. The Draconians have also brought back their old habit of eating humans (in part to decrease foreign acceptance of Draconian defectors).

Grey Territories: Some hunter gathering bands sneak around in the forests ignored. Civilisation is dead as far as they know. Meanwhile vast factory farms grow humans in vats for unknown reasons.

Other nations: Most are like less democratic and poorer versions of Thailand. Switzerland is okay though, with tech on par with the League and a government roughly the same as OTL (as far as anyone can tell).

One thing to note is that some human regions receive actual immigration from Alien realms. Draconians are always labelled political defectors, and due to their high education levels they get fairly pampered. Martians rarely emigrate just because most of the world is too warm and their numbers so low, but they tend to get pretty good jobs in science and engineering. Greys do not emigrate, though a few have permanent positions in the USPA. The Race however emigrate with decent numbers (mostly due to their fairly large numbers) and tend to get engineering positions, and have picked up the nickname 'Scalies'. The Draconians however seem to have serious issues with the Race and have labeled them a delicacy.


I guess I can gather things up and post them in my map thread.

You'll have to click a fair number of those arrows to see the maps proper, but I don't want to waste Ian's bandwidth.

 

[Dskaar]

Cool! But you missed the links to Parts 1,2,4,7, and 9-11 lol!

Edit: NVM. I see them now.

 

[Beedok]

Cool! But you missed the links to Parts 1,2,4,7, and 9-11 lol!

Edit: NVM. I see them now.

You had me panicked for a moment.

 

[Beedok]

https://www.alternatehistory.com/discussion/showpost.php?p=10363829&postcount=2


Anyway, round 12 of the invaded world:

Hunters

The Race and Terran ORder decided to try a team up on the Draconians. It has been a bit of a stalemate.

Despite their caution a Martian got facehugger-ed. The Yautja noticed it, and came to investigate. They also decided to investigate a lot of other areas. One positive benefit was that the Race decided Humans were no longer the 'Big Uglies' after seeing some Predators.

Meanwhile the USPA lost all control of Los Angeles as it became a battle ground between Predators and Greys.

Another update.

 

[B_Munro]

Now I'm not seeing the links.

Bruce

 

[Beedok]

Now I'm not seeing the links.

Bruce

Weird. Well there's still the top of quote arrow right?

 

[B_Munro]

I am not sure what you are referring to.

 

[Beedok]

I am not sure what you are referring to.

Beside the username of the quoted.

 

[Beedok]

Invaders Part 12(?): Vagabonds

The Grey-Predator war ended as mysteriously as it began in the mid 1960s. Apparently the fighting brought interstellar attention to the Earth though. The first group to show up was known as the Tenctonese moving into the ruins of LA, fleeing slavery. In the late 60s a splinter colony of Humanity showed up looking for aid. Having been taken off world from the era of ancient Greece the so called 'Galacticans' and their 'Cylon' radical break offs settled in the mostly empty Siberian wastes when it became clear Earth neither feared them nor wanted to aid them. Lastly in the recently taken for Humanity city of Joburg a ship of semi-insectoid aliens came to a halt. The Terran Order wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to play with new toys and began a series of experiments. In 1972 however one of those 'Prawn' ships took off into space with a stolen Martian Designed FTL drive. That can't be good.

View attachment 252331

Part 13: Intervention

The Prawn brought help. Unfortunately the Space UN isn't much more reliable than OTL's and assistance was pretty minimal all things considered. Humanity did start poking off planet during the 70s though.

The US government shifted to the control of a mysterious paramilitary group known for sunglasses, pale skin, and suits. People called them the Men In Black.
View attachment 252434

More linking to avoid bandwidth waste.

 

[Upvoteanthology]

Can anyone make their own maps thread? Because I'm thinking about making my own, if that's allowed.

 

[Beedok]

Can anyone make their own maps thread? Because I'm thinking about making my own, if that's allowed.

I think so.

Anywho, map:

A more peaceful twentieth century. Not better for everyone, but better for most. The colonies are still around and there's less independent nationalism, but most colonial empires have gone for a more hands off approach while pushing for education. Lots of propaganda, but they gave up on trying to Europeanise natives in the 30s after no success.

There are a lot of nukes pointed around though. The Russians, British, and Americans lead the world with almost 10 000 each. The Germans, French, Italians, Chinese, and Japanese all have a few hundred. The Ottomans and their armed neutral friends have a few hundred between them too, with the threat to launch in everyone direction if someone attacks the neutrals. So there's peace, but it's peace at gunpoint.

 

[Beedok]

OH right, I forgot about this. I'll use this for the ISOTs rather than starting a totally new thread.

 

[Agentdark]

Are we going to see more of these worlds. I really like these.

 

[Beedok]

Are we going to see more of these worlds. I really like these.

In a bit. Got some stories that need updating first.

 

[Iserlohn]

The worlds O, Q and Y are going to have massive problems... And will you include noteworthy unrecognized states and entities like Wallis and Futuna, Greenland or the Isle of Man in future maps or will they be included with their mother country?

 

[Beedok]

The worlds O, Q and Y are going to have massive problems... And will you include noteworthy unrecognized states and entities like Wallis and Futuna, Greenland or the Isle of Man in future maps or will they be included with their mother country?

Mother countries.

 

[Wolfram]

How long is the time between the original ISOT and the map?

 

[Beedok]

How long is the time between the original ISOT and the map?

200 years.

 

[Beedok]