GURPS Infinite Worlds Covers
- Thread starter rvbomally
- Start date
I wanted to make a write-up for Dixie-4 in the style of the scourse-books. This is what we know about Dixie-4:
Dixie-4 (Q4, curent year 1954) the Civil War occurred in 1844, the West is still Mexican and the USA and the CSA are allied against the Mexican and German Empires. Britain is neutral; the world is TL 6.
I´m a slow writer, so I post it in several chapters.
GURPS
DIXIE-4
„Der deutsche Mensch braucht Raum und Sonne, um schön und glücklich zu sein!“
(The german man needs space and sun, to be beautiful and happy)
This Quantum 4 world is a special kind of TL, compared to the other Dixie-worlds, were changes in OTL ACW occurred. But in Dixie-4, the survival of President Harrison in 1841 led to a quite different Civil War in 1844, fought about banks and tariffs, instead of slavery. Still, in the end it resulted in the split between North and South.
At present, local year 1954, Dixie-4 is still on TL 6, and CSA and USA are overshadowed by the Empire of Mexico, the only not-European great power in this world, and the Freistaat Texas (Free State of Texas), the foothold of the German Empire in North America.
In this world European Imperialism ran unchecked, partioned Brazil, Argentina and China, swallowed Japan, Paraguay and Ethiopia. Europe itself is since nearly 100 years at peace, but now the danger of a World War looms, as over-ambitious politicians in Mexico, Texas and Bavaria race to fill up the last white spots on the map. This white spots include the Confederacy and the United States.
History
A different Civil War and a different German unity
If he now avoided indian curses, wore a jacket during his inaugural address or simply didn´t drink any contaminate water, on Dixie-4 president William Harrison didn´t die 1841 after just one month in office, but lived to complete his term. His survival allowed the Whig party to push through their program, which was in the core Henry Clays “American System”. A third “Bank of the United States” was established, the tariffs raised and a federal program for infrastructure started. At the same time the Whig-Administration showed no interest in Texas joining the USA. All that alienated the supporters of the Democratic Party, which saw the heritage of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson endangered. In the four years of Harrison’s presidency the hostility between the political parties grew, leading to the hotly fought election of 1844, were (after Harrison decided not to run again) Whig-candidate Henry Clay clashed with Democrat Franklin Pierce. In the end Clay won through a small and highly disputed lead in New York. A lot of Democrats were not prepared to accept this. In December 1844 South Carolina declared secession. President Harrison tried to used the small federal garrison in Charleston to prevent this, in the end an ill-thought decision. The cry of federal tyranny were raised through the country and the Civil War broke out. But the split went more along party- instead of sectional lines. Although the South was mostly pro-democrat, states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina stood loyal to the Whig-Administration. On the other side, northern states like Illinois, New Hampshire and Maine joined the rebellion. Both sides were unable to reach a quick victory, Washington was conquered and reconquered several times and finally given up by both sides as a capital. 1846 both sides more or less gave up the hope to reunite the country by force. The War was now about control of disputed territories. In the same year President Clay, to prevent a british intervention, was forced for an agreement about the Oregon-Territory, which favored the British. 1848 exhaustion let to a compromise peace. Illinois, New Hampshire and Maine stayed under Union-control, Tennessee and North Carolina were forced to join the new Confederacy, the territories were divided along the northern border of Missouri.
Naturally the ACW had influence on the rest of the world too. Very important was, how the War changed, redirected and even stopped the flow of immigrants, which went IOTL to the USA. The War, less restricted to one section of the country, did already scared away a lot of this potential immigrants, but it let also to a growing nativist attitude in the USA. With the country already falling apart, it seemed dangerous to welcome more foreigners with questionable loyalty. So already during the War, the Whig-Administration passed immigration restrictions. Hardest hit by this were the Irish and the Germans. Many Of this groups large numbers now went to still independent Texas and to Brazil, but a least a number of Germans stayed home and formed a basis for future unrest.
This showed during the outbreak of the Revolution in the german states 1848.The uprisings were more violently then IOTL and even if they were still not enough to usurp the old order, they surly scared the german princes and especially the Prussian king, a lot. This seems to be the reason the king accepted in 1849 the imperial crown and the constitution out of the hands of the Frankfurter National Assembly. In the following weeks, with Austria still occupied with internal struggles, nearly all german states accepted this kleindeutsche Lösung (lesser german solution) und Prussian leadership. But there was one notable exception. Bavaria refused to join the new German Empire, a decision of the Bavarian king, which had at least popular support in the core of Altbayern (old Bavaria). There were pro-unity uprisings in the newer (post-1806) territories of Bavaria, but they just resulted in the break away of the rhenish exclave of Palatinate. The crisis seemed to result in a greater war, but the Great Powers of Europe enforced a settlement. The new German Empire was recognized, but had to accept Bavarias independence. The Palatinate joined the German Empire, but France achieved a border correction based on the first peace of Paris.
As the 1840th ended America was divided and Germany was partial united. Both Nations now had to find their new place in the world. Surprisingly they would clash on this way.
End of part 1
Next: Scrambles for the Americas
Dixie-4 (Q4, curent year 1954) the Civil War occurred in 1844, the West is still Mexican and the USA and the CSA are allied against the Mexican and German Empires. Britain is neutral; the world is TL 6.
I´m a slow writer, so I post it in several chapters.
GURPS
DIXIE-4
„Der deutsche Mensch braucht Raum und Sonne, um schön und glücklich zu sein!“
(The german man needs space and sun, to be beautiful and happy)
- Heinz Grimm, author of Volk ohne Raum
This Quantum 4 world is a special kind of TL, compared to the other Dixie-worlds, were changes in OTL ACW occurred. But in Dixie-4, the survival of President Harrison in 1841 led to a quite different Civil War in 1844, fought about banks and tariffs, instead of slavery. Still, in the end it resulted in the split between North and South.
At present, local year 1954, Dixie-4 is still on TL 6, and CSA and USA are overshadowed by the Empire of Mexico, the only not-European great power in this world, and the Freistaat Texas (Free State of Texas), the foothold of the German Empire in North America.
In this world European Imperialism ran unchecked, partioned Brazil, Argentina and China, swallowed Japan, Paraguay and Ethiopia. Europe itself is since nearly 100 years at peace, but now the danger of a World War looms, as over-ambitious politicians in Mexico, Texas and Bavaria race to fill up the last white spots on the map. This white spots include the Confederacy and the United States.
History
A different Civil War and a different German unity
If he now avoided indian curses, wore a jacket during his inaugural address or simply didn´t drink any contaminate water, on Dixie-4 president William Harrison didn´t die 1841 after just one month in office, but lived to complete his term. His survival allowed the Whig party to push through their program, which was in the core Henry Clays “American System”. A third “Bank of the United States” was established, the tariffs raised and a federal program for infrastructure started. At the same time the Whig-Administration showed no interest in Texas joining the USA. All that alienated the supporters of the Democratic Party, which saw the heritage of Andrew Jackson and Thomas Jefferson endangered. In the four years of Harrison’s presidency the hostility between the political parties grew, leading to the hotly fought election of 1844, were (after Harrison decided not to run again) Whig-candidate Henry Clay clashed with Democrat Franklin Pierce. In the end Clay won through a small and highly disputed lead in New York. A lot of Democrats were not prepared to accept this. In December 1844 South Carolina declared secession. President Harrison tried to used the small federal garrison in Charleston to prevent this, in the end an ill-thought decision. The cry of federal tyranny were raised through the country and the Civil War broke out. But the split went more along party- instead of sectional lines. Although the South was mostly pro-democrat, states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina stood loyal to the Whig-Administration. On the other side, northern states like Illinois, New Hampshire and Maine joined the rebellion. Both sides were unable to reach a quick victory, Washington was conquered and reconquered several times and finally given up by both sides as a capital. 1846 both sides more or less gave up the hope to reunite the country by force. The War was now about control of disputed territories. In the same year President Clay, to prevent a british intervention, was forced for an agreement about the Oregon-Territory, which favored the British. 1848 exhaustion let to a compromise peace. Illinois, New Hampshire and Maine stayed under Union-control, Tennessee and North Carolina were forced to join the new Confederacy, the territories were divided along the northern border of Missouri.
Naturally the ACW had influence on the rest of the world too. Very important was, how the War changed, redirected and even stopped the flow of immigrants, which went IOTL to the USA. The War, less restricted to one section of the country, did already scared away a lot of this potential immigrants, but it let also to a growing nativist attitude in the USA. With the country already falling apart, it seemed dangerous to welcome more foreigners with questionable loyalty. So already during the War, the Whig-Administration passed immigration restrictions. Hardest hit by this were the Irish and the Germans. Many Of this groups large numbers now went to still independent Texas and to Brazil, but a least a number of Germans stayed home and formed a basis for future unrest.
This showed during the outbreak of the Revolution in the german states 1848.The uprisings were more violently then IOTL and even if they were still not enough to usurp the old order, they surly scared the german princes and especially the Prussian king, a lot. This seems to be the reason the king accepted in 1849 the imperial crown and the constitution out of the hands of the Frankfurter National Assembly. In the following weeks, with Austria still occupied with internal struggles, nearly all german states accepted this kleindeutsche Lösung (lesser german solution) und Prussian leadership. But there was one notable exception. Bavaria refused to join the new German Empire, a decision of the Bavarian king, which had at least popular support in the core of Altbayern (old Bavaria). There were pro-unity uprisings in the newer (post-1806) territories of Bavaria, but they just resulted in the break away of the rhenish exclave of Palatinate. The crisis seemed to result in a greater war, but the Great Powers of Europe enforced a settlement. The new German Empire was recognized, but had to accept Bavarias independence. The Palatinate joined the German Empire, but France achieved a border correction based on the first peace of Paris.
As the 1840th ended America was divided and Germany was partial united. Both Nations now had to find their new place in the world. Surprisingly they would clash on this way.
End of part 1
Next: Scrambles for the Americas
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North America from the Gallatin in Infinite Worlds. The PoD is Alexander Hamilton dying at the Battle of Trenton in 1776, leaving Albert Gallatin to become the first treasury secretary. With no Federalist Papers the Constitution is never ratified and the US remains under the Articles of Confederation and quickly falls apart into separate countries. Overseas, the Germans replace the British as the main power and are in turn challenged by the Soviets and Japanese, sparking a nuclear arms race into which Texas, the strongest of the American successor states, joins in.
Yep.
It's an Anglo California, not a Spanish California. Also I didn't say that California isn't racist at all, just that it's more liberal.
Skallagrim
Banned
My first thought, looking at Ohio, was "what, freakin' objectivism, with a 1776 POD?" -- and then I saw the USSR was around. Wow. GURPS has some major butterfly-killing spray supply, that's for sure!
The map, in any case, is very cool.My first thought, looking at Ohio, was "what, freakin' objectivism, with a 1776 POD?" -- and then I saw the USSR was around. Wow. GURPS has some major butterfly-killing spray supply, that's for sure!
Oh that one's not as bad as it seems, the book doesn't actually say "objectivism" just that it's very very libertarian, objectivism is just my shorthand.
My mistake, I reread the original version in Infinite Worlds and yeah, the Texan state is racist there.
Yeah, for all of its laying of the foundations for many concepts we pretty much take for granted today - virgin earths, the multiverse, etc, it really has trouble with butteflies sometimes. The worst example to me is Mao showing up as a revolutionary chinese leader in a TL with a confederate victory.My first thought, looking at Ohio, was "what, freakin' objectivism, with a 1776 POD?" -- and then I saw the USSR was around. Wow. GURPS has some major butterfly-killing spray supply, that's for sure!
I updated my homeline map with another colony world I realized I missed: Ariadne. Ariadne is a world where the Spanish Flu mutated and killed nearly all of humanity, leading to most of the planet degenerating into desperate tribal groups, barring Tibet, which became a grim theocracy with totally closed borders. When Ariadne was discovered by Homeline, it was a unique case - a world open to colonization where humans still evolved and structures they built survived (though dilapidated after a century of neglect). Ariadne has two types of settlers. The more conventional kinds, known as "colonial settlers," have come here to establish permanent communities and eventually states. These are overwhelmingly conservative due to the appeal of restoring 1910s cities to live in to reactionary groups. The largest of these is the Sedevacantist colony, which is an autonomous nation of Catholics who do not recognize the Homeline Pope. Though many of their communities have an antipope, they have agreed to work together instead of fighting over which antipope is legitimate.
The second type of settlers "manor settlers", are mostly wealthy Infiniters who want to restore duplicates of monuments like the Taj Mahal or Kremlin as their personal residences, and are far, far too tiny to to show here. A manor settlement generally consists of the monument converted to be a luxurious mansion surrounded by a security perimiter staffed with hired guards to keep the native tribals out, with perhaps a few neighboring buildings restored as residences for the help and security guards.
Manor settlements are not intended to be conventional communities: rather, they are treated like regular mansions by their residents, who use private conveyors to go back to Homeline in order to work, travel, or do anything an ordinary Homeliner would do, but with a conveyor in the driveway instead of a car.
The Interworld Council has permitted the restitution of indentured servitude on Ariadne, as it seems like a more decent thing to do than leave the natives to starve or otherwise meet a grisly end out in the cold. Naturally, the Patrol is uneasy about this, and keeps very close watch on all servant-owners to make sure indentureds are not abused and are freed of their contract on time. Indentureds who serve out their contract are under the same program as people the Patrol recruits as soldiers from other worlds: They are given a generous pension and citizenship in a Homeline country of their choice.
Tibet is totally off-limits to Homeliners, and the monks who govern it do not show the slightest inclination to open the borders. Though Homeliners who approach are not shot at (anymore), they are never allowed in under any circumstances. The mystery of Ariadnese Tibet is a popular one for guesswork on Homeline, with rather... dramatic theories of being in cahoots with Centrum or whatnot serving as the plot for a few action moves and the game Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (no relation; this one's about dimension-hopping, not space) back on Homeline.
Other changes:
- Fixed some mapping errors
- Changed Russian color to a green color more suited to its alliance with the west
- Removed Brazil as a major power
- More African countries riding the Uhuran gravy train.
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Very interesting.
(Also a Call of Duty based on dimension hopping is something I would buy immediately)
(Also a Call of Duty based on dimension hopping is something I would buy immediately)
I actually got the idea from a Rock, Paper, Shotgun blog post that jokingly suggested Infinite Warfare would be an Escherian mind-bending story about other dimensions back when all we knew about it was the name, and in retrospect it probably would have been more interesting compared to the actual game.
Because the point is Infinite Earths, with all its weirdness from worldlines with high inertia Earths where history stays pretty similar to worlds where psionic French musketeers in planetary romance are a thing.
Good point. You're right, it's silly for me to critique a game that has a dimension with talking lizard-people for ignoring butterflies. It's clearly trying to entertain first.
Eh, you aren't necessarily wrong but if something breaks one's verisimilitude then that is a legitimate complaint. The existence of one kind of fantastical element doesn't necessarily justify the existence of another.
This is a multiverse with a worldline called "United States of Lizardia" where a certain type of dinosaur is the ruling species and it has a high inertia past, despite having often differently named figures, where it's 1991 and the USSR is collapsing as the US watches on. They're more there to entertain.
It even shows an image of a dinosaur getting some money out of an ATM.
Hell, there is a vignette where Lord, Byron, Lord Byron, Lord Byron, & a Lady Byron are all being recruited by a vampire Lord Byron for his evil interdimensional Lord Byron army before said vampire is dispatched by a vampire hunter Lord Byron.
Embrace the weirdness!
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I apologize for bumping this but I think there are a few things that might be off in your idea though.
For example, in Merlin-1's case, they use gate spells to travel to other settings:
In addition, looking at Infinite Worlds, I don't quite know if the Centrans really understand the danger of Reich-5. Admittedly, their own timeline was one where one of the participants in the fight over the throne of the Anglo-French Empire, during the Final War, unleashed a tailored bio-plague that hit those of Asian ethnicity or something, which means Centrum might not be that ignorant of Nazi-style insanity, but Centrum seems rather ignorant of the Nazis:GURPS Infinite Worlds said:
GURPS Infinite Worlds said:
Was any reason ever given why Centrum doesn't move up the waves away from Infinity? If I recall correctly Infinity is on Q5, Centrum Q7, and Reich-5 Q3. Centrum would face virtually no competition from Infinity on Q8 or Q9
I believe a timeline moving itself runs the risk of dangerous reality quakes or bane storms, and that's why they don't.