Implausible PODs that would make an interesting world?

Deleted member 114175

What are some unlikely, ridiculous points of divergence... that you would still like to see anyway because the results would be interesting?

I'm thinking things like:
  • Tang Dynasty sending a military expedition into the Near East and creating a Sinicized Empire in Persia
  • England and Morocco ally to partition the Spanish Empire, vast Moroccan colonial empire formed in Central and South America.
  • Napoleon Bonaparte invading England and succeeding, establishing total hegemony of the First French Empire over Europe.
They don't necessarily have to be conquests though. They can just be any implausible scenario that isn't "fully ASB".

What are your ideas?
 
WilliamOfOckham

WilliamOfOckham

The Aztecs (not the Inca, that's eminently plausible) surviving the 16th century and beyond. The disease and the ethnopolitics of the region make it incredibly difficult, but maybe they could have pulled it off. It would definitely be cool.
 
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cmakk1012

Survival of a Hellenistic kingdom beyond Greece and Anatolia long enough to give it a Greco-something identity. Any of them—the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, Baktria, Greek India, or even an alt-hist one if Alexander lived longer.
 

WanderingWanderer

Octavian Caesar sparing the life of Ptolemy Caesar, allows him to remain as Rome's client king in Egypt. Highly unlikely, yes, but it'd be an interesting POD!
 

Arkenfolm

Any scenario that involves civilisations in Aboriginal Australia which are even remotely relevant, either LORAG-style or a more modest civilisation which is akin to smaller Indonesian states. The later the POD the better to ensure a more recognisable world.

Also some chance introduction from East Asians blown off course of some useful crop (buckwheat?) into the Pacific Northwest which leads to more complex PNW civilisations and revolutionises North America. And maybe eventually the descendents of those East Asians return so we can get "samurai conquistadors" or something, even though of course it wouldn't go quite as a Hollywood film might imagine (or would it, since we're already pretty far into the realm of the implausible).
 

Republic of Michigan

Read this idea not too long ago. Entirely implausible but completely interesting.

The Tokugawa Shogunate decides it's a good idea to exploit the use of guns in the 1600's and they become a world power. They dominate the Pacific, side with Napoleon and defeat the British in the early 1800's, and defeat America with a nuke by the end of the 1930's.
 

catalfalque

cmakk1012 said:
Survival of a Hellenistic kingdom beyond Greece and Anatolia long enough to give it a Greco-something identity. Any of them—the Ptolemaic Kingdom, the Seleucid Empire, Baktria, Greek India, or even an alt-hist one if Alexander lived longer.
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Pyrrhus if he had beaten the Romans?

Syracuse likewise, or as a Carthaginian vassal?
 

stevej713

Republic of Michigan said:
Read this idea not too long ago. Entirely implausible but completely interesting.

The Tokugawa Shogunate decides it's a good idea to exploit the use of guns in the 1600's and they become a world power. They dominate the Pacific, side with Napoleon and defeat the British in the early 1800's, and defeat America with a nuke by the end of the 1930's.
Click to expand...
I've also been interested in an early Japanese Empire, but my focus is more on them competing with the Portuguese/Spanish/Dutch in the East Indies and ultimately creating a Japanese "Raj" in China.
 
WilliamOfOckham

WilliamOfOckham

hitcho11 said:
Anything BCE that still sees Christianity arise as the "dominant" religion.
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More of a kvetch against the forum than an exciting alternative (although things that make Christianity develop very differently can be exciting too), but I strongly agree.

Christianity was the result of an incredible series of lucky breaks - including getting persecuted - that are so contingent on specific conditions and even specific people that butterflying away almost anything about it is going to put it far away from the seat of Roman power. Most likely situation in Europe would be a polytheistic-verging-on-pantheistic kind of bhakti movement centered on Isis, Mithra, Bacchus etc., just like modern Hinduism.

To contribute to the thread: Gnosticism, especially one of its weirder variants, becoming the dominant Christianity would be quite interesting. There definitely aren't enough Early Church TL's, maybe I should try one.
 
The Plainsman

The Plainsman

People always talk about what if the Roman Empire never fell. Why not have other empires not falling, like the Macedonian empire, or some dynasty in China?
 

RightHoJeeves

Banned
After Waterloo Napoleon Bonaparte successfully evades the Royal Navy and is smuggled to the United States where he is coolly received by Madison. Realizing he isn't welcome he proceeds to Mexico where he offers his services to the Mexican rebels fighting the Spanish. Independence is achieved sooner than OTL and Napoleon eventually becomes Emperor of Mexico.
 
Gukpard

Gukpard

The Goths push back the berbers and eventually conquer morroco, later starting the age of exploration and colonizes south and central america.

AVE GOTHIA
 
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