Look to the West Volume V: To Dream Again
- Thread starter Thande
- Start date
Yes, tactical nuclear weapons.
Using strategic nuclear weapons seems to be even less accepted than in our world (no nuclear-armed ICBM).
And I suspect that Yapontsi are more accepting of threshold weapons than LTTW Russians.
Wow, I post a reply and your next update consists of almost everything I want - a wish come true!
The font change is not bothersome at all, in fact, if societist history books are a thing, I wouldn't mind using a different font for those too, but it could be too much.
Has the ban on threshold rockets stopped MAD? That explains how tactical bombs are used so much.
Last point, it seems societism is a lost cause, the presence of diversitarianism after 'the LAST war of supremacy' certainly suggests it. If not, is it too much to ask for a societist space colony? Ok yeah, it probably is. If you're in need of such a spinoff though, I'll do it
The font change is not bothersome at all, in fact, if societist history books are a thing, I wouldn't mind using a different font for those too, but it could be too much.
Has the ban on threshold rockets stopped MAD? That explains how tactical bombs are used so much.
Last point, it seems societism is a lost cause, the presence of diversitarianism after 'the LAST war of supremacy' certainly suggests it. If not, is it too much to ask for a societist space colony? Ok yeah, it probably is. If you're in need of such a spinoff though, I'll do it
Last point, it seems societism is a lost cause, the presence of diversitarianism after 'the LAST war of supremacy' certainly suggests it. If not, is it too much to ask for a societist space colony? Ok yeah, it probably is. If you're in need of such a spinoff though, I'll do it
Well, for all we know, the notion Last War of Supremacy may merely be the result of historiographers who are keen to declare that we have reached the End of History, and that now we've reached some sort of stable equilibrium where not much will happen. Like, in OTL, there were many people who were of this attitude after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Then 9/11 happened.
And of course, people used to call it the Great War to signify that that had truly been the largest and most influential war ever and that so unlikely was it that any military conflict as great and significant as that were ever to happen again, at least happen in the near future, that no further qualifiers to the name was needed. It had truly been the Great War, period. And then... well, shit happened.
Tha name Last War of Supremacy does not mean that there won't be another war of supremacy any more than the name Second World War implies that there will be a Third or Fourth World War.
The name does kind if make me think that the Combine has reached some kind of detente with the world or at least been sufficiently cowed after the war to reach some kind of truce.
Also, yikes, 49 nuclear weapons. The bit about the 'origanl method of delivery' to Russia which was supposedly pretty heinous makes me wonder a lot. My first though is some kind of suicide bomb, or maybe some kind of betrayal under the flag of truce a la Pearl Harbor, but I am stumped as to which of their enemies would have the wherewithal to develop a nuke and deploy it 1959 is a bit late compared to OTL but even so, you need uranium, genius scientists, and advanced industrial infrastructure to develop a bomb if nobody's done it before. That gives you a pretty short list of candidates. The US managed it largely because it is so huge it had plenty of surplus capability even while fighting WW2, and because it managed to collect all the best physicists from Axis Europe. TTL I think the ENA is going to be too worried about its own hemisphere to go traipsing in Russia and ditto for the South American Combine. Germany sounds like the most likely candidate but they still need to source their uranium somehow which iirc is pretty limited in Germany.
Also, yikes, 49 nuclear weapons. The bit about the 'origanl method of delivery' to Russia which was supposedly pretty heinous makes me wonder a lot. My first though is some kind of suicide bomb, or maybe some kind of betrayal under the flag of truce a la Pearl Harbor, but I am stumped as to which of their enemies would have the wherewithal to develop a nuke and deploy it 1959 is a bit late compared to OTL but even so, you need uranium, genius scientists, and advanced industrial infrastructure to develop a bomb if nobody's done it before. That gives you a pretty short list of candidates. The US managed it largely because it is so huge it had plenty of surplus capability even while fighting WW2, and because it managed to collect all the best physicists from Axis Europe. TTL I think the ENA is going to be too worried about its own hemisphere to go traipsing in Russia and ditto for the South American Combine. Germany sounds like the most likely candidate but they still need to source their uranium somehow which iirc is pretty limited in Germany.
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Also ITTL doesn't the term "war of supremacy" mean a fight between cultures for supremacy, not to defend against Societism. Especially since it mentions the Sunset War, which isn't a war of supremacy.
IMO it's all but confirmed that it was a Combine bomb which is not surprising considering how large and powerful the global empire of the Societist Combine seems to be.
Part #200 said:
It could also mean the ultimate struggle for supremacy between Societism and Diversitarianism.
My guess is that the Sunset War was relatively localized, unlike the Wars of supremacy of the past and future.
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Alex Richards
Donor
Also, can I just say how much I love Vanity Fair becoming a combination of 18th Century-style Gossip mag and Buzzfeed
Also, can I just say how much I love Vanity Fair becoming a combination of 18th Century-style Gossip mag and Buzzfeed
One simple trick to avoid paying tax on your imported tea! (Lord North hates him!)
Faeelin
Banned
It'll be interesting to see how the ENA develops, but I agree it's got a lot of advantages over its rivals. It has tons of iron ore and coal, for instance, which South America doesn't have. It should have a significantly higher literacy rate, although maybe there's been some Stalinist education drive offstage that we haven't seen (good luck finding a place to incubate education the way New England did). The French-hybrids of middle America are probably underpopulated with no ties to the outside world save through ENA territory. Meanwhile, the Cotton Kingdom doesn't have Tennessee or Virginia.
I don't expect the ENA to eat its neighbors, so I'm curious to see why that doesn't happen.
Although I wouldn't count out New Spain....http://disciplinas.stoa.usp.br/plug...ntent/1/COunterfactual Mexicos Coatsworth.pdf
Are you talking about the Republic of Superior? They have ties to Russian America and, by extension to the global empire of the RLPC.
Yeah, it crossed my mind, and it's what I'm hoping for (if only for the delicious irony of it), though seeing as how close it is to whatever end Thande might have for the timeline, the fall of societism would be a good bit of closure.
However, it's alternate history, and time as we know it does not know such neat boundaries as stories do. So the end of LTTW itself could just be a cliffhanger with Societism rising from the grave, so to speak. Or maybe even literally. Zombie Sanchez anyone?
Just out of curiosity, was this something that was added at some point as a reference to the Wedge, or, is there actually some border dispute as to who hold jurisdiction over that little strip of what is OTL eastern Avoyelles Parish?
Nice to see this back.
*reads the update*
The UPSA is showing up literally everywhere. Once animation appears in LTTW, someone is bound to make something similar to this video, but spanning the whole world and featuring the rise of the UPSA/Combine, only without the "happy ending".
*reads the update*
The UPSA is showing up literally everywhere. Once animation appears in LTTW, someone is bound to make something similar to this video, but spanning the whole world and featuring the rise of the UPSA/Combine, only without the "happy ending".
Alex Richards
Donor
Just out of curiosity, was this something that was added at some point as a reference to the Wedge, or, is there actually some border dispute as to who hold jurisdiction over that little strip of what is OTL eastern Avoyelles Parish?
Well, basically that should be Carolinan, but the logical point for a 'de facto war boundary' is the Red River. New Spain is, of course, demanding that Carolina withdraw from their de jure territory, so both sides have a vested interest in not occupying that in order to et the best deal in the larger disputed territory (not to mention the practicalities of making the crossing there). Louisiana of course has signed away all rights to it.
From what Thande said during the consultations on the map it'll probably be gone pretty soon, but it just works too perfectly for one of those 'post-war borders drawn without quite realising the actual situation on the ground' cases.
So, basically, you and Thande have by accident created the inverse of the Wedge, that is, a small piece of land that it could be argued belongs to one of three separate jurisdictions, but where all of the three powers actually have a vested interest in not claiming that they own the piece of land?
Hell, it would essentially be a sanctuary for criminals and other people wanting to escape authorities.
Thande
Donor
Right, time to respond to a few comments--as always I won't respond to anything that is "Rhetorical Question That Asks The AH Equivalent Of Who Shot JR" though
I will bold this as it's important: If there is any part of the world/thematic subject that anyone would like to hear more from / thinks we haven't heard from enough lately, can you post here saying what it is, as I always can use inspirations for what areas to write about
By the way, it's also a shout-out to The Children's Encyclopaedia by Arthur Mee (note the author's name) which is written in exactly that style, and which my dad owns the 1950s edition of.
(Also I just found out from the wiki page that the American children's encyclopaedia I also own is ultimately derived from it when for years I have contrasted them with each other, mind=blown)
Anyway, thanks for the comments everyone, and please keep it up, it always motivates me to write more (well...usually).
I will bold this as it's important: If there is any part of the world/thematic subject that anyone would like to hear more from / thinks we haven't heard from enough lately, can you post here saying what it is, as I always can use inspirations for what areas to write about
Don't tempt fateAnother new thread, eh? Looks like I'll have to subscribe to this one as well!
One more and you'll be tied with the number of British Kings named George (IOTL). Unless, of course, Prince Charles takes that regnal name... but will he do it before you reach Volume VII?
The toise (I assume that was your phone autocorrect). I should point out that this isn't actually the OTL one but rather a later metricated version. France in TTL has eventually adopted a universal and partially metric system (more based on 12s than 10s) but uses the old terms, as has been used in e.g. China in OTL. The Jacobins had come up with a 'proper' metric system but that was naturally avoided due to association with their nastier aspects afterwards (yes, I know, we still use Geiger counters, shut up)
I honestly don't know what the prefix signifies, but I named it after this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclopædia,_or_an_Universal_Dictionary_of_Arts_and_Sciences
By the way, it's also a shout-out to The Children's Encyclopaedia by Arthur Mee (note the author's name) which is written in exactly that style, and which my dad owns the 1950s edition of.
(Also I just found out from the wiki page that the American children's encyclopaedia I also own is ultimately derived from it when for years I have contrasted them with each other, mind=blown)
Thanks. Well, wars are often not named (or renamed) centuries after they happened, so really in TTL I guess historians are just going through a more theatrical phase. I like to make the point that historiography determines how we name and see past wars, like how the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were most commonly called "the Great War" until 1914.
Yeah, I put a bit in the last volume when Sanchez complains about them having adopted a black flag, though the Threefold Eye came in after his death: we'll see its origins in this volume.
I would like to, wherever possible.- Will you continue to be more varied in your choice of sources? Not that you haven't been, but I still remember the leaflet on that Heritage Point of Controversy fondly, and now using
a children's cyclopaedia is cool too. Just making more updates a 'format screw' could be cool. It's your call
Heh, good point.
Well, I would argue this source is actually better than most similar books in OTL - usually English-language children's books of this type don't even acknowledge the fact that other countries don't agree that the Wright brothers were the first in flight. Diversitarians of course have a motivation for doing so.
I actually slipped a reference into the final part of volume IV (if you look back) to the Thande Institute staff back home having a similar (and natural for someone from OTL) misconception to the one Faeelin makes here, and Wostyn irately telling them to stop sending radiation treatment pills. (I have now updated the definitive Finished TLs thread to the end of volume IV if you check the link in the first post of this thread).
Anyway, thanks for the comments everyone, and please keep it up, it always motivates me to write more (well...usually
).
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