View attachment 545814
EastWar
Due to the tightening robotics legislation of many countries worldwide, by the early 21st century, RUR Corp finds itself in a position of weakness and growing public scrutiny. Newly uncovered secret archives, hinting there was a possibility of a robot revolt early in the company's history, or much later records of strange events at the company (referred to cryptically as the "1983 Incident" and "1994 Emergency"), have fueled a growing distrust for the traditional image of Rossum's Universal Robots.
Unable to seek enough willing investors in traditional fields, the new management established in RUR during the alternate 1990s has focused on shedding the old image of the company and making strides into the entertainment industry. The apex of these efforts has been the creation of a special travel and resorts subsidiary. The idea ? Create life-like, simulationist theme parks, populated by animal and human RURs, and entice hard-paying, eager visitors with a vacation unlike any other.
The countries of the Visegrad Union were targeted for this excrutiatingly ambitious entertainment venture due to tax break leniency of their then governments, a policy already criticised by many. A particular territory was chosen and lent to the Corporation by the VU for several decades, with three theme parks – or resorts – beginning construction soon afterward. This was a move that attracted plenty of criticism from many VU citizens. Coupled with later protests and criticism by local branches of robot-rights organisations, citing the history of RUR and its suspicious past lobbying and activities, the birth of the resorts would be anything but easy. However, the VU governments and RUR Corp were adamant that all safety precautions are being taken to ensure the safety and transparency of the resorts. Regardless of the heated politics surrounding the project, the three resorts were eventually completed.
EastWar, HussiteWar and With Fire and Sword await any and all visitors who can afford it.
Premiering in the early 2000s,
EastWar is a science fiction detective thriller TV series produced in the Visegrad Union. A direct spiritual sequel to Karel Čapek's 1920 landmark science fiction play,
R. U. R., the series is set in an alternate present, where a surviving Rossum's Universal Robots corporation has turned its focus towards the entertainment industry. Creating three different historical theme park resorts, populated by life-like robot humans and animals, the RUR corporation intends to rebrand its image in the public eye, despite criticisms of building expensive spectacles often revolving around combat and violence, rather than just adventure and intrigue. While on a stay at the EastWar resort with his girlfriend, a young investigative journalist comes across a bizarre death of a guest. Though murder is ruled out, particularly by the nervous park administration, the journalist can't leave well enough alone. Soon, the young couple are embroiled in far-reaching events that take them on a perilous adventure through all three resorts, as part of their search for the chilling truth...
The fictional EastWar resort of the series, one of three, is rooted in the highly popular central European genre of Easterns. Somewhat inspired by American Westerns and based on the tumultous events of WWI in Austria-Hungary and eastern Europe and the subsequent Disunion Wars of the early 1920s, the Eastern genre enjoyed decades of success, starting with its first great media boom after the second world war. After a renaissance of the genre led by new creators in the 1960s and 1970s, the genre had also garnered deeper critical appreciation, outside of mainstream success. By the mid-to-late 1990s, science fiction Easterns had gained in popularity as a concept, with the likes of
Visegrad Space Guard 2215: Terra Nova, a successful and inventive spinoff of the long-running
VSG space opera franchise. Sensing the time was ripe to introduce a brand new science fiction property in the same broad subgenre,
EastWar was co-created and written by Křyštof Čapek, Czech script writer and great-grand-nephew of Karel Čapek, and Martin Križanovský, respected Slovak speculative fiction writer. Pitched to one of VU private networks that eventually greenlit the unusual concept, the series became a surprise TV hit of the 2000s.
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All set in my Sparrow Avengers ATL setting. If
Westworld was set in a Russian Civil War or warlord China style setting, but in central and eastern Europe, and with neo-Western stylistic elements. Think "Sergio Leone and Sam Peckinpah teaming up to do a WWI eastern front film" and there you go.
Easterns are an actual OTL genre, though a lot more niche than they are in my ATL, where they've become a common literary, film and TV genre, especially in the Visegrad Union and some neighbouring east European states.
