The King in Yellow and Other Stories: A President Lovecraft Weird Fiction Timeline in Several Acts

Should I create new threads for a series of related TLIAWs?

  • Yes, they're Schrodinger's canon and should be enjoyed separately

    Votes: 6 33.3%
  • No, they work best as one interconnected narrative and should be concentrated in the same thread

    Votes: 12 66.7%

  • Total voters
    18
  • Poll closed .
Polithuania (and the later PLC) went all in on Szukalski's Zermatism in their architecture so think the thirties embrace of art-deco in scope (but it never ended!) only with far more esoteric and organic affectations. It helped that they had quite a bit of rebuilding to do after the 2CoC.

Syrenka-DP.png
Having just taken a look at some of this guy's art, I can state with confidence that this is the best timeline.
 
The symbolism is fairly straightforward, aside from the relevant thematic meanings of the moon card I replaced the moon itself with a representation of VALIS (in appropriate not a real color magenta), replaced the two towers with... the twin towers, and redid the wolf in Pelley grey and the dog into a Volksbund black German shepherd. The fact that the actual card has a crayfish is bizarre to me but it was an easy choice to swap it out for an Oranbega lobster in Independence Party yellow. Also as an aside my dad despises John C. Frémont so the spoiler title was relevant in more ways than one 😂
 
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@Ekg I was looking through the thread and remembered your interest in a deeper dive into Japan so I wanted to give you the heads up— as it currently stands they'll get a chapter in Illuminatus! detailing the build up to the Pacific theater of the 2CoC, the conflict between Japanese Rational Anarchists and the government before and after and the rise and fall of the Green Dragon Society. It's still completely wild to me that the major left-wing position in Japan was competing strains of anarchism after it had largely died out everywhere else or been supplanted by more orthodox socialism!
 
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@Ekg I was looking through the thread and remembered your interest in a deeper dive into Japan so I wanted to give you the heads up— as it currently stands they'll get a chapter in Illuminatus! detailing the build up to the Pacific theater of the 2CoC, the conflict between Japanese Rational Anarchists and the government before and after and the rise and fall of the Green Dragon Society. It's still completely wild to me that the major left-wing position in Japan was competing strains of anarchism after it had largely died out everywhere else or been supplanted by more orthodox socialism!
The history of anarchism outside of the western world is pretty fascinating. There's a book on the subject called Black Flame which provides an in-depth discussion of this subject (as well as many other subjects relating to anarchist history). Even with the authors' unusually narrow idea of what constitutes anarchism, the book shows that it was a far more widespread and global movement then most people believe.
 
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@Ekg I was looking through the thread and remembered your interest in a deeper dive into Japan so I wanted to give you the heads up— as it currently stands they'll get a chapter in Illuminatus! detailing the build up to the Pacific theater of the 2CoC, the conflict between Japanese Rational Anarchists and the government before and after and the rise and fall of the Green Dragon Society. It's still completely wild to me that the major left-wing position in Japan was competing strains of anarchism after it had largely died out everywhere else or been supplanted by more orthodox socialism!
Nice, I'll watch it with interest ! I feel like Japan is a hotbed of sociocultural quirks, so it feat the TL well.
Speaking of anarchism, and with SF writers participating in politics in your TL, is LeGuin having a role ? She's one of the authors who make me interrested in radicals politics, so i'm curious if she would appear here.
 
The history of anarchism outside of the western world is pretty fascinating. There's a book on the subject called Black Flame which provides an in-depth discussion of this subject (as well as many other subjects relating to anarchist history). Even with the authors' unusually narrow idea of what constitutes anarchism, the book shows that it was a far more widespread and global movement then most people believe.
People have literally no idea about ideologies and how they interacted historically. I blame the schools 😂
Nice, I'll watch it with interest ! I feel like Japan is a hotbed of sociocultural quirks, so it feat the TL well.
Given my focus on paramilitaries, secret societies and niche politics Japan was sure to figure in sooner or later. With the different evolution of aviation I'll get into in A Bolt From the Blue Imperial Japan's historical use of aircraft cruisers is going to put them well within the mainstream of naval warfare rather than an outlier in a world of aircraft carriers they were OTL.
Speaking of anarchism, and with SF writers participating in politics in your TL, is LeGuin having a role ? She's one of the authors who make me interrested in radicals politics, so i'm curious if she would appear here.
I'm not sure she'll appear as such but in my conception she's a Rational Anarchist. I'll go ahead and say she was Mack Reynolds's VP candidate during his '72 independent run. Given the deep current of feminism in TL's Fascism there's an earlier trend of female VP candidates, though none have crossed the threshold (yet!).
 
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I had an idea for a head of HASTUR in the wake of the Congo Crisis! By that point they'll have moved away from the whole "superweapons" thing and on to more positive stuff like the internet and (eventually) the analogue to the human genome project. I love that I keep having these weird little ideas that slot in so well as the project develops. Basically it would be a rough analogue to the career trajectory for HW Bush (CIA=>VP=>President), though she never gets as far as that last step— unfortunately for our prospective candidate the eighties will still see an actor in the White House instead. With that I've got the presidents settled through 2004 or so, I just need to come up with a couple more to fill the gap* between then and the long-prophesied ascendancy of Lovecraft the Younger 🤔

*I figured it out 😅
 
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Actually speaking of HW Bush as a fun little aside, given the New England/New York/New Jersey center of all the weirdness in this TL I've decided the family stays in the area and amounts to literally nothing politically in the changed climate. Instead they stick with banking and HW spends some time as Chairman of the Third Bank of the United States.
 
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A Bolt From the Blue: A Vengeance Weapon TLIAW
Mercury-patch-g.png
-Symbol of Mercury 7, the stage of the Mercury Program that made the United States the first power to reach the moon. The famous American flag with its fasces finial planted at the landing remains there to this day as a monument to American ingenuity and international Fascist solidarity.
Few organs of the American government have stoked so much awe and fear (in equal measure) as HASTUR, the Homeland Advanced Science and Technology Unified Reserve, an agency that has at one stage or another been involved in every major modern advance in American technological and martial prowess. While seen in the Strange Aeon as a monolith, something that had seemingly always been there behind the mask of the American state, this is largely a position for cranks and conspiracy theorists. To better explore the work-product of the Reserve we must then first explore its origins in the decentralized morass of competing agencies at the start of the 20th century, their conglomeration in the fires of the Second Clash of Civilizations, and the broadening of focus that came over the course of the Strange Aeon— from swords to plowshares and iron fist to velvet glove.

  1. Veracruz- Praise the Lord, Pass the Ammunition
  2. Lawyers Guns and Money- The Black Chamber
  3. Accidentally Like A Martyr- The Demon Core
  4. Johnny Strikes Up the Band- Stars and Strife
  5. Nighttime in the Switching Yard- To the Moon!
  6. Werewolves of London- Over the Rainbow
  7. Tenderness on the Block- A Tangled Web
  8. Excitable Boy- Draw Blood!
 
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I got my car bought and insurance taken care of and expect I'll have an actual start date at my job within a week or so so it's a good time to knock one more part out before I get settled in my new position 😂 Settling on that HASTUR head for when they start shifting to peaceful stuff clinched it.
 
I'll try to start this one either tomorrow or the day after but in the meantime I'm once again opening the floor to questions outside the areas of 20th century technological development, since that'll be gone into more thoroughly with this one!
 
Glad to hear it! It's not a particularly realistic TL I'll grant but I've had a lot of fun with it and my readers seem to be enjoying it so who am I to argue?
Oh, I didn't think it'd be realistic at all. But you know, this period saw the rise of fascism, and a lot of dystopian fiction to go with it. I'd love to see a Lovecraftian fascist dystopia. Even if it's historically-implausible, I think it'll make fine content for horror! :)

I'd be curious to know how this TL would affect other writers. What would It Can't Happen Here look like, where the fascist dictator is some sickly nerd with paranoid fantasies about evil gods? Would Orwell's 1984 draw inspiration from Lovecraft, but invert his themes? What about Tolkien's fiction? Tolkien wasn't intentionally political, but he was certainly interested in the mythic, epic style, but was also interested in Christian moral idealism. Oh! And this period also saw the rise of Hollywood!
I love this idea. Aside from all the political stuff, there's so much cultural history to explore!
 
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Oh, I didn't think it'd be realistic at all. But you know, this period saw the rise of fascism, and a lot of dystopian fiction to go with it. I'd love to see a Lovecraftian fascist dystopia. Even if it's historically-implausible, I think it'll make fine content for horror! :)
Pump the breaks 😂 Lovecraftian Fascism is alien and weird certainly but not dystopic, partially due to an accelerated timeline for his historical shift in attitudes on race and politics, partially due to VP Clark Ashton Smith prodding him, and partially down to the idea that a culturally-chauvinist technocratic socialist system (which Lovecraft OTL advocated for by the end) that actually puts effort into segregating its services based on race is wasting resources and energy that could be spent more productively building weapons and public works. It also helps that the Rational Anarchist discourse central to the Raise the Black Flag! section basically butterflies away top-down eugenics in the Fascist sphere in favor of an emphasis on individuals self-selecting to produce superior children, whatever that means to them personally.
I'd be curious to know how this TL would affect other writers.
Huxley is still a writer and his character is basically unchanged but I have a role for him I won't spoil.
What would It Can't Happen Here look like, where the fascist dictator is some sickly nerd with paranoid fantasies about evil gods?
It Can't Happen Here fictionalized a hypothetical Long presidency OTL so the subject matter is much the same, actually. Given that the divergence to this TL's version of The Man in the High Castle is Lovecraft dying and Long becoming president some culture critics consider it an unofficial sideways prequel of sorts to the Pelley dictatorship Dick describes in his novel, of course sans any of the metaphysics that permeates the setting Dick creates.
Would Orwell's 1984 draw inspiration from Lovecraft, but invert his themes?
I haven't quite figured out what to do with Orwell yet 🤔 He'd certainly see the Fascist sphere as authoritarian and the Comintern (weird as he finds it) is certainly more organic and responsive to the people than the Stalinist system he despised, so I think TTL's 1984 would likely revolve around:
  • The Fascists (The Americas, East Asia)
  • A Savinkov/Goebbels/Mussolini-led Comintern (the majority of Eurasia)
  • An authoritarian FBU (Western Europe, Africa)
But the existence of decentralized libertarian communism doing pretty well for itself in this timeline would likely see him include some version of that as a legitimate resistance movement and threat to the big three rather than the resistance existing as a honey trap as it was in the version we got.
What about Tolkien's fiction? Tolkien wasn't intentionally political, but he was certainly interested in the mythic, epic style, but was also interested in Christian moral idealism.
He wasn't intentionally political in OTL, here he's PM during the Second Clash of Civilizations as mentioned offhand in the culture update for Act II (A Wine-Dark Sea). He'll get a bit more time in the sun in Act V (Illuminatus!) when I flesh out his electoral alliance with Mosley the Elder's New Party* but suffice to say he's quite a bit more conservative than he was historically. But hey, a Catholic PM in the thirties, who says people can't get ahead?
Oh! And this period also saw the rise of Hollywood!
I love this idea. Aside from all the political stuff, there's so much cultural history to explore!
I love the culture stuff too, hence my commitment to including a culture update at the end of every TLIAW to both flesh out the world and tie each act up with a bow. As for Hollywood specifically with the success of the End Poverty in California campaign the promised threat to move the studios turned out to be mostly bluster since Hearst himself came down on the side of EPiC due to political butterflies, though there is a lesser film hub in Florida that puts out more socially conservative and Populist-aligned fare. They call themselves Cottonwood.

*It's an uninspired name for a political party but it's one he used and it's fun so I'm keeping it!
 
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Pump the breaks 😂 Lovecraftian Fascism is alien and weird certainly but not dystopic, partially due to an accelerated timeline for his historical shift in attitudes on race and politics, partially due to VP Clark Ashton Smith prodding him, and partially down to the idea that a culturally-chauvinist technocratic socialist system (which Lovecraft OTL advocated for by the end) that actually puts effort into segregating its services based on race is wasting resources and energy that could be spent more productively building weapons and public works. It also helps that the Rational Anarchist discourse central to the Raise the Black Flag! section basically butterflies away top-down eugenics in the Fascist sphere in favor of an emphasis on individuals self-selecting to produce superior children, whatever that means to them personally.

Huxley is still a writer and his character is basically unchanged but I have a role for him I won't spoil.

It Can't Happen Here fictionalized a hypothetical Long presidency OTL so the subject matter is much the same, actually. Given that the divergence to this TL's version of The Man in the High Castle is Lovecraft dying and Long becoming president some culture critics consider it an unofficial sideways prequel of sorts to the Pelley dictatorship Dick describes in his novel, of course sans any of the metaphysics that permeates the setting Dick creates.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with Orwell yet 🤔 He'd certainly see the Fascist sphere as authoritarian and the Comintern (weird as he finds it) is certainly more organic and responsive to the people than the Stalinist system he despised, so I think TTL's 1984 would likely revolve around:
  • The Fascists (The Americas, East Asia)
  • A Savinkov/Goebbels/Mussolini-led Comintern (the majority of Eurasia)
  • An authoritarian FBU (Western Europe, Africa)
But the existence of decentralized libertarian communism doing pretty well for itself in this timeline would likely see him include some version of that as a legitimate resistance movement and threat to the big three rather than the resistance existing as a honey trap as it was in the version we got.

He wasn't intentionally political in OTL, here he's PM during the Second Clash of Civilizations as mentioned offhand in the culture update for Act II (A Wine-Dark Sea). He'll get a bit more time in the sun in Act V (Illuminatus!) when I flesh out his electoral alliance with Mosely the Elder's New Party* but suffice to say he's quite a bit more conservative than he was historically. But hey, a Catholic PM in the thirties, who says people can't get ahead?

I love the culture stuff too, hence my commitment to including a culture update at the end of every TLIAW to both flesh out the world and tie each act up with a bow. As for Hollywood specifically with the success of the End Poverty in California campaign the promised threat to move the studios turned out to be mostly bluster since Hearst himself came down on the side of EPiC due to political butterflies, though there is a lesser film hub in Florida that puts out more socially conservative and Populist-aligned fare. They call themselves Cottonwood.

*It's an uninspired name for a political party but it's one he used and it's fun so I'm keeping it!

There's so much here that I love, but I think it's clear that I need to actually start reading the thing before speculating further. But yeah, I'm super-jazzed! Tirra lirra for now :D
 
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