The Star-Spangled Expanded Universe of "What Madness Is This?"
- Thread starter Napoleon53
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It should count as a break, now that I think about it. But, iirc, it was just a for fun speculation exercise of the modern WMIT world, instead of adding story that was going to be changed eventually, so that is different then? Not sure if that really changes something. Can't tell you much.
Okay, quick note from work:
so if the person is putting up serious lore contributions and expecting to possibly be used as main TL material then it shouldn't go into predictions beyond a few years time because I believe only three members know what I have planned for the 50s-60s-70s. Murica is one of those I believe, as he is sometimes my idea labrat or test audience, so his Corean updates are fine. Funny, tongue in cheek, or rather parodyish posts are fine, regardless of settings or time periods. If someone has an idea they think is so stupidly cool that I might want it, I'm down to listen.
What I want the most is additional lore to what I have already written. Think of it like the Star Wars or Star Trek books. They act as additional worldbuilding to the rest of what has already been told. Great ideas (just examples) are:
The Adventures of Zap Zephyr
Oswald and Hubbard in the Jungle
Picking a company I have named in the TL and expositing on its possible lore.
Military units in America's various wars
Rounders lore
Minor politicians
Everyday life as a commoner in the Union
Shit like that is what I *crave*.
But it's all a gentlemen's agreement I guess you could say. I'm not gonna bash anyone's creativity and I *know* making predictions is great fun. But elaborating on the main TL in a serious manner is what I look forward to seeing the most.
I can also say that my ideas for the 70s and 80s and whatnot are so impossibly insane and nuts that no one's predictions will be, or has been, accurate beyond a few minor notes. Lol
so if the person is putting up serious lore contributions and expecting to possibly be used as main TL material then it shouldn't go into predictions beyond a few years time because I believe only three members know what I have planned for the 50s-60s-70s. Murica is one of those I believe, as he is sometimes my idea labrat or test audience, so his Corean updates are fine. Funny, tongue in cheek, or rather parodyish posts are fine, regardless of settings or time periods. If someone has an idea they think is so stupidly cool that I might want it, I'm down to listen.
What I want the most is additional lore to what I have already written. Think of it like the Star Wars or Star Trek books. They act as additional worldbuilding to the rest of what has already been told. Great ideas (just examples) are:
The Adventures of Zap Zephyr
Oswald and Hubbard in the Jungle
Picking a company I have named in the TL and expositing on its possible lore.
Military units in America's various wars
Rounders lore
Minor politicians
Everyday life as a commoner in the Union
Shit like that is what I *crave*.
But it's all a gentlemen's agreement I guess you could say. I'm not gonna bash anyone's creativity and I *know* making predictions is great fun. But elaborating on the main TL in a serious manner is what I look forward to seeing the most.
I can also say that my ideas for the 70s and 80s and whatnot are so impossibly insane and nuts that no one's predictions will be, or has been, accurate beyond a few minor notes. Lol
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Hm. I wonder whether the Christian community in India has been affected by French rule. Most of them are Catholics, so you can have something interesting there.
en.wikipedia.org
Saint Thomas Christians - Wikipedia
The most Pinnacle of them all.
Shit like that is what I *crave*.
But it's all a gentlemen's agreement I guess you could say. I'm not gonna bash anyone's creativity and I *know* making predictions is great fun. But elaborating on the main TL in a serious manner is what I look forward to seeing the most.
I can also say that my ideas for the 70s and 80s and whatnot are so impossibly insane and nuts that no one's predictions will be, or has been, accurate beyond a few minor notes. Lo
Honestly? Fine with that. I knew from the moment I came up with the WIFU acronym that this was far too wacky to ever intersect with canon as anything more than its equivalent to an in-universe Star Wars Holiday Special/the Room at best, and I can groove with that.
Fair enough, will amend my output.
...And now my hunger for mainline WMIT is only exacerbated. Ah well.
I've been toying for some time now with the idea of a story somewhere in between these two, which involves a soldier who grew up as an ORRA brat in Cuba.
Likewise, hard as I try, I can't create stuff that mirrors the full Madness anyway. My maps have generally been too sane. Which says something given that one map involved OTL USSR and WMIT RU being ISOTed together and another was "What if the Southern Bloc won the Great American War?" and came to have Russia ruling half of Canada, China taking over much of Indonesia, Georgia nearly taking over North America before being partitioned out of existence, Brazil arguably becoming more powerful than the RU, and Quebec actually being allied to the RU.
I am thinking they received some aid from the Catholic Church and the Christian communities of Europa as a way of converting the south Indians and reforming their 'heathen ways'. The Syrian Christians will have been constantly fighting against social constraints like the treatment of Untouchable, sati (widow self immolation) and female infanticide and they introduced the western educational system in the country. They also campaigned for more self determination for India and formed a business and managerial class primarily in the southern and eastern portions of French India. They may not have suffered as much in the Second Black Death due to better health but many communities may have attacked by mobs. In the Federation of India they are just as Indian as the others and form a well educated merchant class like say the Jews of the NUSA. There probably are Syrian Christians in all the major political parties, businesses and governments, especially in the southern and eastern states.Hm. I wonder whether the Christian community in India has been affected by French rule. Most of them are Catholics, so you can have something interesting there.
Saint Thomas Christians - Wikipedia
AMERICAN CAPITALISM: THE ECONOMIC CLAN SYSTEM IN THE PINNACLE FUTURE
Illustration of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1973
Illustration of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1973
When the Peacemakers were dropped in 1944 and soldiers began scorching and burning their way to Cape Horn, the Economic Clans saw the immense war-time economic measures placed upon them finally begin to lift. As promised by Oswald during his wedding reception in 1943, he had begun to engineer his vision of a laissez-faire, hypercapitalist hands-off system for the Pinnacle Future. This was only made possible by Oswald's nomination for the Presidency by Steele, who had begun to suffer from the effects of long-hid tuberculosis-induced consumption. When Steele retreated into private life in 1945 and Oswald took over the lower levels of national leadership, nearly all economic regulations were reviewed and reformed (and in some cases, done away with entirely) allowing the Clans to take in their first deep breath in 9 years. As the Armament Clan took over the war effort for Manifest Climax, the other Economic Clans began shifting towards civilian production and domestic services. For the first time in nearly a decade, people could go to a restaurant and eat as much steak as they wanted, and not have to deal with ration cards or ORRA officers checking in to make sure you weren't eating above your quota.
When Steele croaked in 1950 and Oswald declared the New United States of America just one month afterward, the Economic Clans were finally fully let loose from government oversight. With the NUSA government allowing the Economic Clans to run free, it didn't take long for old rivalries and economic competition to once again emerge. The Armaments Clan quickly saw a major feud between the immense Krumner Corporation, which produced the T-50 Landcruiser and other armored vehicles, and the smaller Hermes Industries, which provided the Grand Army of the Republic with trucks, jeeps, and other transportation vehicles. The two company heads had both wanted to gain new government contracts to produce their equipment, and as only one company could supply the Army the two corporations began a campaign of low-level economic warfare, with trade secrets being stolen, employees being bought out, and company leaders at times intimidated into submission. All the Clans began to suffer from internecine warfare, as smaller companies teamed up to take down bigger ones, immense corporations bought out smaller ones, and low-level employees constantly shifted from business to business, desperately seeking employment.
This dysfunctional system shockingly continued all the way until 1959, when the son of the CEO of Hermes Industries was caught in a plane crash during a trip to South America. Astonishingly, three months later, the son reappeared in American Columbia, having clawed his way out of the Quarantine Zone by tooth and nail. Upon his return, he immediately blamed the plane crash on Krumner Corporation and its CEO, who had always opposed Hermes Industries. Two minutes after his interview on live television, the two company CEOs called in hundreds of favors from their various economic and political allies. Krumner Corporation gained the favor of the immense American Supercorporations, such as Colonel Goodyear and Colonel Ford, while Hermes Industries allied with the multitude of smaller companies in the Economic Clans. The stage was set for the Great Economic War.
The "war" in question lasted from 1959 to 1961. During that period, hundreds of technically legal and outright illegal actions were taken by both sides to disrupt the other. The supercorporations (led by Krumner) wielded their monopolies as immense clubs, setting lower prices and buying out bankrupt companies in hostile takeovers. The smaller coalition of corporations (led by Hermes) teamed up to control their own sections of the economy, disrupting bigger businesses and breaking them up when they went bankrupt. Some smaller companies created "trade unions", where a multitude of smaller companies formed immense federations of companies that could stand up to supercorporations. These trade unions sometimes dissolved their internal divisions entirely and became supercorporations in their own right, creating household names such as Anderson Electronics and the United Western Bank. Entire clans were split into warring factions, trade secrets were bartered for and stolen, and company CEOs were blackmailed into joining one side or another. It was during this backdrop of economic competition that companies such as Manifest Compact and New England Electronics formed and exploited a brand-new market, creating an entirely new Economic Clan; the Electronics Clan.
Eventually, the end of the war came when the Great Economic War began spilling over into everyday life. The initial stages of the war to Oswald seemed to help drive American economic growth through constant competition, and the rise of the Electronics Clan seemed to show that. But when the Industrial and Trade Clan was nearly torn apart by an attempted bombing of its headquarters by Hermes Industries, Oswald knew he had to step in. Phoenix Oil, the private corporation of the Oswald Dynasty had remained neutral in this immense conflict and had been supplying oil to both sides, but was then commanded by Oswald to cut off its oil exports to the Clans for an hour. This caused the war to grind to a halt, as CEOs and officials desperately tried to contact Oswald to find out what was going on. Chuck soon made his ultimatum clear; siding with Krumner Corporation, he commanded Hermes Industries to stop their conflict and come to the negotiating table.
The agreement hashed out in 1963 was heavily biased in Krumner's favor and resulted in Hermes Industries being systematically dismantled. The Great Economic War had shown that the clan system was simply too accepting of every company in America; after Hermes Industries joined the Armaments Clan in 1948 as a small, middling company, it had quickly gained influence and nearly dismembered the American economy with a massive coalition of smaller companies. This could not stand, and so the Economic Clans began assessing their members and expelling weaker, smaller companies entirely into the economic wilderness. The Economic Clans became exclusive to the American supercorporations, with prospective members having to prove themselves economically to make it into a Clan. This was the new paradigm; the Economic Clans served the interests of the supercorporations assuring their continued economic and political success and influence, while in the economic wilderness (simply termed the Wilderness) thousands of smaller companies engaged in full-on economic warfare, desperately trying to promote their products, obtain success, and enter the Economic Clan system. Oftentimes several companies in the Wilderness tried to merge together and create their own supercorporations, but were quickly shot down by the Economic Clans and pushed out of the system entirely, eventually going bankrupt. A repeat of the Great Economic War would not happen.
Thus was the economy of the Pinnacle Future; a two-tiered dysfunctional system, where the richer upper-class or those in the middle-class with high income became employees in a company holding membership within the Economic Clan system or a well-off company that could survive in the Wilderness, while the ultra-poor could only secure employment in the most decrepit of companies and pray to Jev that they would eventually get rich enough to move up the totem pole. Millions upon millions became cogs in the NUSA economy, working, living, and dying in their minuscule lives. The only solace they found was in drugs and sex, and eventually, as their funds ran out even those measures of recourse weren't accessible. Even government programs didn't help; Oswald had turned down spending on America's universal healthcare and government benefits, allowing the Clans to take over the medical insurance business and American economics. Without Inferiors to force into labor, the task of hard backbreaking work was delegated to the poor, a portion of America's population that was fast-growing due to the influx of thousands of Army veterans from Manifest Climax. The government and the majority of the population looked upon the poverty-stricken Betters as lazy people who couldn't be bothered to work a day in their life. No help was forthcoming.
This was Social Darwinism at its finest. This was the Pinnacle Future.
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“The return of the thin white duke throwing darts in lover's eyes
Here are we, one magical moment, such is the stuff
From where dreams are woven
Bending sound, lost in my circle, dredging the ocean
Here am I, flashing no color tall in my room overlooking the ocean.”
Director-General of the Brittanic Union and Archbishop of Canterbury Aladdin Bryon Sane at a Britonic National Party rally (2017)
"A Hate as True as the Wrath of Jev:" The Yankees-Brown Caps Rivalry
Video footage of an Oswald Era Brawl between the Philadelphia Yankees and the Schicagwa Brown Caps
There are few things that rile up a Yankee more than The Pinnacle Game. Rounders is followed in the Fascist Empire almost as closely as the AFC Church itself, and team loyalties and passions are fervent. Conversely, hatred for one's rivals is so spittle flecked and vitriolic that some even go so far as to accuse their opponents of Infee heritage, albeit mostly in an unserious manner. However, even by the standards of American Rounders there is no rivalry so vicious, no hatred so deeply felt, and no series so closely watched as the rivalry between the Philadelphia Yankees and the Shicagwa Brown Caps. Both teams are in the Liberty League, both teams are world-class Rounders outfits, and both teams represent America's biggest and most important cities. The story of this rivalry is long and strange, filled with tales of violence, corruption, debauchery, betrayal, and drug fueled delusions. It is a quintessential American story, and by gazing into this rivalry, one might hope to understand the strange and twisted soul of the Pinnacle Race.
The first three game series between the Yankees and the Brown Caps was played in 1880 at the Old Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were led by former Camden Gold Caps pitcher Sam Langley, a true titan of the game, who made up for the Yankees' underdeveloped slugger bench with his sheer talent as a pitcher. This was the start of Philadelphia's surprising "Dominant Decade," in which they won the National Championships every year. Predictably in such a good year, they swept the series with the Brown Caps. During the first game Sam Langley had thrown a wild pitch at the star slugger for the Brown Caps, Archibald Hardrada, breaking his arm and forcing him to sit out the rest of the humiliating series, and in fact much of the season. His career never fully recovered from the incident. Although Langley swore up and down that the pitch had been accidental, the Brown Caps increasingly became convinced that he had done it deliberately. In reality, given the fact that Langley paid for Hardrada's medical expenses and later stuck up a friendship with "Archie the Ace," it does indeed seem likely that the pitch was an accident and that Brown Caps players and fans slowly latched onto a conspiracy theory to explain their humiliating 5 year losing streak to Philadelphia, which started in that game. In 1886, the Brown Caps finally broke the "Hardrada Curse," winning their series against the Yankees 2-1. The final deciding game, played on April 11th, became the font of more conspiracy theories as it was believed that the Brown Caps had fixed the game. This is partially true. They attempted to bribe an umpire by the name of Marcus Bowdoin, but he refused their offer of $500 (a princely sum for the time) out of respect for the game. Nonetheless, as the truth came out, Yankees fans were outraged and demanded that NRA officials "Stop the Steal" and award the series to the Yankees as compensation. The NRA refused, as they themselves were fairly corrupt, and no other evidence of corruption emerged. To this day, Yankees fans insist that the 1886 Series should be awarded to their team, and litigation regarding the series would continue to be filed by wealthy fans into the Oswald Administration. This was the birth of a rivalry, the product of conspiracy theories, bribery, and one bad pitch. Before we continue to describe the history of this fascinating rivalry, let's take a moment to examine the cultural factors behind its growth and intensity.
One of the greatest lies told by America's enemies is that the nation is a monolithic empire where all are the same. While America is for sure a totalitarian superstate, and while this stereotype may have had a certain truth in the Steele Administration, the American empire is a vast realm with many regional subcultures. Philadelphia, along with Boston and New York, is the heart of Greater New England, and the region takes great pride in its Colonial heritage. Shicagwa is the cultural and economic capital of the Middle West, a vast region encompassing Ohio, Iowai, Michigania, Chersonesus, Osage, parts of Dakota and Lewisland, and Mississippi. The Middle West is often neglected in studies of American culture, lacking the prestige of New England, the racial history of the South, the frontier spirit of the West, the military history of Canada, and of course the toughness and hyper-Americaness of the Old Mexicans. However, the region is decidedly not bland. Settled by a colorful assortment of Scandinavians, Germans, French Protestants, and Ukrainian Jews, the Middle West is a region defined by a down-home focus on family, a talent for agriculture, faith in God, and a kind of orderliness and work ethic that anyone can admire. Alongside this, they have excellent breweries and a fantastic German music scene that has developed over the years. Nonetheless, the region is constantly derided as boring and even "less Pinnacle" than the rest of the country. These stereotypes began emerging at around the same time as the Custer Administration rose to power, not aided by the fact that the Middle West was the part of the country least enthused by Custer's takeover (excepting his home state of Ohio, which was overjoyed). This all contributed to a massive inferiority complex on the part of Middle Westerners, who responded by loudly proclaiming their Pinnacle Fluidation and looking for opportunities to best the rest of the country. Simultaneously, Shicagwa had rapidly become the industrial capital of the Union, and was among the most important cities in the entirety of the continent straddling juggernaut that was America. Philadelphians looked down upon the "soot covered hickerbillies" of the Middle Western Colossus, while Shicagwans considered Philadelphians "Pinnacle Parasites feasting on the tax dollars of a country conquered by men Better than they." Each city vied for supremacy in every endeavor, and this inevitably bled over into sport. Of course, no one knew just how intense it would become.
Pro-democracy protesters in Lindale, Dakota on the eve of the Velvet Revolution. Lindale, like many Middle Western towns, was settled by Germans and Scandinavians who believed in true democracy for Betters. The town would later go through an ORRA purge of dissidents.
Jefferson was absolutely hated among Shicagwans because he not only beat their beloved Brown Caps constantly, but seemed to take relish in humiliating them. He would stick out his buttocks at fans, engage in mocking gestures on the pitchers mound, and openly taunt the team's sluggers. He especially delighted in harassing one Matthew Fernsby for the great crime of being an Anglo-Saxon from Natchez, Florida in the Old South. This behavior came to a head on June 13th, 1910, at the third game of a four game series played in Goodyear Field, Home of the Brown Caps. Fernsby came up to bat with bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth, with the Brown Caps down by 3. Hitting a homer would tie up the game and give the Caps a fighting chance coming into the ninth. Jefferson also knew this. He proceeded to engage in his usual trash talk as he tried to evaluate which kind of pitch to throw to Fernsby. A curveball? A fastball, maybe? Fernsby remained laser focused, not letting Jefferson's infamous psychological warfare get to him. Jefferson realized this and decided to break one of America's great taboos to try and seal the game. He called out "Hey Matty, lemme ask ya this ol' chum. Did your whore momma like layin' with Black men as much as I heard? Maybe I'll visit her after the game and become your new Daddy!" Fernsby was famously the son of a deceased veteran of the Mexican Immolation and raised by a single mother, who he adored. As the crowd began to boo and hiss, Fernsby calmly walked towards the pitchers mound, bat in hand, as Jefferson ignored him to delight in the crowd's hatred. 30 seconds later, Matthew Fernsby stood on the pitchers mound holding a bat dripping with blood as he stood over Arnold Jefferson's body and caved in skull. Irate Yankees fans surged towards the field to be met by the Brown Caps, who had gathered up their bats and protective gear, and formed a kind of pseudo-testudo formation. They were quickly reinforced by their fellow Shicagwans, who outnumbered the Yankees fans by a 2-1 margin. After 15 minutes of combat, the outnumbered Yankees fans fled the stadium and disappeared into the city. The Battle of Goodyear, as it was known, was the largest Rounders riot up to that point in American history. Matthew Fernsby was pardoned by President Custer, as popular opinion among most Betters was that Jefferson had crossed a line, with even most Black Americans disowning him in the immediate aftermath. It would take a generation for Arnold Jefferson to re-enter the Pantheon of Rounders as memory of the incident faded from view.
The Great Rivalry, as many were now calling the Yankees-Brown Caps feud, was put on hold for the duration of the Great War. Even in the immediate aftermath of the war from 1915-1920, the rivalry was calmer and more subdued as leftover hyper-nationalism meant that sectional differences didn't inflame quite like they used to. However, as wartime unity faded to be replaced by the roaring boom of post-war America, the Great Rivalry came surging back. In 1921, Brown Caps slugger Owen Hughes was a rising star of Rounders, rivaled only by Yankees pitcher Noam Goldman, the most prominent "Man of Zion" to ever play the game as of this time. The Yankees were still extremely sore over the murder of Arnold Jefferson, and desired to somehow humiliate the Yankees in return. Goldman managed to do this quite by accident. It was an open secret that Hughes's wife Amelia absolutely despised him. He beat her, demeaned her, and cheated without consequence as he too had attained a Tobias Token from his good personal friend Billy Sunday. The famously charming Goldman found Amelia Hughes outside of a party hosted by the NRA on April 1st to commemorate March on Philadelphia Day, crying and bruised as a result of another of her husband's beatings. He was taken by her immense beauty. Goldman seduced her then and there, resulting in a torrid affair, during which time Amelia Hughes gave Goldman her husband's famous practice notes, allowing him to obliterate the star slugger whenever they met. Knowledge of the affair broke when the Brown Caps were playing the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in early June, 1922. Hughes was first enraged and then suffered a nervous breakdown, believing that the fact the he was cuckolded by "That miserable fucking Jew" meant that he was not the Pinnacle Man he believed himself to be. Hughes had always prided himself on his ability to utterly dominate his wife while living like a King of Old Israel, and the knowledge that he couldn't actually do that proved too much for his self image. Owen Hughes hanged himself in his hotel room on June 4th, 1922. In direct violation of his own law, President Steele not only allowed Goldman to live and continue to play, he attended the pitcher's wedding to Amelia Hughes (now Goldman) in July 1922. Steele was an ardent Yankees fan and despite his evil adored his own wife immensely, meaning he was more than happy that America's second-most prominent wife beater had offed himself. Goldman would continue to be the star pitcher for the Yankees until 1928.
Yankees pitcher Noam Goldman, AKA "The Saven Slinger" in 1923
Adler Durchdenwald was the son of an American father of German heritage and a Swedish immigrant mother, born in Davenport, Michigania in 1907. The eldest of 6, the young Adler had an All-American childhood in Davenport where he did, in fact, attain the rank of All-American. Adler's father David was cold and distant for most of his life, a product of Great War induced PTSD. Although his father earned more than enough to keep the family comfortable, in almost every other way Adler was thrust into the father role. He attended meetings with teachers for his younger siblings, ensured the family got up in time for church, and even disciplined his siblings. Alongside these adult responsibilities and his CYB duties, young Adler discovered he had a talent for Rounders, which his mother encouraged. He became the best youth slugger in the state of Michigania, batting a .340 his freshman year of high school and leading his school to 4 consecutive state championships. Standing 6'2" and weighing in at 220 lbs at the age of 18, the powerfully built hazel-eyed brunette was the very vision of the ideal Pinnacle Man. Not that Adler needed to be told that by strangers (though he was, frequently). Aside from the acclaim of his schoolmates and strangers, the obsessions of the local girls and women (Adler revealed in his 1960 memoir that he lost his virginity at 14 shortly after winning his first state championship to the game's guest of honor, 1921 Miss Michigania Ella Cooper, who was 28 at the time) and the admiration of his teachers and coaches, the key to understanding the rather titanic ego and unhinged personality that was Adler Durchdenwald is in evaluating his relationship with his mother and then his wife. Let's examine his mother first.
His mother Johanna, a gorgeous and tall blonde, was a fervent AFC convert who became despondent after her once lively and vigorous husband came home from the Canadian Front a broken man. While she never strayed (partially thanks to Steele's strict anti-adultery legislation) she did become increasingly dissatisfied with her marriage. She did, however, admire the way her eldest son naturally filled the role of de facto man of the house and seemed to excel at everything he did. As her son matured she became more and more obsessed with him, convinced that she had "borne the most Pinnacle Man to ever bestride the state of Michigania." Allegations of an inappropriate sexual relationship between the two swirled for years, although no one dared to investigate. At the very least, it can be determined that they had an emotionally incestuous relationship. Much as he de facto became his siblings' father, he de facto became his mother's husband. He arranged for flowers to be sent to her every week, took her out for steaks at Davenport's best restaurant (where he always ate for free as the town's hero), and escorted her to her Women's MDP events. On her end, Johanna treated her son like a spoiled tyrant. He had complete control over his siblings, the family auto, and even what his mother wore, and at the end of each day after his siblings were in for the night he recalled "Mother used the arts of Swedish massage she had learned as a young woman in Stockholm to soothe my aching muscles. While she did so, she would help mend my weary mind by praising the immense thickness and vigor of my Pinnacle Fluids, and addressed me as "Her Caesar." The only way in which his mother controlled him was in trying to scare off his many, many female admirers and girlfriends. When he was 18, with her encouragement, young Adler declared for the NRA Draft and was picked up by Shicagwa.
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Adler Durchdenwald, Shicagwa's "Strong Man Slugger."
In his first season in 1926, many were skeptical that Adler would do much for the ailing Brown Caps. Sure the kid had talent, but that wouldn't matter much if the team could not gather itself together. However, young Adler was a born leader, and he knew how to assert his dominance. During a dispute over cigars between first basemen Richard Korhonen and pitcher Willy Mayer, the 18 year old simply beat both men to a pulp and took the cigars. Following the rules of Social Darwinism, Durchdenwald was made team captain. Now under the iron-fisted leadership of their "Tyrant Tot," as the media disparagingly called him, Adler stunned the nation by batting .335 and leading the Brown Caps to their first National Championship in a decade. All joking about the brash young man ended and even Joe Steele, a diehard Yankees fan, praised the young third basemen and slugging superstar. He would lead the Brown Caps to further Championships in '27, '28, '31, '32, '33, and '35. The once dismissive media dubbed him "An athletic Aeneas, a bully boy of ball, or simply, the Strong Man Slugger," and he took to fame with relish. He lived lavishly, building a compound in the shape of a Rounders diamond outside of Shicagwa. The "Palace of Slugging" as the press called it, was 5 separate buildings made from white limestone. Home plate was his 7500 sq foot mansion, the pitchers mound a large gymnasium, first base was the 5000 sq ft "guest" house, second base servants' quarters, and third base was a 6000 sq ft home for his mother. Construction was completed in 1928, in time for Adler to move in to his palace with his bride, who we shall now cover before getting to the Great Rounders Riot of 1935.
In 1927, fresh off his second championship, Adler Durchdenwald met Klara Nilsson, a beautiful blonde 22 year old Swedish immigrant who had been a champion fencer and was currently a Rounders fanatic. The two connected instantly, and on a much deeper level than any of Adler's previous conquests. A fervent believer in Fundamentalism and the Strong Man Theory, she, like many American women, was utterly obsessed with the Boy-King of Rounders. After a whirlwind courtship, the two married and moved into his palatial complex outside Shicagwa. There, she introduced Adler to LSD and group sex. Firm believers in Spiritual Marxism, the two would frequently laze about and drop acid together. Adler had increasingly insane hallucinations that depicted him as a Greek God, wielding a rounders bat and smiting his foes with it before laying with multiple Greek Goddesses dressed as Lady Liberty, Aphrodite, and Boudicca. His bisexual wife took this as a sign that Adler and her were clearly meant to work together to spread his Bloodline together. Having received his Tobias Token from the AFC, Adler and Klara founded what was essentially the world's first Rounders-themed sex cult. There were 11 "stars" taken in, all tall, beautiful blondes. His wife was the 12th star, and they centered the 13th or Pinnacle Star, Adler, who based the structure of this cult on the 13 stars of the Blood-Stained Banner of the Revolution. The 11 subsidiary women were required to wear Brown Caps cheerleading uniforms on the property. They served Adler first and then Klara when he wasn't present. All 11 women were even more worshipful towards Adler than his wife and mother. When combined with his legions of fans, his budding personality cult within the Brown Caps organization, and the national acclaim he had achieved, Durchdenwald became ever more unhinged, seeing himself as something of a Pinnacle athletic warrior-god who was going to found his own tribe (given that he had 62 children between his wife and 11 disciples, he arguably did). This would all come to a head after he defeated the Philadelphia Yankees in a close series in 1935.
August 11th, 1935. The final game of the final series of the regular season was between Shicagwa and Philadelphia. The 3 game series was tied 1-1. The winner would win the Liberty League and likely go on to be National Champs. Philadelphia took the lead in the second inning and held on until it was the bottom of the ninth. Yankees lead by 1, with two Brown Caps on the bases. There have already been two outs. Durchdenwald comes up to bat. He hits a record setting 753rd homer. Shicagwa wins the game and the series. Philadelphia fans are outraged, calling the game rigged and demanding that the last inning be replayed due to alleged (read, imagined) irregularities in officiating. Boos ring out. Adler takes up the microphone used by a local singing prodigy to belt out the national anthem. In one final show of disrespect to the Yankees, he launches into an epic tirade known simply as the "Look Upon Me" speech.
"Yes, look upon me, you vanquished lesser Pinnacle Men! Look upon me and weep for you have been beaten! Though I may not be of Colonial stock like you Philadelphians, my Fluids run thick and hearty, like mother's beef stew! I am filled to the brim with the Essence and Vigor of the Pinnaclean Gladiators of yore! For I am the Strong Man Slugger, the Aeneas of Athletics, the Newborn Pinnacle Tyrant of Sport, and my reign shall never end! I AM THE ZEUS OF ROUNDERS, HEAR MY THUNDER!"
His speech so enraged Yankee Stadium that fans began fighting in the stands, while others charged the field. Durchdenwald personally killed 5 Philadelphians in self-defense. The Great Rounders Riot of 1935 had begun, and would rage for the whole day and into the night. Shicagwa fans were hanged by lynch mobs, stabbed leaving the stadium, and dragged out of their autos and shot. Brown Caps fans would in turn fight like cornered animals. Businesses burned, 311 people died, and RUMP was deployed to the heart of Yankeeland to beat, shoot, club, and gas their own people. It was one of the deadliest sports riots in human history. Joe Steele was enraged by the whole affair (including the outcome of the game, which inspired him to shoot his talkiebox) but could not charge Durchdenwald without possibly inciting Shicagwa to revolt. Instead he made an example out of rioters from both sides, hanging them in front of the Capitol Building. This riot was a bloody punctuation mark on a truly insane rivalry.
The logo of the Philadelphia Yankees
RUMP clashes with sports rioters during the Great Rounders Riot of 1935
The talkiebox Joe Steele shot after hearing the end of the Yankees-Caps matchup before the Great Rounders Riot.
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Okay, not gonna lie - this one left me fucking speechless. Was it the Oedipal complex? His mother praising the thickness of his Fluids? Steele shooting his talkiebox? His lowkey impression of Ramses II/Tobias in having that many children? The Rounders-themed sex cult? Uncertain...
...But, on reflection, probably the last one
.
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I just had a most wonderful idea…
So way back in the post talking about comic books in the Madness, there was one Stanley Kirby, a very obvious fusion of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. What if after creating Colonel Union, he goes on to become involved in Zap Zephyr? Either as one of the creators or one of the seminal writers/artist for the series.
Just imagine our boy Chuck Oswald getting lost in the pages of gorgeous art and stories of spacemen and ancient aliens creating the first Pinnacles, of spaceships surrounded by Kirby Krackles, of the “new gods” of Inferiors trying to destroy a fantastical high tech version of the New Jerusalem while men of liquid silver ponder AFC scripture.
Admit my own ideas run more along the lines of old pulp/comics meeting James Bond through a hideously distorted kaleidoscope, but this is thoroughly grand. Also, calling it now - Zap Zephyr is TTL's Star Wars
No reason why both can’t be true, especially if Zap Zephyr is anything like some comic books OTL with several titles running concurrently, with the Pulp being the mainline books and Stanly’s more esoteric work being on side works or special runs
Speaking of:
ZAP ZEPHYR STARRING IN "PINNACLE CHAOS": PATTON'S FORBIDDEN BROADCAST
A New Canaan father and his son tune in to the Zap Zephyr talkiebox show during the Sootstorms.
George Patton, former Supreme Chief of ORRA, was not the sort of man to turn on his master without a plan. Foiled as he was, the revolting Wormist traitor had laid many plans to ensure the 'Pinnacle Chaos' he envisioned would follow the lifting of the Veil, Opening Day, and indeed the beginning of Helter Skelter would not be constrained to Philadelphia alone. As Supreme Chief of ORRA, Patton had access to many resources and powers, and he employed many of them in his scheming, but one was particularly dear to his heart - oversight over the airwaves.
From the day of its invention, the talkiebox and its associated shows had grown from ubiquity to fame across America, a phenomena that had grown almost religious as the Sootstorms left many in Old Mexico desperately searching for comfort amidst the chaos. No matter how dark the skies grew, how scarce the crops, how packed and heaving the cities became, there was always a voice the embattled citizenry could turn to. Those who were hungry could lose themselves in talk of fatty, filling SPUD until they drooled enough to threaten an impromptu reenactment of the Biblical Flood; those who were frightened could tune into the evangelists and hear reassurances that soon, the New Jerusalem would span from pole to pole, that Manifest Destiny would heal all wounds and sorrows; and the children? The children had Zap Zephyr.
The Adventures of Zap Zephyr: 21st Century Pinnacle Man had been a hit with the general American readership since they were first published, with soldiers particularly adoring the 1936 edition of Zap Zephyr Monthly they received for Christmas in the midst of Manifest Climax, but its greatest and most fanatical readers were children. And so, as the darkness closed in on Old Mexico, as their parents panicked, as the soft wall of protection woven around their innocence began to fray, where else would the eyes and ears of American children turn but the adventures of their hero amongst the stars?
Patton himself was a fan of the series, having owned an extensive collection of issues - much of it autographed by the original writers - that had started shortly after the crippling injury, that, well, crippled him. In the pages of interstellar adventures, the simple camraderie of the idealised military life, and the fantastical occurrences that packed the pages, Patton could find respite from the neverending insecurity that accompanied his disability by retreating into an idealised fantasy of his glory days, painted anew amongst the stars. It's even rumoured that he had acquired, at some point, a matching set of Zap Zephyr and Princess Stareena costumes for he and his wife, and that these were amongst the effects of Patton recouped by then-Supreme Chief of ORRA and now-President Chuck Oswald, though the President has always (and rightly) denied having retrieved such artefacts of perverse obsession.
Regardless of these rumours' veracity, following his fall to the slithering, secretive seduction of the serpentine Worm, the traitor pursued many avenues through which he hoped to slay his rightful Atheling and bring about the destruction of the New Jerusalem. The Congo Dam scheme, hatched in vile cooperation with his fellow Wormists, is the most infamous of these schemes; but perhaps the one closest to his blackened, shrivelled heart was an episode he had, ah, specially commissioned. On the 25th of February, 1941, ORRA men showed up at the homes of renowned Zap Zephyr voice actors from general-use voices like Millicent Smythe (who voiced, amongst others, the Martian Infee Princess Momodo) to more prominent stars like Cuthbert Claymore (the voice of Zap himself) with train tickets to Miskatonic in hand, and it was made very clear to the voice actors what the price of failure to cooperate would be.
There, in a hidden studio in the bowels of Castle Patton, the deranged Wormist forced the voices of America's most beloved radio serial at gunpoint to give voice to a very special episode indeed - written by Patton himself. The episode begins normally enough - the Excelsior is hunting amongst the stars for new alien life, scanners at the ready to determine if it is Pinnacle and worthy of uplift or Infee and thus fated for pulverisation by the photon accelerators - but, mid-scene, a knock is heard on the outer hull. Zephyr asks if anyone else hears it, and receives only confusion. It comes again. Zephyr grows agitated, and Stareena suggests that they should take some cocaine and commune with the spirits outside the strict bounds of legal Spiritual Marxist practice to see what exactly is going on - a suggestion Zephyr firsts rejects, calling it "devilry", but is persuaded to by Stareena's "rhythmic bodily undulations" and the demands of his own fluids, which "wriggle and writhe in [his] veins" and seem to "pulse with strange but not unpleasant heat" (both of which being symptoms described by Patton after taking the excessive amounts of LSD that seem to have presaged his initial visions of the Worm).
After setting up a spirit board, and carefully instructing the viewers in how to 'safely' disrupt the sacred runes and holy matrices making such a tool of Christian magick safe, Zap and Stareena take a decidedly unsafe amount of boogie and begin to commune with the Other Side. The messages begin as fairly understandable within the context of a demonic summoning: deceptions such as "I am He returned", seductive promises of victory and wealth and so on, but as the boogie concentration in their systems slowly takes its toll, the vision crystalises as the ship falls away into the stars. Soon, the familiar vision of that most accursed manifestation looms above them, first a vast shadow blotting out the stars, then an all-too-visible beast of rusted scales and gleaming fangs. At this point, both fall silent, and Patton himself submitted a recorded monologue as voice of the Worm incarnate:
Behold, you have struggled for answers, and so I have come to answer them. You have shed blood in my name, whether you knew it or not, and so you are mine. I take many forms - this is but one. Your Republican Union is another. Wealth, knowledge, power, adoration - all are yours for the taking, so long as you take your place as my greatest servants in the days of Helter Skelter to come as in the true compact between your race and I forged in the ancient days. I am the Worm, the Crowned and Conquering King of this Age of Blood amongst the stars, and you are my Chosen People. - Beginning of the Worm's monologue, ZZ-#76 - Pinnacle Chaos, otherwise known as "the Forbidden Broadcast".
Terrorstruck, Stareena and Zap beg Jev for intercession... But they are not answered. The Worm - Patton, that is - chuckles, declaring that it is the true God of this reality, and, while not forgiving their lapse, will forgive them if they only admit to this final truth, all other outcomes meeting with the end of the Pinnacle race. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as Claymore, though visibly wracked with terror, refused to recite the final incantation. When loyalist ORRA forces found the makeshift studio, he was still refusing the Arch-Wormist's servant, even after having lost a hand and with a gun pressed directly against his Adam's apple.
The discovery made headlines nationwide, and the photo of a half-starved yet undefeated Cuthbert Claymore presenting the bleeding stump where his hand had once been to ORRA photographers was perhaps the final puzzle piece in the wholesale public annihilation of the Wormist's legacy and reputation, as, while the children of the nation were not sufficiently mature to process the tenants of Wormism, they knew Patton was the reason Zap Zephyr wasn't on for two months, and that was enough to breed an instinctive hatred of the man the likes of which not even Infees can boast, few in number as they are nowadays.
The Forbidden Broadcast's original recording - Patton, knowing that broadcasting the script live on air was a good way to derail things, had elected to record it into a gramophone and play it from there to ensure there were no... hiccups - was seized and destroyed by the President after just one listen of the accursed thing, but rumours persist of additional copies. Certainly, ORRA has stumbled across eerily accurate fakes over the years, and Sweeney Ericson cited it in the Necrotic Manuscript as one of his "major inspirations", so it is not wholly impossible the Broadcast survived... Still. Probably just one of those old wives' tales, eh?
ZAP ZEPHYR STARRING IN "PINNACLE CHAOS": PATTON'S FORBIDDEN BROADCAST
A New Canaan father and his son tune in to the Zap Zephyr talkiebox show during the Sootstorms.
George Patton, former Supreme Chief of ORRA, was not the sort of man to turn on his master without a plan. Foiled as he was, the revolting Wormist traitor had laid many plans to ensure the 'Pinnacle Chaos' he envisioned would follow the lifting of the Veil, Opening Day, and indeed the beginning of Helter Skelter would not be constrained to Philadelphia alone. As Supreme Chief of ORRA, Patton had access to many resources and powers, and he employed many of them in his scheming, but one was particularly dear to his heart - oversight over the airwaves.
From the day of its invention, the talkiebox and its associated shows had grown from ubiquity to fame across America, a phenomena that had grown almost religious as the Sootstorms left many in Old Mexico desperately searching for comfort amidst the chaos. No matter how dark the skies grew, how scarce the crops, how packed and heaving the cities became, there was always a voice the embattled citizenry could turn to. Those who were hungry could lose themselves in talk of fatty, filling SPUD until they drooled enough to threaten an impromptu reenactment of the Biblical Flood; those who were frightened could tune into the evangelists and hear reassurances that soon, the New Jerusalem would span from pole to pole, that Manifest Destiny would heal all wounds and sorrows; and the children? The children had Zap Zephyr.
The Adventures of Zap Zephyr: 21st Century Pinnacle Man had been a hit with the general American readership since they were first published, with soldiers particularly adoring the 1936 edition of Zap Zephyr Monthly they received for Christmas in the midst of Manifest Climax, but its greatest and most fanatical readers were children. And so, as the darkness closed in on Old Mexico, as their parents panicked, as the soft wall of protection woven around their innocence began to fray, where else would the eyes and ears of American children turn but the adventures of their hero amongst the stars?
Patton himself was a fan of the series, having owned an extensive collection of issues - much of it autographed by the original writers - that had started shortly after the crippling injury, that, well, crippled him. In the pages of interstellar adventures, the simple camraderie of the idealised military life, and the fantastical occurrences that packed the pages, Patton could find respite from the neverending insecurity that accompanied his disability by retreating into an idealised fantasy of his glory days, painted anew amongst the stars. It's even rumoured that he had acquired, at some point, a matching set of Zap Zephyr and Princess Stareena costumes for he and his wife, and that these were amongst the effects of Patton recouped by then-Supreme Chief of ORRA and now-President Chuck Oswald, though the President has always (and rightly) denied having retrieved such artefacts of perverse obsession.
Regardless of these rumours' veracity, following his fall to the slithering, secretive seduction of the serpentine Worm, the traitor pursued many avenues through which he hoped to slay his rightful Atheling and bring about the destruction of the New Jerusalem. The Congo Dam scheme, hatched in vile cooperation with his fellow Wormists, is the most infamous of these schemes; but perhaps the one closest to his blackened, shrivelled heart was an episode he had, ah, specially commissioned. On the 25th of February, 1941, ORRA men showed up at the homes of renowned Zap Zephyr voice actors from general-use voices like Millicent Smythe (who voiced, amongst others, the Martian Infee Princess Momodo) to more prominent stars like Cuthbert Claymore (the voice of Zap himself) with train tickets to Miskatonic in hand, and it was made very clear to the voice actors what the price of failure to cooperate would be.
There, in a hidden studio in the bowels of Castle Patton, the deranged Wormist forced the voices of America's most beloved radio serial at gunpoint to give voice to a very special episode indeed - written by Patton himself. The episode begins normally enough - the Excelsior is hunting amongst the stars for new alien life, scanners at the ready to determine if it is Pinnacle and worthy of uplift or Infee and thus fated for pulverisation by the photon accelerators - but, mid-scene, a knock is heard on the outer hull. Zephyr asks if anyone else hears it, and receives only confusion. It comes again. Zephyr grows agitated, and Stareena suggests that they should take some cocaine and commune with the spirits outside the strict bounds of legal Spiritual Marxist practice to see what exactly is going on - a suggestion Zephyr firsts rejects, calling it "devilry", but is persuaded to by Stareena's "rhythmic bodily undulations" and the demands of his own fluids, which "wriggle and writhe in [his] veins" and seem to "pulse with strange but not unpleasant heat" (both of which being symptoms described by Patton after taking the excessive amounts of LSD that seem to have presaged his initial visions of the Worm).
After setting up a spirit board, and carefully instructing the viewers in how to 'safely' disrupt the sacred runes and holy matrices making such a tool of Christian magick safe, Zap and Stareena take a decidedly unsafe amount of boogie and begin to commune with the Other Side. The messages begin as fairly understandable within the context of a demonic summoning: deceptions such as "I am He returned", seductive promises of victory and wealth and so on, but as the boogie concentration in their systems slowly takes its toll, the vision crystalises as the ship falls away into the stars. Soon, the familiar vision of that most accursed manifestation looms above them, first a vast shadow blotting out the stars, then an all-too-visible beast of rusted scales and gleaming fangs. At this point, both fall silent, and Patton himself submitted a recorded monologue as voice of the Worm incarnate:
Behold, you have struggled for answers, and so I have come to answer them. You have shed blood in my name, whether you knew it or not, and so you are mine. I take many forms - this is but one. Your Republican Union is another. Wealth, knowledge, power, adoration - all are yours for the taking, so long as you take your place as my greatest servants in the days of Helter Skelter to come as in the true compact between your race and I forged in the ancient days. I am the Worm, the Crowned and Conquering King of this Age of Blood amongst the stars, and you are my Chosen People. - Beginning of the Worm's monologue, ZZ-#76 - Pinnacle Chaos, otherwise known as "the Forbidden Broadcast".
Terrorstruck, Stareena and Zap beg Jev for intercession... But they are not answered. The Worm - Patton, that is - chuckles, declaring that it is the true God of this reality, and, while not forgiving their lapse, will forgive them if they only admit to this final truth, all other outcomes meeting with the end of the Pinnacle race. The episode ends on a cliffhanger, as Claymore, though visibly wracked with terror, refused to recite the final incantation. When loyalist ORRA forces found the makeshift studio, he was still refusing the Arch-Wormist's servant, even after having lost a hand and with a gun pressed directly against his Adam's apple.
The discovery made headlines nationwide, and the photo of a half-starved yet undefeated Cuthbert Claymore presenting the bleeding stump where his hand had once been to ORRA photographers was perhaps the final puzzle piece in the wholesale public annihilation of the Wormist's legacy and reputation, as, while the children of the nation were not sufficiently mature to process the tenants of Wormism, they knew Patton was the reason Zap Zephyr wasn't on for two months, and that was enough to breed an instinctive hatred of the man the likes of which not even Infees can boast, few in number as they are nowadays.
The Forbidden Broadcast's original recording - Patton, knowing that broadcasting the script live on air was a good way to derail things, had elected to record it into a gramophone and play it from there to ensure there were no... hiccups - was seized and destroyed by the President after just one listen of the accursed thing, but rumours persist of additional copies. Certainly, ORRA has stumbled across eerily accurate fakes over the years, and Sweeney Ericson cited it in the Necrotic Manuscript as one of his "major inspirations", so it is not wholly impossible the Broadcast survived... Still. Probably just one of those old wives' tales, eh?
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*nods, takes notes*
So... Guardians of the Galaxy? Strikes me as a bit like Guardians of the Galaxy.
I was thinking more New Gods and Inhumans inspired but Guardians of the Galaxy work too, seeing as it would be the crew of the Excelsior being thrown into “a realm beyond space, beyond time, beyond even the limits of Christian magiks!”.
I’m still working out the details as I’m working on expanding Kirby himself more (for the time being), but so far I’m thinking…
- Kirby leaves Colonel Union for reasons and ends up as an artists on the Zap Zephyr books
- gets to do a filler story about smugglers transporting strange artifacts and technology
- tries to exert greater control on the main Zap Zephyr book and is rebuffed
- Buuut he is able to Strong Man strong arm his way into getting a spin-off series of his own
- smugglers make a return and while in pursuit are thrown into a realm of strange beings and gods
- Boss of the smugglers turns out to be one of godlike being the realm and appears to be a mishmash of all Infee stereotypes (imagine Orion from DC’s Kingdom Come)
- Kirby uses the crew of the Excelcior and the beings there to ponder and philosophise the meaning of Pinnaclism, spiritual Marxism, and the idea that the human race (both Better and Inferior) is but the constructs and great game between alien super beings we perceive as god and spirits
- Many readers are unhappy about the esoteric elements, dialogue heavy story, and the lack in the more traditional Zap story elements (like a good fight scene where Zap and crew handily defeat the bad guys)
- develops a strong cult followings heavily influenced by Kirbys strange art (which is only enhanced by dropping drugs)
- book gets cancelled because of pressure for straying too close to balspahmy and subversion
- despite these issues many later Zap Zephyr will include aspects of Kirbys tales into the the main Zephyr continuity (often as antagonists or their artefacts as plot macguffins).
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Positively swell! Must admit I'm more familiar with comics lore itself, so might have to ask you to handle that part of the equation, but all strikes me as swell.