So I've got this idea in my head about setting a story in an alternate America that resembles some of our modern culture, but in which America is a theocracy.
Obviously to get something like this to even happen it would require a pre-1900 POD.
My vague idea has the alt-colonies setting up a theocratic union after breaking away from an England that has gone through a secular, anti-monarchist revolution. In the weakened state, England can't prevent the colonies from rebelling (essentially, the colonies reject the anti-theism of the "new England".
My ultimate goal would be to have this theocracy stretch from the Atlantic to the Rockies. On the West Coast, a separate state would exist that is in some ways the antithesis of the theocracy....a secular state that allows for religious freedom and is a safe haven for those in the theocracy who tire of persecution.
This is just kind of a rough sketch of what I've got rolling around in my head. The story itself would take place in California, and the main character would be the son of the theocracy's ambassador to that region, and would basically be about him reassessing all that he's been raised to believe now that he's outside the cacoon that the theocracy has essentially created around most of it's citizens.
I realize that this isn't the most believable kind of POD/timeline, but it fits the needs of the story I'm wanting to write, better than keeping the setting really vague (I dislike stories like that for the most part).
So, any thoughts or suggestions?
Obviously to get something like this to even happen it would require a pre-1900 POD.
My vague idea has the alt-colonies setting up a theocratic union after breaking away from an England that has gone through a secular, anti-monarchist revolution. In the weakened state, England can't prevent the colonies from rebelling (essentially, the colonies reject the anti-theism of the "new England".
My ultimate goal would be to have this theocracy stretch from the Atlantic to the Rockies. On the West Coast, a separate state would exist that is in some ways the antithesis of the theocracy....a secular state that allows for religious freedom and is a safe haven for those in the theocracy who tire of persecution.
This is just kind of a rough sketch of what I've got rolling around in my head. The story itself would take place in California, and the main character would be the son of the theocracy's ambassador to that region, and would basically be about him reassessing all that he's been raised to believe now that he's outside the cacoon that the theocracy has essentially created around most of it's citizens.
I realize that this isn't the most believable kind of POD/timeline, but it fits the needs of the story I'm wanting to write, better than keeping the setting really vague (I dislike stories like that for the most part).
So, any thoughts or suggestions?