"What Madness Is This?" Vol. II: The Pinnacle Future
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
Everyone is forgetting that it is Napoleon's fault too: the guy stabbed the RU in the back after the war of 1812.
After all the horrors the british inflicted upon the american population, the french emperor refused to respect his words and give up the territories he promised, kickstarting the RU's revanchism against,well, everyone
After all the horrors the british inflicted upon the american population, the french emperor refused to respect his words and give up the territories he promised, kickstarting the RU's revanchism against,well, everyone
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It's telling that the RU didn't come out of the war with a hatred for the British, but for their French and Southron "allies". They wanted Canada, but it was the French Papists they wanted revenge against.
You know what would make for a fun ASB TL, Chuck Oswald and OTL JFK switch places.
Neither of 'em would last the day. JFK is too obviously sane, Chuck Oswald too obviously insane.
The problem with that is that one is a crazy womanizing dumbass and the other is an AFC cultist.
"This just in, President Kennedy has been deemed unfit to perform his duties by reason of insanity. The President, who insists on calling himself 'Oswald' was taken to a Washington area mental hospital earlier today, while Vice President Johnson will assume the duties of the office. Doctors are still unsure what brought on this abrupt change in behavior."
Oswald: *mouth-foaming while straight-jacked* I'M FUCKING SURROUNDED BY FUCKING INFEES!
I bet the doctor treating him would write a book based on the version of history the president suddenly started thinking was the truth and the conspiracy theory would be that he had slipped from another dimension. So the Mandela effect would be called the Oswald Effect or the Kennedy Effect
Oswald: THEY'RE SAYING I'M A PAPIST FUCKING INFEE!
So what happens if they retain each other's memories?
Oswald once he's calmed down a tad: My brother's been killed while I was locked down? Oh nooooo...
Poor JFK. He’ll think he’s died and gone straight to hell
And he’d have to pretend to not be catholic or he would be killed. At least Oswald is just going to the looney bin, JFK either dies or has to pretend to be Oswald the rest of his life, both of which are bad situations.
Oh well, they will both find confort in the fact Nixon is basically the same guy in both universes.
I was just procrastinating doing English homework and a thought came to me about the RU and Ancient Rome, they are VERY similar in the overall features of their respective national stories. Its probably been pointed out before and is probably intentional.
War of 1812/ 390BC Sack of Rome - Both nations devastated by a war with some "Other" of their respective are. The sack of Rome gave the Romans a distinct fear of Gauls and Barbarians that dominated throughout their history, driving them to expand and eventually uniting Italy to prevent such a disaster happening again. The War of 1812 devastated the Republican Union, giving them their modern xenophobic attitudes and militaristic outlook, ultimately driving them to conquer all of North America in a century long series of conflicts.
American Fundamentalist Church/ Romanised Hellenism - The respective national religions of both nations are also similar. The Roman Hellenism was a hodgepodge of various Pagan systems, but was overall distinctly a Roman, Militarised and Masculine version of Greek Paganism. This is similar to the AFC which is essentially Judeo-America-Mystic Worshipping, cultivating religion to fit into their culture rather than having their culture fit their religion.
New Jerusalem/New Troy Mythos - Both the RU and Ancient Rome styled themselves as the new versions of some ancient great city. Rome's founding is credited as being the product of the flight of the surviving Trojans after the sack of Troy, giving them a legitimacy in having such a direct link to the mythical past. America as described by the Prophet is ordained by Jehovah to be the "New Jerusalem", a new Chosen People just like the old Kingdom of Israel. This directly gives legitimacy to the whole "Better" myth as they are literally chosen by God to be the sole rulers of this new promised land and ties them to the biblical times which everyone is dimly aware of.
As The Pinnacle Future progresses this will become even more apparent. Operation Manifest Climax could very much be a RU "Crisis of the Third Century", with failing wars against "Barbarians" and the internal situation rapidly declining, teetering on total collapse, only to be saved by the "American Aurelian" Chuck Oswald. Who will restore the 'glory' of America, but never quite to the pre OMC days, necessitating the government ordained Sex Cult to keep the younger generation in line (which I believe will quickly turn sour as the generation after the Pinnies will believe themselves even better, causing a intergenerational divide the size of the Grand Canyon). (Assuming the world doesn't go boom-boom before that)
Then the "Second Prophet" will complete the Ultra-Americanisation of the AFC, essentially making a completely different Abrahamic Faith which will be even more glaring once the Catholic world gets over its "Age of the Three Popes" (future WMIT historians might even refer to the Catholic schism as the "Crisis of the Twentieth Century").
That's my two cents.
War of 1812/ 390BC Sack of Rome - Both nations devastated by a war with some "Other" of their respective are. The sack of Rome gave the Romans a distinct fear of Gauls and Barbarians that dominated throughout their history, driving them to expand and eventually uniting Italy to prevent such a disaster happening again. The War of 1812 devastated the Republican Union, giving them their modern xenophobic attitudes and militaristic outlook, ultimately driving them to conquer all of North America in a century long series of conflicts.
American Fundamentalist Church/ Romanised Hellenism - The respective national religions of both nations are also similar. The Roman Hellenism was a hodgepodge of various Pagan systems, but was overall distinctly a Roman, Militarised and Masculine version of Greek Paganism. This is similar to the AFC which is essentially Judeo-America-Mystic Worshipping, cultivating religion to fit into their culture rather than having their culture fit their religion.
New Jerusalem/New Troy Mythos - Both the RU and Ancient Rome styled themselves as the new versions of some ancient great city. Rome's founding is credited as being the product of the flight of the surviving Trojans after the sack of Troy, giving them a legitimacy in having such a direct link to the mythical past. America as described by the Prophet is ordained by Jehovah to be the "New Jerusalem", a new Chosen People just like the old Kingdom of Israel. This directly gives legitimacy to the whole "Better" myth as they are literally chosen by God to be the sole rulers of this new promised land and ties them to the biblical times which everyone is dimly aware of.
As The Pinnacle Future progresses this will become even more apparent. Operation Manifest Climax could very much be a RU "Crisis of the Third Century", with failing wars against "Barbarians" and the internal situation rapidly declining, teetering on total collapse, only to be saved by the "American Aurelian" Chuck Oswald. Who will restore the 'glory' of America, but never quite to the pre OMC days, necessitating the government ordained Sex Cult to keep the younger generation in line (which I believe will quickly turn sour as the generation after the Pinnies will believe themselves even better, causing a intergenerational divide the size of the Grand Canyon). (Assuming the world doesn't go boom-boom before that)
Then the "Second Prophet" will complete the Ultra-Americanisation of the AFC, essentially making a completely different Abrahamic Faith which will be even more glaring once the Catholic world gets over its "Age of the Three Popes" (future WMIT historians might even refer to the Catholic schism as the "Crisis of the Twentieth Century").
That's my two cents.
Adding to this, the downfall of the Roman Republic could be similar to the Lincoln and Custer eras where you have much more centralization of power. The Roman Republic eventually became the Roman Empire; similarly, the vestiges of democracy in the RU collapsed in the Lincoln and Custer eras.
The Punic Wars (Rome vs. Carthage) cemented Rome as the main power in the Mediterranean, similarly to how the wars that eliminated Mexico and led to the RU's territorial expansion turned the RU into a superpower. Both of those cases also had atrocities (the RU everywhere and Rome when it sacked Carthage and famously salted the earth).
More on the Rome/RU comparison: in fact, in 1.0, didn't one character state that the "RU looked like a version of the Roman Empire?"
The Punic Wars (Rome vs. Carthage) cemented Rome as the main power in the Mediterranean, similarly to how the wars that eliminated Mexico and led to the RU's territorial expansion turned the RU into a superpower. Both of those cases also had atrocities (the RU everywhere and Rome when it sacked Carthage and famously salted the earth).
More on the Rome/RU comparison: in fact, in 1.0, didn't one character state that the "RU looked like a version of the Roman Empire?"
I love this comparison! It's very accurate for the most part. However, in my opinion the current crisis might be better compared to the Death of Nero and the Year of Four Emperors in terms of its effect on the Empire, if not the exact details. Every inkling we've gotten from Napo is that while Manifest Climax and the Sootstorms get off to a rough start, by the end the Yankees are more powerful than ever. That would make Oswald/his possible successors more akin to the Flavians/Five Good Emperors, who oversee the Empire's territorial and cultural peak, but everything goes to hell later.
Maybe I'm being too much insistent, because I have already asked this question before, but I think it's a relatively important question: ¿How much we will see of the rest of the world? Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the Oswald government will be a wild ride, but the other "madnesses" were pretty interesting and nightmarish in their own right. We barely know anything of Eduist Brazil appart from their origins and role in Manifest Climax, while the iluminist countries have been silent since the Germanian Civil War, as well as the Middle East since the Great World War. The "A league of their own" updates only included the BU, CoCaro, Norway and Australia, and I'm sure plenty of us are eager to see Japanese Douglas McArthur up to eleven or the "Heart of darkness" hell Mittelafrika must be, while it would be entertaining to see how germanians justify their antisemitism to the other fascists.
The last Union Forever update said we would see all of these things, so there's a hype element here.
Likewise, I personally cannot help but wonder what has been of the Germanian Empire and Kaiserin Erika. She was a surpisingly heroic character, beginning the cycle of treaties and peaces which would end Great World War by proposing an alliance with Europa and fighting for saving the germanian people of the Flu and economic crysis while suffering her little child's death. I remember she was constantly looking after the barely alive baby at the same time she took this difficult decisions, until the baby died in her arms. It was a powerful image. Her story will probably be continued by others in the Expanded Universe, so there's no problem here.
I don't want to overwhelm Napoleon. In fact I think the hype to see more of the secondary factions and characters is an evidence of how invested I'm in his creations.
The last Union Forever update said we would see all of these things, so there's a hype element here.
Likewise, I personally cannot help but wonder what has been of the Germanian Empire and Kaiserin Erika. She was a surpisingly heroic character, beginning the cycle of treaties and peaces which would end Great World War by proposing an alliance with Europa and fighting for saving the germanian people of the Flu and economic crysis while suffering her little child's death. I remember she was constantly looking after the barely alive baby at the same time she took this difficult decisions, until the baby died in her arms. It was a powerful image. Her story will probably be continued by others in the Expanded Universe, so there's no problem here.
I don't want to overwhelm Napoleon. In fact I think the hype to see more of the secondary factions and characters is an evidence of how invested I'm in his creations.
I know its from a while ago but i just had to make this now i have gained some minor skills
Hey, would anyone consider creating a WMIT Discord server? Just a thought. I feel like it’d be a nice central location for all the WMIT memes and a good way to talk more “real time”. It’d also alleviate the thread from too much memey stuff and leave it open for the timeline itself. I’m a bit too irresponsible to run a Discord server, but just thought I’d put the idea out there.