Not annihilated, just brought to heel. Graham is waiting in the wings just as soon as *Order 66 goes through.
"What Madness Is This?" Volume I: The Union Forever
- Thread starter Napoleon53
- Start date
AHE
Gone Fishin'
That was great! RIP the AFC tho, and good riddance. Steele is doing the earth a great service by getting rid of them+the Reverend Colonel. However, this does bring up two...somewhat troubling implications:
1. What happens to the AFC’s supporters? They’re the majority, and although I think they could stomach the removal of the Reverend Colonel, it sounds like Steele’s about to go purge mode on quite a bit more than him
2. Steele is basing policy decisions on his dreams. That does not speak well regarding his mental health. It doesn’t speak well about the rest of his reign either
1. What happens to the AFC’s supporters? They’re the majority, and although I think they could stomach the removal of the Reverend Colonel, it sounds like Steele’s about to go purge mode on quite a bit more than him
2. Steele is basing policy decisions on his dreams. That does not speak well regarding his mental health. It doesn’t speak well about the rest of his reign either
I think whatever purges happen will be secret and surgical-- Steele's goals are only to find out if the Church is hiding anything from the State, and to purge the fools who thought they could hold such secrets forever. So at the very least, that means the Tobias Institute is being burned to the ground and Lovecraft will need a new job. However, openly purging the whole AFC while there's a war on and demystifying the very institution that Americans are dying for would be a real hit to morale and raise the specter of rebellion. Although it would evoke the hubris of OTL Stalin's decisions to purge his generals with naught but a flimsy oath with serial oathbreakers to cover his ass. Looking at Jansen's actions during the Insurrection, it seems the real enemy of the RU here won't be the Neutrality Pact but pride and dogmatism.
"And its one, two, three, what are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't really know,
Next stop is Maracaibo,"
And it's five, six, seven, open up the Other Side
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee! We're all gonna die!"
Well he's not wrong about the AFC doing spoopy shit (and also genuine crimes like Sunday) but yeah, first Patton is out here wanting to be the "Eternal President" and now Steele does this...
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Well as for question one, Billy Graham is going to swoop in after the purge of the Council and salve the nation's soul with some old time fervor. Ironically he's probably going to end up the closest to the Council's dream of an Imperial Reverend-Colonelship, only by conspiring with the State against the Council rather than the other way around. I also think the Tobias Institute will stick around, albeit with an ORRA minder or two, unlike most of the AFC higher ups Lovecraft does seem to genuinely value the Atheling's role as Defender of the Faith. As for the dream thing, this is a country steeped in mysticism for literally a century and a half, and it's a damn bit better than Oswald ruling the country looking like a decrepit evil sorcerer so there's that to look forward to.
Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys! Don't forget, Sunday also murdered his wife and hid the body. Lol
I love how crazy and whacked-out my characters are that phrases like "decrepit evil sorcerer" and "wanting to be the Eternal President" are accurate descriptions of them. It's like if the Nazis ratcheted up their lunatic Thule and Hyperborea nonsense to 11. I keep meaning to write something about failed expeditions to find Hollow Earth, as well. Sometime I'll get around to it and we'll finally have reached peak Victorian insanity. Lol
I for one can't wait until the Prophet Graham blesses us with his 2.0 appearance.
I love how crazy and whacked-out my characters are that phrases like "decrepit evil sorcerer" and "wanting to be the Eternal President" are accurate descriptions of them. It's like if the Nazis ratcheted up their lunatic Thule and Hyperborea nonsense to 11. I keep meaning to write something about failed expeditions to find Hollow Earth, as well. Sometime I'll get around to it and we'll finally have reached peak Victorian insanity. Lol
I for one can't wait until the Prophet Graham blesses us with his 2.0 appearance.
THERE IS NO GOD BUT JEHOVAH AND BILLY GRAHAM IS HIS PROPHET!
But seriously Madness John Symmes would be amazing, and you could always tie in some Shaver Mystery nonsense (look it up it fits the TL perfectly). You could do a chapter that's an in-universe documentary about Symzonia, that could be fun.
I'm sure Steele hasn't :^)
Although with your policy of keeping characters' lifespans roughly the same as their real lifespans adjusted for avoiding accidents that killed them/chronic conditions that would have done them in anyways, isn't it a little early for Graham's debut? He should only just barely be an adult by now. But that would only make whatever disaster befalls the church a formative experience for him...
A charismatic young preacher is the perfect person to cleanse a stuffy elite hierarchy of apostasy.
I was just indicating I am excited for Graham to enter the picture, not that it would be extremely soon. Lol
I am curious what his deal is. After all, he's from Cokie country, actually near my OTL birthplace and home. I'm real curious as to how and why he
Considering that he played a role in OTL's Civil Rights Movement, I won't find it surprising that he got tired of CoCaro.'s racist shit against African Americans.
Just looked it up, I never knew about this. In Classic he was raised in the RU by parents who converted to Fundamentalism and moved north, but if he is a Cokie born-and-raised in Redux... maybe this ends up being the issue he breaks with CoCaro on, he tries to change conditions in Jacksonland (there being precious few blacks left in CoCaro itself) and faces backlash? But then what leads him to hate Inferiors... unless he actually doesn't, and is trying to bring the RU to a true love of Jesus from within? Right around the time that the ugly scrap between the Council and the President casts doubt on the uncritical worship of Prophet and Strongman?
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Watching Hunger Games again, and aside from the technology, the movies have a great aesthetic for WMIT and the RU. From the architecture of the Capitol, the excessiveness of its citizens, its cruelty to its underclasses. Even President Snow feels like he'd be perfectly a home running the country from Philadelphia. Honestly a little surprised no-one has suggested making Inferiors battle it out in Hunger Game style blood sports
Even the Peacekeeper uniforms from the first movie just scream early ORRA to me
Even the Peacekeeper uniforms from the first movie just scream early ORRA to me
I do agree with the Panem = RU idea in a lot of aspects, but something that definitely stands out to me most is that the former is actually a lot better of a place to live than the Republican Union. While the citizens of the Capitol do look down on the people of the Districts, and the Hunger Games are in and of themselves despicable, most of the Districts aren't as bad as 12 is shown to be in the books and movies. 1, 2, and 4 are all made out to be as pretty nice places to live, and the others mostly fall into the category of "OTL third world country" rather than out-and-out dystopia, with Districts 11 and 12 being notable standouts (and probably other ones I'm forgetting). And, though the Hunger Games are horrific, they certainly adhere to the idea of "to the victor go the spoils," with the winners becoming fabulously wealthy and set for life. If a Hunger Games took place between Inferiors in the RU, there would be no winner. The victor would be killed by ORRA the instant they stepped out of the arena. And, for the most part, the Capitol appears to be somewhat egalitarian in its measures (though that equality equates to "everyone suffers equally," as opposed to racial/ethnic discrimination).
In short, if given the choice between living in the world of the Hunger Games or living in the world of the Madness-verse, I would choose the Hunger Games every time.
Well, they have plenty of islands that they could clear out for this exact purpose.
As much as the image of Steele in a striped nightgown is horrifying, the rest is even worse. The Fathers of the Union coming back to life as unholy abominations, monsters of all kinds swarming all over the RU. Basically, the end of the world...from the Union's POV, that is. And there's no guarantee that something like this could actually happen, sometime in the future. Anyway, the only good thing to come out of this is the purge of the AFC. About fucking time, if I might say so!
So I have to credit @Sunstone77 for this idea, and it's a brilliant one I wish I had thought of myself.
The Falkland Islands should be Carolina's prize for helping the Yankees win the war. Much as they might prefer to get something rich and juicy, we all know the Union will keep all the best stuff on the continent. So, this random little island chain is perfect! Maybe it could be called Southern or Southernmost Carolina (not to be confused with South Carolina)
The Falkland Islands should be Carolina's prize for helping the Yankees win the war. Much as they might prefer to get something rich and juicy, we all know the Union will keep all the best stuff on the continent. So, this random little island chain is perfect! Maybe it could be called Southern or Southernmost Carolina (not to be confused with South Carolina)
This is true for people who would be "inferiors", but if you're a "better", the RU has a place for you, equivalent to 1950s America on steroids.
Also their hunger games could be "the winner can leave the RU with their family" as the prize.