Weblog Licentiae Moeticae

Fanboy-1 (Quantum 5) (A timeline for GURPS Infinite Worlds)

Fanboy-1
(With apologies to Ken Hite and Kim Newman)

On paper Fanboy-1 is, if not a cash cow, at least a cash goat for Infinity. It's a world where most of the greats of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fiction have had more productive careers; the resulting works are valuable not only on Homeline, but in almost any timeline with a divergence point after about 1945. All of which leads to a certain reluctance to officially notice what might be faint warning signs...

Fanboy-1, 1993

Current Affairs
Infinity ruthlessly strip-mines the intellectual property of this timeline while ignoring subtly disquieting trends.

Divergence Point
1927: H.P. Lovecraft has his short story "Call of Cthulhu" published a year early, triggering a reasonably lucrative (and lifesaving) relationship with Hollywood.

Padway-3 (Quantum 5) (A timeline for GURPS Infinite Worlds)

Padway-3

The Secret is thoroughly compromised on Padway-3, and there is little consolation to Infinity that this is due to no fault of theirs. The blame rests with Jerry Moore, an involuntary crosstime filibusterer who appeared on this world over sixty years ago and wasted no time in fomenting a revolution among oppressed American colonists. By the time he died of old age in 1800, he had recreated a USA that promises to challenge the Ottoman and Chinese empires for supremacy of the globe; and as Moore had shown no interest in hiding his origins, the entire timeline now knows that crosstime travel is at least possible. Homeline is still trying to determine how to proceed.

Padway-3, 1815

Current Affairs
War looms as revolutionaries led by the heirs to a crosstime adventurer challenge magical empires, while Homeline tries to decide what to do about it.

Divergence Point
1700 AD: The sudden resurgence of magic results in the conquest by the world by the Chinese, Ottoman, and Spanish empires.

Major Civilizations
Western (diffuse), Islamic (empire), Chinese (Empire)

Great Powers
American Alliance (alliance, CR3), Chinese Empire (Dictatorship, CR6), Ottoman Empire (Dictatorship, CR5)

Worldline Data
TL: 7/5
Quantum: 5
Mana Level: normal
Centrum Zone: Inaccessible
Infinity Level: Z1

Incognito (Quantum 5) (GURPS, 4E)

This Quantum 5 world diverged from Homeline's on March 28th, 1911, 7:00 PM Greenwich Mean Time. This date is not actually known to Infinity's researchers; they have at this point only narrowed the divergence point to somewhere in the spring of 1911. What appears to have happened was that some sort of quantum effect (translation: "nobody knows") thoroughly randomized human conceptions across the planet: no one conceived past that point has a precise genetic match to the equivalent person in Homeline's history. The effects of this were not immediately obvious until about the 1950s, and even today Incognito is a surprisingly close parallel to Homeline's (and our) 2006. The World Wars and Cold War still occurred; the United States still dominates the post-Cold War era; and the many of the same conflicts still simmer. But the population of Incognito is by now completely different... which includes its celebrities, entertainers, and politicians.

This fact appeals to a large segment of Homeline's ruling class.

The Infinity Thumbnails now have a home on Moe Lane.com.

I will continue to post them on this site, but their final home will be here.  I need to play with the formatting over there a little, obviously.

The In Nomine stuff... is going to be interesting.  So far, I'm thinking of keeping the Stormloader site up, but not updated; we can do mass transfer of my own material over to ML and people won't have to deal with that godawful scrolling ad space anymore.  Anybody have an opinion?

Machen (Quantum 7)

Machen

This world has been formally part of Centrum's Green Zone for the last decade, and under effective Centran control for about a decade before that. It has never been considered to be particularly fertile ground for Homeline interference, both because of its location on Quantum 7 and the overwhelming presence of Interworld; Infinity is reassessing this conclusion in the wake of reports that the timeline is now undergoing a surprisingly successful set of rebellions against their outtime masters. Whether Infinity reassesses the assessment once it becomes clear that this is due to a third party's interference is not yet known.

Machen, 1904 AD

Current Affairs
The somewhat monotonous peace of a Green Zone Centran satrapy is in the process of being wrecked by various rebels with mystical outtime backing.

Divergence Point
1856 AD: William Walker's Republic of Nicaragua survives.

Major Civilizations
Western (diffuse)

Great Powers (all meritocracies unless noted otherwise)
United States of North America (representative democracy with meritocratic overtones, CR 4), Republic of Venezuela (dictatorship, CR 6), South American Direct Control Zone (CR 5), South American Union (representative democracy, CR 3), Scandinavian Union (CR 5), British Empire (representative democracy with meritocratic overtones, CR 4), French Imperial Republic (dictatorship with meritocratic overtones, CR 5), German-Hungarian Confederation (CR 5), Slavic Union (CR 5), Special Unaligned Confederation (CR 3-4), Siberian Direct Control Zone (CR 5), Japanese-Chinese Union (dictatorship with meritocratic overtones, CR 2-4), South Chinese Republic (oligarchy with meritocratic overtones, CR 5), Southeast Asian Direct Control Zone (CR 5), Middle Eastern Confederation (feudal, CR 1-6), African Direct Control Zone (CR 5)

Worldline Data
TL: 8/6
Quantum: 7
Mana Level: low to normal
Centrum Zone: Green
Infinity Level: Z10

A map for GURPS WWII: Weird War II/ Infinite Worlds: Lost Worlds.

The map is for Alfheim, which is part of the "The Nine Worlds" AH setting that appears in both GURPS WWII: Weird War II and GURPS Infinite Worlds: Lost Worlds. For those without either book - and you should own them; they're written by Ken Hite, so you know they're good - the conceit is that Alfheim is one of eight other alternate WWII worlds suddenly appearing in our 1943. This particular one is medieval fantasy, with the Daoine Sidhe standing in for the Nazis. I planned and plan to flesh out that world a touch more for my own amusement, but... it's been a week.

So, here's the map.

Maxmilian (Quantum 7)

Maxmilian

This Quantum 7 world should probably be more properly called "Hamilton," or perhaps "Burr:" the accidental death of the former ensured the latter's survival, to what would be disastrous effect for the United States a decade later. Hamilton's feud with first the Jefferson, and then the Madison Administrations helped turn the Hartford Convention from a mildly ineffectual organized protest against the government into a full-fledged secession movement; by the time of his death in 1826 (ironically, the same year and day as arch-foes Adams and Jefferson) the country that he helped create had been broken in half, and increasingly under the sway of a British Empire that meddled in North American politics with an ever-heavier hand for next half-century. It was only with the Treaty of St Louis in 1876 that the American successor states were able to find enough strength to regain full autonomy. The resultant prosperity is now being endangered by an aggressive (and quite Prussian-influenced) Empire of Mexico; and the British Empire is now too busy worrying over a looming Great War to consider offering much help to her ungrateful American nieces.

Reality Mather Addition: The Withering War in the USA.

This is an addition to the GURPS Infinity World Reality Mather: the "Withering War" generally refers to the decades-long conflict that took place on that timeline between humanity and organized monsters.

Craft-3 (Quantum 4)

Craft-3

There are researchers who argue that designating this timeline as being part of the Craft series of worlds where organized secret conspiracies wield esoteric power is a mistake; on this Quantum 4 alternate, there are no secret conspiracies. The Illuminated rule openly, and have abandoned subtle machinations for all-out war. Craft-3 is a headache for Infinity in other ways, as it is one of the Restricted alternates that have caught the interest of Homeline's popular culture. The similarity between Craft-3's current war and one of Homeline's is simply too blatantly obvious to miss.

Craft-3, 1842

Current Affairs
A world-wide war with a troubling resemblance to Homeline keeps both researchers and camera crews hopping.

Molotov (Quantum 7)

Molotov

Joseph Stalin has the status of martyr on this timeline; his convenient death in the Battle of Moscow made up for a multitude of previous sins, at least in the realm of public opinion. His reputation certainly overshadows that of his successor, Vyacheslav Molotov: while Molotov was able to wage the Great Patriotic War competently enough, he was ironically much less able to achieve Soviet postwar diplomatic goals on his own authority than he was as the agent of another's will. The end result is a Central Europe that is a quiet, yet very real, Cold War battleground - one not helped by internal rumblings against Molotov's continuing rule...

Molotov, 1956

Current Affairs
A superficially milder Cold War in Europe threatens to turn hot from Soviet internal tensions.