Alternate World History/War Idea

[Ex Nihilo]

So, I've had an idea floating around in my head for a little while now. I just want to know if anyone thinks this would get off the ground so to speak, and if anyone may be willing to help me work on it further. So, here is my pitch.


In this alternate world history lots of things are different. America isn't in the picture and Europe [/Eurasia] is the populated world center. Several countries advanced in Biological Sciences, finding ways to genetically modify and create new species of animals. Other technologies advanced and provided the countries with trains, planes, engines and electricity, among other things. Unfortunately tensions between some countries became strained and several countries began fighting for more power and territory. This outbreak divided Europe into three groups: The United Nations Of Europe [u.N.E], The Alliance of Common Eurasia [A.C.E], and the third side will be neutral parties.


The U.N.E uses their knowledge of mechanical engineering and the latest and greatest advancements in such fields in the war. They make large, heavily armored machines that have a variety of forms and functions. The U.N.E's biggest strength is their land army and they have powerful weaponry. Usually they stay out of the air—having a weak Air Force— however, their scientists and mechanics have designed and built a brand new airship called The Odyssey. Not much is known about this particular airship, not even most of it's crew know what it's all about. The Odyssey's maiden voyage/flight is one of secrecy; at the moment no one other than a few head officials and those serving aboard the airship know of the Odyssey's existence and this is being used to their advantage.


Now, the A.C.E has a different style. They use their incredible biological advancements in almost every area of their armies. Their Naval force is covered by creatures known as Krakens who have companion ships to direct them. The Air Force is their best asset though- they use fabricated (laboratory created) creatures as living Blimps/Zeppelins and each "ship" is it's own ecosystem, multiple fabricated species living on board serve as living weapons in battles. Their airship is The Drachen , and has been around for a while, it's known for it's skilled crew and fierce array of beasts used in fights. [sort of the same dilemma as with the Odyssey, but again, I have some ideas.]

Spoiler

The United Nations of Europe


[u.N.E]


[ 9 ]


Great Britain


Portugal


France


Italy


Greece


Scandinavian Countries [Norway, Sweden, Finland]


Switzerland


The Allies of Common Eurasia


A.C.E


[ 8 ]


Germany


Denmark


Spain


Turkey


Ukraine


Belarus


Austria


Hungary


Neutral Countries


[ 17 ]


Iceland


Ireland


Albania


Macedonia


Bulgaria


Yugo-Slavia


Bosnia-Herzegovina


Croatia


Romania


Slovenia


Slovakia


Czech Republic


Belgium


The Netherlands


Lithuania


Latvia


Estonia


Russia*


[* Russia is listed as Neutral but I plan on it being a big focus as far as the over all plot goes. So, it might not always be neutral.]


Well, this is all the solid stuff I've got right now and it can be susceptible to change. Again, I'd just like to know if, to put it simply, I should waste time on this idea, and if anyone could help me get it all worked out.

 

[Grey]

Eurasia is a misnomer, here - typically Russia, former Soviet states, and border states are considered Eurasian. The 'Asian' part and Russia bordering Korea being a clue.


Although it's all arbitrary, really, the naming convention is still weird. The alliances are also a bit weird.


What's the analogous time period?


Why aren't America, Africa, or the Middle East relevant?


What were the catalysts behind the divergent technological paths?


Why are these nations and alliances opposed?


What effect has the widespread genetic manipulation had on religion?


What are the civilian applications?

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Yes, I realized that later. I just didn't fix it. But thank you for bringing that to my attention. Haha, yes, the names and alliances are weird, I only made those as a possible grouping of countries, mostly because I had some vague ideas behind their political standpoints and technology. But I definitely think they'll change. The names also, I just needed something to call them, short term and those were what I pulled out of a hat, so to speak.


-Well, I actually figured on shadowing the WWI time period. So, between 1914 and 1918.


They probably could be, I just felt like having the main focus on the warring European countries. They would most likely be background, sending supplies and other such support to countries they sympathize with or support. The reason I had for this was that it's not a World war, it's just a fight for power between the countries in the area.


-To be honest, I didn't give the two paths much thought. I just wanted opposite powers with different advantages and disadvantages. However, it would be a lot like the differences in American technology versus Japanese technology. They've just gone in different directions with what they had. One of the reasons I had Germany on the side using biological sciences was because of Nazi scientists during WWII, they did a lot of experiments on POWs and though they were more towards the goal of bettering their soldiers it gave me the idea to push them towards a more biologically steered power. Also, the countries that are more mechanical are more mechanical because of their opposition to biological experiments, for religious reasons and ethical views, which links it to your other question.


-The War would have started because some countries wanted more power, over other European countries or places farther away like the Middle East or Africa. Then, other countries sided with them in hopes of also gaining power, or opposed them because they were seen as a threat. Now, going by the list of allied countries I decided to go with the catalyst of the War being Spain wanting more power and siding with other powerful countries to get it, Germany being one of them. I did this in remembrance of Spain's power during the Age of Exploration, when they held lots of land in the New World and had a strong nation. They mostly just got divided up based on what I thought they would end up like, for example Switzerland stayed neutral in most wars, I went against that this time because of that. I didn't really want to 'copy' the alliances from the real history. Hopefully this makes sense to you. In my head my ideas seem great, not so much when I see them typed up.


-Quite a lot. Most would probably not care, or accept it as what it is, but, most of the opposing countries would also be fighting against the use of such science. The dislike between the biological countries and the mechanical ones are due to ethical and religious views on the subject of doing such 'abominable' things. So it definitely has a strong affect on religious groups and they would either change or rebel against it.


-Civilian applications, I'm afraid I'm not quite sure what you mean. Probably not much, if you're meaning role play characters. The main occupation would be that of the people on board the two ships, in essence the characters are soldiers.

 

[Archie]

Are you like mainly trying to get a feasible way the countries would form this way by 1914 and how the tech might develop?


I'll take a stab. Some good rules a friend who was great at making these gave me for making alt histories was:


1. Understanding how and why people do things and form alliances - there has to be a national myth like Serbs attaching and unifying behind the battle of Kosovo in 1399 or Albanians around Skanderbeg. The reason I use these 2 examples were they were the really dramatic examples of nations resurrecting, usually about a struggle over way of life or "survival"


2. Economics and how things develop really differently


3. For tech changes, knowing the tech path can be really different but also that tech is influenced a lot by geniuses, corporations, and economics. Without Tesla, Edison and Matshushita, electricity wouldn't be as prevalent as fast. Detailed and solid but simple and short schemes give RPers bounds


So the things to answer, main questions are:


- Why is there suddenly biotech?


- How did UN tech develop to have powerful weapons and airships (I think they'd mainly respond to ACE biotech)


- Why are all the balkan nations that didn't exist, many of them, until after 1920 on the map?


- Why is America like... nothing


- What's with both alliances?


- Why isn't Russia in either?


- Why is Russia a lot smaller?


Let's take a stab at this and see where 20 minutes on wikipedia takes my imagination. Obviously we've got to simplify and make this shorter when you make this a real thing.


1541. Cortes invasion against the Mayan Civilization arrived late due to fierce Aztec resistance to the west twenty years earlier. Instead of him proving true the formula the Mayans used by looking at the stars to predict the end of days, something else would come first. The Quetzacoatl Asteroid, striking the Yucatan peninsula, carrying radiation that in this world mutated the deep sea anglers, was not left with its shards to drift into the ocean by the Spanish. The Maya, who had fortold this event for centuries, collected the shards, stored them in Tikal, waited, and prayed.


When the Spanish arrived in the Maya cities, they saw nothing of the advanced wealth that had been fortold, but dead men walking, dogs grown the size of bears, and mutated children with faces that would make a man scream. And men did - but after ten years, and Cortes' own death, the peninsula was subjugated, and the reconstructed Quetzacoatl Asteroid was taken back to the House of Trade in Sevilla for study.


1551. Leonhardt Fuchs, a German botanist and geneticist, is called oot the House and recognizes that dog breeders near the port of Sevilla had seen rapid growth of their dogs from being near the fragments of the crystals, and young boys born to aides and soldiers in Yucatan had already been taken from their families for training in the King's army because of their abnormal size. He started putting plants together, working and recording day and night, until he discovered the ins and outs of plant genetics and selective breeding, greatly predating Gregor Mendel. In 1556, the ailing old man took octopuses, pufferfish, and octopuses from the ocean, infected with excitement at his discoveries. The crystals could grow in water, multiply to infinite number, meaning those with the right knowledge could change the world...


Eventually, mutated breeds of octopuses, jellyfish, and pufferfish could interbreed. Combiing their traits and failing over one hundred twenty times, often having to start over from scratch, the House of Trade, which at this point had turned into a research lab, finally turned out the first Kraken in 1660, a flying octopus that the most brilliant minds in the Habsburg Spanish and German lands were called to tame.


1571. It's the Battle of Lepanto. The Turkish and Spanish Empries, both at their height under Suleiman and Philip II are at war. John of Austria, commander of the Spanish fleet, scores a critical victory, but he intends not just to win, but to totally rout the Turks. Flying ships made of skin descend on the shocked Turkish fleet, pursuing and destroying with flaming arrows the whole thing. Turkey and the Habsburgs sign a historic peace: never, ever, will they be at war again, and the whole of Hungary is given to the Austrians.


1588. Krakens and the Spanish fleet cruise to England during the Spanish armada. All seems lost for Elizabeth, save for some turns of events. The genius Francis Bacon invents a cannon that can shoot high into the sky, and creates one of the world's first factories modeled after the shipbuilding centers in Italy to mass produce it. A storm rocks the Spanish sea and air fleet, but the Krakens still strike terror into the English forces. Then, by surprise, the French, recognizing the Spanish danger, launch their fleet against the Spanish, and Sir Francis Drake brilliantly coordinates the fire of Bacon's cannons to down the whole Kraken fleet.


From thereon out, industrialization became British-French policy. The calico acts upgrading British industry start a decade earlier, The budget of the royal society was quintupled, and in France, Minister Colbert under Louis XIV kicks in his industrial policy much faster, and much harder.


They need it too. During the Thirty Years War, Habsburg Catholic generals use new genetically modified troops and dogs to smash through Scandinavian and German protestants and their French allies. The Protestants of North Germany are used as human experiments to upgrade biotech. The French, in light of these atrocities, finally break off their ties with the Church in Rome, after the French Church was already independent for many years. Merchant, artisan, and educated protestants flood into England, France, and Scandinavia, rapidly speeding up industry. France especially benefits from reversing its prosecution of the rich Protestants in its country.


1700: The French strike back, attacking and liberating all of Italy, creating the Kingdom of Italy and forcing the Spanish puppet Pope to relocate to Nuremberg. Using the wealth of the merchant cities, Italy becomes one of the richest places in the world.


1721: After the end of the Great Northern War, a devastated Sweden joins with Denmark into Scandinavia, and Peter the Great invades Turkey with Italian and French help, creating a scattering of Slavic states, Greece, and crushing the Turkish empire outside the Middle East. France, however, from these conquests, is exhausted. In the French and Indian war, Spain conquers all the French colonies in the Americas, then in the American Revolution convinces the British settlers to revolt before betraying them, invading the weakened colonies, enslaving the Americans, and using them for human experiments. The entire Americas remain a backwards Habsburg natural resource and slave plantation colony to present day.


The world fights brutal wars for almsot a hundred years. To punish Russia for siding with France, the Habsburgs sign an alliance with Turkey and invade, cutting up the Russian Empire and confining it to just Russia. Wars with the English and French go badly and Spain is forced to give up Belgium: it and Netherlands become neutral.


In the Congress of Vienna of 1814, the Habsburgs, having formed through war the Alliance of Common Eurasia, sign a peace with the United Nations of Europe. All seems peaceful, and the countries develop in isolation, but eventually, both powers start to think they can take eachother on again. The UNE cuts off Spanish access to the English Channel and Adriatic, isolating the big Eastern block of ACE nations from Spain. Turkey retaliates by cutting off the Middle Eastern oil supply to the UNE.


The slavs and other parts of the world are turned into trade colonies of the ACE and UNE, with ACE and UNE merchants at eachothers' throats. They are backwards, are a hundred years behind technologically, and only not taken over because they are easier to rule indirectly through their corrupt kings. In Russia in 1912, the brilliant and only 14 year old Marxist scientist Trofim Lysenko creates the theory of "unity of plants" and "people", which, because of stolen Quetzacoatl crystals, actually works. Reasoning that Russia and the slavs were hopeless if they didn't develop new technology of their own, he reasons that he can increase the breeding of human and plants by 1,000 fold, solving all food problems, and control their will through altering the mind, bringing "socialist harmony" to the people. The brilliant Serb Nikola Tesla creates a system of energy that lets genetically modified brains generate electricity, and creates sustainable geothermal power. Marxist collectives with mutant birth rates start to produce electricity weapons and giant tanks and machines. Recruiting legendary mystic Rasputin to help them develop mind control, the Communists gain an immense following, and by 1914 are on the brink of overthrowing the Tsar, creating a crisis through Europe. Lysenko and Rasputin are shot ((all hail PCs and OCs)), but their theories live on.


In 1914, a diplomatic mission by Austrian Prince Franz Ferdinand has him shot in Greece by a nationalist who wants to conquer Western Turkey. The ACE declares war on Greece, and the UNE doesn't back down.


Tell me what you think. Again, we'll need to simplify it, which isn't hard since I didn't use compact wording just jotting an idea out, that takes a ton of effort. Added a twist to Russia to make it interesting.


Some sketches of countries maybe?:


UNE


- Mostly industrialized nad democratic with constitutional monarchies and rich states. Steampunk, with industrial technology having advanced along the pattern of "bigger and more efficient is better". People are starting to use "biomass" for fuel in response to a Turkish oil embargo that cut off access to the Iraqi oilfields, meaning even that part of life is made in factories.


- Big capitalists and everyone seeking profit. Since 1700, everyone's been forcibly converted to Calvinist protestantism because it encourages hard work and they wanted to break the back of the Catholic Church.


- Alliance leadership gathers and works like NATO. Nationalism is high in this time but all these countries are united by their "freedom, smarts, and work ethic" against the "enslaved, experimented on, and backwards" ACE


ACE


- Very split up into a class structure where the most genetically modified and enhanced are at the top, just like the traditional Spanish class structure in America. Unlike in real life, the Ottoman and Habsburg rulers don't genetically deteriorate but actually are basically superhuman.


- Mutations go wrong all the time and "mutts" are the lowest class of failed mutations. They live in slums, with no place in this society. A rung above them are "drones", work slaves built with weak bodies and minds who do menial work. Above them are specialized slaves who can have big brains or muscle, but rarely and. Sometimes they serve only one function, and the nobles make sure they do for obedience. Muscular ones can have almost no brain, and brainy ones might just have one arm to write, and no legs, so drones have to carry them.


- The "warrior cultures" of Spain, Turkey, and Germany in their imperial days pretty much can be summed up as "kill and enslave, and have no sympathy for other people, but follow God". Very religious, with some weird mix of Catholic and Islamic beliefs. It's possible since your plot has Italy getting taken over by UNE, and the "Caliph of Islam" was the Turkish emperor historically. This belief system lets them make disgusting mutants, even live silverware to help them eat or living houses.


-- On this point, there are many forms of mutants: prostitutes with perfect bodies, artists with brains suited to appreciate art, merchants with quick brains and sharp tongues, their assistants with many arms. But your profession is usually decided at birth. It's a dream for a lower class family to have their kids "spliced" in their genes, with the help of a noble house, to join a higher class.


- The highest class are the nobles, who are genetically modified to perfection and constantly plot and scheme against eachother.


- Conquered people usually would rebel if their kids are taken from them too quickly, so usually assimilation lasts a couple generations. Slave people like the Americans and Eastern Europeans are treated terribly, ranking the same as Drones.


Russia and the Rest of the World


- Backwards and basically without either country's tech, but the theories of Lysenko have given people hope. Even if it means surrendering to mind-controlling genius telekinetics, the people here want to be "free from foreign oppression". They see the choice of becoming a raw materials colony of UNE, slaves like the Americans and Polish to ACE, or joining with the Bolsheviks and creating big electric industrial cities with hundreds of millions all working in harmony.


Hope some of this helps!

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Thanks Archie. This did help quite a bit and was definitely the kind of assistance I was looking for. I like your ideas, they are definitely helpful, I also like the human experimentation. I had that idea but didn't know whether or not to run with it. In your ideas it seems feasible. Alright, on to the next step? Do we start simplifying or is there anything else we should cover before we do that?

 

[Archie]

I worked on osome maps and flags.


You're the GM, but you sure you want to go for United Nations of Europe and Alliance of Common Europa? They sound too similar. Maybe United Kingdom of Europe and Holy Eurasian Alliance? It'll add flavor and prevent any accusations that we're being bland.


Simplified History


1541. Th Spanish conquest of the Maya comes late, and not before the Mayans predicted their own doom due to the Quetzacoatl asteroid. Crashing into central Yucatan, its fragmetns aren't allowed to slip into the ocean, where they would mutate deep sea creatures like the anglers in our world. Instead, the Maya priests collect them, and store them in Tikal. When the Spanish arrive, they find not men, but monsters: grotesque, large, and imposing. By 1551, at the cost of 5,000 Spanish lives, the peninsula is subjugated, and the men who return are mutated, with some growing legs, some growing arms, and others more than ten feet tall.


Renown Catholic biologist Leonhardt Fuchs, seeking to escape the religious war in Germany, touches down in Sevilla where he breeds plants, land animals, and octopuses. Finding that the radioactive crystals of the Quetzacoatl asteroid not only grow cheaply if kept at a low temperature, but mutate things around them, he and the Office of the Spanish Inquisition perform disgusting human experiments on heretics.


1571. The Turkish and Spanish Empires at their heights engage in the titanic Battle of Lepanto. As the Turkish ships are already retreating, they're cut off - massive flying flesh blimps, which the Spanish call Krakens, rain down cannon and arrow fire, obliterating the entire Turkish navy. The Habsburgs and Ottomans sign a historic peace: never again will they go to war.


1588. Spain sends the Spanish armada to England. Genius scientist Francis Bacon invents large, automatic rapid-fire cannons, and with the help of entrepreneur Sir Walter Raleigh, creates a factory for guns and cannons just in time for Britain's industry to blow the Krakens out of the sky.


1590. The budget of the scientific Royal Society is quadrupled, and industrialization begins at a massive pace due to governmetn laws. By 1660, Britain and France, which copies its policies under the creative Finance Minister Colbert, are totally industrialized.


1648. The 30 years war ends with the Habsburg Austrians and Spanish obliterating the Protestant Germans with genetically modified super soldiers, war dogs, and Krakens. Protestants are enslaved and used for atrocious human experiments, causing the already independent French Church to renounce the Catholic Church, at this point having degraded to a morally repulsive Spanish puppet. France retaliates by signing an alliance with England and Venice, invading and establishing the Merchant Republic of Italy, and the Pope is forced to flee to Nuremberg while the Catholics are forcibly converted to Protestantism. Italy and Russia take advantage of the decline of Turkey by invading two years later, and free the Greeks and most of the Slavs.


After this string of defeats, the Habsburgs trade their biotech for an alliance and marriage with Turkey, launching a counterattack against Russia in the 1700s, crippling the country.


Bloody wars continue for over a hundred years. Spain convinces the American colonists to rebel, then betrays the American revolution by enslaving all the colonists, subjecting them to the same cruelty as the Protestant Germans.


As for the rest of the world, it's a constant story of exploitation, starvation, pestilence, and backwardness. Finally having enough, a rising Communist movement latches onto the theories of Marx and the young Slavic scientists Lysenko and Nikola Tesla. Together, Lysenko, modifying plants and humans into an artificial harmony, and Tesla, harnessing powerful electrical energies, figure out the circuits of the brain and create humans and agricultural crops with massive reproduction rates, and some with powerful mind control powers, along with a complex and cheap electrical grid. Forming communes, millions in poor countries "multiply and be fruitful", building powerful industrial centers off electric power and massive stores of food and population, while the food and cheap factory production causes the economy of the rest of the developing world to collapse. While the two scientists are shot, their ideas live on: the people of the third world want to end the oppression of the UNE and ACE, at any cost, even paying the price of their own freedom and ability to control their thoughts in exchange for brotherly harmony. Others join the Soviet Communes because oppression and the economy give them no choice. In just two years after their theories, the Russian Tsar is about to be overthrown, creating a crisis in Europe.


Its the 20th of July, 1914. Almost a hundred years since the Congress of Vienna peace was signed between the Alliance of Common Eurasia and United Nations of Europe. In response to tensions over the impending collapse of Russia, Prince Franz Ferdinand of Austria is visiting Athens on a peace mission when a Greek nationalist shoots him in the chest. Austria and Turkey declare war on Greece, and the UNE responds in kind by attacking ACE. The Great War has begun.


Take a side and fight in this style of combat, revolutionary, complex, and bloody!


---


The Alliances


Alliance Map


Blue = UNE, Orange = ACE


Nations Map


Colored: Britain, France, Austria, Spain, Turkey, Scandinavia, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Switzerland


---

United Nations of Europe

Industrial Kingdom of Great Britain

Divine Kingdom of France

Merchant Republic of Italy

United Kingdom of Scandinavia

Portuguese Empire

Greek Free State

Swiss Confederation


The United Nations of Europe formed two hundred years ago in response to the ACE invasion of Russia, and is some of the most advanced and industrialized countries in the world. Though its population is smaller than ACE's due to lack of genetic enhancements, the UNe has strong steampunk technology, big tanks, mechanical war suits, and a select few airships, but they rely on elite pilots because they're not as cost efficient as the cheap Kraken fleet of ACE. The people are capitalist in spirit and the government's budget is divided between the military and industry. The vigorous, charismatic, tech-savvy, creative, and entrepreneurial quickly rise to become rich while those without those qualities labor as common workers or fall by the wayside into a growing underclass of slum dwellers with no social support or place in society. The Robber Barons of the UNE dominate the economy, crushing smaller business, as each government is essentially an oligarchy, whether a Kingdom or Republic, with a small Senate dominated by rich men.


Uen govnerments lcaim to be nationalistic, but htis is just propagand.a seein htep otential of hdefense spending, robbing the poor and middle class by selling war bonds and using them to buy weapons made from the oligarchs' factories, the UNE is just as belligerent as the ACE, but has had no goals in its wars except to fight war. The Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1913 was a plan for war UNE planned to put into action for over a year. The UNE megacorporations don't think of seceding because their people have believed the propaganda that these nations are united against the three evil Emperors, and because they're all economically intertwined in business coalitions. Travelling across the land, almost nobody has a car, but railways and airships are everywhere. The vast countryside has lost its beauty, entirely deforested into big machine-farmed, automated plantations, while bustling cities are heavily polluted industrial wastes.


The people here believe in liberal forms of Protestantism which say that you have to work hard, but that you can enjoy your own pleasures and should like your freedom (even if everyone's in wage slavery). For a select few, the rich and upper middle class, UNE is a paradise and they could never imagine living in ACE. Everyone is tolerant of what they do with themselves, such as have gay marriages or smoke drugs, but for the masses living paycheck for paycheck, this freedom is an illusion.


---

Alliance of Common Eurasia

Spanish Empire

Holy Austrian Reich

Turkish Caliphate


A collection of Catholics and Muslim who have since reconciled their faiths (which isn't hard seeing as the Pope was in the pocket of Spain and the Caliph of islam has been the Turkish Sultan since the 1500s), saying they're "Not so different" and the cultures were similar. The Hidalgo of Spain and the Ghazi of Turkey, both archetypes of religious warriors who killed, tortured, raped, and enslaved heathens for the glory of god, capturing land for himself, was glorified in both societies. The Pope and Caliph have since agreed that Jesus and Muhammad were both divinely favored due to their victories, but disagree on who was the true voice of God.


They're united by their vicious culture and hatred for the "decadent" UNE. Unlike the Habsburgs of our world, the nobles of ACE are perfect, with fast growing muscles, sharp minds, faces exceeding the best UNE fashion models, health that lets them live until the 200s, and an insane rate of healing. Their psychology is changed too: selective breeding with the help of the Quetzacoatl crystals makes it so they are vicious, have no empathy, work day and night without complaints or tiring, are perfect liars, and don't fear death. Of course, it's hard to breed brains, so many end up not having these beliefs.


The class structure is rigid, and the only way to get a job is to be born into it. Perfect laborers from all kinds, artisans, merchants, prostitutes, scholars, soldiers, are all bred from birth. The only way to be upwardly mobile is to have unusually good willpower to excel as a soldier against the "natural born" soldiers and rise through military rank. It's usually sons and daughters, rewarded by their parents' hard work, who get to be born into a higher class by the noble houses.


Below the "pureborns" are the "dirt born", enslaved races like the Northern Germans, Americans, Persians, and Eastern Europeans who work cruel hours of manual labor and are almost all slaves. They, along with the "drones", people bred specifically to do menial labor, occupy the lowest rung of integrated society. Some of these are disgusting mutations, like human foot stools.


At the bottom are the un-integrated, the "mutts", failed mutations that account for almost a third the population - the Quetzacoatl crystals are radical and imperfect. Almost every family has to part with a mutt at some point - they're demonized, the "spawn of Satan", and every family wants to cast them away. If they don't, the Inquisition takes them. Most are donated to the Inquisition instead of being left to die, subject to lifelong vicious human experiments and slave labor. Mutts range from the most disgustingly mutated, with no future except a painful death under experimentation, and those who can pass as human. Noble mutts are the best off, since they still have more ability than 95% of the country. Even though "purity" beliefs and them being the spawn of satan prevent them from rising to high ranks in the army or taking any jobs at all, they usually become slum lords or get rich using their clever noble brains to open illegal businesses. It's impossible for the Inquisition to manage all mutts, so they're usually in slums and only a select few are taken for work or experimentation at a time.


There's vast reserves of undeveloped land in the ACE and the nobles culturally are programmed to think the number of people they rule and vast lands are more important than how well developed their holdings are. Feudalism has survived because great lords control Quetzacoatl cellars: underground crystal caves, cold enough to grow that vital crystal which drives ACE society. They build castles over them, and run a command economy. However, it's inefficient: even adding the rapidly aging workers and drones who can fill labor gaps doesn't stop shortages from the lack of freedom. If they calculate wrong (and they don't like menial work like calculation), they don't produce the right amounts, and empty store shelves are part of daily life. Farming is still primitive, and famine is common - not that the nobles care.


Technology is backwards: while super soldiers, krakens, and mutated war animals form the cream of the crop of the ACE forces, war is usually a mass mobilization of mutts, workers, and drones in human wave charges, usually armed with old muskets and swords, which for hundreds of years have been gunned down by UNE industrial weapons. Usually, ACE soldiers are just used as cannon fodder to slow down the UNE advance while elite genetic and noble forces carefully plan counterattacks at weak points.


The governments are absolute monarchies ruled by the Spanish, Austrian, and Turkish Emperors, who use the Inquisitions as holy secret police and kill dissenting nobles. Deemed "closest to God's image" for being the peak of expensive genetic engineering, the basically superhuman Emperors are worshipped as Gods. They are friends united first by years of royal marriage, next by being the manifestations of human perfection and the most expensive genetic engineering, and third by their common drive to kill the profiteering, gay-tolerant, Church-less "heretics". Figuring nobles would be happier if they can abuse their peasants and don't revolt, the Emperors permit all kinds of atrocities, and commit their own: the inquisition distrusts machine technology and usually burns scientists for using the tools of Satan. The impetus for war is strong: after a hundred years, the nobles are panicking at the loss of their centuries-old duty to kill the "genetically inferior" heretics and take their land, thinking they can't secure their place in heaven.


In the past, the society was very sexist, and still is. However, women can be genetically bred to be just as strong as men, and a lot of strong female noble leaders exist. Undertones prevail, however: ACE leaders claim they'll quickly win this war because lower birthrates in the industrial UNE prove they are less "manly".


---


Other

Global Harmonious Soviet Union - Flag of the movement


Over a hundred industrial cities surrounded by collective farms now exist in the third world, untied by "Lysenko-Tesla Marxism", a communist philosophy saying cheap electrical energy beats the expensive steampunk tech of the UNE, that mind altering through electrical signals is a more precise but cheaper way to genetically engineer than the flesh-based breeding of the ACE, and that these smart moves together can create a unified, mind-controlled people united in brotherly love. The crops are so mutated and fast-growing that there are no shortages, electricity zips through the air, cheaply produced by genetically enhanced biofuels, powering mechanical factories and crop combines. A select few mind-controlling commissars zip advanced technical info to laborers, who, like robots, get to the only work they're needed for now that electrically powered plants mass produce most things: building more electrically powered plants. For the people of UNE, the Soviets are unfree, slaves to their commissars. For the ACE, their equality principle is such a blatant violation of the social hierarchy, destined to unchain all kinds of demons, and electricity is the weapon of satan. Mind control, meanwhile, is the essence of demonic possession.


But to the oppressed, starving people of poor countries, the rich-overnight communes are the messiah, the rapture, and a break from prison all in one. Hopeless, backwards, poor, and exploited by the two mega-alliances, the peasant and worker masses have flocked to communes, bringing the Russian government, among others, to its knees.


Plot


So I'm thinking there should be more backdrop than just a war with two sides. Just like the Black Hand instigated World War 1, maybe there's a secret organization behind the scenes who wants this war. They'd involve a lot of people from developing world who want to see ACE and UNE kill eachother, so they can rise, including the American Revolutionaries, and are probably backed by the Bolsheviks. These would be the main antagonists outside the obviously evil ACE (but we should make sure some good characters sign up in them too, who just believe in their countries). They'd be NPC or PC and have massive powers from accidental mutation from Quetzacoatl crystals and Tesla-Lysenko brain enhancements.


I'm not sure people should play rulers since a big theme is these people are stuck in their own world like the real WW1 leaders and sleepwalking, and people playing rulers degrades into a lot of ego and godmodding usually anyway. I don't think there's that much interest in all the states either. There's a big white man bias so not sure if people will sign up as Turks at all. Meanwhile, Switzerland?


GMs need trailblazing plot points so we should push:


- Secret missions and special operations (1 on 1 fights)


- Stalemate battles that just sort of prove how useless the war is


- Crazy stuff in Russia


- Peace negotiations that get sabotaged by Black Hand agents


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Positions


UNE


Barons and their Families:


Commoners:


ACE


Nobles:


Soldiers:


Workers:


GHSU


Commissars:


Agents:


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Thoughts? To do: images, charsheets, some backdoor plotting to make it interesting, and some enticing NPCs.


Names?


Clash of Civilizations sounds enticing.

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Ha, yeah, names. I think the U.N.E can stay but Holy Eurasian Alliance sounds like a great replacement.


Also, I did some thinking about the beasts of war and I'm thinking the Krakens should be used by the navy fleets (since, in lore and all that Krakens are basically sea monsters) and some sort of flying, oxygen (or helium/hydrogen?) breathing creature would be the airships. But that can be worked out later I think.


I think the time line looks good. The flags and maps also. I'm thinking that we could dial back the ACE/HEA genetic tech. Atlleast so that it seems a little flawed. Like, with the brain enhancements and the completely genetically enhanced population, (I was thinking that maybe the smaller colonies and the heretics would be secretly experimented on (by institutions like the Inquisition) to further the tech for fabricating creatures in labs for the war effort, not so much the general public.) Maybe I'm thinking people might godmod a bit if we bring the term gentic enhancements in to play? However, aside from that I think it's on the right track. When I'm not on a mobile maybe I'll c&p it and tweak somethings a bit to show you what changes I'm thinking of.


I agree about the godmodding and the rulers thing. Which was why I'm thinking the characters should be limited to the soldiers on the two opposing airships.


Plotwise I definitely agree with the idea of a secret organization. I was also thinking that the UNE just put out their first Zeppelin which would be on a maiden voyage, which would be a top secret mission. (I just don't know what kind of top secret mission.)


As far as the to do list, I'll cover the CS and probably start working on the thread layout as far as the coding and imagery goes. Definitely need to figure out a few good plotlines and tack up a few NPC s. I think we are making good time. Thanks for all your help Archie.

 

[Archie]

Np and yeah I' m with you on curtailing gene enhancements since it could really lead to godmodding. The idea of the out-there developments in Russia I hope you'll consider though (if it's just some mad scientists, not the general population doing all the mystic brain rituals), since it'll result in some really interesting plotlines and great villains, plus the air of mystery for the rest of the world.


As for controlling genes, how about have it like the engineered population is just an upper class, and the super, super engineered ones are way out of grasp, like the small nobility and emperors who basically nobody will be.


As for plots, if you're planning for a lot to go on in Russia, the RP can happen there with different interventions after the telegraphs all drop off the radar there and people have massive fears of some revolution or the government being overthrown. This might give the characters ground-time instead of it just being our airship vs yours, and later lead them into the workings and knowledge of the secret society

 

[Ex Nihilo]

Hey, sorry I've been gone for a while.


Hm, see I'm thinking that maybe the genetic mutating has been used- up until a little while before the war started- on animals, to make genetically enhanced weapons for war. Then, {jumping onto a secret organization track} after a few colonies in the Americas or maybe conquered countries closer to home, they take the more poor civilians from their homes and started doing secret, unethical experiments on them to create- or try to- "super soldiers". Perhaps the brain controlling element is being used by an even more secret group that has decided to take and help themselves to the technology and they would be the ones creating the enhanced soldiers using mind control? What do you think? Two organizations, the more secret/evil one being the big villain in the plot?


Well, following my idea, maybe the secret organization would be trying to give the new branch of this genetic engineering to some monarchy or rulers, maybe so they, the secret organization would be trying to get puppets under their thumb . I don't know how good this idea sounds, so tell me what you think.


That is a good idea; and it does add some more than just airship vs. airship. Perhaps the secret organization is in Russia trying to get a puppet leader under their thumb? Following the last two ideas I've laid out.