THE WORLD
ALTER-HISTORY
Alright, ain't bothering you with details, but you gotta know your way around. The rest I'll keep on a need-to-know basis, kid.
As far as I understand, the turning point of everything was year 1492.
At that time, trade occurred almost naturally between the Empire of the Solar Serpent, the European crowns and the Ottoman Empire. In the south, the Ottoman colonies in America struggled furiously against Lemurian settlements. The Argents have changed all that. The technology they were bringing allowed a radical change in the economic equilibrium established over four centuries of history and a lot of blood spilled along the Atlante crusade. The atlantes, sophisticated noblemen and skillful merchants, finally had opponents capable of conducting trade between the continents without relying on oceanic passages, shelter in islands and negotiations to affix the wrath of Gargantuans abyssal creatures.
The Argents began their contact months after their arrival. They got involved gradually, offering transport and support between continents, in order to eliminate the weight of the atlantean influence over the world. A lot of people don't like them, I know, but if it weren't for them, we'd all be under the heavy hand of the atlanteans. And they know how to keep resentment, believe me: to this day they recall the time of the Atlantean Crusade with blood in their eyes.
The case is that the Argents have seen advantage in joining the global economy. This is how they created cultural connections in the following three centuries, transporting groups, helping to realign the political map of the world. At the end of the nineteenth century, things already had the form we see today: the United States had formed, Europe aged, rebellions against the Ottoman east were warmed up, and the unity of the Islamic Empire gradually disstained. In the south, the old colonies sought emancipation, leaving a legacy partly ottoman, partly Iberian and partly Islamic for the miscegenated peoples of the south. To the west, the Empire of the Solar Serpent shrank more and more, smothered under the weight of the new nations that arose.
Here, a careful alliance with the Atlanteans offered the promise of independence, as well as the flourishing of hybrid cities, following the City Nouveau standard. Ours was the only one that prospered. Part above the waters, part below, she lives well, out of a balanced exploration of production runoff and commodities underwater. It is a great center, no doubt, and lives for two worlds. When it gained independence from the United States, about 70 years ago, no one considered the Great War a possibility. Now, with it, the Ottomans see themselves under threat, the Chinese advance against the khanates of the east and we, well.... We wait. The war has lasted seven years, and there is no end prediction. Neutral, City Nouveau has become a refuge for many – something especially dangerous nowadays...
THE DIFFERENCES
The Alter-Earth has a few political differences, brought up because of meta-human presence, as well as para-human species:
- The Andes survived as independent nations based on the presence of their champions. The Empire of the Sun Serpent exists to this day, even though it has lost a great deal of power;
- The Ottoman Empire lives on and it's still quite strong. In fact, the factors that led towards WW1 - a war that outlasted itself in Alter-Earth - is fought at first between an alliance of european nations, the Ottomans and the eastern Khanates - their allies. Technology and meta-human presence make the war way too different than it is in our world: as it takes to the field, it becomes all-too-destructive, recommending therefore the direct involvement of higly-specialized meta-human groups to complete decisive operations.
- China never passed through a Communist Revolution. The Qing dynasty employed higly-trained warriors with inhuman gifts to push away the tides of revolution. After that, a new form of nationalism formed around a literary renaissance that formed around national heroes and martial artists of great prowess, making the Imperial Dynasties dependent on their champions.
- The US remains a potency, mainly because of argent tech. As for City Nouveau, it remains independent on the basis of Atlantean advancements. Atlanteans and Argent have not involved directly in the Great War, but are on the verge of doing so - in opposite sides, probably, since they're mutually interested in defeating each other. In fact, it might be said that they're ultimately responsible by quenching the fires that led to the war in the first place...
Several other differences will appear during gameplay, but these are the most important for the conflicts at hand.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:08, Thu 19 Sept 2019.
