The New World: 1922 (An Alternate History Fantasy) Discussion

[LoA]

Okay so the Eberron Idea was kind of stupid. I admit it, but all of this eventually led me back to my Dynama ideas. For those of you who remember, Dynama was basically the concept of a Dieselpunk DnD world, and first it started as a fantasy world that industrialized and reflected the roaring twenties. However then it became something Akin to Shadowrun, only set in the 20's. I've been itching to create an Alternate History setting based around WW1. I've been learning a lot about this war recently, and I think it's more fascinating than WW2 (when you think about it. WW1 and WW2 were the same conflict, just with a twenty year break). Then it hit me in the head like a brick. How could there be an influx of magic, monsters, and other such things, and not effect the course of WW1? So I rewrote my basic setting, and then renamed it. I'm tired of Dynama.
[ic]
1922: Diesel and Dragons

Core Rules: Pathfinder, E6

Core Theme: What if Planet Earth had a cataclysmic re-connection with magical planes of existence, and a new age of magical beings occurred.... Right in the middle of the 1800's, and then this shaped the very tangents of history, and changed how The Great War played out.

Core Focus: America, WW1 Europe

Classes: Nothing is off the table, but the following is more than likely to be used. Modern Path's base class, Sorcerer, Wizard, and I'm still thinking.
Monsters: Whatever I feel like, but with a focus on dragons, giants, and I'm still thinking.

Races: Humans, Kobolds, and I'm still thinking.

Summary: In the year 1850, massive rips begin being made in the space time continuum, and several magical planes begin making connections with Earth. Several people's and races from across the mystical planescape began falling to the earth, but in Americas case, the west became extremely populated with magical creatures and races, and civilizations of magic users. Then America went into an all out Civil War, and this drove several people west, however power groups already existed in the west that made settling the west almost impossible. Giants inhabited the west coast where California would have been, then there was a huge influx of several races clamoring for the Northwest, creating a sort of independent superstate. Dragons on the other hand fled for Russia. No one knows what they plan up in Russia, but it is cut off from the rest of the world.

The year is now 1922, and much of the far west of North America remains under the control of mystics and monsters, and the west coast in general is either wild lands or are independent states. The United States still wins the Civil war, however the US doesn't have much of the West, and so become a significantly less powerful than it could have been. The Great War still happens in Europe, and America still get's involved, but due to the lack of industrial power from only possessing the Eastern half of North America, the Great War still hasn't ended, and Europe fights itself into an oblivion. Now several magical beings fight for control of European territory in the Wake of the destruction, and the course of history is shifting away from Humanity. [/ic]

So that's the basic summary of my setting. Now for some questions that I asked myself.

[ooc]How does Dragons taking Russia for themselves effect the course of ww1? [/ooc]

I'm amusing the idea that WW1 was going to happen no matter what. But Russia played a huge part in the failing Serbian/Austrian negotiations, and without Russia being deployed against Austria-Hungary, the Austrians would have probably been able to declare war on Serbia much easier (Correct me if I'm wrong, I don't want to sound ignorant).

[ooc] Would The United States have lost the Civil War?[/ooc]

I'm under the assumption that yes, the Confederacy was going to lose. The math just doesn't add up to their side. However how do you guys feel about that? Would magical cataclysm effect the course of the Civil War?

An Idea I entertained was that if the US couldn't annex the west, they convince Mexico to join the Union, and then they start conquering Central America, and parts of South America. If the Confederacy won, would this be how they expanded territory?

[ooc] How do Giants taking Californian territory, and therefore making sure that the Gold rush never happened, effect american history?[/ooc]

How does a lack of incentive effect American expansion?

WIP for the record.

[horseradish]

The very scope of the questions you're asking... it's the exact reason that I shy away from alternate history projects in my writing. That said, I love alternate history, and if you hold your themes together really well, and avoid making Earth suddenly feel like a fantasy kitchen sink, this has the potential to be a really awesome setting with the right dose of familiarity of geography, but with everything else almost being a surprise.

It's also a cool explanation for why humans and Earth animals would actually exist in a fantasy setting with other fantasy creatures "tacked" on.

I really like the idea that the States would, instead of spreading across the continent, spread around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. I'd love to see what the state of great American cities would be when they're surrounded by the likes of Macchu Picchu and all that sort of thing.

The Giants taking over the west coast is another bit I love. I recommend you spend a little bit of time looking into the utility of gold. There's a reason we call it our most useful metal, and it's as simple as it being that it just IS our most useful metal.

Without access to those lands where gold is really common (is it? I'm Australian, so I have no idea about where gold is in the States), the States would need to rely on overseas trade to get their gold in.

Given your timeline, though, due to my personal preferences, I'd be willing to take quite a strong look into what the life of Nikola Tesla would have been. Most of his greatest feats of electrical engineering happened in the United States before 1922, so there's a lot to wonder about. With the introduction of magic, what would his feats be?

[LoA]

The very scope of the questions you're asking... it's the exact reason that I shy away from alternate history projects in my writing. That said, I love alternate history, and if you hold your themes together really well, and avoid making Earth suddenly feel like a fantasy kitchen sink, this has the potential to be a really awesome setting with the right dose of familiarity of geography, but with everything else almost being a surprise.

It's also a cool explanation for why humans and Earth animals would actually exist in a fantasy setting with other fantasy creatures "tacked" on.

I really like the idea that the States would, instead of spreading across the continent, spread around the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. I'd love to see what the state of great American cities would be when they're surrounded by the likes of Macchu Picchu and all that sort of thing.

The Giants taking over the west coast is another bit I love. I recommend you spend a little bit of time looking into the utility of gold. There's a reason we call it our most useful metal, and it's as simple as it being that it just IS our most useful metal.

Without access to those lands where gold is really common (is it? I'm Australian, so I have no idea about where gold is in the States), the States would need to rely on overseas trade to get their gold in.

Given your timeline, though, due to my personal preferences, I'd be willing to take quite a strong look into what the life of Nikola Tesla would have been. Most of his greatest feats of electrical engineering happened in the United States before 1922, so there's a lot to wonder about. With the introduction of magic, what would his feats be?

I don't quite understand what you mean by a "Fantasy Kitchen Sink". But other than that thanks for the input!

I'm working on a world map to show where the territories changed. The united states still has quite a chunk of land in North America, but it is progressively expanding down to South America. For right now i've decided to focus on the western Hemisphere so that i don't burn myself out like I usually do. Sorry more info later. I'm kind of tired.

[horseradish]

I don't quite understand what you mean by a "Fantasy Kitchen Sink". But other than that thanks for the input!

I'm working on a world map to show where the territories changed. The united states still has quite a chunk of land in North America, but it is progressively expanding down to South America. For right now i've decided to focus on the western Hemisphere so that i don't burn myself out like I usually do. Sorry more info later. I'm kind of tired.

Well, a Fantasy Kitchen Sink is when every kind of fantasy animal and mythological creature is thrown into a setting. But it's really only a fantasy kitchen sink if everything is just thrown in without consideration for how it fits in with other things.

Kinda like how a kitchen sink is full of all different kinds of bacteria that don't usually have that much to do with each other.

[LoA]

Thanks! So here's some quick background information I was working on.

The Coterminous Calamity

No scholar in the known scape of space or time knows quite how it happened. The leading minds of science yielded no answers, and if there is a mystic in the great spaces of our new world that knows the answer, they're tongue is bitten. But in the year of our God, 1800, and 47, the greatest event in history since the dawn of mankind, for I cannot think of a single event in the course of human events that compares with the extraordinary episode of universe altering consequence that occurred in that indescribable year.

In that year the strangest events began to happen across our lonely globe, mankind content in it's isolation from the rest of the multiverse. For we assumed that mankind was all alone in our arrogance and in our pomp. But we were proven wrong when the first light was seen up in the night sky of our fair earth. It was green and round like a finely carved Emerald forged by the finest jewel cutters our planet could produce. It appeared to have begun rotating around our planet as if becoming a new moon. Then in the following months, a second light appeared in the skies above us. It's color was as a shade of Olive green, fair as any jewel, but it's color was not of much pleasing before the human eyes. Then one by one, a new light would appear in our sky. By the year's end 12 new lights would appear above in the dark beauty that is the night sky. However as they might in their noble efforts, the astronomers of our sciences began trying to piece together the anomalies in our skies, but they were as fooled as the naked emperor.

In the year of our God 1800 and 50, the first titans would come down to our planet to humble us and force us to give up the ancient ways of human isolation. Those terrible beasts- No not beasts. For those serpents are as men in thought and wisdom, but as fierce as any creature that has stalked the darkest parts of the human mind. Dragons flew down from the skies of our earth and descented on the cold wasted tundras of Siberia, eventually taking the gigantic state of Russia, claiming the lands for themselves, and declared themselves the new masters of the people. The people, being so used to the generations of Tzars cruel fists, naturally gave in to their new masters.

But that my fellow men, was only the beginning.....



The Markarshian Empire: The Giant's Glory:

What would become California in the United States of America in this world, became the birth place for a new Giantish realm in the New World named. The giants came from a mystic plane known as Tarkashka, or as it is known to the rest of the mystic realms The Home of the Giants, was a plane of great landscapes and majestic fields, and upon these lands were races of Giants from across all walks of life. While the Giants aren't nearly as reclusive as the dragons are, the Giants still retain a certain degree of secrecy and shroud. So not as much is known about Tarkashka as would be expected. However from what others say, Tarkashka is a very beautiful primal place and the Giants are said to be one of the most advanced races magically speaking. From what can be seen on Earth, that can be taken as an imperical statement. Markarsh

WIP

[Rhamnousia]

I actually had an extremely similar idea about a generic dark fantasy dimension colliding with ours in 2005, but I really like the direction you're going with yours. If you're focusing on the Western Hemisphere, it would be interesting to see how the United States (or at least what remains of it) is dealing with incorporating these new "immigrants." Kobold congressmen and civil sorcerers seem like too good of an opportunity to pass up and it's likely that they'd take the course of the nation in new and unexpected directions.

[LoA]

I actually had an extremely similar idea about a generic dark fantasy dimension colliding with ours in 2005, but I really like the direction you're going with yours. If you're focusing on the Western Hemisphere, it would be interesting to see how the United States (or at least what remains of it) is dealing with incorporating these new "immigrants." Kobold congressmen and civil sorcerers seem like too good of an opportunity to pass up and it's likely that they'd take the course of the nation in new and unexpected directions.

Thanks, It's nice to know that I'm not alone. Do you have a link? I'd like to read that! The basic premise of how htis effected the Americas is this. The Western side of the America's became overwhelmed with magical beings, races, and monsters. And the magic was advanced enough to compete with the technology of America.So the West basically became a series of independent states. The giants control most of the western coast, and even expands down into western Mexico. The Giants are very interested in Ancient Mesoamerican history and culture. Even taking architectural cues from Ancient America. The rest of the West is sort of a melting pot between all of these new dimensions that have ripped open. There are many humans, but also many other races. The reason why they came to the americas in the first place is Ironically because many of these people wanted to be free like America, so they decided to start colonizing the western side of America so they didn't tread on the United States.

However I'm trying to figure out how this whole thing Snowballs, and one of the ideas is that the Union still wins the Civil War, but then really wants the Western Side of of the continent. The thing is, is that while the Giants had no interest in joining any alliances or federations, the rest of the west was pretty eager. Everyone set themselves up in a way (Even putting aside old rivalries) to make themselves ready to join the Union.

However the problem was that even though Abraham Lincoln won the war, there was a whole new slew of presidents that came after him. The next president in line was a man named Jebediah Stevenson, and he was a soaked to the bone racist and bigot, and he hated Blacks more than Satan hated God. He had no sympathies for fellow humans, why on earth would he be willing to try and negotiate with a bunch of monsters? Will that triggered a conflict, and the most powerful magicians gathered and formed a barrier  around the bordelines that separated the west from the east, lasting for about a decade.

In that en years the People formed a new union for themselves (Taking cues from the US Constitution, but making a few tweaks here and there), and began an arms race that created new feats of Mystic engineering. They called upon the American settlers that came to the west before the barrier was set up, to help them understand American technology better. Some engineers, mechanics, and scientists came forward and helped teach the Mystic Scholars the ways of science and engineering. This led to an enlightenment of how Matter works, and the nature of Magic thus leading to whole new levels of understanding how the ancient magics worked. This led to a new age of Magic that while wasn't exactly on the same level of Dragon magic or other highly advanced magical societies from the old worlds, did lead to an Industrialization of Magic never before seen in the old worlds. Eldritch Machines, Communicative magic, Flight, Medicine, and whole other innovations.

Basically think Eberron on amphetamine.

Once the shield wore it's course, a whole new society was formed. Both the United States and this new nation (Still trying to come up with a cool name), were at odds with one another. Maybe the United States had the ground advantage. But the New Nation had the Air advantage. Magical Airships were far more advanced than any other form of flight that Science had created so far, and they could easily take the united states by air. This led to an unspoken truce, and a cold war between the two nations that still lasts to this day.

So how do you guys feel? Does this sound alright, or is there something very intrinsically wrong with this that I'm missing, or does someone else have a better idea?