For this blog article, I thought it would be nice to use some newly purchased D6s to roll up a random alternate universe via the GURPS Infinite World book.
My first result was valuable in-verse but relatively unexciting for the purposes of dramatic fiction; a Quantum 6 Empty World used for resource exploitation. Sure, it’s good for a treasure to loot, with the inter-faction conflict baked into that, but hardly enough to carry an article.
My second result was a Quantum 6 Close Parallel, with the minor differences in high cultures to our own timeline. I decided this world had better preserved and more numerous Ancient Greek sculptures. Technically much more dynamic as a plot device, but probably only background flavour for most campaigns.
The third roll-up is where this thing hit its stride. A Further Parallel, where multiple great powers (most of them viciously authoritarian) are gearing up for a very different World War 2…or the catastrophic splintering of the dominant aristocracy.
Tsarevich-5, 1930
Current Affairs: The world is within a grace period of relative peace after The Great War ended in victory for the Russian Empire, but the Second World War is shaping up to be a ballroom blitz of authoritarians, if Russia does not fall apart from internal power struggles among the nobility first.
Divergence Point: 1223; the Mongol Empire utterly fails to invade the Rus. The Orthodox Tsardom gets more of a foothold over the Eastern European region thanks to the ensuing room for expansion and development.
Major Civilisations: Orthodox (unitary, fragmenting), Western (bipolar, fragmenting), Western (bipolar), Chinese (unitary), Islamic (multipolar), West African (empire with satellites).
Great Powers: Russian Empire (feudal, CR 5), Brazil (dictatorship, CR 5), United States (representative democracy, CR 3), Nationalist China (oligarchy, CR 5), Muslim Caliphate (feudal, CR 4), Kongo (dictatorship, CR 5).
Worldline Data
TL: 6
Mana Level: no mana.
Quantum: 6
Infinity Class: P4
Centrum Zone: Yellow
The Greater Game
In our timeline, the Mongols punched above their weight for decades and exerted a formidable impact on Eastern Europe when their empire invaded other powers. In this world, the Mongols did not manage to destroy the Kievan Rus polity, and thus the traditional Orthodox aristocracy leftover from the Byzantines remained unchecked for centuries. By the time The Great War broke out, the Empire of Russia boasted strength far above their position in our world. They emerged from The Great Game and the bloody slaughter as the overall victor, claiming new territory, influence and tribute. Germany, France, Britain and other western monarchies were all aligned against the Russians, which resulted in their societies crushed under the occupation and their rulers jailed or exiled.
Communism failed to seize power in both Europe and Nationalist China (Fascism thus does not become an ascendent political ideology to oppose it), colonialism in West Africa and South America took a strange turn when local strongmen came to power in bloody coups (Brazil’s dictator is currently entering an embattled state as the twin factions of his power base enact palace intrigues), six Muslim states controlled by local royal families formed a coalition empire in the Middle East thanks to support from Orthodox espionage. Western Europe is left in the dust with the liberal USA (who abolished slavery peacefully and avoided the Civil War in this timeline) its only major ally.
The martial, political and economic ascendancy of Europe’s most socially conservative feudal society has caused the Tsarevich worldline to enter a fragile and grim absence of war, as everyone tends to their business inside their own borders rather than seek out a fight with another country. Human rights and freedoms are at an all-time low as authoritarian rulers from Saint Petersburg to São Paulo crack down on the peasants, scapegoated minorities, factory workers, radicals, and internationalists. When their power is finally consolidated, they may just decide to return to international conflict.
Fat off the war profits, Russian nobles soon turned their greed and paranoia inward, quietly and slowly deciding to backstab their fellow aristocrats for a bigger piece of the pie, right under the Tzar’s nose. This internal strife may soon cause the Empire to at last fall as the weight of the gentry’s appetite hits a breaking point.
Outworld Operations
Infinity’s first instinct once they got a handle on this timeline was to simply turn around and leave, bitterly accepting that there was no way to put a stop to the tidal wave of repression and massacres. It was only when they realised that Russia and Brazil were not as solid and stable as they looked, and that America was in prime place to ascend as a counter-weight if those two powers fell to internal divisions, that they squared their shoulders and began covert development of the USA into an international “promised land” where those fleeing the aristocrats could hide out and live freely. Tourism to this world is rare and discouraged. Researchers manage the occasional trip but are stymied by the paranoid and murderous national security of xenophobic aristocrats, leaving them to mostly bum around America to glean whatever public information that becomes available. World-hopping criminals got into the niche of stealing from aristocrats who gorged themselves on the spoils of The Great War.
Centrum took their sweet time trying to decide on their course of action here. They were not sure what great power they wanted to support, finding none of their usual favourites were in any shape to uplift. The Chinese were too corrupt and the Caliphate was too religious with too many moving parts. They eventually went with the USA as their horse in the race, but they always knew this choice would be a tough row to hoe. Their main operations currently focus on sabotaging Russia, by way of encouraging power struggles between the gentry. If push really comes to shove, they’ll go on a tear through China to install a puppet regime.
Three Hundred and Thirty-Three 