Node C +03 Crimson Skies 1938[]
For the Prime I am borrowing the "Crimson Skies" Game setting.
Prime
In this world, the United States fractured into several small countries during a horrifying depression of 1931-1932.
With Rail Lines cut and highways blocked, heavy dirigibles became the queens of commerce.
Along with these came pirate and mercenary aircraft, and their own carrier dirigibles.
Japan continues it's bloody conquest of China and looks to be the big dog of the Pacific, The Soviet Union and Nazi Germany eye each other suspiciously. everyone knows that a war between them is coming, but no one knows when.
If you draw a line between Fiji and Hawaii, the main Portal is on An island about 2/3rds of the way towards Fiji from Hawaii.
Recently the portal was discovered by a band of airborn semi-pirates, Semi-mercenaries looking for a good secret base for Pacific operations.
Prime[]
12:00 Path to Alt
01:00 (Locked) Mammoth Caves, US
02:00 (Locked) Lascaux caves, FR
03:00 Blank
04:00 (Locked) Son Doong cave, Viet Nam
05:00 (Locked) Krubera Cave, Georgia
06:00 Isla Robinson
07:00 (Locked) Bulmer Cavern, NZ
08:00 (Locked) Ararat, Turkey
09:00 Blank
10:00 (Locked) Ain Zayanah, Libya
11:00 (Locked) Sima Pumacocha, Peru
Alt[]
12:00 Path to System
01:00 (Locked) Gathering world - Uninhabited Alt, Metal trees, Antz fight with wild life.
02:00 Alt Constantine - breaks Rome into Kingdoms which still exist 1938
03:00 Path to +4
04:00 Alt Rome, Shatters instead of Tetrarchy 1938, Europe as a third world backwater
05:00 (Locked) 1987, Robotic take over (Robocop meets Skynet)
06:00 Path to Prime
07:00 (Locked) Terhmelern Food processing World
08:00 (Locked) In 1168 Venice, a displaced 20th century Engineer is introducing the Steam Engine and other "modern" technology.
09:00 Path to C +02 Akir
10:00 (Locked) Nature preserve
11:00 (Locked) Nature preserve
Alts[]
C+3 Alt 01:00 An uninhabited Alt of Earth, this world features strange trees laced with veins of pure metals. the Trees are Terhmelern bio-technology. They send far ranging root systems and over great lengths of time leech their target metals out of the soil, molecule by molecule, atom-by-atom, using solar energy captured by their leaves.
The process is excruciatingly slow, but very environmentally friendly. These trees can be transplanted anywhere normal trees would live.
Antz live here. They're large Ants, human sized and even larger. They're carnivores
On this world the Antz live in a balance with nature, they roam predating on large mammals, balancing precariously on the edge of starvation. Only small colonies can exist varying in size with available prey. The Antz hunt using wolf-like pack tactics.
All Antz are Fringeworthy. They haven't been invading the Fringes, because they see the system as a set of long straight tunnels with no food. Once they become aware of people using the fringepaths, the local colony will invade aggressvely
C+3 Alt 02:00 Balkanized Rome - in this Alt, The emperor Constatine oversaw the break up of the Empire into multiple smaller kingdoms. His gioal was to create numerous "Small Romes" which would manage their own affairs, but still be part of a larger Meta-Rome. this was successful, and established a pattern that continues until this world's 1983.
Technology is closer to 1738, with isolated cases of higher technology.
The pattern established, which has been followed, is this. Each Kingdom is autonomous except in matters that may affect the whole meta-Roman set-up. Each Kingdom proposes a king to the Emperor in Constatinople, who approves or declines. Once declined, a candidate may never hold higher office, he's done. The Emperor proposes his own heir, and the various kings vote, with majority winning.
Kingdoms may establish colonies, but at a certain level of population and power a colony may petition the Emperor to be recognized as an independant Kingdom.
This set has remained stable(ish) for 1500 years, keeping civil wars and political mayhem to a managable level.
Kingdoms that resist the emperor may find themselves ganged up upon by other Roman Sub-Kingdoms. in this way, serious mayhem has been contained and prevented from ruining the set-up for everyone
At Mammoth Cave: The Kingdom of Kentucky rules the local area. The people are a mix of European and Natives. The main occupation in the area is growing and shipping agricultural products. It's been a long time since Kingdom of Kentucky was on the front lines of anything. The Legions of Kentucky see action when they are hired by more troubled kingdoms far away. The nearest large cities are Nashville and Louisville, which are river ports and centers of civilization. It looks like a romanized version of 1738 here. The personal weapons are rifled muskets, pistols and tomahawk. Soldiers march in formations and use muskets with bayonets. Transportation is foot, horse or Sailing ship. Social Classes are plebians (Most folks) patricians (The wealthy elite, an inherited status) and slaves.
The architecture and institutions are the descentants of arts which were copied from Rome, and then altered over time for function. Fringeworthy from a more conventional Earth wmay recognized some "Roman" flavor to things.
Kentucky, like many southern kingdoms disdains paper bank notes popular in more "Civilized" places. Here, they don't care which emeror is on the gold or silver coin, so long as it's purity is good. Strangers are viewed with some suspicion, since there are very few. But approach with gold or silver to buy goods and they'll tolerate you.
C+3 Alt 04:00 - Shattered Rome; in this Alt, Rome shattered in a far less controlled and benvevolent fashion. in 1938 Europe is a backwater, riven by pervasive poverty corruption and violence. Christianity is an obscure cult. Persia and China are the stars on this world's stage.
At mammoth Caves - Native American Knigdoms rule the area and trade down the river. rarely enterprising Persian or Chinese merchants will show up, but strangers are unusual. Although open to new friends and new neighbors (Especially if they bring trade and increased wealth) the locals would react badly to Persia or China setting up a large colony in the area. The nearest big town is on the site of Louisville and is the capital of the area.
C+3 Alt 05:00 1987, Robotic Apocalypse. The discovery of strange technology allowed the U.S. to build seriously advanced robots. By playing off various power groups and rivals, A mad genius (Jerry Hathaway) has gained control of the advanced roboic production systems and the robots themselves (More technologically advanced Fringewalkers will recognize a pretty basic back door setup and networking that is advanced for 1987 computer technology) . Using hjis robotic forces and human allies, Hathaway has launched a global war of conquest.
The war has has been a disaster for everyone, with massive dislocations and destruction. Cities that surrendered early are patrolled by robotic troops who rule with proverbial and literal Iron Fists. Resistance continues (Imagine how every action hero in the 1980s would have reacted to this) But the key is a race. Can Hathaway gain control of enough industrial base to rebuild his Robotic forces? Can the resistance prevent him or destroy enough industrial machinery to Keep hathaway from succeeding?
if Hathaway wins the race, he can bury the resistance under robotic killing machines. If the Resistance succeeds, then they can win a war of attrition against a dwindling number of killing machines.
One flaw in Hathaways plans for world conquest is that he hasn't planned for people with access to advanced technolgy. Fringeworthy armed with A modern compter, Stuxnet and a good connection to Hathaway's network could shut down his robotic armies in a short period of time.
Another flaw in Hathaway's plan is the robots themselves. They largely program themselves heueristically from their environment. Exposed to philosophical concepts and emotions, they tend to go rogue in unpredictable ways, something Hathaway is battling avidly.
At Mammoth Caves: Deep the caves are Caches and bolt holes for resisters. Nashville, Louisville, Evansville and Lexington all went down fighting, and paid for it. Fringeworthy who are humans are percieved as resistance fighters. Alien fringeworthy cause fear and hostile reactions.
Robot Cops patrol the highyways and cities pulling over people to check them for evidence of being resistor. Civilians work on farms or in the cities at grim robot factories. Luxuries are few, far between and probably left overs from before the war.
The Robots are not terribly bright and can be spoofed or outsmarted. far more dangerous and hated are the Commissioners. Humans who serve the New Regime. They usually have a lot of Robot body guards and leg breakers at hand to put down resistance. Fringeworthy who appear armed will draw attacks. Citizens of the New Regime are not allowed to own guns without a specific state purpose for them. Gas, food and other supplies are very expensive when they're available and usually one must convince a robotic supervisor that one is not in the resistance in order to buy.
System: []
12:00 Path to Stellar
01:00 (Locked) Luna
02:00 (Locked) Mars
03:00 (Locked) Blank
04:00 (Locked) Pallas
05:00 (Locked) Ganymeade
06:00 Path to Alt
07:00 (Locked) Mimas (Warp into "Death Star" Crater)
08:00 Miranda (Moon of Uranus)
09:00 Blank
10:00 (Locked) Triton
11:00 (Locked) Pluto
Stellar[]
12:00 Blank
01:00 (Locked) Alpha Centauri A
02:00 (Locked) Alpha Centauri B
03:00 Blank
04:00 (Locked) Tau Ceti
05:00 (Locked) Eta Cassiopeiae
06:00 Path to System
07:00 (Locked) 82 G. Eridani
08:00 Beta Hydri - Old planet terraformed by Aliens and then Abandoned
09:00 Blank
10:00 (Locked) Mu Herculis
11:00 (Locked) Beta Canum Venaticorum (Chara)
C+3 Stellar 08:00: Beta Hydri is entering it's Red Giant Phase and is growing to bakwe the rest of it's solar system. An ancient world here was terraformed by an alien Species that, once contact by the Commonwealth, left this world via the Large System, for a world that wasn't dying.
A band of anti-mellor fighters used this world as a hidey hole and stashed some advanced weapons and supplies in the ruins. Chief among these is a bush that makes nuts - the nuts themselves are edible (Like Walnuts, really) but the real prize is a membrane between the shell and the meat which forms a contact lens - this lens allows human or humanoid users to see very well in the dark and identify a Mellor 80% of the time. (This was considered too low a success rate to be really useful)
Another tree grows wide, flat leaves that, when taken off the tree, dry to make a very hard substance, similar to kevlar and high impact plastic. Easily crafted when fresh, these make pretty cool armor pieces. or just about anything else you might use fiberglass for.