DarkEarth -- The "World Next Door"

[skeloric]

The premise was a simple one when I started:
Create a version of Earth where America is the true tyrannical imperial juggernaut that its enemies always claim it is already anyway.
In short, create a world where America's foundation was a lot less noble and its current shape is more coldly, dangerously brutal in both its agendas and how it achieves its results.

What follows is a much less specific incarnation that uses terminology and themes of TORG as they might appear in the World of Darkness setting.
In part I couched it as if it were a dark twin to an already "dark" version of our own world. A place with natural "gateways" (dimthreads to the rest of us) that allowed travel between it and NWoD's (New World of Darkness') analogue to "Core Earth".
The thread exists here. (http://www.shadownessence.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=29237)

Thus Dark Orange is where themes have been added that are SPECIFIC to the World of Darkness, they may still be relevent to TORG but require being recast in TORG terms. Mentions of major "Splats" which are part of the World of Darkness but NOT a part of DarkEarth certainly warrant Dark Orange coloration.


An empire in the worst possible ramification of the term.
A nation that spans the whole Northern and Central continent and even down somewhat into the Southern continent.
Where its victories have given it by right of conquest, most of the Asian coastline.
Where Russia is still a fragmented nation of city states under Boyars who have never felt the yoke of a Tsar and where "remember Joe Stalin" (or its Russian equivalent) is a rallying cry equal to that of "remember the Alamo" in our world as peasants continue to try and throw off their despots and claim their nation for themselves.
Where Europe has been under the thrall of Autocratic France since the early 1800s, despite Germany's two failures at regaining its freedom -- the second finally ended by French nukes raining down upon Berlin and several other large German cities.
Where the United Dominions of America's government is run by Syndics and the most feared is the Federal Syndicate of Interrogation, who has the right to kidnap and torture anyone until a confession is obtained.
Where the only people allowed to vote are the land owners in a nation where property costs 20 times as much as it does here and thus a mere 20% of the nation has a right to vote.
Where technology that would look at home in the 1970s exists side-by-side with technology that is cutting edge in 2008/2009.
Where those who are on the (unicameral) Senate can and do buy their seat in perpetuity, to be passed down to their descendants.
Where the concept of certain individuals being above the law is not only assumed, but guaranteed.

Where do Vampires, Werewolves, Mages, Prometheans, Changelings, and the Vigilant belong in such a world?
Can they survive here?
What changes have they had to endure?
What is their role to play in striving to end centuries of oppression?
Or are they loyal supporters of the system as it stands in this world gone mad?

What of the peculiar gates between the two worlds allowing one to cross from one World of Darkness to another?
How long before agents from the other world pass through to carry their war here?
Or are they already here, remaking "our" world in their own image?

Finally, what happens when those from this world find themselves there, in that world/
Can they escape back to home?
Will they join a war not their own?
Will they betray their own world, assisting in its conquest?

Next up is some additional flavor that shows how different and yet eerily recognizable this "alternate" is:

There are some sizable changes in Africa of this alternate World of Darkness.
South Africa is still apartheid and is a difference of one variety of native African considering itself better than all the others, which is unfortunately a common enough theme even in the real world Africa.

The Middle East is another major change.
India/Tibet/Egypt have a power sharing triumvirate that keeps the rest of the Middle East destitute and poor despite all the oil being drilled and pumped and exported.
Saudi Arabia of the World Next Door is a destitute nation of nomads, who often vanish into the sands and are never heard of again -- especially when the headmen of their little tribe starts causing trouble.

The American music scene is much less advanced, being more close to 1940s R&B/Jazz as well as "hill folk" music (one precursor to modern "Country & Western") than to what we would recognize as modern music styles.
One very glaring variation of modern day is a variety of "a capella rap" known as "chanting".
Take one part early 60s beatnik culture and a little of barbershop quartet and add in the anger of the 80s street youth culture from which our own rap music derives and you have "chant".
Played without instruments (as they are easily recognized by an oppressive government that fears any art form they have no control over as the kidnapping, interrogation and ultimately assassination of a very young Elvis Presley back in the early 50s in the World Next Door clearly showed to that world's counter-culture.)
One of the greats was "John Cash"/"Johnny Cash"/"Jim Money" and many other seemingly obvious pseudonyms that seemed to follow an enigmatic "balladeer" (a precursor to the modern "chanter") that walked through the 60s and 70s.
The individual would often tell tales of the infamous Elvis and even start each show with "Elvis is alive!"
The very thing that would infuriate the FSI is that the person known as "John Cash" would often give performances in several remote locations a long distance from each other all at the very same time.
all of which led them to believe that there was no such individual and that it was merely a common "stage name" used by a group of similar balladeers.
However, people of the 60s and 70s swear that the man was real and attribute to him all sorts of powers and achievements typically reserved for folk heroes of a previous age.
Even today, someone will attest to being witness to a performance by "John Cash" even though the man would obviously be in his 70s or perhaps even his 80s.

The music form has obviously been outlawed and people are very careful to whom they'll admit knowledge of a performance, but even so it is a singular badge of honor to have been at one that was raided -- at least once those amongst the underground are certain that you had no part of locating the performance for the FSI and setting up the raid.
A post between asked about the "culture of the Everyman".
A took this to be a question as to how the average "Ord" (as we know them) would live out his life of quiet desperation.

The culture of the everyman?
He goes to his job and then he goes to a bar and drinks himself to a stupor before going home.
He strives only to survive as he has no voice and no possible aspirations.
Even when "deep in his cups" he guards his tongue for fear of losing it due to being overheard by the local FSI snitch who could be ANYONE in the bar, even the bartender.
He is also very careful in his friendships and often will not share his true thoughts even with very close long term friends, for fear that they are secretly employed by the FSI.
Look to the dystopia as seen in "1984" and "Brazil" look to the corporate nightmare as seen in many cyberpunk novels and films.
Look to "A Scanner Darkly" for the ambiance of what it would be like to have a friend who is secretly FSI.
Look also to a modern day "Johnny Mnemonic" who memorizes large chunks of data and then "locks" it with a coded mnemonic phrase that prevents the memory from resurfacing until the phrase is repeated.
Even going so far as to memorize many megabytes worth of binary code that can then be entered into a computer and reverted back into complex maps and other data.
Where certain "underground" organizations exist in a manner very like the upcoming Hunter the Vigil whose purpose is to overthrow the oppressive and corrupt governments that share control of the world between them without the actual consent of the people -- because they are long past needing consent.
Ponder also the film "They Live" and realize that it could very well be an analogue to the World Next Door.

The concept of the "World Next Door" originates in the counterculture "Sci-Fi"-esque novel (originally a trilogy) called "Schr?dinger's Cat" (http://www.amazon.com/Schrodingers-Cat-Trilogy-Universe-Pigeons/dp/0440500702/ref=pd_sim_b_1).
But then if that doesn't bake your brain pick up "The Illuminatus" (http://www.amazon.com/Illuminatus-Trilogy-Pyramid-Golden-Leviathan/dp/0440539811/ref=cm_lmf_tit_3_rsrsrs0) as well (which was also originally a trilogy).
Hell, go for broke and get "Masks of the Illuminati" (http://www.amazon.com/Masks-Illuminati-Robert-Wilson/dp/044050306X/ref=pd_sim_b_5) as well.
These books by Wilson as well as the "They Live" film and "1984" (but more truthfully "Brazil") as well as the COSM theory inherent in the TORG RPG are all the sources of the idea of above.
I originally coined the term "Darkearth" to differentiate from the action movie analogue known as "Core Earth" in the TORG game but in comparison with the World of Darkness, it no longer seems apt enough as the World of Darkness as seen in the NWoD core and sundry could also be called "DarkEarth" perhaps.

[skeloric]

I then got lambasted by a poster for employing too much recognizable real world bias -- or something very close to that, at least.

(Being less obvious about some things or nations would help your concept by the way. Nazism is the same no matter what nation or geographic area you shove it in).

This is actually a world where "Nazi-ism" never existed.
Dictatorial Totalitarian regimes were almost an imperative (Its what TORG calls a WORLD LAW), but they could take any shape as long as it was Dictatorial and/or Totalitarian in some fashion.
Also...
This WAS an entire game setting at one point, complete with "Rogue Occultist" templates making use of the TORGian Magic Axiom of 12 in the Cosm version.
The TORG version had "The Law of Secrets" that allowed one to push any of the 4 Axioms up by one (perhaps even by two) and thus allowed for limited Tech Axiom 25 proto-cybernetics (full cybernetics occurred at Tech 26) or even certain "Sci-Fi" weaponry that masqueraded as normal weapons in its appearance.
The Spiritual Axiom of TORG's idea of the "real world" was 9 which did in fact allow for rudimentary miracles while "Darkearth" was only at an 8, a 1 point drop which was sufficient to prevent miracles that would affect others and thus they could only operate upon the rare holy person's own self and in ways that could be discounted by skeptics.
Social Axiom was 21, and tended to stay there though there was a rare hidden place in the Tibetan mountains called "Shamballa" where the Social Axiom rose to 22 and allowed for amazing powers of the mind (Psionics from the "Space Gods" space opera book).
This was an actual setting that at one point in its evolution had close to 90 pages and even had dozens of templates and maps.
This thing was practically ready to publish as a fan product for TORG back in '95.
I only wish I knew where most of it was.
The other problem is that some of it just isn't conducive to conversion to the "Storytelling" system and thus the "World of Darkness".
I even had used my meagre talents as an artist (which have since atrophied over the years) to design a cover.
This was a complete book.
And I'm stuck trying to recollect (never a good idea) and convert to another system (almost as bad an idea) a setting that was last worked on in '95.
Mostly as it is a setting that can be deemed 100% fictional as opposed to the current World of Darkness that might be anywhere from 10% to 50% fictional, which means anything can be done.

Next we will look at the timeline.

Let's now try to rebuild their timeline.

The changes were already present even before the turn of the calendar from BC to AD.
Wars on average were at least 10% more brutal and even ancient empires were much less sympathetic to the plight of their subjects than even perhaps in the baseline "World of Darkness".
Treachery was more likely, betrayal was assumed and not incorrectly.
But in all, the world was very similar to our in its overall history until somewhere in the 10th century when the Church formed the Inquisition a full two centuries early.
This Inquisition was so much more brutal than even our most skewed image of it that it caused the nations of Europe to rise against the Church en masse in the mid 12th century and wage open rebellion and eventually outright war.
When the dust settled in the early parts of the 13th century, each nation claimed supremacy over the remains of the Church within its borders.
Thus the middle ages diverged HEAVILY in this one respect though its ramifications would not yet truly be felt for some time.

Then came 1492 when a journey that paralleled our own Christopher Columbus occurred and the new world was discovered.
Thus it was that colonies formed on the Eastern Coast of what would one day be "North America" but not for "religious freedom" or a "chance at a new life" but outright greed.
The men who owned property deemed that they and they alone should have power and made it very clear that ownership of property conferred certain rights that were not applicable to any other and began crafting rules appropriately.
Thus the original 13 Senators carved out an empire between them and bought their new nation's independence outright with the personal fortunes at their disposal in 1775, with the final payments being made in 1783.
To their direct north was the French colony of Quebec that they coveted and in 1812 they began marching on Quebec to annex it. France -- with assistance by Great Britain tried to prevent this but ultimately failed and by 1814 ceded Quebec to the nascent nation.

Inventions and new "regions" (not called "states", I sometimes toyed with Provinces but never quite liked it) proceeded apace on or near the time they were invented/formed in our version of history.
Then came the Mexican war, fought over Texas as per in our history.
But whereas the Alamo fell in our timeline making "Remember the Alamo" a rallying cry of vengeance, in this timeline the Alamo was an American victory and "Remember the Alamo" became a rallying cry of America's unstoppable destiny that eventually pushed the conquering army well into southern Mexico and retained its conquered land.
Sated for a brief time, it rested.

Then comes "the uprising" -- their analogue to our civil war and also occurring in 1861 to 1865 -- where the Quebecois and Mexican "nationalists" (along with American "reformists") tried to dismantle or otherwise take control of the behemoth that had become "United America" before it got too powerful and entrenched with its new conquests.
such endeavor ultimately failed.
Note that this was not the "Civil War" that we know and slavery -- which was even more a part of this alternate America -- was in no way abolished or even called into question by this war.
Also, slavery was not limited to any particular subgroup but equally applicable to all as long as certain conditions were met.
It was much closer to the "indentured servitude" as it existed in England but often more brutal depending on the tasks required.
Though a person IN THEORY could buy their freedom, the very person they were attempting to buy their freedom from had the right to change the required amounts and set or change any other requirements at any time.

MEANWHILE...
In 1799, Napoleon had become Consul and then became Emperor in 1804.
It was he failed to deny "America" the territory of Quebec as he was already engaged in war for the conquest of Europe by 1808 when he claimed Spain and -- due to a quirk of fate -- invaded the city-state of Moscow in a dis-unified Russia and wrested control of it from its Boyar as no Tzar had ever arisen in Moscow to overthrow and repel the Mongols who would demand tribute for 50 more years from the remaining city-states before their power would finally wane over this perpetually fragmented land in this alternate timeline.
In 1813, France made overtures to Great Britain that resulted in a peaceful annexation.
In return Great Britain received limited autonomy and the right to retain English instead of being forced to learn French as had the rest of Europe.
Though to go to the best French colleges, one did require a mastery of the language that did indeed lead to a renewal of a French speaking upper class presiding over an English speaking lower class.
Even into the modern age there are those who chafe under this surrender to French rule.
Napoleon would hold "Pax Europa" for another 9 years until his death in 1821.
The Imperial family of Bonaparte would continue to rule Europe well into the 21st century of this alternate.

Then in 1898, America once again was poised to take another bite out of the world.
This was the "Spanish-American War" for us but to them it was a relatively mild hiccup called the "War of 1898" and It lasted only a single year.
Hawaii, Cuba, Guam, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Panama, Virgin Islands and sundry pieces of Central America as well as much of the Caribbean were annexed while they languished to their own devices while their patron, Spain remained under continued French rule and thus were offered no protection from the French Emperor Bonaparte II to whom they might have belonged by right of conquest as he had no desire to start a war with the juggernaut that was rapidly becoming "The United Dominions of America".
In this time America easily began moving into Alaska as it was "free" -- the lack of a unified Russia meant that there was no other claim upon that land it would eventually become the Dominion of Alaska in 1959.

Instead, "Pax Europa" had its own troubles and had been having them since 1880 or so as portions of Northern Africa were in growing revolt as well as early and growing signs of insurrection even on the European continent were testing its ability to retain its own empire.
It eventually chose to relinquish Northern Africa and focus upon retaining a unified Europe in 1902.

End Part one of the timeline.

[skeloric]

"United Dominions of America" and France were quite unprepared for the events of 1912 when their "Great War" (AKA World War One") would occur two years prior to that of our own reality.
Mexico and Quebec once again struggled for freedom along with the most recent conquests of 1898 while Germany under a self-styled "Kaiser" attempted to wrest its freedom from a lax and decedent France that had not faced a massive war between "nations" since 1812 struggled to gear up its shrunken and ill prepared military.
Into this tumultuous time came also the city state of Moscow under the (Anglicized) "Joe Stalin" who fomented rebellion there in an attempt to be rid of French occupation.
But it was all for naught.
By 1915, America had quelled its uprising and by 1919 France had reasserted control over Europe culminating in the "martyrdom" of "Joe Stalin" which has remained a thorn in France's side for the next 89 years as the "Stalinist" resistance movement was formed and fights to this day.

The second "Great War" (AKA World War Two) began in 1938 in Europe as Germany along with Italy and Moscow attempted to unify into a power block against France under the leadership of a man named Claude De'Hisslar.
Being a strange runty sort of fellow, he was often sidelined by a proud Germanic people looking for a much more noble looking Kaiser and then brought back out to the forefront as his strangely manic ideas would oh so oddly work.
France would finally utilize the first atomic bomb on 1944, when it bombed first Berlin and then Leipzig and finally Magdeburg in its attempt to quell this revolt, correctly surmising that Germany's fall would subdue the others.

Meanwhile, America was in another war of conquest in the Pacific.
Having made its way all the way to the Philippines earlier in 1898, America was poised to claim Asia -- or at least all that they wanted.
Thus it was that America invaded China, Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and finally even Japan.
While even they could not claim ALL of china, they took a good chunk out of its side in the form of Hong Kong which in this timeline never experienced British control as Britain had never gotten this far.
Japan finally surrendered in 1946 (after an eerily familiar pair of Japanese cities were nuked early in 1946, after America has seen the devastation wrought by the new French weapon and sought and successfully stole the technology in late '44), the rest preceding it in 1943 (Vietnam, Korea), 1944 (Cambodia, Hong Kong, 'Taiwan") and 1945 (Laos).
Thus did it gain a beachhead upon Asia that it would strive to retain over the next 40 years.


First was Korea who had been initially receptive to American rule as it had suffered under the grip of its larger neighbor China, but finally in 1950 -- after 7 years of American brutality -- attempted to free itself from its new master.
After two short years it relinquished its aspirations for freedom but did gain some concessions.

Then came the attempted Chinese reconquest in 1959 which spilled over into Laos and the Northern portions of Vietnam as well as "Taiwan".
A war which lasted well into 1975 as America feared to utilize the 'Nuclear Option" due China having gained Atomic Weapon Technology shortly after the war's completion in 1949.
(Whether they also stole it from France or found it closer to home is still uncertain)

India had wrested control from Great Britain back in the early 1800 as Britain accepted French rule (France had no desire for such a distant territory as it was having problems even them of maintaining Northern Africa) and thus India had maintained its freedom.
India moved as quickly as America in 1944 and had its own early Atomic weapons by 1947 and with Tibetan and eventually Egyptian treaties, they eventually enforced their distant dominance over the Middle East.
(Note that "Pakistan" is still a part of a larger India in this timeline).
From this unified Triumvirate control, large portions of the Middle East are exploited mercilessly.
In late 1980, Iran attempted to break free only to discover that India was also quite willing to use Atomic weapons as an argument for their right to dominate and thus Tehran was the next city to vanish shortly into 1981.

Finally in 1991, America -- chafing under high oil prices by the Triumvirate -- waged a limited war in the "Gulf" to attempt to claim territory there.
This "Gulf War" was quite limited as both America and India were "Nuclear Powers", an escalation of conflict was desired by neither as it could easily go "nuclear".
Eventually America would claim the small nation of Kuwait and hold it well into the 21st century.

Very Recent Events:
2001, America is suddenly attacked by multiple forces from within its borders as Quebecois and Mexican separatists (as well as many other separatist movements too numerous to list) as well as Asian separatist movements in American controlled territories in Asia begin acts of terrorism with surprise bombings of important locations and midnight raids upon political prisons which force this juggernaut to once again look within to root out dissension and this new variety of "hidden" revolt.
India suffers under similar attacks starting in early 2002.
By 2003, "Pax Europa" under the latest Bonaparte Emperor also begins to experience similarly mysterious attacks and explosions.
2004, the FSI and similar organizations in "the Triumvirate" and "Pax Europa" discover the mainstream "World of Darkness".
They begin to investigate its unlikely and obviously warped history that differs so significantly from their own.
It is determined that the renewed hostilities are based upon military knowledge from this other world.
Plans are made to retaliate.

2008. NOW.


As you can see, 2001 is the year where "everything changes".
In this period they could have been interfered with by some other invading Cosm or perhaps they are surreptitiously bombing their own people as a prelude to openly declaring war upon the Cosmverse with a shiny new Darkness Device.

[skeloric]

I make a discovery here and made some changes retroactively due to it.
However, I didn't catch all instances (indeed I only caught very few) based upon the next bit:

First note: I used "Dominion of Alaska" above and i think I like that. The regions are called DOMINIONS and the proper name therefore is the United Dominions of America.
However, that only qualifies to those on or "near" the continental region of North/Central/South America.
The rest are called Protectorates.


The next bit is a very specific sequence based upon just how dangerously corrupt "DarkEarth" happens to be.
How totally over the top they are in suppressing and dominating the populace.


The FSI and riot suppression.
The FSI not only act as Secret Police but also as "anti 'civilian dissension' countermeasures" (ACDC) and operate on a 13 hour timetable to city pacification.

Hours one through four.
Fire a tear gas/pepper gas fusion into the crowd from specially designed "Urban Assault Tanks" called PERSUADERS.
These tanks are completely sealed with an internal air supply lasting up to 6 hours and are easily about half the size of an industrial grade dump truck and will tower over the populace by about two stories.
Their exterior is electrified to guarantee that those attempting to scale it to get inside try only once ever and the front has a large bulldozer/"cowcatcher" blade ready made to sweep through a populace that is rioting and treads that will crush them effortlessly as well as pulverize most civilian attempts at obstacles.
If the riot continues past the fourth hour the canister changes.
Instead it is a little slice of hell appropriately named BRIMSTONE.
This thing is a nasty fusion of mustard gas, chlorine gas, and cyanide.
At this point the canisters have only one purpose: as high a body count as possible -- up to and including the entire population of the rioting city.
Those who avoid outright death by cyanide are blinded as their eyes are burned right out of their skull while their lungs are scorched to near non functionality.
Most die as their lungs fill up with blood due to the scorching fumes.
They are most certainly pacified.
By the 11th hour of the riot, the FSI extricate themselves at all possible speed from the city to the shocked surprise of the rioters who very foolishly might believe they have scored a victory.
They could not be further from the truth.
At hour 12, the "Civil Alert" system sounds and at this point all those still alive in the city have a half hour to hurriedly return to their homes so that no signs of any life appear on the sensors -- rioting or otherwise.
For if there is any signs of life at the half hour (to be very unfair to the citizens, protocol cites even birds in flight or even small rodents or other wildlife as potentially qualifying) a command will be given to launch a nuclear device at the offending city.
By the 13th hour, the city has ceased to exist as anything other than a potent reminder to the people of the UDA, "We OWN you and we will not tolerate you ever believing that you could be free. We'd rather kill you all than let that ever happen."
So far, only one city has ever required the full 13 hour protocol.
In the southern part of the Dominion of Pacifica ( an analogue to our California, Washington, Oregon and the eastern edge of Alberta) there was once a shining city called "Angel City".
It is no longer there.
Back in 1965, there began a riot that could not and would not be quelled.
The 13th hour protocol had been written shortly after the Korea attempted to extricate itself from UDA protectorate status and had actually won the right to become the Dominion of Korea.
Fearful that future cities or even full Dominions or Protectorates might rebel or riot, the "13th Hour" protocols were drafted up and put into circulation.
The civilians of Angel City thought that the UDA would never follow through with the protocols.
They thought wrong.


As an extra little kick to the usual BRIMSTONE canisters, there is a variant that is laced with "silver essence" to the chlorine gas -- just in case...
This variant is automatically used in place of standard BRIMSTONE if the riot occurs in a more rural area.
If the FSI really knew better, it would become standard operating procedure in ALL riot suppression where BRIMSTONE is brought into use.

In rare cases, Apollo rounds are used concentrated white phosphorus that burns insanely hot when exposed to air and will incinerate anything that might otherwise not be permanently hindered by BRIMSTONE.
In night riots, some commanders have ordered one Apollo to be fired after every set of three BRIMSTONE rounds.
The above Silver Essence is Werewolf deterrent, as a deterrent to the Werewolves of Werewolf the Forsaken.
The Apollo Rounds might still exist but they were specifically designed to oppose vampires (Vampire the Requiem's variety specifically).
As an undead thing, a vampire does not breathe and regenerates quickly from any damage it might take from a BRIMSTONE round, so an APOLLO round was designed to incinerate those who otherwise were beyond the needs of a living body.
Still, if they are aware of Tharkoldu Ghuls or quite a few things coming out of Orrorsh, the APOLLO rounds still make good sense.

[skeloric]

Another poster mentions abolition of slavery as a means to placate the public.
Here is the core of his post:

Just as a quick note, looking at the motivations of the "populace" you may want slavery to be abolished very early on, starting with the original colonies. Why? Greed seems to be a HUGE factor.

So, no slaves? Well, we alter "current" practices and then visit the depression era.

Indentured servitude was a big part of forming the colonies. Exspand it. Make it where the servents were not allowed to spend official currency outside of paying their debt. Taht means they can't afford food, shelter, clothing or anything. The debt holders are allowed to issue their own currencey for their servents to trade with THEM for such things. This takes the old system of Ind. Servititude and mixes it with the depression era work camps where employess could only buy from the company store.

Now, make debts something you inherit.

You have legal slavery that isn't slavery.

Whats the point, this is alot of trouble? To me, this is more evil than slavery. Sure, labor practices may limit your ability to flog them, but you own several generations in advance. This also helps masters feel good about themselves sense they are not "truley" slaves, but instead no good slouches unable to or unwilling to make a fair go at life. In the end, its about semantics makeing the "owners" looking more humanatarian than they are. Its that pleasent mask. Then of course, you can sell debts at great profits. Sense they are all debtors, it makes it easeir for people to look the other way. "Its their own fault."

Unfortunately, I had already made a note that slavery is a universally applied state in the UPA much more closely resembling "Indentured Servitude" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indentured_servant) than the "Cotton Plantation Slavery" most are more accustomed to.
While it eventually evolved into outright ownership of people in our own history, there is instead a cruel sort of economic oppression to indentured servitude that is much more in keeping with the style and tone so far set.

In a sense, a lot of what was said was in fact how I had planned it to be.
Thus with my already altered sense of DarkEarth "slavery" set in my mind, I answered the issue of slavery thusly:


I like it.
It fits very well with my own ideas.
It also fits in with "Property equals rights!" mentality of the civilian (non property owner) vs Citizen (property owner) dichotomy.
Since a 30 year mortgage in our world is not merely double (60 years) or triple (90 years) there but easily quintuple (150 years) making a "loan" for property multi-generational.
The laws covering loans are draconian and favor the one offering the loan as well, miss a payment (perhaps even be late) even if the payments have been on time for 140 years and you lose all the money and the property and must start over.
Thus an image of a debt carried forward.
But on average there is always something that interferes just before the "loan" might finally be paid off resulting in a complete loss necessitating starting all over again.

But yeah, company towns.
Nice catch.
They would be an ongoing part of life from the very beginning to now.

Also, in my version I don't think I ever really thought of capital S slavery having been part of the national foundation but instead was always thinking of "British style Indentured Servitude but more harsh depending on the task" as I think I put it above.

[skeloric]

Posts become more disjointed as I am responding more than actually creating.
But I will try to retain some snippets of material that might have a home in this discussion and ultimately this Cosm.

Decline of religious belief/power:


My first goal of the change was to emasculate religious belief and religious power as part of an experiment to determine the change.
The change is easy -- way too many social ills were tackled by people whose faith led them to being champions of the poor.
Without that drive to redress social ills, the world could easily stay as bad as it was or even grow worse.

The role of women in DarkEarth:


Without religion teaching that "good" women are slaves to the whims of their husbands -- as all "good" women will marry early and remain constantly pregnant until the day they die in childbirth upon which the husband will then be free to trade up for a "newer model" -- everything could in fact change.
But then, society can still be resistant.
However, women among the citizens (property owners) would in fact sit upon ancestral Senatorial seats as early as the late 1800s, one challenged the right to do so at their peril.
Since property equals votes, at 1 vote per acre some women had to be approached as the paragons of power that they truly were.
Just as a ruling queen had presided over England back as far as 1533 (Queen Elizabeth in both versions of history) one discounted a woman who asserted herself as wielder of power at one's own peril.
It was an error one rarely had the opportunity to repeat.
As such, "women's rights" did not and do not exist as they are already trumped by "citizen's rights" in this World Next Door.


"The fate of Native Americans?":

I'll not dispute the input that disease had on the Native populations.
Blankets seeped in Smallpox, handed out as gifts?
It happened in our history.
We would intentionally infect them with diseases just to "soften them up" or whatever.
Then there was "Indian schools", where we essentially kidnapped their children and put them in schools where their culture and "savage" ways would be beaten out of them as an adherence to an age old maxim, "To destroy a people, first destroy their culture."
We nearly succeeded even in real life.
You can assume it was much worse there, but I just haven't touched upon it yet as I figure that their version probably was much much worse but I haven't ever quite thought up a believable variant that could be any worse than reality and I really don't want to cheapen the subject with anything truly unbelievable as I think it too important.

I'm then being vilified as if "DarkEarth" is intended to be some STATEMENT about current events of the early 21st century -- such might be somewhat true nowadays but it wasn't the point of this setting originally as this project was started in 1993 and the world was a much different place then.
So I had to reply to that subject:

I am not nor ever was trying to create a "social critique" on democracy as it might or might not be adhered to in real life.
Instead, this is a divergence where democracy was minor idea found only in ancient Greece and that is where it remained.
Instead something vestigially similar was crafted that payed "lip service" to the idea but in truth was never democracy nor was ever intended to be.

OK, there was a concept I touched upon earlier called a "WORLD LAW" these are basic laws of reality eben more primal than "Laws of Nature" or "Laws of Physics".
"Darkearth" could be said to have a "WORLD LAW" that makes creating and retaining a dictatorship of any sort much more easy and, conversely, make a government based upon human rights much more intrinsically difficult and unstable.
The basic building block of this alternate is that dictatorial and oppressive governments are practically an imperative.

World Laws enforce a feeling of "genre" to resist any attempts to dislodge it.
Our President could send through our armed forces and force democracy upon them but even the "civilian" population would look upon the political system with disgust.
Their nature of reality does not and cannot include it.
Their fundamental nature of reality differs from ours by that much.


when this was not enough, I added the next bit:

Maybe this was the parallel where Plato pontificated upon the essential necessity of DYSTOPIA.
Maybe he waxed poetical upon a fantastical land that once existed where the rulers were so completely abominable to their subjects that they actually exterminated them all over time and how such was so very good that all leaders should try to emulate it.
Maybe Sun Tzu wrote "The Art of Atrocity" instead of the "Art of War".
How far back DOES the divergence go?

[skeloric]

So, in otherwords....one of mans driving goals is dominance...not independence? (Not saying Dominance is not there. Right now most see man as independent/co-dependent in near equal measures.)

That would make it easeir to accept the changes made in this world...and to come up with more.
Yes, DOMINANCE.
That is an interesting point that there might be MORE changes.

I finally end discussing points that are specific to the World of Darkness.

Thus, you now have practically everything on the latest incarnation of the subject of this wretched, malevolent Cosm.
Truly a place in need of heroes.
If they allow a hero to survive long enough to make a difference.

[skeloric]

I'm still shaky on Axioms and my World Laws haven't gone beyond a sort of "hidden in the text" arrangement seen in the Living Land sourcebook, but as a setting I think it is starting to regain depth.