Help Me ReWrite Post-1910 History

[mythusmage]

In and of themselves they don't rely on anything that wasn't around in 1870 - just more understanding.

It's simple, anything done with techniques or devices developed after 1870 fail in the dead zone. Organ transplants are post 1870, so the result of such operations fail. The cause is magical, and so follows a different logical path.

 

[WayneLigon]

And yes the Golem is a part of yiddish mythology, so a very good bit of magic to throw over to any jewish rebels fighting oppressive arabs in the middle east

However the west coast seceding from the east is a potential alternative. They are no longer able to affect each other, and if anything the west coast is more likely to be closely linked with Mexico. Afterall with any real transport between east and west coasts having to go via other countries they are effectively separate nations already, and governing both bodies with a single authority will become an administrative nightmare.

Creating a golem under the Urban Arcana rules is pretty difficult but not impossible; creating armies of them (as was mentioned above) is probably impractical. I've thought a little about this, and might return to it later.

I'd thought about the difficulties vis-a-vis East Coast/West Coast, but as I mention above you still have train travel, albiet slower, dirtier and more dangerous (due to occassional Indian attack or magical beast attack) than in the 'normal' world. You still have ship traffic through the Panama Canal. I'd thought about having them form a seperate nation but I realized that maintaining administrative control is no different than maintaining administrative control over Alaska or Hawaii. The Internet still works. California still gets TV reception. They have phone service, though several trunk lines have to route through Canada. Radio still works across the Dead Zone since it can reflect off the ionosphere, from what little I remember. Long distance cell phones still work since they can route through other areas; There is probably a US-based sattillite uplink on either side of the Dead Zone that takes care of this as well. Government controlled and regulated teleportation still works. You just can't drive there as quickly as you used to and you need a passport (Unless we just offered Canada or Mexico an obscene amount of cash and trade concessions to turn over a 100-mile-wide corridor of land to the US). Other considerations probably exist; the Dead Zone came into existance around 1920-1925, so we've had a long time to adjust to it and find ways to work around it.

The West Coast is probably not quite as populous as it is now, which is probably a good thing.

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

Keep in mind that at the time of WW1, Mexico was, all magic aside, still a relatively formidable country. German documents asking for Mexican aid against the US should it enter the war pushed popular sentiment toward doing exactly that, so Germany at least apparently considered Mexico worth recruiting. And Mexico laid claim to basically all of the western US not long before that time.

If the dead zone appears in, say, 1920, I could definitely see Mexico gobbling up Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, at the least. Also, you might want to consider (ala Harry Turtledove's Great War series) having the Mormons in Utah rebel against US rule.

None of this would happen if the dead zone appeared around 1950, or even 1940. But go back to the WW1 period and its immediate aftermath and a ton of 19th-century conflicts still burn in the minds of the defeated.

BTW, the House of Saud presumably wouldn't be much of a power without WW1, as they were basically bandit chieftains prior to the war. Even the then more powerful Hashemites (ancestors of the present King of Jordan) were a minor power under the Ottoman thumb, and only secured Jordan and modern-day Iraq by allying with the Brits against the Ottomans in WW1.

 

[WayneLigon]

That said you are already saying that some how the physics of the dead zone have changed... new types of guns that work on simple mechanical principles (ok highly developed mechanics, but still fundamental mechanics) don't work. If that's the case it's not much more to say biology is different.

It's not really that physics is different. Things still fall, chemical reactions still take place, etc. It's more that Time is different. Theories about exactly what has happened are rampant. Every couple of years a new book comes out with a different theory. There are as many subcultures devoted to the mystery of the Dead Zone as there as UFO subcultures in our reality.

What is known is that the Dead Zone is the largest, most stable, and most far-reaching magical backlash known to date. It's unknown exactly what the Black Lodge (the common name for the shamans who caused this) actually asked for, but their purpose is known: they wanted to roll back Time across thje entire Western Hemisphere to a time before the white man came. The amount of power to even attempt such a thing is staggering. No spell yet discovered can alter Time in anything but the most minute ways.

The leading theory (and all the theories have good and bad points) is that whatever happened effectively trapped that area of land in the year 1870 and that that year effectively 'repeats', even though the weather is different, the stars when seen from inside and outside the barrier are the same, people are born, grow old and die, etc.

Like mythusmage says above, it's a different logical path. Much about magic is still not understood.

 

[WayneLigon]

First, I suggest that you read the comic "Rex Mundi"...

On the other hand. 1908 sees the rise of magic in the world. Does it spread out from Tunguska (making Russia the first country with magic users) and if yes how fast. You can be assured, that Magic users will be persons in the background used by/ using the monarchs or national leaders of the countries...

Will the World War I happen, the Crown Prince of Austria would wear magic items for protection? What kind of magic will be available (healing?)?

The first Rex Mundi TPB is already in the queue, waiting for me to get to it

Magic does not spread out from the Tunguska explosion, but rather reappears all at once all over the world. The more 'primitive' societies first experience real working magic when some of the rituals and rites suddenly start producing working reproducable results. Russian mystics do have a reputation for being powerful, though. The Muscova University magic program produces some of the top mages in the world and many Western mages try to attend at least a few lectures there every year. Their journal is internationally recognized as one of the best. And Russian psionics research is the best in the world, bar none.

WWI is already winding down at the time magic returns, so I'm thinking about what the effect it will have. It might lengthen the war considerably, producing a lull as the world adjusts to the global phenomenon, then flaring up again with new weapons and means of war. Then again, it might die down early, with little resolved.

I'm thinking that at the time, there would be very few magic items. People haven't relearned how to make them yet, and are still rediscovering spells. Probably the spell list at that time would be three or four spells of each level. Incantations, however, would be actually more prevalent since it doesn't require someone with the Mage advanced class - only someone with a lot of ranks in Arcane Lore. Giles comes into his own. The first real Mages probably do not appear until the late Twenties when the first small thaumaturgy schools are founded in reaction to the creation of the Dead Zone. (The creation of the Dead Zone revolutionized thaumaturgy; the powers that be decided that a 'spell gap' would be unacceptable while simultaneously realizing that a lot of the 'primitive' peoples who had never abandonded their magical traditions now had equivilant power in their hands. Ironically, without the Black Lodge's major screwup and the pressures of WWI, magic might have become a backwater 'dillitante' occupation, something old professors and librarians did in their spare time).

 

[WayneLigon]

Keep in mind that at the time of WW1, Mexico was, all magic aside, still a relatively formidable country.

If the dead zone appears in, say, 1920, I could definitely see Mexico gobbling up Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, at the least.

Yep, I'm pretty sure right now that I want a strong oil-rich Mexico as a primary rival for the US in it's own hemisphere. They'll control the Canal as well. In the 21st century, they'll be known for pharmaceutical manufacture utilizing chemcals found in nature plus they have a lot of old magic sites on hand.

Texas, I think, will be it's own independent nation.

 

[WayneLigon]

Another idea occurs to me. I wanted the Tunguska blast to reignite magic because it's a major showy event that's still mysterious to us. It got me to thinking that traditionally, heavenly astronomical events had an inpact on Earth. So, the Tunguska event 'refills' the level of magic because it's a heavenly body brought to Earth. I'm thinking of making it an asteroid that exploded because of fracturing caused by heat, so that you can find these 'starstones' that are used for some important amulets or whatnot. Previous asteroid strikes make for powerful 'sites': the Dead Zone ritual was conducted at the crater in Arizona. Mexico, Texas and Louisiana are magically powerful because they all surround the Gulf of Mexico, created by the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs and provided enough magic for millions of years, killing off the previous Yaun-ti civilization and jump-starting mammalian evolution.

However, linking 'magic' to 'space objects' might not work. What happens when we land on or teleport to the Moon? I'd thought about having a Moon base.

 

[Vargo]

(The creation of the Dead Zone revolutionized thaumaturgy; the powers that be decided that a 'spell gap' would be unacceptable while simultaneously realizing that a lot of the 'primitive' peoples who had never abandonded their magical traditions now had equivilant power in their hands. Ironically, without the Black Lodge's major screwup and the pressures of WWI, magic might have become a backwater 'dillitante' occupation, something old professors and librarians did in their spare time).

Something to keep in mind is more "primitive" regions where the imperial powers did not hold an iron grasp on the native populations during the early 1900s - places like the Phillipines, parts of Africa, and Australia. Yes, there were some colonies there, but the native animist subculture was still strong and not completely overcome. Now, their old ways work, Dreamtime is waking, and it's time for payback.

 

[daTim]

Keep in mind that at the time of WW1, Mexico was, all magic aside, still a relatively formidable country. German documents asking for Mexican aid against the US should it enter the war pushed popular sentiment toward doing exactly that, so Germany at least apparently considered Mexico worth recruiting. And Mexico laid claim to basically all of the western US not long before that time.

If the dead zone appears in, say, 1920, I could definitely see Mexico gobbling up Texas, California, Arizona and New Mexico, at the least. Also, you might want to consider (ala Harry Turtledove's Great War series) having the Mormons in Utah rebel against US rule.

Actually the US quite soundly trounced the Mexicans in 1898, invading Mexico City itself and holding it until they ceeded most of the western North Americas to us. I don't doubt that we could have done it again in the 1920's, when the differences in our two countries would be even more vast.

Not only that, but many of those German documents are believed to be propoganda anyway. For some reason we never liked the Mexicans/Spanish/Cubans. I guess they were just in land we wanted at the least opportune times.

 

[JDJarvis]

The U.S. would have a huge advantage over a great number of nations. There'd be a huge Nuke-proof shield in the middle of the country.
If no technological devices made after 1870 would work in that zone that'd mean there would actually be a place to go and hide that'd be mostly safe in a nuclear war as no weapons of that kind could touch the area.