World War Eternal WIP - Take 2

[Aethernaut]

Well, it's been awhile since I posted anything from World War Eternal. I'm still working on it in what little spare time I have, mostly still writing the background but I do some art for it here and there. There's a brand spanking new title image attached and here's what else I've got so far:

An update of the map (It's a biggy and it's gonna look awesome in print when it's done, I've been proofing chunks of it):


Flags, roundels and tail markings for the various major factions are below.

First the Allies--
The United States of North America:


The Oceanic Commonwealth:


The People's Sino-Soviet Coalition:


Next, the Axis--
The Third Reich:


The Empire of Japan:


And finally, a new faction, unaffiliated with either the Allies or Axis though some of their member states are also part of the German hegemony. A free agent, if you will.
The League of Arab States:


Enjoy!

Point of interest: The attached World War Eternal title below shows the mouth of an open WERB inducer bridge in the background. The WERB (Wheeler-Einstein-Rosen Bridge) inducer is the final name I've used for the humans interstellar drive system. It's based on real world theories mixed with World War Eternal super science. I'm sure you'll all see the treatment I've written for it eventually.

[Killjoy01]

Dude that's sweet.

[Tovette]

Great stuff there! So what's the premise of your universe?

[Aethernaut]

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by Tovette

So what's the premise of your universe?

That's a long story but here's the short version:

It's a dieselpunk alternate reality where World War II never ended. It all hinges on two alterations to our own timeline. First, a strange cosmic wave of radiation sweeps over local space in 1924 superimposing an alien reality over our own (off planet) and causing humans to start manifesting "powers" either psionic (harnessed by the Allies) or mystic (harnessed by the Axis). The powers aren't particularly evident until the middle of the war. And second, Germany wins the Battle of Britain in 1940 leading to a conquest of Europe & North Africa and west to Newfoundland and part of Quebec by 1952.

In the setting it's 1984 and the World War is a lukewarm cold war that's spread out across several local star systems.

[Tovette]

I have three questions-

1)The Oceanic Commonwealth is who- Austrailia? It would seem if the Nazis have all of Europe and a portion of North America then any kind of British existance would be wiped out.
2)How do you plan on explaining the massive steps in technical and fundamental scientific advances in the 30-some years that the powers went from post industrial societies to somewhat advanced spacefaring powers with FTL capabilities?
3)I'm not completely cognitive of what you mean by an alien reality in space. Can you explain that in a nutshell a little more?

I only ask the questions cuz it's an interesting premise.

[Aethernaut]

Originally Posted by Tovette

I have three questions-

1)The Oceanic Commonwealth is the exiled British government. After Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain) Churchill was captured and executed but the Royals escaped to Canada. Seizing on the fall of Britain, the Dominion of Canada declared independence and deported (in a very civil way) the royal family and the new Prime Minister, Attlee, to Australia. There, Britain reestablished the "Empire" with the remainder of their territories under the name Oceanic Commonwealth. Canada later joins the US and Mexico as the United States of North America.

2)Reverse engineering of the Roswell, New Mexico UFO crash in 1947 and the fact that pretty much all of the major powers on Earth are geared up into war economies and defense R&D programs. The "powers" and alien reality from the Twilight Days event (explained in #3) open a door for adding pulp super science which also plays into this. The Germans get ahold of the WERB inducer through an unfortunate crash of an Allied vessel in their territory on Mars.

3)Basically, I needed an event that would let me put an existent civilization on Mars and life on Venus. So, a large cosmic event which not only affected Earth but the local stellar neighborhood gave me that. It also allowed me to make the Roswell myth real, Nazi captured religious relics powerful, introduce other crazy alien species from other star systems, etc., etc., etc. and still fit it into an alternate history setting. The cosmic wave event darkened the sky for three days in May of 1924 (note that Hitler was in prison writing Mein Kampf at this time) and was named the "Twilight Days." The only person who noticed at the time was Nicola Tesla who picked up strong radio disturbances with a rudimentary radio telescope. This was discounted by Tesla's contemporaries because he had made it very public that faint radio signals he had picked up years before were alien contact. By '24, he was getting on in years and was pretty much considered a mad scientist.

Regarding a bit of the technology - Interestingly, I've decided that though the transistor is invented, the integrated circuit never follows in the 1960s, so the silicon chip doesn't exist yet. This decision is purely for flavor. Electronics are still big and fairly clunky and the dawn of the micro-computing revolution of the late-70s and early-80s never occurs. Teletype military Internet, huzzah!

I only ask the questions cuz it's an interesting premise.

Happy to oblige!

[Major Diarrhia]

If only the transistor is built then that would avoid a lot of problems in not making the technology advanced enough. Basically where the future is today but with rayguns, you have an excuse for that. I'm reading a book called The Demolished Man, it was written in the 50's or something and the author came up with something a little Internet like with pneumatic tubes that can deliver packages anywhere in a matter of minutes. One thing though, a lot would go into making programming more efficient since raw computing power isn't going anywhere. So their computing would keep getting faster but it wouldn't be Moore's law, that's for sure.

I remember your infernal combustion engine for the space Nazis.

[Ben of Oz]

I hate to say this, but I don't think the Chinese and the Russians would have ever formed a coalition. Maoism and Stalinism are completely different types of communism. The chances of China and the USSR becoming allies are about the same as the chances of the USSR and the USA becoming allies. Hell, they almost went to war in 1969.

Of course, seeing as how this is an alternate universe, there are plenty of ways they could have reconciled their differences.

[Aethernaut]

Originally Posted by Major Diarrhia

I remember your infernal combustion engine for the space Nazis.

Yes, the soul turbine. The soul turbine is still the power source of choice for the Axis powers vessels. I've fleshed that out a little too. They can't use it too near heavy gravity wells, so when ships arrive at a planet they maintain a very high orbit. And near dense areas of biological life the turbine overloads because it gets "confused." This puts them behind in gravity control technology on their ships and the ability to land large vessels on planets (which the Allies can do thanks to the Zeta Reticulan craft that crashed at Roswell). It also gave them some trouble adapting the WERB inducer to their ships.

On the up side, through outgrowths of the occultechnical development of the soul turbine they gain reactionless propulsion (yet to be named but it will probably have a "Von Braun" in there somewhere) and kinetic energy shielding. They just have to use nuclear reactors or other traditional power sources planetside and jet and rocket propulsion for flight or reaching orbit. Also, their battery technology is on par with the Allies and their high-energy COI lasers and lightning arc cannons work just as well planetside as in space.

It's a tricky game balancing the technical advantages of the Allies vs. the Axis but I'm pretty happy with the results so far. Being fairly evenly matched gives another excuse to draw the war out for 40+ years. And besides the history I wanted to flesh out all of the technical details first so it becomes backdrop rather than main focus of this universe.

[Aethernaut]

Originally Posted by Ben of Oz

Of course, seeing as how this is an alternate universe, there are plenty of ways they could have reconciled their differences.

The Germans at the Urals and Japanese occupation prolonged into the 1950s tends to do that. The long Japanese occupation also fuels resentment toward Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Civil War is slightly shorter, Mao takes power by late 1947 but on unstable political ground. He's a much more pragmatic and less egotistical man than the Mao from our history because of the situation.

To twist an old saying a bit, desperation makes strange bedfellows. Under the Treaty of Friendship and Alliance signed in 1950 and with Stalin's death in 1953, Malenkov and Mao find it in their best interest to combine forces against Axis aggression. The Sino-Soviet Treaty of Coalition is signed in '54 which puts it before the real world Sino-Soviet split of the late 50s. By 1969 they are pretty much one country and several colonies throughout the inner Sol System under two chairmen. (Note that '69 is the same year Neil Armstrong becomes the first human to set foot on Rigel Kentaurus A III, claiming it for the Allies. The Sino-Soviets will send a colony ship to Rigel Kentaurus B II a few years later.)