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- Arlington, Virginia
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Alternate History General Discussion
- Thread starter Elektronaut
- Start date
- Location
- Albany, NY
- Pronouns
- She/Her
I'm not sure what discussion you want to have about it.
Has anyone do a timing focused in Faroes - Shetland - Orkney?I'm not sure what discussion you want to have about it.
The former, though I understand why it happens (it's easier). I'm pretty sure I've done it!
Honest question about which type of map you think is worse: Maps with OTL borders being improbably maintained or maps with nonsensically scrambled borders?
I'm fine with nonsensical borders because plenty of OTL borders are nonsensical.
frustrated progressive
SLPing Through the Cracks
I did a draft list once that went Gore, then Gore beaten by Fred Thompson, who almost loses '08 to Edwards before the reveal of his affair happens. 2008 is a poison chalice, the Dems have kept their bench throughout the 2000s, and after the crash, ride a wave of anti-establishment populism to a landslide under Feingold and Schweitzer in 2012. The new administration comes with a Senate that has 70 Democrats, and a House with just under 300.I've got a list somewhere of different presidents after Florida goes to Gore*. From there Britain slowly diverges too
*something like
Gore in 00
Mainstream republican in 04
Narrow republican victory in 08
Bernie in 2012
Bernies Veep in 20 with a Overton Window to the left.
(credit to @gentleman biaggi for helping me flesh this out way back when).
- Location
- Sandford, Gloucestershire
- Pronouns
- She/They
I did a draft list once that went Gore, then Gore beaten by Fred Thompson, who almost loses '08 to Edwards before the reveal of his affair happens. 2008 is a poison chalice, the Dems have kept their bench throughout the 2000s, and after the crash, ride a wave of anti-establishment populism to a landslide under Feingold and Schweitzer in 2012. The new administration comes with a Senate that has 70 Democrats, and a House with just under 300.
(credit to @gentleman biaggi for helping me flesh this out way back when).
I had the republican win 2008 thanks to Edwards being the dem candidate too
Maps where Switzerland manged to survive while the rest of Europe changes.Honest question about which type of map you think is worse: Maps with OTL borders being improbably maintained or maps with nonsensically scrambled borders?
- Location
- Arlington, Virginia
Switzerland is the country equivalent of Elizabeth II or Jimmy Carter or Henry Kissinger - you never really expect them to pass on.Maps where Switzerland manged to survive while the rest of Europe changes.
Switzerland will still be there when the sun goes supernova.
Von Callay
Getting Grilled by Special Agent Nixon
Switzerland is the country equivalent of Elizabeth II or Jimmy Carter or Henry Kissinger - you never really expect them to pass on.
Switzerland will still be there when the sun goes supernova.
Switzerland has the wealth and fiercely-armed populace to resist outside aggression, there are plenty of scenarios in which they could reasonably defend their frontiers in a rapidly tilting Europe.
The Russo-Kazakh border is alternate cartography's true lich-king.
The whole "impenetrable Switzerland" (and semi-related "unconquerable Afghanistan") is more a pop-culture trope in general, and one with recent vivid examples that support it (Switzerland staying neutral and uninvaded in both World Wars, the experience of both the Americans and Soviets in Afghanistan). Whereas the Kazakh border is one of those alternate history community quirks.
JesterBL
Gastronaut
- Location
- Flyover Country, USA
- Pronouns
- he/him
The whole "impenetrable Switzerland" (and semi-related "unconquerable Afghanistan") is more a pop-culture trope in general, and one with recent vivid examples that support it (Switzerland staying neutral and uninvaded in both World Wars, the experience of both the Americans and Soviets in Afghanistan). Whereas the Kazakh border is one of those alternate history community quirks.
AH Challenge: Afghanistan known primarily for banking and cute clockwork handicrafts, Switzerland known as land of warriors claiming descent from Barbarossa
Better AH challenge: Have the Swiss invade Afghanistan for challenging their clockwork supremacy.AH Challenge: Afghanistan known primarily for banking and cute clockwork handicrafts, Switzerland known as land of warriors claiming descent from Barbarossa
I made this same joke a few months ago, you could easily do a map where it's the Persian Empire's technologically advanced occupation forces getting routed by death from a thousand cuts from partisans in the brutal hill country ofAH Challenge: Afghanistan known primarily for banking and cute clockwork handicrafts, Switzerland known as land of warriors claiming descent from Barbarossa
AH Challenge: Afghanistan known primarily for banking and cute clockwork handicrafts, Switzerland known as land of warriors claiming descent from Barbarossa
A mountainous country with backwards views of the rights of women, Switzerland is the punchline of this bait and switch joke.
An interview with Kim Newman covered AH:
All of your Anno Dracula novels involve alternative histories, but even your recent novel Something More Than Night involves historical speculation. What is it that draws you to alternate histories or ‘what if?’ scenarios?
I’m not one of those people who want to express logical, well-thought-out, possible alternate timelines. I’m much more interested in reflecting what actually happened presenting it in a crazy kaleidoscope mirror reality than in considering how the world would be if the Hundred Years War played out differently. I like some of those books that do things like that, but it’s not something that particularly grabs me as a writer. I’m much more interested in exploring where we are now.
I find it quite a useful way of addressing the present, although always it takes five to ten years to process anything before it’s much use in fiction.
Regarding the earlier Switzerland/Afghanistan chat, I'm reminded of the Sliders episode where the U.S. is bogged down in an "Enduring Freedom"-type occupation of the former, for whatever reasons (something to do with nationalized banks, from a partial synopsis I stumbled across) and the universal tabloid press of that world is endlessly pumping out scandal and gossip rather than actual news.
So in the mountainous regions of Central Asia, a Dari-speaking state forms that can command a ferocious natural defensive geography. With that mixed with its proximity to trade routes and reputation for neutrality, it becomes known as an increasingly safe financial center, and the wealth from that means it also has a deserved reputation for producing fine artisanal goods. Meanwhile, in Europe an artificial jumble of different ethnicities in the Alps collapses into a weak and tumultuous "western Yugoslavia"....