Etherscope (published by Goodman Games) is a steampunk role-playing game based on the d20 system. It uses the d20 Modern rules.
Etherscope (published by Goodman Games) is a steampunk role-playing game based on the d20 system. It uses the d20 Modern rules.
The setting is a Steampunk fantasy world in which the fifth Platonic element, Ether (cosmic energy), is discovered and tapped as an energy source. Using their cutting-edge knowledge of this force allows the British empire to flourish and the culture and values of the Victorian Age to be artificially prolonged.
In the 1950s, American inventors created the Etherscope, a "difference engine" that could interact with Etherspace. Etherscopes are hand-crafted by technicians and are therefore prohibitively expensive items that are owned by the rich and powerful. Users vary from upper-class dilettantes to massive government bureaucracies and wealthy corporations.
Enginaughts were originally the trained technicians that created, maintained, programmed, and used "difference engines" (mechanical computers). The term was later extended to the clerks who programmed and used Etherscopes and the workers that fashioned Etherstuff into usable objects or structures.
Cybernaughts are human beings who utilize interface technologies. The simplest representation of the concept are the maimed people who have installed mechanical "limbs" or sensor "eyes" to replace the ones they have lost or sickly people who implant mechanical devices to replace failed or failing internal organs. The more complex concept extends to the interface technologies that allow a user to interact with a system indirectly (via keyboards, consoles, or Etheric gauntlets) or directly (via an Etherjack implant).
Etheric gauntlets allow a person to interact with Etherspace remotely. It is a common method of manipulating and fashioning Etherstuff.
The Etherjack is a cybernautic implant that allows users to interface directly with the Etheric plane (a process called Scope Immersion). Its purchase is unregulated in America but is highly controlled or banned elsewhere.
Etheric avatars are etheric constructs that are created by Etherscope users to represent them in Etherspace. The only limits are a user's skill and imagination - though off-the-rack or custom-made avatars are available from Enginauts.
Etheric Domains, Etherspace constructs resembling sprawling cities, have been created by Etherspace users to perform clerical tasks and consolidate centralized information libraries. They are bounded by security "walls" to keep out intruders. Usually the product of a powerful nation or a rich corporation, informal communities of users have begun to spring up. Haven - a hidden Domain created by Scope Riders - is home to such a community; Havenites often use detailed avatars and use a series of pseudonyms and cover identities when Immersed.
Scope Riders are a sub-culture of self-taught Etherscope users who use the Etherspace for a variety of purposes. Some explore the Domains or uncharted Etherspace for amusement or to sate their curiosity. Others use it to further criminal or political goals by stealing, altering, or even deleting stored information or forging hideouts or communication networks in the Etherscape to avoid the authorities.
System Agents, violent and bizarre etherspace beings, are a major mystery. Some think they are government or corporate Scope Riders hired to police their patron's Domains or hunt down subversives and thieves. Some think they are new programs or etheric constructs that either act on pre-programmed instructions or have even attained sentience. Some think the scope riders themselves subconsciously create them as materializations of their fears and worries or a product of their imaginations running away from them. Others posit that perhaps they were always there in the Etherspace and that the presence of other lifeforms has just drawn their interest.
Recreational use of Scope Tabs, a drug compound that grants the user access to the Etheric realm, have become a common form of escape for both bored workers and jaded aristocrats alike.
The exact opinion varies, as nothing is known precisely about it. Scientists conjecture that Ether is the substance between the stars and that Etherspace is a realm of pure energy. Artists and writers say it is the realm of dreams, thoughts, and imagination. Dreamers say it is the magical "faerieland" from folktales, myths, and legends.
The world wars of the 20th Century were resolved differently, leaving the British Empire and the European powers largely intact.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a technology race between Britain and France made the British Empire more leery of French intentions than German saber-rattling. The United States was not involved in European affairs and wasn't considered a major power, which kept the powers of Europe from developing alliances (or even cordial relations) with it. These factors would shape the rest of the century.
The Pan-European War (1914–1922 in this timeline) is similar to World War One. The Alliance was composed of France, Italy and Russia and the Axis Powers were composed of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire. The British Empire and United States stayed neutral. In the West, the Axis Powers quickly defeated France in a matter of months and defeated Italy by the end of 1915. In the East the Germans and Austro-Hungarians invaded Russia and gradually captured a swath of territory from the Crimea to Moscow bounded by the Volga (recognized as Südrussland by the Treaty of Berlin in 1922).
The Irish Revolt of 1914 (1914–1926 in this timeline), similar to the Irish War of Independence, had a different outcome as well. In the 1900s in Ireland there were two major factions. The Republicans, made up mostly of Irish Catholics, wanted independence for Ireland. The Unionists, made up almost exclusively of Protestants, wanted Ireland to stay part of the United Kingdom of Britain, Scotland & Ireland. Although both sides had a long history of conflict, they tended to view the question as a political one and violence and armed struggle were only embraced by extreme elements. Those armed elements, however, were well-organized, well-funded and had access to modern weaponry. Without a war in Europe to distract them, the Republicans and Unionists began fighting all across Ireland. The British Empire intervened on the side of the Unionists in 1916 and used regular troops alongside Irish militia and paramilitary forces to crush the Republicans' main force conventional troops. The Republican irregular forces held out as long as they could, but a ruthless counterinsurgency program coupled with the use of cutting-edge Ethertech weapons and devices forced the Republicans to sue for peace and disarm.
The Russian Civil War (1922–1925 in this timeline) was similar in its outcome but had different effects. During The Pan-European War, the shorter lines of communication due to Germany's rapid invasion of Russia in 1914 initially made it easier for Russia to manage supply lines and maintain large reserves to counterattack Axis thrusts. The loss of the farmlands of the Ukraine and the Black Sea region, however, caused a famine that triggered unrest. When Russia collapsed in 1922, a series of political movements (Constitutionalists, Democrats, Anarchists, Socialists, etc.) fought for control, ending in the Communists under party secretary Joseph Stalin gaining nominal control by 1925.
The Pacific War (1937–1943 in this timeline) is similar to World War Two. Japan was becoming a local power in the 1930s with a strong navy that was seen as a potential threat to Britain's control of the seas and an army that had made inroads in China and was threatening to invade the Soviet Union. It involved the European Powers (the British Empire, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union) on one side and Japan on the other over control of China and the Pacific Rim. Neu Reich, technically neutral, fought a defensive war against the Soviet Union's attempts to take back their lost territories. The allied British and Dutch forces fought an island-hopping amphibious war against Japan in the Pacific. The Soviet Union, bolstered by allied support, fought a two-front land war with Neu Reich in the west and Japanese forces in the east. America used diplomatic pressure on the allies and then threatened military interference in the summer of 1943, allowing Japan to fight the Europeans to a stalemate.
The British Empire has the world's most powerful navy and controls most of Africa and Asia. It absorbed France's colonial holdings in Africa and Southeast Asia following the Pan-European War and gained total control of China following the Pacific War. Its navy dominates the seas and its armies are found on every continent. Due to its extensive military commitments in its existing possessions, there are still areas of their Empire that were never fully explored or which have lapsed into wilderness and savagery.
The Neu Reich consists of Europe and most of Eurasia and it has the world's finest army. It is a unification of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires that was arranged in 1926 following the marriage of Kaiser Wilhelm III [reign 1924–1946] to Princess Sophie of Austria, niece of Emperor Karl I of Austria [reign 1916–1929]. Karl I renounced participation in Austro-Hungarian government in 1923 and abdicated his throne in 1929, making the infant Prince Franz his heir. Wilhelm and Sophie acted as co-regents until their son's majority at 18 in 1946. The Austro-Hungarian royal family was then integrated into the Prussian imperial family through intermarriage and the granting of titles in the Prussian nobility. Emperor Franz Joseph II (born 1928 [reign 1946–present]) presides over the Triple Monarchy of Prussia, Austria and Hungary as a figurehead. The aristocrats control the Army and all major and senior government posts, while the upper and middle class commoners dominate the Navy and the bureaucracy. Catholicism was adopted as the official state religion but with tolerance for Protestants and Orthodox Christians. It politically and economically dominates Europe and has what is considered the most powerful army in the world. Protectorates established in Italy and France after the Pan-European War were later expanded to completely integrate the nations into the Reich. The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal are allowed to exist on the fringes and Switzerland is allowed its independence because of its neutrality. Minority languages and cultures are encouraged, but German is the official government language and the language used and taught in their public secondary schools and universities.
The United States of America is an upstart power that gradually worked its way onto the global scene. The boundaries between Canada and the USA were resolved diplomatically in 1842 and established the permanent border between the two nations. It then expanded westwards during the Indian Wars of the 19th Century until it spanned both coasts. By the dawning of the 20th century, it consisted of 45 states and 5 territories (Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, Hawaii, and Alaska). America then began expanding into the "Savage South" and used a combination of "soft power" (diplomacy, aid, and economic development) and "hard power" (military intervention and naval blockade) to dominate the New World. Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Honduras, Panama, and Peru first became Territories (like the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Puerto Rico and Cuba), then became the 50th through 56th states (with Hawaii becoming the 49th) when they requested statehood. Although more socially mobile and intellectually open-minded than Europe, its powerful industrial and mercantile interests dominate their political parties. Its government has preferred a strong centralized Federal government over weak subordinated State governments since its Civil War, but it favors a laissez-faire policy towards most economic matters.
France and Italy are subordinate to Neu Reich. France's politics are dominated by the squabbling between the three monarchist factions (Legitimist, Orleanist, and Bonapartist) and the populist anti-clerical Republican faction. Italy has a constitutional monarchy. The real power is held in its parliament, which is split by regionalism and the economic divide between the rich industrial north, politically-dominant center, and poor agrarian south. Strong Nationalist rumblings and occasional saber-rattling are heard. However, they are countered with the reality that they would be cut out of the European market and its resources and would be the only countries in Europe without colonies.
The Dutch are hemmed-in in Europe but have huge overseas colonies in the Pacific. They act as middle-men for the other powers—especially the "triangle trade" between America, the Soviet Union, and Japan.
Spain and Portugal are mired in poverty and obscurity. Spain lost its overseas colonies in the New World and the Orient to America in the Spanish–American War (1899). It has a foothold in Africa in the Canary Islands, Spanish Morocco, and the Spanish Sahara, the home of the famed Spanish Foreign Legion. It has an arm's length relationship with the Neu Reich and is very aloof to the British Empire. Portugal barely holds on to its "empire" (Guinea, Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar, the islands of the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé, and the city of Macau), such as it is. It has centuries-long ties to the British Empire.
The Scandinavian countries of Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Iceland are independent. They comprise a neutral buffer zone between the British Empire, Neu Reich, and the Soviet Union and engage in brisk trade between them.
Bulgaria was allowed continued independence as a reward for their loyalty and support. It acts as a buffer zone between Neu Reich and the Ottoman Empire.
Japan is the only independent country in Asia. The military faction in government lost face when Japan lost its empire in Asia after the Pacific War. They were supplanted by those that favored economic development and appeasement of the major power blocs. Japan is very poor, relying on exporting cheap goods brokered for them by the Dutch East India Company. Workers spend long dreary hours working in factories and spend their meager pay in Scope Riding cafes or tab dens. An underground market in drug tabs and Ethertech gave tremendous power and wealth to the Yakuza gangs, who now control the slums in the port cities and the industrial sprawl of the Kanto Plain.
The Soviet Union was set up amongst the ruins of the Russian Empire starting in 1925. It is ruled by the Bolshevik Party (who are Communists, followers of the teachings of German economic theorist Karl Marx). It used technology to modernize Russia. Government programs sponsoring scientific research, technological specialization, and skilled labor manufacturing were used to create a prosperous economy with trade links outside the Union. Investments in agricultural reform and improved transport and distribution networks allowed rapid movements of food and supplies to where they were needed, curbing famine and disease. The salaries of management (koordinatori) and skilled labor (tekniki) are shared with that of manual laborers (robotniki), all of whom are seen as social equals. The military secures its borders from outside aggression while the Secret Police secures the state from traitors at home and counter-revolutionaries abroad. The other powers categorize the Soviet Union in their propaganda as militarily aggressive, dictatorial, and oppressive—with the Union making the same claims.
The Ottoman Empire controls Turkey, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and parts of North Africa. Because the Ottoman Empire was on the winning side in the Pan-European War, regional geography is different from in our timeline. Iraq is still a series of Ottoman territories because it wasn't unified by the British under the Mesopotamian Mandate. Persia (our current-day Iran) is still ruled by the Ottoman-supported Qajar dynasty, because Reza Khan never came into power. Jordan doesn't exist because the British never set it up as a buffer zone because the House of Saud never conquered Arabia. There is no Israel because the British Empire never controlled Palestine. The Empire is ruled by the Sultan through a ceremonial bureaucracy and a representative parliament rubber-stamps government decisions. The Young Turks movement revolutionized the military and liberalized society but has had limited effect on government corruption; Mehmed VI supported their reforms as long as they didn't interfere with his rule and his successors were backed by the Neu Reich. The Empire has recently become wealthy due to its creation of petrochemical-based plastics—little of the wealth trickles down to the lower classes.
The Great Metropolis is an urban sprawl formed from the amalgamation of Liverpool and Manchester. It has a population of about 100 million people, most of whom are refugees from Europe or immigrants from the colonies or the Kingdom of Ireland. It is more culturally influential than London due to its size and economic power but is subject to their more politically powerful southern cousin.
Its residents live in squalor and work in unsafe conditions in factories that produce unfettered waste and pollution.
Runaway genespliced workers live in the sewers in communities called "Gammavilles" (after the Gamma-class workers who founded them).
The Eugenics League is a worldwide scientific society engaged in genetic engineering, as mere human breeding is seen as too random and imprecise. They divide human stock into "Alphas" (gene-spliced humans with superior or even non-human traits) and "Betas" (their term for ordinary "baseline" humans). "Gammas" (small, tough, disease-resistant workers with rodent DNA), "Deltas" (loyal workers with canine DNA), and "Epsilons" (large, hard-working, strong workers with equine DNA) are members of the purpose-built worker class. The League's views and methods are seen as controversial but their success has made their theories more accepted.
The Northumbrian Republican Movement (NRM) is a political group that seeks independence for Northern England with the Metropolis as its capitol. Factions vary from the Conservative Republicans, who want recognition as a separate Dominion or Kingdom with its own parliament, to the Radical Republicans, who want to be declared a separate country (the Republic of Northumbria). Its militant Armed Wing (the Northumbrian Republican Army) commits acts of violence against the British government in pursuit of its goals. It is rumored to receive support from America.
Nationalist movements across the globe are fierce but mostly non-violent. They are especially numerous in Neu Reich, which has a polyglot culture and several recently assimilated territories. Much like the Welsh and Scottish Nationalists in the United Kingdom of our world, Nationalists tend to use social organizations and political parties to promote their values and see to their interests. Members are seen as eccentric but harmless, as their cultures are well-to-do under their overlords and would fare poorly if they were independent. The few violent nationalist groups are seen as crackpots or lunatics.
The Central Powers, also known as the Central Empires, were one of the two main coalitions that fought in World War I (1914–1918). It consisted of the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria; this was also known as the Quadruple Alliance.
The German Empire, also referred to as Imperial Germany, the Second Reich or simply Germany, was the period of the German Reich from the unification of Germany in 1871 until the November Revolution in 1918, when the German Reich changed its form of government from a monarchy to a republic.
Imperialism is the practice, theory or attitude of maintaining or extending power over foreign nations, particularly through expansionism, employing both hard power and soft power. Imperialism focuses on establishing or maintaining hegemony and a more or less formal empire. While related to the concepts of colonialism, imperialism is a distinct concept that can apply to other forms of expansion and many forms of government.
A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist the government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through either the use of violent or nonviolent resistance, or the use of force, whether armed or unarmed. In many cases, as for example in the United States during the American Revolution, or in Norway in the Second World War, a resistance movement may employ both violent and non-violent methods, usually operating under different organizations and acting in different phases or geographical areas within a country.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in Northwestern Europe that was established by the union in 1801 of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Kingdom of Ireland. The establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922 led to the remainder later being renamed the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1927.
Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the military and of the ideals of a professional military class and the "predominance of the armed forces in the administration or policy of the state".
The aftermath of World War I saw far-reaching and wide-ranging cultural, economic, and social change across Europe, Asia, Africa, and even in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were abolished, new ones were formed, boundaries were redrawn, international organizations were established, and many new and old ideologies took a firm hold in people's minds. Additionally, culture in the nations involved was greatly changed. World War I also had the effect of bringing political transformation to most of the principal parties involved in the conflict, transforming them into electoral democracies by bringing near-universal suffrage for the first time in history, as in Germany, Great Britain, and Turkey.
A soviet is a workers' council that follows a socialist ideology, particularly in the context of the Russian Revolution. Soviets were the main form of government in the Russian SFSR and the Makhnovshchina.
The causes of World War II have been given considerable attention by historians. The immediate precipitating event was the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, and the subsequent declarations of war on Germany made by Britain and France, but many other prior events have been suggested as ultimate causes. Primary themes in historical analysis of the war's origins include the political takeover of Germany in 1933 by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party; Japanese militarism against China, which led to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Second Sino-Japanese War; Italian aggression against Ethiopia, which led to the Second Italo-Ethiopian War; Soviet Union desire to reconquer old territory of Russian Empire, which led to the Soviet invasion of Poland, the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, the occupation of the Baltic states and the Winter War.
Under Tsar Nicholas II, the Russian Empire slowly industrialized while repressing opposition from the center and the far-left. During the 1890s Russia's industrial development led to a large increase in the size of the urban middle class and of the working class, which gave rise to a more dynamic political atmosphere. Because the state and foreigners owned much of Russia's industry, the Russian working class was comparatively stronger and the Russian bourgeoisie comparatively weaker than in the West.
In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 – from the end of World War I (WWI) to the beginning of World War II (WWII). It was relatively short, yet featured many social, political, military, and economic changes throughout the world. Petroleum-based energy production and associated mechanisation led to the prosperous Roaring Twenties, a time of social and economic mobility for the middle class. Automobiles, electric lighting, radio, and more became common among populations in the first world. The era's indulgences were followed by the Great Depression, an unprecedented worldwide economic downturn that severely damaged many of the world's largest economies.
The New Order of Europe was the political and social system that Nazi Germany wanted to impose on the areas of Europe that it conquered and occupied.
The Allies, the Entente or the Triple Entente was an international military coalition of countries led by France, the United Kingdom, Russia, the United States, Italy, and Japan against the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria in World War I (1914–1918).
Western civilization traces its roots back to Europe and the Mediterranean. It is linked to ancient Greece, from which it was carried to Rome, and Medieval Western Christendom which emerged during the Middle Ages and experienced such transformative episodes as the development of Scholasticism, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the Scientific Revolution, and the development of liberal democracy. The civilizations of Classical Greece are considered seminal periods in Western history. Major cultural contributions also came from the Christianized Germanic peoples, such as the Franks, the Goths, and the Burgundians. Charlemagne founded the Carolingian Empire and he is referred to as the "Father of Europe." Contributions also emerged from pagan peoples of pre-Christian Europe, such as the Celts and Germanic pagans as well as some significant religious contributions derived from Judaism and Hellenistic Judaism stemming back to Second Temple Judea, Galilee, and the early Jewish diaspora; and some other Middle Eastern influences. Western Christianity has played a prominent role in the shaping of Western civilization, which throughout most of its history, has been nearly equivalent to Christian culture.. Western civilization has spread to produce the dominant cultures of modern Americas and Oceania, and has had immense global influence in recent centuries in many ways.
The military history of Europe refers to the history of warfare on the European continent. From the beginning of the modern era to the second half of the 20th century, European militaries possessed a significant technological advantage, allowing its states to pursue policies of expansionism and colonization until the Cold War period. European militaries in between the fifteenth century and the modern period were able to conquer or subjugate almost every other nation in the world. Since the end of the Cold War, the European security environment has been characterized by structural dominance of the United States through its NATO commitments to the defense of Europe, as European states have sought to reap the 'peace dividend' occasioned by the end of the Cold War and reduce defense expenditures. European militaries now mostly undertake power projection missions outside the European continent. Recent military conflicts involving European nations include the 2001 War in Afghanistan, the 2003 War in Iraq, the 2011 NATO Campaign in Libya, and various other engagements in the Balkan and on the African continent. After 2014, the Russian annexation of Crimea and the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War prompted renewed scholarly interest into European military affairs. For further the context see History of Europe.
The foreign relations of Third Reich were characterized by the territorial expansionist ambitions of Germany's dictator Adolf Hitler and the promotion of the ideologies of anti-communism and antisemitism within Germany and its conquered territories. The Nazi regime oversaw Germany's rise as a militarist world power from the state of humiliation and disempowerment it had experienced following its defeat in World War I. From the late 1930s to its defeat in 1945, Germany was the most formidable of the Axis powers - a military alliance between Imperial Japan, Fascist Italy, and their allies and puppet states. Adolf Hitler made most of the major diplomatic policy decisions, while foreign minister Konstantin von Neurath handled routine business.
The Revolutions of 1917–1923 were a revolutionary wave that included political unrest and armed revolts around the world inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and the disorder created by the aftermath of World War I. The uprisings were mainly socialist or anti-colonial in nature. Some socialist revolts failed to create lasting socialist states. The revolutions had lasting effects in shaping the future European political landscape, with for example the collapse of the German Empire and the dissolution of Austria-Hungary.
This article covers worldwide diplomacy and, more generally, the international relations of the great powers from 1814 to 1919. This era covers the period from the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna (1814–1815), to the end of the First World War and the Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920).
The Committee of Union and Progress was a revolutionary group and political party active between 1889 and 1926 in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey. The foremost faction of the Young Turks, the CUP instigated the 1908 Young Turk Revolution, which ended absolute monarchy and began the Second Constitutional Era. After an ideological transformation, from 1913 to 1918, the CUP ruled the empire as a dictatorship and committed genocides against the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian peoples as part of a broader policy of ethnic erasure during the late Ottoman period. The CUP and its members have often been referred to as Young Turks, although the movement produced other political parties as well. Within the Ottoman Empire its members were known as İttihadcılar ('Unionists') or Komiteciler ('Committeemen').