Tales from the Ether (pre-NES)

[Adrogans]

Will do Japan in a bit for ya.

 

[Starlife]

Will do Japan in a bit for ya.

Many thanks, Adrogans.

I just updated the Atlas of the Worlds section!

 

[Omega124]

I guess I'll do the Netherlands, as I'm going to be their only player. However, shouldn't Britian have an alliance with Belgium? The Treaty of London, which was proclaimation was the only reason they joined WWI in the first place. And if you're going to include minor Earth powers (Rumania, anyone?), shouldn't Portugal be up there as another ally? The Anglo-British treaty is the oldest alliance in force, while its not seriously expected that Portugal will help Britian and vice versa, still.

 

[SKILORD]

Why you hating on Belgium? They had legitimate ventures to imperialize the world and a distinct colonial approach, they work just great for this.

I think he just wanted to keep the practical size of the Earth map smaller by limiting the countries (doesn't matter if Mongolia is on the map, nobody is going to go there probably, when they do go to Earth they're probably going to stick to one of the listed countries just because that's where the stuff is and there is a manageable proportion of stuff) while I see what you mean about "it would be neat if we all had our own countries" I think it would be harder for our stories to intertwine in that event.

 

[Omega124]

snip

I don't think you got the point of the post. Britian has no allies according to the info, and some nations (Germany) has allies that aren't even playable. So I suggested that Belgium and Portugal be added under its allies sections. God...

 

[SKILORD]

I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to hurt your feelings. I guess you read it more in depth than I did, I apologize again. What are allies for anyways?

 

[Starlife]

@Omega: Sorry, I forgot to include Belgium. The only reason Belgium has ether flyers is because of Britain, actually. So that's important. I'll edit it. And I'll include Portugal.

The reason I included allies that weren't even playable is just because those are very brief overviews, and perhaps those allies will effect things that happen on Earth.

 

[Starlife]

Edited! And Omega, thanks for volunteering to write for the Dutch.

 

[thomas.berubeg]

US

The Monroe Doctrine, by which the United States forbade any European power from establishing colonies on either of the American Continents truly fell by the wayside with the opening of the Ether. The United States, however, remained fairly Isolationist, adhering to Washington's wishes that the US stay away from alliances with European powers. Despite their innate wish for isolation, the happy accident of Edison's nationality has forced the United States into the Interplanetary stage. Quickly moving to secure it's self against the expansion of the imperial power, the US finds itself an industrial powerhouse, but with few ties to foreign powers.
Population: 76,094,000 (Taken from US census for 1900, a few years off, but...)
Allies: None
Enemies:
Aims: Counter Foreign Expansionism

 

[ZeletDude]

@ Omega
Britain and Belgium weren't allies, yes the Treaty of London proclaimed Belgium's independence and neutrality by the European nations but by no means were they allies..Britain having no 'allies' is resonable as they for the most part tended to try to stay out a war unless it benefitted themselves.

 

[Abaddon]

I think I just wet myself with excitement. a STEAMPUNK NEVER ENDING STORY!!! Oh happy days! You have only plucked my favourite setting out of the ether!

Sadly, it is 1.30am ish. So I really need to sleep. I will fit into anywhere needed.. but British or Russian preference I think..

 

[Starlife]

@ Omega
Britain and Belgium weren't allies, yes the Treaty of London proclaimed Belgium's independence and neutrality by the European nations but by no means were they allies..Britain having no 'allies' is resonable as they for the most part tended to try to stay out a war unless it benefitted themselves.

This is a tricky one to label, because Britain will have given Belgium an ether flyer (well... sold them one rather). I still think I'll remove them from the allies, though.

toAbaddon: welcome aboard!

 

[ZeletDude]

@ Starlife
Can we assume that history is the same (besides the space stuff)?
For example:
Germany unified in 1871 during Franco-Prussian war, and other corresponding events?

 

[Starlife]

@ Starlife
Can we assume that history is the same (besides the space stuff)?
For example:
Germany unified in 1871 during Franco-Prussian war, and other corresponding events?

Yes, definitely. Everything else will be the same, for the sake of simplicity. But starting from Spring 1889 (when we begin), events can definitely dramatically change course from the way they historically occurred.

 

[Lord of Elves]

This is a tricky one to label, because Britain will have given Belgium an ether flyer (well... sold them one rather). I still think I'll remove them from the allies, though.

Not so difficult, in my mind. A fair amount of Britain's posturing in 19th-century politics amounted to maintaining a balance of power that would maintain the status quo and prevent any kind of paradigm-shifting war/event. Giving an ether flyer to a secondary power such as Belgium might have come down to balancing the scales.

Also, where is the Ottoman Empire in all this?

 

[ZeletDude]

Ok good to here, just needed some clarification, another question.
What exactly would a diplomat do? Would they stay on Earth and manage diplomacy between the various nations or travel to the other worlds and handle it there?

 

[thomas.berubeg]

Starlife, how's my US blurb?

 

[Starlife]

Not so difficult, in my mind. A fair amount of Britain's posturing in 19th-century politics amounted to maintaining a balance of power that would maintain the status quo and prevent any kind of paradigm-shifting war/event. Giving an ether flyer to a secondary power such as Belgium might have come down to balancing the scales.

Also, where is the Ottoman Empire in all this?

Thanks Lord of Elves. The Ottoman Empire is being its historical self, without the technology, money, or prestige to colonize other worlds.

What exactly would a diplomat do? Would they stay on Earth and manage diplomacy between the various nations or travel to the other worlds and handle it there?

Well, it is just a career, so it is something that a character may have done in the past, or something they are doing now. It has provided them with certain skills. If your character WAS a diplomat, you can create some backstory there. If they are currently a diplomat, you can also decide. Maybe they are a diplomat negotiating with the Boreosyrtis League regarding bhutan spice... maybe they are part of an envoy to make peace with the Martians south of Syrtis Major. And so on. They definitely don't have to stay on Earth. They can be part of a larger adventuring party.

Starlife, how's my US blurb?

It's wonderful! I am using it. Thank you, thomas!

 

[SKILORD]

George Antoine Kurtz, though his family is known to mock him for taking a false name to hide his lineage, is the nephew of Prosper Louis, the Duke of Arenburg and grandson to Louis Englebert, and on top of that increasingly inconsequential distinction he is also a third son. Which is probably why he tries feebly to avoid the whole nobility deal, it doesn’t really offer him much of anything, when the time comes the nobility carcass will be picked to the bones by his cousins and brothers (Engelbert Anton in particular, the current Duke, Kurtz's eldest cousin and also his brother in law, can go jump in a lake).

"Reverends, Father, and Dear Compatriots:
The task that is given to us to fulfill is very delicate and requires much tact. You will go certainly to evangelize, but your evangelization must inspire above all Belgian interests. Your principal objective in our mission on Mars is never to teach the freaks to know God. Thus they know already. They speak and submit to a Moobu, one Nambi, one Komba, and what else I don't know. They know that to kill, to sleep with someone else's wife, to lie and to insult is bad. Have courage to admit it; you are not going to teach them what they know already. Your essential role is to facilitate the task of administrators and industrials, which means you will go to interpret the gospel in the way it will be the best to protect your interests on that world.

For these things, you have to keep watch on disinteresting our savages from the richness that is plenty in their underground. To avoid that they get interested in it, and make you a murderous competition and dream one day to overthrow you. Your knowledge of the gospel will allow you to find texts ordering, and encouraging your followers to love poverty. Like happier are the poor because they will inherit the heaven and it's very difficult for the rich to enter the kingdom of God"

Kurtz had resigned himself to the clergy when he heard that speech, but there and then he had an urge to squirm his way out, realizing that they were surely intending to send him to a barren hellscape, that there would be people making money there, and that he was, under the present scheme, set to do nothing but provide a small amount of assistance to those fellows.

Join the church, his father had told him, bring honor to the family, let all the people know how pious we are, so that his mother could share the casual conversations at their loathsome social affairs, hinting that she had some manner of insight into the mind of God or the various workings of mother church. As if anyone even cared anymore what the church thought! Her friends, Kurtz knew, were sycophants and other self absorbed nobility overstaying their historical welcome. They should all rot!

But at least the noble background came with connections. Kurtz used those connections to secure a job scouting for the North Star Company, being at the forefront of the newest ventures, be the fellow actually making money.

Kurtz was a much finer sounding name in any event, and one without all the tedious luggage of his family’s crest. Kurtz is an unproven name, unknown outside of the occasional social circle where someone happens to have inheirited the moniker but it never means anything, it does not cause those wretched sychophants to gasp and cover their mouths, Oh, one of the MAJOR families, how delightful. Jump in a lake! George hadn’t done any of those things, he wasn’t the one who had funded the first balloon launch, or the colonel who fought the British at Arroyo del Molinos, he didn’t need all of their bogus accomplishments weighing him down with overinflated expectations like one of Grandfather’s balloons, careening hopelessly to the ground, too much weight, not enough lift.

Kurtz had no weight to it at all, it was a name that still had a lot of places to see.

As a Belgian Kurtz speaks French and German and has a rough knowledge of English. He travels with among other things, his manservant, who he simply calls Friday.

 

[Starlife]

Looks good, SKILORD.

I have decided that all players can have up to 4 characters. One more can be obtained during the campaign at some point, but that can only be decided by me, the referee.

And an "Aerial Flyers" section has just been added!