[JanessaVR]

What if there were no survivors from the Fourth Age?

This is a radical take on an alternate Sixth World.  In canon, it helped a lot that Big D went on live TV and explained what the hell was going on after the Awakening.  And if not for Thais, there would have been no Great Ghost Dance.  So that’s this world.  The Awakening comes around and no one alive has a damn clue what all this magic stuff is and why babies are suddenly being born with pointy ears.

This world is our Earth, up until December 21st, 2012 when everything changes.  I call this one The Wayward Earth.

What I have right now is more of an outline and I’d like to solicit comments.


Overview of Changes

•   No Dunkelzahn means that no one goes on TV and tells everyone about the mana cycles and what’s going on now.
•   No Thais means no Great Ghost Dance (though with the point of divergence being in late 2012, there are no Native Americans in concentration camps, either).
•   No Great Ghost Dance means no spike in the mana level so Goblinization would be a more gradual process and there wouldn’t be Bridges to let the Horrors in early.  The Invae and Shedim should also be kept at bay for much longer.
•   No immortal elves means that neither Tír Tairngire nor Tír na nÓg will come about.  There’s also no Harlequin, for good or ill.
•   No Lofwyr means no Saeder-Krupp, or any of the other shenanigans he got up to.
•   No Hestaby means that Mount Shasta stays a ski resort.
•   No Schwartzkopf means no dragon teaching magic classes at Charles University of Prague.
•   No Ghostwalker means that Denver stays part of the USA.
•   No Celedyr means no dragon muscling into the telecommunications industry.
•   No Lung or Ryumyo means none of their rivalry spilling all over Asia.
•   Humanity will have a very nasty surprise coming in 2,300 years as the mana cycle reaches its peak.

Honestly, when I look at this list…it sounds like a way better world already! 

Let me know what you think.

[Reaver]

Interesting....

There is still a mountain of fine details to work through. Which in itself is half the fun 

Magic for example:
Without dragons and the immortals around to help humanity get a grip on magic, what happens?
Do a lot of awakened end up liquefing their cortex on accident? End up talk8ng out city blocks in a road rage induced spellcasting?
Does magic end up outlawed due to it being an not understood? Do the corps pull a "understanding of the technomancer condition" on mages?


So many questions and paths this could go down... interested in seeing where you take this.

[whitelaughter]

It's not just an absence of knowledge. To take a specific incident: if the Dragon Aden isn't around, he doesn't demolish Tehran. That means the jyhad against metahumans continues. (Also, given real world sex-selection abortions have changed the male-female ratio in India and China, meta-selection abortions in the 6th world would probably obliterate the metahuman populations in these nations).
Ditto the eradication of Down's Syndrome in Iceland and Sweden would be replicated for metahumans.
So expect metahumans to have been nearly exterminated.

Spells, not so much of a problem because they fit into the spellcasters worldview. "Spontaneous remissions" are common enough that it would probably be a couple of years before anyone noticed that healing prayers are being answered on a regular basis.
Also, because no one knows that cyberware reduces your magical potential, large numbers of potential magicians will lose their gifts due to implants.
Cyberware may be *encouraged* because it 'cures mental conditions' - the recipient no longer sees auras etc.