AH: turning points 1
While I’m notorious in AH circles as someone who insists that a AH story be (1) A GOOD STORY and (2) have some historical basis, not to mention (3) be one simple Point Of Divergence, not a whole mess of them (I can deal with some cascade effects, but not simultaneous stuff) - I give a lot of latitude to someone who gets those points clearly covered ( Read more... )
One of the principles I go by in this world is that some things have deep roots. Despite the change, many things develop identically (at least for a while) or in a very similar manner.
I've had a lot of fun with this. There's a Pope in Rome, who handles the purely spiritual aspects of the Church, and a Hierophant in Avignon, who is the intermediary between the Pope and the mundane world.
Here is the divergence:
AD 840 Louis the Pious dies. Louis the German (aka Louis II aka Louis the Bavarian), son of Louis, inherits the empire of his father and grandfather. Challenged by the alliance of Lothair and Pepin II of Aquitaine in the Bruderkrieg, through a combination of military action and negotiation he acquires most of his grandfather's empire. The Treaty of Verdun, concluded in August of 843, formalizes the agreement. Louis subsequently manages to further expand his holdings, partly due to mistakes made by Charles the Bald which alienate many of the latter's citizens. Slowly, through a variety of techniques including simply outliving rivals, he extends the land under his control in all directions. By the time of his death in AD 881 his empire is slightly but significantly larger than that of his grandfather.
Though not as talented or progressive as Charles the Great, the greater resources of a united Empire allowed him to maintain its status. Also, the demands of managing such a large political entity encouraged Louis II to improve on and extend many of the educational and managerial policies pioneered by his grandfather, creating a bureaucracy to manage the Empire. Late in his reign, at the recommendation of some advisors, he made official the practice of keeping the Empire together, with the eldest son ruling and any other offspring being given positions of lesser but still significant power.
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The idea of a Hierophant is an odd one, but...
Do let me know more!
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I have posted several pieces of the background in my own LJ. Including the Stenoses, which codify the relationship of church, state, (law) court and citizen.
The novel is set in modern time. Naturally, the further you go forward from the divergence point the greater the differences. Magic was slow to take off (ruling powers being jealous) but did eventually start making major differences itself.
Technological development was slower here (for a complex set of reasons, including magical healing reducing the effects of the Black Death). Most of Europe is at a stage more like the beginning of the Nineteenth Century, than the Twenty-First. The Iron War, fought about forty years ago, got its name from the extensive use by one party of steam-powered armored wagons.
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Most tech advances came about because we Really Needed something, and we HAD to put a lot of time and effort into making the breakthroughs. Would there be MP3 players without the moon program leading to computers, etc.? Lots of households a hundred years ago used hired help for manual labor that is no longer needed because we developed cheaper appliances to take up the tasks. When you throw magic in, unless it's very rare and/or very weak, people are going to use it for things that machines can't do, or to make themselves powerful or rich, or whatever. Society would rapidly be changed to a point where it wasn't recognizable.
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Yes. Remember that many alchemists were sponsored by wealthy, powerful people who wished to maintain or increase their wealth and power. In this world, even though magic was prohibited most places for most of a thousand years, it was supported in secret by the rich and powerful. Nearly every society in this world is still ruled by some sort of hereditary elite group. Many of those elite groups hold a near-monopoly on magic within their culture.
I actually tailored the rules to keep magic from being overwhelming. Much training and practice are needed for anything beyond parlor tricks, and even powerful magic is only about as effective at most things as mundane tools. (Power level limit. This means that you don't make a magical fire, you use magic to create a spark which ignites a mundane fire.) Magic doesn't normally work well over a distance. (Range limit.) Ontological inertia means that making permanent changes is very difficult. (Time limit. This means that actual magical healing is very difficult.)
I'm an engineer with a long interest in the history of technology. I tend to approach things like the application of magic from that viewpoint.
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