Subject: Re: IC: Wolves Glen Pub From: Jeff Huo Organization: Denizens of the Wolverine White Coat Ghetto Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.storyteller "Alistair J. R. Young" wrote: > On Thu, 12 Jul 2001 02:00:33 -0500, in message , > Jeff Huo praised Shub-Internet thus: > > > Alex has been following the debate between Julia, Pearl > > and Cordelia with interest, not wanting to interupt. > > But this comment clearly puzzles Alex. > > > "Long way off?" Alex blurts out. > > "Well, for some more than others." " I should have thought of that, " Alex notes, apologetically. " I plead overexcitement," she smiles. " This multiple-worlds idea takes some getting used to." Alex looks thoughtful. " What term do all of you use? Worlds? Dimentions? Parallels? Realms? Earths? " > > "Alex Talibah of Boston," she introduces herself > > to the assembled group, offering a hand. "And you > > are?" > > "Cordelia Winter, Imperial Diplomatic Corps. Pleased to meet you." "A pleasure!" Alex replies brightly. "Imperial...which empire? If I had to guess based off of an accent, your world wouldn't happen to have a British Empire too, would it?" " I mean Concordat," she smiles, shaking her head. " I think I've been reading too many alt-hist novels recently..." " Alt-hist --alternate histories, I mean --various authors exploring what would have happened if history had played out differently at various junctions in our history. You know, things like what if we in New England had chosen to rebel? What if British Outremer had fallen before the Second Crusade relieved it? What if we had allowed racism to move us to refuse to allow the Iroquois to join the Concordat, or to stand by and allow the Cherokee Nations to be overrun? What if Henry V had been defeated by Suleyman in their duel at the climax of the Battle of Vienna, or if Napoleon had survived and won at Waterloo, or had been foolish enough to invade Russia years earlier-- " Then Alex stops midsentence, looking sheepish. "Of course, none of that probably means a thing to anyone not from my world, no?" " Sorry --got overexcited again. " " It's like this -- in my world, the British Concordat, ruled from Westminster -- The Fortress at Westminster, in London, England, I mean, seat of the Parliament and the Royal Privy Council -- has become, far and away, the largest and most powerful nation-state the world has ever known. Three of the world's five billion people --two of it's Dominons, China and India, by themselves over a billion each. Ninety percent of the planet's industrial capability. Virtually every major scientific discovery humanity has made since the eighteenth century, from Duke Issac Newton onwards. Our navies command the oceans, the RAF the skies, our first starships take shape over the dusty plains of Mars, on which only Britons have ever walked." " From our vantage point, British supremacy often seems like the inevitable result of history, the decisions made by Parliament and the Crown as the only logical courses of action. But we often forget that at the time, the questions were hotly debated. That principles we assume to be self-evident were not accepted by everyone back then..." "Would you believe," she says with amused disbelief, "that there were significant parties who thought the Southern Colonies should be permitted to maintain slavery of people like my ancestors? Or people who seriously believed that only Europeans, and not Indians, should be allowed to serve in the Indian Civil Service, let alone the Council of India? I wonder what His Majesty High King-elect Vipul would think of that?" "Sorry, Viceroy Vipul Singh, the current Sovereign-elect of the British Concordat," she explains. " He'll begin his ten-year term as High King when High King Martin --former Viceroy Martin Lee, from Hong Kong-- finishes." " Our history, frankly, has been a collection of accidents and lucky breaks that have resulted in the world we live in today --a people of a hundred faiths and a thousand cultures united under one single democracy upon which the sun never sets, enjoying a standard of living and a freedom guaranteed by law that not even the most hopelessly optimistic seer could have predicted. My world, the world Chancellor Mara gave to us, is a good world, and I hope it lasts." "High King Cecil once put it best: ' To be born British, is to win first prize in the lottery of life; ' and indeed, what other nation could make the claim that it is possible for a young woman raised in a refugee camp, or a boy raised in a wilderness longhouse, to become Lord Sovereign of half the world, as happened for High Queen Anne or High King Tecumseh?" "Veritas et Virtus vos liberabit --Truth and Valor shall make you free; it has been true for a thousand years. I hope that it will still be said when my bones have long turned to dust. " " Anyway, that's probably far more than anyone was really interested in hearing, and quite too much jingoism, I'm afraid." " Actually, that's an interesting question to me: what happened to the British in your worlds? I mean, all of you *are* living alternate histories from my own..." > > - Alex, ? > > How rude of me! I'm very sorry. > > - Cordelia - Alex Rule Britannia! / Britannia rules the waves; / Bri-tons never, never, never shall be slaves!