Setting

Overview

Victorian era, where nearly everything was possible in our past Real World. You'd travel from western America to the middle ages at Japan, from european intrigue to 1001 nights arabia. Perfect adventure era with all these unexplored places around the world, with all this technology starting to emerge.
Just add magic and fantasy beings from Castle Falkenstein and Solar System from GURPS-Steampunk-Etheria and Space 1889 and the result is just explosive.
Further explanations about "how the world got to this weird situation?" at timeline page.

World

Europe
After my first readings of Castle Falkenstein it will be something like:

  • British Empire rules the sea in general and its main imperial domains are India, Australia and New Zealand. It's the main industrial power as in Our World, but with some links between Steam Lords and the Unseelie faerie.
  • Prussia: its territory is mainly northern Germany, some Poland and some Denmark and maybe somewhat bigger due to its current status of MAIN base for Unseelie faeries.
  • Austro-Hungarian empire: other then the obvious (Austria and Hungary) it takes also Bosnia, Croatia, Txequia, Slovaquia and north of Italy (from Milan to Venetia)
  • Bayern: the actual lander of Germany, but remained independent and central into history thanks of being THE ally of Oberon, king of the Seelie Faeries.
  • France: the MAIN place for science since Emperor Napoleon III made Jules Verne its ministry of Science and he built Verne's Cannon (the ultimate disuasion's weapon which cuold send bombs to any place over ALL europe)
  • Spain: some territories a northern Africa, Cuba and Philipines. They also lost Catalonia just a century ago.
  • Catalonia is independent from Spain since s.XVIII thanks to the british (This is just a personal whim, I must admit) and its a british ally like Portugal
  • Ottoman Empire: from the southern borders of Austro-Hungarian Empire to Mediterranean shores (except Greece) and following them to Palestinia, Arabia and Egypt.
  • Italy: It's divided into several independent kingdoms:
    • Two Sicely's Kingdom: Sicely, Naples and the "foot" of Italy
    • Papal States: central Italy from coast to coast
    • Kingdom of Sardinia: Turin, Genoa and Sardinia
    • Austro-Hungarian territories (see it above)
  • Benelux: it's mainly a small sea, which would made the Dutch EVEN BETTER sailor traders than Ours. It seems that some BIG GUNS of magic had quite a battle there some millenia ago.
    • I've quite a BIG problem with this point: At the description at GURPS-Castle Falkenstein talks about how Dutch are affected by this 8th sea, but later it says that both Frankfurt and Leizpig are kinda sea ports. And so its shown at its map, where it seems that Galactus came to Europe and just took an slice for dessert.
    • Looking at the orography of Our Europe I'd see more suitable some kind of super-sizing the Rhine river which would REALLY affect Netherlands.

Africa

  • Thanks to Mars discovery, King Leopold of Belgium forgot his african interests to cooler extraterrestrial conquers. So, he did not promoted any international conference to let every european empire to get his slice of Africa and most of the continent will remain quite unexplored. The main european colonies will be South-Africa, Alger, Senegal's coast, Lagos, Abidjan, Angola and Seychelles. Half a dozen of major african countries will appear somewhat like: magreb, aixandi, zulu, swahili and etiopia (approx. as told in Història Ficció section of Sàpiens magazine #26, p.19).

America

  • USA: all eastern states from Our World from Mississippi river, other than Orelans which is also independent from USA.
  • 20 Nations Confederation: USA states of ours from Mississippi river to the west until Rocky Mountains
  • Bear Flag Empire: from Canada's border on the north, Rocky Mountains south along including all California Peninsula
  • Texas:
  • Orleans:
  • Mexico: like ours, but without Baja California nor Yucatan Peninsula
  • Mayan Empire: Yucatan Peninsula from Our Mexico
  • Central America?
  • Caribbean Islands?
  • Incan Empire: All Andes Mountains from Santiago de Chile to Nariño's department at Our Colombia.
  • United States of Colombia: the actual territory that had Our real Gran Colombia, but without most of Ecuador and Nariño's department of Our Colombia. (I'd even like to call the whole subcontinent Colombia instead of Antillae, just to make the same USC-Colombia confusion as in Our USA-America)
  • Empire of Brasil:
  • Argentina:
  • Uruguay:
  • Paraguay:

Asia

  • China: as isolated as in Our History, but ruled by REAL dragon emperors. Major cities around the world have chinatowns.
    • Hong Kong is a british colony
    • Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo i Shanghai have commercial outposts of USA and France.
  • Japan: also ruled by dragon emperors, but recently opened to foreign influence with tides of japanese students around the world.

Solar System

  • The british are in control of main Venus and Mercury
  • USA just have some mine colonies at Mercury.
  • Prussia has colonies at Venus and Mercury
  • King Leopold of Belgium also has domains at Venus???
  • Mars:
    • I really like Mars version from Alan Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentleman vol.2 where you'd get Burrough's John Carter aliens plus Wells' tripods and more.
    • There's also a GREAT Mars version from Heliograph: A Different Look at the Red Planet
  • Venus is a jungle planet inhabited by all kind of anphibians and dinosaurs. The only places suitable for human beings are both poles. (This world information could change after my Castle Falkenstein's research)
  • And directly from Space 1889 Wiki article:
    • Thomas Edison invented an "ether propellor" which could propel ships through space, and traveled to Mars in 1870 accompanied by the ether propellor's co-inventor, the Scotsman Armstrong, where they discovered that the planet was inhabited. By the time of the game's setting in 1889, the great powers have used Edison’s invention to extend their colonies and interests to the inner planets of the solar system. Great Britain, Germany, France (Mars only), Italy (Venus only), Russia, and Belgium (Mars only) all have extra-Terran colonies, whilst Japan and the USA maintain economic and scientific enclaves. There are no colonies or bases on the Moon.
    • The inner planets reflect an evolutionary progression, the planets nearest to the sun being younger than those farther out. All planets have life, and most bear native sentient species. Mercury is primeval, tide locked and possesses only rudimentary lifeforms. Venus is a vast swamp world dominated by hulking reptiles and lizard men. The Moon is an airless dead world, but with mysteries hidden deep beneath the surface. Mars is an ancient desert planet in decline, divided into warring decadent city-states clinging to a failing system of canals. Vulcan has died and become the asteroid belt. Due to limitations in technology the outer worlds remain unreachable and unexplored. There are also hints that some worlds may have terrain hidden beneath their surface.
    • One of the treasures that spurred the Europeans to Mars was liftwood: a rare cultivated plant with anti-gravity properties that allowed for the construction of giant floating ships. While the Earthers used Martian sky galleons at first, they later constructed their own armored, steam powered flyers.
    • Since wireless was not invented yet in 1889, communication between Earth and Mars is handled by orbital heliograph stations. The game contains much more detail on the flora, fauna, and peoples of the planets. The majority of the published material is centred on Mars.
  • I'll use Cavorite instead of Liftwood. I cannot help but finding this antigrav wood one of the silliest things I've ever read about.
    • Cavorite: H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon and the War of the Worlds; also used in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and A Deepness in the Sky Cavorite is impervious to gravity and can shield other materials from its effects. It is used to shield a craft from Earth's pull, allowing easy flight. It was named after its discoverer, Dr Cavor, who used its levitational properties to travel to the Moon. It also coats Martian flying machines, although, it is referred to as a "gravity- blocking substance", and not Cavorite.

Character's Roles

Any from so mentioned sourcebooks, but I'll check it later from the first adventure I'd like to GMaster: "El
crimen del contable" (The accounter's crime) where they ask for 3 main classes of PCs:

  • "Bohemian" PC: say an actor, paintor, musician or just a dandy or diletant
  • Detective PC: kinda Holmes style, obviously
  • "Liberal" proffessional PC: say a lawyer, doctor, university professor or retired army officer.
  • Sidekick PC: I'd allow up to 3 more players in a kind of "helper" role like Dr. Watson's role for Sherlock Holmes. Some dais ago I had some strange vision of a goblin helper for a paintor, hehe…

"Races"

  • Humans: In a victorian world, any non-white (or even non-british) human would suffer hard problems of racism.
  • Faeries: other than dwarves, which are more present around the world, I wouldn't allow them. Maybe some Changeling half-breed style.
  • Extraterrestrial: not really. I don't think that anybody in Earth would get to see any extra-terrestrial other than in freak parades.

I've got the dates of the first time some conqueror arrived to some unexplored shore (Portuguese at Africa in 1412) and the first time someone at the metropoli would see off-shores natives in a daily basis (first slave market in Lisboa in 1444). So, make it 30 years from the first human at Mars or Venus to the first extraterrestrial immigrants and you'd get at s.XX.

I say immigrants and not slaves because you'd find it forbidden over all Europe and close to be at the las places of America that don't yet in 1884.

Culture and Customs

Mainly Victorian era.

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