Patchwork Universe

Dr James Kirby · Good Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 214 Location: Empire City

The history of the Empire City Earth closely parallels the real world. There have always been stories of individual heroism spanning entire careers, more so than in the real world, but in the main these stories have guided history along the same lines as in the real world Earth1. Men of unusual skills and powers have always existed, but they don't rock the boat of history.

History significantly diverges in the 1940s, with the discovery of certain technologies. First is a form of safe nuclear fission impossible under real-Earth physics, allowing limitless clean, safe energy. Second is the discovery of a "bio-morphic field", which, in very loose terms, could be considered both the soul, and the blueprint for life. It is perhaps the same thing as an "Aura" as might be discussed by mystics, but on EC Earth, it can be detected, tapped, and altered. Both of these technologies are highly classified.

Both of these technologies affected the outcome of World War II. In the USA, understanding of the Bio-Morphic field was solely in the mind of a single genius, Dr Reinstein2, who invented the process which created The Sentinel, elevating Marine Sergeant Steven Stacy to what Reinstein described as "The Platonic Ideal of Humanity." Reinstein's death at the hands of Nazi agents set the US back several years, whilst their theft of Reinstein's notes allowed Dr Erik Von Damme to advance Nazi understanding of the field. Hence, while America had their one perfect supersoldier, the Nazis generated legions of freakishly mutated ubermensch. The War was looking grim for the allies, until the invention of safe Fission by Dr Kirby. Whilst lower yield than uranium cascade fission, it allowed the creation of very high yield bombs and warheads, and very tiny powerplants. Hence, the Allies fought back against Nazi Eugenics with powered-armour troops of their own, and a range of atomic powered vehicles.

The war ended in a ceasefire in 1944, which left the Nazis in power in Germany. Many Allied states were liberated, though Germany retained a number of states such as Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Russia formed the USSR following the war, much as it did in our own world, and the three exist in a state of Cold War. All three states possess knowledge of Atomic and Bio-Morphic technologies, which are the focus of the cold war, much as Nuclear Power is in our own.

Seemingly beginning at the same time as the first experiments into Bio-Morphic technology, a range of unusual encounters and phenomena have been sighted, from alien invasion to a range of mystical encounters. Some advanced theoreticians believe that the bio-morphic field is the "description" of the universe, and tampering with it alters the universe in unpredictable ways.

1. Examples of this include characters like an English officer during the Napoleonic campaigns who seemed instrumental in every significant action of the war, and a Great Detective in Victorian London whose exploits accounted for the solving of a large percentage of otherwise unsolvable crime.
2. Geek Note: Prof. Reinstein was the name originally given in Marvel Comics to the guy who invented the Super Soldier process that created Captain America. His name appears here simply as a homage.