All nessicery credit to the Space:1889 game upon which the concept of this RP is based
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What is the Ether? The Ether is a uniquely semi-solid, semi-plasmodious substance which fills all space, even the volume also filled by ordinary matter or otherwise devoid of it. It is the medium through which various forces are transmitted through space just as air is the medium through which sound is transmitted to our ears. The all-permeating presence of the Etheric field rolls and churns like an ocean, ironically providing the order within our wider galaxy. Without the Ether, the forces of gravity would be unable to jump across the intervening vacuum of space and maintain the mutual attraction between celestial bodies. Magnetism and electricity could not be relayed as they are, and the light of the Sun could not travel to space to allow our own existence, to say nothing of much of our modern scientific advances. Ether is, in summery, the foundation of our entire understanding of the universe and the young protégée James Maxwell's discovery of Unified Etheric Theory the most monumental event in human history save the birth of Christ (Or the Revelation of the Prophet, for our Mohammedan colleges).
Though even the ancient philophers wrote of an intangible substance which propelled the plants through their orbits, it was only with the rise of our enlighted era and the final triumph of the wave theory of light over ancient particale theory; demonstrated by Thomas Young's famous 1815 refractal experiments proving light must have a wavelenght, that the idea of the Ether was put under proper scientific scrutiny. Within the civilized framework of His and Her Majesty's Empire, theoriest would make leaps and bounds, but it was only with the publishing of Maxwell's series of mathematical proofs as part of his undergraduate theius (Driven, somewhat sadly by a desire to one-up his class rival and become valivictorian of his Cambridge class to spite the idea of God after having abandoned Faith during his studies) that there was not a separate ether for each energy type but, rather, all electromagnetic and optical phenomena were explainable and perfectly quantifiable in terms of their stress on one mutual ether. Since that day in 1850, the great engine of Progress has driven us forward into this brave new world, and shows no sign of slowing down or stopping.
Where the old world was powered mostly by muscle, the new finds it's fuel in the endless seas; liquid or Etheric. Great boilers; be they fired with coal or the magnified radiance of the sun itself, shine the blessing of science out on the people. The power of steam and lighting have been chained by piping and wire, acting as both a comfort in the homes of the well-to-do of the rising cities and weapons on the battlefields of modern war alike. As the sea of ignorance releases, the masses of Europe grow both educated and more productive... and more dangerous, as the spirit of inquisitiveness cause some to question weather the roles and values of the pre-industrial elite are as obsolete as their technology. The works of Charles Darwin and Henry Huxley calling for a "survival of the fittest", taken up by the greedy and coldly logical alike lay siege to traditional Christian society on one side, the writing is the newly-emerging "socialists" and old Republicans alike from the other, even as the Empires of Europe have begun reaching out behond their own shore. Driven on by their boundless energy, they seek to spread the gifts of European civilization to the poorer peoples of this world... and others.
The first explorations of space have brought the full force of modern society on the formally untapped soils of our solar system. Though the first interplanetary flight by Thomas Edison and his experimental Ether Flyer was but a scant 20 years ago, the steaming swamps of storm-swept Venus provide just as much danger and lure as the jungles of the Dark Continent... and potentially even greater riches to exploit. On Mars, the native Martians cling to their canals and crumbling city-states, living in a savagy strongly comparable to pre-Pharonic Egypt at best and cliff-dwellers at worst, aching for the guiding hand of humanity to restore some semblance of a quality of life their ruins show they clearly once had just as much as their Nubian counterparts on earth. To say nothing of the potential of our own moon and the endless asteroids of the Great Belt.
Be glad the sun rises on the 1889th year of our Lord. May it never set on your Empire, since that will keep your solar boilers running eternally
Rules: TBA
Greetings and Salutations, fellow RPers. I thought I'd offer up something a little more... unusual in terms of an alternate history thread. We've seen every kind of alternate series of event; Axis Victory, Centeral Power's Victory, Cold War Gone Hot, but let's dare to imagine a world where something more minute and yet so much bigger changed.
What if the concept of the Ether was real, and brought out during the Victorian era? And what if we could harness it?
My apologies if this initial posting is a little light. It's designed as more of an introduction, with the history subject to a bit more flexablity as I try to write up an exact timeline of events. Suffice to say, it would have a POD in 1820, with a heavy focus on colonization, "Great Game" style politics with at least some respect for the Concert of Europe/Balance of Power ideal, and involve creative and unique technology. If you have any suggestions, critiques, or just want to express interest, feel free to respond.
