Intro
The world of today. 2018.
In this reality, the fabric of time differs strongly from that of our own - breaking off completely from 1600 AD onwards. After that point, nothing is concrete - and everything on Earth as we might expect it is gone. It’s been torn asunder like a Belgian church during the First World War - everything is up in the air, and few things, are immediately recognisable. It feels alien. Like something that is very wrong - and while you can’t put your finger on it: it’s there, a constant spot of tension in the back of your mind.
This is the setting in which Discordant Divergences takes place.
The rules, and some basic RP context.
These blessed commandants are not to be broken - under any circumstance, and so without further ado, here they are:
I.) As OP - or original poster, for those who like to draw things out - what I say goes, I am not to be disobeyed within the realm of this roleplay, and my word is law. However, should I get something factually wrong, E.G, the population of Russia, please feel free to correct me.
II.) I shall appoint CO-OPs, whose authority is only second to my own. They shall help run the roleplay if I’m unable to do so.
III.) No godmodding, metagaming, flaming or anything of that nature.
IV.) Please use a basic level of grammar and spelling - I don’t expect perfection, as I’m not perfect at this myself. But I will deny an app if the level of English within it is sufficiently bad enough.
V.) Any rule violations are to be punished with one strike. If you get three - or commit a violation bad enough beforehand, you will be removed from the roleplay, your app will be voided completely and another person will be able to app for your territory.
VI.) The point of divergence for this roleplay is 1600 AD - anything that occurred before this year happened as in reality (with some listed exceptions) and anything afterwards, didn’t. Simple.
VII.) Keep it PG-13. No graphic images or explicit writings of a sexual nature.
VIII.) Do not spam pictures in the IC or OOC. Spoiler all pictures to avoid breaking the page or slowing it down. Failure to do so will receive a strike. Use the “preview” button to make sure your pictures are spoilered.
IX.) The roleplay will move at three months per page, and players joining after several pages start at the current month. Those players will have to write up a history of what their nation did politically from the start of 2018 to the current month. Please date all of your posts - it helps other players keep track of where we all are. Failure to do so, will get a player one strike.
X.) Should any disputes break out OOCly, I - or a CO-OP shall decide the outcome.
XI.) Please send any complaints about other players to me via telegram. Do not argue in the OOC, you may disagree with each other on a topic, but do not go back and forth about it.
XII.) Don’t post in the IC until you’re accepted. You will be rejected full stop if you do so.
XIII.) Please write at least a paragraph (five lines) - of clear, grammatically correct English per IC post. Failure to do so will earn you a strike.
XIV.) For the strength of your military and economy, plus the stability of your government, you get 28 points. 10 points in a category will mean it is of incredible quality, while the opposite will mean it’s borderline non-functional. If you’re a landlocked nation, you get 20 points, in lieu of a navy.
XV.) Please keep your military down to 2% of the population, or if you’re say, a state with a high population, 4,000,000 enlisted personnel at maximum.
XVI.) No WMDs.
XVII.) If you’re inactive for more than 72 hours without an explanation, your nation will be voided.
XVIII.) Any further rules will be mentioned in the OOC and then added to the list.
Exceptions to the Timeline
-1490s: Columbus lands in the New World, and the natives... don’t die out? Instead, the native peoples of the Americas are immune to smallpox and many common European diseases of the day. In short: they do not die out en masse like in our timeline, and thus are not trampled on like in actuality. By 2018, they’re either a significant part of the population of the nations settled by Europeans, or form equally advanced nations of their own - led by native peoples, for native peoples.
But wait! There’s more!
In the western half of the Americas, all along the Pacific coastline, masses of Asian colonists have been settling amongst the native peoples in some cases, and committing mass genocide against them in others. This is because Asia, in this timeline, is just as advanced as Europe - and is furiously protective of its values. Consequently, the Americas are divided - between Asians, Natives and Europeans - with the former found exclusively in the west and the latter in the east. By contrast however, the native peoples are found everywhere - geography not being any sort of divider for them.
1492: Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon, upon the urging of their advisors end their policy of “reconquista” - the Muslim armies on the Iberian Peninsula are simply too powerful to fight at that point. And while they’ve made significant gains, the Iberian Peninsula is still controlled in many places by those same armies. It’s not until 1661 that the foreign armies are driven out, and Spain is once again entirely in Spanish hands, for the first time in nearly a millennium. Accordingly, much of Spain’s population are not Christian - instead, Muslims and Jews make up a slender majority of the populace. By 1690, Spain and later, Portugal is under Muslim rule once more - ruled by a self-proclaimed “Caliph” - who has overthrown the Christian monarchs, whose fate has been met with indifference in much of Europe.
-1517: Luther’s Ninty-five Theses are wildly successful... until they’re not. Christianity splinters across Western Europe - with hundreds of denominations and sects appearing almost overnight. In Britain and Ireland, a radical form of Christianity takes hold, blending ancient Celtic beliefs and Catholicism together. In places like Italy however, they throw off Catholicism entirely - abandoning it in favour of Calvinist thought, and forcing the institution of the Pope to an end.
-1548: The Ming Dynasty collapses - leaving China in a state of war. Divided between warlords, a bloody conflict ensues. Eventually, by 1598, China is torn between only two rulers - one centred in Beijing, and the other centred in Nanjing. By 2018, these two nations have blossomed, becoming powerhouses in their own right. Their future is bright, but uncertain - after all, a lot can change in four centuries, and given China’s already tumultuous history, very little will be off of the table.
Application
NS Nation:
DD Nation name:
Territory:
Population:
Ethnicity Information:
Religious Information:
Government Description:
GDP(nominal):
GDP per Capita(nominal):
Army Strength: (Out of 10)
Air Force Strength: (Out of 10)
Navy Strength: (Out of 10)
Government Stability: (Out of 10)
History:
#SangMarisOverParty(Don’t delete, for tracking purposes)
Corporation Application
If you like, you might wish to be a corporation instead. In the world of Discordant Divergences, businesses are exceptionally powerful in certain areas of the globe, being able to perform actions within the various nations across the globe - some even control territory, ruling it with an iron fist. These can range from funding political movements, to terrorism - however, for the latter, please go over the details (if you want to do an action like that to a player controlled nation) with that player. For NPC nations, message me by telegram with what you want to do, and I’ll either allow it or refuse it. Please be reasonable however - no manufacturing nuclear bombs and detonating them in Paris, for example.
NS Nation:
DD Corporation Name:
Location of Business HQ: (It can be any nation, however, if a player doesn’t want your corporation within their country, you will have to edit your app before I accept it.)
Type of Business: (Private Military Company, Weapons Manufacturing, Medical Technology etc)
Number of Employees:
Name of CEO:
Territory: (If any? - You can only control an area the size of a modern city, remember that.)
Population of Territory: (If any, find out the population of your claimed territory first. Employees are counted separately)
Does your Corporation have a Security Element?:
Number of Security Personnel: (You cannot exceed 100,000 security personnel - and for a number like this, you must have a global company, with branches across the globe. Leave blank if your company hasn’t got a security element.)
Quality of Security Personnel: (If your corporation has 5,000 or less personnel, you may give them 10 points, if it has 15,000 or less, you may give it 9 points. For any company with more than 30,000 personnel, their quality is capped at 8. Finally, any company with more than 50,000 personnel has a quality cap of 7. Also, no - your corporation will not be able to outgun a modern military - unless you attack either a small nation or a poor one. This goes even for those with a personnel quality of 10. Leave blank if you company doesn’t have a security element.)
Corporation History:
Hashtag-Laconically (Don’t delete. For app tracking purposes.)
Reservation
NS Name:
DD Nation Name:
Territory Claimed:
Hashtag-Ambidextrous (Do not delete)
NS Name:
DD Corporation Name:
Hashtag-Cherry Blossom Gang (Do not delete)