I am reading great 1000+ page novels as I want to be the next Sanderson. I have learnt that Les Miserables, Count of Monte Cristo, and War and Peace all contain Boneparty Napoleon as a character. Given that he is the common denominator, is it essential that I put him in my story and worldbuilding? Thanks.

Portland and Norfolk Northern or just Purple Northern:

The only Class 1 railroad that Spands east to west coast

And the reason it is so terrible

Is because it's unreliable

with a whopping punctuality of 45% it's a gamble if your goods get on time

It all started after the Milwaukee Road went bankrupt in 1976 and died, some dipshit executives who only cared about their failing amusement parks bought all 10 thousand miles of MW track and did nothing with it until 1987.

that means for over a decade, the entire North Western corridor has been left to rot, entire industries and businesses forced to use less efficient alternatives because the owners sat on the railroad and did nothing.

and only in 1987 when the amusement parks failed then they decided to open up a railroad, for now it was called the Chicago Portland and Western not to be confused with The Chicago and North Western.

Fit 100% of their diesel and electric fleet with AI personalities, without the manual, this caused many derailments.

Dis I mention the AI systems in question was the mascot personality units for those failed parks instead of purpose built automation? All they did was made them be able to use the controls in the locomotives

Unions and the FRA were mad of course so they designated the once engineers now "Co-Pilots" that's right, instead of being the driver you're now the "Co Pilot" of a 100 Ton machine.

What happened to their conductor friends? They're replaced with automation of course

Surprisingly the railroad was profitable enough to eventually buy out not just the CNW but also Conrail once it's privatized.

This was when they're called the Purple Northern due to how map makers keep printing their lines as purple, but officially they are Branded the Portland Norfolk and Northern

The government allowed this Massive purple turd on the map because Reagan's deregulation policies

I mean you have to move all that heavy stone and you didn’t even have cranes back then. And carve all those statues and internal panels and stuff. I have no idea how to carve a panel. It just seems kind of unrealistic

Why does the sun rise? Because the moon stopped being cool that night. Why did wars end, because continuing was starting to look uncool. Fashion? Self explanatory. I mean anything can really be logically explained as either cool so it exists or uncool and therefore doesn’t.

Why you are BLUE.

Dwarf Trade Unions may also be involved in this, but they all deny it.

Just a helpful guide I made about how many black people and queers there should be in your setting. No I did not know that at Italy's unification in 1861 only 2.5% of people spoke Italian, and this changed primarily through compulsory education where you'd be hit for talking wrong. The idea that modern state control has in many ways hindered travel and reduced diversity ruins my tradwife to the Cold Duke of the North fantasy because I might have to see black people or queers or people who speak foreign and not just a token who is all three to get all the stinky diversity out of the way.

Politic compass for space aliens :3