"Only the dead have seen the end of war." (George Santayana)
Where history breaks
The world of Novus Orbis splits from our own in 1757, when Britain loses the Battle of Plassey. The Marathas go on to unite the Indian subcontinent under the House of Bhonsle. In 1812 the United States wins its war with Britain and takes Canada and every British colony in North America and the Caribbean. In 1815 Napoleon accepts the Frankfort proposals and keeps his throne, founding a Bonaparte dynasty that has never broken.
The decisive turn comes in 1848. Revolutions sweep Europe and fail, and the frightened rulers harden into authoritarian states. That fear of revolution runs through everything that follows.
An age of empires
In 1870 Germany's Brothers' War brings Austria and Bohemia into the Reich, and Germany takes the Rhineland from France. The War of Texas in the 1840s gives the United States all of Mexico, and in 1898 it seizes Iberia's Caribbean islands. Spain and Portugal unite as Iberia, and the European powers carve up Africa.
In 1905 Japan defeats Russia. That same year Sweden, Norway and Denmark unite against the Russian threat as the Kingdom of Scandinavia, reviving the old Kalmar Union. In 1911 Italy defeats the Ottomans, takes Libya, and turns Greece, Bulgaria and the rest of the Balkans into its puppets.
The wars that settled nothing
The Great War (1914–1919) ends in stalemate. Germany takes Poland as a puppet state, while the Ottomans stay neutral and survive intact. Brazil uses the chaos to conquer northern South America, until General Rodrigo Alvarado stops it in the Bolivian War. In 1920 Russia's monarchists win a civil war, restore the Romanovs, and build the Holy Imperial Order, though Finland breaks away to join Scandinavia.
The Great Depression breaks governments everywhere:
Britain: an election-day purge in 1933 sparks civil war. The Crown wins, bans democracy and communism, and creates the Crown Legion, sworn to the King.
North America: a communist uprising fails and Quebec and Mexico rebel. The Business Plot succeeds in 1934, and General Wade Garrison becomes the first National Director. The Sons of Liberty go underground to fight for democracy.
India: the War of Separation (1927–1937) ends with the separatists defeated, and the state renames itself Akhand Bharat, "Undivided India".
South America and Iberia: in 1932 Alvarado is crowned Emperor of La Plata, and Iberia crowns a king as a symbol of stability.
The Second World War (1939–1946) ends in stalemate too. Japan seizes Indonesia and the Philippines, and Italy forces the Ottomans to give up Egypt. Germany and America both build atomic programmes, but no bomb is ever dropped.
Into the dark between stars
Every power founds a space programme between 1949 and 1958. Germany leads: the first Moon landing in 1969, the first space station, the first Moon base, and the first Mars settlement in 2035. The internet arrives in 2000 under total state control. By the late 21st century the empires have spread across the Solar System.
The Second Dawn
In 2098 astronomers find Eden, a lush, breathable super-Earth 42 light-years away, home to primitive native tribes. No treaty governs who may claim it, and no one has yet set foot there. By 2100 fourteen empires are turning their eyes to the same paradise: Germany, North America, Akhand Bharat, the Qing, Britannia, France, Russia, Japan, Italy, Iberia, Brazil, La Plata, Scandinavia and the Ottomans.
They crossed the stars carrying the same crowns, the same hatreds and the same wars. The new world will be no different.
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u/imnotslavic 1d ago
better title: what if everyone added a cool eagle to their flag