My nexus world

[kunkmiester]

I figured this board might be interested in this concept. A thing I get is I'll see a story or concept and troubleshoot it in my head, and generally come up with another way to do it, for stories and worlds it's generally something I feel has fewer holes. I figure I have this in the right place too.

The Nexus multiverse was no different, from 1632 and similar stories I've seen online, I came up with a more interesting concept.

Any storyline would start probably early 23rd century as a start. Advanced civilization with a heavily industrialized Sol system, contract with aliens, etc. I generally pictured a more libertarian Star Trek style world.

"The Event" is a wormhole experiment. Due to politics it ends up on earth, not in space somewhere safe. An accident happens, and th handwavium occurs--the wormhole breaks loose and takes large cuts out of the planet, connecting to parallel universes rather than other places. With more handwavium leading to a "regressing time connection". (I'm allowed a lot of handwavium here, right?) You end up with a 23rd century world with patches of earlier history scattered about. Corollary is you have 23rd century patches now anywhere from there to ancient times. Bonus--if a wormhole catches a spot twice, you'd end up with an earlier time In an earlier time.

The wormhole forms at the research facility, and either goes straight out, capturing cylinderical sections, meaning opposite you'd have circular areas, but more elongated closer. My original thought was something would make it hug the Earth's surface, producing rectangular areas. If you allow say, magnetic fields to deflect it you can get a different smorgasbord. For the main Nexus world, assume a fair number of areas move.

The wormhole would vary from a dozen miles in diameter to a couple hundred. The ends are tapered or abrupt. A substantial area on the edges is a no man's land--gravitational forces melt and twist the area as the wormhole passes hit leaves to siesmic troubles, but they are assumed no to be serious aside from some lava and gases.

So the fun discussion, which places and time would you displace? I don't know enough detail history to really have fun with this, and there's the other fun thing of having multiple "ring of fire" areas from different times next to each other.

[stevep]

Jan 28, 2022 19:37:21 GMT kunkmiester said:

I figured this board might be interested in this concept. A thing I get is I'll see a story or concept and troubleshoot it in my head, and generally come up with another way to do it, for stories and worlds it's generally something I feel has fewer holes. I figure I have this in the right place too.

The Nexus multiverse was no different, from 1632 and similar stories I've seen online, I came up with a more interesting concept.

Any storyline would start probably early 23rd century as a start. Advanced civilization with a heavily industrialized Sol system, contract with aliens, etc. I generally pictured a more libertarian Star Trek style world.

"The Event" is a wormhole experiment. Due to politics it ends up on earth, not in space somewhere safe. An accident happens, and th handwavium occurs--the wormhole breaks loose and takes large cuts out of the planet, connecting to parallel universes rather than other places. With more handwavium leading to a "regressing time connection". (I'm allowed a lot of handwavium here, right?) You end up with a 23rd century world with patches of earlier history scattered about. Corollary is you have 23rd century patches now anywhere from there to ancient times. Bonus--if a wormhole catches a spot twice, you'd end up with an earlier time In an earlier time.

The wormhole forms at the research facility, and either goes straight out, capturing cylinderical sections, meaning opposite you'd have circular areas, but more elongated closer. My original thought was something would make it hug the Earth's surface, producing rectangular areas. If you allow say, magnetic fields to deflect it you can get a different smorgasbord. For the main Nexus world, assume a fair number of areas move.

The wormhole would vary from a dozen miles in diameter to a couple hundred. The ends are tapered or abrupt. A substantial area on the edges is a no man's land--gravitational forces melt and twist the area as the wormhole passes hit leaves to siesmic troubles, but they are assumed no to be serious aside from some lava and gases.

So the fun discussion, which places and time would you displace? I don't know enough detail history to really have fun with this, and there's the other fun thing of having multiple "ring of fire" areas from different times next to each other.

  kunkmiester,

  Interesting idea and going to produce a very chaotic world.  A couple of questions please?

a)  Should we assume that the transfers are from parallel Earth's rather than our own to avoid paradox's?  I.e. if we took say the 1950 US west coast and swapped it with the corresponding area in the 23rdC if the former was from OTL that would mean our own history this last ~70 years would be changed drastically.

b)  Are there fixed sizes for the areas affected or does it vary?  I would guess the latter since you mention some areas being affected twice but just to make sure.  If flexible is there any limit to the size of the area affected.

  well I lied, a 3rd one

c)  Is the wormhole still open and devastating the planet or have things now settled down.

  Steve

[kunkmiester]

1. Yes. Someone a lot smarter than me might be able to have fun with that but not me.

2. Some. I was looking at about fifty miles wide for my main storyline, and two or three hundred long. Part of that was story--the loss of orbital infrastructure in the 23rd allows for plot conflict in the setting.

3. Nope. Not much point that way.

[stevep]

Jan 29, 2022 17:29:01 GMT kunkmiester said:

1. Yes. Someone a lot smarter than me might be able to have fun with that but not me.

2. Some. I was looking at about fifty miles wide for my main storyline, and two or three hundred long. Part of that was story--the loss of orbital infrastructure in the 23rd allows for plot conflict in the setting.

3. Nope. Not much point that way.

  OK thanks for clarifying. 

  Some of those areas are going to be doomed fairly quickly.  For instance a part of N Africa from a wet period that suddenly finds itself in the middle of the Sahara isn't going to last very long before it drys out with bad i.e. lethal impacts on just about everything inside. 

  You could see other areas becoming politically very sensitive, for instance a part of the world from the colonial period, some part of the US south prior to the USCW with large slave plantations or somewhere from the fascist or communist empires or other totalitarian regimes.  Or something like the Aztecs suddenly being back in central Mexico complete with mass human sacrifice or Attila or Genghis in full rampage!

  In other cases there could be religious issues like say somewhere in the Nile valley is now from a primarily Christian or Classical period or if the area around Rome say is now from the classical period. 

  Another factor might be those edge effects if they say cut a narrow waterway such as the straits of Gibraltar or the Suez canal and hence close it, even for a short period of a few years.

  Overall a lot of what's left of the 23rdC - helped presumably by off Earth settlements - is going to be scrambling to help some of the people brought from the past adjust or even survive.  As well as sorting out their own populations with a number of areas being lost and also the sheer terror and confusion while the wormhole is still on the rampage, which is going to cause all sorts of social tensions and chaos.

  In terms of a few locations you might consider?

a)  The area around Washington being replace with something prior to 1500?  Assuming something like the US still exists its now lost its capital and probably a fair chunk of its leadership.

b)  A chunk of European Russia say along the Volga valley is replaced by its equivalent from the time of Nicolas II.

c)  Part of N India is replaced by a chunk from 1398 including Timur's army marching on Delhi.  Its not going to get far when it meet forces from the 23rdC but adds a touch of additional chaos.

[kunkmiester]

I think a lot of the area would be fine. Prior to the 19th century, I'm wagering most decent sized areas would be fairly self sufficient, at least for a few years. There are probably only a few large cities that would have a lot of trouble. After that of course you'd have very large areas that are not self sufficient, so you'd end up having to give aid. On the other hand, the closer you get to the 23rd, the easier they will integrate into the economy

My main earthside setting I was looking at Wyoming. You get a chunk from the 21st(contemporary) but just north of Casper you switch to mid 19th. So, a few wagon trains provide some characters along with some oil field workers, and a spaceship that comes down, just missing being cut off by the wormhole but far enough they go ahead to ground rather than return to orbit. That storyline heads up to space, so goings on elsewhere are somewhat peripheral.

I figure earth orbit is developed enough there is a good amount of economic disruption. It's the most heavily industrialized area, so even taking a little bit knocks a lot off, and even just a few percentage points of drop seem to be enough to screw up an interconnected society.