Story Idea Thread: post your ideas here!

Since I first brought it up in the 'Underused Before 1900 PoDs?' thread, another TL that might be interesting is 'Modern UK to 1066'--right about when the Norman Conquest is slated to begin, to be precise.

As was pointed out in the aforementioned thread, the invasion would be repelled with ease, but the sudden loss of vital trading partners--and an inability to get them back in the short run--might be a huge incentive for Great Britain to go empire-building once again, at least to obtain raw materials that they used to import before the ISOT. Whether they can peacefully reason and resolve disputes with downtimer peoples or not (though I hope they make serious attempts to do so), I couldn't tell you.

I'd say sometime ranging from the 2010s to 2020s, say 2016 for more exactitude. They may sacrifice a much more powerful military for that, but a UK with mainstream computers, smart devices and internet--among other technologies that have arisen between 1989 and the current 21st Century--is probably easier for me to write about since I know more about the state of the world in that time than I do in regards to 1989. And yes, maybe I can compensate for that through sufficient research, but I'd like to make my first few TLs easier to write, if you catch my drift.

Agreed. And this time, there's no people on earth that can hope to hurt them.

I have a few, I'll start with my biggest one: a Cold War dystopia with major Lovecraftian horror overtones

OCCINT: OCCULT INTELLIGENCE


- PART I: A COLDER WAR

Shortly after the end of World War II, Soviet occupation troops in Iranian Azerbaijan discover something beneath the Eynali mountains. An impossibly vast and ancient cavern, far bigger than the mountain around it, crawling with horrors and wonders beyond human imagination, created by a long-dead alien civilization - one that wove dark magic and advanced technology into immeasurably powerful constructs, one that carved an empire across the stars, one that spoke to gods great and terrible, one that destroyed itself entirely and left only a few scraps of their once-great technology scattered across the universe.

The world is no stranger to the occult. It’s existence has been kept a secret for many years, and there have long existed laws and agencies to govern the occult world. In 1899, a secret annendum to the Hague Convention banned the usage of “preternatural or other anomalous weaponry” in warfare, though future treaties did allow for the weaponization of the occult to combat threats of the same nature. However, a find of this magnitude threatens to tilt the preternatural balance of power decisively toward the Soviet Union, and the United States is deeply concerned - even moreso when the Soviet Union outright annexes that region of Iran into the Azeri SSR.

As a result, the Cold War kicks into overdrive as the United States, the Soviet Union, and everyone caught inbetween tries to gain the advantage in this new preternatural arms race.

I don’t have everything all worked out yet, but I have a few ideas (all highly derivative). Highlights include:
- The partition of Austria and Denmark after the Soviets refuse to withdraw
- The US getting sucked into the First Indochina War in the 1950s in order to gain access to preternaturally-significant artifacts
- A nightmare Mai ‘68 that sees France descend into a military dictatorship after deGaulle is assassinated
- A massive South American War in the late 1970s after Operation Soberania is not postponed, ultimately resulting in a Chilean victory. The humiliatied Argentines revolt against their military government, ultimately resulting in an ambitious colonel with leftist sympathies gaining power and converting Argentina into a communist People’s Republic with Russian and Cuban backing.
- A nightmare 1980s culuminating in a brutal Soviet victory in Afghanistan, democratic uprisings in Eastern Europe being brutally crushed, and a civil wars in Iran and Yugoslavia that develop into major international crises
- A major shift in power on the Indian subcontinent as US-Indian ties improve while Pakistan falls increasingly under Soviet and Chinese influence.
- The creation of extensive missile defense networks by world powers
- The US and the USSR teaming up to fight Islamic terrorism after an alternate 9/11 devastates New York and Moscow

By the early 2000s, the Cold War is still ongoing, with the USSR and WARPACT both surviving to the modern day, and much more of the world has gone red (Argentina, Venezuela, and Iran being notable examples), but tensions have cooled significantly. The US and USSR have reached detente and even a sort of quasi-alliance as they battle al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, and other Islamic fundamentalist groups, even launching a joint intervention in Sudan after that country is discovered to be sheltering bin Laden. The Sino-Soviet relationship is mended, with border disputes settled and both sides forming an pact of economic cooperation (with a secret mutual defense clause). For the briefest of moments, the world seems stable and united; but that perception will soon come crashing down.

- PART II: DIES IRAE 

Despite levels of US-Soviet cooperation unseen since WW2 as a result of the new War on Terror, tensions arise over their competing plans for the future of Sudan; the US wishes to make it a democratic republic, while the Soviets, pointing to their successes in Afghanistan, wish to make it a one-party communist state. The US also criticizes continued Soviet support for Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Iran, while the USSR criticizes American support for Israel and Saudi Arabia. Tensions worsen as hardliners take control of both the US and Soviet governments; John McCain wins the 2004 election, while Alexander Lebed ascends to the post of Soviet General Secretary.

In the shadows, the old and hungry things wait - the things that man once cowered from in caves and made blood sacrifice to appease, things from the dark and cold recesses of the universe, things that flourish on chaos and death. Things that have lived long before the world was formed and will continue to live once the world is a dying ember. Events set into motion in eons past have begun to come into fruition as mankind marches mindlessly towards it's ultimate fate.

McCain undertakes an aggressive anti-Soviet foreign policy, launching military interventions in Iraq, South Yemen, and Colombia and extending NATO membership to Croatia and Montenegro. The USSR responds in kind, upping their military presence in Europe and funding proxy wars in the the Middle East and Central America. Making things worse, Libya successfully develops and tests nuclear weapons, resulting in several other Middle Eastern nations (notably Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Iran) developing their own atomic arsenals.

McCain wins a second term, but war-weariness results in a very liberal Democratic candidate winning in 2008. This liberal president attempts to mend relations, but events overtake him in his second term as the Arab Spring sweeps the Middle East, sparking full-scale war between the Soviet-backed Damascus Pact (Libya, Iran, Syria, etc.) and the US-backed Islamic Military Counter-Terrorism Coalition (mainly the Gulf monarchies ITTL). Even worse, a communist revolution in Mexico (aided by Cuba, Argentina, and other LACOMs) sparks a civil war in that country; the President’s refusal to intervene in a meaningful way, even as the Russians begin to construct bases along the southern border, results in the communists successfully taking control of Mexico and helps to cost his party the 2016 election.

By the early 2020s, numerous crises have brought East - West relations to an absolute nadir. Both the US and the USSR are led by hardliners once more - a firebrand populist conservative as President of the United States, and a former KGB director as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. The Warsaw Pact and their allies mass their armies across the globe, from South America to the Middle East to Southeast Asia. However, NATO and their allies have made more than a few deals with more than a few devils - notably a surviving Rhodesia and Apartheid South Africa, Pinochet’s Chile, Saudi Arabia, revanchist quasi-fascists in Croatia, etc. - to to ensure that the expansion of the communist empire has not gone unchecked. Tensions rise to unsustainable levels, as a series of deadly "accidents" and incidents between US and Soviet forces in the Persian Gulf and along the Mexican border push mankind further and further to the brink. War seems inevitable, when finally a revolution in Albania provides the spark that sets off the whole pile.

World War III only lasts six weeks, but it's intensity and sheer bloodshed more than makes up for it’s short duration. Millions die as battles rage across the globe. While Europe quickly descends into a bloody quagmire, the communists make great advances in Asia, especially after China enters as a cobelligerent of the Warsaw Pact and occupies Taiwan; meanwhile, the US and it’s allies successfully roll back communist governments across Latin America. Finally, a Soviet offensive into Western Germany breaks through NATO lines. Disregarding NATO warnings, the Red Army crosses the Rhine in an effort to occupy Bonn. In what European historians later label "N-Day," US and French forces launch a series of tactical nuclear strikes on Warsaw Pact forces in both Germanies and Poland. The Russians retaliate in kind. Within the space of six hours, hundreds of thousands of lives and several cities dissapear beneath billowing mushroom clouds.

An emergency ceasefire is declared in Europe as panic spreads; in the Middle East and Asia the war continues unabated. An end-of-the-world mentality takes hold. Making things worse, a series of "natural” disasters suddenly manifest, ravaging the Earth in what is later called “the Tribulation.” Earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and storms of all kinds wreak global havoc, while new and horrific plagues lay waste to humanity. The superpowers retreat behind their own borders to deal with this new crisis, while the third world descends into absolute anarchy. Finally, the wars in the Middle East and on the Indian subcontinent reach their horrific conclusion as the warring parties escalate to atomic warfare. In two near-simultaneous nuclear exchanges, untold millions of lives are snuffed out as the sky turns black with ash. Darkness, famine, and fallout descend upon the world. By the time all is done, between the wars and the Tribulation the world's population has been almost cut in half.

- PART III: ILLIMITABLE DOMINION OVER ALL

The main OCCINT setting. It's been eleven years since World War III and the Tribulation devastated the globe. The United States is in decline - its economy spent, its military overextended, its people living in fear. Political and racial terrorism sweeps the nation, while American occupation troops in Northern Mexico and Cuba endure their deadliest year since the end of the War. The Soviet Union and it's empire of vassals shamble on, the years-long Bloc War finally concluding with the crushing of the anti-Moscow uprisings that arose in Eastern Europe and Central Asia during the Tribulation. The European Union has collapsed into two competing regional blocs; the hedonistic Franco-Iberian Union and the increasingly hardline, borderline-fascist Frontline Alliance that now frequently clashes with the Warsaw Pact along the Iron Curtain. And China, relatively untouched by the ravages of World War III, has become the single largest economic power in the world under a new military regime.

The great powers now stare at one another across a world in ruins. Only a select few nations survived the nuclear exchanges that devastated the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, all suffering from famine and instability. The Wastelands are ruled by the fanatical Mahdist Caliphate, which seeks to bring about the Islamic end times. Africa is a disease-ridden Hell where ethnic cleansing is a fact of life. Only the paranoiac, apartheid South African Union shows any semblance of order. Eastern Asia has largely fallen to the forces of communism, with the notable exception of Japan, which has become increasingly authoritarian and militaristic. Central America is total anarchy, while in South America the reignition of war between the right-wing Rio Pact and the surviving members of the communist Alliance of the Americas seems imminent.

Dark beings move through the chaos, thriving on death and despair. Desperate men seek to weaponize forces they cannot hope to control. Vast minds plot and manipulate the nations of the world closer and closer to their final nuclear destruction. The day hastens when the primordial gods will rise again, and the Earth will die screaming in their wake.

Since the governments of the world learned of the existence of the occult, agencies had been formed to study and deal with potential threats of that nature. Now, these agencies must wage a war in the shadows for the very existence of mankind, knowing that should they fail death or worse is insured for the whole world; and even still they might not prevail, for mere man cannot hope to challenge the will of the gods.

Thanks!

Yeah, N-Day is pretty bad, though it ultimately pales in comparison to the Middle Eastern (a roughly three-way affair between the IMCTC, the Damascus Pact, and Israel) and Indo-Pak exchanges. It gets a lot of focus in the setting though, as it 1) was the only direct nuclear exchange between NATO and the USSR, 2) ITTL was also the first usage of nuclear weapons in combat since Nagasaki, 3) it was in the very heart of Europe as opposed to more "foreign" locales, and 4) several characters are veterans of the European Theater and witnessed the attacks and/or their aftermath firsthand (the main character, a violent and depressed FBI agent heavily involved with the US OCCINT program, spent the war as a young tank commander in West Austria; the memory of mushroom clouds on the horizon still features heavily in his nightmares, among numerous other things).

As for Mexico, it's mentioned in the text, but it starts out as a sort of LACOM-backed insurgency/political movement in the mid-1990s/early 2000s during the US-Soviet detente but eventually results in a full-on Red Mexico; throughout the 90s and 2000s the political wing gains popularity among the Mexican poor, working-class, and even sections of the Mexican military, while the corrupt PRI (still in power well into the 2000s as the US continues to support the Dirty War and their vote-rigging antics as a result of the increased Communist threat in Latin America) grows increasingly unpopular. Amid the backdrop of an alternate version of the late 2000s financial crash and a worsening Drug War, Mexican unrest finally boils over in a revolution that deposes the PRI government but eventually spirals out of control into a full-blown civil war between multiple factions; as stated above, the reluctance of the Democratic administration to intervene in a meaningful way (a misguided response to the nightmare of the McCain administration that saw the US bogged down in unpopular guerrilla wars on three continents), as well as the Soviets throwing their full weight behind the communist movement and the active intervention of Cuban and Argentinian forces results in a communist victory by 2016.

It does admittedly draw some inspiration from your Red Dawn story as well as Al Grito de Guerra on AH.com, but it was primarily based on a scenario laid out in this 1988 RAND paper, How Nuclear War Might Start: Scenarios from the Early 21st Century (Scenario 5, Central Asian Scenario: Prolonged Local Conflict Leading to Limited Nuclear War)

Here's a few more story ideas:

New Afrika

Effectively a deconstruction of black utopian AH such as Fire on the Mountain and Amazon’s planned Black America series. In the aftermath of an longer, bloodier American Civil War that concludes with a continuing Confederate insurgency and a harsher Reconstruction, a different US President choses to cede several Southern states to the recently-freed slaves to form the basis of a new black nation: the Democratic Republic of New Africa. African-Americans of all backgrounds quickly flock to the new nation, hailing it as a chance to become a truly free and prosperous people.

However, reality soon ensues as the young nation quickly suffers several setbacks: educated blacks soon establish themselves as an upper-class lording over the recently-freed, largely uneducated former slaves, much as African-Americans lorded over natives in OTL Liberia; whites that had previously lived in the states that now form the territory of New Africa object to being displaced and form insurgencies against the black government; new ideologies such as Marxism and anarchism threaten social cohesion; and the new nation quickly falls into chaos and violence. By the modern day it is a war-torn failed state. Meanwhile, the United States remains a fairly racist nation well into the modern day, as the inclination to simply ship African Americans to New Afrika pretty much butterflied the civil rights movement.

It's not nearly as fleshed out as OCCINT and it certainly shows, and I worry that should I ever write it (unlikely in and of itself) certain people might take it the wrong way

Modern Warfare Redux

Sort of fanfiction, I guess. Like many others my age I quite enjoyed Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series as a young teenager, but while still very fun today it's almost cringeworthy how completely unrealistic the plot is (Russia goes from having a full-blown civil war in 2011 to being a military superpower able to invade and occupy the entire US East Coast just five years later, and then just a week after being repulsed from American soil launch an invasion of Europe all the way to Paris within the space of a few hours). This would be an attempt to rewrite said series in a somewhat more plausible fashion.

Probably the least fleshed-out of them all, though I do have some ideas. In this version the Second Russian Civil War takes in the 1990s after a much different Soviet collapse rather than 2011, allowing nearly twenty years for Russia to recover and rearm before the outbreak of World War III in 2016. Ultranationalist Russia also maintains control over most Soviet territory, with the exception of the Baltic States and Turkmenistan. Not very much so far.

Though this may not become a full-blown TL, I've been pondering how Star Wars would be if it were an anarcho-capitalistic setting, rather than the "merely" economically unfettered one from OTL Prequels. An interesting comment on this appeared in AH.com's Miscellaneous Star Wars Thread, which I'm thinking to expand upon further someday.

In order to make this happen, perhaps the denizens of the galaxy are somehow possessed to just live and let live in accordance with some sort of NAP equivalent or something. Maybe people become sick and tired of the periodic wars waged by governments throughout the setting to the point where, eventually, they finally say "f--k it!" and live their lives as they please? Whatever the means to getting there, I’d also guess that having it take place long before/after the Prequels—or even making those not unfold as they did IOTL—might be a prerequisite (considering how many of the era’s excesses are associated with unfettered capitalism gone awry in the eyes of the galactic public, even if that’s not truly the case).