State of the World, Earth-side

[thebarbalag]

Recently picked up the game and have players making characters, only to realize, there is frightfully little info available about Earth. A condensed timeline and basic map of what countries are where would make it a lot easier to create characters...

[Shadowopal]

Earth doesn't play much of a role in the world of Malifaux. The price to travel back and forth doesn't allow for many to make the trip more than once. But, there is no indication that any of the countries have changed. Just that the Guild has a strong influence in them. There was never much intent to go into Earthside events in the game. They leave that to the game master. but, the intent is Malifaux is the setting of the system. Earth is more of a background really. Kind of like Star Trek. They got into space and didn't go back to Earth much.

[WalkingInBlack]

I first thought it would be like Victorian age, but then I noticed a weapon that didn't fit in, a browning Semi-automatic pistol used by Papa loco, this would put earth somewhere 1900 or so.

[Omenbringer]

I would add that the Guild also probably controls the flow of information across the Breach as much as is possible in order to better control the populace. When living under a harsh dictatorship (which Malifaux definitely is), propaganda and censorship are very potent tools. Also consider that just surviving the night occupies most of the residents waking effort (after all who cares about what is going on Earthside when your running thru the quarantine zone from some nasty).

[thebarbalag]

Earth matters quite a bit, actually, as almost all of the people in Malifaux atm, were born on Earth, for the most part raised there, their culture, socialization, and understanding of history are directly tied to Earth, and it is because of circumstances on Earth that these people have found themselves in Malifaux. The Guild may control the flow of news, and a given character may have a limited understanding of history, or a lack of education, but that person probably knows what country they were born in. It's 1905. Does the US exist? Was there a Civil War? What are the Three Kingdoms? Did Japan conquer China or something? What were the Black Powder wars? What is technology like Earth-side? Was there an industrial revolution? What are the major powers in the world? The Breach first opened in the 18th century, and now we are just past the turn of the 19th, and in the 20th. Magic was introduced to the world on a grand scale more than a century ago. Many of the great minds of Earth died in the closing of the first Breach, which also resulted in a war that didn't happen in our timeline. That's an awful lot of history that is an awful lot different than our own. I'm just saying, if I'm making a character who was born and more or less raised on Earth, and came through the Breach to Malifaux (which is what the characters in Through the Breach are), I'd kinda like to know a little bit more about the history and geography of 1905 Earth in the Malifaux-verse.

[BrotherPaulos]

I have my starter adventure beginning in London and moving quickly to a station in Europe where the crew picks up the train to Malifaux.

The location of the breach is something of an unknown, but one poster suggested that when the breach was first opened it destroyed a city and a new town/city was conceived 'New Amsterdam' when the breach reopened. I've always taken that reference to mean Amsterdam in Europe was flattened and a new city was created not to far from that site.

I've taken a fair bit of influence from the series Ripper Street to understand where earth was in the early 1900's but I've also brought n advancements that may only happen in a parallel earth and after a great war. My adventure sees the group leave London in a mechanical carriage, drawn by 6 construct horses, crossing the IKB Channel Bridge to Europe and surviving their first night in a much shadier 'New Amsterdam'. They are then processed through a guild checkpoint before boarding the train to Malifaux.

I suppose at this point anything is possible and you don't have to create a whole world to give a nod to how different earth might be as a result of the breach and the black powder wars.

[LordZombie]

Wasn't New Amsterdam the name of old New York?

[BrotherPaulos]

Good point, according to Wiki, NYC was formerly New Amsterdam

[thebarbalag]

Why they changed it? I can't say. People just liked it better that way.

[WalkingInBlack]

Probably something similar to Japans capital's name got changed from Edo to Tokyo, just something that happens.

[Brewmaster]

Paulos has hit on the big thing I use when writing my game stories: between Ripper Street, Copper, and Mike Mignola works, I have all the background influences I need to build a solid foundation.

[Brian_2d6]

Why they changed it? I can't say. People just liked it better that way.

It's Constantinople.

 

... and I'm willing to bet New Amsterdam is in fact the proper name for what would be New York City in our world, as it was in our world before they changed it. 

[DeleteAccount]

I pretty much just treat it as normal world but with stones wedged into the equation. Haven't really tried to make it all work context wise how things work with magic since frankly, the first session is taking the train and I see no point in delving on earthside events.

 

As for the breach, I put it in the middle of Texas since that would explain all of the bayou hicks and Mexicans making it through.

[Krehtsturm]

New Amsterdam was bought by the English (and changed to New York).  I assume, therefore, that America, if it did gain independence, didn't do it from the King's Country, or whatever England is called in this.

 

We also know that several major Asian countries have combined making a major world power in Asia.  England is still going strong too.

I think that it was our world up until the first breach opened the first time (probably just after America had it's independence).  We then change history dramatically, since magic is now a thing and this new resource is a thing.  The breach closes, world war, it reopens a hundred years later, you're at around 1910s our timeline, but things have gone in a drastically different direction.

 

I kinda think of it as eternally on the eve of WWI, but instead of the power blocks being England, France, Germany, and the Ottoman Empire, it's America, England, the Asian Super-Kingdom, and probably one or two others that aren't as big.

[LordZombie]

Let's look at what we know. There is a Siberia, Africa, Paris, Indian, Egypt. We know this because it states this is where the magicians came from. We know there is an Italy, Turkey, Three Kingdoms, something know as the Empire, and a Southern America. We know this is because those were the building styles noted when they crossed the Breach into Malifaux the first time.  This was all in 1787. So Earthside is pretty similar to earth for the most part.

[Scott Beattie]

Except that magic was real, albeit something that was draining out of the world (except the Three Kingdoms).   I've mentioned Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell before, I think it is a good source of inspiration.

[LeperColony]

Because so little has been printed about Earth in the Malifaux universe, we are forced to assume that it is more or less analogous to our own reality in those ways that are not otherwise elaborated upon.  So I think it makes sense to assume that the world's major religions all exist in Malifaux, that the major political or ideological movements have at least some proponents (witches unite, you have nothing to lose but your chains!) and that most prevailing social and culture conventions persist.

By our modern standards, Western society in 1900 was intensely sexist and racist, with rampant discrimination regarding religion, national origin and sexual orientation.  This was also the time of Eugenics, forced sterilization and Social Darwinism. 

I think we can safely safe that gender roles are more permissive than was true in our reality, and as a practical matter I doubt TtB will really reflect much of late Victorian/Early Edwardian cultural, religious or sexual orientation discrimination.  But I think class distinctions will continue to be significant, and probably make up the single most important means of oppression.

I personally think that given the profound implications of magic, we could definitely benefit from a book that focused solely on what Earth is like.