Questions tagged [alternate-history]
For questions that ask what might have happened if history had taken a different path.
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How much and how powerful would a "phlebotinium" bomb launched from orbit be to create an artificial sea? [closed]
I am writing a setting for an unspecified goal, whether I will end up doing a video game or a novel out of it all, but I am still working on the worldbuilding aspect.
Lore-introduction, (you can skip ...
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Indian Ocean continent - which humans get there first?
Trying to develop an ATL in which several 'lost' continents in the Indian Ocean - namely Kerguelen, Broken Ridge and the Mascarene Plateau (just east of Madagascar) - never end up being submerged and ...
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Conditions to help Paganism survive until a Revival Movement
In my world, the Northern Kingdoms are the equivalent to Europe. Like Europe, in the Middle Ages, their version of Christianity began replacing old Pagan religions and gods.
However, in my world, ...
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Portable Alternatives to Traditional Keyboard/Mouse Input
In a near-future alternate reality where smartphones were never invented, people rely heavily on augmented reality and highly mobile computing. High-tech clothing and accessories are everywhere. Heads-...
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How effective a sewage system can a roughly medieval location manage if told of sanitation but not how to make a sewer?
Let's say a modern man is transported to a world that is roughly medieval and modeled very clearly off of medieval Europe. He manages to impress the son of a king and eventually gets the king to hear ...
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Justification for the cult of Tiamat (chaos deity)
While chaos might be well suited for raiding and pillaging, my world is to be in a sedentary setting. Indeed, chaos, in the true spirit of the term, seems to run counter to what a sedentary society ...
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What conditions could help the Roman Catholic Papacy revive Paganism successfully to reduce Protestantism?
In this alternate history, the Papacy becomes worried when those such as Martin Luther began complaining about the Church's practices. At this point, Luther breaks away, beginning Lutheranism. Fear of ...
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At what technological level can a mixed-gender military not be at a disadvantage to an all-male one?
In various fantasy settings, female combatants are quite common. There is a history of women in the military in real life but such women were generally rare and often hid their identity. Warfare was ...
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Max tech level for society of 200,000
Given a remote island colonised by modern day (2023) explorers, with a total population of about 200,000 but cut off from the outside world for political reasons, what level of technology could they ...
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How to counter bulletproof plate armor with 19th Century technology? [closed]
I'm writing a timeline where the Russian Empire figured out how to make magical armor. By fully immersing plate armor in holy water, that plate armor is now fully bulletproof. No projectile will ...
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How far back in time would the USA need to travel to be able to conquer the entire world? [closed]
I've been thinking of a scenario in which the US wants to control the entire world, via time travel, but I'm not sure what time to travel to.
The US is generally considered to have the most powerful ...
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What would be the next logical step after crossbows?
In this world I'm making, I'm trying to avoid firearms (to keep things like melee weapons more balanced), but also be more industrial. I'm justifying it by the simple idea of 'we never discovered ...
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What defensive invention would have made the biggest difference in the late 1400s?
One world I've been tinkering on for months is an alternate history where Europe did not colonise the rest of the world, different global cultures remained (more) independent, until in the age of the ...
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Why would a society persecute people who are antisocial misanthropes (sociopaths, psychopaths, narcissists, and sadists)? [closed]
An alternate-historical story is set in a third-world country in 1977 of the Gregorian calendar (the year George Lucas' masterpiece, Star Wars, was released). The country is a Costa Rica pastiche (...
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What population would the Americas have if the natives were as advanced as Europeans?
If you check a list of the most densely populated nations, a lot of New World countries are near the bottom and almost no Western Hemisphere nation (excluding small islands) are near the top. The ...
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What climate would Kumari Kandam have (a mythical continent on the Indian Ocean)?
Kumari Kandam was another mythical continent. It was believed to be host to an ancient Tamil civilization. Such a land was mentioned in ancient Tamil writings. Europeans picked up on the idea to ...
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How Nazi Germany should use it's new Nukes to quickly and efficiently conquer the entire world [closed]
The premise is thus;
A neo-nazi time traveler with a ton of money to throw around who's also done a ton of research into the manufacturing, mechanisms, and uses of nukes, brings a few construction ...
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What climate would Mu, a lost continent in the Pacific Ocean, have?
Mu was a mythical continent that was believed to exist in the Pacific Ocean. It was part of pseudohistory back in the 19th Century. Hawaii and other Polynesian islands were believed to be the remnants ...
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What sort of founder crops and/or domesticable food plants can be found in the tundra/subarctic, specifically the Alaska interior?
Another attempt at a broad question I asked here earlier. My aim here is to build another cradle of civilization from the ground up, in an area that never did (for fairly obvious reasons) and in an ...
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If Mars and Venus were habitable, by when would they have been colonized? [closed]
The first human stepped foot on the Moon in 1969.
The first probe (Venera 3) landed on Venus in 1970
The first probe (Mars 3) landed on Mars in 1971.
If Venus and Mars were habitable (they have liquid ...
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Would ATV Cavalry be as effective as horse cavalry?
During the early 1800s, various countries are gifted tall and modern ATVs (All-Terrain Vehicles). These ATVs require no fuel and come with manuals. After a few months of trials, many Europeans master ...
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How early can the point of departure for 2022 to resemble the great cities of Annibale Siconolfi?
Some time ago, I came across the artwork of the Italian artist Annibale Sicionolfi, and I am quite drawn to them, especially on how ecology and architecture are tied together. Art gallery in this link....
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How do I Make the "Anime Girl Warrior Physique" Realistic?
In some Anime, Women look nothing at all like men, yet are capable of nearly the same exact feats of physical strength:
Image from Dragon Ball Super
Is there a way to manipulate biology and ...
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How close would a black hole need to be for humans to have discovered it before theorizing it?
Black holes were first seriously theorized in the early 20th century, but it took many decades before one could be observed; depending on your definition of "observe," this may have occurred ...
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Trojan horse for protecting against Roman inquisition [closed]
I'm imagining a world set in Medici Florence. As actual history plays out, despite the Medicis' growing power, the start of the Roman Inquisition still necessitated some concessions. For instance, ...
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An Irish monarchy and IRA [closed]
I need a change in history so in the year 2020, Ireland is ruled by a Constitutional Monarchy. It is still a catholic nation (not celtic), has a democratically elected parliament and leaders, and the ...
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If people in Iron Age times had access to uranium, would it be used over iron?
Let's say that in 1,200 BC, aliens secretly come to Earth and turn all of the uranium oxides into pure uranium.The aliens then leave and humans discover this new metal.
Uranium has a lower melting ...
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Could advanced Aboriginal Australians have domesticated the Emus/Cassowaries?
In an alternate universe where Eurasia is less advanced and the native peoples of the Americas and Australia build powerful civilizations, what animals could be domesticated that weren't domesticated ...
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If Aluminum was non-reactive, could there have been an "Aluminum Age" instead of a Bronze Age?
Aluminum is the most common metal on Earth. Despite this fact, this element wasn't discovered until the 19th Century. This is because Aluminum is never naturally found in the ground. Instead, aluminum ...
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Could cavemen domesticate the Tyrannosaurus Rex?
In pop culture, there are ideas that paleolithic humans and dinosaurs lived together. The Flintstones is the most famous example of this idea. This obviously wasn't the case in reality, but what if by ...
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19th century British moon landing [closed]
In the aftermath of the Monroe doctrine, the British empire decided to expand heavenward. As the nobles, captains, empiricists, electricians, and mechanics explained to the Majesty, technological ...
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Could the Malagasy domesticate the Dodo bird?
In an alternate universe where other groups explored the world before Europeans, what new animals could have been domesticated? In my alternate history world, the Malagasy that came to Madagascar not ...
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Could medieval Native Americans domesticate the bison?
In an alternate universe where Eurasia is less advanced and the native peoples of the Americas and Australia build powerful civilizations, what animals could be domesticated that weren't domesticated ...
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Maps of our real world without borders, towns, etc?
I am starting to work on an alternate-timeline story on Earth. Is there a web site or software that will let me see just the mountains, rivers, etc. without national or local borders, or cities and ...
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What evolutionary pressure would make all of humanity black? [closed]
How would humanity keep an African phenotype hair,skin color,bone structure ect what natural disaster or climate will induce changes to make all humanity black?
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What single change in history would make rear steering cars a standard?
In my alternate Earth, which follows our timeline almost consistently, I want one of the differences being that the de facto standard for cars is that they have rear steering wheels instead of the ...
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How would men survive without women?
What could make a male-only human reproduction system exist, which makes women obsolete, expendable, and also gives men full control over their paternity?
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How to prove "lactose intolerance" is a real thing people from 1000AD
There was a theory that the conflict between Viking settlers and native people in Newfoundland region of Canada in 1000 AD started when the Viking settler offered milk to the lactose-intolerant ...
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Course correction for Easter Island - Ecocide
While this post: Course correction for Easter Island discussed potential measures to avoid the collapse of the Rapa Nui culture due to contact with the West, I'm planning to open the scope up now to ...
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Empire across the Himalayas
I was bouncing ideas off the wall about empires that could've plausibly existed in Asia if certain things went differently, and I stumbled across the very physical barrier of the Himalayas.
So my ...
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How far would science and technology be without wars and religion? [closed]
In an alternate reality a highly developped species, let's call them 3Os, found planet earth just before the neolithic revolution. Upon studying humans, they correctly predicted their social evolution ...
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Course correction for Easter Island
There are several explanations that I'm aware of as to why the Easter Island culture collapsed. While Diamond put forth a hypothesis of deforestation, soil nutrient depletion and cascading ...
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How early could we have had nukes?
Suppose a message was sent to the past with a diagram, description, and use, of the simplest fission weapon.
It didn't describe how to mine Uranium, enrich it, or even a description of WHY it works or ...
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In a parallel reality, what is stopping a contemporanean nation from jamming its enemies to hell and back? [closed]
In a parallel reality, what is stopping a contemporanean (from 1940 to 2020 alike tech) nation from jamming its enemies to hell and back?
A nation finds itself at war with another nation, what is ...
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Possibility for ancient East Asian migration to Australia
I am developing a country spanning a more fertile Australia, New Guinea and a far larger New Zealand in which its founder and inhabitants are descended from an ancient East Asian, ethnic group similar ...
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Multi-Sophont Alliance, Episode 1: Is It Even Possible? [closed]
This question, if not the entire series, is based on the premise behind this painting by Dylan Bajda:
Source
Set in the world of Serina, the creatures on the boats are called "gravediggers" ...
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What should the Australian government do in the event of a sudden greening of the Outback? [closed]
Sometime in an alternate 2005, a handwavium science event creates a situation where excessive rainfall occurs throughout much of Australia. This event, now referred to as "the great rainfall"...
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How to make pagan religions popular again [closed]
In my medieval fantasy world, Christianity, or at least it's parallel universe equivalent, is the most dominant religion. However, later in my world, pagan beliefs start to become popular again and ...
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Suggestions for Hermetic occult/magical schools in historical fantasy setting?
Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I’m currently working on a historical fantasy setting with a magic system based on real world practices and beliefs, and I need some ideas for new ...
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How can an interlocking system of portals fail to prevent the splitting of the Roman empire?
The first and the greatest of Rome's emperors, Julius Caesar, had conquered vast swaths of territory for the empire, making it rich beyond measure and extending its reach across various continents, ...
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