Letter Bee

The Ghost of Napoleon

<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>

@Yam I Am

I will hold myself back from that insult.

The Ghost of Napoleon

<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>

1) Great Britain absolutely had a ton of influence in the Mediterranean, and this trend would continue up until World War 2 OTL. Even things like the transfer of the Ionian Islands over to Greece only occurred due to British interests in keeping a bastion across the Mediterranean against Ottoman - and later Russian - interests in the Black and East Mediterranean. There was significant vested interest in keeping the Ottoman Empire at least strong enough to square up against the Russians just out of realpolitik: It's how the entire Crimean War broke out. And I don't see them just sitting around and letting a new power in the Mediterranean just run around practically unchecked while they just sat around and twiddled their thumbs: Or any other Great Power, for that matter.

2) Dude, call the mods and see how few of them are going to put up with some shit that happened in an OOC chat over literally one message about a CS detail.

@Yam I Am

1.) Of course they did. Doesn't change the fact that Muhammad Ali's actions happened IRL. All of them, and he already did get a setback when he tried gobbling up the entire Ottoman Empire IRL and in this RP. As far as I am concerned, the only wrong thing I did was alter the order of a few IRL events and actions. As it is, Muhammad Ali had the territory he had IRL and in this setting; see the map, and he was absolutely conducting reforms and modernization IRL as well.

2.) I already did. Now please take your rudeness with you and Page's bullying, too.

The Ghost of Napoleon

@Pagemaster, actually, I'll be blunt: Please stop being rude or treating me like shit, or I will escalate to the point where the Mods will need to be called in.

The Ghost of Napoleon

@Letter Bee the British would not just sit there and let you build anything to challenge their power. Consider us either about to go to war, or we’re bombarding the heck out of you as we speak.

@Pagemaster

Is this an attempt to intimidate me OOC? If so, I am counting that as metagaming.

The Ghost of Napoleon

Name: Vilayet of Egypt

Leader: Muhammad Ali of Egypt

History: Taking advantage of the power vacuum left in Egypt due to the departure of the Napoleonic Expedition which had taken it from the Ottoman Empire in the last years of the eighteeneth century, Muhammad Ali Pasha, an Albanian commander who was part of the Ottoman forces sent to reoccupy Egypt, used the personal troops under his employ as well as his canny political skills to play the old elites and his fellow newcomers against each other, eventually rising to power as Egypt's new governor. As the Napoleonic Wars wound down, he dispatched his chief rivals, the Mamluks, through a bloody massacre which broke their power forever.

This allowed him to pass vital reforms without interference, such as the nationalization of land and the taxation of charitable endowments. Through a monopoly on trade and the improvement of Egypt's much-neglected agricultural system, he made enough revenue to not just buy Western weapons, but build factories which produced muskets and a shipyard capable of building 100-gun warships (this was IRL). He built dams, technical schools, and allowed European Businesses to enter the country as long as they contributed part of their profits to his treasury. This allowed for a rapid modernization and development, especially as he also sent students to Europe in order to make sure that he had specialists who knew how his weapons worked.

Eventually, he managed to provoke a dispute between himself and the Governor of Syria (which included everything from Antioch to Jerusalem at this time), which he used as a cassus belli for rebelling against the Ottoman Empire and invading it, bringing it down to its knees with his new modernized army, which advanced almost to Constantinople itself until the West sent an ultimatum: Back down or be broken. When he refused, he met his first serious setback, with his forces and navy being defeated and being beaten back to Cicilia, where he managed to save his conquests by making hasty diplomatic concessions, including pledging loyalty to the Sultan in exchange for continued rulership of Southeastern Anatolia and the Levant.

As he reconsolidated his position, the next challenge was a rebellion in Palestine, where high taxes and loss of power have caused both peasants and local elites to revolt against his rule. Crushing this rebellion with immense brutality (a dark side to his rule), Muhammad Ali rebuilt his modern army and navy, careful to deal delicately with the Europeans so that they do not interfere. During that time, he sent expeditions south to make sure the Sudan was under his thumb, providing valuable gold to further finance his modernization programs, while securing the best possible education for his sons and grandsons. However, the ambition burning inside him was not quenched, and he began seeking allies in various European countries and their governments.

However, it was clear that he needed a way to gain their backing for a further partition of the Ottomans, and one day, an idea occured to him: Why not ally with the restive Christian populations of the Ottoman Empire, as well as minority Islamic sects like the Bektashi Order (which had a large following in his home region of Albania)? By posing as a supporter of the former, he might be able to get European goodwill, enough for him to fragment the Ottomans further at the cost of the loyalty of the local ulema and traditionalist Muslims. But if the idea did succeed, if he managed to truly prop up Egypt as the Ottomans' successor, that would be a small price to pay...

@Dinh AaronMk

The Ghost of Napoleon

<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>

It's not like any of us really have much history to re-write. In the case of Spain the Peninsular War was basically just after the PoD. And despite the French campaign to de-install the Napoleonic legacy from Spain, their basis is also gone or greatly weakened since that's the central crux of Europe: the olde feudal classes are more diminished than IRL. So that's the premise you have to work with if for Spain.

Though while I would prefer Europe, fine: you can be Egypt if you can work with the material better

@Dinh AaronMk

Thanks! And it's more like I know only the basics of Spanish history at this time except for the Philippines, and I'd probably focus on the latter more than the Spanish Mainland if I take Spain.

Rough Guide to Mage the Ascension Magic

Types of Magic (Mages Only)

There are 9 different types of Magic Power.

Correspondence: The magic of Communication and Transportation
Entropy: The magic of Fate and Death
Forces: The magic of fireballs, lightning strikes, and freeze rays
Life: The magic of healing or Biological construct
Matter: The magic of matter and manipulating it.
Mind: The magic of Enthrallment, Empathy, and Mental Organization
Prime: The magic of metamagic; mana, enchantments, and affecting people's magical circuits
Spirit: The magic of the Soul, and manipulating the unseen supernatural worlds of ghosts and ethers
Time: The magic of Time, and Time Manipulation

Each type has a measured level of power from 1 to 5. Note that from Level 2 onward, every example listed on the list are merely suggestions; if you have the required level for one type of Magic, then you can do every sort of spell equivalent to the examples listed. For example, Level 2 Correspondence allows not just messaging and warding, but also scrying; any Mage that can do one of those things can do all of them and equivalent miracles.

Level 1 is sensory; you can see magic of the type you select, as well as see the hidden secrets of the Universe.
Correspondence: You can detect portals, teleporting people, and attempts to spy on you with Magic. You also have a perfect sense of direction.
Entropy: You can see Ghosts, magically sense dead bodies and decaying objects even when they are hidden from you, and abnormalities in luck/fate.
Forces: You can see outside the range of visible light (infrared, ultraviolet, etc) hear sounds outside the normal hearing range, and see magic spells that affect those things.
Life: You can sense living beings and organic matter and instantly diagnose any form of disease.
Matter: You can see the composition of inorganic matter, as well as small details in craftsmanship; you can instantly know if a bill is counterfeit.
Mind: You can sense the minds of Humans and Animals, and detect Mind Control.
Prime: See all Magic, but not know what type a certain spell belongs to.
Spirit: See nature spirits and other dimensions (Hyperspace).
Time: See people stopping or speeding up time. You also know what time it is even without seeing the sun or having a watch.

Level 2, is where you can do the little power stuff. You can affect things in small ways:
Correspondence: Send messages that cannot be intercepted, or cast a mystic ward, stopping incoming teleporters or preventing magical eavesdropping.
Entropy: Affect probability in small instances (like dice rolls), Break simple machines, predict future, talk with Ghosts.
Forces: Featherfall, Ball Lightning; Control existing Sound, Light (including Radiation), Heat, and Kinetic Energy. Cast holographic illusions (as opposed to mental).
Life: Heal yourself (Just yourself, not others), control insects, fungi, and plants.
Matter: Make an excellent counterfeit bill, transmute lead to gold.
Mind: Give someone a mental compulsion, cast mental illusions (as opposed to holographic ones).
Prime: Create Magitech, Set magical patterns, enchant a weapon to do damage unhealable by magic.
Spirit: Commune with Nature Spirits.
Time: Get a prediction of the future (not perfect), see events in the past (this, however, is unless counteracted with magic).

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.

Level 3, is more powerful and allows you to push others...
Correspondence: Teleportation, SuperSpeed. You can also see multiple places simultaneously.
Entropy: Break Complex Machines or Structures, Raise Skeletons
Forces: Palpatine Lightning Attacks, Fireballs, Telekinetic Assault, create Light, Sound, Radiation, and Heat, as well as other natural forces.
Life: Heal others, enhance your eyesight, grow your fingernails into claws, control Animals. You can also turn lesser forms of life (snails, insects) into other lesser forms of life (turnips, orchids).
Matter: Turn lead into fog, solid into liquid, ice into burning plasma.
Mind: Mental Command on a conscious level not subconscious or Dreamwalk.
Prime: Create complex magitech. Create biological magi-constructs (non-perpetuating), blast people with bolts of silver light whose damage cannot be healed by magic.
Spirit: Summon Nature Spirits, Enter Hyperspace by yourself.
Time: Slow Time to a crawl for you, loop time for a few seconds (Requires the permission of the majority of players and the GMs).

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.

Level 4, is super powerful and has to be earned during gameplay.
Correspondence: Mass Teleportation or Portals. You can also use this spell in conjunction with Mind and Life to appear in multiple places at once, cloning yourself.
Entropy: Destroy Living Things, Create Complex Undead (with Prime).
Forces: Summon Storms, Fire Rain.
Life: Affect Life in Complex ways.
Matter: Create stable forms of matter that have magical properties (Orichalcum, Mithril, Nihilitic Fluids)
Mind: Dominate a person or Brainwash.
Prime: Merge Magitech into any human form, suck out magical energy from ordinary objects.
Spirit: Create Nature Spirits, and stay in Hyperspace for years without needing to eat, sleep, and drink.
Time: Set time (Conditional effects that go off on specified conditions, for example; pressing this trigger causes your gun to emit a fireball.). Stop Time.

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well.

Level 5 is deity-like, and unavailable to players and requires GM permission to even try to do.
Correspondence: Warp Space, Teleport to anywhere.
Entropy: Destroy Thoughts and ideas, Perfect Prediction of the Future.
Forces: Summon Hurricane or equivalent natural disasters.
Life: Perfect Transformation to another form.
Matter: Make materials that shatter the Laws of Physics.
Mind: Mass Mental Control, Permanent Enthrallment.
Prime: Make a place of Power of any scale, Siphon Magical Energy from Other Mages.
Spirit: Bring Cthulhu-level entities into the material world.
Time: Time Travel (Forbidden forever).

Note: As said, the examples listed above are just suggestions; if something falls under [Insert Sphere Here], isn't listed, and is equivalent to this level, feel free to have that spell as well...Not.

The Ghost of Napoleon

Eastern[/All] Europe gon be wild.

@Dinh AaronMk

How much can I alter the history of Spain?

Also, can I just take Egypt instead?

The Ghost of Napoleon

<Snipped quote by Letter Bee>

Because I would rather get people in Europe first: Spain.

<Snipped quote by Pagemaster>

The Empire is very much intact, if having had to fight the French over several large scale wars. And the British are very much in need of.

@Dinh AaronMk

I see that the Liberals in Cadiz got overthrown in this timeline as well?

HORIZON: In Wastes, Our Dreams

Combat will progress slightly more fluidly, perhaps, with a bit more emphasis on intent and strategy rather than single actions. Still puzzling it out.

Outsiders suffer from a degenerating memory, yes. By the time they make it out of Talze Utera, they'll only have fragments of memories of a past homeland, and even then, it's more a feeling than anything concrete. Also, by the time a couple generations pass, you'll basically have Outsiders with no recollection at all of whatever homeland they've had.

Tech level is generically medieval fantasy. No guns, and magic is generally fairly rare, as it's half based off of obsessive study and half based off of managing to 'connect' with this 'dimension', from which you uncover words of power. Most spells take three words to be effective in a combat scenario, and even then, only on an individual level. Some artifacts recovered from the Faraway Expanse allows for certain conveniences such as plumbing to exist, but out where the frontier is, it's pretty savage.

Races are basically any permutation of humanoid. The less human you look, the more effort you'll have to put into disguising yourself as human. You can toss me a generic race you're interested in, and I'll give you the general deets on them. Classes are whatever, though warlocks aren't a concept that exist, and mixed martial-magical people are pretttty rare when you're starting out as scrubs.

CS template will be established once I figure out if I actually have the time to run this or not.

@ERode

So, just to make sure, I cannot make a Human who wants to get back home and is willing to move Heaven and Earth (metaphorically) to get his goals?