Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes VII (Do Not Post Current Politics or Political Figures Here)
- Thread starter BigVic
- Start date
Here 's an infobox of the 1980 United States presidential election that I made. The POD is that Gerald Ford doesn't pardon Richard Nixon, and goes on to narrowly win reelection in 1976.
Seems like a cool TL, godspeed to you in your efforts my friend!
The First Southron Revolt, not to be confused with the Second or Third, which were also very bad times for everyone involved. The first revolt is much like our own civil war in that states secede and join the CSA. In subsequent revolts, the rebels are not represented by a government and the fighting comes to be seen as being between peoples rather than between states.
Etherealist Austria, officially known as the Conscious State of Austria, was the name of the Austrian state between 1948 and 1977, when the Ethereal Party controlled the country, transforming it into a one-party state.
The rise to power of the Ethereal Party cannot be understood without talking about its founder, Golda Malka. During the Civil War in Germany, Malka lived in Dresden, where she had moved to with a friend to work on a journalistic project describing daily life there during the war. One day, however, the air forces of the Nazi putschists bombed the Weimar-controlled Dresden almost to ruins, causing her friend to die and her to fall into a coma after heavy injuries. For a year, Malka would lay in a hospital bed in the Czechoslovak capital, Prague, until she woke up. For her, the coma hadn't passed at all quickly and without incidents, as she would later describe that she felt more conscious than ever, and claimed she was teleported to another dimension, the Ethereal Plane as she would call it. She would also claim that she was able to perform any action like in real life, something that convinced her it was not a fragment of her imagination, and that there was indeed another dimension out there not yet discovered by humanity. Later, Malka would immigrate to Vienna as the German Civil War still raged on.
In the Austrian capital, she would read books about mysticist experiences and older religions in general, in order to try to understand what happened to her during the coma. Not finding anything exactly like what she saw, she was disappointed but excited to be, at least in her view, the first human to have achieved such thing. In one of Vienna's libraries, she would meet Max Rinkel, someone who immediately got interested in what Malka had to say. Rinkel had been part of a medical research program to find clinically useful alkaloids, and he had accidentally hallucinated with a recent synthetisation where he saw similar things, although very little in comparison. Rinkel told Malka that his belief was that hallucinations were not actually the brain making up visions, but a hidden way to interact with other dimensions, which piqued her curiosity. As the pair kept meeting to further discuss Malka's comatose experience, Rinkel revealed that he thought he had achieved a breakthrough with newer synthetisations, and offered her to try it personally. When Malka did so after agreeing to, her perception started to change again, much like during the coma and, while she immediately felt happier, healthier, optimistic about everything, more imaginative than usual and her anxiety pretty much disappeared, she still did not see that Ethereal Plane. Rinkel, content about the breakthrough but still not satisfied, promised Malka to continue his research until the point where she could see that other dimension, even if the current drug already had really positive and beneficial traits to it. That day would arrive in 1941. As soon as Malka put the new drug under the tongue, she started feeling it, and a couple hours later, she was there again, in the Ethereal Plane, another dimension showing an uninhabited Earth with a purple sky, pink mountains and soil, and a bright green vegetation. The Sun, albeit the same colour as in the Terrestrial Plane, had very noticeable rays that made the star seem way bigger. Rinkel was ecstatic to find out that he could also see that other dimension after trying the drug, now named Ether's Gate, erasing his doubts on whether Malka was lying.
As soon as this was achieved, Malka told a friend she had made in Vienna, Unica Zürn, also a German refugee. After an hour of trying to convince her, she agreed to try the drug, and the result was the same as in the case of the two only people that had tried it. Malka believed that the drug was a hidden way of finding God in other dimensions, partially agreeing with Rinkel, while Zürn did not buy too much into the religious argument, and saw it as a means to further human abilities. Whether it was a supernatural drug gifted by God or an accidentally-found hallucinogen that had very beneficial properties for the human body and mind was not what mattered to Malka, who immediately started writing a book called Beyond Eternity, in order to serve as a guide to a new religion based on her view. Meanwhile, Zürn and Rinkel started spreading the drug through friend circles across all Vienna, highlighting the benefits. Later, Rinkel would find out during testing that half a dose only gave the person those beneficial properties but did not cause enough hallucination to enter the Ethereal Plane. Rinkel would standardise the use between half a dose and a full dose depending on the reason for consumption, be it a need to improve mentally, recreation or religious reasons in the Ether. After use of the Ether's Gate reached thousands, the first bad trips (as they would be colloquially known later) happened, causing one to die and another to fall into a coma. While Rinkel attributed this to secondary effects merged with illnesses that the hosts already had, Zürn went further and deemed impure those who had bad trips, according to her a signal by the universe to deem who is fit for transcendence and who is not, and if they weren't, they had to be removed from the Terrestrial Plane. Malka and Rinkel disagreed with this wholeheartedly and it did not become policy for the newly founded religion.
In 1943, after a year of Beyond Eternity having been published without literary success, Malka sought to create a political party that synthesised her unpopular religion with more popular rising political movements. The party was founded on what can be described as very individually libertarian principles for the time, but with a totalitarian (Panopticonism) perception on what the state and politics should be like. While it did not have any success for the entire year as politics were dominated by the Austrofascist dictatorship, the party quickly become one the favourites of the Austrian youth in the following two years, mostly because they were the people who had created Ether's Gate, and its use amongst the youth was widespread by that time. In 1947, the Austrian Revolution happened, and the Austrofascist regime was violently toppled by a coalition of opposition parties, most prominently, the Communist Party of Austria and the Ethereal Party. For the following months until December of that year, the Provisional Government would be a power struggle between the two parties and, with former Austrofascist lone wolves assassinating KPÖ leaders as revenge, the Ethereal Party would eventually prevail. A coalition government between the ÄtP and the KPÖ, with the ÄtP leading it, would be formed from December 1947 until March 1948, when Golda Malka ordered the military to arrest KPÖ officials and occupy all government institutions nationwide, effectively self-couping the government. 2 weeks later, the Conscious State of Austria (referencing that the new state was to have a high level of consciousness, unlike all other states in the rest of the world) was proclaimed in Vienna, and all other parties would be banned.
In her struggle with trying to spread her own religion, Malka ordered Beyond Eternity to be a compulsory book to be read in classes. Soon enough, the Ether's Gate was to be freely available to everyone provided by the new government, producing it en masse and also sneaking it into other countries, with polls indicating that most Austrians did indeed feel better in general with its use. A procedure to enter the Ethereal Plane was also established, where one would be forced to be asleep after taking it, in government-provided pods. Everyone who took the drug could interact with each other in the Ethereal Plane, and the religion of Etherism became more widespread as a result, because they saw evidence of what the book said. Posterior research by scientists from other countries would conclude that the most likely cause that the fact that could happen was the result of a strange mass hysteria or mass hallucination due to how Austrian society was being shaped, but there was no definitive explanation. With time, people would start reporting that they kept seeing hallucinations even when not using the drug, something later discovered to be the Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, but the government would simply say that was positive and an indication that a blending of dimensions and realities was possible and desirable. As Austria advanced in this direction, the Armed Forces were prohibited from using the drug, as "their job is to fully operate on the Terrestrial Plane". Years passed until 1953, when Golda Malka was assassinated by communist partisans, and Unica Zürn rose to be the Head of State.
Zürn would implement her beliefs and effectively make Austria a country with a caste system, led by a class of those who interact with the Ethereal Plane, followed by those who use the drug only for recreative and bodily purposes, and the people who did not use the drug at all. Outside the caste pyramid, or even below, would be those deemed impure, that is, those people who had tried the drug but had a bad trip, an indication of impurity according to Zürn. During her tenure, civil liberties would also be curtailed and a relative cult of personality was formed around her, and the intelligence agencies were ordered to conduct illegal classified human research, a human experimentation program. During these years, two sub-beliefs would also emerge, those who thought that the fractals seen in the experiences were indication of the fractalism of matter in the entire universe, and those who thought the mere experience was already God, and not a step in trying to find God. In 1957, Zürn, during an ordinary experience, would have a bad trip and her whole belief system would fall apart, causing her to take her own life shortly afterwards.
The last one of the original trio, Rinkel, would easily become the new head and for years went on to dismantle this dark revision of Etherealism imposed by Zürn. Further research on the different Planes of existence or dimensions made Rinkel affirm that the Terrestrial Plane was the superior dimension, due to the fact that once you died in such Plane, you died in every Plane, contrary to dying in the Ethereal Plane, which did not really mean that as you could just trip again another day. This revision was at first shocking to many who believed the religion, and while a nihilist movement started to appear for some time, in the end Austrian society simply accepted it and, for the next 15 years, the Ethereal Party kept reforming itself by removing traits of the Etherist religion until becoming de facto secular. Etherist organisations, albeit small, continued to exist because they did not believe the Head of the Conscious State could just issue a statement that was to be simply accepted as the absolute truth. Rinkel also got rid of the prohibition of the Armed Forces using Ether's Gate, but only for half a dose, so that they could enhance their abilities. During this time as well, the loudest anti-drug organisations started to become prominent, with some even resorting to terrorism.
After Rinkel died of natural causes, a young activist called Rainer Langhans was selected to be the leader of the party, and immediately announced a liberalisation of the political system, affirming that it was anti-Etherealist to believe in personal freedoms and liberties but not political ones. However good the intentions were, the attempt was poor at actually resolving fundamental issues. It all culminated in January of 1977, when demonstrations started to appear in every Austrian city demanding the end of the regime, and Langhans was forced to call for a completely free election in March. After the election took place, the Ethereal Party disappeared from politics and the regime was replaced by the Second Austrian Republic. The Party would be dissolved only 8 days later.
The rise to power of the Ethereal Party cannot be understood without talking about its founder, Golda Malka. During the Civil War in Germany, Malka lived in Dresden, where she had moved to with a friend to work on a journalistic project describing daily life there during the war. One day, however, the air forces of the Nazi putschists bombed the Weimar-controlled Dresden almost to ruins, causing her friend to die and her to fall into a coma after heavy injuries. For a year, Malka would lay in a hospital bed in the Czechoslovak capital, Prague, until she woke up. For her, the coma hadn't passed at all quickly and without incidents, as she would later describe that she felt more conscious than ever, and claimed she was teleported to another dimension, the Ethereal Plane as she would call it. She would also claim that she was able to perform any action like in real life, something that convinced her it was not a fragment of her imagination, and that there was indeed another dimension out there not yet discovered by humanity. Later, Malka would immigrate to Vienna as the German Civil War still raged on.
In the Austrian capital, she would read books about mysticist experiences and older religions in general, in order to try to understand what happened to her during the coma. Not finding anything exactly like what she saw, she was disappointed but excited to be, at least in her view, the first human to have achieved such thing. In one of Vienna's libraries, she would meet Max Rinkel, someone who immediately got interested in what Malka had to say. Rinkel had been part of a medical research program to find clinically useful alkaloids, and he had accidentally hallucinated with a recent synthetisation where he saw similar things, although very little in comparison. Rinkel told Malka that his belief was that hallucinations were not actually the brain making up visions, but a hidden way to interact with other dimensions, which piqued her curiosity. As the pair kept meeting to further discuss Malka's comatose experience, Rinkel revealed that he thought he had achieved a breakthrough with newer synthetisations, and offered her to try it personally. When Malka did so after agreeing to, her perception started to change again, much like during the coma and, while she immediately felt happier, healthier, optimistic about everything, more imaginative than usual and her anxiety pretty much disappeared, she still did not see that Ethereal Plane. Rinkel, content about the breakthrough but still not satisfied, promised Malka to continue his research until the point where she could see that other dimension, even if the current drug already had really positive and beneficial traits to it. That day would arrive in 1941. As soon as Malka put the new drug under the tongue, she started feeling it, and a couple hours later, she was there again, in the Ethereal Plane, another dimension showing an uninhabited Earth with a purple sky, pink mountains and soil, and a bright green vegetation. The Sun, albeit the same colour as in the Terrestrial Plane, had very noticeable rays that made the star seem way bigger. Rinkel was ecstatic to find out that he could also see that other dimension after trying the drug, now named Ether's Gate, erasing his doubts on whether Malka was lying.
As soon as this was achieved, Malka told a friend she had made in Vienna, Unica Zürn, also a German refugee. After an hour of trying to convince her, she agreed to try the drug, and the result was the same as in the case of the two only people that had tried it. Malka believed that the drug was a hidden way of finding God in other dimensions, partially agreeing with Rinkel, while Zürn did not buy too much into the religious argument, and saw it as a means to further human abilities. Whether it was a supernatural drug gifted by God or an accidentally-found hallucinogen that had very beneficial properties for the human body and mind was not what mattered to Malka, who immediately started writing a book called Beyond Eternity, in order to serve as a guide to a new religion based on her view. Meanwhile, Zürn and Rinkel started spreading the drug through friend circles across all Vienna, highlighting the benefits. Later, Rinkel would find out during testing that half a dose only gave the person those beneficial properties but did not cause enough hallucination to enter the Ethereal Plane. Rinkel would standardise the use between half a dose and a full dose depending on the reason for consumption, be it a need to improve mentally, recreation or religious reasons in the Ether. After use of the Ether's Gate reached thousands, the first bad trips (as they would be colloquially known later) happened, causing one to die and another to fall into a coma. While Rinkel attributed this to secondary effects merged with illnesses that the hosts already had, Zürn went further and deemed impure those who had bad trips, according to her a signal by the universe to deem who is fit for transcendence and who is not, and if they weren't, they had to be removed from the Terrestrial Plane. Malka and Rinkel disagreed with this wholeheartedly and it did not become policy for the newly founded religion.
In 1943, after a year of Beyond Eternity having been published without literary success, Malka sought to create a political party that synthesised her unpopular religion with more popular rising political movements. The party was founded on what can be described as very individually libertarian principles for the time, but with a totalitarian (Panopticonism) perception on what the state and politics should be like. While it did not have any success for the entire year as politics were dominated by the Austrofascist dictatorship, the party quickly become one the favourites of the Austrian youth in the following two years, mostly because they were the people who had created Ether's Gate, and its use amongst the youth was widespread by that time. In 1947, the Austrian Revolution happened, and the Austrofascist regime was violently toppled by a coalition of opposition parties, most prominently, the Communist Party of Austria and the Ethereal Party. For the following months until December of that year, the Provisional Government would be a power struggle between the two parties and, with former Austrofascist lone wolves assassinating KPÖ leaders as revenge, the Ethereal Party would eventually prevail. A coalition government between the ÄtP and the KPÖ, with the ÄtP leading it, would be formed from December 1947 until March 1948, when Golda Malka ordered the military to arrest KPÖ officials and occupy all government institutions nationwide, effectively self-couping the government. 2 weeks later, the Conscious State of Austria (referencing that the new state was to have a high level of consciousness, unlike all other states in the rest of the world) was proclaimed in Vienna, and all other parties would be banned.
In her struggle with trying to spread her own religion, Malka ordered Beyond Eternity to be a compulsory book to be read in classes. Soon enough, the Ether's Gate was to be freely available to everyone provided by the new government, producing it en masse and also sneaking it into other countries, with polls indicating that most Austrians did indeed feel better in general with its use. A procedure to enter the Ethereal Plane was also established, where one would be forced to be asleep after taking it, in government-provided pods. Everyone who took the drug could interact with each other in the Ethereal Plane, and the religion of Etherism became more widespread as a result, because they saw evidence of what the book said. Posterior research by scientists from other countries would conclude that the most likely cause that the fact that could happen was the result of a strange mass hysteria or mass hallucination due to how Austrian society was being shaped, but there was no definitive explanation. With time, people would start reporting that they kept seeing hallucinations even when not using the drug, something later discovered to be the Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, but the government would simply say that was positive and an indication that a blending of dimensions and realities was possible and desirable. As Austria advanced in this direction, the Armed Forces were prohibited from using the drug, as "their job is to fully operate on the Terrestrial Plane". Years passed until 1953, when Golda Malka was assassinated by communist partisans, and Unica Zürn rose to be the Head of State.
Zürn would implement her beliefs and effectively make Austria a country with a caste system, led by a class of those who interact with the Ethereal Plane, followed by those who use the drug only for recreative and bodily purposes, and the people who did not use the drug at all. Outside the caste pyramid, or even below, would be those deemed impure, that is, those people who had tried the drug but had a bad trip, an indication of impurity according to Zürn. During her tenure, civil liberties would also be curtailed and a relative cult of personality was formed around her, and the intelligence agencies were ordered to conduct illegal classified human research, a human experimentation program. During these years, two sub-beliefs would also emerge, those who thought that the fractals seen in the experiences were indication of the fractalism of matter in the entire universe, and those who thought the mere experience was already God, and not a step in trying to find God. In 1957, Zürn, during an ordinary experience, would have a bad trip and her whole belief system would fall apart, causing her to take her own life shortly afterwards.
The last one of the original trio, Rinkel, would easily become the new head and for years went on to dismantle this dark revision of Etherealism imposed by Zürn. Further research on the different Planes of existence or dimensions made Rinkel affirm that the Terrestrial Plane was the superior dimension, due to the fact that once you died in such Plane, you died in every Plane, contrary to dying in the Ethereal Plane, which did not really mean that as you could just trip again another day. This revision was at first shocking to many who believed the religion, and while a nihilist movement started to appear for some time, in the end Austrian society simply accepted it and, for the next 15 years, the Ethereal Party kept reforming itself by removing traits of the Etherist religion until becoming de facto secular. Etherist organisations, albeit small, continued to exist because they did not believe the Head of the Conscious State could just issue a statement that was to be simply accepted as the absolute truth. Rinkel also got rid of the prohibition of the Armed Forces using Ether's Gate, but only for half a dose, so that they could enhance their abilities. During this time as well, the loudest anti-drug organisations started to become prominent, with some even resorting to terrorism.
After Rinkel died of natural causes, a young activist called Rainer Langhans was selected to be the leader of the party, and immediately announced a liberalisation of the political system, affirming that it was anti-Etherealist to believe in personal freedoms and liberties but not political ones. However good the intentions were, the attempt was poor at actually resolving fundamental issues. It all culminated in January of 1977, when demonstrations started to appear in every Austrian city demanding the end of the regime, and Langhans was forced to call for a completely free election in March. After the election took place, the Ethereal Party disappeared from politics and the regime was replaced by the Second Austrian Republic. The Party would be dissolved only 8 days later.
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How is Austria doing after this bad trip?Etherealist Austria, officially known as the Conscious State of Austria, was the name of the Austrian state between 1948 and 1977, when the Ethereal Party controlled the country, transforming it into a one-party state.
The rise to power of the Ethereal Party cannot be understood without talking about its founder, Golda Malka. During the Civil War in Germany, Malka lived in Dresden, where she had moved to with a friend to work on a journalistic project describing daily life there during the war. One day, however, the air forces of the Nazi putschists bombed the Weimar-controlled Dresden almost to ruins, causing her friend to die and her to fall into a coma after heavy injuries. For a year, Malka would lay in a hospital bed in the Czechoslovak capital, Prague, until she woke up. For her, the coma hadn't passed at all quickly and without incidents, as she would later describe that she felt more conscious than ever, and claimed she was teleported to another dimension, the Ethereal Plane as she would call it. She would also claim that she was able to perform any action like in real life, something that convinced her it was not a fragment of her imagination, and that there was indeed another dimension out there not yet discovered by humanity. Later, Malka would immigrate to Vienna as the German Civil War still raged on.
In the Austrian capital, she would read books about mysticist experiences and older religions in general, in order to try to understand what happened to her during the coma. Not finding anything exactly like what she saw, she was disappointed but excited to be, at least in her view, the first human to have achieved such thing. In one of Vienna's libraries, she would meet Max Rinkel, someone who immediately got interested in what Malka had to say. Rinkel had been part of a medical research program to find clinically useful alkaloids, and he had accidentally hallucinated with a recent synthetisation where he saw similar things, although very little in comparison. Rinkel told Malka that his belief was that hallucinations were not actually the brain making up visions, but a hidden way to interact with other dimensions, which piqued her curiosity. As the pair kept meeting to further discuss Malka's comatose experience, Rinkel revealed that he thought he had achieved a breakthrough with newer synthetisations, and offered her to try it personally. When Malka did so after agreeing to, her perception started to change again, much like during the coma and, while she immediately felt happier, healthier, optimistic about everything, more imaginative than usual and her anxiety pretty much disappeared, she still did not see that Ethereal Plane. Rinkel, content about the breakthrough but still not satisfied, promised Malka to continue his research until the point where she could see that other dimension, even if the current drug already had really positive and beneficial traits to it. That day would arrive in 1941. As soon as Malka put the new drug under the tongue, she started feeling it, and a couple hours later, she was there again, in the Ethereal Plane, another dimension showing an uninhabited Earth with a purple sky, pink mountains and soil, and a bright green vegetation. The Sun, albeit the same colour as in the Terrestrial Plane, had very noticeable rays that made the star seem way bigger. Rinkel was ecstatic to find out that he could also see that other dimension after trying the drug, now named Ether's Gate, erasing his doubts on whether Malka was lying.
As soon as this was achieved, Malka told a friend she had made in Vienna, Unica Zürn, also a German refugee. After an hour of trying to convince her, she agreed to try the drug, and the result was the same as in the case of the two only people that had tried it. Malka believed that the drug was a hidden way of finding God in other dimensions, partially agreeing with Rinkel, while Zürn did not buy too much into the religious argument, and saw it as a means to further human abilities. Whether it was a supernatural drug gifted by God or an accidentally-found hallucinogen that had very beneficial properties for the human body and mind was not what mattered to Malka, who immediately started writing a book called Beyond Eternity, in order to serve as a guide to a new religion based on her view. Meanwhile, Zürn and Rinkel started spreading the drug through friend circles across all Vienna, highlighting the benefits. Later, Rinkel would find out during testing that half a dose only gave the person those beneficial properties but did not cause enough hallucination to enter the Ethereal Plane. Rinkel would standardise the use between half a dose and a full dose depending on the reason for consumption, be it a need to improve mentally, recreation or religious reasons in the Ether. After use of the Ether's Gate reached thousands, the first bad trips (as they would be colloquially known later) happened, causing one to die and another to fall into a coma. While Rinkel attributed this to secondary effects merged with illnesses that the hosts already had, Zürn went further and deemed impure those who had bad trips, according to her a signal by the universe to deem who is fit for transcendence and who is not, and if they weren't, they had to be removed from the Terrestrial Plane. Malka and Rinkel disagreed with this wholeheartedly and it did not become policy for the newly founded religion.
In 1943, after a year of Beyond Eternity having been published without literary success, Malka sought to create a political party that synthesised her unpopular religion with more popular rising political movements. The party was founded on what can be described as very individually libertarian principles for the time, but with a totalitarian (Panopticonism) perception on what the state and politics should be like. While it did not have any success for the entire year as politics were dominated by the Austrofascist dictatorship, the party quickly become one the favourites of the Austrian youth in the following two years, mostly because they were the people who had created Ether's Gate, and its use amongst the youth was widespread by that time. In 1947, the Austrian Revolution happened, and the Austrofascist regime was violently toppled by a coalition of opposition parties, most prominently, the Communist Party of Austria and the Ethereal Party. For the following months until December of that year, the Provisional Government would be a power struggle between the two parties and, with former Austrofascist lone wolves assassinating KPÖ leaders as revenge, the Ethereal Party would eventually prevail. A coalition government between the ÄtP and the KPÖ, with the ÄtP leading it, would be formed from December 1947 until March 1948, when Golda Malka ordered the military to arrest KPÖ officials and occupy all government institutions nationwide, effectively self-couping the government. 2 weeks later, the Conscious State of Austria (referencing that the new state was to have a high level of consciousness, unlike all other states in the rest of the world) was proclaimed in Vienna, and all other parties would be banned.
In her struggle with trying to spread her own religion, Malka ordered Beyond Eternity to be a compulsory book to be read in classes. Soon enough, the Ether's Gate was to be freely available to everyone provided by the new government, producing it en masse and also sneaking it into other countries, with polls indicating that most Austrians did indeed feel better in general with its use. A procedure to enter the Ethereal Plane was also established, where one would be forced to be asleep after taking it, in government-provided pods. Everyone who took the drug could interact with each other in the Ethereal Plane, and the religion of Etherism became more widespread as a result, because they saw evidence of what the book said. Posterior research by scientists from other countries would conclude that the most likely cause that the fact that could happen was the result of a strange mass hysteria or mass hallucination due to how Austrian society was being shaped, but there was no definitive explanation. With time, people would start reporting that they kept seeing hallucinations even when not using the drug, something later discovered to be the Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, but the government would simply say that was positive and an indication that a blending of dimensions and realities was possible and desirable. As Austria advanced in this direction, the Armed Forces were prohibited from using the drug, as "their job is to fully operate on the Terrestrial Plane". Years passed until 1953, when Golda Malka was assassinated by communist partisans, and Unica Zürn rose to be the Head of State.
Zürn would implement her beliefs and effectively make Austria a country with a caste system, led by a class of those who interact with the Ethereal Plane, followed by those who use the drug only for recreative and bodily purposes, and the people who did not use the drug at all. Outside the caste pyramid, or even below, would be those deemed impure, that is, those people who had tried the drug but had a bad trip, an indication of impurity according to Zürn. During her tenure, civil liberties would also be curtailed and a relative cult of personality was formed around her, and the intelligence agencies were ordered to conduct illegal classified human research, a human experimentation program. During these years, two sub-beliefs would also emerge, those who thought that the fractals seen in the experiences were indication of the fractalism of matter in the entire universe, and those who thought the mere experience was already God, and not a step in trying to find God. In 1957, Zürn, during an ordinary experience, would have a bad trip and her whole belief system would fall apart, causing her to take her own life shortly afterwards.
The last one of the original trio, Rinkel, would easily become the new head and for years went on to dismantle this dark revision of Etherealism imposed by Zürn. Further research on the different Planes of existence or dimensions made Rinkel affirm that the Terrestrial Plane was the superior dimension, due to the fact that once you died in such Plane, you died in every Plane, contrary to dying in the Ethereal Plane, which did not really mean that as you could just trip again another day. This revision was at first shocking to many who believed the religion, and while a nihilist movement started to appear for some time, in the end Austrian society simply accepted it and, for the next 15 years, the Ethereal Party kept reforming itself by removing traits of the Etherist religion until becoming de facto secular. Etherist organisations, albeit small, continued to exist because they did not believe the Head of the Conscious State could just issue a statement that was to be simply accepted as the absolute truth. Rinkel also got rid of the prohibition of the Armed Forces using Ether's Gate, but only for half a dose, so that they could enhance their abilities. During this time as well, the loudest anti-drug organisations started to become prominent, with some even resorting to terrorism.
After Rinkel died of natural causes, a young activist called Rainer Langhans was selected to be the leader of the party, and immediately announced a liberalisation of the political system, affirming that it was anti-Etherealist to believe in personal freedoms and liberties but not political ones. However good the intentions were, the attempt was poor at actually resolving fundamental issues. It all culminated in January of 1977, when demonstrations started to appear in every Austrian city demanding the end of the regime, and Langhans was forced to call for a completely free election in March. After the election took place, the Ethereal Party disappeared from politics and the regime was replaced by the Second Austrian Republic. The Party would be dissolved only 8 days later.
Are we seeing a return to pre Ethereal traditions and symbols (Or pre Austrofascist that is)?
Also how do the Austrians deal with this... weird to say the least part of their history?
Did any other country actually take Austria serious during the Ethereal experience? Or was it a land of mockings like North Korea and the other nutjobs of history?
On November 11, 1863, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States was assassinated by George Nicholas Sanders, a name that will forever live in infamy, along with Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and Secretary of State William H. Seward. The three were at a visit with Ulysses S. Grant's Army of the Potomac when a planted bomb killed Hamlin and Seward, with Lincoln only living long enough for Grant to arrive. It is unknown what his last words were, but the Grant Administration's official transcription, and the one believed by nearly all Americans, claim they said to "Restore the Union by any means necessary, and avenge those fallen." After the assassination, Grant would declare himself the 17th President of the United States, declaring that there would be no peace until the Blood of the Rebel outweighed the Blood of the Martyrs. Thus would start the Grant Presidency and the Second American Revolution..
I see that Andrew Johnson was able to live 17 years longer than OTL.
I like to be meticulous so I will likely expand on Austria in the future and explain what happened later in detail, so maybe what I'm about to say could change. But for now:How is Austria doing after this bad trip?
Are we seeing a return to pre Ethereal traditions and symbols (Or pre Austrofascist that is)?
Also how do the Austrians deal with this... weird to say the least part of their history?
Did any other country actually take Austria serious during the Ethereal experience? Or was it a land of mockings like North Korea and the other nutjobs of history?
Austria became a liberal democratic nation, the larger parties are the ones you would expect in these systems, and Ether's Gate is still in widespread use amongst Austrian society, although only half a dose, which gives the beneficial qualities I talked about in the original post. The Etherist religion largely lost its followers and became a very niche religion, found in small cults. Etherealism, on the other hand (the political ideology) had several subideologies split from it, so that ideology is no longer a unified political thought like it was during the Conscious State. The main currents are:
-Liberal Etherealism: Mostly the same beliefs the party had but secular and in favour of multi-party democracy and operating within that liberal framework, as well as accepting of free-market capitalism. This is the only ideology with a party that has representation in the Parliament nowadays.
-Neo-Etherealism: A Zürnist revision of the ideology that wants to seek purity through Ether's Gate, which also claims that Zürn did not actually have a bad trip but that she was secretly murdered by people who wanted to stop her from accomplishing her mission. They also moved towards a conservative stance in social issues, but are still secular. These are the most radical ones and small terrorist groups exist.
-Socialist Etherealism: A revision advocating for further socialist elements to be included and a wider Parecon economic system. Very left-wing on social issues and political commentators describe them as indistinguishable from other libertarian socialist ideologies.
-Malkists: Basically fundamentalists of Beyond Eternity, seeking a strict interpretation of Etherist beliefs. Evidently explicitly religious, to the point of wanting the book to be the only law of the land, something that did not even happen with Malka. Socially liberal and mostly found in those cults I talked about.
This period in Austrian history is mostly (some people still missed the Austrofascists after these decades of Etherealism) seen in a bad light for obvious reasons, but less worse than the previous regime, the Austrofascist state. It was a very totalitarian government which did horrible stuff to preserve its hold to power, but most social advances would not have been possible without such a state (or at least that is what Austrians think) and it introduced Ether's Gate to the population which Austrians in general have a very positive view of. While the tricolour flag of Purple, Pink and Green is banned, other symbols are not, and parties carrying that liberal revision of the ideology still use the Etherealist Sun.
During Malka's tenure as head of state, the rest of the international community saw Austria as a state governed in a theocratic manner, without much information on what was actually going on in it as, internationally, Austria was very isolationist. During Zürn's turn, the horrors that were taking place in Austria were leaked to other countries and it was essentially seen as NK irl. A few years after Rinkel had assumed power, the country started opening up to the point of allowing some kind of international trade, and ambassadors were actually appointed for the first time. It was a period of relative normalisation. When Rinkel died and Langhans became the Head, his promises were seen as a chance to end that regime so all kinds of pressure were applied to asphyxiate the regime, which eventually fell. That state, while almost succeeding during Rinkel's government, never formally joined the League of Nations.
In this timeline, the Ethiopian government renegotiates the initial agreement with the British to hand over the country. In exchange for more local control over financial issues, Ethiopia agrees to aid the Allies further in their war and British advisors are to be sent to train an army for potential deployment in addition to arming them. Training begins in mid 1942. The aim is to get an Ethiopian army ready to fight in North Africa. However, as the army is almost ready to deploy, victory is achieved in the North African campaign. But plans are already being made for an invasion of Italy. Thus, Ethiopian forces are roped into the Allied invasion force.
After the invasion Mussolini doesn't take his dismissal with a shattered acquiescence. Instead, he and some die hard fascists organize a coup against the king. Victor Emmanuel III is declared dethroned. But he and the royal family are allowed to remain in Italy and his given the title of prince. Mussolini keeps the position of monarch vacant and makes himself regent. There are several counter coups and mutinies, the most significant one causing the Rome to be surrendered without a fight to the Allies. But for the most part, this ATL Italian campaign follows the path the OTL one did. By March 1945, Italian forces have been pushed into North Eastern Italy. Having seen that he had done all he can to resist the Allies, Mussolini makes preparations to surrender. Once word reaches that Berlin is surrounded, Mussolini knows Hitlers end is near and makes his decision. On the 26th of April, 1945, Mussolini flies to Allied occupied Rome and signs a surrender document. He is then taken into custody.
In early 1945, the Brits realize they don't have any concrete divison plans for Italy as they do with Germany. So in a meeting in Marseille in April, zones were hastily drawn up. The British and the Americans each got a zone, but the British wanted to stick to the 4 power format. The Soviets were pre-emptively ruled out. Greece bailed out of taking a zone. So France, though not wanting one, accepted a zone. With one zone remaining, it was given to Ethiopia.
Ethiopia would use it status as occupying to get back all items stolen from it during the Italian invasions, such as the Obelisk of Axum. Ethiopia was instrumental in leading the charge of setting up a war crimes tribunal for Italy's prior invasion of their country. In this tribunal, Mussolini was convicted of war crimes and sentenced to death. Ethiopia would also begin extracting reparations from their zone. That would later expand with the overall control council of Italy agreeing to pay reparations to Ethiopia. The years of bitter fighting had left many with a poor taste of Italians in Ethiopia. OTL, Haile Selassie pursued a policy of reconciliation and integration for settlers. In this ATL; popular will prevented that. So Italian settlers that remained from East Africa were deported first to the Ethiopian zone. Such animosity also caused many occupying soliders to take it on Italian civilians. Though abuses were not on the scale of the Soviet zone of Germany; the Ethiopian zone is generally regarded as the harshest for civilians.
The post war democratic development of Italy mainly took place under the guidance of America. In 1948, the Americans endorsed a new constitution; a republican one. France as republic endorsed it too. Naturally, the UK and Ethiopia leaned against it. Many of the royal family started to lobby the Ethiopians to vote against it. So now, members of the royal family who had tried to conquer Ethiopia of usurp his throne, now found themselves before Haile Selassie, pleading him to act. He listened and voted no in an intial vote. But it was for naught as the financially desparate UK decided to not fight this battle and acquiesced to American lobbying. To avoid a 3 against 1 showdown, Ethiopia agreed to switch its vote; on a condition though. That there shall be no laws exiling any former royals/nobles or depriving them of their citizenship and its rights. Instead, Ethiopia insisted they simply become private citizens of Italy. This was granted. On January 1st, 1949, the Italian Republic was formed. On march 16th, the last Ethiopian troops left.
As a consequence of Ethiopia's stand, the former crown prince, Umberto was able to lead a monarchist movement in Italy and even won a seat in parliament.
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Here's an infobox of the 1988 United States presidential election that I made. The POD is that Jesse Jackson doesn't run again, allowing then U.S. Senator Al Gore to solidify the southern vote and receive the Democratic nomination. Due to being a better campaigner than Dukakis, Gore narrowly defeats Vice President George H.W. Bush to be elected the 41st president of the United States. At 40 years old, Gore becomes the youngest person elected to the position.
he doesn't have his 2 strokes ittl (he was only 66 when he died, he couldve lived longer)
Crossposting one of my posts from the Map Thread because it also has infoboxes:
A scenario where the US loses 1812 decisively, New England breaks off and becomes a prosperous British-aligned federation, and the US falls into a series of military governments interspersed with periods of democratic rule, not unlike many of the Latin American republics.
"The best thing that could ever happen in this timeline, or any other."
Perfect Events Requirements:
1) Ironic/Poetic Justice
2) Funny
3) Funny
It satisfies all requirements.
POV: 1940 of the "Guns of the Nazi Germany" TL , but from this year not only no-no Germany has "friends from the future" and above all, they (Anti-Nazi "friends from the future") began to forge allies:
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