Timeline Z

Timeline Z is one of three major known timelines in the Time-Space Continuum, diverging from Timeline X during the Battle of Waterloo, on June 18, 1815 CE. Its temporal horizon stretches out to 1940. The world of Z is embroiled in a global war that has raged since 1914 CE.

Timeline
1815: Napoleon lands a decisive victory over the Prussian army at Ligny. Two days later, on June 18, he wins the Battle of Waterloo, forcing the British to withdraw to Antwerp.

1816: A few days after Christmas, Lord Wellington is thrown from his horse while inspecting allied fortifications on the Belgian border, suffering fatal injuries.

1817: The death of Lord Wellington sent shockwaves through British society, triggering a series of anti-war uprisings that has been dubbed the Righteous Anger. As a result, Great Britain declared that it would "leave Europe to the Europeans."

1821: Emperor Napoleon retakes the Iberian Peninsula. Without the aid of the British, Spain and Portugal becomes part of the French Empire.

1824 - 1827: The French-Prussian war results in a French victory. Rhénanie (Rhineland) becomes the easternmost province of the French Empire.

1830: Emperor Napoleon dies. His son, Napoléon François Charles Joseph Bonaparte, succeeds him and is crowned Emperor Napoleon II.

1833: Emperor Napoleon II marries the daughter of Emperor Nikolai I of Russia.

1848 - 1864: The World War sees heavy fighting between the Brotherly Empires (France, Russia, and China) and the Alliance (Britain, Prussia, Austria, Ottoman Empire, and Japan) across Italy, Germany, the Baltics, North America, and East Asia. The Crimean War and the American Civil War have convergences with battles during the World

1861: Battle of Strasbourg. Hoping to end the war, an entire Prussian army is marched through the Underworld in an attempt to circumvent French fortifications and break through into the French hinterlands. The resulting battle was the first time magicians fought openly alongside Sleepers on a battlefield. The Prussians were defeated but the battle destroyed the Gauntlet in the area to such an extent that the whole city became a Blight.

1862: The damage to the scientific paradigm caused by the Battle of Strasbourg results in a schism within the Order of Reason. On one side is the Cabal of Pure Thought and the Electrodyne Engineers, and on the other, the Technocratic Union.

1861 - 1914: The Paradigm War is a cold war magical arms race between the major global powers. The last years of the World War made it clear to the masses that magic was as real as science, and that the next war would be won by the side that commanded both paradigms the best.

1914 - Temporal Horizon: The Great War is the first truly mytho-factual conflict. Every nation on Earth is dragged into a war that is fought on land, at sea, in the air, and in the Umbra. Trench-lines are dug across continents and whole regions are torn asunder by angels and demons.

1920's - Temporal Horizon: The Great Dust Bowl of the the American Midwest lays waste to several states and creates the largest Shallowing in the world.

1932: A popular uprising in Great Britain leads to a military coup. The Monarchy is abolished and Oswald Mosely is named Lord Protector of Britain.

The Great War
This is a truly global conflict that seemingly has no end, where magic and science has become little more than weapons in the arsenals of desperate, warring powers. Massive cannons hurl deadly barrages across continents and mages summon hosts of umbrood to level cities. With the war in its third decade, the paradigms of the 19th century lie broken in the ruins of the world that was. Blights and shallowings have become as commonplace in the ravaged landscapes of the Great War.

Alliances
The political landscape of the early 20th century is ever shifting, but three alliances dominate the Great War.
 * Grand Alliance (Great Britain, Russian Empire, Confederate States of America, Republic of China)
 * Istanbul Accord (Prussia, Austria, Imperial Japan, Ottoman Empire, Mexican Empire)
 * Triple Pact (French Empire, United Socialist States of America, Grand Bolivia)

Mages
Unlike any other war, the Great War involves the mythic as well as the mundane. With the world seemingly coming apart, mages have been forced to contend with the fact that the Ascension War is now a global conflict involving armies and navies. Many factions have therefore become openly involved in the conflict. Others have chosen to withdraw from the world, retreating to distant Horizon Realms.

The factions listed below have declared for a nation or an alliance. The remaining factions have not joined the war as a whole, and many have left earth entirely.
 * Akashayana - Republic of China
 * Cabal of Pure Thought - Triple Pact
 * Celestial Chorus - French Empire, Kingdom of Italy, United Iberia
 * Electrodyne Engineers - French Empire, United Socialist States of America
 * Flambeau - Nordic Union
 * Iteration X - United Socialist States of America
 * Kopa Loei - Polynesia
 * Madzimbawe - Great Kingdom of Zimbawe
 * New World Order - Prussia, Mexican Empire
 * Order of Hermes - Grand Alliance
 * Tetsukiko - Imperial Japan
 * Wu Lung - Republic of China

Europe
At the start of the war, Europe was the richest and most sophisticated continent. With the war in its third decade, no other region has been as severely ravaged as Europe. By the late 1930's, the population of most major cities live underground as the surface has been reduced to rubble by bombing or mythic attacks. Blights and Shallowings are also widespread.

Frontlines
There are three major frontline areas in Europe, where the belligerents have been fighting more or less continuously since the outbreak of war. Nowhere is the world as broken as here and by the late 1930's, there are thousands of Blights scattered through these regions.

The Western Front is an up to 500 km wide belt of trenches and no-man's-land stretching from the Low Countries to the Alps. In the north, Britain is fighting to maintain a foothold on the continent and the southern stretch sees a decades long, bloody stalemate between France and Prussia.

The Southern Front stretches from the Balkans to the Thrace. Italian forces and their French allies are fighting Austrians and Ottomans for control over mountain passes and agricultural land.

The Eastern Front is a broad stretch of land, from the Baltics to the Black Sea, where Prussia and the Ottoman Empire are are fighting to reach the fertile plains in the Russian hinterlands.

Countries

 * British Isles: A Fascist dictatorship after 1932, Britain is isolated and targeted by a series of devastating attacks by the French in the first decade of the war.
 * French Empire: France is severely controls the Iberian Peninsula, the Kingdom of Italy, and much of Mediterranean Africa.
 * Nordic Union: Formed in 1896, this united kingdom of Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Iceland has adopted an aggressive neutrality. They control the Baltic Sea and much of the shipping in the North Atlantic.
 * Prussia: From beneath the ruins of Berlin, the Prussian general staff rules Central Europe with an iron fist.
 * Russian Empire: Vast, feudal, and less technologically advanced than the other major powers, Russia makes up for their shortcomings by population and land.

Countries

 * Canada: After losing the Western Provinces and the Maritimes to USSA in 1911, the country consists of Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba. Canada has managed to remain neutral in the Great War.
 * Confederate States of America (CSA): A totalitarian, militaristic republic, the CSA relies heavily on slavery to support its agricultural and manufacturing needs.
 * Grand Bolivia:
 * Mexican Empire:
 * United Socialist States of America (USSA):

Countries

 * Imperial Japan:
 * India
 * Republic of China

Frontlines
Apart from South America, Africa is the continent the least touched by the Great War.

Countries
Great Kingdom of Zimbabwe