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This is my wrap-up of Scarlet Storm. I'm rather disappointed that I didn't finish it properly, but the creative spark I had for it was gone, and I figured it would be better to finish it in this way than not at all. On the plus side, you can expect updates of my other Solar System timeline, Sunshine, soon.
My original idea had Operation Scarlet Storm failing, with the CSA and Britain betraying the USA and being defeated in turn. The British and Confederates, no friends of the Americans, believed that American commitment to Scarlet Storm would leave them defenseless, and after the operation's failure, they decided to pounce in the actual Barbarossa analogue: the Great Switch. Germany dominates Earth, and is in a cold war with America and Salvationist Mars, which once again becomes a great power. Taiping China forges an alliance with Salvationist Mars. Germany forms a new Third Concord, the "real" one, and the Americans form the Union of Exceptionalists to oppose them. A very straightforward WWII parallel, with appearances from the Mars Attacks-style morgors and, of course, the Fungi out of Yuggoth.
I decided to change things up a bit. The big pieces are still there: Scarlet Storm fails, the Great Switch happens, and Germany and America emerge the big winners of the War of the Third Concord. But, Mars never becomes a great power again. Its environment, already in a steep decline during the Martian War, gets worse. The forced industrialization of the Salvationist regime helped Mars against the Third Concord, but all of the military focus meant that nothing was done about the necessary environmental maintenance. Third Concord attacks on cities and canals, Salvationist scorched earth tactics, and the scrapping of important environmental machinery for war use only helped things along. Operation Scarlet Storm, the military invasion intended to destroy the Martian species, was totally unnecessary.
I decided to set this when I would have naturally ended the timeline: 1967, a century after the end of the Martian War. The Solar System is a very different place. Humanity is the dominant force in the inner Solar System, and they are beginning to move past the Belt and into the territory of the morgors. Mars is a beaten world, one on its way out, while Venus is firmly under humanity's colonial boot. Were the humans united, they could easily gain total control of the entire Solar System. However, they are far from united. Earth is locked in a tense geopolitical struggle, but neither power wants to go to war.
What keeps the peace between the two powers is the Verne gun. Named euphemistically after Jules Verne, who wrote a science fiction novel revolving on the use of Martian space cannon technology for human space exploration, the Verne gun is a weaponized space cannon. Seeking to avoid turning the passengers in cylinders into jelly, the Martians launched projectiles at relatively low velocities required to escape Mars' gravity. Faced with no opposition that could reasonably threaten them, the Martian Empire never envisioned using space cannons as weapons.
Humanity thought differently. Using powerful magnetic accelerators, Verne guns fired hyper-dense slugs at their enemies, packing more punch than aetheric munitions. The first Verne guns were built by the British on their lunar installations, to defend Earth from future Martian attack. These were never used during the War of the Third Concord, as the Germans quickly retreated from lunar orbit to attack the Third Concord on the Moon. The Americans mounted smaller Verne guns on the Columbia and their other floating fortresses and ships. These orbital Verne guns were used during Operation Scarlet Storm to rain mankind's fury on Mars. This led to the development of Verne guns as offensive, strategic weapons, designed primarily to destroy cities. These Verne guns were too late to help during Scarlet Storm, but were used to destroy Confederate and British positions after the Great Switch. One floating fortress, the William Sherman, destroyed the core of Atlanta with a single shot.[1] Since the war, the Germans and Americans both developed Verne guns of increasing yields. Modern Verne guns can fire rounds at half the speed of light, obliterating entire metropolitan areas in a single blast. The Americans rely on their floating fortresses, while the Germans rely on their lunar bases, and both can destroy every metropolitan area on Earth in mere hours.
Technology remains highly steampunk, although the aesthetic of the 1960s is Art Deco and Noir. Mass urbanization and industrialization have taken root, and railways and highways crisscross Europe and North America. Great skyscrapers, made much taller thanks to the use of cavorite, typically exist at the center of major cities, particularly those damaged during the War of the Third Concord. Metropolis Tower in Cologne is nearly a mile tall. Aerospace travel is done primarily through airship, although most people still cannot afford to leave Earth, at least if they intend on coming back. Heat rays have taken the place of many industrial tools, such as cutters, and heat ray ovens are found in every home in Germany, America and the South American Confederation. Centralized computing systems control telecommunications and allow televisions to be somewhat interactive, not unlike DVRs of today.
Third Concord
The Germans were the big winners of the War of the Third Concord. In fact, they won so hard that they named their post-war alliance after the Third Concord. Through the use of aerospace superiority, Germany knocked down the British and the French from their longtime position as the dominant European power, and it could be well argued that they are more powerful than their American rivals. And they are very bitter rivals. While the Germans are patronizing, unabashed human supremacists, they aren't racialist totalitarians like the Americans.[2] Democracy, freedom, and rule of law have found a new home in Germany, after being abandoned in America. Germany sees America as a traitor to its own legacy and to all free men, bad actors who are tolerated at best.
Of course, the truth is a bit different. German democracy is more theoretical than anything else. The Fatherland Front still dominates politics, and has yet to lose an election. This is not because of vote rigging or corruption, but because the Fatherland Party has many disparate factions and political discourse - at least, that which is permissible - happens at the party level. A humanist political party, the politicians of the Fatherland Front believe that Germany has a duty to lead humanity into a new golden age. Over the years, this optimism has tempered itself to the belief that Germany has a duty to prevent mankind from destroying itself. There are a variety of anti-humanist factions in the Fatherland Party, motivated by various causes that take exception to Germany's leading role.
Political freedom is generally respected in Germany. Being a militaristic, statist, orderly culture, liberal thought is unpopular. Social programs exist as part of Germany's paternalistic state, and exist to defuse socialist rhetoric. Exceptionalism and Salvationism are impermissible in Germany, and political movements that edge too close to these are banned.
Germany is wealthy in two ways: its metropolitan economy is robust and advanced, and her colonies on Earth and beyond provide Germany with endless natural resources. Rare earth minerals from the Congo and cavorite from Venus, essential for modern life, pour into Germany for processing and manufacturing. These colonies, naturally, have no political representation, and are governed by Frankfurt-appointed governors. The brutal colonialism of old has made way for extensive infrastructure and welfare programs that keep the locals grateful - and dependent - on Germany's presence. The overwhelming majority of colonial populations are employed by German firms or the German state, with those that aren't being farmers or hunter-gatherers. If Germany were to ever leave, these colonies would flounder.
Germany has a gaggle of allies and puppets in Europe, allowing her to dominate the continent. These states range from constitutional monarchies, like Italy and Portugal, to German-backed autocracies, like the republics of the former United Kingdom. Of these, Italy is the strongest, although it cannot hold a candle to German power and is very much a German sidekick. There has been talk of forming a European union, but the Germans themselves are not enthusiastic about it. After all, they seek to have dominance over all of mankind, not just Europe.
The South American Confederation is the new American federal democratic republic. Not an active participant in the War of the Third Concord, the SAC provided much-needed goods to the anti-Third Concord powers. Untouched by war, the SAC was in a great position to fill the economic gaps created by the war. As a result, the South American Confederation became one of the great powers of Earth and the Solar System, although they are still poor compared to Germany and the United States. The SAC joined the new Third Concord mostly out of fear of American belligerence. After all, the Americans' stated goal of ruling the world threatens the SAC more directly than Germany's claim to do the same.
Union of Exceptionalists
American democracy died with the Martian War, and its brief revival in the 1920s proved to be the twitching of a corpse. The American Exceptionalist regime survived the Great Switch, but at tremendous cost. The Great Switch devastated the United States, as British and Confederate forces were able to push through the rather meager American defenses on Earth. However, the American state did not collapse. The Exceptionalist regime was able to mobilize militias to hold the line, as American reserves from Venus and the Moon made their way to Earth. In the end, the Anglo-Confederate alliance was incapable of defeating the Americans before floating fortresses arrived and destroyed Anglo-Confederate forces from orbit. The American space forces were still far superior to those of the Anglo-Confederates, and like the Germans in the continent, the Americans were able to use these to their full advantage.
The United States is a one-party state, its de facto tradition of military rule making way for de jure changes. A new constitution was adopted in 1946, at the end of the War of the Third Concord, which did away with democracy and enshrined the Exceptionalists as the only legal political party in the country. Like the Salvationists before them, the Exceptionalists have taken on all of the trappings of a totalitarian party. Secret police, mass prison camps at the far-flung colonies of the American empire, militarism, and an enforced, manufactured "American" culture. President Sullivan, who died during the war, was enshrined as the eternal President of the United States during the new constitutional convention, transforming the office into a ceremonial one. True power lies in the hands of the Chairman of the Exceptionalist Party, which has become so fused with the American state that it is almost pointless to make any distinction between the two. Other luminaries of the Exceptionalist movement, such as Thomas Edison and Annie Sullivan, are revered as the Founding Fathers once were.
All non-humans have been forcibly deported from the continental United States, which is an explicitly human-only zone. The Americans have large alien slave populations under their control, mostly on Venus; ironically, the Exeptionalists provide for robust protections for human workers. Despite popular belief and the ramblings of some American politicians, the Exceptionalists do not want to exterminate all non-human life in the Solar System; why do that when they are such a great source of slave labor? However, the Exceptionalists disagree with the German policy of moving aliens to Earth in order to work there. The Exceptionalists strongly believe that Earth should be free of all non-native life, and are concerned with contamination from alien cultures and alien environments. The Exceptionalists commonly cite Martian red weed, which has devastated large areas of the planet.
The Exceptionalists seek to rule the whole Solar System, and their actions are geared towards this. They attempt to use the North American Community to force the other American states to do their bidding, but the membership of California in that organization has made it rather useless to the Americans. The Americans are enthusiastic colonizers of Venus, and they are actively building more habitats in the caves of the Moon. American colonial rule is brutal, with aliens being forcibly removed and used as slaves in other areas to make way for American colonists. The Exceptionalists want America to maintain its population advantage over Germany, which is what makes the Americans competitive. America is not as rich or technologically advanced as Germany, although they do have a larger space force and more assets offworld.
The Americans have a small group of allies. The defeated Confederates and Oceanians still have significant forces, but are forbidden from having any offworld assets. The Japanese, who never betrayed the Americans, are the Americans' sidekick. The Japanese have the largest wet navy in the Solar System, and after the stalemate in Asia, they shifted their national focus to economic dominance and trade.
An independent power with growing ties to the USA is The Russian Empire. The Russians entered a separate peace with Germany, as the Russian forces were more numerous than Germany could deal with, the Tsar was just along for the ride and didn't agree with his warmongering ministers, and the Germans were exhausted from defeating the British. The Russians continue to have poor relations with Germany, and border skirmishes happen every few years. Dominionism remains the ruling ideology of Russia, and ironically it has been tinged with a bit of Salvationism. The Russians believe that everyone can be saved, but as humans, they should focus on saving humans first. This includes robust protections for the weakest in society, as Jesus taught. This rhetoric rubs German industrialists the wrong way, who are worried that such talk would cause unrest if it isn't treated with the same contempt as Salvationism. The Exceptionalists, on the other hand, dislike the Christian universalism.
The Rest of Earth
The Taiping managed to survive the war with Japan, and reunify the country under their control. Like past dynasties, the Taiping have resorted to brutal measures in crushing opposition to their rule. Because the country is so closed off, nobody actually knows how many millions died, but it is known that millions did die. The Taiping have the largest population on Earth, although they still have a very technologically backwards, rural society that cannot compete with its neighbor, Japan. Because of tensions between the two Asian powers, and the Taiping's lack of a proper deterrent, it is likely that the next great war on Earth will be fought between China and Japan.
The British were never truly defeated. They retreated to India, where their position was all but impregnable. The Darwinist regime had long prepared India as the last redoubt in case of catastrophic defeat, so when the defeat came, they were ready. India is a holdover of the 19th century, maintained with the spoils of the Martian War. India is ruled by the British like the Martians ruled Venus. The Darwinists modified the existing Indian caste system, placing themselves at the top and aliens at the bottom. Guerrilla movements are common, but India's vast population is kept under control with armies of patrol tripods. Large populations of slaves were moved to India from Venus, a population distrusted by locals. The British live in gleaming citadels in the middle of Indian cities, surrounded by massive walls and fortifications, while the rest of the population lives in ramshackle slums. Seeing no allies to be had, the British have closed themselves to the world, so much of what is known in the outside world about British India is conjecture.
Egypt was the other great neutral of the war, at least until the very end. A minor power during the war's beginning, Egypt became a major power when it attacked British and French positions in the Middle East, upon the urging of Germany. The Egyptians have adopted anti-colonial rhetoric since, and they are the loudest voice for promoting independence from Europe. This causes some problems, as many anti-colonial groups get funding and legitimacy from Egypt.
Luna
There was very little fighting on and around the Moon during the War of the Third Concord. Some exiles remain there to this day, such as the French Humanists. The Moon's importance is primarily as a naval station and as a base for Verne guns, pointing both towards and away from Earth. The Selenites have been thoroughly pacified, the Grand Lunar now under German-American custody.
Venus
The Germans and Americans mopped up the war on Venus during the final stages of the War of the Third Concord. The Germans ended up dominating the planet, as they do in the 1960s, but the Americans continue to pour settlers onto the planet. The issue of the hostile Venusian environment has been an ongoing problem for long-term human colonization, and there are many ideas involving the use of solar radiation to blast parts of the Venusian atmosphere into space. Of course, this would have horrible effects on the local Venusian biosphere, but the human powers don't particularly care.
Venus remains a technologically backwards world. The local empires are at a level comparable to the Bronze Age, although they do have some Martian and human technology to play around with. Because of Venus' distance from Earth, the natives are often used for fighting colonial wars. With six known sapient species on Venus, all of whom eager to kill one another as much as they are any Martian or human, the political situation on the ground is always confusing. The colonial powers tend to back locals where they can, with the Germans showing a preference for more orderly kingdoms, while the Americans tend to back upstarts. There is also the Thorian Republic, established by the locals after being influenced by Salvationist ideas, which harbors some refugees from Salvationist Mars. A state dependent on collapsing Martian infrastructure, the Thorians are rather belligerent slavers, attacking communities that aren't defended by the human powers. As more Venusians flock to either German or American protection, it is clear that war between the Thorians and the humans is inevitable.
Mars
Mars is a death world, what you get when the Princess of Mars meets Mad Max at a steampunk convention bathroom. Mars was a dying planet, but now it's a dead one. The Martian Civil War and the War of the Third Concord ruined Martian infrastructure. Cities were bombed, canals, air exchanges and water treatment facilities razed, farms despoiled. While that is devastating to any civilization, the infrastructure of the Martian Empire was the only thing preventing rapid desertification from becoming irreversible. The Martians placed solar shields around their planet to keep out solar radiation, and air exchanges were crucial to maintaining what little remained of Mars' ozone layer. These were destroyed by the Third Concord fleets during Operation Scarlet Storm, and the Salvationists were unwilling to replace them. Instead, the Salvationist regime, paranoid about a second invasion from Earth, poured all of their efforts into keeping their massive military and building Verne guns on Phobos and Deimos.
As desertification began in force, the Salvationist regime faced its own revolution. The Martian civilians suffered, while the military grew increasingly discontent and demanded more funding. It was becoming clear that Mars could no longer sustain any civilization. The military demanded a counter invasion of Earth, while others wanted détente with Earth in order to get aid. With both sides in deadlock, nothing happened, and everyone grew more desperate. It wasn't long before order broke down, first in the heavily damaged cities that were abandoned by the regime, but soon there was unrest in Maleldilium itself. The military refused to act unless concessions were made. They weren't, there was an abortive coup attempt, and the Salvationists tried another round of purges that backfired. The Salvationist regime collapsed very quickly, with loyalists only retaining control of the area around Maleldilium. Most of the planet's remaining cities were destroyed and taken over by the sands.
Mars is now in almost-total anarchy. The telluric Martians, having evolved in the dry highlands of Mars, fared best. Absent the ruling hand of the Martian Empire or Malacandra, most went back to their nomadic, tribal ways. Spears may have been replaced by war-era heat rays, and beasts of burden with landships and skitter tripods, but otherwise life for these tribesmen is much as it was for thousands of generations. They mostly travel the sands of Mars, looking for oases and herds of wild animals, and they raid the occasional settlement. As settlements grow rarer, the telluric tribes turn increasingly on one another.
The Salvationists maintain control of Maleldilium and some surrounding cities. The Salvationists are almost entirely hnau now, and even then many pfifltriggi have decided to form independent warbands themselves. The Salvationist regime is on its last legs, relying heavily on rationing of water and food in order to keep up. As the population is still too high to maintain, there are occasional purges and exiles, and the fear that anyone could be next helps keep the Salvationist regime in power. Still in control of the Verne guns on Phobos and Deimos, some Salvationists propose pointing them at Earth and demanding that the humans assist the regime, but others rightly point out that this would only give the humans reason to launch a second invasion.
At the foot of Olympus Mons, the Throxus Empire rises. Founded by Leonidas, a telluric Martian warlord who defeated the Salvationists during the civil war and the Third Concord during Scarlet Storm, the Throxus Empire is a brutal, medieval state. Eschewing high technology as too costly to maintain, save for military use, Leonidas seeks to create his own legacy simply by doing what others on Mars cannot: survive.
The humans aren't interested in Mars. Operation Scarlet Storm left a very bad taste in everyone's mouths, and what would they gain from colonizing a dying world? The Moon, at least, has strategic importance. Mars was only important because they invaded Earth twice. Now, they are teetering on the edge of oblivion, although some on Earth do want to give them a last push for old time's sake.
The Outer Solar System
The next frontier is the Outer Solar System. The morgors continue to remain a threat, and while they are content to attack Mars every now and then, it is likely that they will get bored of that dying planet and go after a more powerful opponent. The morgors do make attempts to stop any Inners from exploring beyond the Asteroid Belt, but some expeditions have made it out and returned. The Americans are looking forward to the expedition returning from the ninth planet in the Solar System, what the Martian called "Yuggoth." The expedition had been out of contact for the entire journey, in order not to attract attention from the morgors. Once they enter American-controlled space, they'll be able to share everything they learned there.
[1] I couldn't resist.
[2] I always planned on Scarlet Storm ending with a Fatherland reversal on Earth. Well, kinda sorta.
My original idea had Operation Scarlet Storm failing, with the CSA and Britain betraying the USA and being defeated in turn. The British and Confederates, no friends of the Americans, believed that American commitment to Scarlet Storm would leave them defenseless, and after the operation's failure, they decided to pounce in the actual Barbarossa analogue: the Great Switch. Germany dominates Earth, and is in a cold war with America and Salvationist Mars, which once again becomes a great power. Taiping China forges an alliance with Salvationist Mars. Germany forms a new Third Concord, the "real" one, and the Americans form the Union of Exceptionalists to oppose them. A very straightforward WWII parallel, with appearances from the Mars Attacks-style morgors and, of course, the Fungi out of Yuggoth.
I decided to change things up a bit. The big pieces are still there: Scarlet Storm fails, the Great Switch happens, and Germany and America emerge the big winners of the War of the Third Concord. But, Mars never becomes a great power again. Its environment, already in a steep decline during the Martian War, gets worse. The forced industrialization of the Salvationist regime helped Mars against the Third Concord, but all of the military focus meant that nothing was done about the necessary environmental maintenance. Third Concord attacks on cities and canals, Salvationist scorched earth tactics, and the scrapping of important environmental machinery for war use only helped things along. Operation Scarlet Storm, the military invasion intended to destroy the Martian species, was totally unnecessary.
I decided to set this when I would have naturally ended the timeline: 1967, a century after the end of the Martian War. The Solar System is a very different place. Humanity is the dominant force in the inner Solar System, and they are beginning to move past the Belt and into the territory of the morgors. Mars is a beaten world, one on its way out, while Venus is firmly under humanity's colonial boot. Were the humans united, they could easily gain total control of the entire Solar System. However, they are far from united. Earth is locked in a tense geopolitical struggle, but neither power wants to go to war.
What keeps the peace between the two powers is the Verne gun. Named euphemistically after Jules Verne, who wrote a science fiction novel revolving on the use of Martian space cannon technology for human space exploration, the Verne gun is a weaponized space cannon. Seeking to avoid turning the passengers in cylinders into jelly, the Martians launched projectiles at relatively low velocities required to escape Mars' gravity. Faced with no opposition that could reasonably threaten them, the Martian Empire never envisioned using space cannons as weapons.
Humanity thought differently. Using powerful magnetic accelerators, Verne guns fired hyper-dense slugs at their enemies, packing more punch than aetheric munitions. The first Verne guns were built by the British on their lunar installations, to defend Earth from future Martian attack. These were never used during the War of the Third Concord, as the Germans quickly retreated from lunar orbit to attack the Third Concord on the Moon. The Americans mounted smaller Verne guns on the Columbia and their other floating fortresses and ships. These orbital Verne guns were used during Operation Scarlet Storm to rain mankind's fury on Mars. This led to the development of Verne guns as offensive, strategic weapons, designed primarily to destroy cities. These Verne guns were too late to help during Scarlet Storm, but were used to destroy Confederate and British positions after the Great Switch. One floating fortress, the William Sherman, destroyed the core of Atlanta with a single shot.[1] Since the war, the Germans and Americans both developed Verne guns of increasing yields. Modern Verne guns can fire rounds at half the speed of light, obliterating entire metropolitan areas in a single blast. The Americans rely on their floating fortresses, while the Germans rely on their lunar bases, and both can destroy every metropolitan area on Earth in mere hours.
Technology remains highly steampunk, although the aesthetic of the 1960s is Art Deco and Noir. Mass urbanization and industrialization have taken root, and railways and highways crisscross Europe and North America. Great skyscrapers, made much taller thanks to the use of cavorite, typically exist at the center of major cities, particularly those damaged during the War of the Third Concord. Metropolis Tower in Cologne is nearly a mile tall. Aerospace travel is done primarily through airship, although most people still cannot afford to leave Earth, at least if they intend on coming back. Heat rays have taken the place of many industrial tools, such as cutters, and heat ray ovens are found in every home in Germany, America and the South American Confederation. Centralized computing systems control telecommunications and allow televisions to be somewhat interactive, not unlike DVRs of today.
Third Concord
The Germans were the big winners of the War of the Third Concord. In fact, they won so hard that they named their post-war alliance after the Third Concord. Through the use of aerospace superiority, Germany knocked down the British and the French from their longtime position as the dominant European power, and it could be well argued that they are more powerful than their American rivals. And they are very bitter rivals. While the Germans are patronizing, unabashed human supremacists, they aren't racialist totalitarians like the Americans.[2] Democracy, freedom, and rule of law have found a new home in Germany, after being abandoned in America. Germany sees America as a traitor to its own legacy and to all free men, bad actors who are tolerated at best.
Of course, the truth is a bit different. German democracy is more theoretical than anything else. The Fatherland Front still dominates politics, and has yet to lose an election. This is not because of vote rigging or corruption, but because the Fatherland Party has many disparate factions and political discourse - at least, that which is permissible - happens at the party level. A humanist political party, the politicians of the Fatherland Front believe that Germany has a duty to lead humanity into a new golden age. Over the years, this optimism has tempered itself to the belief that Germany has a duty to prevent mankind from destroying itself. There are a variety of anti-humanist factions in the Fatherland Party, motivated by various causes that take exception to Germany's leading role.
Political freedom is generally respected in Germany. Being a militaristic, statist, orderly culture, liberal thought is unpopular. Social programs exist as part of Germany's paternalistic state, and exist to defuse socialist rhetoric. Exceptionalism and Salvationism are impermissible in Germany, and political movements that edge too close to these are banned.
Germany is wealthy in two ways: its metropolitan economy is robust and advanced, and her colonies on Earth and beyond provide Germany with endless natural resources. Rare earth minerals from the Congo and cavorite from Venus, essential for modern life, pour into Germany for processing and manufacturing. These colonies, naturally, have no political representation, and are governed by Frankfurt-appointed governors. The brutal colonialism of old has made way for extensive infrastructure and welfare programs that keep the locals grateful - and dependent - on Germany's presence. The overwhelming majority of colonial populations are employed by German firms or the German state, with those that aren't being farmers or hunter-gatherers. If Germany were to ever leave, these colonies would flounder.
Germany has a gaggle of allies and puppets in Europe, allowing her to dominate the continent. These states range from constitutional monarchies, like Italy and Portugal, to German-backed autocracies, like the republics of the former United Kingdom. Of these, Italy is the strongest, although it cannot hold a candle to German power and is very much a German sidekick. There has been talk of forming a European union, but the Germans themselves are not enthusiastic about it. After all, they seek to have dominance over all of mankind, not just Europe.
The South American Confederation is the new American federal democratic republic. Not an active participant in the War of the Third Concord, the SAC provided much-needed goods to the anti-Third Concord powers. Untouched by war, the SAC was in a great position to fill the economic gaps created by the war. As a result, the South American Confederation became one of the great powers of Earth and the Solar System, although they are still poor compared to Germany and the United States. The SAC joined the new Third Concord mostly out of fear of American belligerence. After all, the Americans' stated goal of ruling the world threatens the SAC more directly than Germany's claim to do the same.
Union of Exceptionalists
American democracy died with the Martian War, and its brief revival in the 1920s proved to be the twitching of a corpse. The American Exceptionalist regime survived the Great Switch, but at tremendous cost. The Great Switch devastated the United States, as British and Confederate forces were able to push through the rather meager American defenses on Earth. However, the American state did not collapse. The Exceptionalist regime was able to mobilize militias to hold the line, as American reserves from Venus and the Moon made their way to Earth. In the end, the Anglo-Confederate alliance was incapable of defeating the Americans before floating fortresses arrived and destroyed Anglo-Confederate forces from orbit. The American space forces were still far superior to those of the Anglo-Confederates, and like the Germans in the continent, the Americans were able to use these to their full advantage.
The United States is a one-party state, its de facto tradition of military rule making way for de jure changes. A new constitution was adopted in 1946, at the end of the War of the Third Concord, which did away with democracy and enshrined the Exceptionalists as the only legal political party in the country. Like the Salvationists before them, the Exceptionalists have taken on all of the trappings of a totalitarian party. Secret police, mass prison camps at the far-flung colonies of the American empire, militarism, and an enforced, manufactured "American" culture. President Sullivan, who died during the war, was enshrined as the eternal President of the United States during the new constitutional convention, transforming the office into a ceremonial one. True power lies in the hands of the Chairman of the Exceptionalist Party, which has become so fused with the American state that it is almost pointless to make any distinction between the two. Other luminaries of the Exceptionalist movement, such as Thomas Edison and Annie Sullivan, are revered as the Founding Fathers once were.
All non-humans have been forcibly deported from the continental United States, which is an explicitly human-only zone. The Americans have large alien slave populations under their control, mostly on Venus; ironically, the Exeptionalists provide for robust protections for human workers. Despite popular belief and the ramblings of some American politicians, the Exceptionalists do not want to exterminate all non-human life in the Solar System; why do that when they are such a great source of slave labor? However, the Exceptionalists disagree with the German policy of moving aliens to Earth in order to work there. The Exceptionalists strongly believe that Earth should be free of all non-native life, and are concerned with contamination from alien cultures and alien environments. The Exceptionalists commonly cite Martian red weed, which has devastated large areas of the planet.
The Exceptionalists seek to rule the whole Solar System, and their actions are geared towards this. They attempt to use the North American Community to force the other American states to do their bidding, but the membership of California in that organization has made it rather useless to the Americans. The Americans are enthusiastic colonizers of Venus, and they are actively building more habitats in the caves of the Moon. American colonial rule is brutal, with aliens being forcibly removed and used as slaves in other areas to make way for American colonists. The Exceptionalists want America to maintain its population advantage over Germany, which is what makes the Americans competitive. America is not as rich or technologically advanced as Germany, although they do have a larger space force and more assets offworld.
The Americans have a small group of allies. The defeated Confederates and Oceanians still have significant forces, but are forbidden from having any offworld assets. The Japanese, who never betrayed the Americans, are the Americans' sidekick. The Japanese have the largest wet navy in the Solar System, and after the stalemate in Asia, they shifted their national focus to economic dominance and trade.
An independent power with growing ties to the USA is The Russian Empire. The Russians entered a separate peace with Germany, as the Russian forces were more numerous than Germany could deal with, the Tsar was just along for the ride and didn't agree with his warmongering ministers, and the Germans were exhausted from defeating the British. The Russians continue to have poor relations with Germany, and border skirmishes happen every few years. Dominionism remains the ruling ideology of Russia, and ironically it has been tinged with a bit of Salvationism. The Russians believe that everyone can be saved, but as humans, they should focus on saving humans first. This includes robust protections for the weakest in society, as Jesus taught. This rhetoric rubs German industrialists the wrong way, who are worried that such talk would cause unrest if it isn't treated with the same contempt as Salvationism. The Exceptionalists, on the other hand, dislike the Christian universalism.
The Rest of Earth
The Taiping managed to survive the war with Japan, and reunify the country under their control. Like past dynasties, the Taiping have resorted to brutal measures in crushing opposition to their rule. Because the country is so closed off, nobody actually knows how many millions died, but it is known that millions did die. The Taiping have the largest population on Earth, although they still have a very technologically backwards, rural society that cannot compete with its neighbor, Japan. Because of tensions between the two Asian powers, and the Taiping's lack of a proper deterrent, it is likely that the next great war on Earth will be fought between China and Japan.
The British were never truly defeated. They retreated to India, where their position was all but impregnable. The Darwinist regime had long prepared India as the last redoubt in case of catastrophic defeat, so when the defeat came, they were ready. India is a holdover of the 19th century, maintained with the spoils of the Martian War. India is ruled by the British like the Martians ruled Venus. The Darwinists modified the existing Indian caste system, placing themselves at the top and aliens at the bottom. Guerrilla movements are common, but India's vast population is kept under control with armies of patrol tripods. Large populations of slaves were moved to India from Venus, a population distrusted by locals. The British live in gleaming citadels in the middle of Indian cities, surrounded by massive walls and fortifications, while the rest of the population lives in ramshackle slums. Seeing no allies to be had, the British have closed themselves to the world, so much of what is known in the outside world about British India is conjecture.
Egypt was the other great neutral of the war, at least until the very end. A minor power during the war's beginning, Egypt became a major power when it attacked British and French positions in the Middle East, upon the urging of Germany. The Egyptians have adopted anti-colonial rhetoric since, and they are the loudest voice for promoting independence from Europe. This causes some problems, as many anti-colonial groups get funding and legitimacy from Egypt.
Luna
There was very little fighting on and around the Moon during the War of the Third Concord. Some exiles remain there to this day, such as the French Humanists. The Moon's importance is primarily as a naval station and as a base for Verne guns, pointing both towards and away from Earth. The Selenites have been thoroughly pacified, the Grand Lunar now under German-American custody.
Venus
The Germans and Americans mopped up the war on Venus during the final stages of the War of the Third Concord. The Germans ended up dominating the planet, as they do in the 1960s, but the Americans continue to pour settlers onto the planet. The issue of the hostile Venusian environment has been an ongoing problem for long-term human colonization, and there are many ideas involving the use of solar radiation to blast parts of the Venusian atmosphere into space. Of course, this would have horrible effects on the local Venusian biosphere, but the human powers don't particularly care.
Venus remains a technologically backwards world. The local empires are at a level comparable to the Bronze Age, although they do have some Martian and human technology to play around with. Because of Venus' distance from Earth, the natives are often used for fighting colonial wars. With six known sapient species on Venus, all of whom eager to kill one another as much as they are any Martian or human, the political situation on the ground is always confusing. The colonial powers tend to back locals where they can, with the Germans showing a preference for more orderly kingdoms, while the Americans tend to back upstarts. There is also the Thorian Republic, established by the locals after being influenced by Salvationist ideas, which harbors some refugees from Salvationist Mars. A state dependent on collapsing Martian infrastructure, the Thorians are rather belligerent slavers, attacking communities that aren't defended by the human powers. As more Venusians flock to either German or American protection, it is clear that war between the Thorians and the humans is inevitable.
Mars
Mars is a death world, what you get when the Princess of Mars meets Mad Max at a steampunk convention bathroom. Mars was a dying planet, but now it's a dead one. The Martian Civil War and the War of the Third Concord ruined Martian infrastructure. Cities were bombed, canals, air exchanges and water treatment facilities razed, farms despoiled. While that is devastating to any civilization, the infrastructure of the Martian Empire was the only thing preventing rapid desertification from becoming irreversible. The Martians placed solar shields around their planet to keep out solar radiation, and air exchanges were crucial to maintaining what little remained of Mars' ozone layer. These were destroyed by the Third Concord fleets during Operation Scarlet Storm, and the Salvationists were unwilling to replace them. Instead, the Salvationist regime, paranoid about a second invasion from Earth, poured all of their efforts into keeping their massive military and building Verne guns on Phobos and Deimos.
As desertification began in force, the Salvationist regime faced its own revolution. The Martian civilians suffered, while the military grew increasingly discontent and demanded more funding. It was becoming clear that Mars could no longer sustain any civilization. The military demanded a counter invasion of Earth, while others wanted détente with Earth in order to get aid. With both sides in deadlock, nothing happened, and everyone grew more desperate. It wasn't long before order broke down, first in the heavily damaged cities that were abandoned by the regime, but soon there was unrest in Maleldilium itself. The military refused to act unless concessions were made. They weren't, there was an abortive coup attempt, and the Salvationists tried another round of purges that backfired. The Salvationist regime collapsed very quickly, with loyalists only retaining control of the area around Maleldilium. Most of the planet's remaining cities were destroyed and taken over by the sands.
Mars is now in almost-total anarchy. The telluric Martians, having evolved in the dry highlands of Mars, fared best. Absent the ruling hand of the Martian Empire or Malacandra, most went back to their nomadic, tribal ways. Spears may have been replaced by war-era heat rays, and beasts of burden with landships and skitter tripods, but otherwise life for these tribesmen is much as it was for thousands of generations. They mostly travel the sands of Mars, looking for oases and herds of wild animals, and they raid the occasional settlement. As settlements grow rarer, the telluric tribes turn increasingly on one another.
The Salvationists maintain control of Maleldilium and some surrounding cities. The Salvationists are almost entirely hnau now, and even then many pfifltriggi have decided to form independent warbands themselves. The Salvationist regime is on its last legs, relying heavily on rationing of water and food in order to keep up. As the population is still too high to maintain, there are occasional purges and exiles, and the fear that anyone could be next helps keep the Salvationist regime in power. Still in control of the Verne guns on Phobos and Deimos, some Salvationists propose pointing them at Earth and demanding that the humans assist the regime, but others rightly point out that this would only give the humans reason to launch a second invasion.
At the foot of Olympus Mons, the Throxus Empire rises. Founded by Leonidas, a telluric Martian warlord who defeated the Salvationists during the civil war and the Third Concord during Scarlet Storm, the Throxus Empire is a brutal, medieval state. Eschewing high technology as too costly to maintain, save for military use, Leonidas seeks to create his own legacy simply by doing what others on Mars cannot: survive.
The humans aren't interested in Mars. Operation Scarlet Storm left a very bad taste in everyone's mouths, and what would they gain from colonizing a dying world? The Moon, at least, has strategic importance. Mars was only important because they invaded Earth twice. Now, they are teetering on the edge of oblivion, although some on Earth do want to give them a last push for old time's sake.
The Outer Solar System
The next frontier is the Outer Solar System. The morgors continue to remain a threat, and while they are content to attack Mars every now and then, it is likely that they will get bored of that dying planet and go after a more powerful opponent. The morgors do make attempts to stop any Inners from exploring beyond the Asteroid Belt, but some expeditions have made it out and returned. The Americans are looking forward to the expedition returning from the ninth planet in the Solar System, what the Martian called "Yuggoth." The expedition had been out of contact for the entire journey, in order not to attract attention from the morgors. Once they enter American-controlled space, they'll be able to share everything they learned there.
[1] I couldn't resist.
[2] I always planned on Scarlet Storm ending with a Fatherland reversal on Earth. Well, kinda sorta.
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An American expedition to icy Yuggoth... "At the Planet of Madness"? 