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"The Christian resolution to find the world ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad."
- Friedrich Nietzsche


Puritan world is an alternate history inspired by the 'Batman: Holy Terror' comic book and the Puritan world from 'The Adventures of Luther Arkwright' comic book (Parallel 00.72.87), to which the characters from my London Champions game were mentally kidnapped.

It is a world where the New Commonwealth, a dictatorial Puritan theocracy in North America and the most powerful single nation on the planet, is just beginning a world war, the first in this dimension, with the major European powers, who are banded together in the Octuple Alliance. It is a world where an American Revolution happened earlier, and in a much nastier fashion, where secularism never really took root, and where in most fields of endeavour the world is less advanced than the real world.


The point of departure from the real world is the confrontation between the English Army, under King Charles I, and that of the Scotch Covenanter army on the banks of the River Tweed in 1639. In the real world Charles' army never even engaged the Scotch because of doubt and indecision among its leadership, leading to a great deal of discontent, and, eventually, the English Civil Wars.

Here, there was slightly less indecision, leading to a battle, but an indecisive one, and still a defeat for the English. This still caused discontent, and lead to an English Civil War, but one where King Charles has somewhat more support than he did in the real world. As such, the English Parliament did not have the support necessary to execute King Charles in 1648, as happened in the real world, and Charles instead went into exile in France.

A living King working from France to regain his throne caused much more unrest and violence in Britain than in the real world, making the Parliamentarian regime much more violent and repressive. This led to the restoration of Charles I to the throne in 1657, and the persecution of the Protestants who fought against him. This in turn lead to the creation of a much larger population in North America, made up of those who fled Britain (including the Cromwells), and a revolution that sets up a new, Puritan, Commonwealth there in 1705. Since then this has grown to be the continental power in North America, and the single most powerful nation on Earth.

Because Britain is both wracked with unrest caused by the forcible 'Catholicisation' of the country, and the emigration of persecuted groups overseas, it never becomes a world power. Instead, the Netherlands and France become the major colonial powers, with Prussia, especially after it, with Austria, re-forms the Holy Roman Empire in the 1860s, a third such power. Africa, India and Asia are divided among these powers, with Russia also taking large portions of India and the Ottoman Empire.

As the New Commonwealth expands and grows, driven on by what it perceives as its God-Given Destiny, it takes over Britain in 1923. This action on their doorsteps forces the various European powers to ally and stand against it, forming the Octuple Alliance.

And now, in 1995, the New Commonwealth has invaded France from its outpost in Britain, and it appears that the final battle between the Puritan New Commonwealth and the rest of the world, interpreted by some as Armageddon, has begun...


The information on Puritan World is divided up into the following sections, on separate pages:


And full credit to Nigel Gale for helping to proof-read this timeline, and for providing valuable historical insights into parts of it.


LINKS

To various things that were very useful in the creation of this alternate history, or that have since used it.

  • Campaign Segment 5 of my London Champions role-playing game, in which this world was visited by the party.
  • Berwick, an alternate history inspired by this one but where events turn out very differently, in particular with the Dutch joining the British Commonwealth in 1651.
  • Octuple was a game run by Ottens whose setting was heavily based on Puritan World. It seems to have vanished from the internet.

Send any comments to me at tony {dot} website {at} clockworksky {dot} net.


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