80 Days

Keperry

Th excellent narrative game 80 Days just came out on Steam for PC, and it's definitely something that should interest people here. As the name suggests it's a take on Around the World in 80 Days; the player, as Passepartout, helps Phileas Fogg circumnavigate an alternate steampunk world. The world is very original, detailed, and well-thought out, especially with regard to non-European places and cultures (which only makes sense since most of the game is outside of Europe but it's still very refreshing for the genre).

There are airships of course, and a wide variety of them, as well as several mechanical forms of ground transportation, and automata, many made by the powerful worldwide Artificer's Guild. A lot of the political situation is similar to OTL's 1872 with steampunk trappings, but there are notable differences too. The lore that you're exposed to depends on where you go and what you choose but interesting tidbits that I've discovered so far include:
-Austria-Hungary is an aggressive and warlike empire with an army of automata that fight by singing. The Emperor has banned the Artificer's Guild from the country. In the last war with the Ottomans, something terrible happened at Belgrade that destroyed the city and/or its inhabitants.
-The Artificers have rebuilt the Library of Alexandria, and one of them has created a technology which can replay images from the past.
-Much of southern Africa is ruled by the Zulu Federation under Emperor Cetshwayo. Its subjects include the Orange Free State and it has reclaimed Port Elizabeth, now Bhayi, from the British.
-Antananarivo is a powerful independent city-state under the rule of Artificer-Queen Ranavalona II. It is allied to the Zulus and has effectively laid claim to much of the surrounding ocean by placing refueling buoys for airships there.
-Haiti is very wealthy and owns the Panama Canal, which is still under construction. They fuse their automata with living creatures, which has led some to accuse them of using voodoo.
Overall it seems like there's a lot more gender equality than in OTL, though it's not total. Women crew ships and airships, run businesses, and join the Artificers, but being a soldier for example would still be bizarre and many still seem to stick to the typical Victorian model.

Anyone else playing? I'd love to hear all the other details that exist.
 
HongCanucker

HongCanucker

I started a thread some time ago, but it's fine to have a new one, it's probably better not to bring up the old, buried ones.
 

Keperry

HongCanucker said:
I started a thread some time ago, but it's fine to have a new one, it's probably better not to bring up the old, buried ones.
Click to expand...

Oh, whoops, didn't see that one. Sorry! Yeah, you got a lot of good stuff in there, although I think that coming to PC is enough to occasion a new thread...
 
HongCanucker

HongCanucker

Now it's been a while since I last played the game, but I'll try to expand on some of the things I found, divided by region:

Europe:
- The Russian Empire completed the Trans-Siberian Railway much earlier than in our timeline, and seems to be quite prosperous. However it is, for some reason, subject to socialist revolutionaries in St. Petersburg's streets, surprisingly early, but given the fact that the Empire seems to have industrialized much earlier and quicker than in OTL without providing any welfare to the repressed working class this may be a bit expected.
- The populace of Kristiania (Oslo) has almost completely, if not entirely, been moved underground, as its people are fearful about the threats posed by airships able to exact aerial bombardment on the city, especially as tensions escalate across Europe.
- Automated gondolas now ply the canals of Venice, amidst a wave of backlash by human gondoliers forced out of the business.

Africa:
- As part of their preparations for the war to engulf Europe, the Ottoman Empire has been building and testing giant mecha as war machines. One such test subject is located in Aswan, in the Ottoman protectorate of Egypt, and is based off the Egyptian goddess Swenett.
- David Livingstone remains in Ujiji, but has turned towards abolitionism against the Arab slavers in the region, and has been reporting about the violence and crimes of the Arab slave trade.

Asia:
- Surprisingly, China has modernised, much in the same vein as Japan. Even more surprising is the fact that the person who spearheaded the modernisation campaign (or at least is credited with doing so) is none other than the Dowager Empress Cixi. Especially when one considers the role she played in muzzling the Self-Strengthening Movement and cutting off the Hundred Days' Reform in OTL. However, Hong Kong is still a British colony and thus independent of the Qing dominion, so the Qing haven't quite gotten to the point where they can kick out the foreign powers on their doorstep.
- It is implied that the British lost the Second Anglo-Burmese War. Lower Burma, including Rangoon, remains independent of foreign subjugation, and is highly militarised amidst fears that the British are going to be back on their doorstep.
- The Anglo-Russian rivalry seems to be even more intense. British influence is very evident in Japan, and there is some disgruntlement among the Japanese people about this. It doesn't seem that there is full disclosure about an earlier Anglo-Japanese Alliance, but the Friendship Treaty does have Russia on edge, to the point where Vladivostok is essentially a fortress city, and anybody even remotely suspected of associating with the British in any way is immediately arrested unless they have the appropriate papers to enter.

North America:
- There is a strange mix of jazz and voodoo culture in New Orleans. There is a vibrant nightlife, with clubs where musicians experiment with strange new musical forms, and where rather laissez-faire LGBT laws allows gay and lesbian couples to, at the very least, openly show affection for one another.
- Washington, D.C. suffered aerial bombardment by the Confederate States during the American Civil War. How? Airships. The War seems to have dragged on somewhat longer due to the technological changes preceding the conflict, but the Union remains whole. Even for several years since the end of the war parts of the city haven't been cleaned up, though these are mostly out of sight of the important government buildings.
- The French and Mexicans are at war. It may be the French intervention in Mexico dragging much longer than it did in OTL, or it may be due to France and Haiti being challenged in the Panama Isthmus by the powers in Central America. Regardless, it is known that the French are attempting to restore Maximilian and the Mexican Empire, and Mexico's current government is still under republican rule. Surprisingly, the United States has not involved itself in the conflict yet due to its Monroe Doctrine obligations, but since it's still licking its wounds from the Civil War it shouldn't come off as too surprising.
 

Keperry

-The Asante and Dahomey kingdoms are trying to industrialize to fend off colonialism (importing rubber from Brazil to build airships in exchange for kola nuts, for example). Dahomey in particular is running afoul of Britain's anti-slavery efforts.
-Africans in the southeast have a native type of airship that runs on slate or shale (can't remember which), amazing Passapartout.
-It is an open secret that slavery still exists in Brazil.
-Afghanistan seems to be divided between the Persian Empire which rules Herat and the British Raj which rules Kabul; Russia is gearing up to invade. The Great Game is going strong in Central Asia.
-Agra is a walking city on giant mechanical legs built by Shah Jahan to commemorate his wife, of which the Taj Mahal is the capstone. It walks between its location at the end of the Grand Trunk Road and Calcutta.
-Gyroscopes seem to have been invented by the Inca.
-There is an alliance between the Ottomans and Persians, which is encouraging to the Indian independence movement.
-There's an ongoing rebellion against the Dutch in Indonesia (lead by Aceh?)
-The French want to take Marrakesh but so far the Alaouites are too strong.


SPOILER ALERT:
-The North Pole is home to the steam-powered city of Qausuitteq, ruled by the Council of Circumpolar Nations (Sami, Inuit, etc.), who are attempting to industrialize in isolation from the outside world to defend themselves and are torn about whether or not to reveal themselves to the rest of the world.
 
HongCanucker

HongCanucker

Also, the following real-life historical figures are seen or mentioned by name:
- Henri Blowitz (Austro-Hungarian reporter, covering the escalating tensions in Europe and the militarisation of Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire)
- Otto von Bismarck (Chancellor of the German Empire)
- Jesse James (American bandit, robbing trains on the Transcontinental Railroad)
- Cixi (Empress of China, oversaw reform and modernisation of the Qing Dynasty)
- Esther Hobart Morris (American feminist and first Justice of the Peace)
- Cetshwayo (Emperor of the Zulu Federation)
- Ranavalona II (Queen of Madagascar)
- Pagan Min (King of Burma)
- Jules Verne himself(!)
 

Keperry

-The Artificer's Guild has seized Buenos Aires and now uses it as a capital where they can work away from the eyes of the empires of the Old World. They are also occupying Paraguay after that country's loss in the War of the Triple Alliance because of their "crime" of using automata in the war. All of this has Chile very worried.
-Peru is trying to pay off its debts with guano, which has resulted in a lot of money coming into Lima but very little of it reaching normal people. The country is trying to decide which power it should align with - Haiti? The US? France?
-Australia is industrializing, much to the disadvantage of the Aborigines.
-The Maori King movement is active in New Zealand and apparently having a good deal of military success if not political, and uses strange and mysterious weapons that can apparently tear a man apart.
-Russia has a secret network of underground roads running across Central Asia from its secret observatory at Mount Elbrus.
-The Sisters of Didacus in Madras are looking for an automaton with a soul, which is contrary to the Pope's position that automatons are abominations.
-People of the First Nations whisper about the Kahwoka Othunwe, the legendary Floating Village of the Lakota that is rumored to serve as a refuge for persecuted natives.
-From what I can gather, Tunisia is governed by Prime Minister Khaznadar and is under threat of French invasion.
-There is an uprising against Ottoman rule in Sudan. The Mahdists?
-There are active movements violently opposing British rule in India, especially in the northeast, including guerrillas in Bengal and Assam (possibly with the support of Burma and China) and a Kali cult based in Gwalior led by a familiar face...
 
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HongCanucker

HongCanucker

The Blackfoot own a majority stake, and by extension the entirety of, the Canadian Pacific Railroad. So there are First Nations men and women crewing the trains on the entirety of the route.

Also, it seems like Louis Riel is married to one of the airship captains whom you meet along the way, I forgot who it was.
 
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Keperry

-Italy was recently united and many say that the new monarchy is just a front for the real power, the Scuola (local branch of the Artificer's Guild), which is aggressively experimenting in the field of combining humans with automaton parts: in Rome there are cyborg police, soldiers, craftsmen, shopkeepers, and even prostitutes. Unrest, of which there is a great deal, seems to be spearheaded by the Pope ("automatons are abominations"), and there is a rebellion of Zouaves loyal to him in Rome.
-Many different monastic sects are located in Meteora Valley in Greece, including the Levitating Atheists.
-Dubrovnik is an independent city-state that has resisted conquest by all the various European empires due to a mysterious technology known as "the glass".
-The Fifth Buddhist Synod is being held in Yadanabon (Mandalay).
 
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Keperry

HongCanucker said:
I don't know what value Peru saw in exporting guano. It's literally just birdshit. Yet for some reason it's in high demand.
Click to expand...

As in OTL it's a high nutrient fertilizer, which is especially important before the Haber process for artificial nitrogen fixation is invented.
 
HongCanucker

HongCanucker

Keperry said:
As in OTL it's a high nutrient fertilizer, which is especially important before the Haber process for artificial nitrogen fixation is invented.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's fair enough. But I'm presuming it would only really sell well with countries dependent on agriculture? The US certainly could use it, but what value do France and Haiti see in it when they seem to be industrial powerhouses?
 

Dragun

Guano is important economically in the agriculture industry and was partly the root cause for the War of the Pacific. Secondly guano so far is exclusive on islands and other areas where marine birds excreted them.
 

Keperry

Cross-posting a WIP map from the Map Thread.

80Days.png
 

Keperry

Update to the map.

EDIT: Turns out I was lying about marking the Al-Rashid Emirate, I'll get on that.

80DaysMore.png
 
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