…Emperor of India and Leng.
Just had a neat idea for a VSF twist. The idea was literally born just a few minutes ago, so it is not well thought out. I am hoping other VSFers will contribute to it.
It's kind of a staple of VSF that the British are the good guys. Sure, they're a bit stodgy and arrogant, and a bit too fond of starched collars, but they are the guardians of civilization, and not bad chaps all around.
But why should this always be the case? I was thinking about an alternative "Evil England", and thought it might be an interesting twist.
The year is 1900, and Great Britain is a very different place. The sorcerer Aleister Crowley has come into possession of the Necronomicon, or something equally sinister, and has cast a terrible spell, turning England ito a land of the undead. Eternal night now shrouds Britain and Ireland, and most of its people have become zombies, vampires, ghosts and worse. Crowley has usurped the throne, and -for some unknown reason- keeps Victoria alive in the Tower of London.
These Dark Satanic Mills
The King-Emperor now keeps the steel mills of Birmingham going day and night, staffed by his undead slaves. These churn out battleships, rifles, land leviathans and other engines of destruction, all designed by HIM's demonically designed difference engines. Wherever the British fleet now goes, it brings death and destruction, and adds more lands to its dark empire of terror.
And What Rough Beast
There is a lot of speculation as to what King Aleister really is, and what he ultimately wants. That he is a madman bent on universal destruction is fairly obvious, but how he intends to go about it is a serious question. Christians speak of the Great Beast. Wizards think he may be trying to raise Cthulhu from the depths. Certainly, he seems to be working toward something greater than himself, but just what, no one is certain. It is nearly impossible to keep an intelligence network going in London these days, and for obvious reasons.
Bastions of Light
France is HIM's greatest and most immediate threat. The president is rather paralyzed by the situation, but the Napoleonic heir has vowed to fight the Sorcerer-usurper in anyway he can, and has joined the Boers in South Africa to this end. No word has been heard from him in several months.
Prussia is, of course, the traditional ally of the English, and certainly Britain's power is waxing. However, the Lutheran Prussians are rather dismayed by the form this has taken. For the moment, they do nothing, though, their strength on the Rhine increases steadily.
America has the world's longest continuous border with the British Empire, and Canada is a land of gloom, shadows, wendigos and other evil spirits. Federal forces may be gathering for an invasion of the Great White North, though this is presently uncertain.
Worst of all, the evil Martians may be joining Buckingham Palace in its war of conquest, and may threaten to take Crowley's evil not just across the world, but across the universe itself. Nothing is known for sure, though rumors of tripods stalking the haunted streets of London exist.
Minis
I was going to do this in 54mm scale. Lots of fantaqsy stuff here, if you add Lemax Spookytown figures into your collection, and these include some nice PC types, like Vampire Hunters and Mad Scientists.
For the British armies, I was simply going to use the stadard figures for the period, though replacing the red coats with black, painting the faces white (shadowed with black wash) and glowing red-in-green eyes for a ghostly look. Might also put some nice bleeding holes in the figures.
I was thinking that the heroes would be mostly French (with the Foreign Legion becoming something of an anti- supernatural strike force) rounded out by Americans and British "renegades".
That's as far as I am at the moment. Any help would be appreciated.
Vince
