Five Earths, All in a Row

This is a campaign setting from the GURPS part of the Steve Jackson Games forums and not part of the GURPS canon. It serves as hub link to Category:Five Earths.

Five Earths, All in a Row are fan creations that originally appeared in the spacebattles forums and were added to the Steve Jackson forums.

In the infinite worlds setting these Earths are connected via permanent 'portals' or 'quasi-wormholes' that allow observation of, communication with, and travel between the various Earths.

The Earths Table

Divergence is figured from Homeline's Earth not our Earth. That is why Infopunk Earth's divergence is 1994 not 2013 Dec 22.

Nicknames Formal Names	Fantasy Earth Fa-Earth Crossroads-4d	Clockpunk Earth Clp-Earth Crossroads-4b	Steampunk Earth Stp-Earth Crossroads-4a	Dieselpunk Earth Dsp-Earth Crossroads-4e	Infopunk Earth Inp-Earth Crossroads-4c
Divergence	c 100,000 BCE/ 312 CE	1457	1823 May 17	Unknown	1994
Start Year	514	1555	1878	1940	2012
Quantum	Q6	Q4	Q3	Q7	Q5
Wave	Minus Two	Minus Four	Minus Five	Minus One	Minus Three
Initial TL	2^-3^	(4+1)^ to (4+2)^	(5+2)^	(6+1)^/9^	7-8
Mana Level	None	Very Low/Wild	Low	Low/variations	Low
Crossroads-4d Names	Terra I	Terra II	Terra III	Terra IV	Terra V
Crossroads-4b Names	Terra or Gaia	native language name	not yet named	not yet named	Autocthonia
Crossroads-4a Names	D-Earth	B-Earth	A-Earth	E-Earth	C-Earth
Crossroads-4e Names	Earth Two	Earth Five	Earth Four	Earth One	Earth Three
Crossroads-4c Names	Earth Five	Earth Four	Earth Three	Earth Two	Earth One

There are tangental realities that are known of:

• The Barsoom John Carter from Dieselpunk Earth accesses is not part of the five above Earths.
• Oct 5, 2013 (InP Date) saw Banestorms on all the Earths that indicated at least two different realities with the other three being possible echoes.
• Two Earths that are in their 30th century with variants of the Legion of Super Heroes that Kal-El traveled to.

Magic

As presented Magic is actually a form of psi power operating along Effect Shaping with a strong element of Semiotic Ghosts ala Gibson's The Gernsback Continuum as an undercurrent.

However, per the idea of Unified Metaphysical Theories, Magery based along these lines would function normally. Furthermore, Roma Arcana uses mana to represent the availability of spirits to help mages cast spells.

• "Magic" is Effect Shaping, but some specific styles may use Energy Accumulating, instead. In the latter case, the 'energy' is lots of minor thoughtforms.
• "Magery" in this setting
• Five Earths, All in a Row Symbol Magic
• Five Earths, All in a Row Spirit Enchantment
• On Anthropomorphic Personifications

Space travel technology

By its very nature Infopunk Earth has the most diversity simply due to the wealth of fictional and abandoned hypothetical material to draw from. However certain designs for ships and propulsion have become dominate on each of the Earths (at least with the military/government) though it can be argued this will change as communications between the various Earths increases.

Timeline

The timeline is quite long and involved and so is listed on separate pages. Dates are from the prospective of Infopunk Earth.

• Five Earths, All in a Row Premise

Dec 21, 2012 to Dec 31, 2013

Dec 21, 2012 to January 2013	2013 February	2013 March	2013 April	2013 May	2013 June
2013 July	2013 August	2013 September	2013 October	2013 November	2013 December

Jan 1, 2013 to Dec 31, 2014

2014 January	2014 February	2014 March	2014 April	2014 May	2014 June
2014 July	2014 August	2014 September	2014 October	2014 November	2014 December

Cross Earth Flavor Text

• Insertion - Infopunk soldiers fight Dieselpunk Nazis...in space.
• On Supervillain Psychology and Behavior

Interesting Issues

Given that many countries (abet in different forms) exist on Infopunk, Dieselpunk, and Steampunk the legal situation is a mess.

Lawyers, judges, and lawmakers on Dp and Sp Earth fear going bald pulling all their hair out over issues like:

General legal issues

• Does citizenship carry over and if so what do you do if the country you belong to doesn't exist on the Earth you are visiting?
• Then there is the issue of there being three Supreme Courts. Do rulings of the Inp-Earth's have any bearing on law in the United States of Dp or Sp Earth as it is the "latest" Supreme Court?

Copyright, Patents, and Trademarks

Since many authors and companies that were long gone on Inp-Earth are now alive/exist on Earth Dp and Earth Sp the issue of who owns copyright and trademarks is a total mess.

• With these people and companies now being alive or existing is all their Inp-Earth material now no longer in the Public Domain?
• Who owns the rights to Fantasia (1940), Inp-Disney or Dp Disney which is being run by Walt himself?
• If Inp-Disney wants to show anything made after their 1942 on Dp Earth does Dp Disney have any rights to the money?
• Can somebody get patent information from Inp-Earth and lock down patents that would have been made by other people?

Important Notes for Infinite World campaign

Since Infopunk Earth was an echo of our Earth until December 21, 2012 all books, including GURPS, published 2012 and earlier exist on that world. The Oct 5, 2013 (InP Date) Banestorms that occurred on all the Earths will cause even more concern. GURPS Infinite Worlds: Five Earths (2014 May) is used as a plot hook to bring in Homeline, Centrum, or both into the setting.

In many respects they are similar to the sherry of The Nine Worlds though each of the worlds can be directly accessed by Infinity parachronic equipment. Centrum on the other hand must use the two earths in the quantum it can access and use space travel to get to the other three realities.

Infinity

The close (or perhaps identical) matching of GURPS Infinite Worlds to Homeline events up to 2027 will likely get that reality a Z2 rating just for the Reich-5 information and certainly with all the magic and super powers showing up. Classic: Time Travel could suggest a variant of Homeline also exists.

When Infinity realizes the Steampunk Earth is in Reich-5's Q3 backyard and Centrum can get to Q5 via Dieselpunk Earth and Fantasy Earth while Centrum is still out of range they in all likelihood will change their policy as Infopunk Earth already knows a lot about Infinity and slightly more about Centrum than they do.

Superman's interview (Dieselpunk Earth) revealed that there are at least two Earths out there that have something akin to parachronic travel. If their Legion of Superheroes are close enough to those in the comics then they are in the 30th century; far in advance of Homeline or Centrum in terms of the year.

• Infinity is Coming - a possible way for Homeline to learn about the Five Earths

Centrum

While Dieselpunk Earth and Fantasy Earth are close they are not in Centrum's Q8 backyard so Interworld is going to have some issues getting to them. Interworld will quickly learn that the easiest way to get to these other Earths everyone keeps talking about involves space travel and of the two worlds it can access Dieselpunk Earth is the best of the two.

With four other Earths accessible from another Earth there are major incentives for Interworld to smuggle equipment that could relay coordinates on to transports to the other Earths.

They will certainly ramp up their efforts once the probes will tell them three of the Earths are in Quantum they can't normally access. (They still haven't figured out Red Moon's bizarre Quantum nature.)

• On a Clear Day You Can See Infinity - a possible way for Centrum to learn about the Five Earths

Variant

• Bridges Out of Time, Alternate Five Earths All in a Row

Suggested Additional Material

• ISOT American 2002 - while this is the 2002 US transported to 1942 it can serve as a rough template on how the Infopunk and Dieselpunk Earths interact.
• As One Star Sets, Another Rises - New Story Only Thread - The Japan of 2015 is transported to 1939. (Alternate history forums, login required) - can serve as a template of how the Japan of Dieselpunk Earth handles knowledge gained from Infopunk Earth
• GURPS Magic - for spells
• GURPS Fantasy - for types of magic
• GURPS Thaumatology - for alternative systems of magic
• Classic: Mars - for the varies versions of Mars of the Earths