Merlin-3, 1942
Current Affairs: WWII is being fought with magic and dragons
Divergence: 1919; Nuremberg destroyed by something that creates a Hellstorm
Tech Level: 6^
Mana Level: High mana (within 200-miles Nuremberg); normal (everywhere else)
Quantum: 3
The Third Reich covers most of the area covered by the Magiezone and early a third of the German population able to cast spells.
All sides work to breed ever-larger and more-powerful dragons (though a few worry about the consequences of creating intelligent beings more powerful than humans) Each side’s propaganda accuses the other of trafficking with demons the truth of which is unknown.
Of the nations of the world only the Soviets culturally accept “chimeras,” magically mutated blendings of man and beast (seeing them as proof of Lysenkoism). The Germans, in their quest for racial purity, do their best to hunt and exterminate them.
The various nations (or at least their citizens) took advantage of the sudden appearance of magic in the 1920s: American Gangsters used spells and Britain's Oxford and Cambridge established magical colleges.
FDR created the Thaumaturgical Study Administration in 1934 to coordinate and develop magical responses to the Depression.
Stalin's purges have left the USSR with the lowest level of magic use of any major military.
The Axis power heavily regulate magicians forcing them to register with the government. Germany Jewish and other “subhuman” magicians are executed on the spot for fear of a riot similar to the one that leveled Dachau October 1941 occurring.
References[]
- Weird War II pg 132
- GURPS Infinite Worlds pg 135