Fantasy Earth

The Fantasy Earth (formally Crossroads-4d) of Five Earths, All in a Row
==Detailed information==
In the skies all over the world, various kinds of dragons can be seen, as well as other varieties of flying myths, as appropriate for their regions. There are a number of hot air balloons over India (and a few in nearby regions) and South America, along with flying carpets in parts of the Middle East
The surface looks mostly like Earth in the 6th century, with elements of Middle Earth, and to a lesser degree, 3.5-era Abier-Toril (races, species, and types of items, not specific individuals or places), though the economy looks mostly like what the various cultures on RL Earth actually had in the 6th century. There are the usual people, animals, and plants (along with many unusual ones), there are cities, towns, and villages about where you'd expect them to be (and a few where they probably shouldn't be, including a city apparently made of brass in the least-habitable part of the Arabian paeninsvla, and one with streets paved in gold in South America), and the geography/geology looks mostly the way archaeologists think it did in our timeline in the 6th century (except for several extra or expanded islands & paeninsvlae, a few new or missing mountains, and so forth). In Britain, there's a fairly large wasteland, in large parts of what are now the counties of Denbighshire, Flintshire, and Wrexham, and fairly small parts of Conwy, Gwynedd, Powys, Cheshire, and Shropshire. In certain deserts, Arabia and the Gobi in particular, a few necromancers have quite a lot of undead doing rather strange things. The general nerdity of OTL scientists will likely lead them to the links provided soon enough, though (which have been SFW each of the times I checked them, despite being archived from /tg/; pleasant surprise, that).
The observable point of divergence from our history was in 312 CE (1065 ab urbe condita), when Emperor Constantine was killed at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, having been struck by lightning. This didn't end Christianity, but it did keep it from dominating Europe, and throw off the Imperial succession. Oddly enough, some things still happened, such as the partitioning of the Roman Empire (already begun by Diocletian, in the Third Century CE), and the decline of the Western half. Said decline happened more slowly than in our timeline, and did less damage to Italia. By 500 CE/1253 AUC, the Western Empire had recovered somewhat, and Western Emperor Lucius Tiberius felt confident enough to order the wealthy British cities, victorious over their Teutonic invaders, to pay tribute to Rome. This was something the Britons had stopped doing when the Romans abandoned them in 421/1174 (around 410/1163, in OTL), and felt no reason to resume. Now, in 514/1267, the capital of the Western Roman Empire is Camulodunum, and the Emperor is the Romano-British warlord Ambrosius Aurelianus the Younger (or Ambrosius Aurelianus Romanorum), better known to his own people as Arthur, High King of the Britons. Of course, the Western Empire only controls Britannia, Armorica, Italia, and the cities in Gallia that happen to lie along the best route between Italia and Armorica (though Arthur is mostly allied with the other kingdoms in Gallia).
Meanwhile, the Eastern Roman Empire, with its capital at Olympia, is almost as large as in OTL 514 CE, despite having a bit of a civil war, between the three sons of the late Emperor Crassus. In the regions of Europe not controlled by parts of the Roman Empire, small nations, city-states, and wandering tribes are the order of the day, and North Africa isn't much better - although the Kingdom of the Vandals is fairly strong, surprisingly wealthy and fertile, and seems to have a good chance of uniting the region.
Outside of Europe and the Mediterranean region, things are going fairly close to our timeline... apart from the weird bits: Japan is culturally and technologically closer to the mid Heian era, except that they already have katana. There's a Pharaonate in Kush (what we would call Sudan), with springs and canals that did not exist in OTL, and a culture with great similarities to Ancient Egypt. The Iroquouis (or a very similar tribal alliance) are having an agricultural revolution, and appear to be mastering ironworking and positional numerology, though the rest of their technology appears to be in the early-to-mid Bronze Age, with an ideographic writing system. India has flying machines called 'vimana', most of which are held aloft by lenicular or spindle-shaped hot air balloons, and are propelled by great cloth-and-wood screws. (Think of the airscrew of da Vinci's helicopter. Turn it on its side, make the shaft longer, and mount another screw on the other end, so whenever you turn it, one screw blows air toward the gondola, and the other blows it away. Thus, you can go forward or backward, depending on which way you turn the airscrew. Steering is accomplished by a folding sail/rudder sticking out the bottom of the gondola, and/or other, smaller pairs of airscrews, perpendicular to the main shaft.)
Most of the strange new species are spirits of various types, embodied in whatever matter fits them. Trolls, for example, are a type of Earth elemental hostile to humans, and 'allergic' to direct sunlight, which can banish them from their stone bodies, and leave them unable to take new ones for years, or even centuries. Dragons are harder to codify, and there seem to be multiple types of spirits who use dragon bodies. Some appear to use fossils - or at lease, that's what's left behind when they're 'killed', occasionally along with crocodilian hide, a powerfully magical heart, or both. Others create their bodies gradually over time, from the food they eat, but all dragons (and most other spirits) start with ectoplasm: dust, smoke, vapor, and so forth, gathered and held in place psychokinetically. Spirits that only use ectoplasm, or pure PK (with or without a visual illusion), to simulate their bodies, are effectively immune to non-magical weapons: there's really nothing there to hit. A wide range of other monsterous spirits exist, mostly having started from local legends, and in some cases, wandering further afield. Some monsters, such as the European Owlbear, were created by bored or mad sorcerers, for purposes ranging from the reasonable to the inexplicable. Many of them, when 'killed', leave treasure behind, having taken into their bodies various items worn or carried by previous victims. Dragons vary in size from little lizards or snakes (which may be possessing the bodies of actual reptiles) to a bit larger than a 747 (which often lack physical bodies, at all).
Of the humanoids, dwarves, gnomes, and halflings or hobbits appear to be just pygmy humans of slightly differing phenotypes: Dwarves are generally the biggest of the Little People, and tend to be aggressive, hairy (even their women have beards), and exceptionally strong, tough, and poison-resistant for their size (an average dwarf can drink an average orc or 'normal' human under the table, and wander home without much difficulty). They prefer to live underground, in great mines and caves (though this seems to be more cultural than biological), and their sense of beauty runs toward practical, durable things. Gnomes average between the dwarves and the halflings in size, prefer to live on the surface, and tend to be quite creative. Many of them are highly skilled in illusion magic, alchemy, and engineering, making gadgets that might best be described as 'Windmillpunk', or 'Proto-Clockpunk'. Hobbits are the smallest of the human Little People, and are surprisingly nimble and sure-eyed, with tough, hairy feet, and great appetites (and proportionally large bellies). They could be said to live underground, in the sense that they prefer to build their homes out of tunnels in the sides of hills (poorer hobbits generally build the hills along with their homes, or must burrow into the ground, and deal with the rain), but they spend far more time in the sun than most dwarves do. Most hobbits are plain, quiet folk, with an aversion to adventures (dreadful things; make one late for dinner!), and a fondness for a mild form of cannabis (not the tobacco of Tolkien's notes) called galenas, or 'pipe-weed' - those who do become warriors or adventurers tend to be thinner, less relaxed, and often disdain the weed.
Giants are mostly the descendents of humans with gigantism, who have settled into there own large-but-somewhat-healthy phenotypes. Some giants are instead spirits who take large, humanoid forms. While the human giants top out at around ten feet tall, spirit giants may be much larger, and are of variable size. The locals don't make much distinction between human giants and spirit giants, save as different races: hill giants (generally human) and forest giants (mix of humans and spirits) are fairly friendly if you don't attack or steal from them, storm giants (all spirits, 'living' on/in clouds) and cyclopes (also spirits, and yes, that's apparently the correct plural) aren't friendly at all, et cetra.
Orcs appear to be Neanderthal -descendents with large canines. They average a bit shorter than baseline humans, a bit less intelligent, rather more vulnerable to heat, and very resistant to cold. They also tend to be a bit stronger, tougher, and more aggressive than baseline humans. Ogres appear to be an orc phenotype with fairly-healthy gigantism, topping out at around 9 feet, but tend towards less intelligence. Goblins and hobgoblins appear to be pygmy orcs, the hobgoblins averaging a little bigger than dwarves and a little dumber than orcs, and the goblins averaging about as large and bright as gnomes, though with less love of art and what humans call beauty. Elves say of them that "They make no beautiful things, but they make many clever ones," which has more to do with goblins having different ideals of beauty than elves (and most humans) do, rather than having no concept of it, at all - like dwarves, but far more so, they love practical things, and many of them would find beauty in the 'dark, satanic mills' of the Industrial Revolution (as long as they're not the ones toiling in them). Of all the orcish races, only goblins build cities - unfortunately, their preferred locations for their cities coincide with those of the dwarves, which leads to a lot of conflict. Both goblins and hobgoblins are sallow-skinned, and all orc-derived races have a tendency to wartyness. Orcs and hobgoblins prefer cold climates, while ogres and goblins might live anywhere humans do (though they prefer to avoid the tropics). Despite what the local humans will say, these races are not Always Chaotic Evil, nor are many of them inclined to eat babies - the humans are hostile to them, so they return that hostility, but among themselves, they're mostly just regular folk of the era. This has been going on for so long that it's apparently instinctive for both sides (and the orcish folk aren't going to see a difference between humans from space, and the local variety).
Elves and faeries are spirits, connected to nature, to varying degrees. This sounds nice, but recall that nature doesn't just mean the peaceful green of growing plants, but the red of blood and fire, the white of sharp teeth and the flash of lightning. Nature is beautiful, but do not forget that it is also deadly. The elves are the most human of these nature spirits, and even they are a bit strange. Half-elves generally do have two human parents, it's just that an elf or two were fooling around with one or both of them, and decided to leave an empowerment behind in the child. They tend to be attractive and powerful, but creepy and spooky, from a human perspective.
==Spirits==
There are various types of spirits, embodied in whatever matter fits them. For example, Trolls are Earth elementals that animate stone and are banished by sunlight. Dragons are far more varied animating fossils, using food to "build" their bodies, and others use ectoplasm (dust, smoke, vapor, and so forth, gathered and held in place psycho kinetically) resulting in them being immune to non magical weapons.
While Dwarves, Gnomes, Halflings (Hobbits), some Giants, and Orcs (including Ogres, Goblins and Hobgoblins) are related to humans, Elves, Faeries, and other Giants are spirits.
==Comment on Christianity==
The importance of Constantine the Great in the standardization, development, and stability of Christianity cannot be overstated. Paul hints that Christianity was rapidly becoming fragmented2 Corinthians 11:4 and IrenaeusAgainst Heresies (c 180 CE) shows that it had become wildly fragmented in just a century after Paul.
Extra History provides a series on the Early Christian Schisms which gives a glimpse on some of the issues that caused schisms that Constantine tried deal with...with varying degree of success.
==World outside Europe==
* Japan: culturally and technologically closer to the mid Heian era, except that they already have katana. 
* Pharaonate in Kush (what we would call Sudan), with springs and canals that did not exist in OTL, and a culture with great similarities to Ancient Egypt.
* Iroquouis (or a very similar tribal alliance): having an agricultural revolution, and appear to be mastering ironworking and positional numerology, though the rest of their technology appears to be in the early-to-mid Bronze Age, with an ideographic writing system. 
* India: flying machines called 'vimana', most of which are held aloft by lenticular or spindle-shaped hot air balloons, and are propelled by great cloth-and-wood screws.
==Ideas on Magic from Infopunk Earth==
While magic didn't actually work on Infopunk Earth until after the event and contact is somewhat limited there are loads of material that can be used for inspiration. After a while there will be a "staple" of must have tomes that any reasonable wizard will want to have or already has in their library.
* Authentic Thaumaturgy - the "primer" for wizards...once they have translated its modern US English into something their apprentices can actually read.
* Anything involving the "creation" of "magic" items. Simply because of the wealth of material D&D and the many supplements will be popular...even though they can only be used for inspiration. Works like GURPS Thaumatology, GURPS Religion, and GURPS Magic may present but they will be rare.
* Advanced technology. Wizards will try to recreate advanced technology via magic and some of it will actually work (a lot will fail). For example, having a tank inspired by Da Vinci with some "improvements" is going to total change field combat...provided the wizard can make enough of them.
==Recommended Material==
* Fantasy Earth Timeline
* Classic: Imperial Rome
* Classic: Middle Ages 1
* Classic: Vikings
*Category:Dungeon Fantasy
* Classic: Camelot; Fantasy Earth's Camelot is a mixture of mythic and cinematic.
* Roma Arcana
* Classic: Who's Who 1
* Classic: Who's Who 2
* How The Romans Would See Us Today
===Relevant Historical People from Classic: Who's Who books===
Order is based on birth date. OTL birth and death dates included as reference
*Justinian I (482-565): 211 pts
*Theodora (497-548): 215 pta
==References==
Category:No Mana
Category:Five Earths