Clockpunk Earth

The Clockpunk Earth (formally Crossroads-4b) of Five Earths, All in a Row
==Background==
This is a world of alchemists, centauroid robot soldiers, wind-up motor-carriages, and may other mechanical contrivances. One of the most important inventions of the era is the alchemical development of 'springmetal', a magical alloy that, when coiled into a spiral and wound up, shifts its shape to unwind longer, providing several times the energy put into it. 
The world has golems as seen in Qabala but is much further along even though being 200 years earlier. As with Qabala Jews have rather more rights and security in many nations on this world for the time period.
==Important Divergences==
The sequence of Popes is very different then in OTL:
* Joan II (Lucrezia Borgia)In OTL she died 1519 June 24 at the age of 39.
* Pope Leo X (Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon)Not to be confused with OTL's Leo X; in OTL he died at the age of 12.
The details regarding the King/Queen of England differs slightly:
* Henry VIII dies in a 1548 jousting accident
* Edward VI marries Lady Jane Grey in 1553 but they are both assassinated July 9 of that year
* Mary and Elizabeth blame each other triggering a civil war with Elizabeth winning by 1555.
==Detailed Background==
The Pope at this time is Leo X (Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon, very much not the OTL Pope Leo X), son and cardinal-nephew to the late Pope Joan II, better known as Lucrezia Borgia. That alone shows this to be a rather divergent world. Elizabeth Tudor (who oddly enough looks rather more like Cate Blanchett than like any of her paintings on other Earths) is currently High Queen of the Britons (High King of Wales and Queen of England, IOW; also Queen of Ireland, and other titles), just wrapping up a civil war with forces loyal to her late half-sister, Queen Mary I of England.
The apparent point of divergence is in 1457, when a comet passed to close to this Earth, and broke up into the anomalous ring seen by our astronomers, along with other bits that fell into the atmosphere. Shortly thereafter, many alchemists found that they were able to create effects that they never managed, before (though so far, no-one has managed to create a true Philosophers' Stone), as were other mystics. Oddly, this had little effect on the course of history, at least at first. Given all the gadgets and elixirs and spells and such involved, it really should have, and while most of the locals will probably declare it 'The Will of God' (Allah, Vishnu, whatever) when they know to wonder about it, that isn't likely to satisfy those from less dominantly theistic cultures.
In 1499, after the death of her second husband, Lucrezia Borgia asked her father what it would take for him to make her a cardinal. The Pope thought on it for a moment, and replied 'Perform a miracle, and I will make you a cardinal.' A little less than a year later, in 1500, she did: at a feast with several other cardinals present (not all of them supporters of her father), Lucrezia filled her goblet once, prayed over it, and proceeded to fill the goblets of everyone else there from hers. Some of the cardinals suspected trickery, and so she did it again, this time fully nude. Thus it was that Lucrezia Borgia became the first official cardinal-niece. How she became Pope after her father's death in 1505 (butterflies and alchemy extended his life a little) is uncertain, though many claim she slept with all or most of the other cardinals, which is unlikely: she wasn't nearly the slut her detractors would like to depict her as, and a lot of the cardinals weren't corrupt enough (or were too corrupt) for that to work.
King Henry VIII's life went much as his OTL counterpart's did, at least until 1537, though he was named Defender of the Faith by the in Salzburg, who used the regnal name 'Boniface X'. He never acknowledged the Papacy of Joan II, though if she had lived long enough to grant him the annulment he sought, he very likely would have. As it happened, by the time he began seriously seeking the non-existence of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, in 1527, Joan had succumbed to what was most likely tuberculosis (Boniface having preceded her due to old age), and the College of Cardinals was quite busy failing to elect a successor. By the end of 1529, the young Cardinal Rodrigo Borgia of Aragon was Pope Leo X, and a lot of other cardinals were rich, dead, or sometimes both. Leo had no intention of annulling the marriage, and so British history proceeded on something mostly like its OTL course for most of the next decade. In 1537, his then wife, Jane Seymour (no, not the actress, she wasn't born yet) gave birth to his only son. In OTL, she died 12 days later. In this timeline, the Royal Alchemist, Sir John Cochrane, created a medicine that allowed her to recover, though she never had another child. This also helped Sir Iain keep his head - unlike his predecessor, Sir Richard Rich (lawyer in OTL), who was executed as a conspirator in Anne Boleyn's 'treason', owing to his failure to cause Anne to give Henry the son he needed to secure the succession.
Henry VIII died in a jousting accident in 1548 (the alchemists' elixirs allowed him to maintain the sporting life he so loved), leaving his ten year old son to reign as Edward VI. This Edward did not fall ill in February of 1553. Rather, that was when he married his cousin, Lady Jane Grey. Both the King and the Queen, who had recently announced her pregnancy, were assassinated on the night of July 9th, 1553. Naturally, the supporters of both Mary and Elizabeth each blamed the other (with Elizabeth's supporters also accusing the Pope in Rome, who may well have been responsible), and a civil war began, which has only recently ended, due to the death of Mary at the Battle of The Wallops (t'were to big for only one of 'em)
An important difference between the clockwork robots of this Earth, and those of Stp-Earth (apart from the lack of steam), is the degree to which magic is integrated: Stp-Earth Mechanical Men use as little magic as possible, both for expense, and for quality control. In many cases, the only magic involved is intelligence enhancement, and a minor 'works a little better than it should' effect - even the eyes can be mundane, using photostrictive crystals. Clp-Earth automatons, however, tend to be pretty highly magical, as they cannot see nor think, can barely hear, and could only move a short time, without the integration of magic into their structures; indeed, a typical operating engine for such devices is a box of rods, gears, and springs, with various symbols carved or embossed on them, designed to be easily operated by the inhabiting spirit.
==Background==
* Government of the Kingdom of England
==Organizations==
* Day Ward and Night Watch of London
==Centrum Access==
While Centrum can't directly access this reality it can access it via space travel or magic from Dieselpunk Earth (Q7) and Fantasy Earth (Q6).
==Related Material==
===Relevant Historical People from GURPS Who's Who books===
Order is based on birth date. OTL birth and death dates included as reference
*Suleyman (Suleiman) the Magnificent (1494-1566): 358 pts
*Catherine di Medici (1519-1589): 237 pts
*John Dee (1527-1608): 271 pts
*Granuaile (Grace O’Malley of Connaught) (1530-1603): 336 pts
*Elizabeth I (1533-1603): 225 pts
*Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582): 264 pts
*Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543-1616): 257 pts
*Tycho Brahe (1546-1601): 210 pts
*Matteo Ricci (1552-1610): 214 pts
==References and notes==
Category:Quantum 4
Category:Five Earths
Category:Low Mana