Behind the Scenes: Concerning Multiversal Differences

The Show-Runner

So, given that this is both a sequel and a bit of alternative historical fiction (see the serial work of Harry Turtledove for an example), I have been requested to provide a brief summary of the differences between the world our initial contestants come from and the usual original world setting. It boils down into two different categories: the fantastical and the mundane. Most of this is highlighted in my first season, but some portions of the following is listed out in fan-mail correspondence from my first season to others (primarily in the post-birthday party letter from Harper to Andy from the HH season, but I am sure you may be able to pick up bits from other fan-mail messages).

If you want to check out the first season, it starts here. Only 232 chapters, so the longest of the three seasons that has completed as of the publication of this side note (I double checked and I could have sworn Cruise and the Devil one were both longer; maybe each chapter is way longer than mine?).

The Fantastical

The original world was siphoned off as part of a collection of dimensions to serve as a prison for cosmic horrors deemed too dangerous to allowed to roam the multiverse. A cosmic horror (and some of it’s minions) is sealed away in the core of the Earth. The Weave, the **** that is manipulated to generate magical effects, was intentionally destroyed by the Gods, which proceeded to abandon the world.

What was torn is slowly repairing, allowing magic to start to work again. The cosmic horror is gaining strength, becoming able to break out. When it happens, it will proceed to do the traditional Lovecraftian horror thing (consuming the sanity of all, impassively turning the world to a planet of dead gibbering monsters, breaking out of the universe to feed on other dimensions).

The governments of the world are aware of this fact, and are fighting a (slowly losing) battle against the inevitable rise of magic. The one such **** that was shown off in the first season was the Reaper Division of the U.S. Army, but other forces would exist. Like one would expect when sending out standard soldiers to fight cosmic horrors and their cultists, survivor rates are not great.

The governments of the world are also aware of the Hotel, though most people do not have access to Harem Hotel consumption. In fact, the British nobility has a deal with the Hotel to create seasons based on forming harems for the royal family. For example, this world’s Meghan Markle won her season, built around forming a harem for this world’s Prince Harry.

The Mundane

In addition to the above, there is a more mundane split from the usual world. The “branch point” that would separate this world from the usual origin world was never stated (I know what it is, but it never came up), but the differences between the worlds snowballed from there.

Some key consequences of the branching include:

The Bay of Pigs incident was a full scale war (Bay of Pigs War), which the United States won.

Voting and other rights typically given to American adults instead require the gain (and maintenance) of at least 4 citizenship points, which is supposed to measure how much you contribute to the community. The complete system of citizenship points was not listed, but the points listed/implied includes:

• Military service (either official armed forces, or with a local approved militia) - age out at 45. Veteran status counts.
• Reach the age of 26
• Regular attendance to an approved religious institution (see below)
• Graduate high school
• Have an income of a certain level
• Own property of a certain value

Due to the religious institution requirement for citizenship points, the American government has a little more intense certification processes than the 501c3 process used by our world. Two alternative religions are at least mentioned in the original story:

Federalist Institute – a secular religion that studies American founding documents as if they are religious texts, with similar “practical charity” functions seen in Judeo-Christian traditions.

Gygaxianism – a loose collection of religions that worship the deities listed in the game materials of this world’s Dungeons and Dragons equivalent (Dungeons of Delving). Dividing points include: which deities are to be worshiped, which texts concerning those deities are proper canon (both at the edition level and within a given edition), and how to “fill in the gaps” that Gygax (or Warlocks made of Toast) left in the game manuals. The original season focused on one of the initial contestant’s worship of Eilistraee, the Drow goddess of the surface world, the moon, nature, freedom, beauty, love, lust, music, swordplay, and a dozen other things. Worship of Oghma, human god of non-magical academic pursuits, was also mentioned. Not mentioned in season 1, but important to note for this season: only Gygaxian sects that exclude the worship of evil aligned deities (CE, LE, NE) were eligible for official government recognition. Evil aligned gods would be “banned” from worship.