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GATE: and so the Iron Pact Fought There Informational Thread

Terms and Translations

Aaron Fox

SB's Minor Junker Descendant and Hunter of Nazis
Author
So I don't clutter up my GATE: and so the Iron Pact Fought There thread thanks to the lack of threadmarks, I've decided to make an entire thread for the informational stuff... So to begin, let's start with Terms and Translations (please remember, these will be updated constantly):

Terms and Translations

  • Aufklärungsabteilung: Lit. Reconnaissance Detachment; usually a battalion sized unit of the Germans during WW2 for the explicit role of providing reconnaissance capability to their attached units.
  • Panzerbefehlswagen: Lit. Armored Command Vehicle; basically any command tank or (armored) command post vehicle. Post WW2 for this universe however, these vehicles are usually purpose built to be built off of modified APCs with the explicit purpose of being armored command post vehicle.
  • Luftaufklärungstruppe: Lit. Air Reconnaissance Infantry; Air-mobile light infantry specializing in reconnaissance duties. First used in desperation in WW2, these units would be vital in the wars in Cambodian War (aka, this timeline's Vietnam).
 
A little about GATE!Equestria and the Differences of Fiction Between Pact!Earth and GATE/our!Earth
Now for what is outside the Holy Empire of Alnus (the Empire of this fic) and the differences between GATE!Earth's animation and Iron Pact!Earth's animation:

Well this Equestria isn't genuine ponies but [digs out animorphisim chart] around 55% pony and 45% human (this ratio tends to apply to the rest of the species in Equestria unless you're a minotaur, which is closer to 60/40 ratio) and are generally within the same broad range of physic as humans. Equestrian 'Dragnewts' (that's what the Empire calls Equestrian dragons since they're sapient) run the bloody gambit of 'small human side' to 'oh momma that's large' depending on little things like diet, parents, genes, and sub-species; abilities of said 'dragnewts' heavily depends on the mental state, rearing (which includes how an egg was hatched, and be a world of difference), and species of the dragnewt in question.

For GATE!Earth's (and thus our own) and Pact!Earth's differences in entertainment:

GATE!Earth's MLP exists much like our own, but if there is any major difference between GATE!Earth and Pact!Earth is the fiction and the accepting it as a facet of every day life. Due to various factors (including a Kaiser-backed endowment of the Arts and Disney not dominating the animation industry), animation within the Iron Pact universe is far more easily accepted by adults as the Animation Age Ghetto never really appeared or appeared for a while until it collapsed (sociologists aren't really sure, as the line was rather blurred). Before animation became commonplace, some of the best animation pieces were, essentially, psudo-documentaries or animated versions of books like The Dawn of the Dragon and the Tiger and My Struggle: The Memoirs of the Great War of Resistance. Fantasia in this universe became what Walt (mostly) wanted it to be and became popular across the planet, even though it only came up every five years instead of every year like Walt wanted.

However, this isn't all sunshine and daisies for animation as the cost paradox reared it's ugly head, shows can't run long enough to give an adequate RoI (unless you're Disney and it's various sub-studios, then you've got the Disney Empire backing you up). There were attempts to deregulate animation by repealing the 'Anti-Commercialization Law' by pro-business lawmakers, but these attempts failed miserably. MLP Gen 1 (in this universe a joint US-German production set in a fantasy kingdom with similarities with GATE!Earth's MLP Gen 1 and our timeline's MLP Gen 1) and G1 Transformers used a combination of excellent writing, extremely effective animation, amazing character development, being an epic for all ages, and using merchandising as a supplementary income than the goal in of itself to prosper. This would lead to other animation studios to follow suit. While it's not as bad as the deregulation that GATE!Earth or our Earth had, it can be rather annoying at times. Like GATE! and our Earth, animation did ebb and flow in quality and shows like Gen 4 MLP and Disney's Gargoyles would become the benchmarks of quality entertainment other than Ducktales (which is more faithful to the comics in the Iron Pact timeline, and yes, it has that earworm of a theme song) and The Real Ghostbusters TV series (which didn't have as much executive meddling as GATE! or our version did, and would have other ripple effects that didn't happen in our/Gate's timeline)...

So yeah, things are going to be interesting once the cultural exchange between the two Earths start rolling.
 
The Social-Political Hierarchy of the Holy Empire of Alnus
Now for the Holy Empire of Alnus's hierarchy:

Now, before I post a prototype on some politics within the Holy Empire of Alnus, I'm going to post what I believe politics within the Holy Empire of Alnus is like, starting with the most basic one: hierarchy.

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At the very top of the entire political and social hierarchy of the Empire is the seat of Emperor/Empress. He is the final arbiter of the nation and he can rule as he sees fit... but within reason of what amounts to a Constitution. The Emperor/Empress is also beholden to the laws and statures of the Empire, and this is why in canon GATE the senators were appalled when Piña told them that Malt had enslaved numerous Japanese citizens before openly -through both diplomatic and public channels- declaring war against them. This is actually a major law that has very few punishments. This stemmed from an abused tradition that was used to boost manpower during the early years of the Holy Empire of Alnus. The abuse was so bad that it was quickly made into law (or the Empire would have far too many enemies to fight and near-constant slave revolts)... causing quite a few major clans to suffer immense depopulation issues, along with three Emperors' heads.

If -say- a Legate broke this law, then said Legate would be stripped of his/her rank, his/her lands, and his/her capital for simply a dozen captives illegally made into slaves. If it goes more than that? There is the aforementioned stripping of rank, lands, and capital with the Legate in question becoming a slave. If in the hundreds? Execution. Malt, in the case in canon, would be forced to abdicate by the Senate immediately -unless during times of crisis, in which there are provisions to allow him to stay for a maximum of six months- and his designated heir to the throne will be barred from the Imperial Election (which means Zorzal would be barred from making his case and being a runner for Emperor) that would follow in the following months, with the empty seat being filled by the Dictator until the election -which in of itself would take about three days with the occasional election taking up to two weeks, but getting everyone ready can take months- is completed. This is in addition to the punishment of the law in question. So... in the case of this fanfic, Malt is going to loose a lot of political power due to various 'association amendments' -to get around the issue of having the law politicized by various factions by establishing 'degrees of association', which get less and less punishing as you go further from the 'first degree'- to the law and will be forced to abdicate.

Now the Emperor is the Head of State and, in legal theory, is the man who rules all of the Holy Empire of Alnus but in reality the political situation is more like a mix of Republic era Rome, the days of the Byzantine Empire, and the Holy Roman Empire. The Emperor is the one at the top of the tax chain. In addition to a budget that he and the Senate must jointly agree on (and if there is no budget for more than three weeks at the start of each year, then the last confirmed budget will be used, a law that was put into place due to the legendary budget fights between Emperor Maximus Vagnius Mucianus and the Senate of his time... which nearly caused the Empire to fall due to the lack of funds), he directs what has been jokingly called the 'Tax Legions' -the literal legions of tax collectors, census takers, appraisers, and other tax-related officers that go around the empire and make sure that taxes are done as efficiently and fairly as humanly possible- by many to work their unappreciated work. The 'Tax Legion' is responsible of compiling all the owed taxes (peasants don't owe much in terms of taxes while the upper class of the Empire pay a lot in taxes, with the more stubborn upper class being outright tortured to pay up and branded for future reference), the number of people within a province, the values of the land, the productivity of the land, produce statistics of mortality rates, and the like. The taxes that are collect are then recorded, compiled, and invoiced before calculating the amount of tax money via applying a percentage (roughly 25%) to the total taxes collected. This centralized taxing system proved to be less of a headache as tax revolts were less frequent, which meant more taxes collected overall.

The Emperor has the ability to raise four Imperial legions during times of peace and up to a dozen in times of war. He also has a lot of say in ordering around the non-Imperial legions (whose limit is basically 'how much free manpower' and 'how much do we have in the budget'), and the only reason that the laws on giving the Senate reasons for the use of Legion [insert roman numeral here] being sent to [insert location here] are largely understated is because it usually causes more headaches and work for the Senate, which makes it harder for them to actually make laws due to the constant interruptions. Now each legion garrisoned in the empire takes care of any large-scale banditry that the local nobility -be of the Senatorial class or genuine lords and ladies- wouldn't be able to handle with their militias. This -effectively- kept banditry down overall and became a second line of defense against various revolts. If the legion is stationed at the frontier provinces, then their job now includes blunting any invasions from the non-tributary states, which have become non-existent these days. Legions stationed in the Tributary States of the Empire are there to keep the tributary states in line and make sure that none try to break off or miss a payment (these legions work closely with the Tax Legions, given this job) alongside being essentially a tripwire for non-tributary states attacking the Empire's tributary states.

Now, as you would expect, rising the legions required to enforce all of this not only costs a pretty penny but also is manpower intensive and incredibly stressful. That is why a rotation system has been instituted for the various legions to minimize legionary/auxiliary wear and maximize logistics efficiency. When a legion rotation happens, the replacement legion meets up with the legion that is going to be replaced at their main fort. The tired and weak legion then accepts the orders to return to a logistics point -during times of war- or what is considered 'core' territory within the Empire -during times of peace- while the fresh legion accepts the transfer of post. Once at a logistics point or within a 'core' territory, the tired legion begins the long process of releasing those who have done their service, replacing supplies and armaments, and training new recruits. It is this system that keeps the legions the best trained GATE!World. Problem is the loss of institutional knowledge when someone can easily wipe out the legions comes along and fights the Empire.

The Empire's navy isn't much to talk home about, as it is similar to most pre-industrial navies, particularly pre-Renaissance. Which means they're basically part-time merchants to keep costs low and retain the institutional knowledge of building, supplying, and training crews for ships. Despite the dangers of the waters in GATE!World, this navy is good enough to attempt an invasion on the continent Equestria is on while being able to keep up with the merchant shipping of the various colonies and naval tributary states the Empire has.
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The next layer down in the hierarchy is the nobility, which consists of the Senatorial Class, the Electoral Class, and the Lords and Ladies. Not only do they make up many of the Legates and officer corps within the Empire, they also are a major income in taxes due to their immense estates. Despite the Gracchi Brothers not existing here, many of their reforms were instituted within the Empire thus placing strict restrictions on how much land a citizen or noble can hold. The punishment for breaking these restrictions tended to be a fine that is based off of the value of the land, how much land, and how long the land was illegally owned. So a noble or citizen that had effectively swindled the populous out of a lot of land for years would be ruinously fined while those who only gone over the limit somewhat for a short while (discounting what amounts to rounding errors and terrain like lakes, rivers, and other large bodies of water) are forced to pay a significant -but not ruinous- fine.

The job of the nobility is to be the top of the local government (be the entire province or just the local village(s)). They are required by their station via law to ensure that a local copy of the imperial paperwork is filed and cataloged, that they are able to raise a legion of professional soldiers at times of peace and keep peasant levies trained and armed in case of war, enforce the laws instituted by the Senate and by the courts, and ensure that things run smoothly.

The Senatorial Class consists of 600 clans and make up of the Senate much like Rome with anyone within these families able to run for Senator. In addition to being part of the Senate, they consist of the vast majority of the top leadership of the provinces with each clan being responsible for a non-Electoral province. Generally they have at least a member of their clans be consul and much like in Rome they're the leaders of the Senate.

The Electoral class are separate from the Senatorial Class but carry many of the duties and this class is made up of 150 clans and when a Imperial Election is called, the heads of each clan -or the head's designated heir- is sent to the capital to elect a new emperor. These clans make up the top leadership of the core or 'electoral' provinces and make up of a council to advise the Emperor, usually electing one of their own to be the Emperor's adviser(s).

The Lords and Ladies make up the bulk of the nobility and run many of the day-to-day operations that the nobility is required by law and stature to do. It should be noted that many of the low-level lords and ladies are presiders of various city/town/village councils and thus have a pulse on the local issues.
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The middle layer of the Empire's social, political, and economic hierarchical cake is the Patricians, which is made up mostly of semi-autocratic merchants and incredibly well-off merchants. They are the second largest source of tax income that the Empire has and are significant in keeping every village supplied with food and other goods that require materials that aren't likely to be available locally (even if money is made on the side) while selling luxuries to those of the Patricians and nobility. When war outstrips the legions ability to keep logistically solvent, the Empire effectively conscripts as many of the Patricians as they can without ruining the internal logistics network.

This group is a powerful political force due to many of them being extremely rich citizens.
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The third to last layer of the hierarchical cake is the Citizens, which make up a significant fraction of the population. They provide about 5/8ths of the military manpower of the Empire and are third place in terms of tax income. This layer represents the voting populous, as to become a full-fledged citizen you must serve in the legions for at least five years, with the highest elected political offices available to those not of the Electoral or Senatorial classes requiring a full 25 years. This is perhaps one of the more expansive classes of the Empire, as a significant fraction of the Patricians are the richest of the Citizens.

It isn't unheard of to have one of the Consuls be from this group, particularly after the Plebeian Reforms (which not only created the Plebeian Forums that many cities rely on for local governance, but also the town and village councils too), and are noted to have some of the best mobility within the hierarchy.
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The second to last layer of the hierarchical cake is the Peasants, which consists of the non-voting population. They provide the remaining 3/8ths of military manpower within the empire and much of the economic activity by harvesting crops, mining metals, doing smith work, working small-scale smelters, harvesting wood, among many more activities. While not as well off as the Citizen or Patricians, they aren't impoverished or unnecessarily oppressed. They produce very little in terms of tax revenue compared to the rest of the hierarchy but have impressive numbers to make up for it.

Like every other class outside of slaves, the peasants are guaranteed to have an education (which is mostly funded by the province government) and this is due to the fact that a basic education improves the productivity of every activity in general.
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Now we hit the bottom of the hierarchical cake, which is made up of slaves. While the vast majority of these are war captives that became slaves after a long process, they provide incredibly cheap labor for the Empire. Most of the slaves rarely gain an education more than basic language skills and counting, at least outside any previous education. Now there are laws to limit the oppression and brutality forced upon slaves, but these laws are bent till they nearly break.

When comparing their size between the classes, the slave class is comparable in size to the peasant class.
 
Iron Pact Infantry Equipment (Part 1)
Now for the infantry equipment:
Anyway, the standard infantry armor that the Iron Pact is using in this campaign is the gepanzertes Infanterie Kampf-Exoskellet (shortened to gIKE) 1 Ausf. Emil. On the surface it looks like your standard '20 minutes into the future Future Soldier system'. Under the gIKE 1 Ausf. E's surface reveals a rather sophisticated combat system. The core of the system is the combat exoskeleton which houses the graphene battery pack (which powers the exoskeleton and the Future Soldier system and can last up to eight hours in high-demand mode with 10 hours in low-demand mode), the various motors to move the exoskeleton around, and the specially designed framework to recreate the distributed weight pattern that knights' plate armor used. On top of this framework, there is a flexible biopolymer (a bio-plastic that is made from certain types of algae and moss combined with resins made from oils of sunflowers and other plants) liner to help protect the soldier from fragmentation. On top of this biopolymer liner is the 'Intelligent Clothing' or more commonly referred to as 'intelliware' body armor which is a mix of hardened composite plates with articulation and a Kevlar-carbon nanotube based intelliware 'suit'. The advantage of using intelliware clothing is the fact that it can shift colors, allowing the user to pick their favorite color... or in the case of the Iron Pact's logistics corps only have to have two (standard intelliware suits and intelliware parkas) types of camouflaged uniforms instead of a few dozen as you can simply command the uniform to switch to the proper cammo scheme.

The gIKE 1 system also has what those in GATE/our timeline call a 'Future Soldier/Warrior' system built-in. Now the armor can support a more sophisticated system which has various situational awareness enhancements (like what amounts to an Hyper-Reality Visor precursor), but the Iron Pact for this campaign has opted to use a slimmed down version which doesn't make the soldier look like a faceless mook and not leave highly expensive equipment behind if a retreat is needed to be carried out. It's similar to the Future Soldier system displayed in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series. Like the goals in Real Life and the system used in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series, it can connect to any system that utilizes the software and has the proper connections. This allows any soldier to share data and improve situational awareness for the whole unit. This can also connect to various tablets used by recon teams and infantry-grade (i.e. quad rotors, mini-scout drones called GUOS, various infantry-portable remote sentry guns, a MG equipped tread-motive assault drone) drone users.

Nightvision and infrared imaging systems can be easily snapped onto the helmet while retaining the HUD of the Future Soldier system and the standard infantry radio. There is also a variant of the helmet specifically designed for lightly contaminated NBC environments but in doctrine the Iron Pact doesn't send bog-standard infantry into NBC contaminated areas, but those equipped with power armor are sent into such conditions. Variants of this armor tend to be for specific duties with abilities and systems coming and going due to the system's modular nature. This includes what amounts to be Gen 1 thermoptic camouflage (which has many downsides including inability to activate when moving more than a brisk walk, a lot more visible in high-dust/snow powder/moderate-to-severe rain conditions, requires a larger battery pack to operate, limits how bulky the armor can get) and enhanced E-War packages usually used by SpecOps units.
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Now what the Iron Pact is packing for small arms is somewhat advanced than what GATE/our timeline has to offer as they're all caseless with a handful of pistols using polymer cases instead of brass. Like our/GATE universe, they use intermediate rounds for their standard rifle and in this case the caliber used is the 4.7x45mm caseless round which has a muzzle velocity of 1,200 meters per second with the 4 gram FMJ round (meaning that, if I've done my math right, has 2,880 joules of kinetic energy which is about 1.6 times of a 5.56x45mm NATO using a FMJ round of a similar weight). The round retains it's energy slightly better than the 5.56x45mm NATO but the effective range for the round fired from a non-DMR barrel is the same (~300 meters). The current rifle round is caseless variant of the 6.8x52mm round which has a muzzle velocity of 1,000 meters per second and a 8 gram FMJ round (which, if I've done my math right, leads to a kinetic energy of 5,000 joules or almost 1.5 times of a 10g FMJ 7.62 NATO round). Weapons using the round are rarely used due to the weight and bulk of the ammunition, but recon infantry, occasional special operations teams, and sniper teams use weapons utilizing this ammunition.


The assault rifle is a common staple of the Iron Pact's armories since the early 1940s when the need for something between the rifle (the Gewehr 36 -basically a modified G43 in our timeline- being picked by the US, Imperial Germany, Republic of China, and Imperial Japan, with each nation clambering the weapon for their standard rifle ammunition at the time) and the submachine gun due to lessons learned in the mid 1930s during the era of history known as the 'Pygmy Wars'. During these conflicts, statistics state that past 300 meters standard soldiers rarely get a kill. This led to the development of the world's first mass produced assault rifle. The weapon was widely adapted by the German Army in 1942, using the lessons learned from the Great War of Resistance as the reason but retained the G36. The US and Japanese were slow to adopt this weapon however, mostly due to the fact that the 'rifle mafia' was rife within the two's army and marine forces... until World War 2 started in the mid 1940s when the capabilities of the weapon became widely valued in the jungles, mountains, and islands of Asia and in the dense urban settings of the cities of Europe.


The Sturmgewehr (lit. Assault Rifle) Model 1942 (or StG-42 for short) used the 7.92x33 Kurz round, a round that was picked as it is simply a cut down version of the 7.92 Mauser round and thus didn't need as much retooling of the assembly lines. The weapon became widely successful in the conflict, solidifying the idea of an intermediate round being the standard one. As the Cold War started, the Iron Pact realized that the need for ammo and magazines that can be shared between the various nations is required, this would end up creating the STANAG of this universe and adopting the Chinese 5.8x40mm round as the standard intermediate round and the 7.92 Mauser as the standard rifle round across the Iron Pact. The 5.8x40mm would be later replaced by the 4.7x45mm caseless round while the 7.92 Mauser would be replaced by the 6.8x52mm caseless round in the mid 1980s.


The various optics of the Iron Pact are similar to the Helgahn optics in Killzone Shadowfall and those used by NATO-aligned countries today. Outside the standard vertical and angled grips, the weapon is able to use the Under-barrel Grenade Launcher (UGL) Model 2/Improved (UGL-2/I for short), which utilizes a 45mm grenade system similar to the proposed Metal Storm grenade system to replace the M203 under-barreled grenade launcher. As long as there are Picatinny rails, the UGL-2/I can be used. This system is lighter, less bulky (given that you get 3 grenades per tube), and incredibly reliable. The previous system used the same 50mm grenade that various riverines and many vehicles use in their AGLs.


The assault rifle being used in this campaign is the Sturmgewehr (or Assault Rifle in the US) Model 1992 (or StG/AR-92 for short). The StG92 or AR-92 comes with a 12 inch (or 30.48cm) 'Carbine' (which has the Kruz or 'k' designation at the end, so it would be StG92k), 16 inch (or 40.64cm) 'Standard', or 20 inch (or 50.8cm) DMR barrel (which has the Schütze (lit. Marksman) or 'S' at the end, so it would be StG92S). The barrels change with minimal effort in the field and the weapons themselves are incredibly reliable. It is fairly light thanks to it's biopolymer and titanium alloy construction with a very controllable recoil. It fires 700-900 rounds a minute in automatic fire with 60 rounds a minute in semi-auto. The STANAG Rifle or 'STANAG-R' standard magazine has a 32 rounds capacity and standard STANAG-R casket magazines holding 56 rounds. The SAW variant of the StG92 can use a 100 or 200 round drum magazine or a simple caseless link adapter. There is a rare OICW version using 'smart' 30mm grenades instead of 45 or 50mm units and is only successful in battle and didn't win the hearts of the majority of the soldiers using them.


The battle rifle being used in this campaign is the Kampfgewehr (lit Battle Rifle) Model 1990 (or KG90 or R-90 for short) which uses the 6.8x52mm caseless round. It's carbine barrel is 16 inch (or 40.64cm), the standard barrel is 20 inch (or 50.8cm) and the sniper barrel is 24 inches (or 60.96cm). It can accurately kill enemies at 900 meters away with the sniper barrel but it is more common to engage enemies with this weapon at 600 meters. It has an automatic rate of fire of 400 rounds per minute and a semi-automatic rate of fire of 60 rounds a minute. Standard STANAG-B magazines hold 24 rounds with the occasional casket magazine holding 30 rounds.


While rarely used, many soldiers within the Iron Pact swear by their pistols, which there are two within the Iron Pact's armory; both of which use a telescopic polymer case instead of being caseless and are only effective up to 50 meters. The most common is the 10x25mm P89 which has a 600m/s muzzle velocity with a 8 gram round (meaning that, if the math is done right, means the round has 1,440 joules of kinetic energy) and uses a 14 round magazine. Despite the mass adoption of caseless ammunition, the P89 became a reliable staple of Iron Pact armaments and the ammo is a regular occurrence with SMGs and PDWs. The second pistol is the M1987 10.5x38mm (or '.413 Magnum') 'Auto-Magnum' which has 700m/s with a 10 gram projectile (which, if the math is done right, means it has 2,450 joules of kinetic energy) and a 8 round magazine, which is an American design that has been in competition with the 10x25mm round. While the M1987 is considered unwieldy by most, due to it's excessive recoil and heavy weight, some would rather have it by their side..


The MP80 is the standard SMG/PDW of the Iron Pact, and uses the 10x25mm round and is similar to the P90 in design. 50 round standard magazines, has a 900 RPM fire rate, and effective up to 150 meters thanks to it's 10.4 inch (or 26.416cm) barrel. Extremely compact and the standard equipment for vehicle crews of all types including aircraft.
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SAW (AR variant):
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Battle Rifle:
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Standard Pistol:
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'Auto Magnum' Pistol:
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PDW/SMG:
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Grenade launcher, but on a more modern platform:
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GATE!Earth Politics (Please don't report me!)
GATE!Earth Politics:

So, you might be wondering what is on GATE side of things? Well, I'm going to say 1) buckle up and 2) you might hate me for this but given the situation in Real Life... it is sadly better than what could happen:

Let's start with the GATE US first, because that's going to have a major departure from the norm. GATE!US isn't led by a Donald epxy nor a Hillary epxy. In this case it's pretty much Mattis... due to the fact that the US military and intelligence services -with the Supreme Court signing off on this- having to implement plans under Scenario Hot Under Collar Cyclone, which is the name of a worst-case scenario where a major political party is effectively seditious (or outright treasonous) and has control of the elected portions of the government. The worst-case scenario plan for Hot Under Collar Cyclone is pretty complex, and mostly still classified in 2017 but what little that has been declassified simply has the Supreme court in it's entirety signing every major checkpoint as the situation continued. The UC IC had gathered a lot of intelligence that 1) the 2016 elections was going to be an electioneering job on a scale unheard of in all of history and 2) major movers and shakers of the GOP are seditious. Now outside of the worst-case scenario, all the GOP had to do to not get thrown in jail/executed in mass was simply agree to allow the Supreme Court to disenvow the candidate Donald Trump from running in the elections when the compiled dossier was put into the intelligence committees in August (basic line of thought here is that Trump -and much of his staff- violated several clauses for candidacy for President). The GOP answered in line of the worst-case scenario and decided to make it a partisan matter, much to the horror of the Democrats.

So, in November, everything was ready to implement the worst-case scenario plan for Hot Under Collar Cyclone. The Supreme Court -with extreme reluctance- signed on the line of no return and the US military and IC went into action. The elections were suspended and a surprisingly lightly redacted version of the Steele-IC dossier was published at gunpoint by the news media. The US military picked Mattis to lead the interm government and pretty much put Trump and the vast majority of the GOP under arrest for sedition and high treason. As you would expect, Pro-Trump enclaves flared up in insurgency but were quickly and brutally put down within two months. The world was understandably shocked by this, but the surprises didn't end there as Mattis instituted even harsher sanctions against Russia and got the rest of the world -including North Korea of all nations!- to hop aboard. Russia is now in major financial trouble by the end of the year, which only worsened as the sanctions were iron clad. Still, Putin and his marry band is still in charge, but for how long isn't for certain.
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For GATE Japan, the situation is a bit odd as the Abe epxy now found himself with a 'hung government' in 2016... as the Steele-US IC dossier had implicated the current right-wing government with indirectly supporting Russia for their own gains. While investigations cleared of Abe and friends from the general mess, a lot of the key seats that Abe had relied on now found themselves empty. It didn't help that the Japanese Emperor had gone on national television to voice his disapproval with Abe's party as they courted treason. While the key seats would be filled by less radical members of Abe's party and radical liberals, Abe wasn't able to enforce his political will as much as he used to. This got the more Imperialist-like factions of the JSDF giving murmurs of disapproval with the situation, leading to the situation where they'll be pawns later.

Thankfully, the vast majority of the JSDF sent to the 'Special Region' -aka Falmart, aka the Holy Empire of Alnus- are of the liberal/non-Imperialist side of things. This makes it easier for Abe to not get Mattis breathing down his neck for whatever happens in the Special Region, as Abe is literally walking on a very thin tightrope politically.
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GATE Russia is... undergoing the early phases to revolution in 2017. Despite Putin's best efforts, the Russian economy became worse than during Yeltsin's reign thanks to the sanctions... which is saying something. So far Putin and friends had been unsuccessful in clamping down on descent, with citizens protesting before being gunned down by the infamous OMON or 'Black Barretts'... and that has them getting desperate as they foresee that Russia will be locked out of the world economy in a similar fashion to the fictional nation of Zaftra in the Front Mission series, which in Left Alive is undergoing a civil war.
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GATE China is currently focusing on keeping North Korea in line and trying to control the immense amounts of refugees coming from Russia as the situation within the country deteriorates further... although the Chinese intelligence service has been helping the US by feeding information from the various refugees and asylum seekers... which are then correlated with what few US intelligence assets within Russia has dug up.

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GATE!EU is, as mentioned, becoming a heavily armed camp. With Edrogan quickly stating his allegiance to Russia in the winter of 2016 when the Steele-US IC dossier outted him as a Russian ally, the EU quite literally kicked Turkey out of the EU. Now I'll go into further detail with notable individual nations within the EU later but safe to say if you want someone to be the personification of the EU right now, the Black Ops 1 character Daniel Clarke (aka 'even though I'm a deadman, I'm not going to die quietly and thus extremely well prepared for such an occasion') is the best fit despite being a deadman in-game. Crackdowns on those from the Middle East refugees are rampant as well, as they are generally scene as a possible 5th column. Like any sane nation-state -or collection of such- they are also worried that the Gate will appear in Berlin or Paris.
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GATE!Germany is quickly shedding a lot of it's pacifistic views given the threat of the situation in Russia boiling over and causing problems. For the military, money is no object right now and everything is being overhauled while new production is put on higher priority. Not only that, Germany has been cracking down on anyone from Russia or the refugees from the Middle East. Russians for obvious reasons and the Middle East refugees because of the possibility of them becoming a 5th Column threat. Then there is the Nazi crackdown to end all Nazi crackdowns, thanks to the Steele-US IC dossier. Numerous groups were simply annihilated in this crackdown, with many more going to ground in the aftermath. Many groups had their leaderships tried for treason then executed.

Then there is the massive jump in popularity for the Hohenzollern family to retake their place as the royal family of Germany... which isn't causing much trouble other than the added paperwork from the increased volume of petitions.
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GATE!Britain is in a bit of a mess. With the current leading coalition having been implicated in treasonous acts -with some members being outright treasonous!- thanks to the Steele-US IC dossier, Queen Elizabeth the Second had her hand forced and dissolved Parliament. After the immense crackdown that followed and quite a few hangings and investigations, Parliament had new elections after six months of preliminary investigations and crackdowns. Parliament is at it's most vulnerable position ever since it's conception. One bad move and the people would consider having Queen Elisabeth and her advisers and bureaucrats to run the nation instead of them... and currently a left-wing coalition is walking on a very thin tightrope politically.

It doesn't help that MI5 is having it's hands full with trying to play wack-a-mole with Russian-backed secessionist movements.
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GATE!France is slightly on fire. No, quite literally it's slightly on fire. With Le Pen and company outright stated to be traitors, the French people have taken to the streets in support/against the right-wing groups in France. Fortunately the French government was able to keep order but politically France is still metaphorically on fire as internal security units go through with a massive crackdown on right-wing groups in general.

Militarily, the French army is moving a vast majority of it's forces to Poland to help secure the border and strong armed -along with Britain and Germany- NATO into doing an intervention in Ukraine to minimize Russia's avenues of approach into Europe...
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GATE!South Korea is also in a bit of an upheaval as the reigning government has been implicated with being buddy-buddy with Russia... although in this case it's less for power and money and more guarantees that North Korea wouldn't decide that [insert day here] would be a good day to invade South Korea. Despite the political upheaval, the South Korean military is on the highest military alert, just in case things go pear-shaped in a similar manor to Wargame Red Dragon's Busan Pocket scenario.
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GATE!Vietnam is like everyone else in Southeast Asia at this point, but even more so. It has cut all ties with Russia and yet isn't trusting of China who they assume would take the situation into their favor...
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GATE!Turkey is... on fire. No, it's quite literally on fire as Edrogan's announcement of being an ally of Russia caused civil unrest in the eastern part of the country and is quickly veering towards civil war. With the US quickly taking their nukes and turned their base into a fortress, the situation continues to deteriorate in 2017.

Hell, Edrogan has been forced out of Istanbul for christ's sake! The major reason that Istanbul hasn't been changed back to Constantinople is the fact that the anti-Edrogan forces would go Ataturk if anyone was serious about it.
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Also, the current reactions:

I'll give the reaction first. The EU (outside of Turkey) in this case is taking a 'wait and see' approach alongside South Korea and US aligned nations in Asia, waiting what happens next (be Russia or the Gate). Europe at this point is acting and looking like a giant armed camp with guns pointed in Russia's (for obvious reasons) and Turkey's (because Edrogan is being an idiot and is starting to work with Russia) direction. Germany, France, and a whole slew of European Nations not only used the Steele-US IC dossier to purge their governments of Russian pasties/pawns, and in Britain the various nationalistic groups got slapped with treason charges and were dissolved... with quite a few leaders literally getting the noose with the Queen watching with her best 'you fucked up' face.
 
Patheons of Falmart and Beyond (Part 1 out of God only knows HOW many)
Now for the Religions of Falmart Part 1 out of... god knows how many:

Ok, the first informational on the religions of Falmart... starting with Equestria and the Holy Empire of Alnus. Now religions in Falmart is a bit different than you are used to thanks to the fact that the gods do exist and do interventions either via their agents or in the rare occasion that they do it themselves. The realm that all pantheons reside in has is non-linear temporal, or a fancy name of being essentially a less demon-ridden form of the Warp from Warhammer 40k where time is fluid to say the least. Time in this realm can be mere instants or -in the rare case- up to weeks in the mortal realm. Also, please note that for the purposes of this fic, most of the Gods in the Holy Empire of Alnus will be named via name generator...
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Now, I'll start on Equestria because it's far more simple than the pantheon of the Holy Empire of Alnus.

Now, compared to the various religions we've seen in history, the Equestrian religion is vastly different than what you're used to. The 'gods' here are a genuine family here, with all the dynamics thereof. The 'divine couple' consists of Amber Faust and Duke Starlight. They're something of a mix of fertility, knowledge, magic, friendship, justice, among other gods... if that makes sense. They generally have a gardener/rule-via-not-ruling thing going on and thus rarely directly influence events and mostly simply push things in the right direction. The rare occasion that they came down to the mortal plane is usually to fight things that their children and their subjects can't fight against. Usually this is 'empowered' -as in 'empowered' by their god(s)- armies of nations that want to conquer Equestria. Generally, if the couple comes down from upstairs in this manor, the nation and god(s) suffer horrifically for it.

The Caribou Empire is probably the most famous example, as they tried to pull a 'Fall of Equestria' two millennia back. When the Caribou pantheon empowered the armies of the Caribou Empire after their mortal armies got smashed by the Solar and Lunar Guards and the Royal Sisters Celestia and Luna, well the retribution was swift, hard, and far-reaching. The vast majority of the Caribou pantheon was exterminated -with the few that survived being against the entire thing in the first place and got locked up in the Caribou section of Tartus for their troubles-, their armies having the very life sucked out of them (thus leaving only a handful of garrisons in the homeland left), and their capital being on the receiving end of a 'Wrath of God' level retribution when the dynasty of the time refused surrender.

Yeah, when Gods go to war against a pantheon and their mortal followers, it usually has horrific consequences on the mortals involved.

The relationship between Faust and Starlight and the mortals is one of children. The two -and their children, outside Discord's 'gone mad with grief' episode a few millennia back- consider the Equestrians their own -if mortal- children. If you fuck with the Equestrians -or anyone they consider friends- then that'll only ensure that they'll fuck with you. Fucking over Equestrians and their allies/friends is harder than you first realize, as the continent that Equestria is on is the Falmart equivalent of Australia (and this is coming from various sapient species living on a planet that is considered a death world to us, and this aspect is one of the major reasons why the Holy Empire of Alnus's invasion of Equestria failed), the continent's nations tend to be Renaissance level with what amounts to mostly cottage industry with some heavy industry (partially thanks to Equestrian magic users being less constrained compared to their Holy Empire of Alnus counterparts, partially because Equestrian gods oh-so-enthusiastically promote investigating the universe's workings), and the Equestrian military being essentially a Prussian military mixed with a rather American mindset of 'results over tradition'.

Now Faust and Starlight have three children: Celestia Li Sunriser -Goddess of the Sun, Law and Order, and Education-, Luna Lunamoon -Goddess of the Moon, Knowledge, Magic, and the Arts-, and Discord Surprise -God of Change, Laughter, Pranks, Jokes, and Chaos. Celestia and Luna are rather well known to the world over and rule over Equestria as immortal diarchs (although, over the centuries, they did have a lot of lovers and quite a few -essentially mortal+- demi-god children who -and their descendants- make a significant minority of the nobles in Equestria). Discord only has returned to the public contentiousness after his reformation a good half-decade ago, and has been slowly returning to his old 'god of laughter, pranks, jokes, and change' personality... although he has been known to prank -as we say- for the 'lols'. After his reformation, he has brought more harmony to Equestria through his antics like the city of Neyington... which was known as the most depressed city in Equestria. When Discord was done with making everyone laugh at his jokes, pranks, or sudden changes to the scenery, the city became far less depressing and better for it.

Now Celestia and Luna are part of the diarchy of Equestria, which means they're saddled with a lot of the day-to-day activities of ruling in addition of being gods. This leaves Discord, Candace, and Twilight (alongside her friends) in solving problems that are between 'things mortals can solve' and 'call in the heavy divine artillery'.

Now, Candace -Goddess of Love- and Twilight Sparkle -Goddess of Magic and Friendship- are the closest equivalent of Apostles in the eyes of the Empire, but they're closer to being 'adopted' children of Faust and Starlight -and thus full on goddesses- than Apostles. Compared to the millennia that Celestia and Luna have under their belts and the teachings of their parents, they only have scant decades of mortal life in addition to no more than two decades -at most!- of being a divine. Due to their inexperience, they can make mistakes in carrying out their duties butsimilar things happen to Apostles who ascend into godhood. As the youngest goddesses in the Equestrian 'divine family', they don't have much to their credit and thus constantly underestimated... which costs many of Apostle-level antagonists' lives as they tend to forget that they aredealing with divines who simply reside on the mortal plane.
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The Holy Empire of Alnus has a main pantheon with veritable armies of minor gods in what is effectively sub-pantheons that come from the untold numbers of Apostles that they chosen over the years alongside the various pantheons they've ruthlessly conquered in the Empire's conquests. These gods and goddesses have a main temple where an Apostle is chosen every millennia and serves as the direct link to the God/Goddess they worship. In addition to these temples, many within the Empire have shrines within their homes and businesses to pay respects to the various gods (and quite a few of these gods encourage it).

This main pantheon consists of:
  • Osteus, God of Kings and Lightning, King of the Pantheon; current Apostle is Tamil of Yordare
  • Hardy, Goddess of the Underworld and the Underground, Ruler of the Underworld and the Underground; current Apostle is Giselle of Imimor
  • Emroy, God/Goddess -Emroy is a herm... yeah even the locals can't figure out what pronoun to call hir so shi decided to go with either- of War, Judgement, Thievery, and Maddness; current Apostle is Rory Mercury
  • Cefulla, Goddess of Governance, Law, Order, and Bureaucracy and considers government institutions and the buildings that house them to be her temples (although occasionally a genuine temple is built as an addition to said buildings); current Apostle is Leo of Rodes
  • Uwlene, Goddess of Health, Science, and Magic and considers institutions of learning, magic, and health to be her temples (like Cefulla, genuine temples occasionally get built as additions to said buildings); current Apostle is Potitus Cluntius Auspex
  • Qusdall, God of the Protection, Agriculture, and Home, while temples to him do exist, he is far more happy having shrines near the Hearth and alongside scarecrows in the fields; current Apostle is Aishe Clarke
  • Ytarr, God of Family, Sex, and Fertility, one half of the only 'divine couple' that the pantheon has and they don't care for temples (although they do occasionally get built) and is known to turn men who favor him into well endowed beacons of virility; current Apostle is Baikaru of Edon
  • Yhena, Goddess of Family, Sex, and Fertility, second half of the only 'divine couple' of the pantheon and is known to turn women who favor her into beacons of fertility and child-rearing (which is a wee bit different than we usually assume, as in the Holy Empire women have to be able to fight off rapists and home invaders); current Apostle is Mireli Pope, wife of Baikaru of Edon
  • Qelena, Goddess of Commerce, Taxes, Trade, and the Military, she endorses trade and commerce alongside a healthy respect for the military and taxes, and is known to ruin anyone that tries to skimps out on paying their dues or -in the case of business (including banks) and tax people- screwing someone via their dues; current Apostle is Placidia Furia, a former tax-woman
Underneath these nine gods is various gods from ascended Apostles or gods that the pantheon had conquered alongside the Empire's conquests. For you see, as long as a pantheon is independent, the people who worship them are independent as they will screw anyone who tries over, so in effect each war can easily become a religious war on top of a secular one. The Holy Empire of Alnus has conquered it's continent thanks in part to their pantheon's lust for conquest and forcing anyone that doesn't follow their rules and eating out of their unmentionables.

For the ascended Apostles, where they is a little complex as position can change quickly. Even the theologians of the Empire can get a bit dizzy in trying to keep track of it all. They also span across various aspects -with some of the more powerful ones having multiple aspects!- causing some to overlap in some way or fashion... and their names can be all over the place with names like Ra and Morgan le Fae being worshiped alongside Apollo and Mercury.
 
An Snippet of Geopolitics and Technology of Iron Pact!Earth
So, since people had asked what the situation is on Iron Pact!Earth, I'm going to reveal a little and how in some ways it is more peaceful and in others it's a worse powder keg than our/GATE!Earth.

Now to start this informational, we'll start with the overall technology of the Iron Pact because that's a pointed question that has some consequences in reactions for both sides.

Now the world where the Iron Pact resides is quite similar to our own, even if it is simply more advanced in some areas due to the various circumstances. For example, the Iron Pact is very advanced in terms of hydrogen fuel cells compared to our/GATE!Earth, this is partially because hydrogen fuel cells were discovered quite a bit earlier in the Iron Pact timeline due to the Kaiser Wilhelm Foundation of the Sciences and Arts basically pouring money into the idea… and this is a common thread among many technologies thanks to the fact that there was a very rich organization who simply poured money into the sciences because the original chair -Kaiser Wilhelm the Second (aka the Flawed)- being a humanist technophile.

This has many perks to say the least. Nuclear fission being in its 6th generation and digital computers being a generation ahead thanks to their earlier adoption in the late 1940s/early 1950s, as an example. Most of the consistent energy consumption on Iron Pact!Earth is managed by fission plants across the world with a very impeccable safety record (Chernobyl didn't happen due to the USSR's more measured nuclear expansion process -and thus having an adequate cadre of trained staff to man all their plants- and Three Mile Island's #5 experimental reactor -which was inside a triple reinforced reactor building- had its fuel rods slightly fuse together -thanks to an air bubble- but the inner reactor casing held, allowing the reactor to be salvaged from the incident) with natural gas, hydroelectric, geothermal, and other renewables able to pick up any variable electrical consumption as needed.

Coal -for the most part- has been relegated to keeping the coal-fired steam locomotives running, being converted to synthetic oil, being used as Graphene/Diamond feedstock, or pretty much sitting in their veins as part of a strategic resource reserve. Oil is still very important, as it's myriad of uses are extremely useful. While oil may not simply dominate the world economy as it used to, petrochemicals are still a vital component of the world economy (the versatility of the family of chemical compounds is still practically unmatched). You are just as likely to see petrochemical plastics showing up as biopolymer-based plastics (basically specific plant resins -be trees, flowers, or other plants- mixed with specific algae types, and is one of the African Commonwealth's major exports), with certain fields -particularly in construction- being dominated by biopolymer plastics.

Fusion -much like it is in our/GATE!Earth- is somewhat mimetic due to the fact that it's not advancing as much as people wanted it to and promising projects failed disastrously as some undiscovered variable ruined it for everyone. Although, the large mount of resources put into this has put electro-motive systems at a far higher level than ours/GATE!Earth's (and it's only comparatively slower because the Cold War ended on our/GATE!Earth).

In addition to these, Zeppelin technology has been rather prolific, especially after being proven to be rather capable cargo transports during the Great War of Resistance. What little of the Zeppelin fleet Imperial Germany was able to scrounge up were converted in a 'short-range' configuration of L-59 and were able to help alleviate the logistical burden of the Great War of Resistance. Hundreds of thousands -to millions- of tons of supplies -be ammunition, food, parts, or medicine- would have exacerbated the initial train traffic jam during the prelude and initial days of the Great War of Resistance in Germany.

One thing that the Iron Pact is noticeably more advanced in -compared to our/GATE!Earth- is robotics and cybernetics. This is partially due to Wilhelm the Second's push for robotics to not only help alleviate Germany's bloodletting during the Great War of Resistance but also to give cripples and those missing limbs a chance at life. Hauptmann Aaron Neumann is a posterboy of cybernetics due to the fact that if it weren't for the -then- experimental cybernetics that were used, he would have been dead.

While Wilhelm the Flawed would never see the fruits of his financial labors (as he died helping the defense of Koenigsburg in the early days of World War 2), it is this heavy investment in robotics that birthed the first Gepanzerte Kampfläufer (Armored Fighting Walker), the quad-legged 'Läufer V1'. While the Imperial German military didn't accept it -outside a few alpine 'test' regiments- due to its unreliability, uselessness on flat ground, limited combat time, and extreme costs in manufacture and maintenance, it would be China and Japan that would further the concept due to the majority of the environs they fought in preclude traditional AFVs, environs like jungles, terrain simply filled with hills, the terraces, mountainous regions, among others. The 'GKL' concept would evolve as time went on.
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Now this also has a bad side, and that is thanks in part to the political situation on Iron Pact!Earth. There are technological fields that are actually restricted as a whole by the various governments of not only the two major power blocks (which are the Iron Pact and the Comintern) but the various smaller nations outside those power blocks. One of these fields is the field is gene-engineering.

Iron Pact!Earth (even the verifiablely insane Commune of India does this) has the field on panopticon levels of watch, and for good reason thanks to a bunch of idiots from the British Union on an uninhabited island off the coast of England. What those idiots managed to do with somewhat older equipment and techniques was create a strain of anthrax that is all but impossible to get rid of by conventional (i.e. non-nanotech/radiological) means, sure the people who cooked this up died when their containment failed but they proved that it could be done.

Next time, it is sanely reasoned, that the world won't be so lucky.

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Now the political situation is basically a Cold War between the Iron Pact and the Comintern. Depending on which 'front', you'll either have something akin to 'playful banter across the border' or 'hope to whatever god(s) you worship that the other is not going to do something crazy today!'. Yeah, the situation is that bipolar… and thus dangerous.
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The Iron Pact was forged out of the fires of the Great War of Resistance, originally by the US, Imperial Germany, and (Old Men, a summary being essentially "Everything that the Imperialists aren't", yes they have some expansionist aims but from what I can tell it's more mercantile than conquest) Imperial Japan. The alliance soon extended to China (which managed to get its shit together during and after the Great War of Resistance, having two powerful colonial empires willing to carve up a European nation sort of puts new emphasis on getting one's shit together), Vietnam (which gained its independence in 1923 with the help of Imperial Japan), and Poland (Wilhelm the Second once stated that 'my ancestors must be spinning in their graves as we are fighting with the Poles with genuine gusto!'), Brazil, along others during the inter-war years from 1925 to 1945. The Iron Pact after WW2 would become something of a mix of NATO and the economic union part of the European Union, and it is this immense trade that got the word far richer than it would have been.

In the aftermath of the Great War of Resistance, the Soviet Union came to be -initially led by a Neo-Leninist (aka the 'Gardening' school of Socialism) but later led by a Georgian who was friends with Stalin in the mid 1930s... who then started World War 2 in 1945 and got deposed in 1948 when his own cabinet killed him as Iron Pact forces neared Moscow- while much of the former British and French empires contracted. The salt in the wound in Britain's case isn't discovering that Churchill and friends pulled a coup on the House of Windsor but the fact that India was successful in violently gaining it's independence. With the death of various non-violent independence leaders in 1921 (including one Mahatma Gandhi), the independence movement in India became an outright armed rebellion. The Rajah was quickly disposed and an interim democratic republic was instituted until a complete constitution was written. Sadly, this democratic republic government would fall to a new brand of communism, causing the creation of an Indian communist state. What would be known as Pakistan would break off of India shortly after as a multi-ethnic state due to shear necessity as those who didn't want to be part of the new communist state migrated in mass.

While the USSR would only have a bout of expansionism during the Second World War, the Commune of India is the equivalent of a slightly schizophrenic Mao's China in this timeline and is considered somewhat bipolar at a minimum in terms of geopolitics. The early stages of the ongoing Cold War had been mostly the Commune of India throwing its depleted weight around while the Soviets either facepalm or facedesk at their actions, mumbling about why they have to work with the crazies. Later they went for a more subversive methodology. Commune of India's attempts to remake certain former British/French colonial states in their own image has caused no end of grief for everyone to say the least. It isn't uncommon for UN or Iron Pact forces to become under fire from Commune of India aligned groups in northern and southern Africa or across the Saudi peninsula.

Much of the British and French's African holdings were sold -quite cheaply I might add- to the United States who then jointly administered them with Imperial Germany (using the 'a dollar of prevention is better than spending thousands in cleanup' argument). It was this joint administration that started an evolution of the original 'MittleAfrika' plan, slowly creating the African Commonwealth... and it is various discoveries from the African Commonwealth that things like modern bio-polymers are a thing. The African Commonwealth is actually a major player on solar and bio-polymer development in the grand scheme of things… better than our/GATE!Earth where it's pretty much a mess to say the least.

Terrorism is even more horrific -and sadly a more regular occurance- than on our/GATE!Earth. Numerous groups -many of them hailing from nations like Britain and France, holding certain political ideologies like the Dixiecrats/Neo-Confederates or Tribalism (basically Nationalism, but taken into a tribal extent), and certain religions like Wahhabi- have become not only incredibly brutal as a rule, but regularly commit ISIS-grade atrocities (or worse, like the remnants of the British Union trying to cook up what amounts to be super anthrax using 'modern' techniques and equipment during the early 1990s or the (Wahhabist) Palestinian Liberation Front's chemical bombings of Jerusalem's Jewish and Christian quarters in 1974 which killed thousands) on a regular basis. It has gotten to the point that entire swathes of the Middle East and Africa had become 'Government-less Zones' where -outside the areas that UN peacekeepers control- there is no law and order.
 
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Iron Pact Infantry Doctrine (Part 1)
The Iron Pact military doctrine is built upon the lessons learned in the Great War of Resistance and World War 2. Originally the various nations within the Iron Pact tended to keep developing their own doctrines in the immediate aftermath, but as time went on, the various nations started to utilize elements from other nations' doctrines to plug in any gaps in capability. Eventually this made the various Iron Pact nations to have their doctrines become the equivalent of mutts. However, by the start of World War 2, the doctrines still had major focuses. To put it into something easily digestible for those who aren't military geeks, I'll use the four land doctrines from Hearts of Iron IV to keep this as short and informational as possible:
  • Mobile Warfare
  • Superior Firepower
  • Grand Plan
  • Mass Assault
This is only to keep it simple and short and not be some complex "Holy Shit, I'm a Military Nut" triad on military doctrine. Now for the most part most nations in the Iron Pact have a sort of triumvirate or 'aspect triangle' going on between Mobile Warfare, Superior Firepower, and Grand Plan with each nation having a focus or focuses towards one aspect. Imperial Germany's focus was in 'Mobile Warfare' because, well, Germans and their desire to fight and maneuver. Imperial Japan focuses more on the 'Grand Plan' aspect given that even the Old Men during those days had a slight 'Grand Plan' fetish (at least, what I can see). The US's focus is SUPERIOR FIREPOWER, because the US's idea of war essentially is summed up as 'fuck you and the grid you are standing in' and 'bullets are cheaper than men'. China is the oddball in the Iron Pact as it leverages elements of Mass Assault with Superior Firepower… as it leverages China's massive population and its eventual massive industrial capacity if that makes sense.

Now infantry squads in the Iron Pact is heavily built upon a German foundation. The basic 'line' infantry squad for Imperial Germany is actually quite similar to those the Nazis used in our/GATE!Earth's timeline… but that shouldn't be as surprising as it would first appear as these came from the same 'parent' as it were. While practically everyone else would use 'Auto Rifles' as part of their line infantry squads, Imperial Germany would begin the practice of having 'All Ze Machineguns'... which isn't surprising because, well, Imperial Germany had a lot of fetishes when it came to procurement and machine guns were one of them (then again, Imperial Germany was the first adopter of the modern machine gun for frontline use out of any European nation and had a tendency to stuff as many of them as possible into their units). This allowed Imperial German line infantry units to have greater firepower than they would otherwise.

The Iron Pact's modern infantry doctrine is heavily built upon Imperial German and American infantry doctrines. Like both the US and German infantry doctrines, they are heavily mechanized/motorized… and in this case motorized means APCs and Mechanized is IFVs. The modern infantry squad is built upon the 'mission tactics' of Germany, and 10 men is considered an optimal number between flexibility, firepower, and sustainability.

As such, the infantry squad's firepower was upped significantly. In the Southeast Asia Intervention -basically Iron Pact's Vietnam across much of Southeast Asia- it was discovered that the line infantry needed more firepower to fight against a wider variety of threats, this the dispersion of Carl Gustov style Recoilless Rifles/Rocket Launchers. This allowed Iron Pact infantry squads to counter a variety of targets in the field.

Squad leader (usually Sergeant 1st Class or equivalent): 1x bullpup 4.7x45mm Caseless Assault Rifle with 45mm Metal Storm style grenade launcher (each tube holds 3 rounds), 4x 45mm grenade launcher tube-clips, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (shortened to CET) OR

1x bullpup 4.7x45mm/30mm OCIW style assault rifle (30mm being grenades), 2x 5-round 30mm 'smart' grenade magazines, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (CET)
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Squad XO (usually a Sergeant Major or equivalent): 1x bullpup 4.7x45mm Caseless Assault Rifle with 45mm Metal Storm style grenade launcher (each tube holds 3 rounds), 4x 45mm grenade launcher tube-clips, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (shortened to CET) OR

1x bullpup 4.7x45mm/30mm OCIW style assault rifle (30mm being grenades), 2x 5-round 30mm 'smart' grenade magazines, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (CET)
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4x Riflemen (usually privates or equivalent rank) each armed with: 1x bullpup 4.7x45mm Caseless Assault Rifle with 45mm Metal Storm style grenade launcher (each tube holds 3 rounds), 4x 45mm grenade launcher tube-clips, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (shortened to CET), note riflemen can also carry up to 4x LMG/SAW drums, 2x extra MANPAD tubes, or 6x recoilless rifle rounds as needed, doctrine dictates that 2 have extra drums and 2 have extra rockets/MANPADs available for extended combat periods when dismounted
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2x Specialist Weapon Operators (usually capable Private 1st class/Sergeants or equivalent rank) each armed with: 1x bullpup 4.7x45mm Caseless Assault Rifle with 45mm Metal Storm style grenade launcher (each tube holds 3 rounds), 6x 45mm grenade launcher tube-clips, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 6x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 6x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (shortened to CET) OR

1x bullpup 4.7x45mm/30mm OCIW style assault rifle (30mm being grenades), 4x 5-round 30mm 'smart' grenade magazines, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (CET) OR

1x bullpup 4.7x45mm caseless assault rifle, 1x Multi-Role Carl Gustav M3E1-style 10.5cm Rocket Launcher, 10x 10.5cm HEDP OR 10.5cm HEAT-MP OR 10.5cm HE OR 10.5cm Thermobolic OR a mixture of all four warheads as combat dictates, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (CET) OR

1x bullpup 4.7x45mm caseless assault rifle, 1x 7cm FIM-80H 'Stinger' MANPAD, 4x 7cm FIM-80H Tubes, 6x 32-round 4.7x45mm STANMAG-R magazines, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (CET)
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2x MG Gunners (usually Private 1st Class/Sergeants or equivalent rank) each armed with: 1x bullpup 4.7x45mm Caseless LMG/SAW, 7x 100-round OR 5x 200-round 4.7x45mm drums, 3x Stielhandgranate Model 1980 (considered Concussion without the fragmentation liner, considered fragmentation with liner) Grenades, 3x M72 Fragmentation grenades, 1x 10x25mm polymer cased pistol, 3x 12-round 10x25mm magazines, and a Combat Entrenching Tool (CET)

All squads utilize an IFV or APC as transport, fire support (usually with a 50mm AGL, a M2 series HMG, a 2cm autocannon, or a 3cm autocannon), and holder for extra ammunition and battery packs.
Now as you can see a 'line' infantry squad has a lot of firepower at its disposal and for practically every sort of situation. Doctrine for the infantry squad is flexible, as not every situation requires the entire squad to stay together or split off into 5-man fire teams, and is done under the squad's discretion. The most common 'stances' are staying together as a unit to focus as much firepower as humanly possible or splitting off into two 5-man fire teams who need to flank a position or other objective obstacle. Both of these 'stances' are very effective in various situations yet aren't the only ones. Other stances include pairing off to clear room by room in a building, create irregular sized fire teams to maximize surprise against a target, among others.

It is a key aspect in Iron Pact infantry doctrine to have support available at all times, be the APC/IFV they came in or armored/air/artillery. Without these support options, infantry assaults become far too costly in terms of manpower and (later) material -as World War 2 revealed and the Southeast Asia Intervention solidified- and it is advised to retreat to some support or a squad with support. Thus the phrase 'if you see an Iron Pact squad, whatever is supporting them is not going to be far behind'.
 
Introduction to the Mechanics of Ghosts and some History of the Paranormal (Ghost Informational, Part 1)
Now onto a more detailed look into the mechanics of ghosts!

Now, across all three (and a whole lot more) universes the rules and 'laws' -in the scientific sense- are the same, with very little deviation from them outside of certain circumstances (like, say, some idiot tapping into the Celestial Plane to start Armageddon… yeah, that had happened a few times across the multiverse).

Now for our/GATE!Earth, anyone who looks into ghosts and their kin tend to be considered a bit eccentric at best, outright insane at worst. With Falmart and Iron Pact!Earth though, it is considered less psudo-scientific and more science fact -well in the case of Falmart Greco-Roman!Science and not modern science but you get the idea- with groups being made to cartail any ghostly activity.

For the most part the MOs of these ghosts is generally finding closure or settling non-violent business in the land of the living. It isn't uncommon for those with survivors guilt to have the ones that they sufferers of survivors guilt to have those that they are guilty over talk them out of suicide… and yes, that has happened quite a few times strangely enough. For every majority, there is a minority, and ghosts aren't any different. Now there are ghosts that want to settle scores in the land of the living, and quite often by any means in their disposal. The good thing is that those who can talk to ghosts can also fight ghosts, and the various groups that the nations across Iron Pact!Earth have various technologies and techniques specifically designed to neutralize them. Historically -across all untold numbers of universes- this means that shamans/shawomen and other people who work with spirits were chosen based on their ability to talk to ghosts.

Now, Falmart has the Apostles to do most of the work when it pertains to ghosts although those with the ability to interact with ghosts are around, they're rare as hell. This is partially due to the fact that the Empire is the sort of place that isn't conductive to someone who can interact with ghosts survive all that long (they tend to be physically and mentally more fragile than their more normal kin) and partially due to the fact that every cemetery in the Empire and its tributary states are restructured to ensure that they are extremely hardened against necromancy. Still, if there has been enough emotionally significant death, then a ghost could come into being. Even on great battlefields they rarely go above a hundred or so. There hasn't been a battlefield where thousands of ghosts dwell. Now, there are those who who have the ability to interact with ghosts -and are not Apostles- that have worked to utilize ghosts for good or ill, but the Gods tend to ensure that any attempts don't go anywhere...

In Iron Pact!Earth… it's a different story. While mankind had only a literal handful of people capable of seeing and interacting with ghosts in the modern era, the technology to see and interact with ghosts started to show up in the 1960s to counter supposed Soviet and Commune of India's psychic programs. Kaiser Frederick would found the Advanced Sciences and Investigations Division… better known as Wolfenstein.

Now… the alternative name might raise eyebrows with you Wolfenstein fans, but it's not that Wolfenstein. It is actually named after a castle from Fläming Heath hill range folklore that got named after a minor free lord (closest thing that pretty much everyone else has is 'baron') with the last name of Wolfenstein. Baron Wolfenstein was part of the Northern Crusades with his Teutonic brethren, but he was less interested in spreading the faith and more interested in studying -and recording- local fables and things and beings of magic. According to legend, Baron Wolfenstein's studies initially got him a little flak from his Teutonic brethren but quickly changed their tune when, according to legend, he managed to defeat an entire army of undead raised by, and again according to legend, a mad local warlock with only knowledge and some skill in the magical arts.The Teutons decided to allow Wolfenstein to continue on his collection and studies of what was considered unholy, to find weaknesses and methods of easily countering or containing them. Some of these studies, again according to legend, were later sent to the Vatican and helped serve as the foundation for improved purification and exorcism rituals. Eventually, according to legend, this castle was destroyed only after quite some time after Baron Wolfenstein's death during one of the wars that took place during the tail end of the Northern Crusades.

While the original founders of Wolfenstein wouldn't believe in these legends, it would be the mysterious solutions for paranormal activity that started showing up in the mid-to-late 1970s to lead to some believing that those legends have grains of truth in them. Eventually this led to the discovery that ghosts do exist… and more often than not they simply want to tie up dangling threads -i.e unfinished business- in the land of the living with a few actually helping Wolfenstein (including one Gustave Eiffel -who 'dabbled' into the paranormal when not making significant strides in whatever field he was in at the time- of all people… I'm being serious here).

Wolfenstein's paranormal division generally ensures that paranormal things don't go out of control… and more often than not they are called in to contain and/or remove 'psi-memories'. A Psi-memory is basically a literal memory -usually an extremely emotional event- left by someone who died. These can be objects, spaces in locations like rooms, or rarely an entire building and must be dealt with properly. Almost all of these psi-memories can be easily removed and put into replacement anchors before being put into containment… but there are those that can be only contained on-site… which can solve some problems if the containment has to be replaced or the anchor has to be visible or maintained.

If drawn into a psi-memory, you literally relive the memory(ies) that the anchor is connected to. These range from simply reliving the last living moments to entire battles going by before you reach the end of the memory. Wolfenstein has developed numerous technologies to carefully extract some poor sap that has inadvertently -or is simply unlucky enough- to find a psi-memory and get it to engage in playback. It isn't uncommon for people who don't find proper help to quickly commit suicide because of engaging in playback with a particularly nasty memory.
 
Introduction to the Iron Pact's Vehicular Arsenal
Well, something to pass the time while I keep hammering out the last part of the next chapter...
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Now, the Iron Pact has a system of 'grades' similar to the USSR's CAT A/B/C system but instead of three there are two: Frontline (self-explanatory) and National Guard/Militia (depending on whom you ask, also self-explanatory). In this fic, the units deployed are mostly using Militia/National Guard grade gear, partially due to the fact that they're cheaper and partially because they're expendable compared to Frontline equipment. In addition, much of the Iron Pact's equipment is standardized and modular, allowing for numerous variants of the same chassis -with those that can't be plug-and-play being simply modified variants of the basic chassis- and simplify logistics.
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The primary means of frontline troop transport is the Infantry Fighting Vehicle (aka the IFV) or in German Schützenpanzer (aka the SPz), given their armament and effective armor (with add-on packs to further the armor's effectiveness) for most threats that they'll face. If it can't be dealt with infantry but it's not a target for an MBT, then it's usually taken care of with the IFV. The current IFV that the Iron Pact is using is the venerable M68A5 (or the SPz 68 Ausf. Emil), armed with a 3cm autocannon with 12.7mm coaxial in an unmanned turret and a quad-tube ATGM (in this case the Anti-Panzer Lenkflugkörper 1965/1992 or APLf 65/92, basically the bastard child of a Spike ER-II, a Spike NLOS, and a TOW 2 and it's lineage is from a bastard child between a TOW 1 and a Cobra ATGM)/MRM (Multi-Role Missile, think ADATS and you're pretty much on point) launcher on the side with some units fitting a GEN1 RWS/CROWS system armed with a 5cm automatic grenade launcher or a 12.7mm HMG. This is on top of able of carrying a 10-man squad, which hurts it's ATGM reload capacity. You'll be seeing a bit of that launcher however, as it has been fitted to quite a few vehicle types overall. It's armor is effective against 2.3cm autocannon rounds from the front and sides with ERA and Appliqué composite armor packages available on demand at the vehicle depot. The top speed is a rather impressive 45km/h off-road (utilizing a Hybrid Electric Drive powered by a hydrogen fuel cell) on a tracked vehicle that weighs about 35 tons without the armor packages. The A5 has modern sensor, computer, and data-link systems although at admittedly reduced effectiveness due to the age of the chassis and it's power grid.

The chassis is also the basis for numerous other systems including a SHORAD, an ATGM carrier/tank destroyer (basically a 12.7mm HMG with four quad-ATGM packs), and a heavy towed weapons hauler (usually used for towed 17cm howitzers), among others.

If the Iron Pact and the US/Japanese coalition come to blows (really not going to happen), then the Japanese Type 87 ARV and the US M2/M3 Bradley series of IFVs aren't going to have the best time of their lives. Sure, they can penetrate the M68A5 from all sides, but the M68 will have the awareness advantage.
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While the line infantry fight from IFVs, the motorized infantry fight from APCs, and this is where the Iron Pact's equivalent of the M113 comes in. The M60A5 APC is the latest of a very long line of M60 APCs, with models first coming about in 1960, replacing the WW2 era M47 series of APCs (the equivalent of the M75 APC in our timeline). It masses 15 tons, has armor capable of stopping 15mm HMGs and artillery splinters in all directions (although armor packages can increase this to 2.3cm on the front and sides, it negates the amphibious capabilities of the vehicle), and is armed with either a 12.7mm HMG or 5cm AGL either in a manned or a GEN1 RWS/CROWS mount. It can carry a full 10-man squad with ease. In doctrine, APCs and the troops they haul are not to be in pitched frontline combat due to experiences during World War 2 and the various conflicts across the planet during the Early Cold War period. Now the M60A5 APC is quite capable of moving at 55km/h at top speed off-road but can only go 20km/h at best when fording shallow/moderate depth rivers and shorelines, with the maneuverability of a brick.

Like the M113, the M60A5 has numerous variants to it's name including armored scout cav, ACAV, mortar carrier (using a manual 12cm mortar in this case, although automatic variations of the mortar do exist), NBC Recon, light engineering vehicle, and more.

Now only Japan has anything equivalent to this on the US/Japanese coalition side of things, and that's the Type 73 APC. Japan also is using the Type 93 APCs and the US has field their equivalent in the Stryker system in addition to the Type 73... giving the US/Japanese coalition far more options even though all considering they're just equal.
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The Light Tank is something that the US has always (and a good portion of the Western World) had problems with, particularly the fact that they kept trying to stuff a 105mm -or now 120mm!- tank cannon into a chassis that can be air-transportable. Given the US's hefty restriction that is the C-130, any and all projects simply fizzled. The Iron Pact has their own light tank, the M63 series. Between having something more capable than the C-130 for air-transport and not going for a full-sized tank gun as it's principle anti-tank armament, the M63 series (current variant being the A4) became a staple of Iron Pact airborne units. The M63 series is armed with a HE/HEAT/Beehive 'fuck infantry' spewing 9cm cannon with a coaxial 12.7mm HMG, with the main anti-tank option being the APLf 65/92 quad-tube ATGM launcher with manned and RWS options for the 5cm AGL or 12.7mm HMG. In terms of armor, it only has 15mm HMG protection in the front and sides, with field armor packs making forcing it to stay on the ground.

There are very few variants with this system oddly enough, but then again most of the roles it would have fit had already been allotted to other chassis.

Given that the only equivalent on the US/Japanese coalition side is the Stryker AGS... well... it's no contest as the AGS is more of an assault gun than a light tank.
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The Iron Pact's MBT is a beast compared to what Japan has decided to take with them to Falmart. The M72A5 "Patton IV"/Panzer VIII Ausf. Emil "Tiger III" is the Iron Pact's last variant of the Iron Pact's first-gen MBTs. It is armed with a modified 12.8cm KwK 72 L/50 main gun (originally a naval gun that got rejected and then rebuilt as a super-heavy AA gun) as it's principle armament with a coaxial 12.7mm HMG and a 12.7mm HMG CROWS/RWS on the roof. It's clad in composite armor (with hard and soft-kill ADS options), making it hard to damage with HEAT ordinance. It has a top speed of 75km/h (comparable with the M1 Abrams) utilizing a hydrogen fuel cell. The main gun can shoot an APFSDS round at 2,500 meters per second (or 2.5km/s) at a rate of about every five seconds if you allow the semi-auto reloader to reload it's magazine. In addition to this, it has a crew of five, with the fifth crew member being the man operating the electronic warfare systems.

This is also the basis for numerous systems including the 17cm howitzer SPG, a heavy SPSAM (Self-Propelled SAM) launcher, and the Städtisches Kampffahrzeug (lit. Urban Combat Vehicle) which is essentially a Russian Terminator on steroids using a 5.5cm autocannon and numerous missile launchers for all sorts of warheads including thermobolic.

Against the JSDF's Type 74 MBTs, this thing will eat them for breakfast as the Type 74's armor is comparatively paper. The M1A2 Abrams on the other hand is somewhat superior given modern rounds and that the M1A2 weights almost twice as much as the M72A5, with most of that weight going into the armor and the gun... while maintaining it's lightning-quick speed.
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Armored cars have always been a thing for the Iron Pact, high speed and mobility, decent firepower, and high autonomy paired with excellent reconnaissance equipment like radios made them incredibly useful for reconnaissance work. Especially when paired with the humble yet game-changing Jerry Can (you wouldn't believe how game-changing a simple liquid container that can be easily mass produced and made it laughably easy to refuel vehicles with little waste while be durable enough for military work can be).

The Iron Pact has a variety of armored cars to choose from, and the ones that the Iron Pact are using in the Falmart campaign are direct descendants of those used in WW2, particularly the successful US and Imperial German armored cars. These vehicles are split between Light Armored Reconnaissance Cars (Leichter Panzerspähwagen -or LPsW for short- in German) -made up of mostly 4-wheeled (or Rad in German parlance) with lighter 6-wheeled vehicles being included- and Heavy Armored Reconnaissance Cars (Schwerer Panzerspähwagen -or SPsW for short- in German) -made up mostly of heavier 6-wheeled and all 8-wheeled vehicles- and all have all-terrain tires and all wheel drive as standard. The LPsWs tend to have extensive range and speed while lacking in terms of armor and armament (usually only armored enough to stop 15mm HMG rounds and armed with a 12.7mm HMG or a 5cm AGL) while SPsWs tend to have the extensive range of the LPsWs but at a slower speed with better armor and armament (usually armored against 2cm autocannon and armed with a 3cm autocannon).

The LPsW62 Ausf. F is the primary light armored recon car in the Falmart campaign. Capable of hauling three personnel in addition to the crew of two, the closest thing that the US/JSDF Coalition has is the humble Humvee/L-ATV, just with HMG-grade armor. The Humvee/L-ATV has more armament options their Iron Pact counterparts, which would surprise the Iron Pact a lot.

The SPsW63 Ausf. F is the primary heavy armored recon car of the Iron Pact in the Fallmart campaign. In addition to it's heavy armament (a 3cm autocannon and 12.7mm machineguns), it can be equipped with a thermo-optic camouflage system. However, utilizing this stealth system drains a lot of power and moving it will disrupt the camouflage. In addition, this can't stop someone with IIR sensors from finding the vehicle. The US/JSDF coalition have no real equivalent to this vehicle that isn't a straight up IFV.
 
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Magic! Well, An Introductory Look into the Magical Systems of Falmart and Elsewhere (Part 1 of God Knows How Many)
Alright, I'm going to start explaining magic to everyone. Now on Falmart, Magic has a scientific component to it as we've seen in canon!Gate... but this is to make the spells more efficient. It is this ever increasing drive for efficiency that drives magic researchers ever forward. Now in addition to the canon fields of magic, there are also magic that pertains to music, dance, even martial arts. As such, fighting someone with magical abilities can be incredibly painful as you have to let them start the fight which is bad if they're a trained combat mage. All mages that are born in Falmart are first trained in defensive magics, barriers and shields and the like, to protect themselves from any backfiring that they'll have in their training. These are relatively easy to master and don't take a lot of energy to use if used on an individual person but gets more taxing if they cast a barrier over an area.

Now in order to use spells, you have to be able to utilize an energy called 'mana'. Mana is a type of energy that is used to cast spells, do rituals, and other things that are considered 'magic'. How efficient you use your mana is heavily dependent on how much one can grasp the underlying mechanisms of not only the universe but mana as well. However, the reason for all this research into mana is that a mage can only draw, store, and expel (i.e. use to cast spells) so much mana at any one time. Now you can train to increase these attributes or utilize mana-infused materials like 'mana crystals' to expand their mana capabilities. That is why many mages in the Empire utilize some sort of staff or wand, they have mana-infused materials either on them (like the crystal shapes on staves) or within them (like wands, which are made up of two comparable mana-infused materials, specifically a magically solvent wood and a core of either mana-metal or mana-crystal for the most part, although cores with unicorn horns or hairs and other magically adept beasts are rarely used) to enhance their mana capabilities.

Some races can utilize what is known as 'spirit magic', which is the equivalent of magical voodoo. Spirit Magic requires the user to utilize mana to communicate (and only communicate, those who can interact with spirits is a whole different ballgame) to spirits -usually the equivalent of divine underlings- and utilize their services. This has the downside of making the user unable to utilize other methods of magic but with the support of a spirit, can utilize spells that are far more powerful... although to gain consistency out of spirit magic, one has to be in good relations with the spirit(s) whose services they're using. The best 'spirit mages' are those who can keep their spirit(s) happy by paying the mana on time, give them gifts, and the like.

If an army has a cadre of both good mages and spirit mages... their combat ability triples against an equivalent unit without them. For example, during the revolution that got Emperor Molt into power, he was able to get some of the best mages in Falmart including one Cato El Altestan into his two cohorts. When they fought against his brother Caeso in the field, Cato and his fellow mages helped Molt to absolutely annihilate Caeso's own cohorts in the field, eventually allowing Molt to take Caeso's head and ending the revolution then and there. However, Caeso have effectively caused the mages to distrust the Empire with his mage purges, despite all the good will that Molt had done after he gained power. Cato is known for his incredibly wide array of spells, immense understanding of mana, and immense mana capabilities (which is a mix of innate ability and brutal self-training, training that he gave to all of his apprentices). If Cato is on the warpath, run, run as fast and as far as you can and hope to whatever divine you worship that you're far enough away.

This is one of the reasons why the Empire failed in their invasion of Equestria, as Equestria had a third of it's population able to utilize spells like their mages (unicorns), a third of it's population able to manipulate the weather with their bare hands via innate magic (Pegasi), or the last third which are capable of incredible feats of strength and durability via innate magic (Earth ponies). Then there is the fact that they discovered how to weave music with magic... which is a game changer in the eyes of the Empire. Instead of having one person being the mana conduit, you can have small group of battle musicians use music to gather, store, and cast mana. Combat Music that can strengthen morale, heal wounds, and more are within the Equestrian arsenal and came as a major shock to the legions sent to Equestria. However, this requires not only those with magic able to play music but their instruments have to be made out of mana-conductive materials, which Equestria has (comparatively) a lot of. It also explains why Equestrians break out into song on occasion, as the magic of the music enhances everyone doing the song and dance.

Alicorns... well... let's just say there is a reason that alicorns are considered gods by the Empire's soldiers. Get them to take the field is a surefire sign that things are going to suck for whomever got them roused enough to take the field.

Most necromancy is considered a high crime across the world where Falmart resides. Partially because it gets a lot of afterlife gods really pissed off, partially because it requires an immensely powerful mage to do it, and partially because necromancy loves to cause problems. Period. There are ways to disrupt necromanic magic however, and designing/redesigning cemeteries in certain designs reduce or even outright disperse necromatic magic. Although, there have been accounts that those who practice necromancy did it for good reasons like trying to allow people say goodbye to their loved ones one last time. That is how mages like Quintus Rufrius Adepphius became known by the title 'Final Rester', which is a good thing too given that shamans -what people call those whom can interact (i.e. talk and touch) with spirits- are incredibly rare, even among highly-magical races like Equestrians... and allowing this is pretty much the only exception to the no necromancy rule.
 
Historical Figures in the Iron Pact Timeline Part 1: Adolf Hitler
... yeah, staring into the historical figures of the Iron Pact timeline and we're kicking things off with what is probably one of the most controversial ones. Much of the Iron Pact's Adolf Hitler was pretty much the same as OTL, had a somewhat sub-par childhood with a father who tried to force Hitler into politics, took a stint at art and got ridiculed and kicked out of art school (the thing is, he is pretty decent as an artist... it's just that he's an architectural artist and not an 'artist artist'), joined the German Army during WW1, had anger issues, felt betrayed in the aftermath of WW1, etc. etc. etc.

The difference between Adolf in our timeline and the Iron Pact timeline is The Great War of Resistance. When the Kaiser made the call to arms, he went to it's banner with gutso but only to defend the Fatherland.

Adolf would quickly become the leader of a unit made up of what he would have called 'undesirables' before the Great War of Resistance. German Poles, Old Prussians, every Jew who could fight... and a whole lot more. Adolf's unit would start out in defending the Ruhr Valley, fighting in such a way that would make Paul Emil von Lottow-Vorbeck proud... and a little confused. The fighting would also show Adolf's uncanny ability to know when and when not to gamble. It is was also during the first half of the Great War of Resistance that his unit would have an unusually high fatality rate... but this is just as much as Adolf's willingness to spend 'undesirable' lives as much as those he considered undesirables fighting with such ferocity and conviction that it would eventually steer him from the path he was walking at the time.

He saw where his path would take him several times during his days as commander of his unit. One would be in a town outside Düsseldorf, where the French massacred Germans and anyone that managed to get into the churches were literally put to the torch... burning them alive. Hitler and his unit didn't get there soon enough and saw it for all it's horror. That town became a rallying cry for the defense of Germany. The second time would be during the lesser-known Siege of Düsseldorf, where the Franco-Anglo forces used nerve gas in several quarters of the city. Then there was the push towards Paris, where he and his unit nearly shot fellow Germans trying to stop a massacre of French civilians. The 'tipping point' for Hitler would be the death of his XO, a German Jew by the name of Egon Spangler who took a sniper's bullet for Hitler. Hitler tired to keep Egon alive the best he could, but Egon would die in his arms... and he would fly into such a righteous rage that it scared everyone half to death. He would find the sniper and then proceed to keep slamming the man's head until it was a fine paste on the wall. When Hitler snapped out of his rage... well... to say he puked his guts out in horror would be an understatement. No one else would see this rage again until the Day of Death in the 1930s when the Nationale Reaktionspartei decided that they wouldn't go down quietly after making an assassination attempt on Hitler during his early political career. No one would blame him after seeing the carnage in the old Jewish Quarter of Berlin, and I do mean no one.

When he returned to Germany, he met one Walt Disney (whose only 'claim to fame' at the time is that his ambulance had his cartoons slapped on it) in Hamburg, where Walt was waiting for the ship that was supposed to take him home to arrive. The rail system was clogged with traffic, so Hitler decided to go back into art to wait until a train to Berlin was available. Hitler was doing a skyline painting at the time when Walt found him, and saw something that has to be nurtured instead of crushed. So that was when -in very broken German- Walt commented on how good the skyline painting was. This surprised Hitler, who was basically belittled about his artistic talent all his youth, and thanked Walt. Soon enough, they started to discuss their lives and their passion for art... and eventually became an exchange of ideas. Walt and Hitler would become pen pals, helping each other out in writing and occasionally meeting each other to discuss art and how to improve on art.

Hitler would soon become a staple of politics in 1932 when the Nationale Reaktionspartei (NRP for short) started to cause trouble. He would go to the Progressive-Socialist Party and speak out against the NRP in rather passionate speeches, turning him into a target. It was 1935 that the NRP would attempt an assassination on Hitler, which failed (and starting to show to the rest of the world Hitler's uncanny ability to dodge death) and killed a dozen people in the process. Kaiser Fredrick then gave the NRP an ultimatum: surrender the assassins and the conspiracy or get a Royal Ban. At this point a Royal Ban hadn't been actually implemented and only existed as a political construct as a check on power between the elected government and the monarchy. A Royal Ban is basically the highest ban one can get, and only the Kaiser can lift such a ban... and now it was going to be used against an increasingly hostile political group.

The NRP decided that they'll pull a coup instead, causing what would become known in infamy as the Day of Death. To say the carnage was bad is to simply understating it. Despite the fact that under the new German constitution, everyone had to have at least five years of militia or federal military service and have to go through a series of test to retain their military certifications every two years, many Jewish, Polish, and other 'undesirable' quarters had massacres unlike the world has ever seen since the Great War of Resistance. This, and the fact that his favorite niece was raped and killed by the NRP, understandably sent Adolf into a righteous flying rage. This wouldn't end well for the perpetrators, as they were quickly found doing the same thing in another quarter of Berlin and were executed. The few survivors quickly told the other NRP insurrectionists what had happened and most of them quickly surrendered fearing that the same fate would happen to them. In the aftermath, most of the surviving insurrectionists would be executed or jailed for the rest of their lives (usually doing some sort of hard labor in the mean time). Hitler's profanity laden speech to Kaiser Fredrick about the fate of the NRP would be later parodied, played straight, hammed up, hammed down, and everything in between in cinema and comics for days to come.

After that, Hitler would become Chancellor in 1940 after being selected as one of the candidates by the Kaiser himself (the new German constitution had the Kaiser pick candidates via interviews and audits on their political actions, and allowed the people to elect a chancellor out of those candidates) in a landslide election and would stay there until he asked to retire in the early 1950s so he can be with his family more. Hitler, in his time in office, made numerous reforms, which included but aren't limited to: establishing the equivalent of the National Forest Service and numerous national parks in 1941, made a standardized gun registry and weapon certification program that would be later used in the US in early 1942, creating a shell shock treatment program for everyone in mid-1942 and became one of it's first patients, improved education and the access of it, and creating the foundation of the African Commonwealth.

Adolf Hitler would later pass away peacefully in 1967 with family, just as Apollo 8 circled around the moon...
 
Iron Pact Air Defense Introduction
It should be noted that the Iron Pact's methods of air defense is an interesting creature, as it is both distributed and solidly structured. Each range bracket has it's own weapon systems, yet are distributed across the field of battle freely while having a solid structure of range brackets, duties, and weapons.

This distributed air defense is born out of the dark early days of World War 2, where Soviet, French, British, Commune, and their allies' air force had near-air superiority of the battlefields of their respective theaters partially thanks in part to their surprise attacks. When the war started, ground based AA was effectively a mere afterthought, not thought as good enough to stop most attacks let alone down aircraft. This changed as the war progressed, with weapons like the 3cm Flak 45, 5.5cm Flak 42/47, the 7.64cm Mk 33 Automatic, the 7.5cm Flak 46, among others gaining deadly reputations to enemy pilots as something to respect. Even the vaunted IL-4 Shturmovik -the poster boy for 'flying tank'- and their pilots tend to tread lightly when many of these weapons were reported to be in the area. Weapons like the Mk 33 and 7.5cm Flak 46 were particularly infamous, as they can easily kill aircraft at most altitudes with ease thanks to the VT fuse allowing their less-than-stellar rate of fire to be not a complete disadvantage.

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(Top: 3cm Flak 43 AA system on a modified 2cm mount | 2nd: a rare example of the quad-mount variant (called Flakvierling in German) of the 3cm during a maintenance check | 3rd: a rare example of the German 5cm flak gun | Bottom: the 5.5cm Flak 42/47 on a gun trailer)

After WW2, air defense didn't atrophy, if anything they kept getting stronger as SAM technology started to develop and improve. This allowed far more flexibility to Iron Pact AA units in terms of options that simply having gun-based AA systems wouldn't allow. This 'quiver of options' allows for the flexibility of having a backup when something fails, which happens more often than not in combat, especially as the police actions in Southeast Asia during the mid 1960s to late 1970s, the Indonesian Intervention in 1978, the North African Crisis of 2005 to 2008, the Saudi Incident in 2014, and the Third Israeli Intervention of 1983 showed.

For short-range engagements, Iron Pact in Falmart utilizes the 'Stinger' MANPAD, the Flak 86/12 5.5cm L100 (replacing the 3cm guns), ATADS style Multi-Role Missiles, and short-range vehicle-borne (SRVB for short) SAM systems. While the infantry squad can carry their own MANPADs, the SHORAD variant of the IFV utilizes the 5.5cm Flak 86/12 and launchers that can utilize MRM missiles or SRVB SAMs. SHORAD vehicles are distributed on a 1:4 basis (i.e. 1 SHORAD for each platoon of mechanized infantry, motorized infantry, armor, or artillery) and have three primary jobs: to scan for enemy air threats within it's area, defend the assets it's attached to, and defend itself. This is made far easier as AHEAD ammunition had been developed to help counter missile attack.

For mid-range engagements, the Iron Pact in Falmart utilizes 7.5cm automatic cannons of the Flak 67/00 series and MIM-23 HAWK style SAMs. These are deployed separately, mostly due to size constraints, on a modified MBT chassis. While the Flak 67/00 7.5cm cannon can fire on the move, the MIM-23 HAWK style SAMs can't (but doesn't need to be deployed, just hooked up to an air defense network). These systems are for engagements that are outside the immediate platoon-level but are shorter than the operation or theater level.

While not deployed at this time, the Iron Pact have prepared long range and strategic systems just in case they are needed. These systems consist mostly of modernized/end-of-the-line previous gen SAM systems, but they aren't pushovers.

These all simply cover the mobile systems, not the static ones...
 
Nations of the world of the Iron Pact: African Commonwealth
So, the African Commonwealth... a nation-building project that is mired with so much bad, good, and mixed results that it's a walking contradiction. The initial plans for the African Commonwealth was born out of the two genocides that Imperial Germany did during the early days of it's colonial ambitions (both ethnic groups would, after the Great War of Resistance, get special treatment and grants as part of an apology for this) in a loose family of plans known as 'Mittle Afrika'. In actuality, the first phase of these plans was already being carried out before World War 1 with various colonies being testing grounds for various nation-building methods. Some of these methods were harsh and caused untold amounts of problems. Some were rather positive, making great strides in ensuring that a genuine nation was being built there. The others were, sadly, of a mixed bag, having both good and bad properties.

The one constant thread that all these 'nation-building experiments' had was infrastructure building. The German colonial administration -which would later be restructured into a nation building administration via Adolf Hitler during the tail end of his term as Chancellor- would undertake massive infrastructure projects, building schools, universities, hospitals, clinics to rail lines, telegraph (and later phone and radio) networks, power grids, canal systems, and ports to not only increase productivity, but also ensure that things would go smoothly. Many of the ethnic groups in Africa would later take the German word for school as their own (like in GATE/OTL, some nations in Africa actually have their word for school actually be a loan word from Germany), but this wasn't a smooth process in the least.

The biggest and most constant problem that the nation-building efforts had was due to the numerous ethnic groups in Africa itself, all of them having their own grudges against each other and that was always a source of immense grief for everyone involved. This, inevitably, led to various acts of violence where -despite the various garrisons' best efforts- numerous innocents died due to ethnic conflict (and in some cases, this world's first bouts of ethnic terrorism). Many methods to have everyone get along were tried and sadly many of them backfired into ethnic conflict. However, some administrators got rather inventive and would eventually develop a system of cultural abrasion and education to help alleviate the situation, and while this system wasn't perfect, it helped limit ethnic conflict. Eventually this system would succeed beyond all expectations.

By the 1960s, the nation-building was going slower than expected. This is partially due to the aftermath of WW2 and the various ripple conflicts from that war and the fact that outside of raw resources, Africa didn't have much for itself. At least, until a discovery was made in 1967 when a nation-building administrator was stuck in one of the tribal villages on the west coast of Africa and made a discovery of a lifetime: the discovery of viable biopolymers. To be specific, the ethnic group that the village belonged to had -for centuries- utilize a concoction made from a specific wood resin and a specific seaweed to create a plastic-like material that strengthened and water proofed whatever it was painted on. When this administrator got back to his office, he quickly asked for a team of scientists to come with him to verify what he had seen. The research took almost a decade to complete, but the discovery was unmistakable: a viable biopolymer that can be used in building construction. With the tree viable across much of Africa and the seaweed across Africa's coastline, a whole new industry was created. Half a decade later -and quite by accident, and the discovery created a biopolymer plastic that was great for storage containers- it was discovered that this biopolymer material could be modified by changing the resin, making it an even more valuable material. This discovery caused a major interest in traditional methods by the various ethnic groups, leading to the discovery of whole new medicines, with the ethnic groups getting the patent rights in the process.

Politically, the African Commonwealth started out of a collection of colonial administrations. When the Americans started with their joint administration program during the interwar years, there was a lot of problems in how it would all pan out. At first, the Americans wanted to start creating a democracy right away, but the Germans believed that it would be a recipe for disaster. Quite a few problems stem from this sadly enough, and threatened to cause the entire experiment to fall apart until a group of Africans with a higher education, some Americans, and some Bovarians worked out a plan of action: gradual democracy. The idea was, oddly enough, mindbogglingly simple (or to quote one administrator 'so simple that it was stupid'): slowly introduce the idea and systems of democracy at the local level and slowly work your way up from there. This, as all things, didn't start out that well. Even with this simple idea, things didn't go as planned and in some cases caused ethnic conflict. The planners persevered however, and slowly built an effective bedrock for a democracy. So, during the 1960s, a convention was called and this convention took almost a decade to hammer everything out, leading to what the African Commonwealth is today.

In essence, the African Commonwealth is a rather unique creature, taking elements from all nations to suit it's needs. The executive -for example- is a fusion between the US and Imperial Germany, with what amounts to be an elected king and his heir (the President and Vice President) and a Chancellor for domestic policy while the legislative is heavily reminiscent of US Congress with two more houses for the various ethnic groups (with one house being similar to the Senate that each ethnic group had equal representation and the other being similar to the House of Representatives which had population as a determining factor for representatives). This melting pot of governments had it's problems as the nation building administration slowly pulled out during the '70s, partially because of how new and different it was. As the people got used to the new government, however, the easier things went. While ethnic-based problems do still exist, it hasn't blown up to disastrous proportions in the African Commonwealth's history.
 
Imperial German Sanitäter
While I was working on furthering the adventures of Arpeggio and friends, I came upon this little video:

Basically, a bit of a brain bug hit me and I had to post this informational down.
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The Imperial German military can be a paradoxical one at times. At times it's quite conservative in the 'if it works, don't fix it' category, at other times it can be looking so far into the future that it was insane, there are times where it appears that they are trying to satisfy some sort of fetish, then there are the times that it is outright paradoxical. The Sanitäter Corps is one of these outright paradoxes. The bedrock for what would become the Sanitäter Corps would be birthed during the Great War of Resistance, as soldiers and nurses that were trained in first aid went into the field of battle with only a pistol and some recognizable symbols strapped to them. They even painted recognizable markings on their helmets to help with identification. While in the years before the Great War of Resistance attacking medical personnel was generally frowned upon (some more than others), several French and British units would outright ignore these protocols during the Great War of Resistance.

These units would be later be made an example of and were all executed by hanging after the war for Crimes against Humanity.

Now it is -oddly enough- due to the herculean efforts of these 'ad hoc' frontline medics that fatalities dwindled. Stories about men and women only armed with a pistol -usually a Luger or C96- and adorned with as many Red Cross markings as they could without impeding their ability saving lives as bullets flew above their heads (or outright at them on occasion) became legendary. Some of these stories would be written down by men like Adolf Hitler, who had several chapters about a Sanitäter unit that he nicknamed the Walküren (translated: Valkyries) who, to paraphrase Hitler, "came upon the battlefield, taking the wounded to safety without care for their lives like the Walküre of legend, and if they couldn't take the wounded to safety, they would stand and fight only with pistols even it meant dying where they stood. Some kept trying despite the wounds they gained in doing these duties, dying to save their fellow soldiers. Words can never tell the full extent of their heroics, for there are no words to describe it...". Others would be immortalized in cartoons or movies like Disney's The Little Sanitäter and the Hollywood short movie The Humble Sanitäter, both of which told stories of a man and a woman who took the mantle of Sanitäter (both of which toned the exploits a bit because they were breaking the suspension of belief even back then).

As word of these units filtered towards German High Command, they started standardizing the training for these individuals, beginning the formation of Sanitäter units. As the fighting moved on from German soil, High Command would start enforcing a standard uniform for the Sanitäter, leading to the now-iconic uniform.
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(a recreation of what would become the iconic Sanitäter uniform that would be used after the first two years of the Great War of Resistance)

The Sanitäter Corps would become the pride of the Imperial German Army as the war progressed. Thanks to their efforts, the German Army and the Iron Legion would suffer fewer battlefield fatalities than their French and British counterparts. The Sanitäter would be retained and expanded after the war, creating a vast system of medical facilities, doctrine, and personnel that would be later copied by numerous countries including the Commune of India (who learned it from Republican Indian forces during the Indian Civil War). This system is still used today, decades later. Sanitäter would gain several responsibilities during the interwar years, including medical checkups in the field (particularly on long marches).

In Imperial German doctrine, one Sanitäter team -with appropriately marked field ambulances- of 2 to 6 Sanitäter is attached to an infantry platoon who are part of a company-level field dressing unit. Sanitäter are clad in modified versions of their company uniform, have two armbands with the Red Cross symbol in a white field, the iconic medical badge in white and gold on the sleeves just before the cuffs, a modified helmet that is painted white and adorned with the Swiss Cross on each facing, and the now iconic Sanitäter Vest (which is a white vest with the Swiss Cross on the front and back). Each Sanitäter is armed with a pistol, partially due to the fact that some groups don't actually take the Rules of War that pertain to field medical units seriously and partially due to history. In the case of forces that consistently target medics, Sanitäter can remove their vest and switch their helmet for a standard one but must retain the rest of his uniform no matter what. Sanitäter is also allowed to defend themselves and their patients as needed.

The company-level dressing unit is only there to ensure that wounds are dressed and anyone that needs more experienced medical attention is prepped and ready for transfer to battalion-level medical camps or division-level field hospitals.

However, one major difference in doctrine between GATE!Earth and Iron Pact!Earth is the provision for giving Sanitäter units the ability to utilize 'combat arms' -pistols on Iron Pact!Earth is generally considered 'defense arms' to allow this- when an enemy force keeps -consistently- killing medics.

Like MPs, Sanitäter is considered to be the closest thing to God on Earth. If a Sanitäter says your not able to fight, you are not able to fight. If you try to override their order, they have the right to literally drag you kicking and screaming. The modern Sanitäter have a higher percentage of their personnel equipped with various cybernetics, so there is the chance that you'll be overpowered by the Sanitäter and dragged out of the combat zone...
 
Informational: Changeling Physiology
Since the next snippet is going to be the aftermath of Chrysalis getting hauled to Fort Portal and getting Wolfenstein to take a more prominent role in the story, I'll have to explain Changeling physiology.



Now, Changeling physiology is something of a complex thing. Born on a dying, magic-saturated world, the Changelings looked less like zombie bugs and more like anthro-horse moths. The Gate was -oddly enough- their salvation and after stocking up as much food as possible, they made a mass exodus -along with numerous other races who eventually bred into what would become the modern changeling, the cataclysm itself had been lost to time sadly enough- to the world they now live on. The thing about the magic of the Changeling's original world is that it is influenced by emotions, and the changelings were known for helping the various other races by literally absorbing emotionally charged magic before it would saturate the area to the point of casting even the simplest of spells would have explosively catastrophic results.



We're talking explosions that range from simply causing houses to turn into kindling to 1-ton bombs to -if the ancient records are to be believed- 53 megaton Tzar Bomba equivalent explosions.



This is a very important component for the changelings as it is the ability to simply absorb ambient magical energy that makes them different than anything that has been previously encountered by the various races living on the planet where Equis and Famart reside... and is their greatest weakness. This ability can be easily corrupted with the right spells and curses, one of which that transformed the changeling race into what it is today... just because one particular god hated the changeling pantheon's guts and wanted them to suffer besides.



Spite does not begin to properly characterize what this god did. This particular god basically poisoned the changeling race, making the only way to get any real sustenance by literally taking magic from someone. This partially caused the changelings' bodies to become the zombie-bug look that they're best known today, all but erasing the anthro-horse moth physical physiology out of the various memories of the races that live on Equis. This curse also slowly poisoned their minds and bodies, causing mental and physical problems as time went on (hence why they shifted their homes from surface settlements to underground complexes disguised as cave systems, in their 'zombie bug' form, sunlight can harm them).



At first, the changelings tried to break this curse via an assortment of rituals... but in doing so created the Parasprites and the Windigos... a combination that caused the collapse of all civilizations on Equis millennia ago. As time went on, not only the fertility of the changeling race suffered but also their ability to simply absorb ambient magic... which led to the birth of Chrysalis (who, in all honesty, eventually went a bit mad when trying to get rid of this curse... alongside that even being a child of a goddess doesn't completely stop the curse's effects).



Changelings can simply absorb magical energy and thus feed directly or they can store it in special sacs in their bodies so that energy can be used later or part of numerous concoctions using what is effectively solid magic that had been transformed into food. These concoctions range from drinks and tea/coffee additives to full out stuffing and confectionaries and the more positive the emotion, the tastier the concoction (as Luna found out thanks to King Thorax sharing his tea additive during one meeting, the taste of which nearly -quite literally- blew her socks off). Pure love is, unsurprisingly, the sweetest of emotions. Negative emotions like lust and hate are basically the opposite and are increasingly nonviable as a food source.



Physically, changelings are only slightly more durable than the various races of Equestria, but the curse has made staying out in the sun in their current form... deadly in long periods. Their transformation can mitigate this a lot, it only mitigates not eliminates... hence why you generally see undercover changelings in work that doesn't have much to do outside more often than not. Mentally, there is increasing mental degradation as the curse's power accelerates... which would be a problem in the long run.
 
Informational: Brown Water Corps
First, I'll have to say that RL is a fun ride... and I've been on an Anno and Battletech binge as of late... and with Christmas so close it's getting even harder to find the will to write. Then there is the fact that the current segment I'm writing isn't going as smoothly as I want it to.

So, here is an informational for you guys, this time talking about something that is going to show up in the near-future: the Brown Water Corps of the Iron Pact.

The Brown Water Corps is a specific detachment of the various militaries of the Iron Pact whose sole job is 'Brown Water' -i.e. riverine/costal- operations. The various vessels of the Brown Water Corps are designed around going up and down the various rivers of the world and assist in inland combat operations, usually for combat support or transporting supplies and personnel. It should be noted that despite its inglorious nature, the Brown Water Corps is highly regarded by the rank and file personnel of most militaries within the Iron Pact and almost put onto a pedestal for Imperial Germany, Vietnam, and China. For Vietnam and China, it is the fact that most of their internal traffic is via the numerous rivers that cross significant portions of their countries but for Imperial Germany, it is due to the fact that what would become known as the Rhine Guard ensured that the British and French wouldn't get past the Rhine during the Great War of Resistance and the 2nd World War.

It should be noted that while the British and French wouldn't respect the brown water ships during the Great War of Resistance, they wouldn't make the same mistake twice during the Second World War. The Rhine Guard would suffer a fatality rate similar to the U-Boat service in OTL: i.e. the loss rate of 75%. This is due to the fact that the Rhine is a massive waterway and thus a barrier to invasion and resupplying troops, so controlling the river was paramount.

The various brown water ships within the Iron Pact arsenal were initially made up of appropriated civilian boats repurposed for combat or outdated gunboats with shallow enough draft but during the interwar years and World War 2, they would be mostly made up of purpose-built designs with a handful of standardized conversions of civilian ships. The primary gunboat of the Rhine Guard and other Brown Water units during the 2nd World War would consist of the 'MZ' series of multi-role ships/boats (US designates 'ships' based on ability to carry boats, and with a lifeboat that means the MZ series are considered 'ships', several other navies considered them 'boats'), which largely consist of ships armed with anti-aircraft weapons (usually a pair of 'mid' range and a pair of 'short' range cannon) and a dual-purpose cannon (usually the American 3" guns due to German armament industry having problems making their own until WW2, although some late-war models played with 10cm and 10.5cm guns but not with much success) with removable depth charge launchers and two sets of twin 21-inch torpedo tubes. Some experimental models would also see the use of rocket mortars of the 15cm variety or 12cm standard mortars installed instead of torpedo tubes, something that would be immensely useful during World War 2 and later during the early stages of the Cold War (having some light artillery ordinance prowling the rivers on standby is a good thing).

These vessels would prove devastating in the escort and ambush roles, as they were cheap enough to mass-produce while having a shallow enough draft to navigate all but the shallowest rivers with ample firepower. This would prove crucial in Indochina in the offensive role, where the numerous rivers made it incredibly difficult to move men and material through and thus required the use of riverboats and barges to help navigate the terrain. This gave the Commune of India numerous headaches as they tried to extend their reach into Indochina.

The 'Brown Water Corps' would prove itself during the early days of the Cold War in the various interventions in Indochina kept proving their worth, and kept giving various Commune of India-aligned guerilla groups massive headaches... allowing for the Iron Pact's Vietnam to be far more successful (and, really, the different goals, but that is for another day)... which ensured that the 'Brown Water Corps' would never be disbanded by the United States and other countries.

The current Iron Pact arsenal consists of numerous designs, some familiar, some unfamiliar. The Iron Pact includes PBR style vessels well into the 21st century, but this is backed up by purpose-built river monitors and the latest of the MZ series. While the not-so-modern ones will be used overall, the ones that will be showing up will make things hell for the Empire, for they carry a lot of autocannons, thermobarics, and rocket launchers.
 
Informational: Psi-Memories
Ok, the next snippet is going to deal with a Psi-Memory, so I'm going to prepare you, folks, for it in a way.



Those that have played the Metro games will understand the basic concept, it is the equivalent of a moment in time burned into reality and stuck on repeat. The Metro Last Light Ghost Plane scene is probably the one that everyone would know of. Each of these latch onto something in the physical world, usually an item or rarely a location. It is extremely rare for a Psi-Memory to latch onto people and those that do have a significant problem that will follow them throughout their lives which I'll go into later.



In the Iron Pact universe, it is an interaction of humans and psionic energy. A sort of echo or death-scream for some of the nastier ones. The odd thing is, before the 1960s in the Iron Pact universe, these are fucking rare. How rare? Rare enough that even the Vatican -who has been keeping an eye on this sort of thing for almost two millennia previous and still keeping an eye for them to this day- had only had encountered... five, one of which was the infamous Prague Program where the supposed Golem of Prague was created and used. The Vatican, in this case, made a standard procedure to send a message that is sealed with a special seal to the local cardinal, who would then direct the stationed Inquisition to the site and recommend the best course of action. Out of the five that the Vatican encountered, only one -specifically the Prague Program in a certain attic- was incapable of being disposed of until Wolfenstein contained it in the early 1990s. There is a very good reason that the Catholic Church had prayers for -seemingly- every occasion, and it partially stems from protecting the people from these sorts of horrors (as, oddly enough, some prayers have improved the chances of people surviving encounters with psi-memories).



When Wolfenstein began their investigations, more and more of these started to show up and Wolfenstein developed the technology to contain and/or dispose of them. This was interrupted by an incident in 1989 when a Wolfenstein operative became the anchor for a psi-memory. It was discovered that when a living being is the anchor of a psi-memory, it is effectively contained... at the price of one's sanity. At times such a person 'lapses' into the psi-memory and it can cause all sorts of havoc, both physical and mental. The operative in question eventually expired after a lapse too many, ending his life in 1993.



It should be noted that people with psionic abilities or specific paranormal abilities (usually the ability to talk to spirits) are able to 'dive in' and save living people stuck in a psi-memory without technological assistance. It isn't always successful mind you, but having these sort of people and Wolfenstein support has a far better chance of getting people out than just either alone...
 
Informational: Demihumans: Minotaurs and the paranormal organizations in Iron Pact!Earth
Alright, @ATP asked about the minotaurs in the snippet on another forum, so I'll give you an informational detailing the (SFW) elements of demihumans, starting with the minotaurs.

First, let's begin with the definition that the Saldarian Empire has for demihumans. Demihumans, in the official legal definition of the laws of the Saldarian Empire, are sentient beings that have both human and animal characteristics. Effectively, Anthros. Whenever a new sentient species is discovered, the first thing the Saldarians do is send a team of doctors, mages, and legal experts to make sure where to place them socially and politically (please note that, in Saldarian 'analytics' and law, this is more of a quadrant chart than a scale with humans being the coordinates 0,0). As a general rule of thumb, it must be noted that demihumans tend to run the gauntlet in terms of social-economic status (please note that Rome had 8 social-economic-political classes in total, although people have grouped the top three -the patricians, the equites, and the 1st class- together) but tend to lump demihumans with the poor/peasantry overall. While none of them can't do things like marry into the nobility, quite a few demihuman species are renowned for being the best bets for being godparents if a family member can't fill that role... at least if the family isn't made up of racist pricks like a significant portion of the nobility.

The minotaurs are one of the more respected demihumans in Falmart and abroad, surprisingly enough. They have a reputation of being hard-working, intelligent, industrious people that didn't have much in terms of problematic quirks. An example would be that a minotaur's mating season is similar enough to a human menstrual cycle overall, just with the added slight problem of heightened libido for both genders during this period. Something that can be easily planned around and prepared for with the right potions and herbs. A trait that gives them some advantages compared to most other demihumans in general. They're some of the best farmers in Falmart, are strong enough to basically be their own oxen (and then some), and due to their partially human nature, have near-human stamina in terms of work capability (you would note that most demihumans have far shorter fur than their animal counterparts, allowing for some human stamina quicks to follow through).

Minotaurs are omnivores like humans but eat more veggies, fruit, and plant starches than meat. This has led to their amazing ability in farming, which is considered to be in the top five of the known world by Saldarians. Saldarians have used minotaur farming techniques to increase crop sustainability and yields, leading to a population boom and increased tax revenue.

In terms of physiology, minotaurs are generally very human-like, just slightly towards the cow end (so, on a 100/100 anthropomorphism scale, minotaurs are generally between 60/40 and 55/45 with the lower number being human, although there are outliers, as we'll get into further on) on average and are more durable than normal humans. Their body build -regardless of gender- is termed 'athletic bodybuilder' in shorthand, this is largely due to their natural strength combined with their preferred jobs in farming and labor. Their height averages out (between both genders) as 1.828 meters/~72 inches, with the specifics being males averaging out at ~1.854m/73 inches while females average out at 1.803m/71 inches (please note that this is the average and that there are outliers). To give you an idea, Romans (and thus Saldarians) tended to be between ~1.52m/60 inches to ~1.65m/65 inches (or, if they're from post-Constantine Eastern Roman stock, ~1.7m/67 inches) in height.

Other, unanimous characteristics of minotaurs are the fact that their skin is covered in very short (but comfortable to the touch) fur, have what is described as 'comfortable leather' skin, head hair, their short but still recognizable bovine snouts, their horns, segmented hooves that resemble a mix between cow hooves and human feet, and their slightly (when compared to humans) meaty hands. For gender-specific characteristics, female minotaurs have short horns and the usual female characteristics that are a mix of bovine and human (if on the larger side, adjusted for the minotaur's larger stature) while male minotaurs have the ability to have facial hair, the expected male equipment that is a mix of bovine and human, and long (when compared to the females) horns. Note that these characteristics are the average, there are deviations of this average like there are for humans. In terms of fertility, minotaurs are above average but nowhere near the level of warrior bunnies, which is due in large part to their longer pregnancy period (a human generally has a pregnancy of 9 months, a minotaur has a pregnancy of 12) and slightly longer development period (a human develops, on average, across 21-25 years while a minotaur develops -again, on average- across 25-30 years). Fur color is similar to various cow species, with the occasional odd fur scheme here and there (usually specific to a transformation or specific bloodline).

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(you would be surprised at how long I spent on making sure that I get an SFW picture that isn't linked to a NSFW site, my google-fu is pretty shit at times)

Their strength is far higher than a human's on average, enough that if a human tried to seriously harm a minotaur, there tends to be one conclusion to the event if the minotaur isn't killed: your injuries will require modern medicine to survive (and a date with a hospital room for several months/better part of a year). Despite this immense strength, they're known for being quite gentle. The average minotaur's stamina is also pretty close to humans, although it must be noted that there is still a fairly large gulf between the two species. In terms of intelligence, there is a similar range in line with humans but with a higher floor and ceiling, and this intelligence has saved their bacon on numerous occasions, like the creation of a new potion to improve the control of their libido during their mating cycles or the ability to create a cunning strategy on the fly with the information they have.

The reason that I keep bringing up the word average and outliers is that, well, there is something analogous to what we call 'ethnic groups' within minotaur society. These 'bloodlines' are carefully tracked not for the sake of money and power but for health and safety (and is a reason that the minotaurs have a reputation of being meticulous record keepers). The minotaurs understand the problems with inbreeding (due to it almost causing the collapse of their civilization millennia ago, leading to their seriously effective transformation magics) and have taken measures as a species to ensure that not too much inbreeding takes place, thus the creation of the bloodlines and their definitions. If you want to think of what happens if too much inbreeding takes place, then think of a combination of the problems with various cattle breeds and the Haspurgs/Romanovs and you get the idea for a low end. The name of these bloodlines is usually named after the first recorded couple with these quirks, either via mythology or history. In addition to this, it isn't uncommon for bloodlines to merge at some point, leading to bloodline revisions. At this time, there are seven major bloodlines:
  • Nubus-Xavia: In minotaur mythology, this is the bloodline from the head god and goddess of the minotaur pantheon and is where the average generally falls into. In some societies in southern Falmart, those of the Nubus-Xavia bloodline (and another that will be revealed later) are considered physical, mortal representations of their fertility deities, which annoys the minotaurs to no end but they understand where they're coming from given minotaurs being excellent farmers (only the Equestrians do better, largely due to the fact that they have things like making farming a science and understanding how magic interacts with crops). It should be noted that this bloodline has two distinct branches, one on Falmart and one on Equis.
  • Khatagar-Trihrah: Showing up about a millennia ago, this bloodline tends to be akin to taller humans, as their average height tends to be around 2.2 meters (or ~86 inches). Their muscles are deceptive, as while they're lean they're still pretty powerful. Outside of that, they've got tufts of fur around the ankles (and occasionally, wrists) that make them distinct.
  • Dovahkiin-Jintana: Showing up roughly seven and a half centuries ago, this is a rather unique pairing between a magically gifted Dragnewt male and a magically gifted minotaur female. They're the most powerful major bloodline in terms of magical or physical power and tend to be similar in height to those of the Khatagar-Trihrah bloodline. They're also known to be incredibly inquisitive, trying to see how things worked and trying to replicate them. They're also known for their immense horns, which can be used as a magical conduit, allowing them to be fully armed while using spells.
  • Cossus-Tenketh: The Kingdom of Mycenaea and what would become the Saldarian Empire came to blows several times over the centuries but it was during one of the extended lulls that one Cossus Servilius Forianus -assigned envoy of the Saldarian Senate to Mycenaea- fell in love with the Mycenaean noble Tenketh Steelwill. When word got back to the Senate about this, the various blocks went into an uproar about the event but for different reasons. Those who wanted to end the constant fighting between the small but capable kingdom wanted to use this to make peace and focus on other conflicts while another faction -mostly made up of the Roman equivalent of racist pricks, similar to people like Benjamin 'Pitchfork' Tillman being racist pricks in the late 1800s/early 1900s- wanted to execute Cossus for treason. Fortunately for everyone involved, the pragmatic faction prevailed. The two got married and began the bloodline that would be their namesake. Noted differences of this bloodline to the others is that they're towards human height (so, ~1.682m/~66 inches), look more human, and are noted to be more maneuverable (due to less mass), and have more human-like stamina.
  • Ytarr-Gerasira/Arezius-Yhena: It shouldn't be a surprise that like their Greco-Roman contemporaries, the Saldarian gods aren't above being intimate with mortals. Fortunately for everyone involved, this is between two of the friendlier gods in that pantheon. Considered the third oldest recorded bloodline, the Ytarr-Gerasira/Arezius-Yhena bloodline is what happens when you get lots of descendants from the union between fertility gods and mortals. This bloodline is partially why the minotaurs are considered mortal embodiments of various fertility gods in southern Falmart. While only slightly larger than average (instead of the average ~1.828m/~72 inches, they're 2m/~78 inches on average), they're known to be amazing family people, have longer lifespans (that is, unless a particularly nasty disease, starvation, or something kills them), and have -on average- larger families. In addition to that, this union has given them some magical abilities that are beyond the ability of magic-users like mages. The only reason that this bloodline hasn't folded into another yet is due to just how large it was at its peak.
  • Asterion-Mohdea: An offshoot of the Nubus-Xavia bloodline and primarily seen on Equis and also known as the 'Royal Bloodline', they're some of the largest (average being 2.5m/~94) and thus considered the giants of minotaurs outside of the next bloodline. They're the strongest natural bloodline in terms of physical ability, but those with magical capabilities are rare. While they lean more heavily towards cow in terms of looks (a 65/45 on the 100/100 anthropomorphic scale), they're not mostly cow-like the next bloodline.
  • The Cursed/The Malicious: The general term for those who are been transformed (via outright malicious -i.e. 'evil for evil's sake'/'getting one's rocks off of the suffering' and thus very illegal- magical means), cursed by gods (usually for either breaking certain rules that even the gods don't break), and/or victims of intense inbreeding. Due to how hard it is to track those of this bloodline, most of the information about them is spotty at best. However, they're known to average 4 meters/~157 inches tall, are more akin to the mythical minotaur (partially due to their transformation, partially due to just how inbred they are), are the most powerful of minotaur kind in terms of physical strength, and have a smorgasbord of health issues. It should be noted those that who are transformed into minotaurs without maliciousness isn't part of this bloodline but are generally part of other bloodlines (if not different enough to start their own). They're known to be insanely durable despite their biological nature, giving indications that the transformative curses and vile magics have durability-enhancing properties.
As a society, the minotaurs are very family-oriented but not debilitatingly so. Minotaurs families tend to be what we consider 'extended families' -which they call herds- and consist of -at the minimum- 1 elder parent pair (depending on the circumstances, this might be simply what we call grandparents but it isn't rare to have great grandparents at the head) and roughly 2-3 generations of kids and their parents (again, depending on the circumstances) while each immediate family (which they didn't even have a name for until they met with the Saldarians, leading to the Saldarian term for immediate family -once translated into minotaur- to be a loan-word) generally consists of two parents, 8 biological children, and 6 adopted children. To give you an idea, the average Saldarian family consists of 2 parents, 6 biological children, and up to 4 adopted children. In addition to this, they are aggressive in protecting children, enough to have the species get into constant trouble within Saldarian lands. This quirk also makes them one of the top picks (outside of direct family) for godparents within the Empire, that is if the family in question isn't a bunch of racist pricks. Several emperors and empresses of the Empire had minotaurs as godparents and are considered some of the best emperors/empresses that the Empire had, and the Elector House of Formal has a minotaur on retainer as a godparent for their heir, taking over the duties whenever Pina isn't in Italica.

Minotaurs are also incredibly serious about education, as in even more serious than the Saldarians. Minotaur schools are a surprisingly modern sight in Falmart in terms of structure, even if it is with their own twist. The minotaurs consider mental and physical learning to be of equal value, partially due to their physiology. Their version of gym/physical education isn't just about how to properly exercise either, but also how to control their immense strength. Their 'mental' education includes things like math, various sciences (especially those related to metalworking, farming, potion-making, and the like), and history. Most students would go to trade schools like advanced farming, metalworking (something that even the dwarves considered 'pretty damn good' and they're stingy on the metalworking praise), and potion making, others would end their education to help out with numerous jobs, and there are the few who decide to become part of the military. While the minotaurs on Equis don't have much in terms of a standing army (as most of their neighbors are long allies of the minotaurs there), the Mycenaean branch has a small (compared to the Saldarian legions) but highly effective professional army. However, the Mycenaean Army is geared towards defense than offense. This is largely due to the fact that the Kingdom of Mycenaea is currently a vassal (of the 'at swordpoint' sort) to the Saldarian Empire and the restrictions thereof. Still, everyone fears this army when they're out to march due to a combination of their weapons and natural durability.


Now for the paranormal organizations on Iron Pact!Earth... prepare for SCP (and other) shoutouts and unfortunate consequences...

Now, you might have noticed that what led to the Great War of Resistance has a lot of 'alien space bat' moments, particularly on the side of the British and French. This is due to the fact that a 'Celestial' -aka a sentient being with god-tier abilities- decided to break Da Rules and interfere with mortal affairs due to wanting to revive his master. To give you an idea of how bad this master is, he's called The Mad God by pretty much everyone and if he won against the others, well it makes Starcraft's Amon look like a good guy (and to be frank, Starcraft's Amon is basically a watered-down version, at least on the Iron Pact side). The other Celestials -pretty much all of whom fought against The Mad God during the aptly named 'War in Heaven' back during the ancient/classical period- noticed this and went into 'oh shit' damage control mode and helped -indirectly- with stopping this horror show (and please note that the plans of this ally to The Mad God only started with Germany, his eventual plans was to use other nations as fuel for the ritual in time). Those in the British and French governments that didn't turn to this god's whims were given what is called 'Keepers' which made them into nothing more than puppets. The funny thing about these 'Keepers' is that they are able to be knocked out for a time via alcohol or various drugs, allowing them to undermine orders, get intelligence and information out to the underground, and write secret diaries to describe their torment.

To give an example, Winston Churchill was one of these poor individuals that got 'Keepered'. When his allies -and remember some of these people were people he knew for decades, and even he didn't know that they were working with this Celestial- showed him their plans, he kicked (almost violently I might add) them out of his home. When they returned, they gave him a keeper and, as they say, the rest was history. He used his heavy drinking as a way to stop the madness once he discovered that you can knock a keeper out for a while. Using his own drunkenness and assistants, he allowed the High Seas Fleet to sail out of Scapa Flow, made sure that everyone controlled by the celestial in the Grey Government was executed (either by various nation-states or by the Catholic Church of all groups as it was discovered during the 1970s), and did whatever he could to support the rebellion against the Grey Government.

While the 'Secret Diaries' would be modified to minimize the supernatural elements of the war (as the fact that something god-like managed to turn people into puppets isn't good for making governments work), various governments began to look into creating paranormal groups to investigate and contain the paranormal. After the war, an increase in paranormal incidents began to force the matter, leading to the creation of departments that weren't as well funded as they should be, leading to incidents that would cause these groups to create the tabloids to cover their screwups up.

In addition to this, during the post-war years, certain paranormal objects (such as the object now known as 'Judge Mary', which future Director of the Federal Police Himmler would encounter in his time in jail for torturing a bunch of murderous occultists) caused all sorts of trouble (both in the good kind and the bad kind), leading to the various organizations going for containment of such objects upon discovery.

The first nation that had an effective paranormal organization, surprisingly enough, was the United States in the mid-1930s with the FBI department known as the 'Unexplained Incidents Department' or UID for short. Their agents would become nicknamed the Sherlocks (based on the famous Sherlock Holmes quote about the elimination of the possible meaning that the impossible must be possible) in rather short order and pioneered some criminal investigation techniques that are used to this day. During the directorship of J. Edgar Hoover, the UID transform from a simple detective unit into a powerful investigative force on par with some nation's intelligence services. The funny thing about the paranormal is that the vast majority of it doesn't want to 'rock the boat' too much, to begin with, leading to easy containment of the paranormal. While the UID would become the golden standard for paranormal police organizations for decades and would lead to numerous reorganizations abroad, which hardened various groups against political maneuvering like the USSR's Division P and India's Department Shiva (both of whom consider containing and preparing for the paranormal to be a bigger priority than politics, although they're no slouches in that department either).

By the 1960s, a new player came into the paranormal picture: Wolfenstein. Germany, due to its US-like nature, had several paranormal organizations within its borders, with the most competent organization being (translated) the Department of Paranormal Activities within the National Police (or as some Germans called it 'the Department of Sane Occultists'). With certain incidents during World War 2, this would lead to a unification of these organizations into a single, powerful one under the guise of a DARPA-style bureau of the government, which fit its style given that its various precursor organizations were ahead in making technology to contain and/or neutralize paranormal activity (especially Psi-Memories). It should be noted that a lot of the advanced metallurgy that the setting is known for came from Wolfenstein (and other paranormal organizations) as part of their research into containment vessels for various paranormal objects (or, in the case where destroying a psi-memory is worse than leaving it in a containment unit, an additional layer of containment). This led to a revolution in containing hostile paranormals, allowing them to be either neutralized at a proper facility -or, after the Celestial Council revealed itself to these organizations, transferred to their care for disposal- or put into extremely secure vaults. To give you an idea of how secure these vaults are, they make the most secure gold bullion reserves look like a cakewalk.

The reason why for such high security is due to some of the things that these vaults contain, specifically what are called 'A-Class' (or Armageddon Class) objects and the reason for the paranoia. As with all things, there are paranormal groups that want to bring about armageddon, and these objects are secured to prevent that from happening. Many of them are actually fragments from the War in Haven, tainting mortal objects with their energies. Others are locations of what is known as 'the Doors of the Apocalypse' which is a series of paranormal gates that, when forced open, initiate armageddon. Then there are the pawns, usually what is termed 'godlings' (be demigods, new gods, among other beings with god-like powers that aren't completely Celestial tier) forced to cause some sort of apocalypse. A good portion of these pawns has the 'instigators of the apocalypse' removed and would, after lots of therapy, would lead to somewhat normal lives. Some of these had to be killed, usually due to them being corrupted by their 'instigator' and acting more like rabid dogs. Then there are those that are held before being sent to Hade's (who is, surprisingly enough, not that bad of a guy) special jail cells in his domain, created to contain Celestials who have either gone mad or must undergo prison time for breaking lesser rules.

Given the lengths that some of these groups are willing to go to kickstart armageddon, everything is treated as serious and with a lot of paranoia...
 
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