HOME | DD

Description
Here’s a scenario based on the History Channel’s brilliant auteur piece, Ancient Aliens, and wacky conspiracy theory crap in general. Quite a bit of influence taken from The Antediluvian Histories from AH.com’s Municipal Engines, and of course DValdron's Green Antarctica, Lovecraft, War of the Worlds, Mars Attacks! and Warhammer 40K.

---

The Atlantean Ecumene is falling. Although they were victorious in the Final War against Mu, the Despotate lives on in southeast Asia and is forging an alliance with other counter-Atlantean powers. Although they managed to prevent the Necrontyr of the Nokorekh Dynasty from exterminating life on Earth[1], they have been unable to dislodge their forces from the heart of Europe. If only the Gods were there to guide them.

The Atlantean Ecumene was founded by humans, but not without some assistance. The Martian Empire, a multi-species empire ruled by the skeletal, green w’lkar, touched down on Earth tens of thousands of years before and found a species of dumb, hairless apes. Sure, there were the strange, winged creatures in the Southern Continent, the cephalopodic starspawn which they warred with, and the conical…things on the Black Continent, but their civilizations were on the brink of collapse even without Martian intervention. And, perhaps most importantly, they were advanced enough to see the Martians for what they were: imperialist spacefarers with a twisted sense of humor. The humans, on the other hand….

As the elder races warred with one another and drove themselves to near-extinction (with the Martians making a few lucrative arms deals along the way), the Martians took the humans under their wing. They taught them everything important: math, chemistry, genocide, stacking rocks for no good reason, engineering needlessly complex clockwork mechanisms, managing pawn shops, and astronomy. The Martians didn’t give up all of their secrets, of course: they tried that with the sarmaks, and now those bastards have so much control over the empire’s infrastructure that they could bring it grinding to a halt. While the idea of having the humans replace the sarmaks as the Martian Empire’s engineering caste was seriously considered, the majority didn’t think the hairless apes could handle the complexity of Martian technology while maintaining the religious reverence they had for the “star men.” The humans were certainly causing enough confusion amongst themselves, without Martian assistance; they seriously believed that really pointy mounds of granite were the source of Martian electrical power, and not nuclear fusion. Sure, the humans brought to Mars were excellent slaves, thanks to growing up in higher gravity, but they were great slaves because they maintained their religious beliefs. At any rate, the “Earth Experiment” was the funniest thing to happen to Mars since the creation of tharkface minstrel shows. Why ruin the fun?

But the fun didn’t last. Mars’ climate was growing colder and dryer by the day, and about ten thousand years after the beginning of the Earth Experiment, the Martian climate was in dire straits. The sarmaks, tired of being treated like slaves and facing the possible extinction of their species because of the w’lkar’s stubborn refusal to build a canal system to distribute water around the planet, orchestrated a mass strike. The strike became a riot, which became a civil war, and before anyone knew it, Mars was plunged into civil war. The w’lkar were driven off the planet and beyond the Asteroid Belt, settling in their Jovian colonies, while the sarmaks established their own empire. Facing countless serious problems at home, the sarmaks pulled back their forces from Earth, ending the little experiment the w’lkar started.

Without their gods, humanity floundered. Not only were religious wars sparked by the Martians’ disappearance, humans simply didn’t know how the technology they took for granted worked. In some parts of the world, particularly in Siberia and North Africa, technological civilization disappeared completely, while in most places technology became the luxury of the privileged few. A new caste system arose in most societies, where the inheritors of alien tech ruled in their crystalline palaces with an iron fist over masses of peasants who could not even read their own names. The military was similarly stratified: elites in flying saucers and armed with heat rays led armies of hoplites with bronze swords. It was with these armies that the new global order was forged.

Dominant among the world was the Atlantean Ecumene. Theoretically the official successor of the Martian colonial government, the Atlanteans pride themselves as having been the Martians’ favorite, for a variety of reasons. Of course, the Martians only picked favorites in order to incite jealousy between human groups and make them treat each other like shit, but they never informed the Atlanteans of this fact. Being modeled off the Martian Empire of old, the Atlantean Ecumene is a despotic tyranny with a single “philosopher-king” ruling over everyone. In theory, at least. The power of the philosopher-king depends on a variety of factors, but most of the time, the power lies in the hands of regional leaders, the rich and ambitious, and the more competent members of a philosopher-king’s family.

How the philosopher-king is chosen is a mystery: a Martian computer chooses one among the people, but the process by which it makes its choice is unknown. Keen observers have noticed a trend, and that is philosopher-kings tend to be chosen from a very peculiar demographic: the criminally insane. While a system of taking serial killers, child rapists and other horrifying menaces to society from the most heavily guarded prisons in the Ecumene and placing them in a position of absolute power over the most powerful country on the planet has been met with some criticism, and indeed some scholars go so far as to say that this is probably the worst political system ever devised, most people accept the system because the Atlantean Ecumene hasn’t collapsed after going through thousands of these leaders, and who are they to question the Martians? Hey, maybe that computer sees something these “intellectuals” don’t.

Naturally, being led by the worst people in their society for thousands of years has damaged the Ecumene, and it is no longer as powerful as it once was. Many old provinces of the Ecumene have broken off and formed their own states. Some have become utterly different cultures: Kemet, Naska and the Yunakuni are the three most powerful post-Atlantean states, states which broke off so long ago that they’ve managed to developed a friendly relationship with Atlantis after centuries of rivalry. These states are no less dysfunctional than the Atlantean mother country. Kemet worships their “pharaohs” as gods descended from Martian stock, and their efforts to preserve their bloodline has led to so many incestuous relationships within the royal family that their family tree looks less like a woody plant and more like a hairball coughed up by one of the Kemetites’ holy felines. Politically incorrect Atlantean commenters (that is to say, almost all of them) have attributed the Kemetites’ obsession with stacking rocks, cat statues and trading card games to mental deficiencies rife within Kemet’s royal family.

The Naska are no better: their emperor recently 1) proclaimed himself to be made of sunlight, 2) banned wheels because they were unlucky, and 3) made these announcements before his people without the benefit of clothing. While the Naska do like pyramids, they also like making massive drawings in the sand, works of art that could only be viewed from the air. That means that most of the slaves hauling rocks across the Naska Desert will never see the works of art they work on for their entire lives. The Naska believe that these holy works will prompt the Martians to return, although the few w’lkar who have seen the Naska’s projects are adolescents who only interested in tricking the poor guys into drawing gigantic pictures of w’lkar genitals and drug paraphernalia, and writing statements proclaiming their society’s homosexual tendencies to the universe at large.

The Yunakuni are a mysterious bunch, descended as much from the native cultures in East Asia as much as they were from the early Atlantean colonies that dotted the area. The Yunakuni have also adopted some of the more unpleasant features of their neighbors, the Muians, such as cannibalism, ritual sacrifice and yodeling. Having inherited quite a bit more of the Martians’ knowledge, the Yunakuni have a better understanding of scientific principles than most other cultures on Earth, but they are content to let everybody else continue in their magical beliefs. They have also inherited quite a bit of the Martians’ prankster culture, and they build monuments to fool and confuse future archeologists. Their grand project, a “city” beneath the waves, is costing Yunakuni’s government a fortune, but everyone from the empress to the lowliest peasant believes it is totally worth it. After all, they need a place to store Martian nuclear waste, and what better place to store it than a treasure-filled chamber marked “Do Not Enter; Cursed”?

Then there are the nations that want nothing more than to bring death and destruction upon Atlantis and its allies. Prime among these is the Despotate of Mu, or rather what’s left of it. During the Final War, the Despotate misunderstood the contemporary Atlantean Philosopher-King’s madness, and the Despot made an off-color remark about how Mu’s graviton missile arsenal would “begin launch sequence in five minutes” during a press conference. Within three minutes, the Despotate and their Tslal allies were bathed in destructive energies of all sorts. Especially destructive were the Atlantean reality-warping weapons, inherited from the Martians and so strange that the Atlanteans had no idea what they did and used them “just to see what would happen.” What happened was spacetime weakening to the point that Mu proper began to sink into the waves, and what was left of the Despotate’s heartlands became a playground for horrific beings from another dimension.

The Despotate lives on in Asia, and it is out for revenge. Descended primarily from Yithian culture and having little to do with the Martians, the Muians always saw themselves as the saviors of humanity from these malicious tricksters. Muian technology is alien to everyone else, and the remnants of the Despotate take great efforts in ensuring that it does not fall into enemy hands. As a result, the Despotate has become insular, to the point that nobody knows exactly what’s going on inside at any given moment, and even the Despotate’s leadership is a mystery.

The only relations the Despotate has with the outside world is through its allies, the Pact of Blood and Bone. Named by the ever-cheerful Tcho-Tcho, the Pact is the club for anyone who doesn’t like the Atlanteans enough to do something about it one day. The Tcho-Tcho, being a shorter, totally hairless subspecies of humanity, have never gotten along with their Homo sapiens neighbors. They say it’s their appearance, the humans say it’s their cannibalism and worship of malevolent deities. Whatever the reason, the Tcho-Tcho see Atlantis as the representative of human bigotry, and wish to bring it down in the name of their dark gods.

The Myargarath Empire, on the other hand, is all about human supremacy, and it is on these grounds that they oppose the Atlanteans. Seeing Atlantis as the promoter of alien worship, the Myargarath oppose them as they believe that humanity can never make progress so long as they depend on higher beings, or even the belief in higher beings. Led by their emperor, an enigmatic figure from Anatolia, the Myargarath plan on destroying all alien influence on Earth, and then destroying their Tcho-Tcho “allies” soon afterward.

The Nakatal are another culture that has been influenced by non-Martians. Influenced by the tzitzimime, a species of skeletal, arachnid-esque aliens which had established themselves in Central America prior to the Martian invasion, the Nakatal have resisted Martian and Atlantean influence from the beginning. Worshiping the Blood God, the martial deity the tzitzimime worshiped, the Nakatal are obsessed with battle and blood sacrifice. To them, the Atlanteans are more than rivals: they are the greatest sacrifice. And one day, their skulls will adorne the Skull Throne.

In the eastern Mediterranean exist two powers which are in the Pact of Blood and Bone for reasons of mere pragmatism. The Minoan League and the Cimmerian Empire have no interest in alien politics or gods; they are merely upstart kingdoms with ambitions to replace Atlantean influence in the region with their own. In order to “fit in with the cool kids,” both empires have begun to adopt various practices from their allies’ cultures. Who knew human flesh tasted so good with the right spices?

Then there are the powers that take no sides in coming war between Atlantis and the Pact. The Realm of Avalon and the Cenneric League are no big threat; these upstarts still live in castles and believe that their “magical” swords can deflect Atlantean heat-rays. Their ambitions are troublesome in that they cause trouble for Atlantis’ similarly-primitive allies in the region, but all Atlantis needs is sufficient reason to burn down both empires. The city-states of Edom are rather idyllic in their green paradise, at least when they’re not waging wars of extermination with one another. At least the blood makes good fertilizer. The Hyborians, an empire of Martian genetic experiments, still hates the Atlanteans whose bigotry drove them north in the first place, but they want nothing to do with the insane Pact. In Africa, the empires of Demet-Shiba and Dzimbu are content to mine gold and sell it to the Kemetites in exchange for weapons that they hope they will never have to use. The Nokorekh in Europe despise the “living” on both sides, and their plague scythes will reap a new harvest when the war comes. And the Ruguls…their composite bows are impressive in the steppes, but they won’t do anything to a flying saucer, and the Great Khan knows it.

Of course, the Despotate has one more trick up its sleeve. While the Atlanteans successfully intercepted most of the Despotate’s weapons of mass destruction during the Final War, the Despotate never used all of their weapons. Deep within the Southern Ocean, inside the secret R’lyeh Naval Station, lies an impossibly ancient being which has been asleep even before the Martians arrived. This…being, the Despotate’s leaders theorize, cannot be countered by any weapon. They know not what devastation it will wreak, but the ancient records from interviews the last starspawn on Earth hint at unimaginable destruction around the world. The Despotate already has a few flying saucers modified for a long, interstellar voyage, and their leaders are making the final preparations for escape. Soon, they will have little incentive to let the Atlantean Ecumene continue existing.

---

[1] This isn't just a gratuitous 40K reference. Ancient Aliens has actually claimed that the Black Death was caused by Grim Reaper aliens with plague scythes.

Description
Here’s a scenario based on the History Channel’s brilliant auteur piece, Ancient Aliens, and wacky conspiracy theory crap in general. Quite a bit of influence taken from The Antediluvian Histories from AH.com’s Municipal Engines, and of course DValdron's Green Antarctica, Lovecraft, War of the Worlds, Mars Attacks! and Warhammer 40K.

---

The Atlantean Ecumene is falling. Although they were victorious in the Final War against Mu, the Despotate lives on in southeast Asia and is forging an alliance with other counter-Atlantean powers. Although they managed to prevent the Necrontyr of the Nokorekh Dynasty from exterminating life on Earth[1], they have been unable to dislodge their forces from the heart of Europe. If only the Gods were there to guide them.

The Atlantean Ecumene was founded by humans, but not without some assistance. The Martian Empire, a multi-species empire ruled by the skeletal, green w’lkar, touched down on Earth tens of thousands of years before and found a species of dumb, hairless apes. Sure, there were the strange, winged creatures in the Southern Continent, the cephalopodic starspawn which they warred with, and the conical…things on the Black Continent, but their civilizations were on the brink of collapse even without Martian intervention. And, perhaps most importantly, they were advanced enough to see the Martians for what they were: imperialist spacefarers with a twisted sense of humor. The humans, on the other hand….

As the elder races warred with one another and drove themselves to near-extinction (with the Martians making a few lucrative arms deals along the way), the Martians took the humans under their wing. They taught them everything important: math, chemistry, genocide, stacking rocks for no good reason, engineering needlessly complex clockwork mechanisms, managing pawn shops, and astronomy. The Martians didn’t give up all of their secrets, of course: they tried that with the sarmaks, and now those bastards have so much control over the empire’s infrastructure that they could bring it grinding to a halt. While the idea of having the humans replace the sarmaks as the Martian Empire’s engineering caste was seriously considered, the majority didn’t think the hairless apes could handle the complexity of Martian technology while maintaining the religious reverence they had for the “star men.” The humans were certainly causing enough confusion amongst themselves, without Martian assistance; they seriously believed that really pointy mounds of granite were the source of Martian electrical power, and not nuclear fusion. Sure, the humans brought to Mars were excellent slaves, thanks to growing up in higher gravity, but they were great slaves because they maintained their religious beliefs. At any rate, the “Earth Experiment” was the funniest thing to happen to Mars since the creation of tharkface minstrel shows. Why ruin the fun?

But the fun didn’t last. Mars’ climate was growing colder and dryer by the day, and about ten thousand years after the beginning of the Earth Experiment, the Martian climate was in dire straits. The sarmaks, tired of being treated like slaves and facing the possible extinction of their species because of the w’lkar’s stubborn refusal to build a canal system to distribute water around the planet, orchestrated a mass strike. The strike became a riot, which became a civil war, and before anyone knew it, Mars was plunged into civil war. The w’lkar were driven off the planet and beyond the Asteroid Belt, settling in their Jovian colonies, while the sarmaks established their own empire. Facing countless serious problems at home, the sarmaks pulled back their forces from Earth, ending the little experiment the w’lkar started.

Without their gods, humanity floundered. Not only were religious wars sparked by the Martians’ disappearance, humans simply didn’t know how the technology they took for granted worked. In some parts of the world, particularly in Siberia and North Africa, technological civilization disappeared completely, while in most places technology became the luxury of the privileged few. A new caste system arose in most societies, where the inheritors of alien tech ruled in their crystalline palaces with an iron fist over masses of peasants who could not even read their own names. The military was similarly stratified: elites in flying saucers and armed with heat rays led armies of hoplites with bronze swords. It was with these armies that the new global order was forged.

Dominant among the world was the Atlantean Ecumene. Theoretically the official successor of the Martian colonial government, the Atlanteans pride themselves as having been the Martians’ favorite, for a variety of reasons. Of course, the Martians only picked favorites in order to incite jealousy between human groups and make them treat each other like shit, but they never informed the Atlanteans of this fact. Being modeled off the Martian Empire of old, the Atlantean Ecumene is a despotic tyranny with a single “philosopher-king” ruling over everyone. In theory, at least. The power of the philosopher-king depends on a variety of factors, but most of the time, the power lies in the hands of regional leaders, the rich and ambitious, and the more competent members of a philosopher-king’s family.

How the philosopher-king is chosen is a mystery: a Martian computer chooses one among the people, but the process by which it makes its choice is unknown. Keen observers have noticed a trend, and that is philosopher-kings tend to be chosen from a very peculiar demographic: the criminally insane. While a system of taking serial killers, child rapists and other horrifying menaces to society from the most heavily guarded prisons in the Ecumene and placing them in a position of absolute power over the most powerful country on the planet has been met with some criticism, and indeed some scholars go so far as to say that this is probably the worst political system ever devised, most people accept the system because the Atlantean Ecumene hasn’t collapsed after going through thousands of these leaders, and who are they to question the Martians? Hey, maybe that computer sees something these “intellectuals” don’t.

Naturally, being led by the worst people in their society for thousands of years has damaged the Ecumene, and it is no longer as powerful as it once was. Many old provinces of the Ecumene have broken off and formed their own states. Some have become utterly different cultures: Kemet, Naska and the Yunakuni are the three most powerful post-Atlantean states, states which broke off so long ago that they’ve managed to developed a friendly relationship with Atlantis after centuries of rivalry. These states are no less dysfunctional than the Atlantean mother country. Kemet worships their “pharaohs” as gods descended from Martian stock, and their efforts to preserve their bloodline has led to so many incestuous relationships within the royal family that their family tree looks less like a woody plant and more like a hairball coughed up by one of the Kemetites’ holy felines. Politically incorrect Atlantean commenters (that is to say, almost all of them) have attributed the Kemetites’ obsession with stacking rocks, cat statues and trading card games to mental deficiencies rife within Kemet’s royal family.

The Naska are no better: their emperor recently 1) proclaimed himself to be made of sunlight, 2) banned wheels because they were unlucky, and 3) made these announcements before his people without the benefit of clothing. While the Naska do like pyramids, they also like making massive drawings in the sand, works of art that could only be viewed from the air. That means that most of the slaves hauling rocks across the Naska Desert will never see the works of art they work on for their entire lives. The Naska believe that these holy works will prompt the Martians to return, although the few w’lkar who have seen the Naska’s projects are adolescents who only interested in tricking the poor guys into drawing gigantic pictures of w’lkar genitals and drug paraphernalia, and writing statements proclaiming their society’s homosexual tendencies to the universe at large.

The Yunakuni are a mysterious bunch, descended as much from the native cultures in East Asia as much as they were from the early Atlantean colonies that dotted the area. The Yunakuni have also adopted some of the more unpleasant features of their neighbors, the Muians, such as cannibalism, ritual sacrifice and yodeling. Having inherited quite a bit more of the Martians’ knowledge, the Yunakuni have a better understanding of scientific principles than most other cultures on Earth, but they are content to let everybody else continue in their magical beliefs. They have also inherited quite a bit of the Martians’ prankster culture, and they build monuments to fool and confuse future archeologists. Their grand project, a “city” beneath the waves, is costing Yunakuni’s government a fortune, but everyone from the empress to the lowliest peasant believes it is totally worth it. After all, they need a place to store Martian nuclear waste, and what better place to store it than a treasure-filled chamber marked “Do Not Enter; Cursed”?

Then there are the nations that want nothing more than to bring death and destruction upon Atlantis and its allies. Prime among these is the Despotate of Mu, or rather what’s left of it. During the Final War, the Despotate misunderstood the contemporary Atlantean Philosopher-King’s madness, and the Despot made an off-color remark about how Mu’s graviton missile arsenal would “begin launch sequence in five minutes” during a press conference. Within three minutes, the Despotate and their Tslal allies were bathed in destructive energies of all sorts. Especially destructive were the Atlantean reality-warping weapons, inherited from the Martians and so strange that the Atlanteans had no idea what they did and used them “just to see what would happen.” What happened was spacetime weakening to the point that Mu proper began to sink into the waves, and what was left of the Despotate’s heartlands became a playground for horrific beings from another dimension.

The Despotate lives on in Asia, and it is out for revenge. Descended primarily from Yithian culture and having little to do with the Martians, the Muians always saw themselves as the saviors of humanity from these malicious tricksters. Muian technology is alien to everyone else, and the remnants of the Despotate take great efforts in ensuring that it does not fall into enemy hands. As a result, the Despotate has become insular, to the point that nobody knows exactly what’s going on inside at any given moment, and even the Despotate’s leadership is a mystery.

The only relations the Despotate has with the outside world is through its allies, the Pact of Blood and Bone. Named by the ever-cheerful Tcho-Tcho, the Pact is the club for anyone who doesn’t like the Atlanteans enough to do something about it one day. The Tcho-Tcho, being a shorter, totally hairless subspecies of humanity, have never gotten along with their Homo sapiens neighbors. They say it’s their appearance, the humans say it’s their cannibalism and worship of malevolent deities. Whatever the reason, the Tcho-Tcho see Atlantis as the representative of human bigotry, and wish to bring it down in the name of their dark gods.

The Myargarath Empire, on the other hand, is all about human supremacy, and it is on these grounds that they oppose the Atlanteans. Seeing Atlantis as the promoter of alien worship, the Myargarath oppose them as they believe that humanity can never make progress so long as they depend on higher beings, or even the belief in higher beings. Led by their emperor, an enigmatic figure from Anatolia, the Myargarath plan on destroying all alien influence on Earth, and then destroying their Tcho-Tcho “allies” soon afterward.

The Nakatal are another culture that has been influenced by non-Martians. Influenced by the tzitzimime, a species of skeletal, arachnid-esque aliens which had established themselves in Central America prior to the Martian invasion, the Nakatal have resisted Martian and Atlantean influence from the beginning. Worshiping the Blood God, the martial deity the tzitzimime worshiped, the Nakatal are obsessed with battle and blood sacrifice. To them, the Atlanteans are more than rivals: they are the greatest sacrifice. And one day, their skulls will adorne the Skull Throne.

In the eastern Mediterranean exist two powers which are in the Pact of Blood and Bone for reasons of mere pragmatism. The Minoan League and the Cimmerian Empire have no interest in alien politics or gods; they are merely upstart kingdoms with ambitions to replace Atlantean influence in the region with their own. In order to “fit in with the cool kids,” both empires have begun to adopt various practices from their allies’ cultures. Who knew human flesh tasted so good with the right spices?

Then there are the powers that take no sides in coming war between Atlantis and the Pact. The Realm of Avalon and the Cenneric League are no big threat; these upstarts still live in castles and believe that their “magical” swords can deflect Atlantean heat-rays. Their ambitions are troublesome in that they cause trouble for Atlantis’ similarly-primitive allies in the region, but all Atlantis needs is sufficient reason to burn down both empires. The city-states of Edom are rather idyllic in their green paradise, at least when they’re not waging wars of extermination with one another. At least the blood makes good fertilizer. The Hyborians, an empire of Martian genetic experiments, still hates the Atlanteans whose bigotry drove them north in the first place, but they want nothing to do with the insane Pact. In Africa, the empires of Demet-Shiba and Dzimbu are content to mine gold and sell it to the Kemetites in exchange for weapons that they hope they will never have to use. The Nokorekh in Europe despise the “living” on both sides, and their plague scythes will reap a new harvest when the war comes. And the Ruguls…their composite bows are impressive in the steppes, but they won’t do anything to a flying saucer, and the Great Khan knows it.

Of course, the Despotate has one more trick up its sleeve. While the Atlanteans successfully intercepted most of the Despotate’s weapons of mass destruction during the Final War, the Despotate never used all of their weapons. Deep within the Southern Ocean, inside the secret R’lyeh Naval Station, lies an impossibly ancient being which has been asleep even before the Martians arrived. This…being, the Despotate’s leaders theorize, cannot be countered by any weapon. They know not what devastation it will wreak, but the ancient records from interviews the last starspawn on Earth hint at unimaginable destruction around the world. The Despotate already has a few flying saucers modified for a long, interstellar voyage, and their leaders are making the final preparations for escape. Soon, they will have little incentive to let the Atlantean Ecumene continue existing.

---

[1] This isn't just a gratuitous 40K reference. Ancient Aliens has actually claimed that the Black Death was caused by Grim Reaper aliens with plague scythes.