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The Crown Atomic is a Hearts of Iron II, Darkest Hour After-Action Report, set in and expanding the same universe as the popular Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg Game Mod. Like Kaiserreich, it is set in an alternate timeline where the Central Powers win World War I. Crown Atomic begins in 1943 following an alternate World War II in which the reactionary powers have crushed the resulting Syndicalist states, setting the stage for a new Cold War between various factions, most of which are somewhat unpleasant.

The AAR is hosted on the Paradox Interactive forums and can be read here.


This Game Mod provides examples of:

  • Abdicate the Throne: Kaiser Wilhelm IV abdicates his throne in favor of his brother Louis Ferdinand after the scandal concerning Wilhelm's love affair with Dorothea von Salviati.
  • A Day in the Limelight: Like Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg, some of the more minor figures of real world history are given special prominence while key figures from our world are downplayed or missing entirely.
  • Allohistorical Allusion: Many examples, but particularly:
    • The Entente's invasion of Britain is called D-Day.
    • Ho Chi Minh's 'Arduous Trek' after the defeat of the Indochinese Federation closely mirrors Mao's Long March.
    • Amerosul alludes to both Stalin's Soviet Union with the collectivization of agriculture and rapid industrialization, and Red China with their own analogue of Cultural Revolution. They also use the slogan of the Khmer Rouge: "To keep you is no benefit. To destroy you is no loss".
    • Wilhelm IV's abdication is played in the same manner as Edward VIII's abdication in real life, to the point that Wilhelm repeats Edward's words about "the help and support of the woman I love" after pledging allegiance to the new Kaiser and his brother, Louis Ferdinand (Friedrich IV).
    • Germany's problems in its Eastern European satellites in the late 1950s echo the Prague Spring and/or the Hungarian Revolution.
    • Canada gets sucked into a failed emigre invasion of Oman, mirroring the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
    • After the Arab-Turkish War, the Imperial powers redraw the Middle East in an echo of the The Partition of India.
    • The Mittelafrikan War proves to be Germany's The Vietnam War. Increase of presence of the German military in the war is even called "Germanization'. There are also echoes of OTL's French Algeria and British Rhodesia, as Germany is caught as the middleman between indigenous factions trying to throw off imperialism and colonial homesteaders who think that the Fatherland is being too lenient on the rebels.
    • The Iran-Iraq War gets TWO allusions. The first is the Third American Civil War, between the Fundamentalist Christian Republic of America and the military-dominated United American Republic. The Second is the Arab-Egyptian war, between the newly formed Islamic Republic of Egypt and the dictatorship in Transarabia. Both are wars between newly formed Ultra-Religious nations and a dictatorial but secular power.
  • Alternate History: For the sake of being a Kaiserreich AAR.
  • Ambiguously Evil: Pretty much every world power, depending on who you side with.
  • Argentina Is Nazi-Land: A variation: Oswald Mosley, after his defeat by the Canadians, manages to flee to Syndicalist Brazil and manages to keep enough of a low profile (with the support of the local government) that almost everyone assumes he died at some point during the Union of Britain's last stand and the Canadians Never Found the Body. This comes back to bite him when a coup puts an even more radical group of extremists into power in Amerosul, and the new government decides to eliminate him as a liability. His executioners don't even believe him when he reveals that he's the Oswald Mosley.
  • Balkanize Me:
    • Happens to America following the Second American Civil War. Besides AUS, Pacific States of America and New England cede from the Union and Texas is occupied by Mexico.
    • France is divided in the pro-German Kingdom of France in North the pro-Entente French Empire in South following the Syndicalist War
  • Being Good Sucks: Russia and the Republic of China are some of the few surviving "pure" democracies in the world, but they are plagued by chaos and instability and have problems with their more expansionist neighbors.
  • The Big Rotten Apple: New England's New York City, in the spirit of The Great Gatsby, is a city of contrasts, where beauty and luxury coexist with corruption and greed.
  • Black Shirt: The AUS has the America First Minutemen.
    • Later they also get rival Christian fundamentalist militias.
  • Boomerang Bigot: Charles Coughlin, despite being a Canadian by birth, hates his native land with all his heart.
  • Bread and Circuses: The Bright Young Things who control Canada keep power by using their control over the Imperial economy to promote a strong consumer base with a comfortable standard of living.
  • Call a Rabbit a "Smeerp":
    • Computers are 'Turing Machines'
    • 'Atomic' always seems to be used instead of 'nuclear', as in 'atomic power plant', 'atomic radiation', 'atomic research' etc.
    • AIDS still has the same abbreviation, but it stands for Afrikanisch Immundefektsyndrom.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them: After the German intervention to Egypt , Sultan Abbas II of Egypt, together with his son Muhammad, abdicates throne in favor of his grandson Abbas, a 5-year old boy, who becomes Abbas III.
  • Chummy Commies: Averted. Depsite that mod features sympathetic radical left-wing factions, in this AAR, to date, all the left-wing powers are just as terrible, if not worse, than the right-wing ones.
    • Might be starting to be shown with the arrival of kibbutz-like Syndoasia.
  • Commie Land: Amerosul (Continental Syndicate of South America), although it arguably has a nightmarish Orwellian ideology all of its own.
  • Cool Plane: The Avro Arrow, an advanced 1950s supersonic interceptor that was cancelled before its time in real life, gets a full production run in this world.
  • Cool Train: The 'Elevated', a system of overground trains or monorails, replaces the 'Underground' in New London as the original tunnels were destroyed in the 'liberation' of the city.
  • Crapsaccharine World: Canada and the Empire manage to combine 1950s Stepford Smiler and Stepford Suburbia tendencies with a secretly tyrannical regime.
  • Crushing the Populace: The deindustrialization of the northern states in the AUS is largely believed in-universe to be the strategic move to punish the local populace for Syndicalism and to lessen their resistance through poverty.
  • Cult of Personality: The cult of King-Emperor Edward VIII is wide and pervasive around the Empire. To understand the scope of it, there was a criminal case where the defendant was alleged to have failed to return a greeting of "God Save the King".
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: After Egypt seized the Suez Canal from Germany, it didn't take long for the Kaiserreich to send a military expedition led by Erwin Rommel and easily crush the Egyptian forces.
  • Darkest Africa: Due to colonialism lasting longer in this world and the general characteristics of Mittelafrika, Africa continues to have a wild frontier quality well into the 1960s.
  • Deadly Euphemism: Japan is fond of deploying 'friendship troops' to impose 'friendship governments' on its neighbors.
  • Democracy Is Bad: A general opinion in the British Empire and Germany, where too much democracy is blamed for terrible revolutions and following wars. In particular, Canada and the other Imperial dominions run "managed democracies" where the elites give the general population the illusion of choice while pulling strings behind the curtain to ensure their agenda is never truly endangered.
  • Different World, Different Movies:
  • Divided States of America: America gets split in two after the Second American Civil War:
  • Dragon-in-Chief: Charles Coughlin, despite not being the actual leader of the American Union State, still has the most impact over the societal course the AUS takes. His influence causes the Union State to become an oppressively racist and theocratic hellhole. He is eventually made the Big Bad of America when Long dies, and he attempts to destroy any illusion of Democracy left in America. Then the Military gets tired of his antics.
  • Driven to Suicide: Alois Brunner shots himself following the defeat in the Balkans War.
  • The Emperor:
    • Edward VIII of the British Empire, who is now habitually referred to as the King-Emperor.
    • Kaisers Wilhelm III, Wilhelm IV and Friedrich IV of Germany.
    • Hirohitio in Japan.
  • The Empire:
    • The British Empire is the most prominent, and is usually just known as 'the Empire.'
    • Germany and Japan also count.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Henry Anderson is a loving husband, caring father, charming neighbor, and drives off to work to torture alleged dissidents in the basement of the Canadian secret police building.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Germany and Britain, hardly good, still seem to look down on Mittelafrika and Japan.
    • And everyone hates Amerosul.
  • Evil Chancellor: Vice-President Charles Coughlin to Huey Long. While Long is far from the saint, to say the least, it's Coughlin who carries out the worst excesses of the Firster regime and seeks to consolidate power in the AUS for himself. Many AUS officials fear that Long, due to his fading health, will die in the office when Coughlin is still a Vice-President, thus leaving him as the heir.
  • Evil Colonialist: Hermann Göring, who isn't ashamed to admit that he treats African natives as dirt.
    Hermann Göring: (abour violence between colonial settlers and Congolese) It's not my responsibility. I was sent here to build civilization, and I will build it. If you trample a man's garden, he has a right to punch you back. Go home. My measures will not be crippled by any bureaucracy. We'll go down in history either as the world's greatest statesmen or its worst villains. There is a clarity to that.
  • Evil Counterpart: German-backed North France vs. Entente-backed South France. Which is "good" and which is "evil" depends on your perspective.
  • Evil Versus Evil: All of the main powers in the world have skeletons in their closet that they have good reason for keeping well-hidden:
    • Britain has a pseudo-fascist government and make people "disappear" for Thought Crime and insulting the King.
    • Germany presides over a terrible African empire, the details of which are...vague.
    • Japan is as imperialistic, milirarist and cruel as the Japanese Empire was in OTL.
    • And the minor powers, including Ultranationalist Austria and Orwellian Amerosul, are arguably worse.
  • Expanded States of America: California was divided into North and South California in the Pacific States of America.
  • Fat Bastard: Göring weights over 400 lb by his 60s, which causes major health problems and eventual death for him.
  • The Federation: Both the German Reich and the British Empire see themselves as this.
  • Fictional Counterpart:
    • JFK International Airport, in Canadian-dominated New England, is instead John Andre International Airport. John Andre was notable collaborator with the British during the War of Independence.
  • Forbidden Zone: Most of the Syndicalist states survive by being isolated so become de facto versions of this to the outside world.
    • South America, mostly controlled by Orwellian Amerosul, is referred to as 'The Silent Continent'
    • Transcaucasia likewise lurks in the Caucasus cut off from the outside world.
  • From Bad to Worse:
    • If you thought Huey Long was bad, prepare for his successor, Charles Coughlin. He tries to place even harsher restrictions on the American people, subject African-Americans to further segregation, and pass the most extreme Fundamnetalist laws. In the end, his policies lead to another Civil War.
    • Hermann Gauch in Mittelafrika ends up even more brutal than his dead master, Hermann Göring, although his rule ends quickly in a military coup.
  • The Fundamentalist: Charles Coughlin in the AUS.
  • Government Conspiracy: The Canadian government and the New Imperial Economy are run by a small cadre of elite technocrats with Edward VIII's tacit consent. They view themselves as a Benevolent Conspiracy combating radical Syndicalism, but given the lengths they're willing to go for to ensure "peace, order, and good government," it's clearly a case of Good Is Not Nice at the very least.
  • Government in Exile:
    • The British and French before the Syndicalist War, being exiled to Canada and Africa respectively.
    • One exists for the former United States but no one pays it much attention more than two decades after the end of the Second Civil War.
    • After the occupation of the Netherlands by Syndicalist countries, the Dutch royal family escaped to their Indonesian colonies. Since Germany would agree to return the Dutch land only in exchange for Indonesia, the Queen of the Netherlands doesn't hurry to go back to the home. Only when Japan reveals the first signs of their imperalistic desires to take East Indies, Germany and Entente agree to make Indonesia an independent state and restore the independence of the Netherlands.
  • Great Offscreen War: The Syndicalist War and Second American Civil War occur before the main storyline starts.
  • Grey-and-Gray Morality: Probably the most generous way to describe the competition between the Entente and Mitteleuropa.
  • Historical Villain Upgrade:
    • In real life, Edward VIII was mostly remembered for the scandal concerning his marriage with a divorced woman resulting in his abdication, being an alleged Nazi sympathizer and a selfish playboy. This sounds pretty much underwhelming in comparison with his counterpart in the AAR, who is the main enforcer of the imperialist Canadian interests and authoritarian democracy around the world.
    • Oswald Mosley, while not a great guy in real life, is remembered here as one of history's greatest monsters who tried to make Britain his personal property.
    • Alois Brunner goes from minor Nazi functionary to the leader of the Ultranationalists movement in Austria and later to the Volksführer of Austria after the coup and the main architect of the Balkans War.
    • Similarly, João Cabanas an obscure Brazilian revolutionary becomes the leader of the Anarcho-Totalist faction of Amerosul and one of the main initiators of deadly reforms in Amerosul. Later he becomes the leader of Amerosul, purging all his opponents.
    • Averted in the case of Lavrentiy Beria and others, who are just as bad in Crown Atomic as they were in real life.
  • Illegal Religion:
    • After Christianity splits into a 'red' church, which accepts syndicalism, and a 'black' church, which campaigns against it, Christians of the wrong type are persecuted in various countries.
    • Religion becomes literally illegal in Amerosul and religious people purged.
  • Immigrant Patriotism: Charles Coughlin is this in the worst way possible. Being a Canadian by birth who is an American Ultranationalist that transforms his adopted home country into a tyrannical apartheid state.
  • In Medias Res: The narrative starts four years after the start of the game with the Canadian invasion of Britain.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: Given what happened in the Totalist regimes, and what Amerosul is shown to be, the reactionary powers' harsh attitude toward syndicalists might seem somewhat justified.
    • In the Middle East, the Imperial powers force millions of people to move into contiguous ethnic states after the Turkish-Arab War, which they do for selfish reasons and at great cost, but which might seem a solution to the region's intractable conflicts.
  • Knighting: John F. Kennedy gained from Edward VIII the title of Duke of Vancouver after the wedding with Princess Elizabeth.
  • Knight Templar: Both the British and German empires in their quest to crush totalitarian Syndicalism.
  • Honest John's Dealership: In the wake of war and economical crisis, Germany becomes dependent on the resources from its colony in Mittelafrika. Germany prefers to not know, however, how exactly Mittelafrika gets the resources, or, at least, let any other country to know about that.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Oswald Mosley, Britain's Totalist dictator, escapes Britain but flees to Amerosul where he is later killed in one of the Anarcho-Totalist regime's mass purges because the officials don't believe he is who he says he is.
  • A Lighter Shade of Black: Canada is a sham democracy stage-managed by a cabal of technocrats with the King's express consent, using Bread and Circuses and a censored press to distract its population from their gradual loss of freedom, and ruthlessly (if discreetly) crushing dissent both at home and abroad — but compared to overt tyranny in Ultranationalist Austria and the former Totalist Union of Britain, the racist and fundamentalist xenophobia of the American Union State, the rampant kleptocracy of German Mittelafrika, and whatever the hell kind of madness has gripped Amerosul, Canada looks almost pleasant.
  • Meet the New Boss: The radical Indian nationalists consider the Indian Home Rule, founded on the ruins of former maharajas' domains, isn't much different from the old colonial order, aside from allowing token natives to have a place in the Imperial elite.
  • Mexico Called; They Want Texas Back: Mexico takes a large chunk of territory from the US after the Second American Civil War.
  • Mood Whiplash: In the chapter "The Andersons", the depiction of the happy family life of ordinary Canadian citizen Henry Anderson is followed by his average working routine day which consists of torturing Canadian dissidents.
  • A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Ultranationalists in Austria. Embittered by the outcome of Augsleich of 1937, which resulted in the loss of Austrian power and influence, the Ultranationalists, led by real life Austrian Nazis (like Alois Brunner, Karl Leopold and Ernst Kaltenbrunner), consist of racists, militarists and thugs, who seek to destroy the Habsburg monarchy and rebuild Austria in their own image.
  • No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Several, given the allohistorical allusions, but notably:
    • Queen-Empress Barbara of Canada, a glamorous actress from humble roots who rises to political power as the consort of a powerful man and uses her common touch to win him support, seems to be referencing Eva PerĂ³n
  • Non-Indicative Name: Downplayed. While you can probably expect from the title that the AAR would include atomic warfare in some way or another, nuclear weaponry is developed fairly late in the timeline and never ends up being used in anger. The author himself recommends to interpret the title as "competing crowns in the atomic age"
  • Oh, Crap!: Polish students rally for economic reforms because the German-imposed European market leaves them with few opportunities. As soon as their demands shift to political reform the Germans send in the tanks.
  • The Omniscient Council of Vagueness:
    • The Imperial Council consists of the shadowy technocrats, military leaders, industrialists and aristocrats directing the British Empire behind the facade of the 'democratic' government. Among other things, they force a Prime Minister to resign when he screws up too much.
    • By contrast Germany with its constant power struggle between the Kaiser, the military junker elite, and elected politicians usually has a Not-So-Omniscient Council of Bickering.
  • One Nation Under Copyright: India starts to move in this direction after the Empire kills off the maharajahs and re-organizes their domains as 'sovereign corporations'.
  • Only Sane Man: Charles Lindbergh, of all people, in the AUS government, who tries to resist Coughlin's fundamentalist policies. At least before he gets shot by a black man, which is implied to have been orchestrated by Coughlin.
  • Oppressive States of America:
    • The American Union State. Reforms of the Share Our Wealth program carried out by Long's government lead to the economic decline, increasing of poverty, unemployment and, ironically, economical inequality (especially in the Midwest, which was under Syndicalists during the Civil War), due to it being unbearably expensive contradictory to the interests of the wealthy elite of the America First. Meanwhile, Coughlin's faction pursues all "un-American" and "anti-Christian" elements in the country. Racial tensions become stronger than ever and Black riots occur on a regular basis. The state suppresses any dissent and even builds a wall between the border of the AUS and the Entente countries to prevent any attempts of defection from the country.
    • New England and the Pacific States are less overt and more discreet about it, but they use variations of the same carrot-and-stick methodology as their Canadian masters.
  • Pet the Dog: The one time we see Edward VIII in a narrative section he comes off as a decent if naive person with good intentions who cares about his family and the well-being of the people and wants to overcome the horrors of the revolution from happening again. He succeeds.
  • Politically Correct History: Implied to occur in-universe, particularly in Britain after the Entente regain it and start 'editing' history.
  • Politically Correct Villain: Despite its various other flaws, the Empire is notably less racist and sexist than most countries of the 1950s in our world. In fact, it uses this as an excuse for aggression against countries like the segregationist American Union State.
  • Politically Incorrect Villain: Coughlin is fine with using the Biblical notion of the curse of Ham to justify segregation in the AUS.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: The quasi-fascist leaders of the British Empire don't have much of an ideology beside keeping and expanding power.
  • Propaganda Machine: The Pacific States of America, under the aegis of the Entente, use Hollywood's commanding presence in the English-language media industry to promote their agenda while giving their citizens a little "harmless fun" to spend their time and money on.
  • Proxy War: The Arabo-Turkish war becomes a conflict of French and German interests, with the French Empire and Germany providing support to Egypt and Turkey respectively.
  • The Purge: Happens in Amerosul when the Anarcho-Totalist faction of Cabanas takes over Amerosul.
  • Rape, Pillage, and Burn: Implied to have occurred at the end of the Second American Civil War.
  • Recursive Fanfiction: Crown Atomic is a fan fiction written for the Game Mod Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg, specifically a version of the mod ported over to Darkest Hour, which itself started life as a fan-made overhaul of Hearts of Iron II. In other words, this is a fan work of a fan work of a fan work — four layers deep.
  • Red Scare: Pretty much gripping the whole world the whole time. One of the uglier forms it took in Canada, where anti-Syndicalist themes are heavily promoted in media and the word "Red" serves as a convenient label for the Canadian regime to suppress any potential opposition.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Hermann Göring, already being despised by the German government for tainting Germany's reputation with his cruel treatment to the native African population and living like a Roman emperor in his colonies, declares himself the Viceroy of Mittelafrika, the title which is secondary only to the Kaiser himself in the terms of the law. The German nobles are shocked but powerless to do anything about it.
  • Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman:
    • Winston Churchill is a top advisor for king Edward VIII, but his influence on the King diminishes as the time progresses and popularity of old Conservatives falls.
    • Albert Speer patricipates in the reconstruction of Britain after the Syndicalist War.
    • Lyndon Johnson is a foreign minister in the neutral Texan state.
    • John F. Kennedy becomes the husband of Princess Elizabeth and is awarded with the noble title of the Duke of Vancouver.
    • Che Guevara is a revolutionary agitator of Amerosul in Africa.
    • Malcolm Little is similarly a Canadian-sponsored agitator among black Americans.
  • Rightful King Returns:
    • The AAR begins as Edward VIII regains his throne following a Syndicalist revolution in Britain.
    • The French Empire with Louis Napoleon VI Bonaparte on the throne is restored as well, though North France was ceded to Germany.
    • Turkey, which was ruled for a long time by military junta, installed Prince Osman Fuad as the ruler after the treaty of Knossos. However, the new ruler styled himself more like a modernized Western king rather than sultan of the past, and his sovereignty of the Turkic Kingdom of Levant (former Ottoman territories in Arab land) is only nominal.
    • While not exactly rightful, the Mexican government agrees to crown Marie Clotilde Bonaparte as the empress of Mexico to bring the unifying figure in Mexico after the death of former dictator Callas and secure the alliance with the Entente.
  • State Sec: Canada's lovable national icons, the Mounties, are transformed into this.
    • The Empire also has Imperial Intelligence acting abroad.
    • The German Abwehr seem to be another example.
  • Suddenly Significant City: A few given how the world has been re-arranged.
    • Ottawa, still the capital of Canada, is a much more important city. Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver are also implied to be much larger. Detroit is one of Canada's largest cities.
    • As London was left in ruins after the Syndicalist War, the town of Windsor becomes the temporary capital of the British Reconstruction Authority, not least because of sharing the name with the royal dynasty.
    • A few European capitals change. Milan becomes the capital of Italy, and Dieppe is capital of North France for a time.
    • Algiers is the capital of Napoleonic France.
    • Boston and San Francisco are the capitals of the New England Republic and Pacific States.
    • Likewise Atlanta becomes the capital of the AUS while Huey Long builds up his hometown of New Orleans.
    • Inverted for cities like Chicago, Philadelphia and Washington DC, which were destroyed in the war and each became a Ghost Town.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: The Totalist government in Britain is defeated, the island is fully under Canadian control, so, we can just restore the UK and move back to Britain, right? Wrong. The reconstruction of the original British administrative system and rebuilding of the infrastructure after the devastating war will take a long time, and Edward VIII chooses to install the British Reconstruction Authority with Lord Mountbatten in charge instead of moving to Britain immediately. The various dominions are also reluctant to surrender their newfound autonomy, resulting in a much more decentralized federation of Imperial Dominions rather than a return to the old hierarchic structure of the British Empire.note 
  • Taking Up the Mantle: Soong Ching-ling, Sun Yat-sen's widow, still struggles for the cause of her husband and becomes President of China.
  • Truce Zone: Texas, previously occupied by Mexico, becomes this for the AUS and Mexico, as a measure to prevent the escalation of Texan Crisis and the Texan insurgency against the Mexican government.
  • Tyrant Takes the Helm: When Edward VIII succeeds his father George V.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: One of the reasons the world is such a crapsack is that practically every nation and ideology believes this.
  • Vestigial Empire: The Ottoman Empire still exists at the beginning of the story, but is crumbling even more dramatically than in real history. It ends up collapsing completely and getting replaced by a rump Turkish Kingdom controlled by Germany, which doesn't even control all of Anatolia.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: The "Bright Young Things" of the reforged British Empire keep their power by encouraging a high standard of living through consumerism and by quietly marginalizing rivals and dissidents.
  • War Refugees: All over the place, given the setting, but especially in the Middle East after the Imperial powers basically expel everyone into contiguous ethnic states to make them easier to rule over.
  • The War Room: The Hungarian leadership are seen in one during the Balkans War. They're later all killed when a lucky bomb strikes the bunker.
  • We ARE Struggling Together: The Central African Socialist Syndicate forces collapse as soon as the threat of Germany and Mittelafrika fades.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: One of the more sympathetic ways of understanding the Bright Young Things and German conservatives. Many of their aims, such as preserving Western culture, defending freedom, opposing totalitarian communism, are good. Unfortunately they take it too far.
  • A World Half Full: According to the author himself, responding to the idea that The Crown Atomic was written to be "grimdark":
    cookfl: I wouldn't say I'm setting out to create a dystopian world (or 'grimdark'), but a world in which people make and have made tragic choices for understandable reasons. But to me it's still a world in which there's hope and optimism.
    • Mostly played straight by the end of the story. Elizabeth II restores democracy throughout the Empire, and tensions between them and Germany cease for the most part. Major threats to world peace, such as the Empire of Japan or the American Union State, either collapse or undergo reforms to lower the chance of another world war, dawning a new era of (relative) world peace. Nevertheless, various regimes immoral regimes still exist throughout the world, (such as Nationalist France, the Christian American Republic, and Transcaucasia and Amerosul. And above all else, the vast human toll, tyrannical regimes, and lost potential of the 20th century will forever be a scar on the world no matter how bright the future may be.
  • Written by the Winners: At one point, a New American Order propaganda film is featured (one designed for children) in which the history of the American Civil War and the American Revolution is given a very pro-Canadian slant.
  • You Have Failed Me: During the Balkans War, Erhard Raus, the Austrian commander of the failed siege of Budapest, is executed for his failure.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness:
    • After the British reunite India, they pull one of these on their maharajah allies.
    • Prime Minister Douglas Harkness is forced to retire after he botches Imperial foreign policy one too many times. Subverted as he's allowed to retire with dignity and public acclaim even though the Imperial Council thinks he's an idiot.
  • Young Conqueror: Idealization of youth is a major part of the British quasi-fascist ideology, and this is initially played straight with their (relatively) young Emperor Edward VIII.
    • Subverted as Edward VIII gets older. It's implied that after a while Imperial propaganda depicts Edward as The Ageless to maintain this perception.
  • Zeppelins from Another World: Averted. Jets are developed in this timeline, and zeppelins fall out of use, just as in ours.

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