Eternal Golden Dawn is a currently unreleased Hearts of Iron IV Game Mod that is set in an alternate timeline where the post-World War II economic boom of the 1950s and 60s never happened but was followed by rapid economic expansion and technological advancements in the 1970s. This miracle, however, seems to be coming to an end, with another recession looming on the horizon and political instability plaguing many of the nations of the world as the 1980s begin. Apocalyptic groups and factions form around all corners of the globe, and one thing has become clear - the new decade will be very different from anything seen before.
After the horrors of the Second World War, the world was left paralyzed. While many hoped that the influx of soldiers returning home and new industrial methods would help to improve the global economy, the economy remained stagnant. It seemed as if nothing would improve for the planet - nations would slip into extreme poverty, and with it, instability would be on the rise.
In this struggle to rebuild, a determined effort to improve technology arose. With new technology would come improved industry, and with it a growing economy, so it was only natural to attempt to harness the power of the machine. Eventually, around the 1970s, this all paid off, with the world's economy looking up again for the first time in decades. However, the economic and political troubles of the past would not be forgotten, and, groups with supposed "answers" to the world's problems would suddenly appear.
Now, the prosperous 70s have reached an end, and the world is preparing for the worst. Tensions between the world's superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, are high, impoverished nations have collapsed into violent civil wars, and the economic gains of the past are now fading away.
But the true threat to world peace may be lying in the world itself. Nature is a powerful force, and in the world of Eternal Golden Dawn, a creator of eldritch abominations. Whether the world can survive these "creatures", along with the tensions of the Cold War, is yet to be seen...
The mod's community can be found on Discord
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This Game Mod provides examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Long March is an example of this. Once Deng Xiaoping dies, the Communist Party of China - Transhumanist Wing can install an experimental A.I., known as the Long March as the central authority of the country. However, things can go bad quickly, with a fault in the hardware of the Long March potentially causing it to detonate all of China's nuclear arsenal.
- Alternate History: In this timeline, Imperial Japan was taken over by an extreme hardline faction, and Hitler was killed during Operation Valkyrie, resulting in the Second World War lasting longer in both Europe and the Pacific.
- Apocalypse Cult: AUM Shinrikyo under Shoko Asahara can take power in Japan, a real-life cult that claimed that a Third World War would take place in 1997 and that only those who joined the cult would survive.
- Balkanize Me: A number of examples, both in the backstory and potentially during the game:
- Unlike in real life, Austria did not escape the fate of Germany following World War Two, being divided into a capitalist West Austria (officially the Republic of Austria) that is part of NATO, and a communist East Austria (officially the Austrian Democratic Republic) that is in the Warsaw Pact.
- A downplayed version occurs in the backstory: Newfoundland never became part of Canada, and is currently an independent republic, though it is in dire straits and may end up becoming part of Canada, the US, or Britain if it doesn't manage to fix its numerous issues.
- In the Balkans, the dissolution of Yugoslavia can happen under similar circumstances to real life.
- If the Long March is installed in China and goes haywire, several parts of China will break off in the chaotic aftermath of the nuclear bombings. These include Tibet, Inner Mongolia, East Turkestan, the Islamic Republic of China, and Manchuria. North Korea will also annex some territory along the border.
- Cyberpunk: Sort of. The mod creators have described the setting as "proto-cyberpunk", showing the state of a world going through a huge technological boom as democratic principles and human rights seen to be more and more threatened by not only radicalism but unrestrained technological abuse.
- Eldritch Abomination: The Dust is an example of this. Created (or awakened) after the nuclear bombing of Baghdad, the Dust, while looking like a dust storm, functions as a single, all-consuming organism. The winds in said dust storm are incredibly powerful, tearing apart all structures and lifeforms that it reaches. Weapons don't work on it, either, given that... it's a dust storm.
- The Fundamentalist: A few Islamic versions of these appear within the Middle East, as expected, with the infamous Hezbollah even instigating an insurgency themselves. The Church of the Living Heaven, with what little has been revealed of it, provides a more Christian flavour of this in America.
- It Is Beyond Saving: The ideology of Annihilationism applies this to human society itself, as it's adherents believe that it's corrupt, broken and beyond any type of reform, and the unifying idea for Annihilationism as an ideology is the complete destruction of the current society in order to make a new, "better" one from it's ashes.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: If the Long March goes haywire and nukes China, it (probably) isn't due to it going Skynet and deciding to kill all humans or anything like that. It is all caused by a mundane hardware fault, something that most complex computers can suffer from, and would have been annoying but ultimately harmless (and probably fixable) had the Transhumanists not given it the ability to launch nukes.
- Those Wacky Nazis:
- Austria is threatened by an active Neo-Nazi insurgency for some years now. Ultranationalism (and Neo-Nazism as a subideology) is also one of the mod's political ideologies, implying they aren't the only possible Third Reich wannabes that can take over in the world.
- The Afrikaner Resistance Movement, who show up if South Africa descends into a civil war, are far-right White Supremacist neo-fascists who model themselves after the Nazis to the point of using a flag modelled after the Nazi German flag, just like in real life.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: Most Annihilationism supporters believe in this - their answer to the world's current woes being the destruction of the society that brought these woes in the first place. Most observers and opposition consider them to be Dystopia Justifies the Means instead.
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: Choosing to end the Gulf War by nuking Baghdad will result in the remnants of the Iraqi government instantly surrendering... and anger numerous other countries, followed by the awakening of aforementioned the Dust.
