Web Original / Choose Your History

Choose Your History is an Alternate History Web Original by DeviantArt user Siryeehaw. It's more or less Exactly What It Says on the Tin — an Alternate History Gamebook story. Each Wednesday, Siryeehaw posts a map of the CYOH timeline's world with a set of potential courses of action for the United States. Viewers can vote in the comments on what the USA should do, and the results will be shown in the next update along with the new set of options thus unlocked. The story begins with an alternate American Revolution, and as of the most recent installment (#64, posted on November 10th, 2021), the timeline has ended at the year 2000 on an "And the Adventure Continues" note.

Siryeehaw also runs a "Remastered" or "Columbia" timeline using the same voting system, albeit with a more rapid update schedule. It serves as a What If? story in which the Revolution takes a different path and the world is beginning to go towards steampunk and subsequently diverges into a Cosmic Horror Story. Currently, it's in the early 1850s, having reached 69 episodes before going on its latest hiatus.

Most recently, he's started a new series (27 episodes and counting) taking place in the Republic of Texas.

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Choose Your History provides examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: Georgy Zhukov doesn't work for the genocidal Russian regime, instead becoming one of the United States' greatest generals.
  • Surprisingly, Adolf Hitler never becomes the genocidal Fuhrer of Germany, instead becoming a resistance leader against Russian occupation and then Governor of Bavaria. He still doesn't like Jews or Slavs, but he doesn't start any large-scale massacres.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Loads of 'em - it is an Alternate History, after all.
  • Russia still invaded Germany in WWII - but that was not a good thing.
  • The Blood Iron Pact seems to be essentially the Axis, just a few decades later.
  • The "War in Heaven" arc, concerning the fight against Han Xianchu's Chinese junta, bears a striking resemblance to the Vietnam War, complete with protests against it at home. Unlike with Vietnam, however, the USA wins.
  • In Remastered, Sam Colt still makes guns - but they're prototype machine guns similar to the Gatling gun.
• Alternate Techline: Green energy seems to have taken off a few decades sooner, for one, and the Americans successfully build a moon colony by 1990.
• America Is Still a Colony: The Revolution fails in the Remastered timeline. Before long, though, it's shown that all British victory did was delay the inevitable, and the Second Revolution succeeds in founding the new nation of Columbia. Ultimately, America only stayed a colony until 1808, and when it rose up again, so did Britain.
• Animal Motifs: At least three of the political parties created for the story use these:
  • NRAM, the New Reformed America Movement, has the hyena. They even try to introduce hyenas into the American wilderness at one point - it goes about as well as you'd expect (Siryeehaw explicitly compares it to the Australian Emu War).
  • NRAM's main rival, CAPP, the Christian American Patriots Party, uses the eagle.
  • The United Humanist Party (UHP) uses the rattlesnake, presumably inspired by the Gadsden flag, as shown in their decision icons on the Episode 52 map.
  • In the Remastered timeline, Columbia (what America is called there) also features a rattlesnake on their flag. In their case, it's explicitly the "Don't Tread on Us" snake.
• Arc Villain: WWI-era France, Salvationist Russia, Han Xianchu's China and Showanist Japan have all served as antagonists and foes to the USA at one point or another. By the end of the main series, the role belongs to the Blood Iron Pact, an alliance of Glorian states including Italy, Germany and Grand Britannia.
  • In Remastered, the colonial empires (Britain and Spain, mostly) played this role at first, but have since fallen. The Illuminated State took their place, and at the moment seems to be serving as The Dragon to the 10th God.
  • In Texas' timeline, Mexico under Santa Anna started out as the primary antagonist, but with the former's defeat and the latter's death, the role is currently vacant.
• Arc Words: Remastered has a motto that sums up the mindset of Columbia and Sol in the battle to Screw Destiny against the 10th God: "NEVER FALTER."
• Art Evolution: Siryeehaw's pixel art started out pretty simple and only covered the USA itself. Gradually, they expanded the scope of the maps to North America, then to the whole world, and starting with installment #35 (1961) to a new "Strategic World-View Command Center" art style reminiscent of Cold War-era computer graphics.
  • Following the completion of the lunar colony of Reagan City and the Venus Is Wet reveal, #56 (1990) marks the start of a new, Vapor Wave-influenced art style featuring additional maps for Luna and Mars.
  • Episode 23 of the Texas CYOH shows off this timeline's world map for the first time, giving it a style very consciously inspired by Victoria II.
• As the Good Book Says...: A variation in the Texas timeline: the episode covering the end of the war between Texas and Deseret throws out quite a few references to the Book of Mormon.
• Audience Participation: Besides the obvious Gamebook-style interactivity, Siryeehaw encouraged the readers to create their own political parties in Mainline (which is how NASA and CAPP happened), conducts flag changes by vote, and most recently gave the Texas CYOH a "Wildcard" episode - an idea borrowed from ScottyFresh, another CYOH creator on dA (who was himself inspired by Siryeehaw), in which the readers periodically get a chance to affect a few events outside the focus nation in order to spice up the world.
• Author Catchphrase: When China has a civil war (which is often), Siryeehaw calls it the "War in Heaven," presumably as a play on "Mandate of Heaven" or possibly the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, considering they started the Texas CYOH's incarnation of the war.
• Balkanize Me: Happens to several nations- Mexico getting it in every timeline thus far. China is the most notable Mainline example, having had multiple civil wars. Russia also becomes a victim after the Utopians are overthrown, and late in the game it happened to the Imperial Federation with the rise of Tyndall.
  • Texas CYOH: After the Wildcard led to Britain's monarchy being ousted by a Chartist revolution, the latest episode has revealed that there's no large-scale British Empire anymore. Canada, South Africa and Oceania (that is, Australia/New Zealand) have all declared independence, and the East India Company controls a good-sized chunk of India now.
• Butterfly of Doom: Not necessarily of doom - if anything, the world seems about as well off as our own - but the Story Branching format means that a few changes that start off small have led to a very different world two centuries after the Point of Divergence. As for the Remastered series, while it has allowed more steampunk technology to come through, it may very well be Exactly What It Says on the Tin .
• Butt-Monkey: Many political parties in the USA have been broken up or dissolved, frequently by government order - and a lot of the time, they deserve it!
  • At the national scale, Mexico. They've fought America, Columbia and Texas, and they've lost - badly - to all three.
  • The British Empire, too, has had a rough time of it. They were overthrown by fascists late in Mainline and fell to republican revolution early on in Remastered, and one of the choices the fans picked in the Texas timeline's recent "Wildcard" episode was for them to be ravaged by an epidemic, then get overthrown by the Chartists as a result.
  • China rarely if ever has it good. In Mainline, they went through multiple civil wars, culminating in the Whole-Plot Reference to The Vietnam War that was the War in Heaven and the subsequent Scramble for China. In Remastered, they're living in Remastered. And in Texas' timeline, the Wildcard hit them with a more powerful Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, which partially overthrew the Qing Dynasty and promptly collapsed, kicking off a civil war that even gets the name "War in Heaven" on Episode 23's map.
• Cast of Personifications: While unseen in the main series (it being about maps), both in-story and Siryeehaw have alluded to the planets and other bodies being 'alive' in some way, at least in Remastered.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The USA is depicted on the maps using a greenish-blue color, as is customary in dA's alternate history mapmaking community, eventually shifting to light blue. The Imperial Federation is purple, and Russia under Utopianism gets dark red.
  • Siryeehaw later started color-coding nations by ideology. Utopianism is red, Glorian and "anti-American" nations get yellow, and America and its allies are blue. Grand Britannia, for its part, is colored pink, and the Federation continues to be purple.
  • In the Remastered timeline, Columbia is shown in dark blue.
  • The Texas timeline has Texas itself in gold, America in green (with blue for the territories), Mexico in lime green, California in orange and Deseret in light blue. Meanwhile, Texas' allies - Belgium, Prussia and Chile - get purple, dark gray and green respectively. Naturally, when the Fraternity rebels, it gets the iconic Confederate gray.
• Cosmic Horror Story: Columbia/Remastered turned into one following the introduction of the 10th God around Episode 40 or so. It since has developed into Lovecraft Lite.
• Dark Horse Victory: Texas' victory over Mexico in episode 10 of the Texas CYOH is explicitly referred to as a "goddamn miracle." While killing Santa Anna wasn't exactly unlikely given the choices made (it was an 85% chance), getting rid of both him and his Dragon, General Urrea, was something of a surprise.
• David Versus Goliath: The Remastered timeline explicitly compares the young America's battle against the Spanish Empire to this. Though with 'Nemesis'/the 10th God coming closer, it will turn into another round of it.
• Day of the Jackboot: California had it happen when Pelley and the Silver Legion got elected. Eventually, the federal government had to overthrow Pelley and restore the proper order of things in the state. More recently, and more worryingly, Glorianism is on the rise in Europe...
  • The Imperial Federation has collapsed into civil war after the Glorians have taken over the government.
• Democracy Is Flawed: The voters having let the 10th God into the game in the first place.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: Stalin still dies, but he doesn't live to see the end of the war as a nuke is dropped on St. Petersburg.
  • On the American side of things, Ronald Reagan ends up assassinated.
  • Andrew Jackson in the Remastered series ends up being hung in 1828 following the failure of his rebellion.
  • In the Texas timeline, Santa Anna is tricked into re-sieging the Alamo during the second Mexican-Texan war, and he's shot off his horse there when Texan reinforcements show up. At least, we're pretty sure he's dead - Texas Never Found the Body. General Urrea, meanwhile, is lured into a trap in Houston, and when the battle is over, his body is found under a pile of his own soldiers' corpses.
• Dirty Communists: Utopianism, which can best be described as "communism meets religious fundamentalism." Russia fell to its most extreme form, Salvationism, and ended up playing a big role in the alternate WWII.
• Double-Blind What-If: A few have been mentioned. The only one to get a map to itself is For A Pine's Worth, set in a world where a variety of changes have created a less expansive USA.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: It was only after the first two dozen or so episodes that the presidents started being named and elections were incorporated into the gameplay. We also get to see the variety of choices and the intricacy of the game mechanics increase dramatically over time.
  • The easiest way to see how much Siryeehaw's style has evolved and how much more ambitious CYOH has gotten is to compare the last episodes of Remastered and the most recent episodes of Texas to the episodes of Mainline covering the same timeframe. The new episodes have better art, more choices and more in-depth game mechanics.
• Eldritch Abomination: Nemesis, the evil "10th God" which has become the Big Bad of Remastered.
• Emperor Scientist: NASA is a political party in this world, but its policies are more or less the same. Naturally, when their leader, Andrew Beatrix, gets elected president, he's this. NASA ends up spawning a number of successor parties which differ mainly in how much of a technocracy they want the nation to be.
• Empty Quiver: Several nuclear weapons went missing at one point, leading to Siryeehaw putting a "rogue nukes" counter on the map for a few installments. They were eventually recovered.
• Everything is Big in Texas: Including Texas! The Texian Republic ends up stretching all the way to California by the 1850s.
• Evil Gloating: The 10th doesn't explicitly do this, but he is fairly confident in himself.
• Expanded States of America: The USA grows to encompass parts of Canada and much of Central America, and it even gains a worldwide colonial empire of sorts via a system of "Autonomous Republics." There are over 70 states in this timeline's USA.
• Expy: STRATDEF (Strategic Defense and Readiness System), of DEFCON. Similarly, MAD is instead called SAND (Shared Annihilation and Nuclear Destruction).
  • Strangely enough, given that he supports space endeavors (leading to the moon colony being named after him), that he becomes very popular, and that he gets assassinated, Ronald Reagan seems to be this timeline's John F. Kennedy.
• The Federation: The Imperial Federation, formed when the British Empire decided to democratize its colonies. They've historically been a key American ally.
• Fictional Document: Siryeehaw has written In-Universe newspaper clippings for some installments. There's also a transcript of a Pentagon training video explaining how STRATDEF and SAND work.
  • Texas CYOH: The GIF detailing the outbreak of the American Civil War features a series of newspaper headlines, chronicling the election of Fremont, the secessions of the various Southern states, the creation of the Fraternity and the first shots of the war.
• Fictional Political Party: By the 40s, all of the American political parties are parties created for CYOH by Siryeehaw or by the viewers.
• Flying Saucer: There's a UFO scare subplot at one point, involving Joseph McCarthy no less. The Surprisingly Realistic Outcome wins out, however, and it doesn't go much of anywhere. Late in Mainline, there's an arc concerning the mysterious "Providence Box" found in orbit, but we never did find out what was going on there. Ironically enough, there are aliens in the solar system - but they're Venusians who haven't gotten space travel yet.
• Follow the Leader: The success of CYOH has spawned several imitators on its native DeviantArt, many other people have done their own versions set in a wide variety of different times and places. ScottyFresh is probably the most notable, having two long-running series set respectively in Roman Britain and a post-apocalyptic setting based on The War of the Worlds.
• Foreshadowing: An example in the Texas CYOH that hasn't paid off yet, though it's not hard to guess what the payoff will be: starting in 1853, the United States of America is shown on the map with the word "United" in quotes.
  • Sure enough, by 1856, the Civil War has broken out, although somewhat differently - John C. Fremont is president, the border states all rebel, and the CSA is instead called the Fraternal States of America (aka the Fraternity).
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: The 10th God keeps trying to make Columbia submit to it by targeting us, the voters, through the voting system, which it tries and fails to rig.
  • As of recent episodes the narrator of the Texas CYOA has become a lot more vocal and snappy at voters decisions, often rather rude.
• The Fundamentalist: Again, Utopians, and especially Salvationists.
• Gamebook: The Web Original equivalent of one, with a collaborative-storytelling twist.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The Illuminists, and above them, the 10th God.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: The Texas CYOH has seen a number of politicians who didn't make many waves in the wider world outside Texas become successful Texian Presidents.
  • The Wildcard is an outright invocation of the trope. In this case, the British Chartists, the Baha'i Faith in Iran, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in China and the Sikh Empire in India are the recipients.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: John Tyndall, a British Neo-Nazi politician who in our world led the British National Party for some years but never managed to get elected to the House of Commons. In this world, he appears to be ruling the Restored Empire of Grand Britannia, the fascist/Glorian side in the Federation's civil war.
  • Remastered: Andrew Jackson may not have been the nicest person IRL, but he certainly didn't start a civil war in the 1820s over losing an election - to say nothing of the implication that he may have been working with the Illuminati!
• The Illuminati: Not only have the Real Life Illuminati survived in Remastered, they're running their own country, the Illuminated State, in Bavaria, and it is apparently a rather nasty place to be. The German-language conversation in Episode 28 reveals that they've been trying to take down Columbia, and that Jackson's civil war was their doing. What's more, it's implied they're a pawn of the 10th God.
• Interface Screw: The 10th God communicates through "glitching" the map and adding its own options in the decision section. It also tries to cheat by adding votes to the options it wants, not that this has ever succeeded. A second voice, presumed to be Sol, has started talking to us this way too, and seems far nicer.
• In Spite of a Nail: Japan's far-right ideology of Showanism is very reminiscent of OTL Imperial Japan, and Showanist Japan still invades China, albeit later on in the timeline. They ultimately lose China this time, too, and get invaded by America afterwards. Fortunately for everyone, the viewers voted against the Nuclear Option.
  • Also, Salvationist Russia is apparently still led by Stalin. Evidently he had a Turn to Religion.
  • On America's side, Ronald Reagan still ends up as president, albeit earlier, and so does Kennedy, albeit later. Their historical roles, too, wind up somewhat swapped.
• Irony: Pretty much everything about the Civil War is one big ironic Russian Reversal. The political situation in the 1860s cleaved towards the pro-slavery side, so the North ended up seceding from the Union as the Federal States of America. They lost, but they did eventually get slavery abolished anyway. Also, apparently, they're known in-universe as the "Federates," and it's implied that there's a mythos surrounding them much like OTL's Lost Cause (to which they'd be a Good Counterpart). There's even mention of a Double-Blind What-If novel set in a world where the Federates won, much like Timeline-191 in OTL.
  • and Andrew Jackson is hung by Henry Clay in the Remastered series following his insurrection. If only he'd shot Henry Clay...
• Karmic Death: The British Empire as a whole meets with one in CYOH Remastered - they fought off the First Columbian Revolution and kept tyrannizing the colonies, but the Second Columbian Revolution inspires the Anglican Republican League in Britain itself, which successfully overthrows the monarchy.
• Lemony Narrator: Siryeehaw, or whatever character he's playing who's narrating the choices, can get real snarky when he wants to.
• Myth Arc: The Texas timeline is developing one, specifically concerning a Texian expedition finding El Dorado, and the events surrounding a machine they discover there which can transmute dirt into gold.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Glorianism, a fascism-analog that has turned to atheism and more recently, paganism as a reaction to Utopianism. There's also Showanism, Japan's particular strain of the far-right, which closely resembles OTL Japan during WWII.
• Never Was This Universe: As of installment #55 (1989), this has been revealed to be true of the main timeline. Three words: Venus Is Wet.
  • every CYOA universe is like this on a technical level - due to key differences in the nature of reality. However, the most obvious ones are the habitable and inhabited Venus in the Mainline, the cosmic horrors in Remastered, and El Dorado and its alchemical engine in Texas.
• Our Presidents Are Different:
  • George Lincoln Rockwell tries to be President Evil, but fails to accomplish much before The Reveal - that he was also President Corrupt and his party cheated to win the election - gets him impeached and thrown out of the White House. The Young America Group (YAG), his party, dissolves and the remnants form the more moderate NRAM.
  • Andrew Beatrix, being from NASA, is President Geek. Since the Humanists are the evolution of one of the post-NASA parties, the president they elect, Jimmy Carter, is naturally this as well.
  • Ronald Reagan ends up becoming President Target, being assassinated in 1975.
• Please Select New City Name: In Remastered, when the Bourbons take over Mexico, they change Mexico City's name to Charleville.
• Point of Divergence: Canada rebels alongside America in the Revolution, and afterwards, joins the USA. This leads to America gaining an expansionist streak. In Remastered, the PoD is instead the failure of the Revolution.
• Proxy War: The Scramble for China, in which America and Japan spend most of The '70s trying to help their respective allies in China win the civil war there. Thanks to American aid, the Republic of China (our side) wins.
• Random Number God: A game mechanic that's been around since close to the beginning is that some events will have percentage chances of success, which can be altered by certain decisions. Infamously, a tie vote regarding the status of Vancouver Island early on in Mainline resulted in Siryeehaw having to decide whether Britain or America would get the island by way of a coin flip (which was written into the story, and which the USA lost).
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Siryeehaw has had to take the occasional hiatus, for various reasons, and typically represents the ensuing lack of updates as an in-universe Time Skip.
• The Remnant: In Remastered, Columbia has had to deal with these in recent years. The Bourbons wound up ruling Mexico, and there's a "House of Hanover-Orange" ruling South Africa and part of Australia.
  • Texas CYOH: The last loyalists of the British Empire following the Chartist victory are hanging out in Canada.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified: The Remastered timeline's America (or rather, Columbia) is aiming for this, and is actively aiding like-minded revolutions around the world to back it up. Given that they've also ended slavery, they may be living up to it.
• Rewatch Bonus: Looking back through past episodes of Remastered allows one to more easily see the empty map becoming less empty and the destroyed flag repairing itself.
• Screw Destiny: Columbia is attempting to pull this against the Cosmic Horror Story that is Remastered.
• Second American Civil War: Surprisingly, averted. America nearly fell victim to it a few times, but in the end, the closest thing to it was a few Right-Wing Militia Fanatic uprisings, a couple of secessions in the Great Plains states that were soon crushed, and Silver Legion California, which technically never tried to leave the USA at all. Ultimately, though, there's never been a united front large enough to really produce the Divided States of America scenario that would be necessary.
• Southern-Fried Genius: In Mainline, Jimmy Carter is considered this (more prominently so than OTL, anyway), since he ran and served two successful terms on the Humanist ticket.
• Steampunk: The Remastered timeline seemed to have been heading this way.
• Taking You with Me: During WWII, Wilhelm III, the last Kaiser of Germany, pulls this on the Russian forces invading Berlin... with a nuclear bomb.
  • General Macarthur IV (the famous one's son) wanted to do this, also with a nuclear bomb, in case the Japanese ever tried to invade Columbiatown, the American trade exclave in Japan. He tried to get the government to support his plan. The government, appalled, fired him instead (out-of-universe, this was represented by the fans overwhelmingly voting no to the idea).
• The Old Gods: Everything in the Solar System may be one- or at least Sol and Nemesis might be.
• Time Skip: Mainline had one that lasted three and a half years - it wasn't much of a big deal. Remastered recently had one of its own, which lasted 7 years and seems to have had much more dire effects, owing to the setting's nature as a Cosmic Horror Story.
• Wham Line: Episode 28 of Remastered has a doozy: "Für die Erleuchtung." In German, that means "For the Enlightenment," and in context, it reveals something most dire indeed: the Illuminated State was behind Jackson's rebellion, and they want to bring down Columbia.
• Wham Shot: An In-Universe one happened in Episode 55 - the footage from the Commodore probe as it crashed into Venus revealed that beneath the clouds, Venus Is Wet, forested and habitable - and as we soon learn, inhabited.
  • Out of universe, one happened in episode 43 of Remastered, when the 10th God's gift of prophecy revealed a Bad Future - displayed as the map itself suddenly shifting to an empty purple-and-grey one with a tattered Columbian flag and the date replaced by the words "YOUR FAULT."
  • And then another one happened in Remastered Episode 59. The tattered Columbian flag in the Bad Future, which has been slowly repairing itself for over a dozen episodes, is fully restored and lights back up again. Columbia's mission to Screw Destiny might just be bearing fruit.
• What the Hell, Player? / What the Hell, Hero?: In the Texas CYOH, the American Civil War breaking out five years early (and the Confederates winning as a result) is explicitly described by Siryeehaw as being Texas' fault for, among other things, annexing California and subjugating Deseret, thus stifling Manifest Destiny and depriving the USA of a badly-needed safety valve.
• Won the War, Lost the Peace: The American Civil War turned out this way in Mainline - which was a good thing. The South won the war, but slavery was abolished not long afterwards anyway.
  • The same thing happened to Britain in the Remastered series. They put down the 1st Revolution, but they broke apart during the '2nd Revolution'.
• You Can't Fight Fate: The eldritch horror that Columbia is up against believes this. We, and thus Columbia, beg to differ.
• Zeppelins from Another World: Certain decisions in Remastered led to Columbia taking interest in the military applications of what they call "aerials."