Line #17 Literature/VivereMilitareEst


1	->''The symbols whispered tantalising promises. They promised to unlock the secrets of the universe and what lay beyond. Images of alien worlds, twisted and fantastic, burned themselves into her mind. She was drowning in a sea of infinite depth, the darkness engulfing her. The whispers grew louder. Then orbit around a burning planet, floating in the void as great black ships spewed tendrils of flame on the hapless surface. The whispers became screams, the screams begging for food, begging for peace, begging for freedom...''
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3	''[[http://alternatehistory.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=242562 Vivere Militare Est]]'' is an [[AlternateHistory alternate timeline]] originating on [[Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom AH.com]] created by rvbomally, with plenty of contributions from other members, which explores an alternate UsefulNotes/WorldWarII where the supernatural ([[InsistentTerminology insistently referred to as]] "preternatural") definitively exists. Although fundamentally different from our world from the outset, the only large changes start appearing in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, when UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan attempt to use cosmic horrors to win the war. This plan backfires when the Allies use their own preternatural forces, which forces the two sides to a stalemate.
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5	The post-war era sees the establishment of the '''Preternatural Containment and Regulation Association''', an organisation founded by the five great powers to fight the growing supernatural threat. The bulk of the timeline is set in 2015, several decades after the end of the war, and large parts of the world are under the effective control of supernatural entities or their human acolytes. Meanwhile, the five great powers of '''[[ThoseWackyNazis Nazi Germany]]''', '''[[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Japan]]''', '''[[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates the United States]]''', '''[[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire the United Kingdom]]''', and '''[[GloriousMotherRussia Soviet Union]]''' are busy trying to curb the influence of their rivals.
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7	An extremely detailed map of the world can be found [[http://www.deviantart.com/art/VME-World-Map-Final-334368013 here.]]
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9	As stated before, you can read the timeline [[http://alternatehistory.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=242562 here]]. Warning: [[Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom AH.com]] membership is required to view it.
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11	----
12	!!''Vivere Militare Est'' contains the following tropes:
13	* TheAlliance: Whilst significantly weaker than it was during its peak of power in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (as [[GloriousMotherRussia the Soviet Union]] was still a part of it), the Allies continue to exist, in the form of an intergovernmental alliance between [[UsefulNotes/TheUnitedStates the United States]], the other countries of the Western Hemisphere (save for the rogue states of Paraguay and Haiti), [[UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire the United Kingdom]], and some European countries.
14	* AllMythsAreTrue: Played with to [[{{Hell}} whatever afterlife exists in this universe]] and back. Most mythological creatures exist, but they're just as likely to bear only a passing resemblance to the stories as they are to have their folklore behaviours and weaknesses. The PCRA tests myths and legends in laboratory conditions to separate the true ones from the superstition.
15	* AlternateUniverse: It can be said. This universe largely mirrors our universe in most matters, with the only notable exception being the existence of the supernatural.
16	** In addition, many "gods" encountered in the world of VME originate from universes where mundane laws of existence, such as physics, are completely inexistent. This constitutes the in-universe scientific explanation for the existence of a fair number of "godly" powers beyond human understanding.
17	* ApocalypseHow: The ancient seafaring peoples of Lemuria, Mu, and Atlantis had their continents sunk [[spoiler:by a massive preternatural computer, named in-universe as a rune cogitator, situated in MysteriousAntarctica, which basically controls the entire universe like a puppeteer controls its puppets. Prior to its finding by a PCRA team, the cogitator had been last used by ''[[EldritchAbomination the Elder Things]]''. Guess what they used it for.]]
18	* BadassBoast:
19	-->'''Captain Medina''': ''I am the thief, the king’s mirage, the fennel-carrier, the clay sculptor, the wind-messenger, the mother-grower, the deceiver, the hope-planter, the war-hero, the rebel against the gods. I am the food-of-eagles, the chained one, the bringer of light, the accuser of el, the smith, the forethinker, the twice killed and twice born. I am your saviour and you - Jean Weygand - you and your kind are to be the instrument of my retribution - my revenge.''
20	* BadassIsraeli: Despite having an even rougher start that included a civil war, Israel has managed to land itself in an even stronger position, with its own small sphere of influence and having annexed the Sinai and West Bank. They're also a leader in alternative (in this world meaning non-preternatural) energies and their {{golem}}s are less costly in gastplasm than most other comparable preternatural military hardware. Having unearthed a few powerful artifacts useful in containing Kemet and occult groups also helps. All this without half as much foreign backing as in our world, and with a pissed-off UsefulNotes/NaziGermany constantly trying to hobble them.
21	* BalkanizeMe: Several examples:
22	** Italy is split between North and South. While South Italy is an American-aligned democracy and a member of the PCRA in good standing, North Italy is a rogue state on the level of our world's UsefulNotes/NorthKorea.
23	** Instead of [[UsefulNotes/TheYugoslavWars imploding]] in the '90s, Yugoslavia was divided after WWII, between a German-aligned Croatia and a USSR-aligned, Serbian-dominated rump Yugoslavia.
24	** In the Middle East, Lebanon is split between the Israel-occupied South and German-backed North, Jordan is split between a number of opposing factions due to Occult groups, Israel, and the government's inability to address either, and Syria's southern tip seceded as Israel-backed Souadia (notice a pattern?).
25	** Malaya and Kalimantan (North Borneo) never united to form Malaysia, though Brunei inverts the trope by having united with Kalimantan.
26	** North and South Vietnam, whose war ended in a draw this time.
27	** And the biggest case would be China. Not only is it divided between the Communist North and the Nationalist South, but several outlying regions were carved off: Sinkiang (a Soviet puppet), Manchukuo (a Japanese puppet), Taiwan (now part of Japan proper), and Tibet (never annexed due to Communists and Nationalists being more preoccupied by each other to bother).
28	** And then there are the Middle African and Indian Containment Zones, both of which have collapsed into anarchy and are rife with warlords, micro-states, roving ethnic militias and cults, and all kinds of preternatural activity. India is stated to be home to several competing governments, backed by different powers and each claiming authority over the entire subcontinent, with its status as an exclusion zone due almost entirely to bickering between the great powers over which one(s) to recognize.
29	** Inverted with Egypt/Kemet, which swallowed up several North African states.
30	* BlackAndGreyMorality: The preternatural states of Kemet (more so than the others), Haiti, and Paraguay, as well as rogue human states like North Italy and North China, are vehemently evil in nature and are led by madmen or evil "gods" (a term very loosely applied in this universe). However, the five great powers and their spheres aren't exactly [[NiceGuy representing the moral good]], with [[ThoseWackyNazis the Third Reich]], [[UsefulNotes/ImperialJapan Japan]], and the [[GloriousMotherRussia Soviet]] [[DirtyCommunists Union]] openly torturing "enemies of the state" and other assortments of political dissidents, opponents of the state, undesirables, criminals, as well as the aforementioned felons' children and relatives, in order to produce "enriched" gastplasm, necessary in almost all powerful thaumaturgic weapons, or turning them into revenants, animated corpses fighting for the glory of the state. The PCRA also tortures people, including children, to death, although they at least have the excuse of protecting humanity. The United States and Great Britain aren't spotless either.
31	* CrapsackWorld: This world is not a nice place to live in. Various malicious supernatural entities run amok, the great powers of the world are more concerned with undermining each other than fighting the threats and three of them could be considered outright evil, and it's implied that the dead face a bleak afterlife regardless of how they behaved in life.
32	* {{Cult}}: Many of the occult groups, like Thelema and the Order of the Black Sun, are like this.
33	* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Literally. Any attempt to make preternatural-powered cybernetic implants end up literally leeching [[OurSoulsAreDifferent gastplasm]] from whoever they're implanted on.
34	* EgyptIsStillAncient: Invoked by Akhenaten, who restores Egypt's ancient name of Kemet, abolishes Islam in favor of making himself a [[GodEmperor god-pharaoh]], and sets out to turn back the clock to ancient times, which he regards as the time when Egypt was at the height of its glory and had the rest of the world bowing to it as opposed to being a squabbling plaything of the superpowers.
35	* EldritchLocation: The containment zones, especially New Zealand. [[EverythingTryingToKillYou Everything single living creature in the area is preternatural and probably hostile to human life.]]
36	* FantasticDrug: Mentiflex makes you super smart and can even give people psychic powers. It also eventually drives you insane trying to consume as much knowledge as possible.
37	* FantasticNuke: While regular nuclear weapons do exist in this setting, despoiler bombs are the great world-ending threat. They're computers, powered by enriched gastplasm, reciting explosive spells thousands of times faster than a human can. The explosion consumes the souls of anyone caught in it, becoming even more powerful. The United States used an early one on Kyoto in an attempt to force the Japanese to surrender during World War II. The site is still unstable by 2015.
38	* FiveRoundsRapid: A common "mistake" of various PCRA rookie personnel is to use conventional weaponry against the preternatural. In the beginning of the timeline, it has been thoughtfully explained by [[TheLeader the Director]] why "shooting the sucker in the head", whilst a natural tendency, does not and will not work, due to the various supernatural beings' different laws of physics.
39	* {{Gashadokuro}}: Weaponized by Japan. Between famine, disease, medical experiments and mass slaughters even worse than in our world, the IJA managed to stockpile an impressive (read: horrific) number of them before being forced out of China.
40	* {{Ghostapo}}: The Nazis were the first to use the occult in warfare. It also results in StupidJetpackHitler thanks to {{Magitek}}.
41	* {{Golem}}: Israel utilizes them in their military.
42	* GoMadFromTheRevelation: There are many runes and symbols that can drive you insane. Pretty much all thaumtech relies on something that breaks the human mind, so all artificers (those who study/engineer with the preternatural) are insane.
43	* HalloweenEpisode: The [[https://rvbomally.deviantart.com/art/Vivere-Militare-Est-Modern-643447483 Halloween special]] is an [[AlternateUniverse AU]] version of the VME universe where the revelation of the preternatural kicked off not during WWII, but during the Syrian Civil War in 2014, when fighters for the Islamic State beheaded prisoners at an ancient ruin site and accidentally activated the runes there, causing them all to be possessed by demons. This AU is, unlike many Halloween specials, a little bit ''less'' nasty; at least UsefulNotes/NaziGermany ain't around anymore.
44	* {{Hell}}: From what little we see, the afterlife is far from pleasant, which is why a lot of souls try to stick around on Earth. The PCRA and governments claim that this makes killing ghosts for their gastplasm an act of mercy.
45	* {{Horror}}: The universe as a whole falls in the CosmicHorrorStory camp, but pretty much every subgenre has its place in this setting. That abandoned cabin out in the woods, ancient tombs, and the foundations of creation are all bad places to go poking around. In-universe, horror movies are mandated by the government to be {{Anvilicious}} about the dangers of poking around with the occult.
46	* InsistentTerminology: The PCRA's mission is to catalog and understand the preternatural. They tend to use "scientific" terms for everything; the supernatural is "preternatural", {{Magitek}} is thaumtech/thaumturgy, {{Eldritch Abomination}}s are theopotent entities, etc.
47	* {{Magitek}}: Gastplasm, the "substance" souls are made of, is used to power everything from plasma weapons and flying discs to cars and home computers. Computer chips have runes laser-etched onto them. Your home appliances and smart car understand you as well as a human being, but you may have to have it exorcised and the controlling spirit replaced if it turns hostile and tries to get you to start offering sacrifices to it.
48	* MysteriousAntarctica: The ''very first post'' of the world-building thread takes place there, and alludes to something terrible being unearthed from it (the quote at the top of the page is from that post).
49	* NephariousPharaoh: The Black Pharaoh, an ancient undead preternatural creature that hates all mortal life, and claims to be the RealLife example Akhenaten.
50	* {{Ouija Board}}s: [[http://rvbomally.deviantart.com/art/VME-How-Ouija-Boards-Work-692901875 Are a load of dingos' kidneys.]]
51	-->'''rvbomally:''' Even in a world where ghosts and demons actually do exist, some things are just bullshit.
52	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: While they aren't described in much detail ghosts are occasionally mentioned as a minor preternatural threat, to the extent that captured ghosts are kept in museums. They are still a threat to civilians though because whatever they experienced in the afterlife has driven them all violently insane.
53	* OurSoulsAreDifferent: Souls are made of gastplasm, which is used by humans to power preternatural technology. Everything living has it, but the gastplasm of humans is more potent, even more so if it is "enriched" by torturing the source to death.
54	* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They exist in hives, and actually have a HiveMind. They still need blood, and are weakened by ultraviolet light.
55	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: They don't actually look like wolves (their howls are thought to be responsible for the association), they're allergic to silver but sufficient conventional firepower can bring them down, and they mostly exist to spread their ViralTransformation to other humans (even their ''body hair'' are actually barbs designed to spread the infection). Oh, and they have spiderlike mandibles.
56	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: There are several different kinds of animated corpse. Even in the democratic nations, you can donate your body to the military to be converted to a revenant after death.
57	* PoweredByAForsakenChild: As ChildrenAreInnocent, their souls are more potent than those of adults.
58	* PragmaticVillainy: The modern day German ,Soviet and Japanese governments are far less extreme than their 40's version but very far from being pleasant.
59	* SeaMonster: The Japanese awoke several different kinds from the sunken ruins of Mu to use against the American Navy in the pacific theatre of World War II. Of course, they call them {{Kaiju}}.
60	* ShoutOut:
61	** Anyone familiar with the Franchise/CthulhuMythos will probably be familiar with someone else known as [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Characters_of_the_Cthulhu_Mythos#N the Black Pharaoh]]... As well as [[LovecraftCountry Miskatonic University, Arkham and Dunwich.]]
62	** Ghosts can be defeated by [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 proton packs]].
63	** Nazi archaeologists discovered an ancient text called the Saga of Helheim, telling of [[{{Literature/GreenAntarctica}} a depraved Antarctic society that condoned incest, cannibalism and murder in harsh times.]]
64	* TokenGoodTeammate: The Deutsches Reich are probably the least evil occult group. They view human sacrifice as distasteful and allow it only as an absolute last resort, and hate the Nazis as a racist corruption of German ideals. Of course, there are a couple of other cults that still manage to hold the moral high ground over the Nazis, Soviets, or Japanese.

Context Literature / VivereMilitareEst