Line #13 VideoGame/ExtremisUltimis


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/extremis_ultimis_logo.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:300:The Death of Democracy]]
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4	The year is 2023. Ever since the fallout of the 2008 recession, the world has been headed off a cliff. The EU is hampered by political infighting and the after-effects of Brexit. The UK has burned through multiple Prime Ministers as conditions get worse and worse. Putin’s Russia prepares a revanchist crusade into Eastern Europe. China schemes to become the new global hegemony, while its economy threatens to fall apart. And the US, in a downward spiral ever since 9/11, is wracked by political polarization that nobody, especially not President Tulsi Gabbard, can seem to fix.
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6	[[NeverWasThisUniverse Wait, what?]]
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8	Extremis Ultimis is a mod for ''VideoGame/HeartsOfIronIV'' in which imagines a [[AlternateHistory alternate timeline]] modern day scenario in which almost every event after UsefulNotes/WorldWarII goes horribly wrong. Failure of establishment politics worldwide and country-wide disasters causes massive disillusionment of the people worldwide, and in turn they look towards ideological radicalism any way they can to change their current politics for better or for worse.
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10	The mod is still currently a demo where you can find their subreddit page and discord server from these links here. [[https://www.reddit.com/r/ExtremisUltimis/ Subreddit Page]] and [[https://discord.gg/2FY6K4XGk39Q Discord Server]].
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12	!!This GameMod provides examples of:
13	* AlienSpaceBats: Gleefully employed. Most notably, the SDI program panned out in EU, leading to MAD being replaced with extensive use of tactical nuclear weapons. [[spoiler: And that's even before getting into the "[[EldritchAbomination Extrahistorical Forces]]", essentially future timelines manipulating past events to ensure their own existence comes to fruition]].
14	* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Among the [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans National Totalitarian]] and [[EcoTerrorist Annihilationist]] sub-ideologies, Left Managerialism and Monumentalism wish to use democratic processes to carry out their otherwise extreme agendas. This has led to them [[NoTrueScotsman being mocked as "naive" and "utopian" by their more extremist counterparts]], but some sympathies from otherwise moderate people who've grown disillusioned with mainstream politics.
15	* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Besides the very obvious Nazis and fascists in [[ThoseWackyNazis Ethnic Nationalism]], the three Extremis Ultimis-specific ideologies all have at least some sub-ideologies with more than a few elements related to Nazism and fascism;
16	** For [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans National Totalitarianism]], sub-ideologies to its far-right have open roots with fascistic ideologies - most notably, "[[EvilReactionary Neoreaction]]" (created by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin Curtis Yarvin]], and heavily based on the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment Dark Enlightenment]]" movement he founded IRL) explicitly says society should be ruled by a Trichotomy of [[ThoseWackyNazis Ethnic Nationalists]], [[CapitalismIsBad Anarcho-Capitalists]] and [[TheTheocracy Theocrats]], and [[EvilOverlord Totalitarian Monarchism]] also borrows elements from Neo-Fascism (specifically Bruce Roberts promoting the suppposed [[MasterRace exceptionalism of the British people]]).
17	** For [[EcoTerrorist Annihilationism]], the founding sub-ideology of Radical Greenism is explicitly stated to have been a right-wing split from moderate-left environmentalists, and proposes PopulationControl measures in reaction to [[KillThePoor supposed "overbreeding" of foreigners or the domestic poor]]. Neo-Luddism follows the eugenecist through-line by advocating for the culling of queer people, disabled people and "politically correct types", [[TheSocialDarwinist Neo-Darwinism]] follows it even further by stating that humanity can only be saved from "degeneracy" by [[MightMakesRight having the "strong" conquer and brutalize the "weak"]], and Nuclearism is a far-right variant of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_International_Posadist Posadism]], which advocates for [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction a global nuclear war]] to have an ultra-Spartanist society of hierarchy and Social Darwinism to [[AfterTheEnd thrive in the post-nuclear apocalypse]].
18	** For [[TakeAThirdOption National-Separatism]], the most explicitly fascist-coded sub-ideology within it is Civic Anarchism, a less extreme cousin of the explicitly ethno-nationalist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National-anarchism National Anarchism]], which seeks to create a stateless society unified by cultural and civic nationalism. Mainstream anarchists consider them to be "fascists in denial".
19	* ApocalypticLog: The random events that fire during the American collapse. Showing such lovely things as riots breaking out over food, water treatment facilities failing, and entire neighborhoods freezing to death due to power grid failure.
20	* BigBrotherIsWatching: Many National Totalitarians, especially those adhering to or influenced by B. F Skinner's writings, seek to create a pervasive [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]-esq surveillance state to ensure national security and societal control.
21	* BigfootSasquatchandYeti: In occult mode, the CSA can prove their existence via rare event.
22	* BombThrowingAnarchists: Downplayed and Zig-Zagged. The Lion of Socialism, his Lion Rebellion, and to a lesser extent the other anarchists of the American Collapse do end up committing questionable acts and are willing to commit to bloody warfare to unite the Former United States, but they can make their dream Anarchist Free Territory free from state oppression with completely worker-owned industries. [[spoiler:That is, if the Military Committee doesn't gain enough influence to sway the Lion of Socialism away from turning the Free Territory into a stateless bandit junta.]]
23	* ButterflyOfDoom: The first divergence in the Extremis Ultimis timeline is George Orwell being mortally wounded during the Spanish Civil War, and only being able to sketch out the worldbuilding notes to Literature/NineteenEightyFour before dying. While initially minor, the [[ANuclearError near-miss of the USSR launching an ultimately thwarted nuclear strike]] would later lead to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner B. F. Skinner]] forming the basis of the "National Totalitarian" ideology by combining Orwell's notes with his own theories of "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_behaviorism Radical Behaviorism]]", which would ultimately lead to some of [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans the most openly dystopian ideologies in human history]] being theorized, and now set to be enacted in the wake of [[DividedStatesOfAmerica the American Collapse]]...
24	* CapitalismIsBad: One of the core conceits of the mod was how the 2008 Recession, due to several factors making it worse than OTL, ultimately became a 21st century Great Depression. This has resulted in many of the radical factions rising to power by drawing in those ruined by the economic downturn, laying the blame at the feet of the corporations who they claim held more power over the state than the supposedly elected government.
25	* CivilWar: Multiple instances.
26	** Yemen, Libya, and Central Africa at the start of the game.
27	** Eventually the United States will break apart into warlords vying for control.
28	** Russia, China and Ukraine will all break apart after giant individual disasters that turn their countries upside down.
29	* CommieLand:
30	** China, North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos all still are ruled under Marxist-Leninist type of regimes as in OTL. Kampuchea also stays under Communist rule instead of turning back into a Constitutional Monarchy.
31	** IOTL, Slovakia had a Hardline Stalinist coup as Soviet Order collapsed -- similar to the 1991 Soviet Coup -- which, IOTL, failed. In this timeline in Slovakia it seems to have succeeded instead..
32	** Colombia, rather than Venezuela, is a Bolivarian Republic.
33	** The newly formed Free Union of America ruling the Pacific Coast under a Marxist-Leninist regime.
34	* CommieNazis: Besides various Ethnic Nationalist leaders and even sub-ideologies occasionally drawing upon leftist policies and symbolism (and vice-versa with ostensibly socialist nations and sub-ideologies having nationalistic or even supremacist overtones), the "National Totalitarianism" Ideology usually promotes a blend of authoritarian left and authoritarian right political practices. The "Parasocialism" and "Ultra-Maoism" subideologies best exemplify this fusion, as both have been [[NoTrueScotsman disavowed by mainstream Marxists and socialists]] as simply being [[ANaziByAnyOtherName fascists who've deluded themselves into thinking themselves socialists]].
35	* CrapsackWorld: The 2008 recession was a 21st century version of the Great Depression. Environmental damage is even worse. The Overton window is broken beyond repair. The world of Extremis Ultimis is one hell of a crap sack. [[WorldHalfFull But the player can still improve things.]]
36	* DarkerAndEdgier: The very essence of the mod. The world of Extremis Ultimis is one of decay, disorder, and madness.
37	* DemocracyIsBad: One of the main ideas brought up in the mod. Many of the tragedies and disasters that occurred throughout the Cold War and after it are attributed to Democratic regimes. Whether they directly caused them or not is unimportant for those who have suffered under crisis after crisis. Anything that goes against the status-quo of Democracy is embraced by anyone who despises the system ranging Totalitarians to Anarchists.
38	* DividedStatesOfAmerica: America ends up collapsing into over 30 warlords due to decades of American atrocities and incompetence from the Federal Government. These warlords vie for power by going to war against each other to unite America or simply attempt to keep their small territory independent.
39	* DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans: The "National Totalitarianism" Ideology, which fuses elements of George Orwell's Literature/NineteenEightyFour, and several radical political theorists, such as [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B._F._Skinner B. F. Skinner]] (who forms the original "Totalitarianism" subideology based on his "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radical_behaviorism Radical Behaviorism]]" philosophy), [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Yarvin Curtis Yarvin's]] "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment Neoreaction]]", and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Land Nick Land's]] "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerationism Accelerationism]]". The commonalities between the [=NatTot=] Subideologies is having a hyper-authoritarian state to control the masses, ostensibly to prevent humanity from destroying itself through [[DemocracyIsBad "misguided" faith in democratic government]].
40	* EcoTerrorist: What a great majority of the "[[OmnicidalManiac Annihilationist]]" subideologies have some crossover with, with the original subideology of "Radical Greenism" being based on the writings of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_R._Ehrlich Paul R. Ehrlich]], and especially his 1968 book Literature/ThePopulationBomb. Other subideologies include Neo-Luddism, which is directly inspired by [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/IndustrialSocietyAndItsFuture The Unabomber's writings]].
41	* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: The Extrahistorical Forces, which are potential future timelines that subtly manipulate the world in attempts to bring themselves into existence. The player is one of these.]]
42	* EvilVersusOblivion: Quite literally anyone who follows ''any'' authoritarian ideology up to and including National Totalitarianism when faced against the Annihilationists. One seeks to take power, the other (in most cases) seeks ''the extinction of humanity''.
43	* TheKlan: Literally, as they rebel against the Confederate States due to their support for liberal democracy looking for a white supremacist ethnostate looking towards making Blacks and other minorities second-class citizens or even slaves.
44	* ANuclearError: Both the mod and its lore contain multiple examples of this trope.
45	** Gen. Douglas Macarthur deploys nuclear weapons during the Korean War without prior authorization, resulting in the wider use of tactical nuclear weaponry in warfare.
46	** In 1983, the USSR accidentally launches a nuclear counter strike after Stanislav Petrov relays faulty information to his superiors. Before the mistake is realized, 6 missiles are in the air...which are shot down by the USA's SDI systems, narrowly averting a nuclear holocaust. This incident did spark 'World War Three', a wet fart of a conflict consisting of clashes along the East/West German border that petered out into a white peace.
47	* MagicalRealism: In Occult Mode (which is the canon mode). Supernatural events occur, but take a back seat to the grounded reality of industrial warfare.
48	* NoTrueScotsman: Quite a sub-ideologies have been denounced by the broader ideologies they draw inspiration from, which becomes more sharply pronounced in the more extremist ideologies. For some particular examples;
49	** Anarcho-Capitalism, Anarcho-Monarchism, and National Anarchism are all classified as [[TakeAThirdOption National Separatists]] due to the broader Anarchist movement denouncing their upholding of hierarchical concepts of capitalism, nobility and nationality/race.
50	** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_International_Posadist Posadism]] is the only Annihilationist movement rooted in [[DirtyCommies socialism]] instead of [[EcoTerrorist environmentalism]], but is effectively exiled from properly socialist ideologies due to [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction calling for the world to be destroyed in a nuclear war]].
51	** [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Left Managerialism and Monumentalism]] are widely mocked by the broader [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans National Totalitarian]] and [[EcoTerrorist Annihilationist]] movements they hail from, due to their promotion of democratic consensus in their otherwise extreme policies causing more hardline sub-ideologies to dismiss them as naively utopian.
52	** Catastrophism is denounced by the vast majority of Annihilationists, as [[FromBadToWorse it wants to make climate change WORSE]] so that [[GaiasVengeance the planet can wipe humanity out with natural disasters]] (compared to most Annihilationists wanting to impose PopulationControl to [[WellIntentionedExtremist PREVENT an ecological collapse]]).
53	** Increasingly extreme National Totalitarian sub-ideologies have a habit of being denounced by their direct influences [[EvenEvilHasStandards for going overboard in terms of extreme authoritarianism]], even if they're supposedly fellow [=NatTots=]; Curtis Yarvin's "[[EvilReactionary Neoreaction]]" is denounced by the [[ALighterShadeOfBlack Left Managerialists]] for removing the democratic concessions they've put into their system, Michael Koch's "[[CommieNazis Parasocialism]]" is denounced by mainstream Marxists and socialists as [[ANaziByAnyOtherName deluded fascists believing themselves to be socialists]], "[[AnarchoTyranny Anarcho-Totalitarianism]]" is denounced by the Parasocialist Koch and National Anarchist Troy Southgate as being too extreme while fusing both of their respective ideologies, and "[[CultOfPersonality Haddockism]]" is denounced by Nick Land despite borrowing elements from his ideas of Accelerationism, with Land outright telling Haddock he should "[[SuicideDare should commit ego death himself]]".
54	* OmnicidalManiac: The Nuclearists, a sub-ideology of Annihilationism, have the main goal of developing enough nuclear weapons to eventually launch them and cause the extinction of Humanity. The economic law "The Final War" can only be accessed by either them or another Annihilationist and, contrary to the other economic laws, only says "This is the final war of humanity"
55	** The Annihilationist ideology is broadly this, to varying degrees between its subideologies. Some of those subideologies (such as [[EcoTerrorist "Radical Greenism", "Anarcho-Primitivism", and "Neo-Luddism"]]) [[PopulationControl "just" want to reduce humanity down to "manageable numbers"]], or perhaps [[MedievalStasis impose an upper limit to its technology and industrialization]], to prevent an OverpopulationCrisis-induced [[GaiasLament ecological collapse]]. Others like "[[ApocalypseCult Rapturism]]" want to bring about a religious doomsday, and "Catastrophism" actively wants to make global warming even worse [[GaiasVengeance so that nature can destroy humanity in 'revenge']].
56	* PostPeakOil: Happened in 2018.
57	* PoesLaw: Eric Blair died before finishing 1984, leaving a half-finished manuscript that’s more a collection of worldbuilding notes than a narrative. After it was rediscovered in the early 80s, several academics (notably B.F Skinner and James Burnham) began formulating the ideology of [[DystopiaJustifiesTheMeans National Totalitarianism]] based on its contents.
58	* PowerArmor: An entire tech tree for it!
59	* PresidentEvil: In the backstory, Dick Cheney was this, by [[GovernmentExploitedCrisis subtly aiding the 9/11 Attacks]] so that [[KlingonPromotion President George W. Bush dies in the Twin Towers attack]], and then making the War On Terror a nakedly exploitative WarForFunAndProfit, without even the pretense of "winning hearts and minds". He then [[HeKnowsTooMuch tried to have the various whistle-blowers about the realities of the war assassinated]], before ultimately still being impeached by Congress for hundreds of war crimes.
60	* TakeAThirdOption: The one commonality between the National Seperatist sub-ideologies is that they all have ideas to separate the concepts of nation from the state, and otherwise don't fit into the other ideological groups.
61	* TheSocialDarwinist: Followers of Neo-Darwinism, a subideology of Annihilationism, believe that the human species has become overpopulated, with the only solution being to bring humanity back to a preindustrial state where the law of natural selection rules and the weak are expected to die.
62	* ThoseWackyNazis: Having an entire ideology under "Ethnic Nationalism" - and among the many bizarre and horrific warlords rising up around the world, Nazis, such as the terrorist Atomwaffen Division, are few but eclectic.

Context VideoGame / ExtremisUltimis