Dr. Strange, as previously noted, is the guardian of this entire universe from other dimensions and realities that would do it harm. Traditionally this ends up being things like Dormammu or somebody, because other dimensions are traditionally the source of most hostility towards Universe-616.
Of course, there are also parallel realities, and it’s rather silly that, when forces in the Marvel Universe are aware of, say, the Marvel Zombies universe trying to launch a hostile incursion (as they did in Marvel Zombies 3), that they wouldn’t at least consult with Strange, or that he would not be aware of it himself for that matter. (As for Zombie Strange – that is upcoming, somewhat.) The simple truth is that, although parallel universes aren’t often going to attack your universe, when they do that is pretty much slam dunk in the Sorcerer Supreme job description.
For example…
Earth-2793 differs dramatically from many Earths thanks to a series of Tunguska-level meteorite strikes which leveled England, France, Germany and most of northern Europe. As a result, the dominance of the Mediterranean cultures that began in the early Renaissance never ended; the Protestant revolutions never happened because Martin Luther’s grandparents died in a hail of otherworldly rock.
In this world, Pope Alexander VI successfully managed to transfer the Papacy to his son, Cesare Borgia, thanks to the increased economic and political influence of the regions that supported the Borgia clan’s desire for power.1 Pope Caesar I, like all of his foul kin a demonic sorcerer of darkest regard, began a reign of terror and corruption that cemented the Borgia in power to this very day, transforming the office of Pope into a hereditary title and killing or converting most of their enemies to their cause. Colonization programs began in the late 1500s and soon their power spread across the world.
However, certain areas held out successfully against the Borgia. Most notably, the city-states of Piedmont, Milan and Venice banded together. The Sforza dynasty was never driven from Milan in this universe (seeing as how Charles II of France never conquered it, what with not having existed and all), and thus Leonardo da Vinci worked for his entire remaining life in Milan instead of having to hunt and plead for patrons across Italy. The Vinci Academy arose as the great bastion of Western enlightenment, and soon new martial orders arose, such as the Sforzan Guard and the Participazians of Venice. Combined with the Jesuits (who met not in Paris in this reality, but in secret in the catacombs beneath Florence), who served as the forces of good’s spies and secret agents, the Borgia’s demonic reign was at least held somewhat in check if not ended.
For ending it was not within their power; demonic sorcery kept the Borgia in power, and the unchallenged might of Catholicism meant that the people wholly believed the Borgia Popes to be God’s chosen. Not even the Northern Union (as the Italian city-states plus Switzerland eventually became to be known) could openly challenge the Pope. Thus, a shadow war was fought for centuries; the Participazians and Sforzans studied Kabbalistic magic and technomancy to keep on even footing with the dire rituals of the Borgia, made alliances with K’un L’un and Atlantis, and waited. For they knew full well that the Borgia’s reign was predicated on relentless expansion, and once the feudal system that kept the Papacy in power could not expand, it would crumble.
Unfortunately, they did not account for the wiliness of the Borgia. Pope Caesar XVI, advised by the undying and soulless Cesare Borgia, commenced Crusades against parallel Earths. Earth-9107 (a peaceful, pastoral planet), Earth-21504 (conquered by the Aztecs and collapsed into disease and chaos soon after) and Earth-10773 (civilization of intelligent frog-people) fell in quick order. The Devil Papacy expanded into Earth after Earth, their demonic Condotierri matched only by the Union’s magically-enhanced technology.
Back to 616. A fine day in New York: Strange is enjoying his morning cuppa when a magical sending reaches his mind. Antonio Starcacci, greatest technomancer of the Participazians, has sent Strange a warning: 616 is next on the Borgian Empire’s hit-list. And what’s worse, the Borgia have on their side the Sorcerer Supreme of their dimension – the dark magician known only as Stefanostromo…
Top comment: Crisis is love! Kick-splode across the multiverse! – Kyle W.
- Fun fact: you know the standard picture of Jesus Christ you see today? The one where he’s white? It was almost certainly modeled after Cesare Borgia. [↩]
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Oh man, thanks for not making a “We are Borgia” joke in there, or anything other Star Trek related.
Alternate History: Now Bullshit is Fun!
:3
A Dr. Strange and Aria crossover? FUCK YES.
“No embarrassing spells allowed!”
[Neo-Venezia is the name of the city in which the manga series Aria and Aqua take place.]
Neat. Assuming Strange doesn’t nip it in the bud, it does open up something Mega-Super-Ultra-Crossover-Crisis-esque.
i’m really trying hard not to say “hey, i’ve read that rpg” because these are very well developed spin-offs and cribbing notes from elsewhere is never a bad thing.
You had me at Jesuit Technomancers. Take me, Chris. Give me your babies.
Ah, The Catholic Church and it’s corruption. Like the gift that keeps on giving.
Jesuits without the Counter-Reformation (which won’t happen if there’s no Reformation to react to) pings my disbelief suspenders, but otherwise yeah.
Neat idea. Although I think it would take more than meteors to kill Martin Luther.
You know what, screw comics, just write a book based on this alternate world, i’d so read that.
Where’s the art from?
Couple questions:
1. What does the relative level of technology shake out to, when you work out the mix of magic and science?
2. What’s the rest of the world look like under the rule of the Demon Popes? I’m guessing something like the early 1900s British empire ‘cept maybe nobody ever got around to colonizing the Americas? (which I figure would make sense because why extend your empire across a great damn ocean when you’ve got these parallel universes that are, magically speaking, right on the other side of a door?)
I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have Jesuits without the Counter-Reformation (which they actually preceded slightly anyway); the Jesuits were formed in answer to corruption within the Church inasmuch as they were to the Reformation.
I thought I pulled it off epilogue.net, but I went back just now looking for the original and can’t find it. It might have been a straight Google image search…
Is creating an inter-dimensional gateway really that much easier than creating an intercontinental gateway? I mean, Dr Strange himself can jump from Pacific Island to Middle Eastern sand dune to Norweign fishing village with a few words, but he usually requires a bigger light show to get out beyond just his home planet.
I could see the Americas being “solved” by depopulation brought on by a juiced up Demonic smallpox. Or even a bubonic plague. Just wave your hands and say “Everything west of Greenland is D-E-D dead, on account of the evil Pope being just that damn evil.” Or the Aztec Empire could be too tough a nut to crack and a stalled Papal war machine too politically inexpedient. But I don’t think you can sell off the Americas as just too far away to be bothered with when you’re dealing in full blown parallel universes.
And you know who’s the rebel “Devil” against whom the Demon Popes “protect” their flock?
Rintrah!
Piedmont wasn’t a city state. It was–mostly, since it also included lots of immediate knightly fiefs– an Imperial duchy in its own right, and united with the Duchies of Savoy and Aosta under the rule of the House of Savoy. (Later the Kings of Sardinia.) Turin is its largest city, if that helps, although Chambery was the capital.
Your welcome.
This reminds me slightly of the political structure of the last 1/4 of the original Grendel ongoing series…except they didn’t leave their universe.
….HOLY SHIT!!! Impossible but incredible potential crossover alert!
You realize that, surprisingly plausible alternate history aside, people are going to see this and think “ooo commentary on how the Catholic Church is teh ebil”, which will play well with one group and alienate another. Even if the content is more even-handed, it’s entirely possible that a section of your readerbase might not even get that far. Are you sure you want to go that direction?
He can always fuddle the names if he’s really worried about offending anyone. But how many die-hard Dr. Strange hard line Roman Catholics can we possibly be talking about? Spawn seems to have managed just fine and it mocks organized religion pretty openly.
Antonio Starcacci? Not Rudolfo Ricardo, and his lovely wife Susannah?
Is creating an inter-dimensional gateway really that much easier than creating an intercontinental gateway? I mean, Dr Strange himself can jump from Pacific Island to Middle Eastern sand dune to Norweign fishing village with a few words, but he usually requires a bigger light show to get out beyond just his home planet.
Well, I figure the other issue is once you get over there what are you going to do with it, since all you’ve got are various low-technology indigenous peoples and some natural resources that you’d have to do a lot of work to extract. Whereas conquer the next reality over and you’ve got a ready-made civilization with its own industrial apparatus and such from which you can easily extract tribute (along with adding their military technologies to yours, etc). Why conquer America when you can go to a reality where someone already did, and just make him hand you all the gold and oil and such he’s dug out of it?
Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from. If Strange isn’t the top cop of the entire multiverse, you’re going to have these occasional turf fights like I mentioned a few posts back–it makes for another plot generator in the storytelling engine.
Maybe there should be some kind of non-aggression pact among the Sorcerer Supremes of Marvel Multiverse, so that when someone violates that it’s established as rare and A Big Deal? There could be a mystical, inter-reality equivalent of the International Court or something–Marvel’s established that there is a fraternity among mystics in 616; it would just be expanding its reach a bit.
Harkens back to Sliding Albion a bit, although much more politically intriguing. Doubly so since I feel Dr. Strange is significantly less likely to solve problems via disemtorsoing.
I was going to mention Sliding Albion too.
The flipside to offending people with evil Catholic church is boring people. It’s been done so many times before that no matter how good you do it, there’s resistance you’ve got to overcome at the eye-rolling of Yet Another Evil Church Plot.
The basic concept is cool, though I agree you might consider an AU other than Evil Catholic Church, given how much that’s been done.
This definitely seems like it could double for “Why I Should Write Exiles“.
Well, if Spain and Portugal get hit by these meteorites (or just Portugal), then I can see why there wouldn’t be the knowledge of the Americas to conquer…
As for “the Evil Catholic Church has been done” part, I think most of the time, people go with “Intolerance and dogma” as the part that makes it evil. This is in the other direction, where the organization just completely abandons most of its principles for the sake of power. Which is not completely new, but it’s at least a change of pace.
Is the printing press never invented in this world? The Reformation wasn’t caused by Martin Luther, specifically, it was caused by the printing press giving the general populace direct access to the holy texts for the first time without having to have it filtered through the priesthood. Any half-literate asshole could have touched off the Reformation, Martin Luther just happened to be the biggest and the fastest.
It is, but not until a century or so later. (Johannes Gutenberg was another casualty of the meteor strikes.)
So where the hell is this universe’s verison of Dr. Doom in all of this? Because a magic using Doom is the most dangerous thing in all of the multiverse.
wait, they conquer alternate universes as to expand the feudal system?
You know what that means? Cardinal Octavian and his four Cthhulhonic tentacles, now the Archduke of Universe 616.
I’ve got a short story kinda like this from, um, Brian Aldiss maybe?
where does Dante Aligerhi fit in?
you should talk about benign invasions – stuff like other universes accidently colonizing our own. Grant Morrison/Borges style
What’s usually not explored in these concepts is the potential for new-but-old humor, leading to such possible cross-dimensional jokes as: “Is the pope a Borgia? Does a bear from Earth-1362 shit in the… Well, I know YOU do, Yitzak Aquinas diChauncey Sans Souci the Fourth.”
Unfortunately, since America’s pretty much un-/under-developed, the Catskills resorts will have to be replaced by something like a series of rude stone huts in the Appenines, or a string of LEO habitats in geosynchronous position over Tibet, or something.
Does another religion still invade, though? It wouldn’t have to be all that closely related to Islam.
Actually, couldn’t a reformation still occur without Northern Europe?
Were you serious about that thing about the image of Christ? I don’t remember where, but I’ve always heard it was based on Alexander the Great.
You know, this is the first one of these that the rest of the universe could deal with.
I mean, they send demon robotanks, SHIELD (If it wasn’t currently replaced with Osborn’s lot) would be on it like the hammer of an angry god.
This would be followed in short order, one assumes, by the actual hammer of an angry god.
Still, it would be much more fun and less hazardous for the general population if Strange, Zzzax-Clarkson, and Creaky handle it.
Bret– I somewhat agree. However, Earth-2793 is experienced at this sort of thing. They’ve dealt with analogues of SHIELD, the Asgardians, the Olympians, and so on.
I would have Strange and co. lead Earth-616 against Earth-2793. However, they would be fighting a two-front battle. The first front is against 2793. The second front would be the shadow war, devoted to keeping 616′s villains from getting their hands on anything from 2793. Can you imagine what Doom would do if he access to the My Little Pony’s of two Earths?
Lose to the accursed Richards?
Also, other worlds don’t have 616′s Nextwave squad. Even earths with Nextwaves have comparatively sucky Nextwaves.
Crisis is love!
Kick-splode across the multiverse!
But not dealt with analogues of Dr. Strange?
For that matter, how many parallel dimensions has Earth-2793 conquered by now? Maybe they have more than one Sorcerer Supreme to send after Strange–Stefanostromo from their dimension, of course, plus the usable Sorcerer Supremes from dimensions they’ve conquered (y’know, the ones who’ll team up with the invaders, or at least decide to work for them rather than be brutally murdered).
616-Strange could then get the other Sorcerer Supremes from worlds that Earth-2793 has conquered–the ones that don’t like being invaded and seeing the people they love get killed. This opens up the possibility of having teams of Strange vs. Strange. But that would be too similar to the Invincible War they just had… so instead of just fighting, they have a team contest! Maybe baseball, maybe poker, maybe Magic: the Gathering!
Yes, yes! The two teams of Strange vs. Strange will play baseball, and Earth-2793 will be at a disadvantage because America or England invented the sport and they therefore don’t have it, and Earth-616 will have the advantage because Strange-616 is a big baseball fan! It’s all falling into place….
Eh, sounds kind of His Dark Materials-y. Which won’t be a problem for many, but man, I hated that trilogy.
I think once of the creepiest things Stefanostromo could do would be to keep the physical bodies of defeated Sorcerer Supreme’s around as servants, after eating their souls. You just don’t want to deal with a man who mentally and magically raped, then enslaved, a female version of himself.
But that’s the advantage Strange has. Because Stefanostromo so completely annihilates the other Stranges, he never draws on their knowledge. Even if his power dwarfs them, what does a team of 25 sorcerers have on him? 25 points of view.
So, imagine an episode of House with multiple Houses arguing with each other…
Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from. If Strange isn’t the top cop of the entire multiverse, you’re going to have these occasional turf fights like I mentioned a few posts back
And here I thought Opal Luna Saturnyne (and whomever she reports to this year) was the top cop of the entire multiverse–both physically and magically.
Well, the TVA has a hand in it too. Of course, they supposedly have zip records of old 616 since Reed “The Accursed” Richards wiped their hard drives with a virus that makes Snow Crash look like the Amish virus.
Sadly, I think this may double up as “Reason #1 Why You Will Never, Ever Get To Write Dr. Strange”. I can’t imagine a world where Marvel will let you write an ‘evil church’ story. =/
Up to this moment, all I’d read about Strange was the wiki thingie, the Dr. Strangefate Amalgam one shot (kinda) and your past articles. I didn’t care before, but man are you making it interesting…
So, MGK, anything you’re writing more or less seriously?
A novel. It’s about 90% finished.
Albrecht Durer nooooooooooo
Also: Oooh! Novel! Can’t wait.
So, we apparently have the Kutner analogue in Creaky, and the Taub/Foreman analogue in ZZZZzzzax, so who’d fill in for Cameron/Thirteen?
A Wilson analogue would be very useful, just to have a peer for Strange somehow. Brother Voodoo?
You know, the evil Catholics is somewhat balanced by the only force standing against them consisting partially of the Jesuits. I mean, sure, it’s not much, but it is a balancing aspect even within the evil universe.
Who said the Americas weren’t developed there? Conquerors need land to grow troops. Continued military expansion requires bodies. World War One nearly killed off a generation of men here, with only one world to fight over. If it hadn’t been won, it would have ground down to a really miserable stalemate and started a new dark age. New conscript soldiers may provide a stopgap, but are inherently unreliable.
Remember the Renaissance-era Italy/alien hybrid culture from the second arc of Warren Ellis’ Authority?
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