Thoughts on expanding the Three World Empire

I failed to do a #RPGaDay2020 post yesterday, so please accept this transcript of my latest Effekt piece instead.

So, what do we know about the Three Word Empire? The rulebook tells us that, on earth, its member states are not contiguous – they don’t share borders with each other, like the United Americas. Instead on Earth , the 3WE includes UK, Japan, India, Indonesia, Paupa New Guinea, Kenya, and Fiji, which (bar Japan) sounds a bit like the current commonwealth. Page 223 suggests it was formed in the 2180s, but that’s obviously wrong, as that is the game’s present. The book’s timeline instead mentions co-operation from the 2030’s and then formal union in 2088. Indeed it seems that the United America and the Union of Progressive Peoples were both formed after, and in response to, the creation of the Three World Empire.

So can we say them that the Three World Empire is the first space superpower? I think we can. And given that it is called the Three World Empire can we assume that is has dominance over the three worlds that gave it its name? Earth, Mars and Titan?

Errrr no…

I mean obviously it doesn’t run Earth. The UA and the UPP have their share of power, and the European Union still exists, though weakened after a number of members ally with the UPP. We know this because the Fiorina Penal colony in Alien 3 is apparently an EU and 3WE project, suggesting co-operation on a number of projects. But Britannia, or her Anglo-Japanese equivalent, still kicks arse on Mars and Titan right?

Yeahhhhhh…NO

Just like earth, different powers run different parts of those planets (or planet and moon). According to the USCM technical manual the UA have a colony at Valles Marineris on Mars for example. Is this a result of pre-FTL colonisation? Do worlds further fall to single powers more readily? After all there is an Anglo-Japanese “arm” of the galaxy.

And yet even such a distant world as Linna 349 is disputed territory. The USC Marines “helped” quell an uprising on that world, and yet have not left, much to the annoyance of, Governor of the Three World Empire’s Frontier Colonies Vijaa Reddy. Personally I think the UA prompted the rebellion in the first place, to give them a reason force the Empire to let the marines in. Fiorina 161 isn’t entirely Imperial – we share authority for that colony with the European Union. But Gliese 667 CC, a colony of some 2.3 million souls is still in Imperial hands, and we know nothing about other Three World Empire colonies like Corona and Gorham’s Folly.

In short the Empire is a mostly blank sheet. Its time to get creative. So here a a few things I want to invent for the Three World Empire:

A Royal family. When the two powers combined, both industry and Royalty merged. Wayland Yutani was the result of the industrial merger, but we know nothing of the Royal merger. What transitions survived when these two largely symbolic monarchies fused? For example in the UK, our royal family was a family name – currently Windor, a name made up when the decidedly Germanic Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was determined to be not quite the thing when we were at war with Germany. If anything though, that show the royals are flexible, so I reckon they would be happy to adopt the Japanese tradition of only given names, in return for the Japanese agreeing to drop male only primogeniture. Which would mean that in the Alien universe our Imperial Majesty is the Empress Charlotte. (Because I have a soft spot for George IVs daughter, who never got to be Queen.)

But this monarchy, like our own is purely symbolic. We know there is a representative democracy actually wielding power. Whats it like? In his piece on the UPP Dave eschewed a purely 70s/80s vision of the Communists in favour of something that had modern day China’s free market authoritarianism. I am going totally the other way. I want the empire to go full one late 70s, early 80s, and that means one thing … Thatcher! I want an Iron Lady in charge. The one I am thinking of right now is Gloria Monday from Grant Morrison’s Dan Dare strip, but I think I will need to change her name. And if we have a Thatcher, we need a Falklands. Gorham’s Folly has a name that fits. We also need some Troubles, so which colony is going to be our North Ireland? Corona?

We also need big “feck-off” Navy. The book says the the 3WE has a relatively small military, but an “Extensive” Navy. The FTL technology of the Alien universe was invented by a British company, Weyland, and I am damned if I can going to let the same thing happen with this bit of British inginuity as happened with the Jet aviation and the MRI scanner. We are going to RULE the space-lanes, the biggest fleet with the biggest ships. I am taking 3WE policy back to the late ninetieth century then our policy was to have a bigger navy that the next three powers combined. So if the UA, the UPP and even the EU ganged up on us, they still wouldn’t have as many ships as we do. There was too, at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. A strong traditional link between UK and Japanese ship building industries and the Japanese Navy whopped Russian arse in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904 (much to everybody’s surprise (except us Brits), so we are going have those glory days again. I have not tried building any Imperial Navy ships yet, but they will be big, and they will be fast, and there will be carriers. And there will be two flagships – HMS Ark Royal, and of course the Battle Cruiser HMS Yamato. (Talking of design even though I haven’t designed any ships, I HAVE designed the Navy’s white ensign patch.)

Finally, the SOE or Special Operations Executive are an arm of 3WE Navy Intelligence devoted to operations behind enemy lines. Rarely recruited from existing military personel, SOE agents are often civilians usually with skills or a cultural background that will help them blend in and work in each theatre of operations. Currently on Linna 349, they are engaged in sabotage against the occupying USCM “peacekeeping” force. We ain’t letting the United Americas take you Linna. As somebody once sang in the 21st century “You’ll be back”