Delusions of Grandeur: Korea is Choson

[calcsam2]

This is my newest AAR, which will be worked on in tandem with my Two Sicilies AAR. I am using the Delusions of Grandeur theme and setting, which I have permission to use. My goals shall be revealed in the story. But first, you must read posts 1, 2, and 5 ofDelusions of Grandeur I: Abysinnia Triumphant by anonymous4401. It is quite excellent, and is the setting in which my story occurs.

First update in a bit.

[calcsam2]

November 10, 2004, 12:10 AM, Dimension

Donald Rumsfeld sat quietly in the audience as the President entered the room to deliver the speech that would end his career. The President had been an honor for him to serve, and had stuck by Rumsfeld even after the Abu Ghraib scandal, the second al-Sadr uprising, and Powell’s resignation in protest of Rumsfeld’s continuing presence.

That had been the final nail in the Bush-Cheney coffin. Kerry didn’t even have anything to do with it – he just rode the wave of anti-Bush sentiment to 315 electoral votes, if the CNN predictions were accurate. With Powell’s resignation, blacks had shown up at the polls en masse, handing Michigan, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida (the last by a relatively comfortable seven thousand votes, the others by about fifteen thousand each) to Kerry, along with victory.

Bush reached the podium and cleared his throat. “Just moments ago, I spoke with John Kerry and congratulated him on becoming the 44th president of the United States.”

Rumsfeld felt his heart drop. Perhaps he hadn’t really accepted it yet, but he knew that it was a known known that he would have to leave his position of power.

…

“I know that many of my supporters are disappointed. I am too. But our disappointment must be overcome by our love of country.

And I say to our fellow members of the world community, and to those planning insurgency in Iraq, let no one see this contest as a sign of American weakness. The strength of American democracy is shown most clearly through the difficulties it can overcome. I hope that the Iraqis will follow our example and peacefully conduct their upcoming elections.”

That was the good thing about the Iraqi elections. As Stalin said, the power lay not in the voters, but in those who counted the votes. Aptly demonstrated in Florida in the 2000 election, this principle applied also to the Iraqis in their upcoming elections.

…

Jason Renning swore under his breath as he watched Bush, through the eyes of Donald Rumsfeld. “Good night, and God bless America, “ Bush finished.

He was ruined! He had bet his entire fortune on being able to build an oil pipeline from Afghanistan (which connected to the Central Asian pipelines) past the Persian Gulf, through Israel, and into the Mediterranean. That called for the invasions of Iran and Syria from Iraqi bases, impossible in the dovish Kerry presidency. Not to mention that an invasion of Iran would really be impossible after their development and successful testing of nuclear weapons in 2007.

He should have known better. Simulation betting was just emerging, and people – even experienced players like himself – didn’t know the odds of new simulations like Pax Americana well enough to beat them.

Now he was left with just his own wits and skills. While the latter included his much-used skill at hacking, it remained physically impossible to hack a system existing in another dimension. The other possibility – traveling back far enough in the current dimension to change the outcome of the election – had never been successfully accomplished without detection by Paradox Corporation.

So what were his options? He could play for the rest of the game and try to recoup his losses by winning his other bets. But they were miniscule compared to this one, totaling perhaps fifty credits. So all that was left of his fortune was enough money to…..to buy another game! The rules of his bet had never specified that he had to use the US to build this pipeline! It was implied, but he didn’t have to hold by it; it wouldn’t be the first or last law he bent to his advantage.

So who else could get the land necessary for building a pipeline? His bet had stipulated that he only had to keep public opinion on his side if he was a democracy, but what autocracy could invade most of the Middle East in Pax Americana? The People’s Republic of China?

That’s it! He could play China in another scenario, say Victoria, industrialize, invade the Middle East, and use stolen technology to build the pipeline! He had enough credits for the necessary bribes to his current aide for running his game and assistance in getting him back to the Paradox headquarters quietly.

…

May 12, 2415

Jason strided briskly through Paradox headquarters. He walked with his head down and face disguised by his long hair and massive beard. If he was recognized, it would be disastrous, to say the least. He sighted the sales booth and sped up his pace.

Much to his surprise and anger, the game salesman recognized him. “Jason! What are you doing back so soo-”

Jason leaned over the counter and stared menacingly. “Gimme China in Victoria. Cheapest possible everything. Now. Here’s the credits.” He threw them across the table as if they meant nothing to them. “If you tell anyone a word about this, your ass is grass. And I’ll be smoking it.”

The salesman quickly complied.

…

Jason finally crawled up off the dirt and stared at the mass of fluids in front of him. Two hours ago, they had been part of his body. The bribes had cost him more than he anticipated, and as a result he was unable to afford the nausea treatment.

He looked up at an overbearing man wearing a sardonic grin. “The notorious Jason Renning, vomiting into the dirt because he’s too poor for nausea treatment. I take it you lost your bet?”

Jason just glared at him. “Set up the office over there, by the cliff. I might need to throw certain people out the window.”

The aide glared back, but followed Jason’s directions. Jason attempted to follow the aide to the newly constructed building, but collapsed as soon as he put weight on his legs. That earned a laugh from the aide. Judging by Jason’ and the aide’s expressions, if looks could kill they’d be professional hitmen.

Painfully swallowing his pride, Jason crawled into the newly set up office and pushed himself into a chair by the map, which was zoomed in on a hill and some rocks. “Zoom out. I want to see all of China. “

The map zoomed out a bit to reveal a peninsula. The aide’s brow furroughed in mock confusion. “But why would you want to see all of China? Admittedly, they’re your northern and only neighbor, but I would think that you would like to see all of Korea first. After all, you’ll be ruling it for the next eighty-five years, or at least until the Japanese put you out of your misery.”

Jason stared. He was in some serious deep shit, thanks to the damn geographical accuracy option.

[anonymous4401]

Wow. Great start. The author of the backstory is also the most creative, imaginative, and brilliant writer I have ever seen!

Well, calcsam, I didn't think you'd start so early. Not that I have a problem with that, just that I took several weeks to assemble enough data from the game to hammer into a story. You did start with a very political beginning, I hope that this AAR doesn't turn into a political discussion.

Also, I think the post numbers you posted were wrong. Post 1 was the introduction, 2 and 3 the history of interdimensional travel. I believe 6 was the one which introduces Saony.

[Meltdown1986]

I´ve never seen the likes of an AAR like this (or the other Delusions for that matter):O

This should be interesting to say the least!




BTW, keep up the political stuff, it adds spice and flavour!

[Semi-Lobster]

interesting start, that's what I love about the Delusions of Grandeur AAR's, you never know what will happen next, that or everybody knows what's going to happen next except me

[anonymous4401]

Originally Posted by Meltdown1986

I´ve never seen the likes of an AAR like this (or the other Delusions for that matter):O

This should be interesting to say the least!




BTW, keep up the political stuff, it adds spice and flavour!

The politics will not only add spice. It will add FLAMES. If I didn't have better self-restraint, the flames would have started already. Hopefully the politics will be more of a satirical/humorous nature once the premise is out of the way.

[calcsam2]

anonymous4401: Whoops, must have miscounted.

Meltdown: The political stuff will continue, but that is about as serious as it's going to get. I'm an equal opportunity satirist, don't fear

Don't worry, though, this will not turn into a political discussion.

[calcsam2]

Jason looked resigned to his fate as the aide gleefully continued his sadistic rantings. “Korea is currently an absolute monarchy. The ruling party are reactionary pacifist slavers. The standard punishments for foreigners who dare to shipwreck upon Korean shores is death.”

Jason sighed in despair as the aide smiled smugly. He thought of being completely broke, of the legends of Paradox gaming, legends of greatness and incompetence. And victims of geographic inaccuracy. The legendary Saony Muon, who aimed for Washington and ended in Abysinnia. Wait a second. Abysinnia. The only island of semi-civilization in a sea of savages. Savages can be colonized. Colonization leads to prestige. Prestige leads to......to civilization!

And with civilization comes the uncontrollable urge to steal. That was, after all, rule number one of most political systems. Thou shalt grow fat on thine neighbor’s pigs. But this irresistible urge to take what is not yours must be harnessed, channeled from free-for-all brutality to organized extortion. Only then will man turn from vicious savage to modern politician.

And as this transition occurs, man can be controlled. The ferocious savage has no use for the controlling “helping hand”. He takes what he can get from others, and others take what they can get from him. No quarter given, nor expected. And certainly no bargaining of trinkets. The modern politician, on the other hand, can easily be controlled. For his vast power over his fellow man, he still has many needs. Luxury is always a need, and money is needed for those luxuries. Hence the invention of lobbyists toting suitcases of unmarked bills, and bartering them in return for swing votes on key issues – bailing out the lobbyist’s employer from its fourth bankruptcy with money taken from the politicians constituents, for example.

To be sure, the organization that civilization brought more than made for the increase in corrupt bargains. While the barbarians may have destroyed the Roman Empire, civilization in the name of the Holy Roman Empire triumphed over barbarism from the Tiber and the Pyrenees to the Elbe, from the Danube to the hills of Brest.

Yet civilization was first truly united with its shadow of corruption in the great trading cities of Genoa and Venice. And the congruence of these forces unleashed a great force upon the world. Not one of good, or of evil. Money changed hands in dark halls and closed rooms, sealing deals of dubious legality and more dubious morality. But these trading cities were the first republics in Italy in over a millennium, since the Roman Republic had become the Roman Empire. The changing of money prompted the erection of a great city from a swamp, for the express purpose of trade. The trading cities connected Earth’s disparate civilizations, bringing the world together. Marco Polo’s journey to China started a trade route connecting China and Europe, and eventually prompted daring explorers to discover the Earth’s terra incognita in an attempt to reach China. But most importantly, the wealthy families patronized great artists of the Renaissance, furthering culture and civilization. Civilization moved forward quickly when united with its shadow.

Victorian Korea, on the other hand, was woefully out of touch with its shadow. It stood in the dark, in vain desperation that its shadow would never come close to it. Foreigners shipwrecking upon its shores were quickly executed to rid the land of outside influences. For two hundred years after the Qing dynasty rose to power in Chna, Korea had isolated itself in order to avoid contact with its neighbors. The ‘Hermit Kingdon’ entered a Dark Age, stagnating as the world passed it by.

But Jason knew he had to change this; else history would repeat itself and Korea would fall under Japanese control. But more importantly, without any interaction with other civilizations, he would lose his bet. So, for money to oil the gears of corruption, he would benevolently lift Korean civilization out of its misery into a new, glorious age.

[Shaytana]

Great start, marvelously written. And no, the politics won't add flames. What's the point in flaming an excellent aar? I gave up on Vicky aars a while ago when CK entered my mind, but I will try and see this to its conclusion, its beggining being quite promising.

[Semi-Lobster]

Nice camo by Saony!

It looks like the Hermit kingdom will take Korea places, where, who knows! Also, I forgot to mention earlier, great pun in the name!

[anonymous4401]

The cameo exchange. Well, I suppose Saony will get famous once his exploits become well-known, but that won't be for awhile. Great update, and a very nice monologue. I wish I had that kind of masterful knowledge of history, to see the broad patterns instead of the dates and details.

[calcsam2]

But in this Jason faced a problem. Twentieth century American politicians were easy to control. Most of them blew in the political and monetary winds. If he used his power to blow the wind one way, they would do whatever he wanted. If he moved the magnet, the iron files would all line up.

Korean leaders were another story. They made Sisyphus’s stone look immovable. Brainwashed religious reactionaries all, they were about as likely to yield to even telepathic persuasion as they were to do anything remotely against tradition. So how could Jason get them to bend to his wishes? And then it hit him.

…

As technology advanced into the 22rd century, governments had begun to develop ways to effectively extract accurate information under torture. This was mainly in response to the invention of “re-remembering” mixtures of date-rape drugs, alcohol, and various narcotics that temporarily altered memories when ingested. Even under traditional “unorthodox interrogation” methods, re-rememberers would recall jumbles of old facts when interrogated. For example, someone might respond to a question of “Where will you bomb next?” with a noteworthy location that they lived in several years ago.

After a partly successful Basque bomb plot in downtown Madrid killed several hundred thousand people (which might have been up to several million except for new information extraction techniques), research accelerated, and in 2150 technology was developed that, for the first time, could monitor someone’s thoughts. It was not fully accurate, and was vulnerable to manipulation, but was still vastly superior to old techniques. This technology spread, and was universal by 2175.

Soon, people asked The Question: if brain waves could be monitored fairly accurately, couldn’t synthesized brain waves put thoughts into someone’s head and, if done well enough, control someone’s mind? Thus, the controversial field of psychocontrol was born. There was no reason why the answer to The Question must be no, but producing exact electrical signals was difficult work, and the project to build a machine capable of implanting thoughts into heads was still in development when the governments of the world united in 2200. One of the world government’s first moves was to permanently ban all parts of psychocontrol that dealt with controlling rather than simply interpreting brain signals. This pushed the project underground, and significantly delayed its completion. It also turned out that without wires to send the impulse directly into the brain, significant alterations had to be made to the impulse in order to counterbalance the skull’s distortion.

The project to be able to successfully plant thoughts in minds was completed sometime around 2250 (the exact date is not known, since the entire project was secret; details are still being uncovered by diligent historians). In one of the twists of capitalism, the brothers John and Daniel Manley, who had access to this technology, set up a number of sham corporations selling products on commission. They then used brainwave-spam to convince many extremely rich people to buy luxury products – from the brothers’ corporations, of course. Since the victims were few and (though extremely rich), the world government ignored all evidence of the existence of thought-planting technology. For twenty-five years, the Manley brothers grew rich, eventually each making it into the top 75 of the Forbes 500. But when the brothers attempted to use new mass-distribution brainwave spam to convince millions of people at once to buy products, a secret government investigation finally uncovered the Manleys’ secret.

Though the Manleys were soon charged with massive fraud and lost everything they had, under new laws the trials had to be publicly broadcasted on satellite television in case anyone wanted to see it. Thousands of technogeeks worldwide tuned in, and soon learned the advanced details of brainwave-implant technology. Many, convinced they could do it better, attempted to improve on the Manleys’ technology. Most soon gave up their quest, but a few were remarkably successful. The most important of these was a Charles Linson, who discovered a way to manipulate a neural net that determined the likelihood of any given statement being accepted as truth: quick and easy brainwashing. Ten years of obsession later, he had perfected his technique. He then “persuaded” various banking institutions to give him about ten million dollars, changed his name, and, for all intents and purposes, vanished off the face of the earth- but not before he submitted his research to a renowned scientific magazine in December 2286.

The ensuing uproar was one of the most serious threats to world peace since the Third World War. Power-hungry wannabes attempted with varying degrees of success to seize control of the world’s armies and governments. To prevent this, power structures of both governments and militaries were decentralized almost to the point of anarchy, resulting in neo-tribal warfare in many parts of Africa, the Middle East, and central Asia.

The most notable example of the new threats to peace was a Sunni fundamentalist who took control of almost all Arab armies in an attempt to recreate the Caliphate. His armies pushed east most of the way to New Delhi and Bombay before stalemate was reached there, northwest into the Balearic Islands in preparation for an invasion of Spain, and north through a Turkish puppet state to Belgrade. Thankfully, he was turned back from Budapest by an Austro-Hungarian force - the Central European nations were remarkably free of turmoil. This victory was followed by the formation of a most unlikely alliance of Austria, Hungary, previously neutral Iran, Spain, and India, which finally turned the Islamic tide.

The collapse of order, however, had one positive consequence. Those seeking an end to mindless (literally) warfare were free to develop countermeasures to the new “hypnotizer” machines. Four years later, a successful countermeasure was developed, and order soon restored.

For the next seventy years, an arms race would occur between hypnotizer developers, and de-hypnotizer developers, similar to the one fought in the early-to-mid twentieth century between codemakers and codebreakers, except with much higher stakes. After a new de-hypnotizer, which prevented hypnotization in the first place, was developed in 2360, hypnotizers were unable to counter it for ten years. Then, it was conclusively proven that it was unable to counter the de-hypnotizer (or, at least, would take an amount of time exponential to the number of neurons in the intended victim’s head – clearly unfeasible), and so the arms race ended.

However, hypnotizing technology found a new use fourteen years later, when the Paradox Corporation combined it with loop and time travel to create games in alternate history. Paradox modified its hypnotizers slightly, in order to prevent the player from altering any opponents’ consciousness or unrealistically altering the historical system – making key historical figures change the ruling party’s platform whenever the player desired, for example.

One of the modifications Paradox made to its hypnotizers was to make it harder – nearly impossible - to “persuade” people to go against strong convictions. With the nature of these Korean aristocrats, “persuading” them was impossible. You can’t re-brainwash an already-brainwashed person.

But one of the technologies that had been developed in the arms race (and left out of the hypnotizers by Paradox) before being neutralized was “re-education” technology. Using this technology, you could wipe all beliefs not derived from personal experience and replace them with new beliefs as long as those beliefs did not contradict personal experience. This condition made the “re-education” technology useless for use on political prisoners, who had usually spent years fighting the entity now trying to re-educate it, and was soon abandoned.

But Jason had learned a lesson from history. Often weapons that were discarded after something was invented to disable them can be very useful when both the weapon nor the countermeasure are forgotten. Land mines, shunned internationally in the late 20th century, could be quickly and easily found and disabled by new machinery in the early 21st century. So they fell out of existence. About half a century later in the Third World War, the Chinese, desperate for any way to prevent the Russian advance towards Shanghai, planted enough landmines outside the city that the Russian advance was stopped fifteen miles away from Shanghai for a month and a half, giving India time to mobilize in preparation for its declaration of war on Russia when Shanghai finally fell.

So, he constantly maintained several memory cards of old technologies, and carried them on his body at all times. One of these, of course, was re-education technology. He also happened to have the personalities and belief systems of every major 20th century political figure on hand to substitute for the old beliefs. So, say goodbye King Heonjong. Say hello, Chu-lin Weng-po.

[calcsam2]

I hope you all see where the satire is going to come from now

Shaytana - Thanks! This AAR is going to be long though, if the introduction (8 pages on Word and growing) is any indicator.

Semi-Lobster: Yep, Korea is certainly going places. At least, select contigents of Koreans will The Chosen from Choson.

anonymous4401 - It's weird that you're in Korea while I do an AAR on it. Thanks, I pride myself on being a history buff (or trying, at least)

[Shaytana]

I love long aars, so do your worst Let's see if your aar can be longer than my ongoing Pecheneg one in the end...I doubt it, I have 400 years of history to waste thoughts on...so come on give us huge updates, those are the best.

Your last update was excellent to say the least, truly gives one a novel ambience rather than a forum aar one. In the words of many a forumite, I have to say: MOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!

[anonymous4401]

Great future history! The Caliphate would have been recreated by the fundamentalists eventually, who would have been disgusted by the West-coddling Crescent League. But in my history, the European Union lasts from the Decade of Darkness in the 2020s to the unification of all the world's governments. After the Worldwide Depression in the 2020s, and especially after WWIII, which saw the pacifistic, demilitarized Europe fall to Russia's technologically advanced armies within a year, I would have thought that the nations of Europe would decide that giving up their sovereignty to a single unified Europe was better. (Of course, it could have gone the other way. Since a unified Europe was the entity that forced Europe's demilitarization in the 2030's against a tide of protest, after WWIII anti-Union sympathies could have swept Europe, causing the Union to become much less powerful and give practical autonomy to its members.)



Can I put a brief timeline of the future history up to WWIII and beyond here? Or I could PM it to you, so we could collaborate on it.

[calcsam2]

PMing it to me would be better, so we can collaborate. I figured that, after World War III, nationalistic sentiment would probably demand that armies be kept, if not under national control, in united nationality blocks, garrisoned in the country of that nationality. Poland, for example, would want to be damn sure that, in case of a future World War IV, there would be a Polish Army to defend them. I mean, look at them. Every world war they get overrun by Germany, Russia, or both.

[calcsam2]

The new Korean ministers and monarchs would be a fusion of reactionary and radical, of Archie Bunker and Norman Lear. They would have the philosophy of a democratic, open republic and experiences from and environment of a reactionary, xenophobic monarchy.

This would break new ground in experimental psychology, for such a combination had never been attempted before. Or at least, never under these specific conditions. Some historical research supported the idea that the French Revolution was the result of an attempt to brainwash 20th century ideals into the 18th century, and several unscrupulous Paradox gamers had exploited their ability to brainwash 20th century democracy into the Victorian era. But that had been when Paradox modeled only its benefits – less violent revolt – without including its downside of increased local autonomy (a downside for the state, at least). Also, in those cases, the players had plenty of money and were able to pay for complete control of historical personas, so the studies of their experiences mainly focused on the national scale rather than the personal scale.

So, basically Jason was charting new ground. Though this would be far from the first time – he was an expert in discovering novel ways to make money by gaming the system. But this would bring novelty to a new level. He motioned to his aide and spoke. “Let’s start.”

____

Part I: Korea’s Choson Path

Cast of Characters:

George Bush II as King Heonjong. "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier - so long as I'm the dictator."

Imelda ‘6,000 Shoes’ Marcos as Imiji Roshu-wong, Secretary of the Treasury. “Well, some of the shoes belong to the servants”. Believed to have embezzled, with her husband, over $5 billion while ruling the Philippines.

Donald Rumsfeld as Dongae Ro-weng, Secretary of State. “"You're thinking of Europe as Germany and France. I don't. I think that's old Europe.”

Richard Nixon as Rok-ban Wing-shon, Attorney General. “I am not a crook”.

Pat Buchanan as Pao Bu-jonan, Secretary of International Trade. “Trade trumps the environment. Trade trumps human rights. It trumps the security of countries. It trumps the sovereignty of countries. It should never have been created.”

Henry Wallace as Haenji Sillok, Secretary of Internal Commerce. Ordered the destruction of 6 million hogs, and 10 million acres of cotton. Commerce? Who needs commerce?

Paul Wolfowitz as Pao Wongwing, Secretary of Diversity (you’ll see )

William Jefferson Clinton as Yi-li Chuntaen, Guardian of Morality. “It depends upon what the meaning of the word is means. If is means is, and never has been, that's one thing. If it means, there is none, that was a completely true statement.”

Rush Limbaugh as Roshu Li-banyo, Assistant Guardian of Morality. Married thrice; divorced thrice. Has an addiction to painkillers.

Josef Stalin as Joe-shu Shutaen, Head of the Federal Elections Commission. “Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.”

More characters may be introduced later.

[Semi-Lobster]

Wow, what a diverse and terrifying group you've got their! Good to see your back!

[Ksim3000]

Quite good updates, I really have enjoyed the story you have told about a possible future, very good.

[Shaytana]

That cast of characters smacks of brilliance.

I'm very interested in finding out how the honorables Yi-li Chuntaen and Roshu Li-banyo will live up to their roles of guardians of morality.