Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World?

Grubnessul said:

Jakob took a big gamble with that glove

very nice idea, never expected it to end that way

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thanks ^^ I like surprising !

Medical Update: okay so today my illness isn't letting up and I think i've gotten to that point where the exponential growth of the pathogen's peaking . Unfortunately that means some more bed rest and recooperation and I haven't been able to make a proper outline for the next chapter =( . So tonight I won't be able to make a post until at least 6 hours from now and if not then then I definitely won't miss tomorrow . Sorry everyone =( . Let's hope this darn illness lets up .

Eber said:

Another great and surprising update. Also thank you for interviewing me!

Hope you feel better soon. Update on your own time, don't push yourself too hard. We'll all be waiting.

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Thanks ! Luckily I was able to get some great ideas for the next chapter down last night so i'll be applying it today . Once again i'll try to double up on the updates today and tomorrow to catch up . The update tonight should be up in the very late evening .

February 15, 1582

Renault surveyed the vast expanse of desert ahead of him while leaning onto the ebony tufts of Kit’s mane. Nestled near the hills of Santa Ana was that expanse of the county of Orange not yet fully inhabited by the slowly growing Castillian population.

It was also in this area that the winds and acrid desert air would harass eyes and skin. Rattlesnakes and other wildlife teemed near the gorges and canyons bending and curving around the auburn smoothness of the foothills.

It had been a slightly different sight than the port of Los Angeles. Already that city had grown into a miniature metropolis of nearly five thousand souls. The cottage wooden structures and the fleet of trade ships circuiting through South America or passing the treacherous Pacific nested in the myriad docks of that city creating a fluttery horizon of weather worn sails.

San Diego, perhaps four hours ride south from Los Angeles, was a smaller city but served as a vital junction between the rest of California and the Viceroyalty of New Spain. Recently the area had received many new travelers from distant portions of the empire seeking the lucrative markets of the Americas. Already, Zacatecas and Cuzco exchanged more consumer goods individually than most of the European market combined. It was in the New World where Spain was aiming to concentrate her economic prosperity.

But as Renault’s softened eyes listened to the howling winds pass through rocky terrain, it was not the jingle of prosperity that he heard but a backwater station starting to mature into a trader’s rest stop. Soon, he thought, as Don Antonio opens the markets in Asia, the city of angels will see continued use as the natural exchange point between east and west.

Actually, Renault’s prediction was already beginning to materialize. As Osaka firmly held as a Spanish stronghold, the knowledge of a land beyond the great Pacific intrigued many of those living in Nippon and the Empire of the Ming. Already, hundreds had made the dangerous voyage on chartered Portuguese vessels to attempt to make a living in the new land of opportunity on the relatively unpopulated western coast of the Americas.

These new settlers would settle in the trading port several days to the north called San Francisco. Already, a little Chinatown was building itself one family at a time.

Kit seemed to jostled with excitement at the rustic terrain he was presented—having been born here in this land oceans away from ‘civilization,’ he seemed to have a natural alacrity towards its environment. No more treading the shifting dunes of Arabia, no more dodging of the trees in southern France, he was at home.

“They are over there,” was the voice interrupting the thoughts and contemplations of Renault. It belonged to his stalwart female companion.

Carmen had been a school teacher, Renault found out. When her husband had been killed by an Indian uprising five years ago, she vowed to defeat violence with education and conversion. Although she was well versed in math, Spanish, and Latin, she had mentioned on the long ride to Los Angeles that she most enjoyed teaching the native children their catechism.

Renault looked carefully as to where Carmen had pointed out along the foothills and, from that distance, he inspected the movement of the groundwork carefully.

“I count twenty five of them and five workmen,” Carmen added as she studded her horse and began on a gallop towards that foothill. Renault quickly followed.

Although she was a school teacher, Carmen was not the awkward backwater country woman Renault had quite fully expected. It was as if the woman transferred her rage from the murder of her husband to the organizations and offices which mistreated the native population. Perhaps she blamed them for the local unrest? Either way, she was a skilled rider and the pistol and whip she carried with her were not simple decorations of a colonial girl, either.

Arriving at the edge of the hill, a large uprising of dirt greeted the riders. In their midst were indeed twenty five, as Carmen counted, twenty five imported workers from central Mexico tunneling away at an opening in the hill face. Similarly, as Carmen also counted, four burly Spaniards and a German now turned away from their labourers to the cavaliers.

“What business do you have here?” one of them spoke in his German accented Spanish over the din of metal hitting stone behind him.

As Renault and Carmen came to a halt, both, at first, ignored the straightforward demand and quickly scanned the workers along the mine. Carmen did not need to see it; she had already known that these workers were underpaid without having to inspect them. For Renault, however, this was his first time seeing such a tragic sight.

Yesterday, when Renault had first arrived in Los Angeles, he held with him the compacted seal of His Eminence the Lord Chancellor Cardinal-Duke DeWitt indicating to the mayor of that town that he had come to do an audit of the various industries of the city and the outlying areas.

The mayor, a putrid looking ball of a man, was half damp in his own sweat in that luxurious town house he built himself in the middle of the city. His perspiration could have quenched half the town’s thirst and his manservant nearly blew the parchment of orders away from his hands as he hurriedly attempted to save his master from the California noon weather.

The Constable, a burly man with a mustache that seemed to paint the air as he turned, was also present. A tall man, he seemed to recede to the mayor’s window as the letter was read aloud. Renault couldn’t see the man’s face as the orders of an audit were given, but Carmen later told him that she could guess the expression—distrust and jealousy—if it could be called that. Carmen couldn’t clarify if it was because he was being questioned in his commission to protect all the citizens of Spain in his jurisdiction, or if he has something to do with the underhanded enterprise going on here as well.

“On behalf of His Eminence Lord Chancellor DeWitt, we are here to formally disband this quarry,” Renault finally said in his slightly French intoned Spanish to the five men.

After announcing his intentions to the men gathering around the two of them, Carmen heaved a hefty yell towards the workers. “You will all come with us now. We will give you food and shelter and new jobs,” she yelled in the language of the Aztecs.

“You have no jurisdiction here,” one of the foremen said quickly, “we have a working permit issued by the Schwarzschild Guild.”

Indeed, the Schwarzschild Guild was the largest working firm in the city of Angels. It managed the import, travel, lodging, and “stabling” as they call it of Mexican workers to companies and endeavors in the counties of Orange and Los Angeles. Cited by Carmen as one of the most egregious violators of Church mandated rights for the natives including the mistreatment of workers and outright kidnapping, it was her report that was brought to Cardinal DeWitt’s attention back in Madrid.

“I’m afraid we do, gentlemen,” Renault said calmly as Kit jostled impatiently at the five, huffing in their faces. Renault quickly flashed his Imperial badge at them.

“A Lion of Meissen?” the German accented one said attempting to hide a frustrated scoff.

Despite the disdain, the five foremen looked at each other carefully, some with grit teeth, before the lead one cocked his head to one side motioning to his fellows to depart. Without a second of wait, Carmen galloped ahead as the workers began gathering their tools and she started to give them instructions to follow her back to the city of Orange for nourishment and reassignment.

Renault watched the lady eagerly move forward to explain to the workers in their native tongue about the new plan. The “plan” was Renault’s idea, actually. He had proposed it to the Cardinal and he agreed: the long term solution was not simply to clothe and feed these individuals, but also to teach them the Spanish language and provide a short term tax reprieve to those guilds that would treat the workers humanely and severely punish any guild that did otherwise. This way, they could set a standard while maintaining economic balance in the region. Renault’s intelligence did not surprise the proud Cardinal.

For Carmen, however, she worked much more simply. She didn’t care too much about trade or the state of the guilds. She represented the humanistic side of compassion towards the natives. She shared Renault’s belief in them finding jobs, of course, and that jobs are only created by the various guilds, but she also firmly believed in the limit those guilds had in their treatment of their workers.

As Renault carefully watched the five foremen begin to gallop away back to their masters on their horses, he noticed them look back at him almost to glare. The middle aged Lion merely returned the look with one of stern opposition.

“I’ve assigned them leaders to follow and they will follow us back to town,” Carmen reported as she trotted back to where Renault and Kit were. “It will take them a few minutes to gather what meager possessions they have. We should leave soon before dark.”

Renault waited a few seconds after she gave her report to look at her. His stern expression turned into a nodding half smile as he was greeted by the slightly tanned golden brown visage of that woman. Even though she was almost thirty six, she did not show a day over twenty eight. Her hair was still kept in luscious waves of silky black. She wore a straw fedora to dim the effect of the sun and a white tunic-like blouse and leather trousers fitted with interlacing threads as well as a rider’s boots.

“This wasn’t so hard for our first day,” Renault commented to her as he watched the liberated individuals begin to file in closer to them.

“No it wasn’t,” Carmen replied with a generous smile, “let’s hope it stays that way.”


February 25, 1582

Renault quickly seethed under the painful application of the alcoholic antiseptic on his latest injury. Carmen did not relent, however, as the soaked cloth scraped away at the wound. Amin cringed as he watched his master.

The Cardinal was kind enough to allow Renault’s trusty sidekick to accompany him to the New World. Avril and Bonnie also came along but they had already gone off to visit their homesteads in New Spain proper leaving Kit to the exclusive care of Amin.

“Amin, would you be a dear and get me some more bandages please?” Carmen asked kindly to her guest who immediately reached over to the neighboring bureau to fetch some.

The boarding house in which Carmen did most of her charitable work would usually be filled by the sound of restless native children in the ruckus of every day teaching, but at the hour of midnight, it had receded to the calm crickety quiet of night in the city of Los Angeles.

Renault winced again as that antiseptic was worked on his other arm and quickly bandaged up as well. Hours earlier, “bandits” had given him a little trouble as he was returning to the city proper from another round of audits in the countryside. It had not been his first time encountering such men since his landing in the West.

“There are always muggers around these parts,” the Constable had told him when he reported it. Once again that man had been at a window. At that time, however, it was in the Constable’s tower garrison at the edge of the city’s walls. “I’m just one man underpaid,” the Constable had added in explanation.

“These should do it,” Carmen announced bringing the thoughtful knight back to the present. She padded the bandages gently and returned Renault’s tunic to him.

“I’ll check on it again in the morning,” she said nodding to Amin to leave Renault to recover. Her demeanor this entire time had been most serious. It was not that she was particularly mad at the bandits; she had her fair share of ambushes and injuries. Instead, her seriousness paid tribute to the sacrifices of this man; sacrifices similar to hers.

The room was a simple affair despite being on a two story building. Naturally, the meager income of a widow did not afford the kind of chivalrous or even elegant amenities afforded to someone of noble stature like Renault, but he did not complain. Much like the rest of the town which still swayed in the waves of dust pulled up by the wind, this room with its half painted wooden boards represented a kind of rustic homeliness.

“Merci, Madame,” he had said to her and gave a nod to his worried friend.

“I’ll go make sure Kit is properly stabled,” Amin said with a slightly relieved sigh before seeing himself out and carrying the lamp with him.

The past ten days had been a harsh ordeal for Renault, but not anything he necessarily did not expect. The Schwarzschild Guild was obviously behind the “bandits” attempting to rob him every odd hour of the day. He wasn’t even sure he would be spared from such attempts in the evening hence why he insisted on having his weapons stowed right next to his bed.

Lying down onto the coarse pillows and sheets, Renault closed his eyes from the beating of newly tended wounds and attempted to breathe the chilly Southern California air with a resignation.

In all honesty, he thought, this was a much easier assignment than avoiding traps in Arabia. The relative ease of his opponents too seemed to massage his muscles into a kind of grateful rest. In a strange way, he thought as he drifted off to rest in that dim quiet of an American city, this was as close to a vacation he’s ever had.

Some of his relatives and perhaps Amin, when that Arabian convert had the unfortunate circumstance of being around Renault when he was taking a nap, might have told stories of the snoring the middle aged man had. It was like a wheezing and whimper, they may have said. But no, this was not exactly the sound that had penetrated the otherwise natural night air. A funny noise of half breathing seemed to dominate the otherwise tranquil state of bliss that pushed Renault to a cozy doze. No, it was like the noise one made when there was but little air left to breathe.

The noise would have passed unnoticed in that otherwise windy night, but it was the screeches of the horses that woke Renault from his bed. Despite the sting and bluntness that seemed to expound on his injured arms, Renault quickly grabbed his espada from the edge of his bed and approached the nearest window to look down at the stable below.

It was at this same time that Carmen burst into Renault’s room with Amin in tow with the lantern.

“What’s going on!” she cried out as she approached the window. Renault looked as if he was frozen against the pane as the two approached him. After a second’s pause to look at the confused and pale face of that knight, they gazed down at the scene below in the stable.

Blood was already pooling as the screeching of the horses continued. They saw figures of men impaling and… disembowling the poor innocent creatures mercilessly. Quickly looking to his left, Renault saw that Kit was still on his far side of the stable kicking violently attempting to break free almost in foreknowledge of the impending danger.

Amin and Carmen quickly broke away from the pane and began to run down the stairs to engage these merciless bandits. But Renault was still frozen. In that split second before he decided to run down he had noticed something from the other dead horses which made his eyes widen in unbelievable terror. Hunched over above them as they tore away the flesh, these fiendish creatures held some of the entrails in their hands and then brought it to their faces. They were eating the horses…


Tom was carefully turning the pages on his notebook when the clock hit midnight. He couldn’t sleep that evening, not after the strange phone call he tried to place to Schwarzschild Industries. He didn’t ask Rodrigo about it, either since he wasn’t sure exactly what was going on.

Large corporations were not alien to him. In fact, it’s one of the reasons he was going through his notebook again that evening. Corporations were on his mind, and on his drawings he had traced out the chain of centers of trade from Zacatecas to Osaka that Spain had captured throughout her career.

It was interesting, he thought to himself, in his alternate present he looked at the legion of countries represented. Economics was no longer global but separated and segregated between the various countries. As a result, he was forced to conclude that this 2007 of his alternate world was far less technologically and economically advanced as the world he lived in that day. The world of his imagination would have so many pressing concerns being disunited that they could hardly think of the focused exponential growth that Spain attempted in its global hegemony.

He acknowledged, of course, the rise of individual states that he made up such as the United States and USSR during the eras where the Great War should have been, but even then he had estimated that they would have developed nuclear technology at least five years later than when Spain had developed it.

But enough of all that, he thought. Tom got up form his chair and approached the windowed view of the ocean that was afforded by that oft used sliding door. He gazed out into the bay of Norfolk and watched the interplay of white and dark blue hypnotize him.

Past the sliding glass door was the patio flanked by two hedges. A sand path led to the beach ahead and to the wafting waves. One of the beach chairs was laid out near the path and one of the Lions was sitting back enjoying the cool night air as he guarded the safe house. Tom sighed carefully as he watched his guard. How much longer he must stay like this he did not know. Looking down, he rested his head against the glass and let his breath create two bursts of cloudy film underneath him.

He would ask again tomorrow, he thought. When he looked back up, he watched his sentry relaxing. It was then that he watched a slow movement: another figure seemed to ascend from the center of the laid back Lion. As Tom’s misty breath began to clear away from the crystal, he watched as that figure slowly began approaching the sandy path away from the laying Lion.

The movement of the figure seemed awkward and slowed as if there was a limp or that one of his legs was shorter than the other. He almost seemed to drag himself along the sand approaching the hedges. Tom could not say a word and he would have simply been entranced by the shadowy figure if his vision was not distracted by the subtle movement of the Lion lying on the chair. That sitting man’s head just fell to the sand.

As his eyes returned to the approaching man, he saw similarly awkward shadowed figures turn into the path from the hedges on either side… all of them approaching with perpetual slowness and a rigidity of the body. Tom’s mouth widened attempting to call out something but he was caught in a strange trance watching them. As the light from the patio hit their feet, their slow pace painstakingly revealed their figures in that darkness of midnight. What Tom saw was the movement of degraded flesh, eyes that turned away from you, and blood dripping from masticating mouths. On that midnight hour, this small host of decay stepped onto the rear patio step of the once safe house.

Chapter XIX: ZOMBIES?! (coming soon)

Lotus-6: thanks ! Haha .. CGT ? I don't know what that is :wacko:

Grubnessul: Yes something is indeed very wrong ! But what could it all mean ! Tune in next update to discover the secret XD haha ! I really appreciate the patronage !

Myth: Yes , who would have thought zombies would show up ! Gasp ! But how can zombies be real ? Especially with a thematic element such as rationalism and strong faith , how is that coincidental with zombies ? Hmm ! we'll have to see ! I promise the explanation will be more shocking than the zombies themselves ! As for Renault and Carmen . We'll have to see ! So far they've been a bit quiet so to speak . Let's see how this ordeal developes them as characters and developes them as two point in a relationship =) Thanks again for reading !

Panzerkardinal - Buddy , thank you so much for your kind words ! It totally made my day today . Thank you for your concern . Still a bit under the weather but thankfully it's abating somewhat . I'll try to get an update in today but I think i'll be sleeping most of the day again today =( ! But I'm so very glad to hear that you're enjoying the journey !

kleomenes: Zombies are indeed spooky O.O but I'm so very glad that effect went through ! Thank you again for your patronage !

Petros said:

Another brilliant update!

Zombies, huh? Well, that is one thing that I never expected to come up in this story...!

I've seen the other references to sci-fi shows or movies before and I'm wondering if this has been influenced at all by the 'Resident Evil' movie. Just a hunch!

I'm eagerly anticipating the explanation of this phenomenon, especially with regards to faith.

Glad to hear you are feeling better, Canonized and thanks for the update!

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Thanks ! I've been getting some great reception for this latest update so I'm very glad everyone's enjoying it ! A Resident Evil interpretation , hm ? Not a bad prediction ! Very astute of you .. but i'm afraid that the truth is more sinister than that ! Haha ! Thanks again !

Note: The next update will probably be tomorrow and then will continue in the update day , off/bonus day schedule from then on . I'm afraid with the sickness it's been hell to catch up so I may as well just go back to regular schedule haha . Sorry for missing a day minna-san ! I've got the outline for the next update about half done so it'll be a wonderful journey nonetheless hope to see you all there !

Swiftthistle said:

All I have to say is wow! This is one of the most in depth AARs I have ever read. Glad I came here first when I signed up.

Glad to see you update on a regular basis, too! Fine work, sir.

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Ahh thank you very much I'm flattered ! Welcome aboard ! Another update will be coming tonight !

Eber said:

I really liked the whole horse eating flesh episode. Spooky indeed.

Zombies eh? How morbid...I love it.

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Haha thanks , yeah it was actually kind of spooky when i was proof-reading it !