Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World?

grayghost: thank you , sir XD

JimboIX: Yep and Instrumentality is up too so if you guys want to take a look it's there ! You can always click on my sig to get to the latest issue

Lotus-6: haha thank you , Your Grace !

comagoosie: Yep ! Wanted to showcase some new writers as you know . We'll be interviewing another new writer AlexanderPrimus in the next one And he's CK !

ALSO Attention !​

If it's your first time voting in the ACA , it's basically a way for you to name your favourite AARs in different categories ! You get one vote per category and you can vote in all of the categories if you wish !

For Timelines , we're currently running for :

Favorite AAR, EU3
Favorite Narrative AAR, EU3

How do you fill out a ballot ? Simple ! Just copy and paste the template in the first post then fill them out like this:

Favourite AAR, EU3: Timelines by canonized(yes I'm plugging myself XD but you can pick whoever you want !)
Favourite Narrative AAR, EU3: Timelines by canonized

Favourite CK AAR: Rome AARisen by General_BT

Favourite etc etc etc XD

So please go out and vote ! Timelines needs you

General_BT said:

Good interview as always!

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thanks !

By the way folks:

since anonymous has been a no show for 2 months now , the mods have given me control of the flagship publication The AARlander . So now it is under Tempus Management



So now Instrumentality will be transferred over to the AARlander automatically and everyone retains their jobs XD You can read the whole details here .

Hope you guys like it

ForzaA & Grubby : It's barely thursday ! XD and yes i'm working on it ! You guys are going to enjoy this next one . Lots of adventure and action !

Murmurandus said:

Is it an Indiana Jones update then?

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ROFL something like that . We'll see just how well Madeleine holds up the family name , eh ? XD

Update is about 1/3rd done now

ForzaA said:

you have 56 minutes for the final 2/3 to keep your promise

(and no, don't sneak off to play Rome)

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Haha =( . Silly GMT !

I'm almost done 5/6 done It's going to be the start of a few very fun chapters for me Lots of ACTION AND ADVENTURE !

6 April 1610

The earthen catacombs of the ancient Mayan temple meant a zigzag of stone tunnels half Mayan built and half Spanish augmented. Despite the windy nature of the downward staircase and the meandering corridors, there was a minimal amount of forks that required circumnavigation. Madeleine constantly checked the etchings of notes that her uncle gave her to chart their progress.

“Eventually after we enter into the proper gate, we’ll see a store room of some kind. I think it was originally meant to be a garrison of sorts,” Madeleine explained to the others as Riku held up the torch for her. Towed in the rear was Willem supported by Raul.

Madeleine looked back as if to make sure her words of information were understood by the ones behind although her eyes were fixed at the reddened bandage of Willem’s side. “Do you think there will be supplies there?” Raul asked interpreting the girls’ gaze. Madeleine nodded with appreciable encouragement.

“And medicines too, I think. It was meant to be a waystation before we hit the lower areas,” she replied before stopping at the next corner. The rest stopped behind her and looked forward at the strange sight.

If one were walking on the ceiling of the corridor where Madeleine now looked down, they might have thought they were passing through wiry bush breaking through the cracks on the floor. However, the young lady and young men standing there could only see the inversion as roots and dirt tread into the open air and dangled all the way to a few inches above the ground.

“What is this supposed to be?” Riku questioned as he maneuvered his torch to try and discern the length of the corridor. His light cast spiral and shifting shadows that seemed to slither in the dance of his luminescence.

“It’s one of the obstructions,” Madeleine explained, “The roots are especially dry here in this part of the jungle above us so any flame would cause the entire hall to burn up. We’re meant to enter this corridor in the dark and crawl on the floor. It would take too long to cut through.”

“From what I can tell,” Riku chimed in crouching down, “it goes on for quite a while and leads to a few doorways.

“Four arches to be exact,” Madeleine told them, “All of them lead to the area below but only one is manageable for people to traverse. The others, I think, were used as transport tunnels for supplies down below when they were excavating.”

“How will we know which one is the proper one?” Raul asked.

“The paper says that there will be symbols next to each entryway and all my uncle said was that by the inscriptions I should know which one to follow.”

“But in the dark? How are we supposed to read any symbols?” Riku asked as he overlooked Madeleine’s papers. Madeleine was similarly baffled as she gazed down the entangled hallway. She surveyed it as far as she could see from floor to embattled ceiling.

“There’s no time to lose,” she said with a sudden smile, “tie a rope to all of us together, I think I know what to do.”

After fastening each of them with a bit of rope until the four formed a half decade of a rosary, Madeleine threw their torch behind them onto the stone corner of the hall and started moving forward. Each had to keep their face and body low to the ground to avoid being scratched by the harassing tendrils of the forest’s exposed members above.

Each grunted along as they felt the dried edges of the wood scrape away at their leather gear. Madeleine had made sure to tie her hair tightly enough to avoid getting tangled while the uncouth young men yelped at some of their locks being pulled out by the hanging obstructions. “Are you alright back there?” Raul asked to the one struggling at his feet. Raul could not even move his head back to look at how far Willem had lagged behind but he could feel the tension on his rope.

“I’ll get by,” Willem said with as much strength as possible, “But this ground is terrible… all these rocks are making it painful to crawl through.”

“We’re almost there,” Riku reassured them as he remembered the length in his mind.

“Alright, stop here,” Madeleine said as they all crawled to a halt. The young lady reached out and felt in a semi circle around her the entranceways to four other corridors. “We’re at the end… now to… It’s this way…” She immediately tugged on the others as they continued through out of the dark wood and into the threshold. There was a short decline before the oppression of the wood no longer harassed their backs and they could stand.

Raul and Riku both lit a torch. Looking back the way they came, it was a surprise to them just how low the roots had stuck into the corridor. The gateway they had passed seemed like an archway worthy of a mosque while the dangling wood hovered just outside of it like some eastern screen.

“How…” Willem tried to speak with a crooked smile as he let himself up with the help of the wall, “did you figure out this one was the right one?”

“I read the inscriptions next to each doorway. One warned of a leopard, another a lion, and the last a female wolf. This one had a warning as well but it had no animal attached to it.”

“But how could you read the inscriptions in the dark?” Riku asked. Riku also hooked his arm around the entranceway to try and feel the scripted words on the other side but could only feel the stubs of stone.

“Simple,” Madeleine responded while already scouting the next room next to the antechamber that they were standing within. “That corridor makes you crawl on the ground. Willem said it was rocky and he’s right. There are parts of that floor that jut upward. But if you pay attention to it, the bumps come in clusters. The same amount of clusters that there are letters in the alphabet. It was a simple code and when I touched the bumps near the doors, I could read what they said through touch.”

The others stared at her with slight exasperation on their faces and Madeleine could not help but bask in the attention. “By the way,” Riku asked turning back to the new corridor ahead of them, “What did the inscription on this door say?”

Madeleine squeezed a second out before answering, “Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate,” Madeleine answered before translating, “Abandon Hope, All Ye Who Enter Here.” The others followed Madeleine’s movements speechlessly as she stepped closer to the threshold of the next room. Riku and Raul exchanged glances while Willem satisfied himself with a silly grin before limping next to Madeleine.

“What do you think about this next room?” he asked as he looked forward. It was a wider hall than they were in before and it continued to make space until eventually splitting into a fork near the middle. Faintly in the distance on the right fork, a white banner hung in dead air.

“Obviously we have to make a choice between these two corridors, I don’t think they meet again on either end,” Madeleine said as she stepped forward. The others followed her cautiously. This portion seemed more structured than the half earthen halls they tread earlier. Indeed, here, there seemed to be a fastness of stone to the architecture that gave it a uniform feeling. On the floor and on the sides the blocks of carved earth had holes etched into them watching them like thousands of dark eyes.

“The choice is clear for those who go down the right path,” Riku said aloud as he raised his torch high. The plain inscription hung at the crossroads, “what does this riddle mean?”

“It means run to the right!” Madeleine yelled as she grabbed onto Willem who was at the rear and starting shoving them forward. “To the bann—” she was cut off mercilessly by the slicing sound of metal spikes shooting forward from the holes in the floor as well as those around the walls behind them.

Releasing a cloud of dust each time a section of the floor erupted in spines, it formed an onrushing storm as the four ran towards the white flag. Reaching the far bend of the end of the corridor, the four leapt the final few yards onto browner dirt as the last of the stone pavement erupted in metal malice. The four coughed and heaved as the blank banner above them quivered in the recent disturbance.

“How…” Raul spat out some dirt.

“I recognized the Italian inscription,” Madeleine said, “It is from Dante’s journey through Hell… this was the Vestibule to that dark place.”

“The Inferno?” Riku asked in recognition. He had only barely heard of it during the training in the Scarlet Academy.

“A man’s journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise,” Madeleine explained for the others whose memory were not as sharp as Riku’s, “told in an allegorical style—that is… everything, every small detail of his fantastical and fictional journey, has another meaning. This is the Vestibule of Hell where Dante placed the Neutrals—the people who couldn’t decide either right or wrong. When we were standing there unable to decide to follow the simple directions to follow the right path, the floor must have been depressed. I’m guessing it’s if you stand on it for too long thinking; it triggered the trap.”

“What’s the white flag for then?” Riku asked curiously looking up at the object.

“These souls who would not follow any banner in life are forced to run chasing a blank banner for the rest of eternity. Not only that… but hornets and bees sting them which is probably why the method of choice for death here is metal spikes. It’s because these men and women were never stung by the compunction to be passionate about something that they are eternally stung and motivated this way in Hell.”

“Then this garrison house we’re supposed to get to?” Raul asked as he helped Willem to his feet.

“The Castle of Limbo,” Madeleine told them, “Where the virtuous pagans are housed. A place of dim light in the middle of the darkness where they know no pleasure but no pain either.” She pointed down the hall to where a dull yellow glow hid itself at the end of the corridor.

“And what kind of trap should we expect up ahead?” Willem asked grimacing.

“Nothing, I think,” Madeleine replied, “the Castle is a place of refuge for the travelers… but that doesn’t mean it gets easier from there. The punishments for the sinners get worse and worse as one descends further down the circles of Hell.” Madeleine made a bowl with one of her hands and rotated her finger above it like she was stirring some imaginary bowl with her digits.

“How many circles?” Riku asked.

“Nine including where we are now.”

“So eight more to go,” Raul sighed out loud.

“Not necessarily,” Madeleine half smiled sardonically, “Some rings have more levels than others… the seventh circle has three parts to it and the eighth has ten… In all, twenty three different punishments for twenty three sins…”

“For now,” Raul spoke up as he helped Willem forward, “Let’s focus on getting to this ‘Castle.’”


The Romanfellow Foundation’s headquarters was preserved quaintly against the sheer edge of Mount Bilder in the construction of a Renaissance castle. Listed publicly as a charity organization dedicated to the preservation of Traditions and values, The Romanfellow Foundation had been the society which prominent media and industrial moguls called home and the Castle on Bilderberg was their rallying point every single year.

The upper levels resembled the well decorated palaces that dotted Europe more so than a mere fortress-castle. It was here that the best dressed of the European Aristocracy enjoyed the company of others who share such similar tastes in the modern era. The men bowed to each other with the cordiality of drawbridges and the women walked around with necklaces that put most chandeliers to shame. However, it was deep within the bowels of this fortress-palace that only a dim light shared company with old men and women creating a gray imitation of that more fast darkness in another room somewhere else in Europe.

“This breaches the Neutrality we’ve promised,” one of the old men said. He was decorated with so many crosses and medals that he resembled more a gold-bellied dragon than a man.

“Not at all, gentlemen,” the man at the end of the table began saying, “Our man Pablo did not exchange the Items for money to help out one side or the other; we are showing that we simply cannot worry about the agendas of either side. We had placed Pablo in that house there at great expense to expunge his background to take advantage of the Crown Prince-in-hiding, but when the Items presented themselves, it was a better deal to exchange those. Despite the risks, the wire transfer to our account is enough that we can move forward with Operation Supernova.” There was a little commotion in the room. “If that is all then, gentlemen, that concludes this session for tonight.”

Rodrigo had been watching Thomas for a while and when the cell phone came out; he slinked down from the small door-window and sat in the chair. Next to him, Carlos was already tracing and recording the transmission. A small nod from Carlos confirmed everything.

Lara was sitting opposite Rodrigo and looked at him with a contorted and pleading look. “It’s finally going to happen, isn’t it?” Lara asked in a whisper.

“Yes,” Rodrigo’s response was fatigued. “No matter how much we’ve tried, Third Impact is coming.”

“Can nothing stop the Timepiece?” Lara asked. “Does this really need to occur?”

Rodrigo only looked at her while Carlos continued to type away at his laptop. “It’s up to him,” Rodrigo said motioning with his head towards the door that separated them from where Tom was standing, “Just like it is up to all those before him. The only thing we can do now is to bring him to the Timepiece and he must make his choice. At least now he has chosen his path and now we can finally move out of this stifling Limbo.”

Chapter XCVII: Limbo (coming soon)