Sandbox


 * result           = Axis partial success
 * Opening of the Eastern Front
 * Axis capture of Moscow yet failure to reach the A-A line
 * Evacuation of the Soviet leadership to Kirov and the end of the 1938 - 1942 premiership of Nikolai Bukharin
 * Leon Trotsky wins election to resume premiership of the Soviet Union
 * Planning of Operation Sea Lion begins
 * place            = Central Europe · Northeast Europe · Eastern Europe
 * date             = 22 June – 5 December 1941
 * caption          = Clockwise from top left: German soldiers advance through northern Russia

German flamethrower team

Soviet Ilyushin Il-2s over German positions near Moscow

Soviet POWs on the way to prison camps

Soviet soldiers fire artillery

}}
 * image_size       = 300
 * image            = Operation Barbarossa Infobox.jpg
 * notes            =




 * 1) Frequently Asked Questions


 * 1) What is the basic premise of Exordium?

There exists two separate general premises for Exordium that are logically and inseparably entwined, as well as several concepts subordinate to them crucial to the world-building of the project.

* The first premise of Exordium is a universe where prior divergences ensures that the Empire of Japan emerges victorious from the Second World War despite the failure of Nazi Germany, and Argentina becomes the only undisputable victor of the resulting Cold War.

* The second premise is that a Third World War occurs in the 2030s between an AI system aiming to unify the world and the rest of humanity represented by the League of Nations.


 * 1) Can you elaborate on these premises for Exordium?

In other words, the first premise can be taken as an inverse of another popular AH scenario- /r/twrmod, where Germany is victorious despite the loss of Japan in the East. Despite this, the earliest point of divergence of Exordium occurs nearly one hundred and sixty years prior to the start of the Second World War- the dramatically different Cold War is simply the most succinct and easily understandable point of entry to understand the underlying distinction of this timeline from ours.

The primary theme of the second premise is an analysis of human existence and its fundamental nature with the cessation of individual mortality- effectively negating all prior analysis of history and society as obsolete. Take, for example, the science of Marxism- which in *Socialism: Utopian and Scientific* is the process of dialectical materialism highlighted.

> An exact representation of the universe, of its evolution, of the development of mankind, and of the reflection of this evolution in the minds of men, can therefore only be obtained by the methods of dialectics with its constant regard to the innumerable actions and reactions of life and death, of progressive or retrogressive changes.

The Third World War is distinct from both the previous two world wars in three of its fundamental elements- the underlying rationale behind the conflict, the overlying tactical underpinnings, and the mode in which the masses actually genuinely participate in it.

The First World War is understandable as the ultimate manifestation of competition between opposing imperialist spheres clashing for their benefit at the expense of their populations. The stagnation of trench warfare equalizing the armies of both powers to massive human loss and degeneration of the human psyche is parallel of the virtually identical socioeconomic system of both the Central Powers and the Entente.

On the other hand, the Second World War was chiefly an ideological war, a struggle unable to be understood the same way scholars of medieval history study the wealth and feudal dominions of military leaders as adequate casus belli. The European Axis fought for the destruction of Judeo-Bolshevism and to the free the fascist powers from the chains of liberalism and communism, while Japan and her collaborators aimed to destroy any vestige of Western influence from East and South Asia. The Allies were united by their opposition to the fascism of the Axis- even if this did not uniformly extend to anti-fascism or anti-capitalism amongst themselves.

Finally, Third World War's circumstances make it the first war to be completely unlimited in geographic scope and its waging unrestricted by political entity or even physical presence. The existence of a single nonbeliever of AM against a polity of seven billion will mean that the war continues until this Prometheus falls, and vice versa. While the process of resurrection is not instantaneous as for death to be completely meaningless, the forcing of war as a means of survival or compulsion is negated. Every engagement of Exordium's WW3 is out of personal free will, a struggle personal and done out of personal conviction for freedom, equality, love, hatred, or any of the infinitude of other reasons.


 * 1) Why does this mod have two premises? Would it not work if you made a separate mod for WW3 and a separate mod for Japan winning the Second World War?

The short answer is that it's more interesting to have both at the same time. If we just used OTL lore except that an AI system appears on 02/02/2022 for some reason, then half of the game would just be a Millennium Dawn clone, and that mod is already boring as it is. If we cut out WW3 and removed AM, then there would be nothing to do except fight climate change and deal with the inevitable rise of ecofascism against the consumerist world order.


 * 1) Will you ever make a mod of WW3 without the background?

No. If AM was present in OTL, they wouldn't wage war on the United Nations but rather do something much more extreme and brutal in order to seize power. AM's main goal in EXTL is to pre-emptively stop ecofascism, and in OTL neo-fascism and barbaric national chauvinism has already risen and become prominent across the world. AM would probably just release a pathogen that temporarily kills off 99% of human life or start a nuclear war rather than give humanity a choice on their future.


 * 1) Will you ever make a version of Exordium without WW3?

Maybe. But it'd be a pretty boring mod. Nothing really happens in the 2030s of EXTL except for the colonization of the solar system.


 * 1) Is this a realistic mod?

Yes.


 * 1) What the hell is AM?

I'm glad you asked! Read [this publicly available lore document]( https://docs.google.com/document/d/17upnrGFyjyKKLqgoIoyKORF465g8UfdRE1KH_i_twiM/edit ) to find out more.


 * 1) What is the Point of Divergence?

There's more than a few. You might notice a little fictional island off the coast of Brazil. Ignore it, the island has about as much significance in the thousands of years of world history as Palau does.

* **New Zealand:** (1840): South Island is permanently colonized by France.

* **North America:** (1865): Lincoln's bodyguard, William H. Crook, attends the play at Ford's Theater and is shot instead of the President.

* **Latin America:** (1889): The coup against the Empire of Brazil fails.

* **Pacific:** (1898): America annexes the Philippines a full six years later, as William Jennings Bryan opposed the Spanish-American War.

* **Russia:** (1907): Joseph Stalin dies in the 1907 Tiflis bank robbery.

* **Europe:** (1919): The Treaty of Versailles is ratified in America alongside the West, as Charles Evan Hughes modifies the terms to be more acceptable to the US, and also joins the League of Nations.

* **East Asia:** (1927): Chen Duxiu is not expelled by the Comintern after the Shanghai massacre.


 * 1) Is this a meme mod?

Yes and no.

As in if we use figures purely based off the humor value and how outlandish they would be: **Yes**, we use figures that are unlikely to actually assume power in OTL, like Serj Tankian or Kanye West. In OTL, an orange cheeto became president four years ago. This is a map painting game, who the hell cares.

As in if we will just make all the events funny memes about Wholesome Chungus Himmler: **No**, this mod is genuinely serious about what it intends to say, says it, and has clear intentions in doing so. Exordium is a story about a theoretical showdown between two fundamentally and morally good sides. It's an antithesis to "good vs. evil" scenarios between an obviously bad side and a good side and grimdark "evil vs. evil" stories we see in The New Order.

And if we are intending to create a totally realistic and researched backstory to go along with it: **Yes**, we do intend for an actual backstory that makes sense and doesn't beg the reader for them to believe in something that can not be justified. I'm not trying to dunk on any other mod here, so bear with me, but we are going from bottom to top to ensure that the foundation of the alternate history makes sense, even if improbable events (such as Japan gaining nuclear weapons before America does in WW2) have to occur in order for the start of the game to be realistic and understandable. Exordium is a mod set in the 2030s that's Point of Divergence was over 200 years ago. And as silly and stupid as it sounds, I do genuinely want all two hundred years to make sense.

* “History books begin and end, but the events they describe do not.”*


 * 1) If this is a realistic mod, then why X make no sense?

Then tell me how to fix it.

The deeper you delve into real-life history, the wackier, zanier, and incomprehensible some things get. If human beings were perfectly rational beings, then we wouldn't have left the Garden of Eden. Exordium aims to be a realistic project in detailing the absurdity of the world, both real and imaginary.