The Alexander Parable
A special apology to Davey Wreden, writer of The Stanley Parable, of which this humble manuscript is but a parody. A parody parable. A parodable. It is a subject matter that I've wanted to write about for a long time, but I do a terrible job at finding the right words to express myself. So instead, I do much better at stealing borrowing words from someone else!
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction, so any quotes attributed to real-life Wiki users were never actually said by them, nor are the sentiment of those quotes reflective of their real opinions.
The original Stanley Parable was a saga about choice and freewill, and a deconstruction of the tropes surrounding video game design. In that regard, I am doing a great disservice by reformulating …
How to Make a Cultural Divergence
In an alternate timeline, a cultural divergence refers to differences between ATL and OTL history that are cultural in nature (that is, aspects of society that are mostly artistic or aesthetic, rather than practical). Topics of articles that would be considered a cultural divergence can include, but not limited to: art, architecture, music, literature/poetry, fashion, dance, theater/cinema, gastronomy, gaming, social media, or even general social norms. Topics not considered to be a cultural divergence include: politics, military, economics, linguistics, science, or technology. In the broadest sense, art can be defined as "any human activity that is not useful for survival or reproduction", as given by the philosopher and comic book artist Sc…
The Prophesy of Popes is a Paleo-Future
The Prophesy of Popes is an oracle attributed to the Irish Bishop St. Malachy in 1138, which claims to be a list of Latin mottos associated with every future pope, spanning from Pope Celestine II (r.1143-1144) until the End of the World. It was supposedly discovered by Alphonsus Ciacconius in 1590, and afterwards published in 1595 by Arnold Wyon. If the prophesy is interpreted literally, then the current Pope Francis would correspond to the very last motto on the list, i.e. the Petrus Romanus (or "Peter the Roman"), and afterwards the Church of Rome will be destroyed.
For centuries, the Prophesy of Popes captured the imagination of many mystics and paranormal enthusiasts, and became intertwined with many other end-time prophesies spawned from e…
The Paradox of Convergent History
In an alternate history timeline, convergent history (or OTLism) refers to events subsequent to the point of divergence which share many elements in common with, or directly parallel to, corresponding events in OTL history. Typically, this only applies to events that are directly affected by the butterfly effect stemming from the PoD. Given a soft interpretation of the butterfly effect, then any region or aspect of society that are distantly removed from the PoD may be expected to follow OTL history for a long time, and are thus not considered to be convergent history. In other words, if the butterfly effect pushes ATL and OTL histories apart, then convergent history is whenever the two timelines start to pull back together.
For example, say a t…
How the Admin Stole Christmas
With apologies to Dr. Seuss. A moral story for Christmas time.
Any similiarities to real life people are purely coincidental.
Every User down in Fandom liked Christmas a lot…
But the Admin, put in charge of Fandom, did NOT!
The Admin hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don’t ask why. No one quite knows the reason.
It could be his desk was set a little too low,
Or maybe his Internet was a little too slow,
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been his heart was two sizes too small.
Whatever the reason, his heart or his modem,
He stood there on Christmas Eve, hating all Fandom.
With an Admin-like frown over his screen and keyboard,
At the warm lighted windows below on Discord.
Every user pitched in for the holiday t…