Etherscope

Using their cutting-edge knowledge of this force allows the British empire to flourish and the culture and values of the Victorian Age to be artificially prolonged.

The more complex concept extends to the interface technologies that allow a user to interact with a system indirectly (via keyboards, consoles, or Etheric gauntlets) or directly (via an Etherjack implant).

The Etherjack is a cybernautic implant that allows users to interface directly with the Etheric plane (a process called Scope Immersion).

Haven - a hidden Domain created by Scope Riders - is home to such a community; Havenites often use detailed avatars and use a series of pseudonyms and cover identities when Immersed.

Others use it to further criminal or political goals by stealing, altering, or even deleting stored information or forging hideouts or communication networks in the Etherscape to avoid the authorities.

Recreational use of Scope Tabs, a drug compound that grants the user access to the Etheric realm, have become a common form of escape for both bored workers and jaded aristocrats alike.

The world wars of the 20th Century were resolved differently, leaving the British Empire and the European powers largely intact.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a technology race between Britain and France made the British Empire more leery of French intentions than German saber-rattling.

In the East the Germans and Austro-Hungarians invaded Russia and gradually captured a swath of territory from the Crimea to Moscow bounded by the Volga (recognized as Südrussland by the Treaty of Berlin in 1922).

Although both sides had a long history of conflict, they tended to view the question as a political one and violence and armed struggle were only embraced by extreme elements.

Japan was becoming a local power in the 1930s with a strong navy that was seen as a potential threat to Britain's control of the seas and an army that had made inroads in China and was threatening to invade the Soviet Union.

It involved the European Powers (the British Empire, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union) on one side and Japan on the other over control of China and the Pacific Rim.

Neu Reich, technically neutral, fought a defensive war against the Soviet Union's attempts to take back their lost territories.

The Soviet Union, bolstered by allied support, fought a two-front land war with Neu Reich in the west and Japanese forces in the east.

America used diplomatic pressure on the allies and then threatened military interference in the summer of 1943, allowing Japan to fight the Europeans to a stalemate.

Due to its extensive military commitments in its existing possessions, there are still areas of their Empire that were never fully explored or which have lapsed into wilderness and savagery.

Emperor Franz Joseph II (born 1928 [reign 1946–present]) presides over the Triple Monarchy of Prussia, Austria and Hungary as a figurehead.

The aristocrats control the Army and all major and senior government posts, while the upper and middle class commoners dominate the Navy and the bureaucracy.

Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Honduras, Panama, and Peru first became Territories (like the Philippines, Guam, Samoa, Puerto Rico and Cuba), then became the 50th through 56th states (with Hawaii becoming the 49th) when they requested statehood.

The real power is held in its parliament, which is split by regionalism and the economic divide between the rich industrial north, politically-dominant center, and poor agrarian south.

Portugal barely holds on to its "empire" (Guinea, Angola, Mozambique, and Madagascar, the islands of the Azores, Madeira, Cape Verde, and São Tomé, and the city of Macau), such as it is.

They comprise a neutral buffer zone between the British Empire, Neu Reich, and the Soviet Union and engage in brisk trade between them.

An underground market in drug tabs and Ethertech gave tremendous power and wealth to the Yakuza gangs, who now control the slums in the port cities and the industrial sprawl of the Kanto Plain.

Government programs sponsoring scientific research, technological specialization, and skilled labor manufacturing were used to create a prosperous economy with trade links outside the Union.

Investments in agricultural reform and improved transport and distribution networks allowed rapid movements of food and supplies to where they were needed, curbing famine and disease.

The Young Turks movement revolutionized the military and liberalized society but has had limited effect on government corruption; Mehmed VI supported their reforms as long as they didn't interfere with his rule and his successors were backed by the Neu Reich.

The Eugenics League is a worldwide scientific society engaged in genetic engineering, as mere human breeding is seen as too random and imprecise.

The Northumbrian Republican Movement (NRM) is a political group that seeks independence for Northern England with the Metropolis as its capitol.

Its militant Armed Wing (the Northumbrian Republican Army) commits acts of violence against the British government in pursuit of its goals.