History Literature / LookToTheWest

It begins with [[ForWantOfANail George II of Great Britain tripping up on his coronation carpet]], and from there things stay much as we know them for a couple of decades, then gradually diverge. The world is already noticeably different in 1795, when things start diverging dramatically and very, very bloodily. The timeline is currently in about 1930, but chapters are thematic, not chronological.

* ForWantOfANail: The Point of Divergence isn't exactly flashy: at the coronation of George II, a musician plays a wrong note, surprising the king and causing him to trip. His son laughs at this, which pisses George off enough to exile the prince to the American colonies, thereby radically changing the course of both nations and all nations deriving from them.

* InternalRetcon: The ASN did this in the mid-twentieth century to suppress evidence that elements of Societism had not only been used by Diversitarian nations but been successful. This led to the StreisandEffect and so the modern ASN is more subtle in its censorship, glossing over such things rather than denying them.

* ArmchairDetective: Apparently, as popular a concept in TTL's "ratiocinic fiction" as in ours. Examples mentioned include ''The Gentleman in the Tavern'', ''The Quister Detective' ("quister" being TTL's term for the telephone) and most famously, Marco Barone, an Italian chef who is regularly consulted by a New York private detective, but can't leave his kitchen for this.

* StreisandEffect: When ratiocinic fiction author Slim Havemeyer writes a book about an ImpossibleTheft from a fictional bank, the bank he worked for twenty years previously sues him for allegedly exposing their security system. Not only does the headlines this causes make the book an international bestseller, the bank itself is nearly ruined when his fans start closing their accounts.

** 1920s Italy has the Alliance Party (mainstream cobrist) and the Action Party, which is the political wing of the Romulan Order, which is Basically Fascism.

* ArmchairDetective: Apparently, as popular a concept in TTL's "ratiocinic fiction" as in ours. Examples mentioned include ''The Gentleman in the Tavern'', ''The Quisting Detective' ("quister" being TTL's term for the telephone) and most famously, Marco Barone, an Italian chef who is regularly consulted by a New York private detective, but can't leave his kitchen for this.

** The dictatorial regime in Italy in the 1920s takes its name from the founder of Rome: the [[Franchise/StarTrek Romulan Empire]]. The chapter outlining the Empire is titled "[[Literature/StarTrekEnterpriseRelaunch Beneath the Raptor's Wings]].

* FictionalUnitedNations: The Alliance of Sovereign Nations is mentioned in the framing story and occasionally when the history texts connect something to the present day. As a Diversitarian organisation, however, it is at pains to have no power over the sovereign nations at all and its slogan is "Divided we Stand, United we Fall".

* StockShticks: A lecture about travel, in which the lecturer says that, regardless of what the more obsessive Diversitarians might say, there's nothing wrong with sampling another culture's food when on an aerodrome, adds that you shouldn't take it as a ''representative'' example of that cuisine, because if there ''is'' a universal constant, it's "What's the deal with aeroline food?" The next few minutes of the lecture have been cut, with a note from the survey team saying not every parallel between the two worlds is worth recording.

** The interlogue that opens Volume IV, in which Dr Wotstyn explains his current situation and why he is now chucking entire books through the Portal, is called "[[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]]". Since Wostyn's superiors apparently disagree with his policy of establishing the historical background first, and demand more works about the present day, the next section is called "Spoilers".

** A female resistance leader in Spanish California (with a public identity as [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob an airheaded socialite]]) adopts the AppropriatedAppellation of "[[Franchise/{{Zorro}} La Zorra]]".

* StockSchticks: A lecture about travel, in which the lecturer says that, regardless of what the more obsessive Diversitarians might say, there's nothing wrong with sampling another culture's food when on an aerodrome, adds that you shouldn't take it as a ''representative'' example of that cuisine, because if there ''is'' a universal constant, it's "What's the deal with aeroline food?" The next few minutes of the lecture have been cut, with a note from the survey team saying not every parallel between the two worlds is worth recording.

* ScrapbookStory: Told through excerpts from history books, as selected by a team of parachronic explorers deciphering how this world works.

* ArtifactTitle: In-universe. What we know as South Carolina, as part of the Confederation of Carolina, is more often called South Province to avoid redundancy. This sticks even as the Confederation comes to encompass not just the Carolinas and Georgia, but also Florida and much of the Caribbean, [[NonIndicativeName putting South Province firmly in the northern part of the Confederation]]. It gets even worse after the Great American War, which leaves South Province on Carolina's northern border.

* BlackAndGrayMorality: The Great American War is a version of the Amerian Civil War in which ''both'' sides are constitutionally incredibly racist. Instead of slaveowners vs emancipators, it's slaveowners vs (in part) people who think black people shouldn't be in America ''at all''.

* NoPlaceForMeThere: Subverted with the Celatores: Societism teaches that war is always wrong, therefore, while the definitely-not-soldiers who the Combine must use to maintain their order in the face of people who inexplicably cling to the evils of nationalism may be necessary, this does not justify what they do, and the Combine must eventually punish them for their actions. "Eventually" can mean a lot of things...

[[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/look-to-the-west-volume-viii-the-bear-and-the-basilisk.495774/#post-20997288 and here.]]

It begins with [[ForWantOfANail George II of Great Britain tripping up on his coronation carpet]], and from there things stay much as we know them for a couple of decades, then gradually diverge. The world is already noticeably different in 1795, when things start diverging dramatically and very, very bloodily. The timeline is currently in about 1899, but chapters are thematic, not chronological.

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: For reasons explained in the FramingStory, the Pandoric War is presented through the medium of in-universe fiction, rather than history books.

''Look to the West'', written by Thomas "@/{{Thande}}" Anderson, is one of the longest-running and acclaimed alternate timelines on Website/AlternateHistoryDotCom, a site dedicated, unsurprisingly, to AlternateHistory which also gave us ''Literature/DecadesOfDarkness'' and ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries'' (Thande is also a writer on the latter).

* MythologyGag: A town that acquires a small role in the timeline is Sault Ste. Marie, famous for being home to several of the ''Script/AHDotComTheSeries''' cast's adventures.

* NonNaziSwastika: Swastikas in this timeline are not associated with [[ThoseWackyNazis fascism and genocide]]: rather, they're associated with the Etruscan civilization, as one was found on an unearthed Etruscan artifact and was used as the symbol of an Etruscan-inspired radical movement in northern Italy. In reality, of course, many other cultures have used swastikas in their art: the Etruscans just happened to get all the publicity.