Fanfic / An ISOT in Grimdark

"This was a dark age, a bloody age, an age of daemons and of sorcery. It is an age of battle and death, and of the world’s ending. Amidst all of the fire, flame and fury it is a time, too, of mighty heroes, of bold deeds and great courage."

"And then the most unlikely new Player entered the world and changed the balance in unforeseen ways. Perceived by all parties known as an accident, modern Germany had been transported into this world. At first reluctant to join the dance, the Germans found that they had no chance but to be part of the new world."

"The first battles may be over and the newcomers have proven their mettle, but this is not the end of the strife, it is just the beginning. Even with Germany's superior technology, victory is not yet assured. Men and women of courage and with nerves of steel are needed, in some cases more than ever."

— Excerpts from the Introduction

An ISOT in Grimdark — Germany 2012 sent to the Warhammer World is a collaborative ongoing story series, created by Beer and Wolf1965, in the Alien Space Bats sub-forum of AlternateHistory.com about, well, the entire country of Germany being sent to the world of Warhammer.

You can read and post comments on the main thread here, or you can jump to the comment-free, story-only thread here. The story has also recently started being posted to Fanfiction.net as well.

---

An ISOT in Grimdark provides examples of:

• Army of Thieves and Whores: Inverted. The Renegade German faction adopts one of these from the Dark Elves, but to everyone's surprise, quickly turns them around into a professional and effective military force, thanks in no small part to proper discipline, training, tactics, and weaponry.
• Artistic License – Economics: Averted. The writers spend a lot of time examining how the German economy is forced to adapt and retool itself from the ground up following "the Weltsprung", as well as what happens on Earth now that the world's fourth largest economy is gone.

• Badass Army:
  • Most of the armies of Warhammer are still considered this, even when heavily outmatched by the equally-badass, but far more technologically advanced, German Bundeswehr.
  • Special mention, though, must go to the Renegade Germans, who manage to build up sizable military forces of their own, without support from the German government. Armed only with (mainly) 19th/early 20th century guns, they still manage to deliver a major upset defeat to the High Elves.
  • The Empire too: they started out as an Early Modern "pike-and-shot" army at best, reliant on pikemen, crossbowmen, knights, and early cannons. With Germany's assistance, they are able to modernize their armies somewhat, to using the K98k bolt-action rifle. But they still approach warfare with an element of traditional, stoic heroism and chivalry that even the High Elf ambassador is deeply impressed by.
• Blind Without 'Em: Areta Bane is nearsighted, which is why she was initially deemed useless and labelled for sacrifice. Once the Black Company takes her in, she starts to develop after they simply give her a pair of eyeglasses.
• Break the Haughty: A trio of Muslim extremists head to Araby to try and convert the locals there with their own radical interpretation of Islam, arrogantly believing they can launch a Jihad in Germany. However, the Dark Elves find them and thanks to their magic, are able to read the trio's Koran and know the trio are liars as the radical message they preach doesn't match what the Koran says. The trio suffers a horrible fate where one dies due to torture from the Dark Elves, another was made a Eunuch of a Araby Sultan while the last one had his spirit broken and made a slave of the Dark Elves. To add insult to injury for the last guy, the Dark Elves constantly mock him saying, Where Is Your God Now?
• Cool Airship: Due to the shortage of runways on Warhammer World, it isn't long before the Germans reintroduce the Zeppelin, for exploration purposes, as well as a military transport. One particular exploration Zeppelin is named the ''Enterprise''.
• Cool Plane: The German Luftwaffe already has the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Panavia Tornado in its arsenal. These are joined by an American B52 Stratofortress and a A10 Thunderbolt II squadron that joined the Weltsprung. But special mention must go to the "Storch" (Stork), a small, light, unarmed aircraft that's based on an older design from World War II. It's easy to build and repair, requires minimal space for take off and landing, and ends up being used for just about everything: as a training aircraft, for aerial reconnaissance, for delivering supplies to remote outposts, and, at one point, for even extracting a squad Trapped Behind Enemy Lines.
• Cool Train: After allying with the Empire, the Germans quickly build an entire network of these to help the Empire improve its economy and its military projection capabilities. Special mention, however, must go the Emperor's private, made-to-order train, based on the Deutsche Reichsbahn Class 05, a steam locomotive capable of reaching 220 km/h. Even more special mention has to go to "The Hammer", a massive armoured train that's armed to the teeth with all kinds of guns, and it rides to the aid of the besieged quarry, running over thousands of Beastmen in the process.

• Crapsack World: The Warhammer world was definitely the quintessential example of this trope before Germany's arrival. However, the arrival of these powerful newcomers might just be enough to tip the scales into A World Half Full. Only time will tell ...
• Crossover: A group of German explorers find and briefly interact with Leman Russ, who as thanks for their help gives them the knife he was using to perform surgery on himself. Not only is the blade an extremely advanced example of smithing, Russ' blood is of extreme interest as well. There's a brief detour from the main storyline following Russ as he returns to his home universe, recovers priceless repair supplies for the Golden Throne and meets with the Emperor.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The German army delivers quite a few of these early on to opponents who have never experienced the joys of modern weaponry before. A particularly memorable one occurs when they assault the Beastmen warherd guarding the sorcerer trying to create a "third Chaos Gate" in the Great Forest. With generous helpings of Tank Goodness and Macross Missile Massacre, they manage to wipe out an entire army without taking a single casualty.
  • In another early battle, the German Navy battles a Norscan raiding fleet. The Germans were equipped with modern destroyers and corvettes, helicopters, and guided missiles. The Norscans are a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to the Vikings, down to the wooden ships. The Germans inflicted over 12,000 casualties on the Norscans while taking only one single casualty, a sailor WIA, on their side.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After the aforementioned Curb-Stomp Battle against the German Navy, a large number of Norscan tribes rejected Chaos and defected to the Germans' side.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Gotrek The Slayer taking on the power of Tzeentch himself. Though he did have help from the power of the Dwarven God Grimnir. And he did die in the process. But don't worry, he got better.
  • Exaggerated in one of the later arcs when the German Army takes out the Horned Rat, the chief god of the Skaven ... with a nuke.
• The Empire: A rare "heroic" example. The Empire are not the nicest guys around - they practice feudalism and like to burn heretics at the stake. But given the alternatives, as well as their striking cultural and linguistic similarities, they are naturally Germany's first choice as allies in this strange new world.
• Epic Fail:
  • The Greens' attempt to prove that Chaos is not evil. They end up infected with all kinds of illnesses (they met with Nurgle worshippers) and massacred by the military.
  • The extremist Muslims' attempt to bring the word of Allah to Araby. One was sacrificed to Khaine, the second was turned into an eunuch, and the third had his tongue tatooed so that, every time he tried to praise Allah, he would also be making a pass to the holders of the ship he is a galley slave in.
  • Almost every attempt by the Skaven to introduce Nurglite infections to German soil. Common hygiene and higher health standards wreck the operation, and only the final attempt succeeds - just as the Germans open peace negotiations.
• Everyone Has Standards: The Black Company are turncoats who offer their service—and their tech—to the Dark Elves, but they still hold to several modern military practices. When Areta Bane, a female elf under their command, is beaten and raped by one under the protection of a high-ranking Dark Elf, they take revenge (even killing one of his best warriors in a duel), then berate her for not reporting it.
• Everything's Better with Samurai: Germany is joined in the "Weltsprung" by a small piece of "Nippon", a Fantasy Counterpart Culture to Feudal Japan.
• Fantastic Nuke: The Skaven have attempted to launch warpstone bomb attacks now three times, once on The Empire and twice on Germany. All three attempts were thankfully thwarted just in the nick of time thanks to the use of "magic indicators" to detect these bombs before they could be detonated.
  • The Germans themselves partake in this trope when they take out a Physical God with a special bomb composed of a "conventional" nuclear bomb attached to a special warpstone core, placed under a massive bell of refined warpstone.
• Fantasy Counterpart Culture:
  • The Empire bears striking similarities to Early Modern Era Germany, even down to the language. This helps foster close diplomatic ties, cultural exchanges, and (of course) cooperation on military operations from the get-go.
  • The same applies to the Nipponese, who are the Warhammer World's counterpart to the Japanese.
  • The latest story arc brings us to a part of the Warhammer World seldom seen before in the official canon: Kathay, the world's equivalent to Imperial China... complete with roving Hobgoblin barbarians based on the Mongols or the Xiongnu.
• Germanic Efficiency: The nation as a whole proves quite proficient at quickly adapting everything, from their economy to their military tactics and hardware, in order to face the new reality.
• Heel Realization: A Sigmarite priest allows a bunch of refugees to enter a section of the temple where no activities are scheduled. A higher priest is incensed that the temple is used thus rather than keeping the rooms empty for rituals. He uses an incantation that channels Sigmar's power into his hammer, intending to drive everyone out. It fails, not a simple misfire, but so thoroughly he cannot feel the slightest bit of power. Realizing what Sigmar's trying to tell him, he drops the hammer and starts helping.
• Historical Domain Posthumous Character: Jimmy Hoffa of all people somehow wandered into the Araby desert some decades before the story's set.
• Hollywood Tactics: Averted for the most part by everyone (with the notable exception of the Orcs, though that is to be expected). Even the Beastmen chieftains are quite adept at adapting their tactics, such as spreading their warriors out in order to reduce casualties from German firearms and artillery. Chaos champions like Archaon too are shown to be very strategic and tactical in their decision-making, and not, uh, chaotic as you would expect.
  • Most examples of this trope that do occur in this story happen when one army underestimates the capabilities of German technology (or Renegade German technology, if you're the High Elves, that is).
• Kill It with Fire: After consultation with the Empire's mages, the Bundeswehr settle on napalm as a dedicated anti-Chaos weapon.
• Kill the God:
  • The Horned Rat is killed with a nuke.
  • Hashut is beheaded by Khorne after the former's attempt to bring about a volcanic apocalypse is thwarted.
• Know When to Fold 'Em:
  • Following the death of the Great Horned Rat, the surviving Skaven decide that picking a fight with Germany just isn't worth the trouble and try to work something out with them.
  • The Chaos Dwarfs are put in the same situation after their deity, Hashut, tries to kill them out of jealousy—only to fail and be killed by Khorne. As a condition for getting economic help and trade, they have to abolish slavery. They're not happy about it, but the Germans simply point out that modern technology will allow them to thrive without needing slaves.
• Legions of Hell: Chaos, naturally, but some of the epic battle scenes and descriptions of mighty Chaos warhosts numbering the hundreds of thousands really lend themselves to this trope.
• The Little Detecto: "magic indicators", one of the first Magitek devices the Germans invent. And by far one of the most useful, especially when combating foes who can conceal themselves using magic. Or for combating the ever present threat of warpstone bombs by detecting them before they can be detonated.
• The Magic Versus Technology War: With modern Germany representing the "Technology" half of the war.
  • However, the line starts to blur as the war drags on: the Germans start recruiting "magical units" of their own, as well as integrating magic into some of their tech, while the local Warhammer factions start modernizing, using whatever German technology they can acquire.
    • Of course, they're all still centuries behind Germany, but some of the armies, like the Dark Elves, are starting to field units equipped with 19th century-level tech. And one Skaven engineer tries to reverse engineer a .50 Cal Browning machine gun - it fails, but it was still a commendable effort.
• Magitek: It isn't long before German engineers and scientists start fusing their 21st century technology with local magic to create some fascinating new inventions.
• Mass Teleportation: Unlike many other "ISOT" scenarios on Alternate History.com, this story actually tries to provide an in-universe cause for the "Weltsprung" — sabotage by Chaos Daemons caused an exceptionally powerful world-shaping spell being conjured by the Slann to spiral out of control, and as a result, Germany (and a few other bits and pieces of Earth) traded places with several bits and pieces of the Warhammer World.
  • It is unclear if this magic can ever be reversed to return Germany and its people back to Earth, and the Germans have for the most part accepted this hard truth and have made the best they could of adapting to their new home. However, Germany's arrival has opened up a connection between Earth and Warhammer World, allowing Chaos to travel to a new world completely unprepared for them...
• Medieval Stasis: Averted. Even before Germany's arrival, The Empire was already quite advanced compared to most Fantasy settings, with technology varying widely between the 15th and 20th centuries, but generally hovering around the 1650-1700 levels, with a germinating industrial revolution in the largest cities. Needless to say, after allying with Germany, the Empire dives headlong into a true Industrial Revolution. Bretonnia plays it straight.
• Million Mook March: Some of the spectacular descriptions of the massive armies of Warhammer World on the march lend themselves to this trope. But special mention goes to a victory parade the Germans and their Imperial allies hold to celebrate their victory in the Storm Of Chaos.
• Powered Armor: Thanks to magic, German scientists are able to work around some of the real world limitations on the usefulness of Mini-Mecha, such as weight and power source. In conjunction with Germany's use of Tank Goodness, it isn't long before the battles of Warhammer start to vaguely resemble those of its sci-fi counterpart...
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Areta Bane will not permit casual abuse of slaves—not out of moral objections, but because the slaves in question are highly qualified doctors and mechanics whose talents are beneficial, thus keeping them healthy and loyal serves her interests. She even personally flogs a new recruit for abusing a mechanic while the latter was in the middle of fixing a war machine that none of the Dark Elves know how to fix.
  • Works both ways though: when fighting Chaos, the Germans have to tread carefully as they're dealing with forces with literal reality warping powers.
• Renegade Splinter Faction: Germany ends up with one of its own in the form of "the Black Company" - a band of Renegade Germans who break off to form their own mini-state and ally with the Dark Elves. However, unlike Germany's other enemies, at least these ones aren't fully aligned with Chaos, at least not yet. After their erstwhile allies turn on them, they quickly end up back in the employ of the Bundesrepublik, though still maintaining their independence from the regular German armed forces.
• Screw You, Elves!: The infamous arrogance and pomposity of the High Elves of Ulthuan is deflated quite a bit against the Germans, and even against the aforementioned smaller renegade German faction that allies with their Dark cousins. Suffice to say, it looks like Ulthuan now has a choice between accepting modernization, or being left behind by the steady march of progress and technology being made by everyone else.
  • After suffering severe losses against the Renegade Germans, the High Elves of Ulthuan complain to the German government, demanding reparations. The German ambassadors calmly reply that they'll take responsibility for the Renegades the day the High Elves take responsibility for the Dark Elves.
• Shown Their Work: The authors exhibit a high degree of knowledge not just of German history, politics, economics, contemporary society and pop culture, technology, and military tactics, but also of much of the background fluff of the Warhammer setting.
• Steam Never Dies: Justified. Older steam locomotives are far better-suited for the Empire's new railway than the modern German ICE High-Speed trains, as they use far simpler, 19th century-level technology (which can be more easily repaired locally), and can run on local wood and coal.
  • And freshly designed steam engines, born of a combination of Germanic Efficiency, Dwarf Engineers, a full array of the best design tools, construction techniques, and materials the 21st century can offer, and a little judiciously applied magic, quickly become far superior to anything seen in OTL.
• Stranded with Edison: Justified. Germany is an industrial nation with a population of 80 million, including many scientists and engineers. It takes a lot of heavy retooling of the economy, but given the abundant natural resources of Warhammer World, the Germans are able to manufacture most of the things they need, as well as drilling for oil locally. It doesn't come easily though, and some goods, like coffee, are still extremely limited in availability.
• Tank Goodness: The good ol' Leopard II Main Battle Tank makes a number of notable appearances on the battlefields. But just as important to the Bundeswehr's war effort are the Wiesel Armoured Weapons Carriers, light tanks that, while smaller and nowhere near as powerful or flashy as the Leo, nevertheless play a vital role in providing support to the infantry in tight spots the Main Battle Tanks can't quite reach.
• Took a Level in Badass: In response to the native threats of the Warhammer World, the Bundeswehr quickly adapts and expands its forces to include ... Powered Armor and Mini-Mecha (made possible with Magitek) and special "magic units" that include wizards, dwarves, vampires, and werewolves serving in the ranks.
• Underestimating Badassery: The three daemons Tzeentch sends over to Earth think they will be able to steamroll all opposition and expose the planet to Chaos. However, it turns out the Insignificant Little Blue Planet's already quite crazy.... Crazy-Prepared, enough that even subverting Ebola and an Iowa-class battleship isn't nearly enough to allow them a foothold.
• When Elders Attack: Ernst Hamann, who at 90-something years old, manages to injure Orion himself and kill several of his followers. Unfortunately poor Ernst doesn't survive this encounter.
• Whip of Dominance: Areta Bane liberally applies the whip to unruly Dark Elves under her command. She ends up having to do it more often once the Black Company's growing fame results in higher-echelon Dark Elves signing up for it, ones with more privileges than the original group that lead to mindsets she needs to (literally) beat out of them.
• World of Badass: Being set in the GRIMDARK world of Warhammer, this is to be expected.
• Zerg Rush: Used by several local factions (like the Beastmen and the Skaven) in the hopes that they have more warm bodies than the Germans have bullets. Germany and her allies, however, simply respond with More Dakka. Zerg rushes work far better, however, in tight, compact spaces, such as during urban warfare, or in deep underground tunnels, where many of the German advantages of range are negated.

---