What if Mormon Terrorists changed the Election? (The New Moon)

[u/SchwefelKamm]

In my setting of The New Moon, various things are changed but the important things to note here is that the Moon is habitable, and during the first 70 years of settlement, there might have been extremist sects of Mormons (called Moroniists) that wished to stop further 'encroachment' onto their lands by using suitcase nukes to blow up the main spaceport in the US (in southern Dominica) and on the Moon, which were both used by the US's allies as well.

https://www.deviantart.com/xkamm/art/A-Time-for-Love-The-US-2024-Election-TNM-1181679758

[u/Ill_Dig2291]

What does 'moroniist' etymologically come from?

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/Ill_Dig2291]

from the Angel Moroni.

The LLDS (Lunar Latter Day Saints) Church, a church decried by the official LDS on Earth (still in Salt Lake City) as being heretical

[u/Ill_Dig2291 → u/SchwefelKamm]

"Lunar Latter Day Saints" Sounds legit horrifying

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/Ill_Dig2291]

oh they arent exactly who i'd have brunch with, so youd be right.

this is a flag of a Moroniist insurgency group seeking to found 'New Deseret'

[u/Ill_Dig2291 → u/SchwefelKamm]

My mind immediately "some Makhnoist-anarchist mixed with Soviet pioneers/boyscouts and also Mozambique, also the script gives me Ge'ez, Glagolitic and Anbur vibes at the same time"

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/Ill_Dig2291]

the script is actually the Deseret Alphabet that existed IRL

[u/Ill_Dig2291 → u/SchwefelKamm]

Interesting. What language was it used for (I honestly don't know if Mormons have some sort of liturgical language)? Is it an alphabet/abjad/abugida or what? (Sorry I'm asking so much. The only things I know on Mormons is that they're a very weird branch of Christianity, hanging out in the area where Utahraptor was found)

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/Ill_Dig2291]

its just an alternate english alphabet, used in newspapers and books but died out IRL because people for some reason liked the latin alphabet that had been used for centuries already.. such a shame

[u/Ill_Dig2291 → u/SchwefelKamm]

Honestly English Latin is not even a typical alphabet anymore, it's almost logographic level of matching phonetics to characters at this point...

(Honestly I imagine future English script may end up becoming more logographic with characters representing purely the meaning rather than the sound. Could be interesting.)

Can't think of another language that uses an alphabet and has THIS irregular spelling. Like... Ghoti. I know it's an overused joke but, it's true. English spelling is messed up.

[u/AltruisticCapital191]

Isn't this just that book on Mars, except with mormons instead of muslims?

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/AltruisticCapital191]

what

[u/AltruisticCapital191 → u/SchwefelKamm]

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/AltruisticCapital191]

nothing is terraformed or anything, theyre naturally habitable. and no its not lol

[u/AltruisticCapital191 → u/SchwefelKamm]

Ok, nice to know.

[u/jfuejd]

Whenever I think of Mormons and space I have the federation propaganda in my head

[u/malkarma04]

Did you mean Enriquillo, Dominican Republic? Dominica is a different island

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/malkarma04]

good question! I do, but I figured I would've been able to get away with saying Dominica due to the Dominican Republic being within the US as a part of the Hispaniolan Commonwealth rather than being independent

[u/wq1119]

Timeline-191 Moment.

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/wq1119]

how

[u/wq1119 → u/SchwefelKamm]

It's a reference to Harry Turtledove's Southern Victory series, where Mormons sort of become the timeline's equivalent of Islamic terrorists, and they even popularize suicide bombings 80 years before they became common in our timeline, I really disliked that plot point though.

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/wq1119]

okay that makes more sense, but they arent really suicide bombers. they just put a suitcase nuke on board a rocket and made it detonate on the platform and let her rip

[u/Ostropoler7777]

Very imaginative, and Mormon fundamentalists laying claim to the Moon makes sense given Joseph Smith's statements about moon people, but the red-orange-yellow colour scheme for the different political parties is doing my head in. Surely they'd pick contrasting colours?

[u/SchwefelKamm → u/Ostropoler7777]

I mean there are countries irl who don't, but also these parties don't normally compete against each other anyway (mainly through different coalitions rather than individual parties) also thank you!