If I Had Redesigned Torg: The Cosms

I haven't finished reading the new Torg Eternity books, but right from the get-go, I am a little disappointed that a new batch of Cosms wasn't dreamed up for the rebooted game universe. I understand the Living Land, Cyberpapacy, Orrorsh, Nile Empire, etc. are part of the game's IP, and even if happen to think, say, Aysle is boring, it might be some other gamer's favorite. And yes, there are some changes - Pan-Pacifica updates Nippon Tech, and Orrorsh is now in India, but the game could have done with a little more tweaks to its basic world design. As is, though this is another Core Earth, all the same High Lords are at it, and mostly attacking the same places.

But then, the Torg set-up is something I've had occasion to think about often since the release of the original game at West End. I tried to run a GURPS version where players' choice of setting sourcebook decided just what Cosms would have to be created for the campaign (it didn't pan out). Last year, I tried to dump dozens of Cosms on a planet to create a Secret Wars-style setting (it didn't work out). And a long time ago, I created a PbEM strategy game based on Torg, with again the players deciding what Cosms might exist ("Clash" DID work out until running it became unwieldy).

So while I'm game to play Torg Eternity as is (as the adventure material seems to be built like Savage Worlds' plot points), and have played a few games of original Torg (with and without the system) as written, my thoughts always go to what Cosms *I* might have included instead or in addition to the ones provided. Where I would place them. What their Axioms and Laws might be. Truth is, I would probably keep the Cyberpapacy (which I think is a very interesting mash-up) and Living Land (dinosaurs), but I'm not as attached to the rest. But let's say for the purposes of this intellectual puzzle, I can't reuse any Cosm from any edition of Torg, what would I do with the core premise? If you want to play at home, tell us the results in the comments. Follow the rules or not. My rules, for what it's worth, are:
-No Torg Cosm, but other games can be used as templates for Cosms.
-Following Eternity's lead, there should be 6 Cosms attacking Earth on Day 1.
-NOT following Eternity's lead, there should be one Cosm per continent (N. America, S. America, Africa, Europe, Australasia) and one anywhere you want (double up or surprise me). I'm also including a "cheat" - a feature of my particular besieged Core Earth that's different from Torg's.
-The game's multi-genre capacity should be highlighted, so diversity in genre/tone/driving axioms should be a priority.

Here then are my choices...

Africa: The northwestern part of the continent would be a fantasy world, would have a high Magic axiom and be nominally ruled by an Arabian Nights-style, fantasy Ottoman Empire, with the more southerly bits allowing for West African folklore to blossom as an impediment to the Al-Qadim status quo (to give it the name of the D&D setting that's closest to the idea). The reason I don't like Aysle is that sword & sorcery settings in the Tolkien mold are a dime a dozen, so I wanted to get away from that Euro-centric paradigm. Africa, both North and South, has a more intriguing set of traditions, mythical monsters, etc. I would probably make the magic system more animistic, calling on forces of nature to achieve effects, though the Northern schools would treat it as a science and focus on summoning actual creatures from the demi-planes.

North America: Running up the Midwest from down in Mexico up to the Yukon is a Cosm that plays into my surprising love of Western RPGs. This would be a melting pot or mosaic (according to one's idiom) that includes magic, horror, and technology, so think Deadlands as a primary concept, but with elements of Mad Max or Death Race 2000 (and thus, Autoduel), but in the Age of Steam. So yes, Steampunk at its grubbiest, where the racing is done on miles of criss-crossing tracks laid by some ancient race, running up the spine of America, filled with highwaymen looking for precious coal to keep their never-ending race going (this part of it inspired by China Miéville's Railsea.

South America: Jack up the Tech axiom, because a large strip of South America has been taken over by SkyNet. From Columbia down to Uruguay, the machines rule. Humanity huddles together like rats, living in fear. The High Lord is an A.I. Basically, I'd use GURPS Reign of Steel as a template, and would use the New World as a fierce battleground where SkyNet is frustrated by the Rail Lands' lack of electronics for it to take over. Cyber-warfare on the Core Earth sections of North America will be much more vulnerable.

Europe: Central Europe, including Italy, Germany, Greece, Denmark and half the former Eastern Bloc would be where I'd stick the super-powered Cosm. The Nile Empire did an admirable job pitching itself at Pulp, but I'm going to go another way and make it a mutant utopia/dystopia. Normal humans do exist, but they are a subjugated underclass. Even among the mutants, mental and physical mutations, powers high and low, types of physical deformations, decide your status in society. The mutants who become Storm Knights do not agree with this fascist caste system obviously. Let's call it Genosha to pay lip service to Marvel Comics' mutant island. It is a place of great contrasts, with some living in the most outrageous conditions this side of Skynet's South America (SouthNet?), and the cleanest of living in towers that could only be built with superpowers. By not layering the Cosm over countries not usually known for spawning superheroes, it would be my hope that different concepts might be evoked in players' minds, though this isn't exactly 4-color comics.

Australasia: My love of kung fu cinema drives this idea for a high-Spirit Cosm, where that axiom manifests as multi-purpose Chi, as shown in wuxia films. This is basically the 16th-19th Century Asia you seen in films. The time of heroes in China, Feudal Japan as seen in samurai films, the ancient Thailand of Ong-Bak 2 and 3. In less pure zones like Hong Kong and Tokyo, 20th-Century tech might still work, but this is gun fu gangland. Go there are your own risk. Honor, martial prowess, Buddhist "magic", hopping vampires, it's all about harnessing the Spiritual axiom. Core Earthers might call this place Cathay or something.

Wild Card: Dark Moon Rising! My totally weird idea for a 6th Cosm was developed with one of my players as part of the Clash wargame. And it's cheating by Torg's rules because these say the High Lords want possibility energy, and that's generated by people. So it doesn't really work to land a Bridge in a desert. But I've got a way around that. The ultimate desert is the Moon, and people have been looking up there for millennia, filling it with possibility - hopes, dreams, love, fear, mysticism... So boom, a portal opens at the site of the first moon landing, and since no one can actually live there, it's invaded by undead. These Moon Zombies have ways of throwing themselves off the planetoid and at Earth, hoping to land in enough numbers to set up stellae and start invading Core Earth. And they could do it too. The shadow the Moon casts on the Earth actually turns that region into a Mixed Zone where they could exist without contradiction! The "funnel" between Moon and Earth is Dominant to their Cosm and usually full of falling zombies. As the Earth turns, the threat they pose changes and this spoiler could be used to drive many, many stories. One of the genres Torg can't tap into is space opera, but if the Moon is in play, who else? Couldn't John Carter's Martians invade at some point? I love the crazy. Which is why...

Cheat: Toontown. I don't care if it's silly, I just want cartoons to be playable Player Characters. Straight up, this is the cartoon land seen in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, a small section of Hollywood that's become an aberration in the Possibility Wars. It doesn't have a High Lord. There's no Bridge per se, just a leaking hole in reality. It's not gonna try to invade. Think of it as an anomalous Hard Point.

Looking at the map, that leaves Core Earth's safety in the hands of the Southern hemisphere and the Middle East, which makes for interesting Core Earth characters too, I should hope.

Well? What do you think? And more importantly, what would YOU do?