O insupportable! O heavy hour!
Methinks it should be now a huge eclipse
Of sun and moon, and that the affrighted globe
Should yawn at alteration.
-- William Shakespeare, Othello, V:ii

"It seems reasonable to suppose that the cuts [in the Encyclopedia of Tlön] obey the intent to set forth a world that is not too incompatible with the real world. The spread of Tlönian objects through various countries would complement the plan ... Almost immediately, reality 'caved in' at more than one point. The truth is, it wanted to cave in."
-- Jorge Luis Borges, "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius"

"More than thirty years ago, when a world now most often spoken of as an error of history was taking shape and form -- and when far older worlds were reappearing like ghosts that had yet to make up their minds, cruel and paradisiac worlds that in 1965 felt at once present and impossible distant -- Bob Dylan seemed less to occupy a turning point in cultural space and time than to be that turning point. As if culture would turn according to his wishes or even his whim; the fact was, for a long moment it did."
-- Greil Marcus, The Old, Weird America

Given sufficient mojo, cliomancers are capable of rewriting history. This has happened on a major scale at least once that we know of. See MONARCH for details. It is unclear if this changes what "really" happened, or if it just changes memories--but does it really matter?

People who spend enough time around enough orichalka may remember fragments of previous histories. (Note: just how long have we been driving the modified LS6 with its hunk o' burnin' orichalka? [Mike]) ForgottenSongs and oddly-colored LuckyStrike packages seem to be detritus left over from alterations of the past.

If this was a different game one thing that would have been fun to explore is the whole concept that every generation gets its own version of history. Which is one of the themes of UnknownUSA, whether or not Rob intended. That became very clear to me after Session15. [Jere]

I'm glad you said that, and I'm glad that's emerged as a theme. I might have pushed the cliomantic history switching angle harder if I hadn't also been building in my head for the past year or so a very separate time travel alternate history reality quake sci-fi game. But Jeremiah is absolutely right. Oneiros or no, history is always shifting and quaking. To be smugly cryptic and McGoohanesque for a moment, Session 12 is the one where I tried to work out my thoughts on the subject. Danny's conversation with his kids about Oz and Kansas, Bry An's ranting about the surface world, the two Bill Bryan's cliomantic briefings, and the Radio Guy's conversation with Danny - They were all kinda talking about the same thing - the difference between history and the past, and whether or not you can go home again. The jury's still out. [Rob]