Absolute Territory (Worm) (Massive AU) (New Thing) (Patreon)

What if Scion died, instead of Eden?

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Eden!Earth is broken up into xenophobic groups, any alliance with outside groups turns out disastrous. For the most part, ethnic groups and countries are independent, defending their own borders, but there's often further divisions within said group, with villains and/or civilians against totalitarian states, or some such. Major countries with high population are often divided further (as we see in the interlude).
If people start forming alliances/peace and Eden sees it as too much trouble to sabotage, then she sics an Endbringer Lite on them, and then works with the remains.

Eden's tinkers aren't so limited in mass production and often outfit armies, which helps to spur things on. In key places, shards for cloning, plant and population growth, and resource production shards are deposited, to help crushed areas revive. Eden might liken it to pruning a tree - except she's pruning humanity to produce maximum conflict without utterly destroying it.

If Eden!Earth falls, she moves on to another, with a different tactic, or she sets things up for one earth to fight another - with seeds already planted here and there. 

–Wildbow, WOG

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Prologue – We’ll Never Eat Oranges

They tell me that we used to be the masters of the whole world. They say in school that we were once the ones in control of the land, the sea, the sky, and even the void beyond within our small sphere. I only really believe it because… well, how could there be so many maps of what the world looks like when no one can leave?

We certainly aren’t any longer. Oh, the capes pretend. Butcher’s Teeth make the occasional attempt to break out every now and then, and Accord’s Ambassadors seek ways around the problem, but I’d never really thought either of them would be successful. Each failure weakens them and makes them targets for other legions anyway.

The Empire 88 rules here in Brockton, and they haven’t even tried to get out in over a decade. They have almost fifty capes now. Accord is the only one who tries to route them out, and even then only rarely, since he is much more disturbed by the Butcher’s control of New York. 

So I give the Salute when their capes pass, and bow to their Kaiser, and his seers who protect him. But I hate them. 

I live instead in dreams and my mother’s books. They tell of a time when government wasn’t a taboo and when madmen with powers couldn’t take over cities. When success or failure in the next turf war didn’t mean the difference between satiation and starvation. 

I was born into a world ruled by parahumans. The rulers changed, but the lives of those beneath them rarely did. 

“Taylor, you ready for school?” Dad called up from the kitchen. I heard the refrigerator open as he grabbed a frozen meal. Bread, corn, rice, beef, and cheese. Same as every day. 

We were luckier than most, to be able to afford the frozen meals. Still, I dreamed of strawberries and oranges like the books showed. Mrs. Dakota down the road would tell me about them sometimes. The foods that exist beyond. I’d seen pictures and read about them, and a few of them were actually grown here in greenhouses. I’d never be able to afford one though. 

Unless… well. 

Sugar and chocolate were delicacies too, but I’d tried those once or twice. The Empire liked to give out sweets at their rallies to show off how powerful they’d become, even though everyone was pretty sure they’d gotten a machine out of one of their capes that could make exotic plants. 

“I thought I needed to stay home for… you know?” I asked him softly. Could never be too careful after all. 

“Oh. Right. Sorry… force of habit,” he said more softly. 

I stepped out of my bedroom and walked down the stairs quietly. “Did you remember to call the school and let them know I was sick?” 

“Yeah. I did it last night. Sorry… I don’t like this though, Taylor. You’re not–”

“Old enough?” I interrupted, annoyed. 

“You’re worth too much to be risking,” he changed tactics quickly. 

“Mom is busy at the University, and if you skip one more day they’re going to search our house! Which is safer dad? Letting me stay home, or risking that?” I asked, annoyed. 

“I… I know. I just wish Accord would return. Things were so much better when he and the Empire shared the city.”

“Casualties are down since there's no more open conflict. That’s something at least, right?” I asked.

“At the expense of people’s freedom? This… dammit, this country used to mean something,” he said defeated. “It meant your skin color or your background didn’t matter, and the Empire changed all of that.” 

“Mom’ll throw a fit if she hears you cursing around me, Dad,” I chided softly. “Besides, this hasn’t been a country since before you were born. I don’t know why you still cling to that. Stupid to keep that flag in the cellar. Someone will find it someday.” 

I knew those words would hurt him, but the older I grew, the more I realized just how dangerous that flag my parents kept really was. The Empire killed anyone spotted with one, and the Teeth…? I shuddered as the memory of one of their demonstrations crept up in my memory.  

That flag was not worth dying for. But… I thought that continuing to do what my parents did, what they’d been doing my whole life, was. 

He smiled softly. “Yeah… you’re probably right. But… for those of us who remember life before, it means something. You’re growing up too cynical, Taylor.”  

“I’m a realistic dreamer. We’re never getting passed the Sentinels. We’ll never get to eat oranges. But one day, if we’re lucky, we might be able to be free of the Empire,” I said enthusiastically.

“Of parahumans entirely,” Dad interjected. "All of them just make the problem worse. Every new one just end up dead, or joining the Empire or the Teeth." 

I tried to hide a wince. 

“Y-yeah. And... and the parahumans,” I murmured, my enthusiasm gone.