First things First: this posting contains spoilers about the end of the Guardians-of-the-Fall-Campain!
After reading Elysium, I almost immediatly stumbled across one question: What if Elysium I was not destroyed in the end?
Actually, it should be clear to anyone who knows Mutant:Year Zero:
Just like the robot city Mechatron 7 before, the enclave Elysium 1 WILL go up in smoke at the end of the campaign. This is scripted as an unstoppable fixed point of the campaign.
The endresult: Confused humans will crawl out of the ruins of Elysium and settled down in the Zone.
Since these people bring along a lot of cultural and technological know-how, the flair of the zone shifts a whole lot further in the direction of "Wild West" and the reconstruction of civilisation gaining steam (in some cases literaly)
But what if the complete destruction of Elysium 1 was stopped somehow, or the council does not even iniciate the Omega Protocoll (the Event, that ultimately destroys Elysium) in the first place?
All the riots are somehow stopped or at least temporarily calmed without Elysium going up into flames. And now, everybody within the enclave knows, that the surface is inhabitable once more.
What would change in the Zone? What would change in Elysium 1?
- The fact that humans will settle the surface and create westerntownlike outposts should remain the same.
- the four houses will continue their struggle for power - now expanded to holdings on the surface
- the general tech-level of the surface settlements would not be significantly higher than in the standard scenario. After all, Elysiums ressources are still quite limited.
- humans are somewhat more organized right from the start, because there is a coordinating central government.
- They are also much more likely to appear like a genuine colonial power than in the standard scenario, wich would lead to conflicts with other zone inhabitants much earlier.
- the outposts not only collect resources for themselves, but above all for Elysium 1. Here I see a potentially interesting, Potential breaking Point between Elysium and the outposts. Maybe, Elysium is taxing the outposts at auch a high rate, that they are likely to rebell at some point.
- The SC are still on the road as judicators, as Elysium is likely to expand its legal system, but not change it greatly. The new situation of having to patrol parts of the surface now presents the already understaffed judges with completely new challenges.
Points that would be questionable are:
- Who actually governs Elysium after the end of the campaign? Are the four houses still unchallenged? Do they have to grudgingly share their power with a new parliament? Or did the leadership of the houses have to flee because the eminences could seize power over Elysium?