"Hegel remarks somewhere that all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice. He forgot to add: the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce." —Karl Marx, 1852
"It is difficult to estimate the misery inflicted upon thousands of persons, and the absolute pecuniary penalty imposed upon multitudes of intellectual workers by the loss of their time, destroyed by organ-grinders and other similar nuisances." —Charles Babbage, 1864
Canada is fake. We all know this. Perhaps the strongest evidence is the fact that every single place is named after someplace else, mostly landmarks from England. York, Middlesex, London. We've got a Thames River. And yes… we have a Blackfriars Bridge.
Credit and thanks go out to 
ch00bakka for coming up with "Other London Bridge" (in "Australian Rules Drag Racing"), and for allowing me to expand on it. Additional thanks go out to 
TyGently and 
GreenWolf for signing off on these ideas; to 
A Random Day, 
Clysm31201, 
Anorrack, and 
Dr0Shadow, who helped brainstorm, review and refine details.
On the wiki:
- The paperwork CSS is based on the the "Unusual Cargo" theme, by
CityToast.
- BOS formatting is referenced from UTE-1919-Discofather, by
stormbreath.
- AOI formatting is referenced from Archival Document HSA-008-Advent, by
NatVoltaic.
- The "Occult and Supernatural Activities Taskforce (OSAT)" and "l'Ordre de Jacques-Cartier" are borrowed from On Guard 43.
- The "Weilstedten fleshcrafters" from Backdoor SoHo are sourced from The Trashfire, by
UraniumEmpire.
- "Goldbaker Ltd." (later Goldbaker-Reinz) are anomalous insurers, first featured in SCP-6987 by
LORDXVNV.
- The (fictionalized) "Argentium Astrum" are from SCP-281-FR, by
DrGemini.
- "Experiment and Design Bureau 70 (OKB-70, or ОКБ-Ѻ)" is from… here! Surprise! Co-credit for the idea goes to Dr0Shadow, who pointed out that the Soviets were underrepresented in the UNGOC.
- The political codename "Village Jeweler" is derived from the expanded, collaborative list of GOC Codewords. "Village" refers to Canada, and "Jewels" refers to the British Occult Service.
Images:
- engine — cropped and recolored from "The Babbage Difference Engine", by Jeremy Keith, CC BY 2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Difference_Engine.jpg
- airy — portrait by John Collier, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_George_Biddell_Airy,_1801-1892_RMG_BHC2507.tiff
- settlement — cropped from "Ces maisons de mineurs", an illustration by Jules Férat, from Jules Verne's novel "The Child of the Cavern", public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:%27The_Child_of_the_Cavern%27_by_Jules_F%C3%A9rat_26.jpg
- england — cropped from a photo of St. Paul's Cathedral & Blackfriars Bridge, public domain. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St._Paul%27s_Cathedral_%26_Blackfriars_Bridge,_London_-_G.W.W._LCCN2004678933.jpg
- ontario — public domain image. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1878-9,_showing_Carling_Brewery.jpg
- shaft-three — cropped and recolored from "Leadfield Mine", by eflon, CC BY 2.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leadfield_mine.jpg
- hardsuit — cropped and blurred from "RX-2 Extra-Vehicular Activity Spacesuit", by Daderot, CC0 1.0. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RX-2_Extra-Vehicular_Activity_Spacesuit,_Litton_Industries,_1963_-_Kennedy_Space_Center_-_Cape_Canaveral,_Florida_-_DSC02905.jpg
- babbage — cropped from a public domain photo of Charles Babbage. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_Babbage_-_1860.jpg
This story also integrates elements of public domain works by Charles Babbage (Wikisource/Wikiquote) and Sir George Biddell Airy (specifically, "The Engine That Charles Built").
Asteroid 8837 London is real, but obviously, it wasn't discovered in the 19th century. Data in this article is taken from NASA's JPL and the IAU Minor Planet Center.
Other London is a sort of funhouse reflection of both England and Canada, right down to its history, landmarks and key players. Some of it is fluff; some of it is historical commentary.
My first idea for a colony computer was a COLOSSUS-style machine haunted by Alan Turing. That didn't get very far, because it didn't fit the timeline, didn't fit the tone, and ultimately… it just felt disrespectful.
Charles Babbage, though? Historical accomplishments notwithstanding, it turns out that guy was a real dick! He was perfectly magnanimous towards Ada Lovelace, but Babbage hated street performers and rowdy kids. He really did try to pursue legal action, and Sir Shelley really did denounce him in Parliament! Several phrases in this story are borrowed from his essays. As for his spat with Sir Airy… well, let's just say Babbage did not take well to criticism. After his funding was cut, Babbage waged a petty war against the office of the Astronomer Royal, to no avail.
Sir Airy wasn't bothered all that much. He also had a bit more tact. He wrote a poem called "The Engine That Charles Built" — basically a Victorian diss track, except it was circulated privately, instead of publicly. I used several of those rhymes to fill out Llywelyn's geas.
- United Empire Loyalists are a real thing, though their historical importance has been exaggerated. Despite what you may have heard, they did not burn the White House! That's historical revisionism (which I look forward to exploiting).
- "Watson Bell" is named after Alexander Graham Bell, commonly credited as the father of the telephone. The first successful call was placed to his assistant, Mr. Watson. Watson, Bell. Since Bell summered in Ontario, people love to say it was a Canadian invention, but… no. Not really.
- The historical demographics for Other London are based on real 1921 census data from England and Ontario. In those surveys, minoritized people (such as emigrants from British India) were frequently lumped together as "other" or "unspecified".
- Following in the footsteps of Ian Fleming's M and John le Carre's Control, the "Chief of Occult Intelligence" is modeled on Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, first director of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6). He reportedly signed correspondence with "C" in green ink.
- The idea of a super-secret Allied training camp for British, Canadian, and American specialists is based on Ontario's wartime Camp X.
- London, Belgrade is a real place. Mind you, I don't think there are any bridges in the neighborhood.
- AT-744 is modeled on the real-life 1st Special Service Force, now recognized as the first modern special-ops unit.
- ST-04 leader "Castor" is named after the humble beaver (Castor canadensis). Beaver pelts and castoreum were particularly valuable to colonial hunters.
- I tried to keep the technology relatively period-accurate. "+1Gen" munitions such as baton rounds and CS gas would have been in development at the time.
- The "ICDB" are strongly patterned after the International Brigades: volunteers who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
- I was particularly inspired by Salman Salzman of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, who bluntly stated, "Nicht mit Faschisten reden!" — "Don't talk to fascists!"
- Harry Ross and Ralph Smith really did design a "lunar space-suit" for the British Interplanetary Society. Sadly, the original illustrations and the modern prop build are both under copyright. Instead, the "PAHS" is represented by a Litton RX-2 hardsuit, which has a similar "knightly" silhouette.
- "Ambassador Kitchener" is named after the loathsome Herbert Horatio Kitchener, British Army officer and colonial oppressor. There's a town named after him in Ontario.
- "Victor Brant" is named after Haudenosaunee war chief Thayendanegea (English name Joseph Brant), an influential diplomat and military leader. Among his other accomplishments, Thayendanegea commanded Mohawk and Loyalist guerillas on the New York frontier during the American Revolutionary War.
- "Ambassador Doyle" is named after Sir Arthur Conan Doyle — famous for creating Sherlock Holmes, infamous for believing in fairies.
- The GOC interdiction policy lasts from 1946 to 1953, making it a Seven Years' War. Wakka wakka!
- Throwing the highly-trained commandos of AT-744 into an extraterrestrial meatgrinder was more than a little bit inspired by Aliens. (If I hadn't cut the Quartermaster sections, it would be obvious that Stabbs likes to keep his Ithaca shotgun handy… for close encounters.)
- Yes, Tepesh and Shepet are a Dracula/Alucard joke. I'm planning to expand on their clan in the future. (Mind you, Tepesh is not actually THE Dracula, who exists elsewhere in Third Law canon.)
- "Colonel Royce Campbell" and "AQ Anderson" are Metal Gear references. I am a nerd.
- "Liberty cap" mushrooms are named after the conical Phrygian cap. Yes, that's right — the hats that gnomes wear! Maybe Llywelyn knows where Robert Lennox wandered off to?
- Speaking of: "Llywelyn y Bychan" is Welsh. Transliterated into English, his name is "Lawrence the Small".
- There was a whole lot of bootlegging in Ontario during Prohibition. Illicit alcohol moved through Windsor, into Detroit, and… Chicago. Incidentally, did you know that high-proof rum and moonshine are culturally significant in Newfoundland? Yep. They call it Screech.
I'm very much looking forward to developing Other London's history, and showing its transformation into the "thriving arts scene" described in Australian Rules. Hope you enjoy!
