Hi.

I've been reading a little about Franz Ferdinand, and it seems that there are two aspects of the Iron Stars setting which might be worth exploring further, if the version of him here is not to end up the same way that the historical Archduke did.

For one, the historical Ferdinand was noted as being a promoter of the Austro-Hungarian Navy - which, in the context of the Iron Stars setting, would be relatively more important to the Empire than it was historically. Because of this, Ferdinand might have a relatively higher profile in terms of shaping the course of Hapsburg politics.

For another, one of the really interesting ideas which Ferdinand proposed was for the creation of a United States of Greater Austria.

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Despite the less-than-inspired working title (which could be changed for story use, of course) this could have been a very interesting turn of events for the empire... albeit one which the Hungarian rulers, faced with a loss of territory according to the proposed map, might have had a few issues with.

If the door is still open for such divergence, could either, or both, ideas be up for consideration, when it comes to exploring the Iron Stars setting?

(Besides, if the plan is to launch a Great War anyway, there's doubtless no end of other triggers to be had, other than to kill the Archduke off...)