What are they?
Near-Earths are a type of plane in the Omniverse. They are clustered around the
Center of the Omniverse and are generally very similar.
All of them have the planet Earth as their central world of interest, and for most of them it is the only populated world. On these Earths, the population is entirely human. Some Near-Earths will have other races living in the shadows, such as vampires, and magic in a significantly reduced capacity to the rest of the Omniverse.
Most of them share the same geography, history, countries, cultures, etc. The Near-Earth map shows their geography, without any of the national lines. This is because while they all share a similar history, they vary in what point of the 'Prime Earth' history they occupy. There are four eras though that one is more likely to come across.
Frequent Eras
Era 1 dominant timeframe is the late-twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. They are characterized by a fairly interconnected globe with quick travel and near instant long-distant communication that has passed the event known as World War II. While travel is easy and there is generally global peace they are still divided into countries, the most notable of which is The United States - a republic that rose to command global power in the war.
Of this era, it can be split into two subcategories based on whether or not another nation called the Soviet Union exists. It was the only other country than the U.S. to come out of the war as a preeminent superpower and in most cases (we'll call Group A) they exist up until the year 1991 A.D. In Group A, Earths there is more tension as the two superpowers vie for supremacy in a Cold War. The Earths of Group B are typically ones that occupy the time after the Soviet Union falls and the United States is the only global superpower and are the Earths of Era 1 that usually occupy the more twenty-first century period.
Era 2 takes place in the "Middle Ages", a period of time from 1000-1500 A.D. when Earth's humans were diffuse, less populous, and did not have as significantly advanced technology. It is known for having continent spanning trade networks, and being the humans of the continents North America and South America being isolated from the rest of the continents.
Era 3's are the earliest and occupy the times of around 400 B.C. to 300 A.D., and is defined by the existence of several empires with the most notable being Rome. These empires did have contact, but travel was slow and the Americas are still isolated. There are also very few humans on the planet compared to Era 1 Earths. Even Era 2's have about double the population.
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