The truth is stranger than fiction. I recently read a piece of advice that basically went like this: History is full of drama queens. Julius Caesar added two months to the calendar because he wanted one named after him and one after his nephew. Three people declared themselves pope and excommunicated each other. And just Google the Pig War. Google it. Your world's backstory needs THAT. So here's a fun little thread to brainstorm such hilarious incidents and share some you've already incorporated into your own story.
The story of the Spanish Armada never made it to Britain. Well... anything really regarding Alexander the Great. The Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth was at some point the greatest and richest country in Europe with army the size of a second rate Holy Roman state. They had a law where a lone nobleman could veto any parliamentary proceedings, believing that even if all is lost, one just man would he enough to save the land. Worked the exact opposite way. Just let how delusional were they?
I wasn’t looking for real-world examples. I was looking more for examples in your own worldbuilding.
The radiation on Mars (Terraformed) has mutated the spiders that snuck on ships when people went there from Earth, became kinda a lot bigger, and have a primitive culture in the deep deserts. To think there is a small dark green octopi like species that is intelligent enough to do advanced scientific research, while only being about the size of a scoop of icecream. It's a big universe out there. Not small big, big big. So it would take forever to go through all the crazy nonsense that exists, and further more all that is yet to be found.
Lucifer's revolt against God was actually a union action that the angels undertook due to the high incidence of stress and PTSD after they had to kill all the firstborn in Egypt. It took 40 years to come to a resolution, during which time the Israelites were kept cooling their heels in the Sinai.
Two religions in my setting only exist because lovecraftian gods think humans would make pretty neat pets, but are on schedule to blow up the world. "Hey, you, tiny things. I need you to do this for me. Then I might be able to convince the other dudes to let me keep you", was then mistranslated as "insignificant beings, serve me or my kin shall destroy you. Only I offer salvation".
Reminds me of a post where a bunch of ants gather in a circle and chant your name and you go check it out because "WTF, talking ants?" and they are like "WE HAVE SUMMONED HIM!" and then you do their bidding because, why not? But you're not all-powerful, so you don't always do things exactly the way they want. "Can you help me get with the queen?" You have no idea how to do that, so you kill all the other ants so the only two ones left are the queen and the ant who asked for help.
Lumps are intentionally placed on roads to force traffic to drive slower. Car makers develop better suspension to cope with the bumps. The lumps are made larger to compensate for the new cars. Car makers develop incredibly sophisticated active suspensions systems to allow drivers to travel at speed over the bumps. Older cars and trucks become too slow and unreliable due to the rough terrain that they were not designed to cope with. Only the extremely wealthy can afford new cars. The whole transport system grinds to a halt, resulting in economic disaster. The government embarks on a massive 'bonfire of red-tape' and removes virtually all regulations. Chaos and catastrophe ensue as every company cuts corners and doesn't do anything properly. No one can be held to account because, according to the law, no one has done anything wrong. A post apocalyptic society breaks out with everyone competing for survival. "What happened?" ask the children, but the adults don't know. It was a post-war environment but there hadn't been a war, non that anyone could remember. The children play on the lumps on the roads and wonder what they were for. You drive out of a carpark, insert your ticket into the one-and-only barrier machine and the screen tell you: Please wait. Installing update 7 of 3262. All the electronic devices go on strike until User Satisfaction Questionnaires have been completed.
