>>1214809Like in this world, "follow the money" should work in your alternate dieselpunk earth as well. Like here, helium:
-was an unexpected discovery in the 19th century (fact: named after the god Helios, because if was first discovered by astronomers examining the sun, and presumed not to exist anywhere else).
-found only in certain natural gas wells.. a side-effect of energy mining (mostly in USA, but recently in Russia and Tanzania)
-is a rare resource which can only be mined, NOT created. Therefore it is controlled by the government.
Maybe your plot point could be the secrecy of this mysterious, rare, government controlled aether... perhaps covering up the REAL secret: they don't make it at all... it's a rare side-effect of mining common natural gas. The government is pretending it's much more clever than it really is. To maintain the illusion of being able to create this sun-god's aether. It must maintain the monopoly, while allowing more of it to be used. How to raise prices, without raising suspicions? Capture Russian and Tanzanian (former German East Africa, aka Zanzibar) supplies, without them learning the secret right beneath their feet?
Got some potential... work it, OP!
