The Alphabetic Bouts Of Cartography, Round H!

[Kaiphranos]

Welcome to the voting thread for the eighth round of the ABCs! Topic of the round: Huns! Color of the round: BC7453. At stake: the title of "Hetman of H."

As always, vote for whichever map you think was best!


B_Munro




black_0

Originally Posted by black_0

Basic idea behind the map is that Huns haven't gone as much berserk with their conquests in the west and instead managed to form a stable state on the Black Sea coast. They had been converted to Christianity by Antinomians escaping from persecutions in Byzantine Empire.
Later on when Byzantines had struggled among themselves in a massive multilateral civil war Huns took opportunity and captured Constantinople after which event their king proclaimed himself an emperor.

Sub Lord Hawk

Originally Posted by Sub Lord Hawk

Back story is that The Huns decided to settle at the Volga rather than push west, helping to curb the great migration of tribes that toppled the Western Roman Empire (though it's not what it once was, more a an enlarged Byzantium).

The Huns manage to do well in the fertile land and become a prosperous people, the Pax Hunnic of the Volga is declared.

But it cannot last... scouts and traders to the east have reported sight of vast armies and a great fleeing of people, the Mongols have arrived.

wolf_brother

Originally Posted by wolf_brother

POD is that Xiang Yu listens to his advisers instead of his uncle during the Feast at Hong Gate and has Liu Bang assassinated in 207 BCE. After overthrowing the Qin Empire Xiang divides China into his Eighteen Kingdoms, a feudal-esque arrangement where the emperor is merely 'one king among many.' Further, he has his puppet-emperor Yi assassinated, and declares himself Hegemon-King of Chu, his homeland and core territory, which has become the most prominent of the Chinese kingdoms. He then later has King Cheng of Han assassinated, and claims all of that kingdom for his personal domain. When Tian Rong seizes control of the three kingdoms which constituted the lands of the former Kingdom of Qi, and soon thereafter King Xie reclaims his crown and his lands in Zhao, Xiang Yu easily defeats them. The Chu dynasty is thus born, with the Hegemon-King nominally first among equals, but in reality he is just as, if not even more, despotic than the old Qin emperors.

Into this turmoil rides the confederated Xiongnu tribes, who had long raided the northern boards of the Chinese kingdoms when not fighting amongst themselves. Now, united under the Chanyu (lit. 'Son of Heaven') Modu, the Xiongnu begin to attack deep into the northern kingdoms. Finally in 202 Xiang has had enough, and personally leads an army 80,000 strong deep into Xiongnu territory... where they are promptly encircled by three hundred thousand nomadic horse cavalry, which harriers the Chinese forces, steadily picking them off, until finally, after having retreated back across the Great Wall, Xiang offers Modu peace; he even offers the Chanyu a Chu princess as bride. Modu, who had previously held back believing that a foreign dynasty could not rule such a vast country as China, however having seen the fall, rise & fall, and rise of the Zhou, Qin, and Chu dynasties all within his own lifetime now sees that, however vast, the Chinese are weak and fractious.

Rejecting Xiang's offers Modu leads his army into China, occupying the whole of the Northern Chinese plain by 200 BCE. Xiang is only just able to rebuff the Xiongnu at the Wei River. However further west the former Qin generals which Xiang had installed as kings of Yong, Sai, and Di, once already turncoats, know once again which way the wind is blowing, and swear fealty to the Chanyu in return for positions of power (and their lives) within the new regime. By the winter of 199 it's all over, as Xiongnu cavalry supported by Qin infantry and artillery storm through the Chu kingdom; Xiang commits suicide as the first nomad rides through the broken walls of his imperial capital at Pengcheng. In time all of the Eighteen Kingdoms swear fealty to Modu as the new Hegemon-King. Now with China under his belt, Modu rules a vast swath of eastern Eurasia, stretching from the Tarim Basin all the way to the Pacific, and from the the lower Siberian steppe to the Yangtze. Modu though now has something of a conquest fever, as he eyes the lands of the Baiyue people who had long resisted Chinese dominion. Then there's the petty Korean kingdoms. And of course to the western lands beyond across the Kulun or Pamir mountains... well, those at least will be saved for his sons.

(And once you've voted, stop on by the main thread to see what this week's challenge will be!)

[metastasis_d]

I'm leaning towards black_0's map.

[jetpack]

Voting for black_0. When I first saw it, I knew there was very little chance someone else will be able to get my vote.

[The Professor]

Originally Posted by jetpack

Voting for black_0. When I first saw it, I knew there was very little chance someone else will be able to get my vote.

Me too.

On a slightly offnote, and no offence meant to anyone, I'm beginning to detect a slight tendency for people to vote for names they recognise.
Perhaps polls should anonymise entries to reduce this?

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by The Professor

Me too.

On a slightly offnote, and no offence meant to anyone, I'm beginning to detect a slight tendency for people to vote for names they recognise.
Perhaps polls should anonymise entries to reduce this?

I've been voting map > mapmaker. Besides, we've already come too far to change the rules now; maybe when we're done through 'Z' we can start all over, with different colors, titles, and subjects, and do it anonymously this time?

[The Professor]

Originally Posted by metastasis_d

I've been voting map > mapmaker. Besides, we've already come too far to change the rules now; maybe when we're done through 'Z' we can start all over, with different colors, titles, and subjects, and do it anonymously this time?

There's only been 8
Besides I don't think it is in the rules NOT to anonymise on polls.
Maybe it's just my experience of voting - which is admittedly flag based rather than map based - but names tend to shout out more than the quality of the product we're voting for.
Speaking on behalf of myself I'd rather people vote for my entry based on it's quality than that they know how I am and tend to agree with my comments

[metastasis_d]

Originally Posted by The Professor

There's only been 8
Besides I don't think it is in the rules NOT to anonymise on polls.
Maybe it's just my experience of voting - which is admittedly flag based rather than map based - but names tend to shout out more than the quality of the product we're voting for.
Speaking on behalf of myself I'd rather people vote for my entry based on it's quality than that they know how I am and tend to agree with my comments

Or almost 1/3 of the entire series...

I think you're selling the rest of the forum short.