AH Great People Improvisation Game

[YourFavoriteJulioClaudian]

The Hetman of Hyderabad[/B]

The Cossacks had long lived, if not under the thumb of the Russian people, than under the threat of them. They longed for true independence. They longed for a land to call their own. This was granted to them by Matvei Ivanovitch Platov, commander of the Don Cossacks. During Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, Platov and his entire Army turned to the French's side. After the decisive battle at Smolensk in which nearly the entire Russian Army was encircle and defeated, Russia was defeated. The tzar lay dead on the battlefield, and Napoleon installed a puppet in his place. For the moment, only one French enemy remained in Europe: Britain. At this time, the French navy was not up to the task of threatening the British Isles themselves, there was another place where Britain depended on, and this one could be accessed via a land route. Napoleon was going to invade India.

The Grand Armee did not fair well through the trek, but a French army still made it to the Hindu Kush mountains. The British and their allies, predictably, did not want to see this French army proceed past the Hindu Kush mountains, and set up an ambush. (Kudos to the Twilight Histories podcast for this idea. Go check it out, Jordan Harbour is amazing.) However, this plot was foiled, and by none other than the turncoat Cossack, Matvei Platov. This was the last major battle of the conquering phase of the Napoleonic Wars. The Grand Armee captured most of India without a major battle, for nearly all of the British forces were concentrated at the mountain pass. The allies were turned against the British, and what British forces remained surrendered. Due to their bravery and influence on the outcomes of the battles at Smolensk and the Salang Pass, the Cossacks were given the largest and wealthiest kingdom in Napoleon's reorganized India. And for his individual courage, loyalty, and leadership, Platov became king of this new state. But his people didn't like the name king. They thought of him more as the general he'd always been. So, to his constituents and to the history books, he would forever be known as the Hetman of Hyderabad.

For he who be next:

The First Consul of America, Ruler of the New World

or

Chancellor of the Fourth Reich

 

[SeaBos]

Chancellor of the Fourth Reich

Europe was shattered by the Third World War, in a week great cities like Paris, Berlin, and London were reduced to rubble at best and radioactive ash at worst. Within this suffering one of the worst off nations was Austria. The civilian government's chain of succession was shattered when Vienna was nuked and the paranoid belief that the Soviet Union could somehow still mount an offensive into Western Europe lead previously little known General Lukas Mosele taking command of the government. Technically his title is "Temporary Administrator of the Austrian Emergency Government" however as the nations of the world began to look for some normalcy following the horrors of the 1990s. Mosele has stubbornly continued to lead the nation from his "Emergency Convoy" (theoretically the Austrian capital is Villach however Mosele spent his reign traveling across Austria, carrying the government with him). As the 21st century dawns, dissident elements within Austria and the civilian governments-in-exile in Italy and Switzerland have allied to overthrow the man they think of as the Chancellor of the Fourth Reich.

Next up:
The Booming Soprano

or

The Plague of Korea

 

[Red Orm]

The Plague of Korea

Byname used by both Chinese and Koreans, and of course occasionally foreign historians, of prominent Chinese general and later emperor Yang Liang. Yang Liang was the fifth and youngest son of Emperor Wendi who, in AD 598, decided to retaliate against Korean (Goguryeo) raids in the border lands. To this end he sent young Yang Liang, who would have been in his early twenties, along with a cadre of trusted advisers and older generals. Liang performed extremely well, penetrating deep into Korean territory and exacting a punishing tribute upon the rogue satellite state. His independent action (disregarding of orders that all troop movements were to be approved by Wendi in Beijing), popularity among the soldiers, and new influence among veterans and officers of the five year long campaign angered and frightened Wendi. On the pretense of a triumphal ceremony through Beijing, Liang was invited to his home and there strangled by a slave of the emperor. What might have been had he foiled his father's plot and risen against him, or else earned his father's trust and become a great emperor afterward, is forever left to speculation. But he will always be known as the Plague of Korea.

The Wizard of Winchester

 

[King of the Uzbeks]

The Wizard of Winchester

Jeffery Collins, Native to Winchester, England, is considered by many to be the Greatest Goalkeeper in Football History. He started his top flight career in Chelsea before going to Liverpool in 1987, where he would build his legend up as one of the all time greats. He helped England reach the Quarterfinals of the 1990 World Cup. While he would play solidly with Liverpool and get acclaim in his second World Cup appearance in '94 (3rd Place) his most famous performance would be in the 1996 European Cup where he and the English defense did not concede a single goal on their way to victory. Tragically he was forced to retire soon thereafter after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. He died in 2003

King of the Canal
Or
The Ocelot of Belize

 

[Isfendil]

I am gonna take a look at that podcast, Claudius. I'm not replying to the thread just yet though- no ideas and not much background research in the brain on Belize or ... any major canal, really.

 

[Steve Brinson]

King of the Canal

After the 1970s dissolution of the United States, many American territories were overtaken by non-state actors. Lawrence Lewis was no exception - originally a Captain in the U.S. Army, Lewis was a member of the so-called Gamboa Group which launched a coup d'etat against the civilian Canal Zone government. After the sudden and likely not accidental death of coup leader John Ellis in 1979, Lawrence Lewis succeeded him as leader of the Independent Republic of the Panama Canal, an office he held until his 2008 death. In the office, he embarked on a skillful juggling of the interests of business, labor, Panamanians, Americans, and all manner of other groups - however, his administration has been criticized for its suppression of dissent and centralization in Lewis, who was often called the "King of the Canal" by supporters and opponents alike.

The Secret Agent
The Wayfaring Stranger

 

[Hrvatskiwi]

The Sōhei Slav

A common nickname for Alexei Sergeyevich Bachurov, a prominent Russian mystic and self-styled spiritual "guru".

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly independent Russian Federation spiralled into stagflation. An increasingly ineffectual, corrupt and resource-starved bureaucracy found its grip on the country weakening. Concerned that Russia would become a heavily-armed rogue state, the Western nations offered an enormous sum of money to restructure the Russian economy and put the country back on its feet. However, such an offer came with a price. Russia was to demilitarise almost entirely. Nuclear weapons were put under the authority of a joint NATO commission, whilst many of the heavy weaponry and vehicles that were in working order were sold to nations such as Iran, China, Iraq, Syria and Sudan in exchange for desperately-needed hard currency. In any event, the financial aid proved ineffective, squandered on public vanity projects, industries without infrastructure to supply them, and laundered in order to fall into the hands of corrupt apparatchiks and mafiosi.

In the North Caucasus region, economic deprivation and resurgent nationalism resulted in the revival of Chechen nationalism under the banner of the Caucasian Imamate. With the Russian government unwilling to respond, the Caucasus descended into anarchy. Kalmykia found itself under threat, as the jihadist mounted attacks on Buddhist Kalmyk villages. Alexei Bachurov, of mixed Russian and Kalmyk descent (although he looked entirely Slavic, hence his moniker) and a former Spetsnaz colonel, was in charge of the remnant Russian military assets. Establishing himself as the local warlord, he enriched himself and his close followers by harshly taxing locals, but remains popular due to his protection of the local community against the Chechen jihadists. Claiming to have experienced a religious epiphany in 2002, Bachurov has since developed a cult of personality in the region. He and his followers claim to be inspired by the Amida Buddha, whose mission it is to cleanse the land of Muslims, thus in their minds rectifying a karmic imbalance in the universe. Due to the relative security of the lands under his control, which he calls 'Shambala', many people from surrounding areas have pledged their allegiance to his movement and converted to his form of Buddhism. Non-converts are not permitted in Shambala, for fear of ruining the spiritual purity of the land. Bachurov's rule is maintained by his ruthless enforcers, the Sōhei, who shave their heads and dress in saffron tunics. Whilst they are technically monks, and therefore must take a vow of chastity (and also cannot marry), they are notorious for sexually-assaulting Muslim women, who they perceive as "not really human" and thus exempt from their vows. For this reason alone many raids have been made on neighbouring Muslim villages.

Bachurov's relationship with the Russian government is murky. It appears that he receives subsidies from the Russian government in order to keep "law and order" operating in the region, as well as his genocidal "anti-terror" campaigns against Chechens, Dagestanis and other Caucasian Muslims. Nonetheless, his movement is designated as a terrorist group by Russia, China, Japan, France, Britain, the USA, Canada and various Middle Eastern nations. Of a great deal of concern for security services everywhere is the millenarianist nature of Bachurov's ideology. He and his followers believe in a warped form of Buddhist eschatology, which speaks of the coming of the "seven suns" each of which cause progressing ruin. Perceiving the Sun itself as one of these bodies, which climate change as the resultant ruin, Bachurov seeks to bring the appearance of the other six suns and bring an end to this world. Of especially great concern have been the disappearance of a number of nuclear warheads, captured on route from Kazakhstan to a NATO-operated disposal facility in Siberia. Exactly six were taken...

Die Grossautokrator

 

[Practical Lobster]

An avante-garde pop rock band from Minnesota, Die Grossautokrator is primarily famous for their angsty lyrics and bizarre fascist-inspired outfits. Since the band's breakup in 2013, the lead singer, Julian Ericsson, continued to tour for several years under the name. This decision exposed him to much criticism from former fans, who felt that the quality of music has dropped significantly since his solo touring began. Ericsson himself became reclusive and strange, rarely leaving his mansion compound. According to a sensational tabloid article published late April, he exclusively dresses in the Nazi garb of the band and has a harem of female cult followers who worship him as the reincarnation of Christ's younger brother and are kept in check by routine microdoses of lsd and the fear of public humiliation.

After his arrest on June 3rd, more surreal details emerged. He will only respond to the title "great autocrat" and exclusively eats diet pills, fresh tropical fruit, and water. He had lost 40 pounds in the last year and was suffering from a variety of health concerns. He is currently being held in custody on charges of possession with intent to distribute and kidnapping, in a news story that has rocked the western world and particularly his devoted former fans. His band mates have generally been quiet, with the exception of Geoff Morris, who described him as "a bit nuts, yah, but fundamentally just a good soul, you know?"

The Priest of Vanity

 

[Pesigalam]

The Secret Agent

The Priest of Vanity

Two monikers of the well-known North Korean business mogul Hwan Yeon-woo. When Kim Kyong-hui succeeded her brother Kim Jong-il as ruler of D.P.R.K. her husband Jang Sung-taek became the Economic Minister who implemented a new economic policy known as "Communism with Korean Characteristics" (an obvious copy of the P.R.C.'s "Communism with Chinese Characteristics"). Amid the first beneficiaries of the policy was Hwan Yeon-woo, one of several privileged young North Koreans sent first to China and then to the West to study economics & business. Yeon obtained his degree from the prestigious London Business School at the University of London where his classmates described him as a slacker and a playboy more interested in drugs, parties and alcohol than in principles of economics. At drunken university pub crawls Hwan would often brag about being a spy sent to UK to conduct industrial espionage which earned him the nickname "the Secret Agent".

Whether he really was a spy that stole important information or whether he learned more from his classes then he let on, Hwan Yeon-woo was given substantial startup capital upon returning to North Korea which he put to good use. Making use of D.P.R.K.'s large pool of inexpensive labour (including prison labour) Hwan built several companies specializing in creating labour-intensive export products that could be sold at lower prices than the completion. One such business was Yeon-woo's furniture factory that exported custom and hand crafted wooden furniture everywhere from Aachen to Xalapa. In particular Yeon capitalized on the African construction boom in countries like Angola, Nigeria and Kenya. As new buildings and whole cities popped up on the continent Hwan's companies furnished their interiors.

Hwan Yeon-woo earned his second nickname when he decided to follow the example of Wenzhou entrepreneurs and demanded that the workers at his furniture factories convert to Protestant Christianity under the assumption that it will make them more productive. Leaked information from informants within Hwan's inner circle has alleged that the business mogul made a deal with the American pastor Ted Haggard, allowing the latter's Church to preach to his factory workers in exchange for Yeon-woo getting an exclusive deal to supply furniture to furnish Haggard's American megachurches and other associated enterprises. The informant alleged that Hwan's business was payed $15 000 000 for bathroom vanities alone, leading to The Times magazine referring to Hwan Yeon-woo as the "Priest of Vanity".

Buddha of Bermuda

OR

Gypsy Gagarin

 

[Isfendil]

Buddha of Bermuda

The title given to Samson Çan, a Vietnamese-American boddhisatva who greatly advanced the faith among the population of Bermuda and the coastal regions of nearby states where he was known to travel before he was assassinated by a radical Protestant terrorist in 2003. He is also known for philanthropic work abroad and giving generously to nonprofit low income welfare organizations, as well as stirring up the interest of the general public in both proper observance/understanding of Buddhism and growing the size and the health of the middle class (ironically under strongly capitalist strictures).

Messacosta
Or
Great Granny Mira

 

[jabberwoky]

Great Granny Mira

The pseudonym of famous Canadian poet Mary Scott, who lived and worked along the banks of the Mira River, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Writing in both Scots Gaelic and English, she became famous in the 1950s and 1960s due to her evocative nature poetry. She was also an ardent Celtic nationalist, and spent a large portion of her savings funding the IRA in Northern Ireland, and the SNP in Scotland. While this caused some controversy, her massive popularity in Canada and throughout the world shielded her somewhat. She was instrumental in securing the freedom of alleged IRA leader and president of Sinn Fein Gerry Adams after the successful British crackdown on the IRA in 1984. She was assassinated by loyalist in 1990. Her funeral was attended by thousands. As per her request, her ashes were scattered over the River Mira. In 2008, the newly independent Scottish government built a small new wing to Hollyrood called the "Great Granny Mira Wing" in her honour.

"Queen" Jerusalem Harman
or
The Righteous Senator

 

[Pesigalam]

The Righteous Senator

The honorific often ascribed to the Roman Senator Marcus Junius Brutus the Younger for saving the Roman dictator and General Julius Caesar from his would-be assassins in 44 BC. The Caesar and Brutus families would grow to become some of the most influential political dynasties of the Republic for the next several centuries. Modern historians speculate that had Julius Caesar been killed it might have led to the death of the Roman Republic and its governing system.

Gypsy Gagarin

OR

Ol' Cruel Stagger Lee

 

[Planet of Hats]

Ol' Cruel Stagger Lee

A moniker for Emmett S. "Stagger" Lee, Governor of Alabama (1904-1912). So named for his tendency to walk with a cane after breaking his left leg early in his first term, Lee was infamous for enforcing nakedly race-based forced-labour and criminal justice policies at a time when increasing international pressure was being brought on the Confederacy to adopt emancipation in fact as well as name. The moniker "Ol' Cruel Stagger Lee," coined in a 1910 blues song, stuck and Lee lost the 1912 election to the more moderate William J. Croker.

The Siberian Dragon

 

[Pesigalam]

A moniker for Emmett S. "Stagger" Lee, Governor of Alabama (1904-1912). So named for his tendency to walk with a cane after breaking his left leg early in his first term, Lee was infamous for enforcing nakedly race-based forced-labour and criminal justice policies at a time when increasing international pressure was being brought on the Confederacy to adopt emancipation in fact as well as name. The moniker "Ol' Cruel Stagger Lee," coined in a 1910 blues song, stuck and Lee lost the 1912 election to the more moderate William J. Croker.

The funny thing is that OTL "Stagger Lee" was a black outlaw in the US south.

 

[Planet of Hats]

The funny thing is that OTL "Stagger Lee" was a black outlaw in the US south.

And that's why this is AH!

 

[Kyro92]

The Siberian Dragon

Known in the West as "the Siberian Dragon" or the "the Siberian Devil", Mao Tse-tung was the second and final leader of the insurrection by Corvee laborers in Siberia. Struggling to develop Siberia due to it's inhospitable nature, the Russian Empire in the 1920s after expelling the Japanese from China decided to import surplus Chinese(and Korean) labour. However, conditions in Siberia were brutal not only environmentally but also due to the essentially slave-like helplessness of the imported labour. As the decade dragged on, and China itself was torn apart in civil war, the prospects of ever being repatriated looked bleak. Therefore the Chinese labourers, by this time a majority of Siberia's population, rose up in rebellion.

Their relatively successful uprising was the product of several factors: firstly the fact that the Russian empire initially underestimated the uprising and devoted insufficient force to quelling it as they were focused on the ongoing brinksmanship in Europe, secondly the fact that transport in Siberia was dependent on one major railroad, the Western portions of which were effectively sabotaged thus crippling Russian logistics as they took years to reconstruct, thirdly the fact that the Siberian Dragon was able to rally support from native Siberians and incited/inspired the Turks of Central Asia to launch uprising of their own, and fourthly the fact that foreign affairs conspired to undermine Russia's position with the beginning of the First World War in 1939 and China, reunified under Chiang Kai-Shek in 1940, supplying and then intervening on behalf of the Siberian Dragon in 1941 in alliance with German and Ottoman Empires.

While Mao was the second leader of the rebellion, the first's leadership lasted only two weeks before his death at the hands of what is today suspected to have been an embolism. Famed not only for his charisma and military leadership but also his utter ruthlessness in dealing with captured Russians whether military or civilian, he came to be known as the Siberian Devil by Russia and their allies whilst being affectionately referred to as "the Siberian Dragon" by the media of Germany and it's aligned nations. Today the latter designation is more common, primarily due to the preeminence of sympathetic German and orientalist American films.

After the collapse of the Russian Empires position and the resolution of the war, Mao was decorated by Chiang's China as a hero of the Chinese nation and was ultimately appointed as successor by Chiang on his deathbed. However Mao was highly unpopular among much China's upper echelons, in part because of his enormous popular following amongst the Chinese public, and died suspiciously before he could take office.


The Caesar of Perth

or

The German Khan

 

[Whiteshore]

The German Khan

The Mongols conquer Europe and in the 15th century, Khan Batu III of the Golden Horde adopts German culture and goes as far as to move his capital to Vienna

Empress of India and China

President of Eurasia

or


The 22nd Century's Adolf Hitler

 

[Wendell]

President of Eurasia

Following the failed attempt at invading Normandy in 1944, the Red Army manages to advance to the Rhine, and opts to incorporate Central and Eastern Europe into the USSR. Decades latter, isolated, and facing growing discontent, the U.S.S.R. collapses. From this wreckage emerged Mirza Spadounes, half Tatar, half Greek, who gained the moniker President of Eurasia when he briefly led a reunion of the entire former USSR

Margrave of Massachusetts

or

Duke of Earl.

 

[Isfendil]

Please limit to one or two options, no more.

 

[Anarch King of Dipsodes]

Please limit to one or two options, no more.

Oh, you're no fun anymore!