(Non-Canon) Midwesens
I've noticed that the Atlas has virtually nothing about cultures in the Upper Mississippi River Valley (that is, from the Twin Cities, MN to Cairo, Illinois along the river). This confuses me, as it's a large area full of arable land in a section of the river roughly as long as the Nile in Egypt and much wider in terms of land that can be farmed, which means this place is going to be populated and important on a similar level to, say, Germany. I'll call these people Miwesens for now (as they'd consider themselves Midwesterners), though if anyone has a better name I'm all ears.
This is at the very edge of the Great Plains, so it may be we want to wait to fully flesh it out, but I have a few ideas I'd like to throw out there and see what others think of them. For starters, I think Midwes, populated as it is by richer, educated farmers of German descent would be the perfect region to retain much of their religions- rather than some cult or old religion revived, the Midwesens would be Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian, or perhaps some united religion combining the three (however, it could just as likely go in the opposite direction, with a general related Protestant Christianity but thousands of individual sects). This Protestant Christianity would be much harsher than the modern liberal attitude, but would also gain elements of a culture of hospitality.
Agriculture would obviously dominate, with cities being based off the trade and production of various cereal crops. This probably creates a relatively stratified society, with the people who control the most land having the most power. However, any peasant farmer who works on a good piece of land (i.e. most of the region) would be able to live a good life and rarely starve. The relatively short growing season means a long winter, but with the amount of farming going on food storage will solve that issue. This region will be difficult to invade in Winter, as will be internal wars.
The Midwesens remind me a little of the Rus. They will not be nomadic, but will be very familiar with nomadic peoples, and probably still spend a decent chunk of their lives on horses. Sometimes they may suffer from nomadic conquests, though more than likely nomadic raiding will be focused on taking their foodstuffs and wealth in the fall, not conquest. Playing nomads against each other much like the Rus did is to be expected, as would a local ruler paying tribute to the cowboys so they either leave them alone or attack one of their enemies.
They'd also have an interesting relationship with the people to the south; trade will flow down the Mississippi River after all. A United Kingdom of the Midwes will have a lot of resource to call upon and could surround itself by "tributary" nomadic states (like the Chinese, they may end up paying more to their tributaries than the other way around), dependent Northern States (I want to get to them later, they would be important and have natural resources) and vassal Southern States/conquests.
These are just a couple of ideas I'm spitballing. I want to make sure this region isn't ignored like it was in the original.
This is at the very edge of the Great Plains, so it may be we want to wait to fully flesh it out, but I have a few ideas I'd like to throw out there and see what others think of them. For starters, I think Midwes, populated as it is by richer, educated farmers of German descent would be the perfect region to retain much of their religions- rather than some cult or old religion revived, the Midwesens would be Methodist, Lutheran, and Presbyterian, or perhaps some united religion combining the three (however, it could just as likely go in the opposite direction, with a general related Protestant Christianity but thousands of individual sects). This Protestant Christianity would be much harsher than the modern liberal attitude, but would also gain elements of a culture of hospitality.
Agriculture would obviously dominate, with cities being based off the trade and production of various cereal crops. This probably creates a relatively stratified society, with the people who control the most land having the most power. However, any peasant farmer who works on a good piece of land (i.e. most of the region) would be able to live a good life and rarely starve. The relatively short growing season means a long winter, but with the amount of farming going on food storage will solve that issue. This region will be difficult to invade in Winter, as will be internal wars.
The Midwesens remind me a little of the Rus. They will not be nomadic, but will be very familiar with nomadic peoples, and probably still spend a decent chunk of their lives on horses. Sometimes they may suffer from nomadic conquests, though more than likely nomadic raiding will be focused on taking their foodstuffs and wealth in the fall, not conquest. Playing nomads against each other much like the Rus did is to be expected, as would a local ruler paying tribute to the cowboys so they either leave them alone or attack one of their enemies.
They'd also have an interesting relationship with the people to the south; trade will flow down the Mississippi River after all. A United Kingdom of the Midwes will have a lot of resource to call upon and could surround itself by "tributary" nomadic states (like the Chinese, they may end up paying more to their tributaries than the other way around), dependent Northern States (I want to get to them later, they would be important and have natural resources) and vassal Southern States/conquests.
These are just a couple of ideas I'm spitballing. I want to make sure this region isn't ignored like it was in the original.