Medieval America Mark III

There's definitely an allure in a sort of Neo-Aztec culture, but I generally believe in keeping it Catholic because 1) I don't want to make a habit of exoticizing non-white nations, and 2) To preserve Medieval America's novelty, that means keeping the "rerun"aspect in as many ways as possible. We can't completely unring the bell, but a somewhat lower tech, but more populated version of colonial Mexico squares it a little.

Also, would you be okay with posting your blog updates here too?

I suppose, though most of my more salient stuff is me going back and revising old articles.
 
I'd add some Georgia lore but Georgia seems to be one of the most well tread parts of the world. Still, marvelous worldbuilding!!
 
I'd add some Georgia lore but Georgia seems to be one of the most well tread parts of the world. Still, marvelous worldbuilding!!
No worries, add much as Georgian lore as you’d like. There is never enough too much lore especially considering how we were discussing Brazil while we still haven’t even had a USA post.
 
No worries, add much as Georgian lore as you’d like. There is never enough too much lore especially considering how we were discussing Brazil while we still haven’t even had a USA post.
Adding to this, no one should ever be afraid to go backwards and write lore - in fact, I encourage it!
 
So after reading through this thread and it gave me an idea for a setting.
This was largely spawned after reading through the Medieval America & The New Medieval Era Threads, looking at Warhammer: Fantasy Battle lore, CK: After the End and the Rise of Empire: Ottoman series on Netflix.

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A thousand years ago the world prospered, enlightenment and rational thinking brought forth the light of true civilization. As all people from the lowliest peasant to the mightiest lord revealed in the greatest luxuries of the industrial age. Then disaster struck as the world was torn asunder with the Great Convergence and the arrival of magic as mankind found itself consumed by the darkest of barbarism as the lights of civilization were snuffed out by the terror and bloodshed of the dying times. Now once more the fires of industry has been set alight as a new millennium dawns, while the knights of old cross blades with the pike & shot of this new age.

Technology:
  • From an outside observer this world is a hodgepodge ranging from the late medieval era to the industrial revolution.
  • Most armies are in a transistion period between feudal levies or pike & shot men, with these early match locks are already using miniballs.
  • The more wealthly & modern states already have early water wheel factories and most black smiths using small blast furnaces for blacksmithing.
  • Though on the knights still remain relevant and the age of castles not quite being over. With knights plate armor using modern quality carbon steel or even a steel-titanium alloy, alongside a layer of either leather or rubber sandwiched with the plates to better handle gun shots.
  • While the modern castles of this age possess sloped walls that have a thick layer of dirt & loose rocks to absorb cannon shots and even reinforced concrete, towers hosting ballista's to shoot down enemy hot air balloons or airships and the keeps of the original medieval age being replaced with bunkers for the nobility.
  • As for communications a lot of it it's still via message courier or even from mouth. Though plenty of more developed kingdoms make use of signal tower networks with Morse code lights. Along with crystal set radio's having recently been reintroduced. Plus courier pigeons.
  • In terms of naval technology the majority of ships in the Caribbean with the North to South American trade routes being Galleons and Carracks with the occasional more advanced sail ship showing up from time to time. Though some these Galleons have been converted into timberclad warships with steam and paddle wheel technology. The majority of these ships being defended with early cannons, archers, crossbowmen and the occasional rockets, though some do have warhammer/POTC rotating cannons
Locations:
  • United States AKA Chicago: The last remnant of the America of old though it is a pale shadow of what it once was it is still a mighty behemoth stretching from Sudbury to Memphis, from Kansas City to Stahlburrgh. Yet it is a dying titan besieged from the west by Barbarian hordes of horse riders and to the east petty rival kingdoms and city states test the boarders. While it decays within as the nobles bicker and scheme against one another and the nation, only the core province of Illinois maintains the legion while the rest rest contend themselves with pitiful levies and unprincipled mercenary bands.
  • The South: A land of chivalry, soul food, southern gentleman and the stomping of the peasantry. Many of the lands being best described as a southern fried version of Bretonnia complete with vast nobles plantation estates, tropical disease and giant alligators. Though to the west the merchant Republic of New Orleans is a thriving center art, literature, culture and republican ideals ruling over much of Louisiana. It's just standing right between the two is the darklands ruled over by vile vampiric lords, undead stalk the swamps and mad scientist conduct the most unholy of experiments.
  • Appalachia: two words Hillbilly Highlanders!
  • The Great Plains: The vast swaths of grassland and desert plains have come to be dominated by the cowboys. Long since trading away the firearms of their ancestors for the bow & arrow. They've taken up the ways of the steppe nomads of the ancient world becoming the bane of all civilized lands on both sides of the continent (may or may not be the equivalent of the equivalent chaos worshipers).
  • East Coast: Think Westeros and the Northern Kingdoms from Witcher.
 
The Freer the Trade, the Freer the Folk: Structure of the Mackinaw League
The Freer the Trade, the Freer the Folk: Structure of the Mackinaw League

The Mackinaw League is the fifth Great Lakes trade organization since the dawn of the new Medieval era. Excepting the first league, known as the Great Lakes Area Federal Emergency Relief Office, all leagues have emerged naturally from the interactions of traders seeking mutual benefit through commerce, that most American of enterprises. The league has a fluid structure that varies from town to town and from year to year, but below is a cursory outline.

Structure

The League consists of merchants living along the shore of the Great Lakes and their tributaries. To be a league merchant, you must be born to Lakelander parents, you must be subject to Lakelander laws, and you must be in possession of a commercial education (even if it comes informally). The ultimate goal of the league is to manage the heterogeneous interests of its merchants for the enhancement of trade, and to secure the maximum amount of independence for the cities of the league.Most professions are represented by guilds or “Unions”, with each union being lead by a ‘captain of industry.’

League towns are centered around the local Chamber of Commerce. Chambers operate much like an early stock exchange. It is here that records are kept, handshakse are had, and meetings are held. Each Chamber is overseen by a Tycoon. Tycoons are elected by the Chamber’s merchants to three-year terms. Tycoons are genuinely the wealthiest and most powerful members of their communities and in many cases effectively operate as minor princes. While they have an enormous amount of power over the day to day operations of their town, they are still ultimately bound by the desires of their merchants and, to a lesser extent, the state to which they pledge fealty.

Meetings are called by the Tycoon either on a regular basis or if the local merchants demand it. Issues are raised and debates are held. The ultimate voting process is based on the consent of all members, where consent is defined as “lack of dissent.” Even if a league member doesn’t get his way but his proposal is unlikely to gain appreciable support, he is usually obliged to remain silent by convention. If dissenters can raise sufficient clamor however,, a compromise wil have tol be worked out.

The most important duty of the Tycoon is to represent his township at the General Shareholders Meeting in the Grand Chambers of Detroit, Chicago, or Buffalo to vote on bylaws, organize trade policy, and to modify the League Compact. While they theoretically may send a representative in their place, most Tycoons take the opportunity to flaunt their wealth in person. Famously, the Tycoon of the village Marquette on Lake Superior embezzled money from his rather poor Chamber to build the Son of Dogman in an attempt to put himself on par with the great Tycoons of Chicago, Detroit and Buffalo. When word reached Marquette of his crime, he was subjected to the harshest punishment prescribed by the LEague: a hole was drilled in the ice of Lake Superior, and he was cast in.

Foreign Rleations

Aside from setting prices and providing for intraleague cooperation, the League’s greatest goal is to minimize the power that the Governors and Presidents have over their towns.

Genesee county is of course the greatest example of League independence. The county is effectively run by local league merchants, much to the chagrin of the local noble class. The Count of Genesee is by law also the tycoon of the Great Chamber of Buffalo, making him one of the three Executive Tycoons.

Ohio has historically been a great friend of the Lake Leagues. The President in Cincinnati has historically adopted a policy of benign neglect. While Cleveland, Toledo, and Cedar Point are valuable ports, Ohio understands that it has little hope to exercise much direct control over the affairs of the Great Lakes compared to its adversaries. Thus, it largely leaves league merchants along Lake Erie to their own devices. Though they are not sovereign over their towns, the league merchants are extremely influential and the authorities are generally cooperative. In recent years, this policy has been upheld by the President to stick his thumb in Michigan’s eye.

Iowa’s relationship with the League is complicated. On the one hand, the league was instrumental in the siege of Chicago and the final victory against the Dabneys. On the other hand, the New Israelite past of the Iowas leave them suspicious of merchants and usurers. For the time being, however, Iowa has entrusted the League with a massive amount of control over its trade for the simple reason that they seem to know what they’re doing. This has been much to the chagrin of Iowa’s vassal Wisconsin and the Elks, who see the League as competition for power along the rich shores of Michigan and Lake Superior.

By far, the greatest enemy of the League has always been Michigan. Michigan’s vital control over the straits and, indeed, its naval supremacy over three of the major lakes has directed its policy in the direction of taxation, tolling, and control. The fortunes of prior leagues rose and fell depending on their relationship and relative power to Lansing. With the recent cowing of Michigan, however, the League is enjoying a large upswing. The tolls have been lifted, and many league towns are enjoying defacto independence.

The Canucks of the far north are vital to the league, being the source of the fine pelts that constitutes the Lakelands’s greatest export. However, Canuck raiders are a perpetual problem for traders who come to the far north.

Prior Leagues

-First League: Great Lakes Area Federal Emergency Relief Organization, or Glafero. Established by the Federal Government to ease logistics as the Regression went on. It quickly transformed from a humanitarian body into a mercantile one.
-Second League: Trilake Workers League , or the Lake League. The first true “Lake League”, caused by a reaction of the guilds to the perceived corruption of the First League.

-Third League: The Soo League. Based out of Sault Ste. Marie, and primarily focused on the fur trade.

-Fifth League: The Cedar League. Based out of Cedar Point.

-Sixth League: The Mackinaw League, the current iteration and so far the most powerful.
 
Here There Be Monsters: The Skunk-Ape
Here There Be Monsters: The Skunk-Ape

skunk-ape-alleged-sighting.jpg


The Gulf has become more wild since the Regression - perhaps not since the Palaeolithic has it seen the level of teeming biodiversity that it enjoys in the New Medieval Era. The hot and humid environment has been reclaimed by the yearly hurricane, destroying much of the ancient infrastructure and leaving in its place a nigh-tropical jungle. Zoo escapees and freed pets have made their mark all across Medieval America, true, but nowhere enjoys quite so exotic a repertoire as the Gulf, and nowhere in the Gulf enjoys quite so exotic a repertoire as Florida: the Torrid Vacationland, with a zoo for every tourist attraction and far more exotic pets per capita then is really reasonable.

Countless strange creatures inhabit the overgrown jungles of Florida - cane toads, giant iguanas, alligators, crocodiles, pythons, hippos. It has certainly earned the moniker American sailors have given it, the “Animal Kingdom”, though it is a kingdom without a king. The ecosystem of Florida is a deeply confused one. Given a few thousand more years of natural progression, most of these species would disappear, too many creatures competing for too few niches. But for now, it’s the wildest place in America.

Perhaps its most famous inhabitant is the Skunk Ape. Legends abound about these creatures among the native peoples. The Jewish tribesmen who inhabit believe they are Golems, created by rabbis to stop the Regression, driven mad by their failures. The Seminole believe they are the spirits of their murdered ancestors. Practitioners of voodoo affirmatively state that they are escaped Zombies who though free of the control of their Witch-Doctor still cannot regain their humanity. Even Christian Floridians are fearful of the Skunk Ape and are known to leave offerings to stave off their wrath.

The typical image of the Skunk Ape is that of a huge, hulking creature, the bastard son of the common Floridian monkey and man. It has a stink like no other that can paralyze a hapless huntsman from a mile away, leaving him victim to the horrid depredations of that monstrous beast. Its stink is believed to be a harbinger of the tropical diseases that ravage the peninsula.

The United States attempted to stamp out much of the folk belief in the Skunk Ape as they expanded their holdings in Florida, seeing it as a dangerous folk religion. The authorities in the State of Florida insisted that the Skunk Ape was very real, and a public health hazard. This schism was finally settled when an American monk, one Artie Burgess, slaid a Skunk Ape and sent its body to the Smithsonian. The United States and the Church has since reversed its line, conceding that the Skunk Ape is real, but countering that it is not any sort of mystical being but a race of escaped orangutans that have grown giant.
 
The Amish

tehskyman

Banned
The Amish

When the great regression came, the Amish seemed poised to capitalize upon the sudden loss of technology. Because of their lack of technological reliance and adherence to a largely agricultural lifestyle, they flourished in immediate time after the great recession began. They took over formerly mechanized farms, using their demographic strength to spread and grow. However, after 100 years or so, once everyone had gotten used to a medieval way of life, they began to falter. Warlords preyed upon them, using their pacifist ways to extort more and more out of their communities without any fear of reprisals. This situation continued until a more militant branch of the sect sprouted in the Upper Susquehanna Valley in 2653. Jon Delaney, a former captain in the American Appalachian Guard led an uprising of Amish peasants to overthrow the local sheriff. This uprising spread and soon Amish pikemen were knocking at the door of Harrisburg. The siege was swift, with Amish sympathizers inside the town opening the gates to the invaders outside.

The fall of Harrisburg sent shock-waves across the Mid Atlantic, how could a District Supervisory fall to near heathens! Don Matteo III De Delfino of New Jersey sent an army to try and conquer the fledgling nation but an Amish army met him just outside Harrisburg on the banks of the Susquehanna. The New Jersey army attempted a lancer charge when it seemed like the Amish were not prepared for their cavalry. However, the Amish had cleverly hidden pikes within their ranks planting them across the width of the battlefield. When the lancers drew near, the Amish retreated behind the pikes and revealed a forest of spikes awaiting the horses. The lancers could not stop in time and died en masse. Survivors were finished off by other spear-men.

After the battle of Falmouth, the Amish began negotiations with the Non Denom church about the status of the District Supervisory of Pennsylvania and the Amish church. 2 Associate Justices of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice himself met with Amish church leaders in Hagerstown for a preliminary meeting. Afterwards, both sides generally set representatives in their steed. After 41 long months, several brawls between delegates and a tense standoff between the Amish army and the Appalachian Guard, the Hagerstown Accords were signed. It was decided that the Amish would be officially granted an exception to the Non-Denom monopoly, with the condition that they would not be allowed to proselytize outside the borders of Pennsylvania. The Amish would no longer have the Non-Denom Orthodoxy interfere in their own church which would officially become a child-church of the larger Non-Denom church. Beliefs about the status of God would be shared though operation of the churches would differ. These differences included the approval of Pennsylvanian Dutch as a liturgical language, the ability for the Amish church to appoint their own holy men, and the financial independence of the Amish Church. In addition, the church supervisory in Harrisburg would be allowed to remain, and would have its holy men appointed by Baltimore.

Future disputes between descendants of John Delaney 51 years later caused the state to split into half and the title of the State of Pennsylvania to be vacated. The lower Susquehanna, downstream of the Blue Mountain Ridge would become Lancaster County and the upper Susquehanna would become Northumberland County. 15 years after the split, the USA attacked Lancaster County and forced them to submit to Federal Governance and the State of Pennsylvania was reformed. However, recognizing the potential for conflict and needing a stable frontier, the feds have officially protected the Amish from persecution within Federal territory and their church is allowed to practice freely in the new State of Pennsylvania. The Amish remain without representation in the Senate though they are allowed to sit in the House.

Since that time, the Amish have remained peaceful, content to stay in their little mountain valleys or spread throughout Federal Jurisdiction. Amish peasants have traveled to Pennsylvania and Northumberland County, fleeing persecution from the President in Cincinnati. The Amish have also spread throughout Federal Jurisdiction and their characteristic hats and beards are a familiar sight in many Federal cities, though no longer stand out quite as much as they once did in the industrial era.
 
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I have a feeling this would happen in medieval America...

Reign of Fire wasn't great but I really liked that scene. It felt a whole lot more realistic to have people who would have been kids Pre-Cataclysm remember Star Wars or other contemporary films or TV show than Shakespeares and the like.
 
So quick question is there any possibility that the Laskan's may have adopted Highland cattle for a primary source of meat, beast of burden and even clothing? I mean they are well suited for cold environments and I bet their hair could be used for clothe making.
 
So quick question is there any possibility that the Laskan's may have adopted Highland cattle for a primary source of meat, beast of burden and even clothing? I mean they are well suited for cold environments and I bet their hair could be used for clothe making.
While they'd be useful, it seems to me like the only significant population of Highland Cattle is to be found in eastern North America. So, unless you can find a large farm of highland cattle in BC, Yukon or Alaska, I'm going to guess that the local Laskans have just bred up their own variety of cold adapted cow from some local species, probably Holsteins.

Though I also made allusions to the fact that domesticated Reindeer are starting to outcompete cattle in Laska, so keep that in mind.
 
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