Albion, where the Sun never set

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This isn't related to the timeline itself, but how did you go about editing the scientific classification for these species' wikiboxes? I've been trying to do something similar for a project I'm working on but I can't seem to figure it out (as opposed to wikiboxes about rulers or countries, which are fairly straightforward). The scientific classification doesn't seem to be included in the box template, which is where I'm running into issues.
Sincerely most of it I did over paint because I couldn't be bothered to learn how to properly edit it in wikipedia itself, for example:
1657289370489.png

Here is the infobox for the Passenger Pigeon on my sandbox on wikipedia.
To make it look rights, I took out the crosses that signify extinction and the pencil besides Scientific Classification
Said pencil, BTW, takes us to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Taxonomy/Ectopistes Which is what I believe to be the reason why we can't easily edit the classification. - I mostly comment this because until you asked I hadn't noticed it had a link leading us to anything, and thought it was simply some annoying thing caused by me doing the boxes on my sandbox instead of in a proper wikipedia page
But that's the gist of it, when I needed to edit the classifications I just took a screenshot of a box with them, pasted it to Paint, and copied it over to the box I was editing
I wouldn't say it is hard to do so, but it is annoying
 
Unrelated to the message above, to those who read this TL, a few days back I did a fixer-uper on the Canada post and added another map to the dynasties. So if anyone hadn't noticed it, well, now you can go look.

(And for those a bit annoyed about the lack of additions to the TL, I'd like to say that I'm planning on posting something here in the next few days to hopefully get on with smaller but more frequent smaller additions)
 
  1. Are there any subnational monarchies in Russia that are ethnically Volga German?
  2. How did Sri Lanka get a Braganza on their throne?
  3. Have any new Saxon duchies been created though divided inheritance since the formation of the German Empire in 1871?
  4. How did Galicia get it's subnational monarchy?
  5. Are any of the other subnational monarchies in Russia ruled by foreign royal houses like Luar and the Windsors?
 
Are there any subnational monarchies in Russia that are ethnically Volga German?
A few, yes.
As of 2020, 3 of Russia’s Zemlye (the general classification for monarchical Federal Subjects) are considered to be “Volga Germanic” – Which on this case means that their population is made on its majority by self-identified Volga Germans or has them as its largest ethnic group, while their local monarch is at least of German descent. A bit ironically, none of them are located in the “Volga German” region, which is a part of the country’s oblasts, due to a mix of population movements of the 19th/20th century, happenstance, and how the Russian Reunification went down.
They are:
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- Zembla, the largest of the 6, whose Volga German population owes its presence to late-19th century attempts of the Old Russian Empire to shore its position in the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago against Norwegian settlement by moving hundreds of Nenets, Volga Germans, Pomorians and Finns to the islands; because of that the state isn’t actually majority Volga Germanic, with them making around 40% of the population of ~45,000
- the confusingly-named Lower Bulgaria (also called Syzran/Syzrania after its capital to differentiate it from Balkan Bulgaria), which actually started as a Majority-Russian state ruled by a German dynasty only (and named after a historic Turkic state) and gained a large Volga German population over the course of the 1920s and 30s, when its stability and German-perceived rulers made the state attractive to refugees from downriver, with its modern population being in actuality more of a mix of the two groups due to intermingling over the following century – Uniquely to it, the state is ruled by the House of Nassau-Saarbrucken (or Nassau-Dillingen*) a morganatic branch of the Nassau dynasty whose history of coming to Russia is a rather interesting one**
- and Krasivinsky, a small state made of a collection of five towns/villages led by the eponymous Krasivoye, which was established as a Volga German settlement in 1905 and during the years of the Russian Civil War became a small fiefdom who came to control the nearby settlements through having an overwhelmingly larger population

Something I’d like to add is a note on the Republic of Perevolotsk (pointed in orange), a small agrarian (quite-literally) republic who interestingly started in 1925 when a battalion made mostly of Volga-German soldier, after getting abandoned by their retreating forces, came to the village of Perevolotskaya looking for a refuge; to the soldiers’ surprise, the locals agreed to give them a place to stay in exchange for their work in manning the local fort, and through that serving as a defense force for the area. From there, the soldiers ended-up settling down and marrying into the local community (since the war and disease had resulted on most of their male population being either dead, children, or elderly), with Perevolotsk’s modern inhabitants having a mixed Volga German and Slavic culture

* It’s complicated; theoretically, both could be used but no-one is sure which is the “correct one”, since the branch’s founder was given the title of “Duke of Dillingen” as a child (he was the morganatic son of the penultimate Prince of Nassau-Saarbrucken, and although barred from Saarbrucken, he inherited the title of “Prince of Nassau”, while his mother had been given the Duchy of Dillange/Dillingen and so through her he was the “Duke of Dillingen”) and was only as an adult given the title “Prince of Saarbrucken” by Alexander I of Russia. Many people, do not deal with it, just call the family the “House of Nassau-Syzran” or “House of Nassau of Bulgaria”
** To make a long story short, the branch’s history in Russia starts with its founder, Adolph, volunteering to Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia as 22-year-old and getting badly wounded by a shot in the shoulder at the Battle of Smolensk (16 August 1812), which was then followed by the bullet only being surgically removed some forty days later. After that, his story continues on early December, 1812, when the retreating Great Army passed through Vilnius and he, injured and frostbitten, was nearly run over by a cannon, being taken to the house of a Rabbi, where he ended-up surviving the night by the skin of his teeth, losing his damaged arm (which was amputated due to the frostbite), and then convalescing for so long there the army passed him by.
Believed to be dead for a couple of years after that, Adolph stayed living in Vilnius, where he married a local Jewish woman (who converted), and only reappeared in 1818, when his mother’s continuous hunt for his whereabouts resulted in his discovery, which was followed by a small scandal because of his marriage. Said small scandal also brought Adolph to the attention of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who after deciding to meet him due to curiosity ended-up becoming friends with the younger man and inviting him and his family to the Imperial Court, from where they would become a part of the Russian nobility first unofficially and then officially
How did Sri Lanka get a Braganza on their throne?
By marriage. I should note though, it wasn’t Sri Lanka who got the Braganzas, but Kandy

Basically, ITTL the Kingdom of Kandy (which is also colloquially known as Udarata, “Upper Country” in Sinhalese) isn’t annexed by the British in 1815, instead ending up as a de facto princely state of “British Ceylon” following a slightly different set of Kandyan Wars and the Kandyan Convention, which unlike OTL sees a descendant of the previous House of Dinajara* placed on the throne of Kandy as a mostly powerless monarch instead of it being given to the British Monarch.

The Braganzas, then, come into play in the 1970s, when a grandson of the first King of Entrerrios married the Kandyan Crown Princess, who later chose to preemptively abdicate to their eldest son, whose own son is the current Kandyan monarch
Have any new Saxon duchies been created though divided inheritance since the formation of the German Empire in 1871?
Ironically, no. Much like OTL the Ernestine Duchies had already all moved to primogeniture by 1871, while the Albertine Secundogenitures, while having fragmented a few times over the years, had also stopped with the practice by then
How did Galicia get it's subnational monarchy?
Which Galicia?
Are any of the other subnational monarchies in Russia ruled by foreign royal houses like Luar and the Windsors?
Yes, technically? It’s a bit up for interpretation since the families who rule those states, while descending from foreign royal houses, were already a part of the Russian Aristocracy before becoming rulers of Zemlye during the era of the Civil War, unlike Luar where the Windsors married into the original dynasty and through that became its rulers.

But that's admittedly just semantics. At the end of the day, there are 3 Zemlye whose ruling families are recognized branches of foreign dynasties, 1 (Urmia, in the Russian Far East) is ruled by a Branch of the Borjigin Clan/Genghisids (descending from the Mongolian side of the dynasty) while the other 2 (1 located on the Caucasus and the other near Lake Baikal) are ruled by branches of the Bagrations.

I'm only saying recognized because if I didn't then numbers could rise a bit (the rulers a few other Zemlye claim or are said to descend from Genghis Khan on the male line, for example)
 
Right, I know that this is a bit late but:
The Eternal State of Agartha
Where, and what is the Eternal State of Agartha? I was just rereading the TL when I noticed this. And apparently they still don't recognize that World War II has ended? Why is that? And who rules them? Maybe a bit of history? How and why were they established, and how did they last so long?
 
  1. Have any Olympics been opened by the consort of an reigning monarch?
  2. Are any of the German Member-States in personal union with a foreign country?
  3. Which monarchs lived the longest after abdicating?
  4. When did the Imperial Monarchs of Bharat started to give their children Indian names?
  5. Who's the oldest male member of the Albish imperial family?
  6. What was the first non-Albish royal funeral to be filmed/televised?
  7. Does Galicia (the one on the Iberian peninsula to be exact) have a subnational monarchy?
 
Some Pop-Culture Snippets
Hi! Sorry for the wait, much like why I haven't posted anything this past month after finally making progress to do so, I started college in August, and that has been a certifiable shredder into my free time (literally one of the few reasons I managed to find time to post this right now it's because its Independence Day and as such I had my day free)
Have any Olympics been opened by the consort of an reigning monarch?
Much like OTL*, yes.
- Both the 1996, 2006 and 2012 Olympics were partly opened by George, the King Consort, as part of the opening ceremonies was Empress Jessamine coming in during the middle of the ceremony for them to finish it together (the 1996 was opened almost entirely by him, and the only part where Jessamine was involved was when an attempted assassination resulted on her impromptu jumping-in just as the ceremony was to close)
- The 1924 Olympics were opened by the Prince Consort of the Netherlands
- the 1942 Olympics were opened by the Prince Consort of Denmark (well...)
- and the 2008 Olympics were opened by the Empress Consort of Korea

*I'll admit I didn't know it until researching for this question, but the OTL 9th Summer Olympics in 1928 were opened by the Prince Consort of the Netherlands
Are any of the German Member-States in personal union with a foreign country?
No
Which monarchs lived the longest after abdicating?
The five monarchs with the longest lives post-abdication ITTL (as of December 31st, 2020), as far as I remember/know, are:

- Manuel III of Kongo, who lived for some 71 years, 1 month, and 6 days following his abdication in 1931
- surprisingly enough, Emperor Yōzei of Japan, who while existing in the first millennium CE and being an OTL figure managed to live for a total of 65 years, 7 months and 19 days after being forced to abdicate at the age of 15
- Carlos V of Spain, who has lived for some 62 years since his abdication/deposition in the 21st of September of 1958
- and the brothers Brian III and Percival II of Assam, who have lived for nearly 61 years since abdicating in the 6th and 17th of May of 1960 respectively
When did the Imperial Monarchs of Bharat started to give their children Indian names?
Well, that's a question without a correct answer really? native middle names appear as early as the children of the first generation of monarchs of Imperial Kingdoms of Bharat (Leopold of the Carnatic being a prime example) and first names don't really have a chronology.
Sorry?
Who's the oldest male member of the Albish imperial family?
Well, this answer I have actually already given, it's Prince Reginald of the Carnatic (one of Frederick I's many sons), who is still alive kicking and screaming at the age of 101.

But, just for fun, if you meant the "main" branch of the family in specific, then the eldest is George the King Father, who is 96
What was the first non-Albish royal funeral to be filmed/televised?
The first non-Albish royal funeral to be filmed was, surprisingly enough, that of Prince Yukihito of Japan (one of Emperor Meiji's younger sons) in 5th July 1908, as Empress Shōken, a master of PR and a genial modernizer, decided to use his funeral to make a concerted show of strength and unity to Japan in light of the pneumonic plague ravaging the country (which had been what killed the prince). She kept with that when doing the funeral of Emperor Meiji the following year, which was also the first funeral of a reigning monarch unconnected to the Albish*.

The first funeral of a non-Albish reigning monarch (but connected to the Albish Imperial Family) was actually of Carlota I of Portugal (and her posthumously recognized son, Luis I), in the 21st of February of 1909.

*I wish to note that this is an ITTL extrapolation of what I feel like she was OTL from looking at wikipedia, and that ITTL Empress Shōken also deserves mad props for the fact that she planned her sort-of-step-son's funeral mere weeks after nearly dying herself from the pneumonic plague, with much of the funeral being the repurposed plans for her own funeral
Does Galicia (the one on the Iberian peninsula to be exact) have a subnational monarchy?
Sorta? Morrazo isn't an official subnational monarchy or autonomous, but due to some shenanigans during the chaos that was 19th century Spain, Antônio de Asis, 3rd Duke of Cádiz (ITTL son of Infanta Paula of Brazil (third daughter of Pedro I/IV, who IOTL died at 9 probably from meningitis) and supposedly Francis, Duke of Cádiz) became the *sort-of* ruler of the Comarca of Morrazo (comprised of the Morrazo peninsula basically) and that "sort-of-office" passed down his family (it could be best described as a "sort-of-mayor, sort-of-judge, general dispute-solver?")

When Spain fell under the Regency, they cracked down hard on any sort of shenanigans of that kind, and when WWII came around the supposed incumbent was a decorated army official turned resistance fighter. Following the war, Galicia ended-up deciding to recognize/revive the "sort-of-office" again, but again it is more of a "local eccentricity" than a subnational monarchy I think? (while the office's holder is influential, being a part of the Galician peerage and extended Royal Family, it isn't through that office)

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Disconnected from the answers above, here are a few snippets about in-universe pop-culture to add a sort-of update to the TL
(Some quite heavily inspired by/based on posts by @PatricianLipwig and @ThatAutisticGuy on the Sixth Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes thread from July)



Les Misérables (opera)

Les Misérables, colloquially known as Les Mis or Les Miz is an opera in three (or four) acts by the composers Arthur Sullivan and César Bizet. The libretto was written by Jean-Marc d'Chanson and Henri Boublil in French and by William Schwenck Gilbert and Julian Sturgis in English, based on Victor Hugo's eponymous novel. The opera was first performed at the Palace Theatre of London in 24 September 1889, where it has kept nearly continuously running ever since, making it one of the longest-running productions in the world. A wild success at its launch, and remaining so to this day, the opera is, outside its tale, often remembered for the sheer insanity that went behind the scenes during its development and early years, with the fact it even came to be being just another part of that.

The source of a great deal of studies, journalistic papers, documentaries, biographies, novels, movies and even a musical, the production of Les Misérables already started as a diplomatic middle finger to the French in the part of Albion (being based on an work that was infamous for having its adaptations prohibited from performing in Paris and having among its cast and production team a battalion of French political exiles, besides premiering in French in a theatre built in a French style specifically for the occasion) and was marked by things like financial problems, butting heads and clashing personalities, sabotage, and physical altercations (most often between Gilbert and Sturgis), all things that were paved over through the Albish government’s sheer and unrelenting drive to see it made.
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The War In Heaven (epic)

The Wars in Heaven, JCR 26, is a cycle of eight English-language* epic music dramas composed by Johnathan Starford. The works are based loosely on characters from Arthurian Legend, as well as figures from the Late Roman Republic and Greco-Roman and Egyptian Mythology. The composer termed the cycled a “Engaged Play”, structured in two sets of four days separated by a “Reflection” of five days. It is often referred to as the Wars in Heaven Saga or Star’s Wars.

Starford wrote the libretto and music over the course of about twenty-two years, from 1838 to 1858. The eight parts that constitute the Wars cycle are, in sequence:
- The Perilous Phantom
- Anakin
- Among the Stars
- Twilight of the Jedi
- Anew Hope
- The Strike Back
- Vader
- Requiem of the Sith
Individual works of the sequence are often performed separately, and indeed the operas are written in a manner so that a viewer could watch any of them without having watched the previous parts and still understand the plot. However, Starford intended them to be performed in series.

Originally the first four were seen as the finished cycle, called the “War in Heaven”, and their first performance as such opened the first London Festival in 1844, beginning with The Perilous Phantom in 13 August and ending with Twilight of the Jedi on 17 August; it was only in 1854 that Anew Hope was premiered, beginning the so-called “Second Cycle”. The complete cycle first premiered closing the International Exhibition in 1862, beginning with The Perilous Phantom in 3 November and ending with Requiem of the Sith on 15 November.

Following Starford’s death in 1870, it would be discovered that the Wars in Heavens had changed greatly over time from his original plans, as he had intended for them to be what we would now call a “Space Opera” drawing inspiration from Lucian of Samosata’s Vera Historiae but had decided to change it due to fearing it would be even more difficult for the viewer to understand his story in that setting.

This discovery came due to the continuous publication of Starford’s posthumous works, as the man, somewhat bitter over being incapable of portraying his work as he originally planned, instead had spent his later years translating his cycle into novel form using his original setting, producing both literary equivalents to his operas as well as additional novels and novellas that would also be published by his children.

Due to the large number of works added by Starford posthumously, and the both small and great difference between the literally and dramatic Wars in Heaven, people have colloquially given additional titles to them, with some calling the operas the “Legends”, for example, due to their use of a setting akin to that of mythology.
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The Mysterious Thing (play)

The Mysterious Thing, sometimes referred to as just The Thing, is an 1877 American play by Donald Hanrahan Stuart, based on his 1861 novella “Who Goes There?” (Published under the pen name “Don A. Stuart”); its story follows a group of people trapped in an Arctic expedition with shapeshifting monsters able to absorb and imitate any living being. Considered one of the world’s first modern science fiction horrors together with the likes of Frankenstein, The Thing is often remembered for the at-the-time groundbreaking practical effects used in its first run, which were said to be “so realistic as to make watchers believe The Thing really was there”.

A nonprofessional actor, Hanrahan actually was a member of the cast during the play’s first run due to an actor falling down with cholera the eve of the premier, and during the Thing’s first 15 shows he played Mr. Blair
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Home Alone
(novel)

Home Alone is an 1890 novella by Benjamin D. Mayweather, first published in Chicago by Laird & Lee and illustrated by Joanna C. O’Hara. Home Alone recounts the story of Kevin McCallister, the rambunctious 8-year-old son of a well-to-do Chicago family who, due to unfortunate coincidences, misadventures and familial incompetence is left behind at his family’s house when they go on a trip to Paris during Christmastide, during his time home alone, he has to deal with a variety of occurences, and defend his house from a pair of unrelenting but highly incompetent thieves. Published on November 16th, the novella was a massive sensation at the time, with the first edition selling out by the start of December; by the end of 1891 15 editions had been released.
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Django the Freeman (novel)

Django the Freeman is an 1858 part-poetic epic novel by Benjamin D. Mayweather, first published by A. S. Barnes & Co. and illustrated Dangerfield F. Newby and Mayweather himself. Freeman recounts the story of a slave, Django, in a journey to be reunited with his wife Brunhilda with the aid of a German bounty-hunter named King. Highly successful in the US North and in Canada, as well as Europe, the novel’s themes, as well as its brutal fate for most slave-owners, resulted on it being banned and decried as “abolitionist propaganda”, with some going as far as calling for Mayweather’s arrest for his “open support and instigation of slave insurrection”.

Receiving death threats and three revoked arrest warrants in the months following the book’s publication, Mayweather was remarkably joyous over the reactions he received from pro-slavery groups about his novel, even after the 1859 attempt against his life, and would later in 1866 publish a short story about Django and Brunhilda solely about how well they were doing living in Canada.
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Sojourn to the Past (novel)

Sojourn to the Past is an 1822 romance novel by Oliver Corbray and Johnathan Starford, first published by Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor & Jones in Edinburgh, and illustrated by Corbray. Set in 18th century Scotland, the novel details the adventure of young Martin McFly, who finds himself transported back into the past by the machinations of the benevolent but clumsy Doctor Brown, and must then rekindle his parents love. Mostly ignored critically at the time of its publication, but a success among the public, the novel is considered a pioneer of the science fiction genre as much as it is remembered for its maintain in the ranks of classical romantic literature.

An interesting anecdote about the novel’s original publication is that, although set in the late and mid-18th century, its illustrations depicted a setting resembling that of the 16th century, which, although main an internal joke to them, resulted on Corbray and Starford deciding to later write and publish in 1835 Sojourn Back to the Past, where Martin and Jennifer are sent to the 1580s.
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Mr. Lorax, Speaker of the Trees (novel)

Mr. Lorax, Speaker of the Trees, sometimes called simply Mr. Lorax or Lorax, is an 1870 poetic novella and modern fable by Benjamin D. Mayweather (under his pen name of “Dr. Maynard”), chronicling the plight of the environment and the Mr. Lorax, the titular character, who “speaks for the trees” and confronts the Once-ler, who causes environmental destruction. Made by Mayweather over his concerns over the environment, the story uses the literary element of personification to create relatable characters for industry (as the Once-ler), the environment (being the Truffula trees) and activism (as the Lorax), and encouraging personal care and involvement in making the situation better: "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not."

Both a sensation and great strike on the people of the time when it came out, the was greatly influential even shortly after its publication, which is seen as having come at just the right moment, being directly referenced in the passing of the Act of Dedication by the US Congress the following year, and to this day being often used and quoted by activists and politicians; for that reason, Mayweather is often remembered as one of the “Father of Environmentalism”.
 
  1. What is Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (cousin of Ludwig II) known for if he isn’t King of Bavaria?
  2. Is Hollywood still the film production capital of the world in TTL?
  3. Are the Presidents of Brittany related in any way to the House of Rohan?
  4. What are the Grey Gardens in Oregon like?
  5. Is the line of succession for the Ottoman Empire/Turkey still follows agnatic seniority?
  6. Have any coronations been streamed on the internet yet?
 
Elizabeth II of the Straits
So.
Hi.
I apologize for the lack of anything in the TL the last month.
I had been planning some things (and now have returned to them), but the Queen’s death hit me harder than I could even imagine.
She was always a sort of vague inspiration for this entire thing, in many ways, and when she died, I didn’t even know how to react properly.
For a while on the day the news hit I thought about making a post commenting on it, and what it would mean for her ITTL counterpart, but that felt too small, and too shallow.
I then though about making an entire update depicting Empress Jessamine’s royal funeral, as in spirit she is the Queen’s ITTL mirror, but I didn’t feel like I could make justice to it, to Jessamine and the Queen even, even to the TL in of itself. I was still a bit in shock then I think, and it didn’t feel right to try and show the image I had without being capable of actually portraying it correctly and soundly.
And then I just fell a bit…
I don’t know how I felt, really.

I said “sort-of” above, but that’s a big understatement, she was one of the inspirations, she was maybe the inspiration, in some strange and unexplainable way to me, for this entire thing. Hell! I had even joked to myself that “when she died” would be when I declared the TL finished for good (bravo, past me).
I’m not even British, or from Europe, but her death hit me as hard as my great-grandmother’s early this year.
And so I spent the rest of September in a bit of a lull, a think a part of me trying to disconnect from this work. Not really doing any writing or mapmaking or things similar.
Had my first exams as a college student.
Had my first practical classes in culinary school.
Had my 20th birthday
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And then I had a pretty large number of questions asked to me on my other active project.
Them coming already had been a bit of a surprise, and they were so many all at once!
It sort of jolted me back into creating things.
And made me return to working on this TL, which I have been doing for much of October.

Having written all of that, It still feels wrong to making this return with only the answer to the most recent questions, and also feels wrong to leave the Queen without something in her honor, in her remembrance.
As such, while it isn’t enough – or to me doesn’t feel enough –, here is her ITTL counterpart, now appearing on a post solely for herself instead of as one of the many monarchs of the Imperial Kingdoms of Albion

(sorry for the wordy-ness, I don’t really know what got over me)

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Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Mary Victoria Gilbertine Alexandra; born in 22 April 1926) is the Yang di-Pertuan Arif Tua[3] of Malaysia and Elder Queen of the Straits[4] since October 2021. She was declared the Elder Queen of the Straits on 15 October 2021, as part of pseudo-abdicating the throne to her eldest son, Sulaiman, after serving as sole Monarch of the Straits[5] since 1961 and as Sultana of Riau-Lingga[6] since 1963. On 8 December 2021, days after her partial abdication, she was proclaimed as Yang di-Pertuan Arif Tua of Malaysia by the Council of Rulers of Malaysia, which she had served as Chair since 22 January 1982. Since 18 May 1998, she is also the ceremonial Third Sea Lord of the Royal Navy.
Born as the first child of the then Duke and Duchess of York, on her maternal grandfather’s house[7] at Mayfair, London, Elizabeth II lived on the Home Islands only until the age of 4, moving with her family to Singapore in 1930 when her father was appointed governor of the Straits Settlements. Originally educated privately at home with her sister, firstly by a governess and then by a series of tutors, Elizabeth II showed from a young age a keen interest for the sea and the navy, something that she passed to her younger sister, Princess Margaret, and after much discussions entered the Royal Naval College, Singapore, at the age of 10.
After nearly 11 years as a Princess of York, Elizabeth II became a “Princess of the Straits” in December 11th, 1936, with the enthronement of Albert of the Straits, and on the following year was a member of the procession during his coronation. Heiress presumptive upon her father’s enthronement, Elizabeth II continued to study at the Royal Naval College, Singapore, until the age of 16, when she progressed to Dartmouth, becoming an ensign at HMS Kinghorne in 1944.
Married on October of 1947 to then Crown Prince Mahmud of Riau-Lingga after years of courtship[8], Elizabeth II did not retire from the Royal Navy upon marriage, although she did take partial leaves during her first and second pregnancies, and spent the late 1940s and early 1950s as a speedy riser on the ranks of the Royal Navy, being a Rear Admiral by 1952.
Stationed on Australia during the early years of the Second World War, Elizabeth II was there when the Straits (and in specific Singapore) fell to the Allies in 1954, hearing of the capture of the city and her parents while at dinner with her family, and served as one of the fiercest and most brutal leaders of the Royal Navy on the Eastern Front of the war, later becoming the de facto ruler of the insular parts of Albish-held Southeast-Asia.
The de facto ruler of the Straits and Riau-Lingga after the end of the Second World War, with her husband being the nominal Sultan of Riau since 1954, Elizabeth II became the official ruler of the Straits on May 17th, 1961, when her father, weakened and traumatized by his time as a prisoner of war, abdicated on his daughter’s name and dropped any pretenses of being the actual ruler of their kingdom.
Co-monarch with her husband for two years, Elizabeth II became a widow in 1963 when Mahmud V died from lung cancer on June 29th, and at the same time inherited his throne. Because of that, Elizabeth II’s early reign was marked not only by the rebuilding of the Straits, which were decimated by the Second World War, but also by the finalization of integrating the Straits with the also rebuilding Riau-Lingga Sultanate, a process that symbolically was completed on August 26th, 1967, when Elizabeth II was crowned simultaneously as Queen of the Straits and Sultana of Riau-Lingga.
Currently the longest-serving[9] ruler of Southeast Asia and the Malay World (and one of the region’s longest-reigning monarchs in history), with over 6 decades of experience on her belt, Elizabeth II is considered by many the primus inter pares among the rulers of the region[10], often being seen as a source of guidance and counsel for her youngest peers. On the Straits themselves, the queen is colloquially known as “Queen Nenek”[11] by her subjects, and has her long reign marked, above all else, by the growth and development of the kingdom over the decades, going from a land ravaged by war sustained by being a bastion of Albish military power to an economic powerhouse, serving as a financial, services and shipping hub and having one of the highest qualities of living across the Albish Empire.
For all of its growth and wealth, her reign has not, however, been without its hurdles, crises and disasters, both from the outside, with Elizabeth II overseeing the Straits in the times of the Quasi Wars with Johor in the 1970s, the shadow cast onto de 1980s by the Bloodstained Durbar, or the aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami – as well as the inside, with times such as the Singapuran Gang Wars of the late 20th century, or the Families Disaster in 2003. Her reign has also not come by without any controversies or criticism, most famously and commonly the fact that, for most of her reign, Elizabeth II has de facto ruled the Straits with an almost authoritarian, even dictatorial, power over them; she has also been the center of many conspiracy theories, most famously involving the large number of deaths among her husband’s extended family and major “vassals” during the 1960s.
Identifying as a deeply religious woman, Elizabeth II is also a self-declared “incomplete convert”, admitting to the fact that, although converting to Islam in 1947 in preparation to her marriage, she never abandoned much of the beliefs she was raised with as an Anglican, calling her beliefs as being “a mixing of both what I was raised with, what I married into[12], and some things I accepted with the years[13]”. In relation to her personal life and interests, Elizabeth II is known for her interest in marine biology and ecology, often visiting research centers and aquariums on her free time, and is known for her lifelong friendship with the late Julia McWilliams, the decorated Royal Navy Commodore, marine biologist and military researcher[14].

[1] also called “Commemoration” or “Remembrance” (Memorial being used on the infobox for size), it was the completion of Elizabeth II’s pseudo-abdication
[2] although Elizabeth II had been the monarch of the Straits for the good part of a decade and Mahmud V had been Sultan since 1954, war, rebuilding and integrating caused both of them to delay their coronations extremely, with Elizabeth ending-up being crowned in 1967 in a ceremony that was also her coronation as Sultana while Mahmud V had a hastily-prepared coronation a few weeks before his death
[3] created by the Council of Rulers (also called the Sovereign Council or the Durbar of Malaysia) for Elizabeth (even if it ironically is a male sounding title), the full title can be translated to “One Who Is Lord With Wisdom Gained by Age”, a reference to her position as the eldest of the council’s members and nearly four decades as the Council’s chair, it is mostly a ceremonial title instead of an office, though
[4] using “Elder Queen” to refer to the title in English is a bit of a polite fiction, as in Malay it reads as “Old Lady of the Straits”
[5] which include being the nominal Commander-in-Chief of the East Indies Fleet of the Royal Navy and the Admiral Commanding of the Singapore Station, both positions now held by her son
[6] being the ninth ruler of Riau-Lingga overall and the first sultana regnant
[7] 17 Bruton Street (nicknamed “Albert Park”), although nowadays the official residence of the monarch of the Straits in London, was at the time of Elizabeth II’s birth the London house of the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
[8] the two had actually met as children, and were even casual friends, but only started developing a closer and later romantic relationship after meeting as students at Dartmouth (Mahmud became an officer of the Engineer Corps of the Royal Navy), spending much of the years between 1942 and 1947 in a long courtship done through letters and chance encounters, with Elizabeth II revealing much later on they actually had their first night together in 1945, while stationed at Malacca
[9] although some still argue not, Elizabeth II’s convoluted pseudo-abdication meant that she remains the official head of the Straits in name, even if she has mostly kept from interfering much in her son’s work as its “Younger Monarch”
[10] believed to be one the reasons why she has remained the Chair of the Council of Rulers for such a long while, even after the monarchs who ascended from the Bloodstained Durbar reached their ages of majority
[11] or “Granny Queen” in English
[12] doing the Hajj in 1948, and committing to Islamic dietary laws (the queen has at times even joked about her sorrow at not being capable of drinking wine or whisky anymore), Elizabeth II has as the main points of her mixing the manner through which she does her daily prayers (the queen has admitted to mostly doing it on the same manner as she prayed when she was officially Christian) and the fact that she fasts in some level during both Lent and the Ramadan
[13] the last part referring most probably to Elizabeth II’s admittance to having adopted some beliefs from Hinduism, in special the idea of reincarnation
[14] nicknamed the “Queen of Sharks”, although her interest on them didn’t come until the Second World War, during which she, while serving in the Royal Navy and the MI6, invented her first patent, shark repellant (still in use today). One of the founders of the International Selachiophilic Society, she is often best remembered for having written “Jaws”, the book, whose movie was responsible for establishing the shark’s modern image as a “surprisingly charming, even gentle, beings, who are at worse suffering from horrid nearsightedness and are more in danger of falling victim to human cruelty, predation, and panic than to harm one”
 
The Principality of Elba
What is Prince Ludwig of Bavaria (cousin of Ludwig II) known for if he isn’t King of Bavaria?
He is mostly known for his political career, and for being the both the first German Chancellor to die on the office and the first partisan Chancellor, as well as for doing so just weeks after the armistice with France.

Starting his career in politics in the upper house of the Bavarian Landtag, the Reichsrat, in 1863 (royal princes are automatically members), and later becoming a member of the Reichstag in 1872 (firstly as a member of the Bavarian Patriot Party, then as a non-partisan/independent, and later as part of the Centre Party). Outside of a period between 1890 and 1897, he remained on the Reichstag until 1909, when he was appointed the de facto Minister President of Bavaria, and remained on the office until late 1916, when he was asked by Kaiser Wolfgang I to become German Chancellor.

In Germany he is often remembered for his sort-of-weird political stance, being conservative traditionalist but at the same time championing many liberal causes such as expansion of voting rights and better work conditions, which while some simply calk-up to him being faithful to Rerum novarum others think was something he developed on his own, as it was already present before the encyclical was issued in the 1880s. He is also remembered for de facto remaking the Centre Party to his image, with it to this day still keeping mostly to what he established as its principles in 1899.

During his time as a politician he also was a proponent of the technological development of the german agrarian industry, as well as for being an ardent supporter of the social welfare programs, passing during his Chancellorship both a land distribution program for veterans (to be enacted following the end of the war) and the extension of the right to vote to women (although it was still in a limited fashion)

Outside of Germany Ludwig is mostly known for his time as Chancellor, with some mentioning in special the fact he survived 18 recorded assassination attempts (including one by siccing his hunting dogs at the assassin, ironically a pair of borzois gifted to him by his daughter-in-law) and the fact that he had some real talent in making himself sound “admonishing” and “annoyed” when talking.
Is Hollywood still the film production capital of the world in TTL?
No, an I’d say there isn’t really an ITTL equal to OTL Hollywood in relation to influence over the movie industry.
Due to the much less stable, and actually quite bloody and chaotic, course of North America in the 20th century, in special during periods when the film industry was sort of establishing itself (as well as due to movie industry being less *centralized*), Hollywood, although still a major center of film production, isn’t nearly as predominant as OTL. Other major “production capitals” are:

Trillsdale (Iver, Buckinghamshire) and Cinelândia (Rio de Janeiro), who are the film production capitals of Albion and Brazil respectively and together are the closest to OTL Hollywood we have on the TL’s world
Olympia (south of Rupert, Seattle’s ITTL counterpart), Oregon’s “movie capital”, known for having “Newold Village”, one of the world’s largest filming sets as it is basically a full town built for historical movies and programs (mostly Victorian)
Churubusco (named after the district it is located in the Mexico City region), the Mexican “movie and television capital” and in many ways functioning like a Hollywood that never underwent the Hays Code
Uzumasa (Kyoto), Japan’s “movie capital”, which is known for having another of the world’s largest film sets, “Uzumasa the Village” (which is both a filming set, most famous for the large part of it replicating an Edo town, and an actual village)
Rosewood (Pashran, south of Mumbai), who is Bharat’s largest singular center for film production but isn’t the “capital” of the subcontinent’s movie industry due to Canning (just outside Calcutta) being head-to-head with it in relation to movie output
and Serebryanayevo (outskirts of Moscow), which besides being the center for a large chunk of Russia’s film studios, is also known for having the third-largest “filming city” in the World, which is so large it is also often rented to foreign film studios and includes things such as one of the Great Wooden Palace of Kolomenskoye’s reconstructions, a replica of a Kievan Rus’ city, and an artificial lake used to film sea battles
Are the Presidents of Brittany related in any way to the House of Rohan?
Yes, nowadays, since the Rohan-Chabots remained in Brittany/France as a major political dynasty and have by now intermingled with them – even if political marriages aren’t really a thing, marrying within a social circle and familial expectations are –, and so the current President’s husband is the Duke of Rohan’s 1st half-cousin
What are the Grey Gardens in Oregon like?
I don’t know if I can correctly describe the image I have in my head for them, but I’ll try.

The Gray Gardens are the resting grounds of the Oregonian Monarchs and Royal Family, located where Stanley Park, Vancouver, is OTL (with the pseudo-island they are located being officially the Royal Woods of Vancouver, which are nominally a territory separate from the surrounding metropolis of Musqueam, OTL Vancouver’s counterpart).

From afar, the most noticeable feature of the Gardens is the Old Castle, on the taller northwest of the ‘island’; built in the 1860s by Tobias Cainhurst, a man who made fortune in the Fraser Gold Rush, the castle is a rather massive *mostly* neogothic structure, and even from afar one can notice the dilapidated tone of its appearance, with one side of it being marked by ivy and green and the other seems to have bits and pieces missing. This is due to how the castle came to the possession of the Oregonian Royal Family, as it was from 1864, even before completion, to 1882 Cainhurst’s residence, until a fire and gas explosion, which also killed the guy, resulted on a large part of the castle being either burn, collapsing, or being damaged. In grief and shock, the man’s surviving family simply left the castle, and neither them nor the city made moves to either restore or completely demolish it.

This is where the Gray Gardens gained their name, as during a visit to Musqueam in 1885, the royal couple ended-up taking a trip through the ruins, and by then the stone and concrete parts of the ruins had been somewhat bleached by the Sun and rain, while vegetation and animals were encroaching. Seeing the ruins, the couple, Michael in special, found it strangely beautiful, with him comparing it to ruins of castles and palaces in Europe and the Home Islands, while Helena said it resembled a “garden made of granite” – her statement served as the basis for the nickname they gave to the ruins, “gray garden”, which was made the estate’s name when the Crown bought the lands from Tobias’ family later that year.

While the stable parts of the castle were converted into a royal residence, and what wasn’t was still renovated to be in a better state, the remainder of the ruins were left as they were; to the side of the ruins, in the overground gardens of Cainhurst’s castle, a small neogothic chapel was built on Michael’s orders, to serve as the resting place for him and Helena. Following that, the castle gardens became the official burial grounds basically, although undergoing major alterations and renovations in the 1930s and 70s.

The grounds aren’t paved, being a bit maze-like with gravel trails, and are marked by most of the graves and tombs, from the simple to the extravagant, being constantly manicured to look mildly overgrown by a battalion of gardeners and groundskeepers, with the overgrowth on itself being a part of their design and meant to keep with the general style of the gardens
Is the line of succession for the Ottoman Empire/Turkey still follows agnatic seniority?
Well…
Both?

Due to the rather… chaotic, manner through which the Ottoman Empire fell, the House of Osman sort-of splintered into various branches as dynasts fled to the four corners of the Earth. Out of this mess, the two main branches who came about were those of Adakale in Europe and Samaria in the Middle East; one follows hereditary primogeniture, the other agnatic seniority; both claim to be the Ottoman Caliph.
While they were at eachother’s necks about the matter (with Samaria in specific claiming to be the true continuation due to keeping the old succession system) this would be simply a case of opinion and you could more easily make a point for Samaria being the “true” continuation, until the branches talked it out on 1977 in Cairo and, in the Mena Hotel Agreement, agreed to recognize one-another as Caliph, meaning that both are seen by the House of Osman as the direct official continuation of the Ottoman Empire.
And even in relation to Samaria things could be made even weirder, since they sort-of divided their rulership of Samaria from the Caliphate to make things easier, so while the Caliphate goes by agnatic seniority through all the House of Osman (although members can abdicate their right to it upon being offered, and the Adakale branch is officially kept separate from this), the de facto rulership of Samaria passes by agnatic seniority solely through the local branch of the dynasty
Have any coronations been streamed on the internet yet?
Much how presidential inaugurations are streamed on the internet, coronations are too; admittedly, though, the number of coronations streamed live is generally-to-considerably smaller.

The first coronation to be ever streamed live, much like the first inauguration OTL, is a bit understated in that, with most people not even knowing that Fuad II of Egypt’s coronation ceremony in 1997 was not only streamed live but was the first one to do so. The one most people associate as being “the first one” is that of Kaiser Wolfgang III in 2001.

A recent major coronation to be streamed live was that of Empress Charlotte, in 2017.
How advanced is anthropogenic global warming compared to OTL?
Firstly, sorry for somehow managing to not notice your question until nearly half a year later. I apologize, emphatically and profusely.
Secondly, that is a rather interesting question! – at least to me


While for the 19th century and the early 1900s anthropogenic global warming and climate change happened at mostly a similar level to OTL, things differ rather considerably as changes started to pile up by the middle of the 20th century, as various ITTL events, most importantly the early development of environmentalism and petroleum never becoming the undisputed rulers of the vehicle/transport industry, even when balanced by an earlier industrialization of certain parts of the world, resulted on the overall rise of global surface temperature from human action being just a bit smaller than it was OTL.

The major divergence from OTL happens with the continuation of the 20th century, though, as the ITTL changes continue to accumulate, both on top of the above mentioned ones and on each-other – like the various global conflicts, which affected both population growth and industrialization (often changing where it happened, how it did, and to which scale it did in comparison to OTL) and technological development (which moved in a somewhat, even if not by much, faster pace); or the earlier popularization of alternative energy sources –, resulting on anthropogenic global warming being on a better (for the world) situation compared to OTL, with the global average temperature being about 0.7 °F (just under 0,4 °C) higher than that of pre-industrial times, when we reached the 1990s.

I specify the 1990s because ITTL that is the decade where anthropogenic global warming and climate change, and their dangers and horrors, really entered the public consciousness, and where, unlike OTL, efforts to fight against it were not successfully fought against by the fossil fuel industry (with the ITTL equivalent of the Koch brothers being actually tried for treason for doing so), resulting on an active push to both reduce/contain carbon gas emissions and physically extract the excess CO2 on the atmosphere.

Because of that, anthropogenic global warming hasn’t advanced even close to the same point as OTL, and as of 2020 the global average temperature has actually managed to decrease from how it was at the end of the 20th century, being about 0.4 °F (~0.2 °C) above what it was before the industrial revolution (in comparison to our modern ~2.2 °F, or 1.2 °C)

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And now, for somethign completely unrelated to the answers I gave above
Some info on Elba, not in the manner of an infobox though, more like how I did the Imperial Kingdoms, and on the mess in Italy

ELBA
Officially the Principality of Elba (Tuscan: Principato d’Elba; Elban French: Principauté del I’lla d’Elba; Corsican: Principatu d’Elba)
Capital in the Fraction of Lutèce, part of the larger Ferraio, the principality’s largest city at a population of 52.8 thousand inhabitants
The principality has Tuscan[1], French[2], and Corsican[3] as its official languages, while German[4], Piedmontese and Hoisan-wa[5] are recognized as ‘protected languages’
The principality has a total population of approximately 363 thousand inhabitants, with an estimated 50 thousand pseudo-citizens[6]
Out of its population, the largest ethnic group is that of Elbans[7], which make an overwhelming majority at around 75%, while the largest minorities are the members of the Chinese Diaspora[8] and Piedmonteis[9], who comprise most of its remaining citizens, and Italian Refugees[10], who make most of the population lacking citizenship
Religiously Elba is a majority Roman Catholic[11], with Buddhism and Chinese Folk Religions[12] and the Cult of Reason[13] being the principality’s main religious minorities
Officially the principality is a Bonapartist Monarchy, a kind of constitutional executive monarchy marked by being de facto more of an absolute monarchy, marked by a monarch that holds a central authority over all facets of government and can make all-encompassing decisions at their wish, although historically most Elban monarchs have delegated the use of those powers to a personally appointed Governor of Elba[14]
The principality’s official currency is, somewhat ironically, the Tuscan Florin & Lira[15], as well as the European Unit

THE SOVEREIGNS OF ELBA
April 13th, 1814, to June 9th, 1815 – Napoleon (1769-1821) – better known as the Emperor of the French, he was made Emperor at Elba in the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1814, and was deposed in absence by the Congress of Vienna after his Hundred Days
----The Ninth of June to the Thirteenth, 1815 – The Napoleonic Question[16]----
June 13, 1815, to July 22nd, 1836 – Francis I Napoleon (1811-1836) – sometimes called Napoleon II, due to being the titular Emperor of the French from the 22nd of June to the 7th of July of 1815, he was the son of the above with Archduchess Maria Ludovica of Austria[17] and was nearly not made Sovereign of Elba by the Congress of Vienna. Raised in Austria, he was there Duke of Reichstadt, and died without having ever set foot in Elba
June 22nd, 1836, to February 8th, 1877 – Francis II (1835-1877) – the son of the above with Maria Theresa of Austria-Este[18]
February 8th, 1877, to September 30th, 1893 – Louis (1862-1919) – son of the above with Maria Christina of Tuscany[19], abdicated
September 30th, 1893, to May 1st, 1926 – Mariana (1855-1926) – older sister of the above, she had served as his Governor beforehand[20]
May 1st, 1926, to August 10th, 1953 – Joseph I (1880-1961), son of the above with Count Emilie of Calamita[21], abdicated due to health
August 10th, 1953, to January 3rd, 1988 – Francis III (1906-1988), son of the above with Helena of Tuscany[22], a famous playboy[23]
January 3rd, 1988, to March 27th, 1992 – Joseph II (1930-1992), son of the above with Paula von Fürstenberg[24]
March 27th, 1992, to the Present – Alexander (1980), son of the above with Loredana of Tavolara[25]​

[1] ITTL, although Standard Italian is still the same as OTL, Elba, like some of the other Italian States, recognizes its local dialect of Italo-Romance as being an official language in of itself and refers to it as either “Tuscan” or “Elbano Tuscan”
[2] Becoming an official language of Elba in 1836, after the principality received an influx of Napoleonic Loyalists, the Elban Dialect of French (formally declared the official one in 1966) is considerably different from the language’s “Standard” variation, having been injected with a considerable amount of Tuscan, Occitan and Corsican over the past 200 years (most easily exemplified by the principality’s name in Standard/Parisian French, which is nearly completely different from how it is in Elban French)
[3] A bit of a strange case, Corsican only became the principality’s official language in the 1860s, when attempts by Francis II to both distance from and reconnect with his family’s past resulted on the “Corsican Delegation”, the immigration of about a thousand immigrants from Corsica which permanently affected the principality’s demographics
[4] Due to both being raised in the Imperial Court at Vienna, both Francis I and his son had the local language as their first tongue, something which was brought by Francis II to Elba, with Viennese German becoming something of a courtly language in the principality during the early 19th and a strange sort-of lingua franca, which with time evolved into a local dialect of German unique for being both commonly spoken but also almost solely as a secondary language
[5] Also known as “Taishanese” or “Toishanese”, Hoisan-wa is one of the various Yue Languages which spread with the Chinese Diaspora, and in Elba specifically named as such to differentiate it from the related but largely unintelligible Cantonese, which has historically been conflated with the Yue Languages in general due to being their “prestige variety”
[6] The term used in Elba to refer to permanent inhabitants who nonetheless lack an official citizenship
[7] Considered by some to be a “artificial identity”, the idea of “Elban” as something more than either “Inhabitant of the Principality of Elba” or “Pre-Napoleonic Inhabitants of Elba” was first officially started by Francis II, in an attempt to unite the principality’s various inhabitants through a shared cultural identity, but only came to be something of a reality under his children, who heavily pushed for the idea of it being the gestalt of the country’s various – European – ethnic groups
[8] First appearing in Elba in the late 19th century, coming through the admission of immigrants from France’s colonial endeavors in Asia, the bulk of the principality’s Chinese Diaspora, however, only came in the 20th century, when the Conflicts and the future Francis III’s “adventures” in East Asia resulted on the coming of Elba’s large Taishanese population (the former for creating an environment that made immigration from Southern China enticing and the latter form making it from Taishan to Elba in specific both attractive and possible)
[9] Originating in Elba in the middle 20th century, the Piedmonteis are or descend from refugees and exiles coming from the Piedmont Region of Northern Italy who came in the years of and following the Second World War, who made most of the Italian refugees to Elba in those times and are referred to as “Piedmonteis” in great part to simply differentiate from contemporary refugees (as the conflation with them tends to at least miff most Piedmonts, who are original to a different region and have generally attempted to shed most connections to a “Italian Nationality” since their coming to Elba, most easily seen in their sticking to either Piedmontese or Tuscan as their primary language instead of Standard Italian)
[10] Mostly original to the regions of Tuscany and Liguria
[11] The Roman Catholic Church does have some quirks in Elba, mainly the fact that the Sovereign is officially recognized by the Papacy as His Holiness’ highest-ranking official within the principality even if said office’s powers (equivalent to an Archbishop) are de facto nominal outside of a few instances (Elba has ironically enough had a quite friendly relationship with the Vatican since the times of Francis II)
[12] Which often are practiced together with Roman Catholicism, reason why Elba is rather “inexact” in its religious statistics
[13] Starting as a university club in the 1880s, the Elban Cult of Reason isn’t an actual continuation to the one that existed in Revolutionary France (although some have claimed it to be so), instead simply being a philosophical belief that identifies itself as “being based on the exercise of Reason and Reasoning as the main tenant for one’s way of living”. One of the most noticeable difference between the modern cult and the revolutionary one is its stance on religion, for example, with the Cult’s founders being rather explicit on it not being atheistic in nature (many of them expressing the opinion that “Reason is the way through which (God’s) Plan moves”) and a large part of its modern members identifying as also being followers of Roman Catholicism together with it
[14] The actual powers of the “Governor of Elba” have never been truly set in stone, with the closest thing to a definition being that the office’s holder is responsible for doing the Sovereign’s job when they can’t or won’t, but even then that isn’t a complete fit, since while many Governors have at many times acted as Elba’s de facto Head-of-Government (like those of Francis I or Sovereign Mariana while serving as her brother’s Governor), at others they have acted instead as their Sovereign’s deputy (like Mariana’s Governors), resulting in most people saying that the job of the Governor of Elba is “doing what the Sovereign needs them to do”
[15] Having been in a monetary union with the Grand Duchy of Tuscany since its founding, Elba ended-up retaining the Tuscan Florin and Lira as its currency even after the grand duchy’s demise in 1859, with the modern principality being in the unique situation where its original coin, of which the principality is its only official user, isn’t actually seen by Elba as being ‘native’ to it, with the Mint of Ferraio being officially a branch of the now defunct Mint of Florence
[16] For a while following the final defeat of Napoleon, there was a discussion over whether Elba would immediately return to being a part of Tuscany (as it was technically planned to do upon Napoleon’s death) or if something else was to occur; in the end the Congress of Vienna somehow came to the decision of giving the Principality of Elba to Napoleon’s son, who was a toddler living in Vienna, together with a few stipulations (like a planned marriage between said young son and a Tuscan Hapsburg)
[17] Better known as Marie Louise, Napoleon’s second wife, she was by birth the eldest surviving child and daughter of Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor (and first Austrian Emperor), and the Duchess of Parma, Piacenza and Guastalla following the 1814 Treaty of Fontainebleau, holding the position until her death in 1847.
[18] The eldest daughter and child of Francis IV, Duke of Modena and Reggio, born in 1815, her and Francis I entered a relationship when he, already sick with tuberculosis, visited Italy for the first time in 1834, entering an affair that came to light when she gave birth to Francis II and they were hurriedly married at the end of 1835, it only not causing an even greater diplomatic/political crisis due to Francis I being already on his deathbed at the time while the girl he was actually meant to marry, Archduchess Carolina Auguste of Tuscany, (the travel being originally to meet her) was 13
[19] The third daughter of Leopold II of Tuscany with his second wife, Princess Maria Antonia of the Two Sicilies, she was the younger half-sister of Francis I’s original betrothed
[20] Mariana de facto ruled Elba since enacting the Night of the Long Knives in 1860, with Louis’ abdication in 1893 being de facto a formality by that point and made by him as a birthday gift to his sister
[21] The illegitimate son of Louis Emmanuel Bonaparte, Francis II’s younger brother born five months after their father’s death
[22] The second-eldest daughter of Ferdinand IV, last sovereign Grand Duke of Tuscany
[23] Daughter of Maximillian Egon II of Fürstenberg, she and Francis III were first half-cousins through their mothers, who were also the ones responsible for their match, and had grown up together, with their marriage being seen as more of a burden than a joy (both were crying at their marriage, and after having their sons were pretty open about never having sex with eachother again)
[24] In great part due to their unfortunate matrimony, both of Joseph II’s parents were known for their various affairs and bastards, although while his mother preferred to have them more secretively (with her two illegitimate daughters being kept out of the limelight) his father was infamous for showing his relationships to everyone to see, having a plethora of lovers throughout the years and officially recognizing his known illegitimate children
[25] First Cousin of Carlo II of Tavolara, she and Joseph II met in 1953 when he suffered a boat accident in the waters near Tavolara, being rescued by her brother from drowning and, due to his injuries, staying at the small kingdom while recovering

ELBA IN THE ITALIAN CONFLICT
Although for a long time it was mostly known for its tourism, colorful history, and being a major overlay of the Commonwealth and the European Community in the Mediterranean – having de facto been a member of both organizations since their beginnings due to existing as a shared protectorate of the Albish and Hapsburgs ever since the Napoleonic Wars –, in recent years the country has also come to become famous (and infamous) for its remarkable military, which entered the world’s spotlight when Elba became directly involved in the mess of the Italian Civil War.
Originally prohibited from having any organized military by the Congress of Vienna (for rather obvious reasons), the beginnings of the Elban Armed Forces came with the Risorgimento, when the principality came to be nearly encircled by an Italian State almost-openly vying to annex it (something not helped by the granting of asylum to the Grand Dukes of Tuscany) and both of its ‘protectors’ chose to grant Elba the ability to have a military as a way of having a well-defended position in Western Italy.
Comparably paranoid to Canada, Elba only became involved in two armed conflicts before present times, the World Wars, but nonetheless managed to develop a surprisingly capable and talented military, which includes the near entirety of the principality’s citizens on its troops, something which came quite in hand when the Italian Civil War begun in the late 2000s.
Although located right next to the Italian Mainland (with the Isle of Elba herself only about 10km from its shores) and in specific to the hotbed of Chaos that became Tuscany, the principality originally made an attempt at neutrality, accepting refugees as they came but staying out of direct armed interactions outside of its maritime borders.
While Elba tried to stay out of the conflict, said conflict, instead, came to it.
After a few years of Elba holding an open asylum to refugees, the principality was struck with two nigh-simultaneous terrorist attacks on the 9th of November, 2013, as a direct response to it by Tuscany’s major factions. The attacks, made right in the middle of the 18 Brumaire Festivities, resulted in over seven hundred deaths, while over 20 thousand where injured to various degrees, including a large chunk of the principality’s government.
In response to the attacks, Elba officially intervened into the conflict only a week later, when its sovereign, still stuck to a hospital bed*, ordered the Elban Marine Forces – with the backing of the Royal Navy –, to advance into ‘Italian’ waters. This was followed, in turn, by the amphibious invasion and conquest of Piombino on the 18th of November, which is somewhat erroneously remembered as the ‘opening move’ of the principality into the conflict.
Establishing Piombino and her environs as its stronghold in the continent, from there Elba, surprisingly, decided to expand indirectly, using its army to back some of the minor players in the War in Tuscany** instead of (at least openly) taking over more territories for itself and, over the past six years, managing with striking success to almost entirely overturn and remake the region’s conflict to its pleasure.
Although Etruria and Presidia*** are the only pesudostates**** to be openly under Elba’s control, the principality’s main ‘force’ on the region is the Free Tuscan Nation (Italian: Liberata Nazione Toscana), which de facto exists as the principality’s puppet after being propped by it from near annihilation in 2015, with Elba backing the LNT on a journey of defeating and conquering most of Tuscany’s factions, resulting on the region’s current state.
In its position as the LNT, Etruria and Presidia’s de facto commander, Elba is currently still at war with the ARES​

*The attacks left the Sovereign of Elba with serious burning over nearly half of his body (besides other injuries, including the loss of one of his legs), and for the first days following them he was in a medically-induced coma that was followed by a short psychotic episode; similarly, to him, the then Governor of Elba was also in a coma for a while, although in his case it was due to his even more dramatic injuries, which left him without an arm and partially paralyzed below the waist
** “War in X” has become a colloquial formula to refer to the “regions” of the Civil War due to the Italian State’s geographical divisions
*** Respectively the “Uniti Comuni dell’Etruria” (something along the lines of “United Municipalities of Etruria” in English) and the “Principato dei Presidi” (“Principality of the Garrisons” in English), the former is de facto something nearing a semi-anarchic confederacy (and whose name was adopted in 2018 after a few years as “Alliance of the Forces Centered at the lands of Pisa and Livorno”) while the latter was until recently the “State of the Garrisons”, which was de facto led by the Sovereign of Elba’s younger brother in his post as the commander of the Elban troops stationed on it until said leadership became de jure when the state’s 20 thousand-ish inhabitants did a surprise plebiscite and made his position official through the creation of the modern principality

**** A term coined around the 2010s to describe a faction in a multi-sided civil war that has de facto become a state of its own, not to be confused with “Unrecognized State”, which in this context is considered a different entity
 
  1. Have any members of the House of Bernadotte married into the Estonian royal family?
  2. Who's the oldest living constituent monarch in Oregon?
  3. Have any members of the Korean Imperial Family converted to Chrisitanity?
  4. Are theatrical performances still popular like they were in the 19th century?
  5. Who did Amelie of Orleans marry if her OTL husband Carlos I of Portugal is female?
  6. Is Mahmud V of Riau-Lingga a descendent of Mahmud IV or his brother Sulaiman?
 
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@Peppe I'm thinking of including part of this as lore to my Centuries of Dystopia timeline I'm currently working on. If you know anything about the Tunguska Event (in which a massive meteor or asteroid crashed into the middle of the Siberian tundra wiping out trees for miles and killing a few dozen deer) it could've hit London, England in June 1908 if it had been 3 hours quicker. Now ITTL that's only a couple months after Victoria the Great's death and (I assume) MASSIVE state funeral where all the royal families (or at least most of; again here I'm assuming) of Europe and Africa meet in the Capitol city of the Albion Empire to mourn the loss of Empress Victoria. Now let's say instead of dying in March 1908 as she did ITTL she dies in early to mid June (let's say June 19th, just 11 days before June 30th). I mean if you're already postponing her death by several years what's a few more months? Then after her son Arthur takes over officially following Victoria's death the funeral is scheduled for June 30th (the date of death can be subject to change for the story depending on how long it would take to schedule the funeral for the "Grandmother of Europe"). Just using 11 days as the basic idea since that's how long it took for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral IOTL but I should also take into account that that is under modern circumstances and conveniences, including faster travel between countries and continents. So basically Empress Victoria holds on for another month or two just long enough so that her funeral is planned and held on June 30, 1908 just as our wonderful asteroid makes its way into the atmosphere. It miraculously hits Central London right where the funeral is being held with practically for all intents and purposes all the royal families of Europe and most of Africa in attendance. Just imagining the chaos from this event alone is mind-boggling and spine-chilling. I had originally wanted Kasier Wilhelm II of Germany to become King of the United Kingdom through such an event though without the existence of the Empire of Albion of course and Empress Victoria but once I read that first wikibox not too long ago I knew I needed to incorporate it somehow into my timeline. Basically I'm gonna have the US President, Vice President, and Secretary of State all in attendance out of respect for the fallen monarch so that they're all killed off. So yeah, thoughts?
 
Have any members of the House of Bernadotte married into the Estonian royal family?
Yes, although it wasn’t from a “side-lineage” of the Bernadotte, as the paternal grandmother of the current King/Grand-Prince of Estonia was born Princess Elsa of Sweden, daughter of Prince Johan Gustav, Duke of Dalarna, a great-grandson of August, Duke of Dalarna, the youngest son of Oscar I of Sweden who ITTL had a son
Who's the oldest living constituent monarch in Oregon?
As of 2020 the oldest constituent monarch in Oregon is the Premier of Clayoquot, Margrave/Chief Alastair (II) Kennedy of Esowista, who is 105 (he was elected to the office in 2010, as Clayoquot is an elective monarchy similar to OTL Malaysia)
Have any members of the Korean Imperial Family converted to Chrisitanity?
Yes, although changes on the dynasty's history meant there weren’t converts of as high a profile as OTL (where the House of Yi’s last undisputed head, Yi Ku, was a Roman Catholic), with the dynasty having historically had a poor opinion of Christianity)
Famous examples include:
- Yi Chun-gi, Imperial Princess Hyanghui, an aunt of the current Korean Emperor, who became internationally known after she married Archduke Victor Amadeus of Venetia and converted to Roman Catholicism
- the House of the Kings of Gyeonghui (who are the ITTL descent of the prince who became Emperor Gojong OTL), whose branch of the family is considered as something of the Korean equivalent to the Dukes of Norfolk, being both one of the premier families of Korea and made mostly by followers of Cheonjugyo (literally "The Religion of the Lord in Heaven", that is technically also the name in Korean for Roman Catholicism, but Cheonjugyo in specific is a begrudginly-accepted branch of it that diverges from the more traditional line by having a heavier presence of Confucion, Buddhist and Shamanist additions/influences)
- and Yi Yung-jun, Grand Prince Uimin, who was the eldest son of King Cheoljong by his wife and became both famous and infamous for not only converting to Roman Catholicism but was made Apostolic Vicar of Korea by the Papacy (and later became the first Archbishop of Hanseong), serving as the middleman between Rome and Joseon (for that he was canonized in 1933 as Saint Joseph the Arbitrator of Hanseong); one of his sons was also among the “founders” of the Cheonjugyo
Are theatrical performances still popular like they were in the 19th century?
expensive or nescessitating of luxurious rituals*) as well as stage recordings** becoming relatively common upon the introduction of sound filmes***.
This, in turn, made plays and musicals continue as common to the general public, with stage theatres and movie theatres being equally common.

*I don’t know if that’s a general opinion, but to me it has always seemed like part of the reason theatric performances became less common than movies is some sort of development that made them be seen as “high-class” and as such more expensive than going see a movie (and made widely seen/popular productions be deemed as “lowbrow” or “less arthistic”)
**basically resulting on a “repopularization” of stage performances like we saw with the advent of the internet in the 21st century; one of the first ones to be recorded was actually The Ring of the Nibelung, which I happily imagine made Wagner roll around his grave in impotent anger
*** an interesting note I’d like to add is that ITTL the decentralized nature of the movie industry and random chance have made silent films and developments on them remain a, admittedly minor, presence in the movie industry, being often referred to as "Muteys" (to sound similar to the "Talkies" nickname for sound film) or "Quiets"
Who did Amelie of Orleans marry if her OTL husband Carlos I of Portugal is female?
I’ll need to do a minor nitpick (and major pendantism) and say that technically Carlotta I isn’t actually a female Carlos I but instead an ITTL daughter of Pedro V (Carlos I ITTL mirror is instead Dom Carlos, 2nd Duke of Porto, as Luís I still married to shore-up the succession eve if he wasn’t king).

But returning to Amelie of Orleans; ITTL she married the 2-years-her-junior James FitzAlan-Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk. How this came to be is that, after growing up in Britain until she was 16, and then returning to it when she was 22 (due to changes in the times of when laws of exile were repealed and reinstated), she ended-up mingling mostly with the ranks of British aristocracy, and in the end married the heir to the premier Duke of England
Is Mahmud V of Riau-Lingga a descendent of Mahmud IV or his brother Sulaiman?
Yes; he is a descendant of both.

Basically, the son of Tengku Embung Fatima (daughter of Mahmud IV) with Raja Muhammad Yusuf (10th Yang di-Pertuan Muda of Riau-Lingga) that in OTL became Abdul Rahman II Muazzam Shah, the last Sultan of Riau-Lingga, was in ITTL born a girl. Said girl, born in 1851, was as an adult married to her grand-uncle Sultan Sulaiman II to unite him with her maternal grandfather’s claim.

Mahmud V was their great-grandson


@Peppe I'm thinking of including part of this as lore to my Centuries of Dystopia timeline I'm currently working on. If you know anything about the Tunguska Event (in which a massive meteor or asteroid crashed into the middle of the Siberian tundra wiping out trees for miles and killing a few dozen deer) it could've hit London, England in June 1908 if it had been 3 hours quicker. Now ITTL that's only a couple months after Victoria the Great's death and (I assume) MASSIVE state funeral where all the royal families (or at least most of; again here I'm assuming) of Europe and Africa meet in the Capitol city of the Albion Empire to mourn the loss of Empress Victoria. Now let's say instead of dying in March 1908 as she did ITTL she dies in early to mid June (let's say June 19th, just 11 days before June 30th). I mean if you're already postponing her death by several years what's a few more months? Then after her son Arthur takes over officially following Victoria's death the funeral is scheduled for June 30th (the date of death can be subject to change for the story depending on how long it would take to schedule the funeral for the "Grandmother of Europe"). Just using 11 days as the basic idea since that's how long it took for Queen Elizabeth II's funeral IOTL but I should also take into account that that is under modern circumstances and conveniences, including faster travel between countries and continents. So basically Empress Victoria holds on for another month or two just long enough so that her funeral is planned and held on June 30, 1908 just as our wonderful asteroid makes its way into the atmosphere. It miraculously hits Central London right where the funeral is being held with practically for all intents and purposes all the royal families of Europe and most of Africa in attendance. Just imagining the chaos from this event alone is mind-boggling and spine-chilling. I had originally wanted Kasier Wilhelm II of Germany to become King of the United Kingdom through such an event though without the existence of the Empire of Albion of course and Empress Victoria but once I read that first wikibox not too long ago I knew I needed to incorporate it somehow into my timeline. Basically I'm gonna have the US President, Vice President, and Secretary of State all in attendance out of respect for the fallen monarch so that they're all killed off. So yeah, thoughts?
I'll admit the scenario sounds pretty interesting; the idea of the Tungustka event occuring in a major city instead of the middle of Siberia is and will always be a fascinating what-if scenario to me.
In relation to the funeral, I'll say that although many royal families sent their representative, most if not all of said dynasties didn't come in their entirety or with all their main members to it (the Romanovs on Russia didn't send more than some of Nicholas II's siblings and his mother). One of the people present without question was Wilhelm II's counterpart ITTL, Wolfgang, so that would be a hurdle (although there are many ways of making him be incapable of attending).
- speaking of Wolfgang, many of Europe's heads of state would be present as well, but their makeup would be, ironically, changed by the funeral moving from April to June; the most noticeable example to me would be Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, as she was pregnant with her youngest and while in early 1908 she would still be good for traveling, by the middle of the year her pregnancy would be enough underway for her to be on orders of bedrest and barred from traveling​
Another factor is that many of Victoria's descendants weren't present at the funeral, most importantly those on the Imperial Kingdoms, as the distances and travel speeds meant many wouldn't be capable of reaching the Home Isles by the time Victoria was buried (in fact, there was quite a bit of planning from the time it was visible the Empress was nearing death to make it sure most of the family could see her one last time, with most of the members from the Imperial Kingdoms present at the funeral having stayed in the Home Isles waiting even before she died).
- in fact, the event occuring in central London wouldn't even make the throne pass to someone far in the line of succession, as the mostly likely heir (assuming no-one survived the explosion) being the King of Aotearoa, ROderick II, at the time a 13-year-old hemophiliac living on the other side of the planet (as he was the only son of the Prince of Wales' third son, George)​
Because of that last one (and the fact that most of the central government died with the destruction of London as well), the fate of the empire following the "London Event" is a bit uncertain; the two most likely scenarios that could happen (in specific thinking on a way for Wolfgang to at least get the Isles) would be:
- the empire becoming a sort-of-commonwealth by being divded amongst the Imperial Kingdoms' spheres of authority (with some possible unnexpected creations) and with them amongst the descent of Victoria's children, with the Isles being given to Wolgang in their totality or divided between him, Wilhelmina, and/or possibly one of the Nordics (depending on who lived). The empire itself in this case would/could probably continue under Roderick II's titular emperorship, with the actual ruling being made by a sort-of "rulers council" made by the Imperial Kings and Queens.​
Some probable territorial divisions in this scenario:​
- Australia, and probably the islands in the Pacific, would "go" most probably to Aotearoa​
- Canada might fall under Oregon​
- the West Indies and Belize would probably be divided between the Bahamas and Mexico (due to its Prince Consort), and/or possibly Brazil (who would most likely get the Falklands and the authority over Patagonia)​
- anything British east of the Bay of Bengal in Asia would probably fall under Bengal​
- and the Home Islands going to Wolfgang (with possibly a symbolic part to Wilhelmina/the Netherlands) mostly because the rest of the family can't be bothered with dealing with them after the isles fall apart due to the erasure of the government in London​
- or the divisions could still happen, but instead of Roderick II the throne goes to Wolfgang (who would be possibly symbolical) with them deciding to retroactively make absolute primogeniture the form of succession to the Albish throne; in this specific case, I also imagine Roderick would be made some kind of junior or co-emperor (in a vein similar to late Roman Empire) - and possibly would receive more territory than on the other option (maybe the Antartic Islands and the Falklands, and Albish territories in Asia east of Burma)​
A thing I can't really theorize, though, is how this would affect the relations betweent the world powers, since ITTL 1908, '09 and '10 were basically an extended version of the first half of 1914 and while this would weaken Albion immensely it also cuts the head of the US (and France) and could very well cause some changes in alliances and friendships (since Nicholas II would probably make Russia switch sides to align with the "rest of the family")
 
  1. When did the last subnational monarch who was around for the birth of the German Empire in 1871 die?
  2. Which city has hosted the most Olympics?
  3. Who's the youngest living constituent monarch in Oregon?
  4. What is Zewditu known for if she isn’t Empress of Ethiopia?
  5. Have any members of the House of Wettin married into the Polish royal family?
 
When did the last subnational monarch who was around for the birth of the German Empire in 1871 die?
The answer to this is twofold:
-in relation to subnational monarchs who were already in their thrones by 1871, the answer is Ernst August II of Hanover, who after assuming his position in 1866 (when Georg V was forced to abdicate) proceeded to hold it until 1931.
He was also one of the last subnational monarchs to have been present at the Proclamation of the German Empire in Versailles​
- in relation to the subnational monarchs that were alive in 1871 but died later, the answer is instead Friedrich I of Waldeck and Pyrmont, who was an almost-6-year-old when the Empire was founded (his birthday being 2 days later) and only died in 1959 (although he technically wasn't a subnational monarch at the time of his death, having abdicated over a decade earlier)
Which city has hosted the most Olympics?
much like OTL, that title goes to London, who has hosted 3 Olympic Games (1904, 1964, and 2012), St Petersburg will become the next city to have hosted three games in 2026
Who's the youngest living constituent monarch in Oregon?
currently the position goes to the Duke of Mito, Prince Harumori II Tokugawa, who is a 7-year-old. He assumed the position at the age of 4 (replacing the Baron of Whipping, who was 5) after the death of his parents in a fire, and is currently under the guardianship of his maternal grandfather, the Shogun of Edo.
What is Zewditu known for if she isn’t Empress of Ethiopia?
She is often remembered for being her stepmother, Taytu Betul,'s successor as the "female head" of the Ethiopian Court (due to her stepmother Miriam and sister-in-law's shyness for court politics) as well as the proverbial head of the conservative factions of Ethiopian nobility, serving as Salomon IV's advisor as well as his Regent during times when he was away at war or in diplomatic travels outside of the country.
She's also remembered for her love life, ironically enough, as her relationship with Gugsa Welle, Prince of Begemder and Regent of Gondar, her fourth and final marriage, has been fodder to many films, tales and novels due to the love and dedication the two had for eachother*,

*IOTL Zewditu's fourth marriage is described as having been "unlike her previous marriages, though to be happy", and some popular histories claim she died after hearing Gugsa Welle had been killed in battle; this is just extrapollated ITTL
Have any members of the House of Wettin married into the Polish royal family?
Yes, the Poznan/West Prussian Wettins in particular have more than once intermarried with Kazimierz V's descendants, with his son and successor, for example, being married to Princess Anna Monika Pia of Saxony and Poland*, the youngest daughter of the first Viceroy at Poznan

*the "Poland" didn't come from her marriage, but by the fact that the "Viceroyalty at Poznan" gained the additional name of "Greater Poland" (or Grosspolen/Wielkopolska) in the 1940s after the historical region it is roughly equivalent to, it having been a semi-colloquial name for the Viceroyalty beforehand and being used interchangeably with "Poznan" ("Wielkopolska" being the common when speaking in Polish and "Poznan" when speaking in German (Posen being mostly historical now), with "Poznan" also being the colloquial name in English)
 
  1. Did Mary, Empress of Germany survive the French invasion of Germany in WW2?
  2. When was the most recent member-state of the Nordic Federation established?
  3. Have any members of the House of Bourbon married into Carthage's royal family?
  4. What's the oldest intact non-British royal dukedom?
  5. How many new monarchs began their reigns in 2022?
  6. Did sound films pop up earlier than in OTL?
  7. Have any members of the Council of Rulers survived the Bloodstained Durbar besides Elizabeth II of the Straits?
  8. Who’s the youngest Russian Zemlye?
 
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So I just want to ask on Johor. Is there any differences from OTL regarding the reigning monarchs? And also how is their relationships with other royal house? Who is their main allies?
 
Happy Holidays! And a happy New Year!
I apologize for the radio-silence, this month has been a bit of a doozy.
Before going to the answers, I'd just like to say Rest in Peace to the late Angela Lansbury. She isn't very well-known in my homecountry and I didn't see news of her death on the internet, so I only discovered she had passed in mid-December.
Much like with Victoria II of Sierra Leone and Betty White, Mary III of the Seychelles is still alive and well as of the end of 2022 ITTL. Also like them, Angela has a direct counterpart ITTL, Dame Jessica Brigid Lansbury (1925-), a Albish-Canadian writer and detective, and in her youth actress, known not only for her work but also for the many cases and investigations she solved, including foiling an assassination attempt against the Imperial Family in the 1980s.
In a similar vein to above, I'd like to mention Edson Arantes to Nascimento (1940-2022), Brazilian WWII veteran turned social activist and politician, being called "The Greatest" of Brazil's 20th century President-Ministers
Did Mary, Empress of Germany survive the French invasion of Germany in WW2?
Sadly, no.

Although she wasn’t sent to a prison or camp like many in her immediate and extended family, Mary was kept in house-arrest by the Militants at Schloss Friedrichshof, which had been her residence since her husband’s death shortly before the war begun (as the traditional house of the Dowager German Empress). Why she was only put on house arrest was mainly that the Militants hoped to use her as something of a political/diplomatic hostage against the Axis as the sister of one of their main leaders.
While she admittedly was permitted to retain a lifestyle akin to the one she had before the War, the situation she found herself, her family, and her country, compounded by the deaths of so many of her loved ones over the course of the conflict, caused Mary to be strained mentally and emotionally to an unendurable degree.

Already in a less-than-ideal state following her capture by the Militants, the death of her husband in 1952 sent her spiraling into a depression, which only worsened with the death of her brother in 1954 (she and Leonard were the closest among their siblings). Finally, the death of her son in 1955 while in captivity, and of her grandson only a few months later – after she had been barred from them by their imprisonment, with the last time she saw Wilhelm II being when the boy was a toddler –, were the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Mary entered a catatonic state by early March of 1956, and wasted away over the course of that year, dying in November 2nd, 1956, at the age of 59. It would have been her son’s 28th birthday.
The Militants buried Mary in the Friedrichshof’s gardens, trying to keep her death a secret, but it was discovered by the public shortly before the start of the German Rebellion
When was the most recent member-state of the Nordic Federation established?
The youngest member-state of the Federation is the multi-named Zhoushan – known ITTL as either Chusan, Sjousan, or Yjao –, which was established by Margrethe III in 1997
Have any members of the House of Bourbon married into Carthage's royal family?
No.
Although it is a possibility for the future, what with the Carthaginian Royal Family being rather close with the Bourbons of the Three Sicilies, the two houses have no history of intermarriage; in great part due to the fact that the Husainid Dynasty of Carthage is Muslim, being technically the Kings of Tunisia and before that the Beys of Tunis

Unless you mixed-up Carthage for Mauretania, in which case the answer is a resounding yes. So much in fact that the current Mauretanian Royal Consort was born a Prince of the Three Sicilies, and he and the Mauretanian Sovereign are first cousins four-times-removed
What's the oldest intact non-British royal dukedom?
That… is an interesting question.
To be very frank I wasn’t certain how to answer your question, because it is a very subjective one.
So I’m going to go with the most literal possibility I could find.

As far as I can tell, the oldest royal dukedom in existence is probably that of Duke of Seville in Spain, which was created in 1823 for Infante Enrique of Spain, whose father was the youngest son of Carlos IV of Spain. Why I only say probably is because the slightly older title of Duke of Cadiz is existent, but is held as a subsidiary title by the Viceroys of Western Andalusia (which is, ironically enough, colloquially known as Sevilla), while the other possible candidate, Genoa, was created in 1815 but did technically return to the Sardinian crown before restarting in 1831.
Now, the dukedom has switched from male to female-line more than once over the course of its existence, so it can be said to be the oldest “intact” one.

That title goes instead to either the Dukes of Aosta or the previously-mentioned Dukes of Genoa.
Which one is the actual “intact” one then is a matter of opinion. Genoa is older, with its reestablishment being in 1831 while Aosta was only created in 1845, but some would argue that Genoa “stopped” being a royal dukedom when its holders were naturalized to Provence, since the dukedom has now technically become a Provençal peerage while Aosta remained in and with Sardinia following the Savoyards exile from the mainland.

We could also argue instead for the Swedish Dukes of Dalarna, which started in 1831. But, that is with a big asterisk, as the Swedes’ royal duchies are unique in the fact that they aren’t hereditary, and if they become tied to a branch of the family (which they rarely are because of this reason) each successive holder is re-granted the title after the death of their predecessor.
If we include non-ducal titles granted to dynasts, then we could argue for the Sicilian Princes of Salerno, whose title’s current creation started in 1816 with a son of Ferdinand I (I would have mentioned the Spanish Counts of Chinchón, whose current creation was in 1794, but they’re morganatic and Chinchón is one of their subsidiary titles nowadays)

(what I mean by not being certain how to answer and going for “literal” is that there are many equivalents to the British’s royal dukedoms, starting with the simple case of using more than one rank of titles, like with the Bourbons of the Three Sicilies, so for the sake of time and my sanity I chose to go for the easier alternative, since if not I sincerely think I could spend days just going over the various options)
How many new monarchs began their reigns in 2022?
Much like 2021, 2022 has seen a few monarchical changes, not many overall but a bit more than the previous year. They were:
- the King of Talamanca (a Costa Rican ceremonial indigenous monarch), following his uncle’s death in March
- the King of the Bapedi (Mpumaland’s premier constituent monarch), upon his majority in March
- the Lion/Sovereign of Gaza, upon his father’s unexpected death in early May
- the Sultan of Azania, when she deposed her young son in June
- the King of Fernando Po, when his grandfather abdicated in August
- the Queen of Montenegro, with her father’s official retirement in July
- the Oba of Benin, upon his father’s death in October
- the King of Assam, with the finalization of his mother’s abdication in January
- the Sultan of the Straits, with his mother’s ‘partial abdication’ in October
- the Queen of Coorg, upon her father’s death
- the Nawab of Awadh, upon his father’s death
- the Chogyal of Sikkim, with his father’s abdication
- and the King of Rashidi Arabia, upon his uncle’s death and a ‘short palatial struggle’
Did sound films pop up earlier than in OTL?
Not really, no. IOTL sound films started in the early 1920s, and ITTL the same thing is true, although admittedly earlier advancements in sound-recording meant that the quality of the audio of the early "talkies" ITTL was better than those of OTL
Have any members of the Council of Rulers survived the Bloodstained Durbar besides Elizabeth II of the Straits?
Well, technically speaking nearly all of them survived the Bloodstained Durbar before they inherited their thrones...
But, in actuality, only one other member, Sallehudin of Rahman, was already so when the incident occured. There were three other members of the Council who survived the Durbar, but they have either passed away or abdicated by 2022
Who’s the youngest Russian Zemlye?
That, my good fellow, is a rather interesting question...
But seriously, it is a bit of a complicated one to answer, mostly due to the fact that it could have a variety of possible answers depending on what you identify as "creating" for a Zemlye.
Going with the simplest and straigthforward answer, the last Zemlye to be officially created was Yakutia, which was established in 1971 by Fyodor II himself, for his illegitimate son, Alexey
 
So I just want to ask on Johor. Is there any differences from OTL regarding the reigning monarchs?
Dynastically, no, as the Sultans ITTL have been from the Temenggong branch of the Bendahara Dynasty like IOTL. In relation to the individual monarchs themselves, there is a difference in the sense that by now the Sultans have diverged from their IOTL counterparts due to butterflies and different marriages.

Outside of that, the only other “main” divergence is that, unlike OTL, the line of Sultans hasn’t been a pretty straightforward line of father-son successions, with the throne once being inherited by a Sultan’s first cousin
And also how is their relationships with other royal house?
In general, the relationship of the Johorian Royal Family with other Malayan dynasties could be best described as “complicated”, with them having a history of often both intermarrying frequently and hating each-other over the 20th century (in great part due to Johor’s changed fate in relation to European colonialism).

Outside of Malaysia, they do have relatively good and well-established connections with many of the royal houses of Indonesia, possessing a specially-close relationship with Aden’s royal family (and with Sumatran dynasties in general).
Who is their main allies?
Some would say Aden is Johor’s primary and closest ally, in great part due to their geographical proximity, but as a signatory of the Caracas Pact (and the only one to not be located in the Americas) the country de facto has Brazil as its main ally diplomatically.

Outside of that, Johor, due to its location, has close political and economic ties to Indonesia, who is the country’s main trading partner together with the Philippines, Aden, and, ironically, Malaya and the Straits
 
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