Alternate Wikipedia Infoboxes II

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Makemakean

Also, to clarify, lest someone get the mistaken opinion that I have some sense of nostalgia for the Confederacy and the Lost Cause (Hell, I look at these infoboxes and I wonder if I have an unhealthy fondness for the Confederacy!), it's not really like that.

Basically, when doing my research for my Swedish Strangerverse, I discovered that Gustav III had seen something quite promising in the new-born Republic, as early as October 1776 writing:

It is such an interesting drama to see a nation create itself, that I – if I now had not been who I am – would go to America to follow up close every phase in the emergence of this new republic. – This perhaps is America's century. The new republic, which hardly has a population put together better than Rome had to begin with, may perhaps take advantage of Europe some day, in the same manner as Europe has taken advantage of America for two centuries. No matter what, I cannot help but admire their courage and enthusiastically appreciate their daring.
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Axel von Fersen, who actually visited America had been much more pessimistic and predicted that the Union would not last for long. Of course, he did not predict that the break would come over slavery. He simply thought that the cultural differences between the different states were too great to allow for a constitutional settlement that all parts could be happy with for too long. For example, he believed that Virginia was too aristocratic for the northern states taste.

In OTL, Gustav III got it right. America grew to be the one big super power dictating the actions of European countries. In TTL, I intend to let Axel von Fersen be right, and have the Union collapse early on due to regional and cultural difficulties.

As for calling the place the Confederate States and letting them have the Confederate flag? Well... erm... I honestly haven't been able to come up with a good alternative name that doesn't sound ridiculously contrieved (Dixiean Alliance? Dear God, no!), and I have no clue what their flag is supposed to look like yet.

Also, sorry for using a picture of Robert E. Lee, but his similitude is the closest to how G. W. Von Fersen looks in my mind...
 

Makemakean

Madison Von Fersen, current governor of Virginia, member of the Christocratic party, and generally seen to be on the radical as opposed to skeptical wing of the party[1]. First elected in 2004, elected to a second term in 2010, and recently having announced that she is running for a third term in 2016. Cousin of Count Nicholas Von Fersen, she can count of significant campaign funding were she to decide to run for the Presidency of the Confederacy in the future, seeing the CSA have very lax campaign finance laws.

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[1] Of course, "radical" in TTL doesn't necessarily mean what it means in OTL...

Thou Ancient, Thou Free (Swedish Strangerverse):
Louis XVII of France
Philip VII of France
Louis XIX of France
Henri-Raymond, Dauphin of France
Célestin I of France
Queen Anastasia of France
Chrétien Rémond
Count Axel Von Fersen The Younger
Count George Washington Von Fersen
Count Ivan Von Fersen, Sr.
Lt. Gen. Absalom Von Fersen
Count Maxwell Von Fersen
Count Nicholas Von Fersen
Adrienne Hathaway Von Fersen
Gov. Madison Von Fersen
 
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Makemakean

Turquoise Blue said:
I know who you chose for the picture. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin. :p
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She has a very photogenic face. Of course, I have known about SHS since 2008 when I was reading about the different members of the Blue Dog Caucus. Was very sad to see her defeated in 2010.

Turquoise Blue said:
Anyway, excellent update. Why are you making that family have a big role?
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Well, much of my timeline is a kind of "well, everyone thinks that, but of course, when you look closer at it, it really isn't like that, but let's suppose it was like that".

For example, the way that Axel von Fersen is presented is as this character who was a famous womanizer, adventurer and skilled diplomat. However, when I look closer at his life, I cannot help but conclude that there in almost all certainty was no affair with Marie-Antoinette, no matter how much Antonia Fraser and Herman Lindqvist wants to believe it. I mean basically, all we have is Marie-Antoinette once making a comment about AvF being "beau", and that he evidently got on well with her, but that's it. His adventure in America was pretty much just an accident of fate. It was common for younger Swedish noblemen at the time to go to France and enlist in the Royal Swedish Regiment the French king had there (don't ask me why he had such a regiment, it's as mysterious to me as to why the Pope has a Swiss Guard), and he just happened to be there at the time France got involved in the American Revolutionary War and so was shipped over. Only reason he ever got to see the brass was because Washington couldn't speak French, Rochambeau couldn't speak English and Fersen could speak both languages. He became a member of the Order of Cincinnati pretty much by association, and in Sweden, he was a favourite of Gustav III simply because he appears to have been something of a sycophant for the fellow. His other big adventure (rescuing the Royal French Family) ended in embarrassing failure. He seems to have gotten all jobs in Swedish government simply by virtue of having a famous father (Fredrik Axel von Fersen was a very skill politician during the Age of Liberty), and then he met an incredibly ignoble end when a drunken mob, fueled by hysteric rumours (with no foundation in reality whatsoever) that von Fersen had poisoned Crown Prince Charles August literally tore him into pieces.

So I figured, well, what if we actually were to make sure that von Fersen gets outside help somehow to make him into the famous adventurer we all want him to be? Let's make it so that he does have an affair with Marie-Antoinette and is the real father of her children. Let's make it so that he is a great war hero in the American Revolutionary War. Let's make it so that he does manage to rescue at least Marie-Antoinette and the Royal Children. Let's make it so that he does become best friends with the Founding Fathers and a real household name in America. Let's make it so that he doesn't meet such an ignoble end. But, as I intend to tell the story, let's make it in such a way that the reader is always aware that he is getting outside help, and that he really is just a random Swede who happens to have a fancy name but little more but who is manufactured into this great hero.

And from that premise, the Swedish House von Fersen became the immensely powerful and illustrious American Von Fersen Dynasty.

The role that the Von Fersen Dynasty plays in the story I intend to tell is, well... Erm... If you want the full details, it's that the █████████████████████████ is actually only a ██████████████████████████████ ███████████████████████████, and they really only exist to move ███████████████████████████ ███████████████████████. Now, this ██████████████████████████████████████ which is founded in ██████████████████████████████████████ by the Fenno-Swedish ████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ who in OTL wrote a ████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████████ which actually preceeded Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Anyway, seeing this is a Strangerverse timeline, the set-up is a little different from the case with the US, Britain and Frace, you see ██████████████████████████████████████, and therefore ████████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████. "We cannot conquer, therefore we must divide!" and so ██████████████████████████████████████ and they ████████████████████████████████ █████████████████████████ so that by 2015 in TTL ██████████████████████████████████████. Although, believe it or not, Sweden does have a significant colony in ███████████████████. And it's all well-researched! See this link! But before I diverge too much (no pun intended), █████████████████████████████ ████████████████████████████. ██████████████████████████████████████! ███████████████████████████████ ██████████████████████████!! And the cross-temporal explorers discover that ████████████████ ██████████████████████! This in turn leads to ██████████████████████████████ ███████████████████████████! ...and beyond that I haven't thought of much more.

Hope it helps. ;)
 

prime-minister

Octosteel said:
But John Major was awesome!

Who would likely take over after him? Portillo?
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Not because they dislike Major so much as because it would've set back Labour catastrophically once the ERM fiasco kicked in (especially in a coalition with a threadbare majority or in minority).

And Portillo would probably be frontrunner as his replacement, yeah.
 

Octosteel

prime-minister said:
Not because they dislike Major so much as because it would've set back Labour catastrophically once the ERM fiasco kicked in (especially in a coalition with a threadbare majority or in minority).

And Portillo would probably be frontrunner as his replacement, yeah.
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Not to mention the Irish peace negotiations.

Also, what's the general consensus on Portillo?
 

Makemakean

deQ0ITI.jpg


New Leavestown Manor (or Nya Löfstad as Axel von Fersen called it) is the residence of the head of the Nordic-Confederate Von Fersen Family, currently in the ownership of Count Nicholas Von Fersen. Axel von Fersen had Louis Jean Desprez the Younger draw up the blueprints in Stockholm and then have them shipped over to Virginia. It is generally well accepted that its French Baroque style does not fit in well with Virginia colonial architecture.

The Manor also houses an extensive collection of Ottoman art that was believed to have been lost for generations after the Sack of Constantinopel in 1810, that Count Ivan Von Fersen, Jr. managed to acquire in the early 20th century by scrutinizing the black markets over the course of four decades.

Thou Ancient, Thou Free (Swedish Strangerverse):
Louis XVII of France
Philip VII of France
Louis XIX of France
Henri-Raymond, Dauphin of France
Célestin I of France
Queen Anastasia of France
Chrétien Rémond
Count Axel Von Fersen The Younger
Count George Washington Von Fersen
Count Ivan Von Fersen, Sr.
Lt. Gen. Absalom Von Fersen
Count Maxwell Von Fersen
Count Nicholas Von Fersen
Adrienne Hathaway Von Fersen
Gov. Madison Von Fersen
New Leavestown Manor
 

prime-minister

Octosteel said:
Also, what's the general consensus on Portillo?
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Decent journalist, terrible politician. :p

In all seriousness, he's probably popular within the Tories until the press drag him out of the closet. After that, Labour (probably under Blair) are likely to get back in, but with nowhere near as big a majority as in OTL.
 
Archangel Michael

Archangel Michael

Supermajor retailers are the small concentration of retail conglomerates that dominate up to 73% of the total retail market. Retail stores in INTO can generally be divided into a handful of categories: specialty stores (record stores, clothing stores, book stores, etc.), convenient stores, dime/variety stores, department stores and supermarkets. Specialty stores are unique in that they're largely independent and local, and if chains do exist, they're very small and very regional. Supermajors control the other four types. Ten supermajor conglomerates dominate the retail market. Each supermajor is comprised of a large constellation of convenient stores, dime stores, department stores and supermarkets that are often branded locally or regionally. The supermajors tend to divvy up regions, with a few of them operating in a single region (though larger, denser regions tend to have more competition). There are smaller, independent chains that try to compete with the supermajors, but they're often brought down if they grow too big--a favored tactic is for the supermajors to get the United Retail Employees of America (UREA), the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) and other retail unions to go on strike or else wise break the independent chains from the inside.

S.M. Walton & Family is one of the largest supermajor retailers in the world with more than 660,000 total stores across the Solar System (it's edged out only slightly by the China-based Dairy Farm Group). It was founded in 1962 in Arkansas by Sam Walton, starting life as Walton's Five and Dime, a variety store. Walton quickly expanded across the United States and then INTO and the Solar System. It operates a diverse number of different regionally branded chains, from the high-end department stores like Neiman marcus to small convenient stores like Kum-and-Go. It has stores in all U.S. and Nigerian states and all Chinese federations, and also owns more specialized stores, game arcades, entertainment venues, arenas and even sports teams. While traded publicly, the Walton family has historically controlled a significant stake in the company. The current chairman is Bud Walton IV, who with a wealth of more than $30 billion, is one of the richest men in the world.

drvfoiU.png
 
Archangel Michael

Archangel Michael

Georgepatton said:
'Area Served: Solar System'

Goddamn.
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A Walton store can be found everywhere from Mercury to Neptune. There are current plans to expand into Pluto and the trans-Neptunian concave dwarf planets/heliade asteroids, but those have been moving rather slow. So yes, it serves the Solar System. An army of blue-vested associates serving the Empire of Sam Walton.
 
Utgard96

Utgard96

Archangel Michael said:
Supermajor retailers are the small concentration of retail conglomerates that dominate up to 73% of the total retail market. Retail stores in INTO can generally be divided into a handful of categories: specialty stores (record stores, clothing stores, book stores, etc.), convenient stores, dime/variety stores, department stores and supermarkets. Specialty stores are unique in that they're largely independent and local, and if chains do exist, they're very small and very regional. Supermajors control the other four types. Ten supermajor conglomerates dominate the retail market. Each supermajor is comprised of a large constellation of convenient stores, dime stores, department stores and supermarkets that are often branded locally or regionally. The supermajors tend to divvy up regions, with a few of them operating in a single region (though larger, denser regions tend to have more competition). There are smaller, independent chains that try to compete with the supermajors, but they're often brought down if they grow too big--a favored tactic is for the supermajors to get the United Retail Employees of America (UREA), the Retail Clerks International Union (RCIU) and other retail unions to go on strike or else wise break the independent chains from the inside.
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Goddammit Mike, I was really starting to like AJNDmerica after that energy bit.
 

Makemakean

Archangel Michael said:
???
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Oh, sorry I thought you were poking fun of my last series of installments. (Didn't mind it though!) :p

I am aware of that the Von Fersen family are extreme Mary Sues. But then again, they're deliberately designed to be extreme Mary Sues.

kpVkDSy.jpg


Notorious conspiracy theorist Wilbert van der Weyden is well-known for his belief that there is a secret society running things behind the scenes, and that this secret group is working toward the end of bringing about Nordic Global Domination. He does not believe that they are necessarily connected with the Nordic government. In fact, he points out, the Nordic government may not even be aware of their existence, but they do influence them nevertheless towards this end. In his 1300+ page magnum opus Nordic World Order, he speculates that they may have been around as early as the 17th century, and Descartes discovered their secret and so he was killed for the society not to be exposed. He does however state that he favours a more conservative estimate, no earlier than the Seven Years' War, but definitely no later than the Congress of Brussels in 1816. The later event in particular he covers in excessive detail in What Really Happened at the Congress of Brussels, where he seeks to document that every diplomat and ambassador after particular meetings with particular individuals mysteriously changed their minds in ways that benefited Sweden in particular. Mainstream historians generally dismiss his work as conjecture and nonsense, and even other fringe writers don't respect him.

He has recently developed an obsession with the Von Fersen Family and their French illegitimate cousins the House of Bourbon. In How the Von Fersens Made Their Money, he alleges that they made use of alien technology, which he speculates they obtained from an extra-terrestrial spaceship that is to have crashed in Småland in the 1790s. His 2011 book Counterfeit Kings of France has resulted in the French government barring him from entering the country on the grounds that the book constitutes lèse-majesté.

None of this has deterred van der Weyden, who maintains a small, but growing, following.
 
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