Excellent updates as always. The Thule have geography on their side; at least some of their cultures should survive, and hopefully the Baffin can be tamed.
Lands of Ice and Mice: An Alternate History of the Thule
- Thread starter DirtyCommie
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Tamed? Not so much. Bought? Oh yes. The trouble is keeping them bought.
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On the good side for the Coppermine gold doesn't have any special place in the culture and they're a mining people themselves.
By my reading it seems the Musk-Ox have the best chance, I just had an image of them gracing a National Geographic cover still going about their traditional lives.
The Sandman
Banned
That's when you point them south and encourage your own restless youngsters (you know, the ones who've been grumbling that maybe it's time for you and your generation to start handing over some leadership positions) to join them.
And oh, isn't it convenient that some of the very nice lands to the south (just a few hops down the coast from Labrador, at most) are themselves emptying out from plagues. Sure, there's a few of those weird pale beardy folk showing up there too, but you can't have everything. And there's more of you than there are of them.
Or you can follow the great river inland, to the freshwater seas there. Lovely place, lots of nice furs to sell, and again everyone is conveniently dying from disease just as you get there.
Even better, the further south you go, the less like real people everyone is! You can do whatever you want there and not have to worry that the shamans and caribou herders will find somewhere else to go rather than risk enslavement!
It's a veritable smorgasbord of opportunities for a young Thule with dreams of conquest.
Thule 1600 - Labrador
The second half of the sixteenth century has not been kind to the Thule of Labrador. Among the last of the Thule realms to come into its own, Labrador has always been late to the game.
When the Agricultural revolution came, it was thin beer from Baffin Island. The genius of microclimate engineering not quite as vital, did not need to be as nuanced in those southern regions. The Thule pushed south, but had to fight harder against the Cree and Innu. What they needed was diversity, and that was slow to come. The suite of crop and animal domesticates filtered in slowly. The Thule of Labrador evolved as a land of thinly spread villages.
The Norse interchange was also slow to come, but perhaps made the largest difference. Sheep, the loom, bog iron, Norse crops slowly transformed Labrador, and brought with it, if not wealth then comfort, if not importance, then recognition.
Unfortunately, the Labrador Thule were, after Greenland, the first to face European pandemics. Often, these pandemics simply burned themselves out within their own territory. The affected Thule fled, coped, prayed.
Manupataq’s teachings found welcome ears. Population densities dropped, villages were abandoned. The Labrador Thule clung cautiously to their ways and lifestyles, just more carefully, more tentatively. They still produced bog iron, simply less of it, and traded much less. They still produced wool, but again, less.
Labrador essentially withdrew from European contact. Not violently, as Greenland did, but simply through avoidance and abandonment. To a lesser extent, the depopulated Labrador also withdrew somewhat from the Thule world. It had always been somewhat isolated. But now, they seldom ventured forth, and traders found little to interest them.
Unfortunately, for a people who simply wish to be left alone.... that’s not going to happen. Europeans will seek opportunities from its Atlantic shore, and from the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. The Empire building on the western shore of Hudson Bay has no intention of allowing even a hypothetical rival to emerge. Some among the Baffin are looking for a new home in the south, and Labrador while not actually empty.... is empty enough for their purposes. Manupataq’s Theocracy in Greenland sees opportunities to spread the faith and secure the wealth in Labrador.
Their future is pandemics, plagues, invasions, conquests, occupations, alliances, usurpations, starvations and disasters of every variety, all brought by strangers of every ilk. Thinly populated, they'll find themselves hosting new neighbors with sharp elbows. Plenty of room for everyone but the Labrador themselves.
The Labrador are going to live in interesting times. They’d rather live somewhere else.
The second half of the sixteenth century has not been kind to the Thule of Labrador. Among the last of the Thule realms to come into its own, Labrador has always been late to the game.
When the Agricultural revolution came, it was thin beer from Baffin Island. The genius of microclimate engineering not quite as vital, did not need to be as nuanced in those southern regions. The Thule pushed south, but had to fight harder against the Cree and Innu. What they needed was diversity, and that was slow to come. The suite of crop and animal domesticates filtered in slowly. The Thule of Labrador evolved as a land of thinly spread villages.
The Norse interchange was also slow to come, but perhaps made the largest difference. Sheep, the loom, bog iron, Norse crops slowly transformed Labrador, and brought with it, if not wealth then comfort, if not importance, then recognition.
Unfortunately, the Labrador Thule were, after Greenland, the first to face European pandemics. Often, these pandemics simply burned themselves out within their own territory. The affected Thule fled, coped, prayed.
Manupataq’s teachings found welcome ears. Population densities dropped, villages were abandoned. The Labrador Thule clung cautiously to their ways and lifestyles, just more carefully, more tentatively. They still produced bog iron, simply less of it, and traded much less. They still produced wool, but again, less.
Labrador essentially withdrew from European contact. Not violently, as Greenland did, but simply through avoidance and abandonment. To a lesser extent, the depopulated Labrador also withdrew somewhat from the Thule world. It had always been somewhat isolated. But now, they seldom ventured forth, and traders found little to interest them.
Unfortunately, for a people who simply wish to be left alone.... that’s not going to happen. Europeans will seek opportunities from its Atlantic shore, and from the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. The Empire building on the western shore of Hudson Bay has no intention of allowing even a hypothetical rival to emerge. Some among the Baffin are looking for a new home in the south, and Labrador while not actually empty.... is empty enough for their purposes. Manupataq’s Theocracy in Greenland sees opportunities to spread the faith and secure the wealth in Labrador.
Their future is pandemics, plagues, invasions, conquests, occupations, alliances, usurpations, starvations and disasters of every variety, all brought by strangers of every ilk. Thinly populated, they'll find themselves hosting new neighbors with sharp elbows. Plenty of room for everyone but the Labrador themselves.
The Labrador are going to live in interesting times. They’d rather live somewhere else.
Thule 1600 - Alaska
The sleeping giant, the original homeland of the ancient Thule people. There are somewhere between two and three million Thule occupying the Alaskan homeland.
Unlike other Thule Realms, Alaska has not experienced dramatic transformation. The Agricultural revolution was more of a slow transition creeping over the Alaskan peoples. Plants and animals, microclimate engineering, toggle harpoons, pycrete, copper and bronze, have filtered in gradually. They’ve expanded gradually but steadily, absorbing or overrunning the Dene, embracing the Yupik before they had really begun to diverge fully, and swallowing the Aleut. Each have left their traces, a smattering of loan words, particular tools, styles of dress here and there, some facial features, a smattering of DNA, while being lost in the Alaskan pool.
The Alaskans have grown, but not really changed. The Alaskan Thule have maintained more social continuity, and more of their traditions, than any other Thule culture. Indeed, the Alaskan Thule are the repositories of tradition and continuity. This focus on tradition and continuity has slowed the adoption of innovation, but not halted it.
Nevertheless, change does come, gradually, unevenly. Population doubled, and doubled, and doubled again, generation after generation. People left. Alaska fueled the great continuing diaspora east all the way to Greenland and Labrador. And the population kept on increasing, generation after generation.
After a while, the direction of emigration shifted west, into Siberia. Innovations and agriculture made the land more productive, supporting ever greater populations. And still, the population grew, emigration shifted south into the more heavily populated regions better able to defend themselves, mingling with the Tlingit and creating a hybrid society.
Despite growth and evolution, the governance of Alaskan society has not changed. Authority is dispersed among a mixed asssembly of Shaman’s and elders, family heads, clan leaders. There is no formal mechanism of authority, success and ambition can be raise one up, but also drag one down. The Alaskans hold councils of every sort, discussing every issue of consequence endlessly and without conclusion, until someone gets fed up and leaves, which is accepted and encouraged, or until someone tries to force a decision, which is not. Consensus is not an easy thing for Alaskan society, feuds and generations old rivalries are a way of life. Alaska might rule the Thule world...
But as it is, they will not even rule themselves.
The pandemics will almost come as a relief to Alaska. Elders and headmen will smile as their rivals die of the pox, even as they scratch their own sores. A thinning of the population will ease the constant pressure. The consequence, of course, will be panics and mania, outbursts of mysticism. For the first time, Alaskan society will face revolution and transformations.
Sir Francis Drake has sailed up the Pacific Coast to the southern reaches of Alaska in 1579, encountering the local Thule. Around 1648, a handful of Russians will end up on the shores of Alaska, washed there by a storm. They will not be allowed to return home. Alaska will another century before the Europeans make themselves a physical presence.
The giant sleeps. What form will it take when it wakes?
In the meantime, the Alaskans will live as they always have, and send their excess into the bottomless well that seems to be Siberia.
The sleeping giant, the original homeland of the ancient Thule people. There are somewhere between two and three million Thule occupying the Alaskan homeland.
Unlike other Thule Realms, Alaska has not experienced dramatic transformation. The Agricultural revolution was more of a slow transition creeping over the Alaskan peoples. Plants and animals, microclimate engineering, toggle harpoons, pycrete, copper and bronze, have filtered in gradually. They’ve expanded gradually but steadily, absorbing or overrunning the Dene, embracing the Yupik before they had really begun to diverge fully, and swallowing the Aleut. Each have left their traces, a smattering of loan words, particular tools, styles of dress here and there, some facial features, a smattering of DNA, while being lost in the Alaskan pool.
The Alaskans have grown, but not really changed. The Alaskan Thule have maintained more social continuity, and more of their traditions, than any other Thule culture. Indeed, the Alaskan Thule are the repositories of tradition and continuity. This focus on tradition and continuity has slowed the adoption of innovation, but not halted it.
Nevertheless, change does come, gradually, unevenly. Population doubled, and doubled, and doubled again, generation after generation. People left. Alaska fueled the great continuing diaspora east all the way to Greenland and Labrador. And the population kept on increasing, generation after generation.
After a while, the direction of emigration shifted west, into Siberia. Innovations and agriculture made the land more productive, supporting ever greater populations. And still, the population grew, emigration shifted south into the more heavily populated regions better able to defend themselves, mingling with the Tlingit and creating a hybrid society.
Despite growth and evolution, the governance of Alaskan society has not changed. Authority is dispersed among a mixed asssembly of Shaman’s and elders, family heads, clan leaders. There is no formal mechanism of authority, success and ambition can be raise one up, but also drag one down. The Alaskans hold councils of every sort, discussing every issue of consequence endlessly and without conclusion, until someone gets fed up and leaves, which is accepted and encouraged, or until someone tries to force a decision, which is not. Consensus is not an easy thing for Alaskan society, feuds and generations old rivalries are a way of life. Alaska might rule the Thule world...
But as it is, they will not even rule themselves.
The pandemics will almost come as a relief to Alaska. Elders and headmen will smile as their rivals die of the pox, even as they scratch their own sores. A thinning of the population will ease the constant pressure. The consequence, of course, will be panics and mania, outbursts of mysticism. For the first time, Alaskan society will face revolution and transformations.
Sir Francis Drake has sailed up the Pacific Coast to the southern reaches of Alaska in 1579, encountering the local Thule. Around 1648, a handful of Russians will end up on the shores of Alaska, washed there by a storm. They will not be allowed to return home. Alaska will another century before the Europeans make themselves a physical presence.
The giant sleeps. What form will it take when it wakes?
In the meantime, the Alaskans will live as they always have, and send their excess into the bottomless well that seems to be Siberia.
Nice reference to the Russian sailors. I wonder if the Alaskan word for white people will be Kusuck (pronounced gussick, and stremming from Kossack) in this timeline.
Thule 1600 - Thule/Tinglit
The Alaskan Thule pushed down into the lands of the Tlingit, the Haida, the coastal peoples, and the Athabaskan peoples of the interior. Before them, they drove the northern Dene, fragments of the Aleuts and other peoples. In turn, these people were piled on top of one another, pushed up against each other. Territories were invaded, lands exchanged, alliances formed and broken.
In the end, the southern peoples were too numerous to truly replace. Through marriages or conquest, alliances and usurpation, and the application of slowly acquired innovations, the Alaskan Thule factions dominated the coast and mountains to the south. But the people remained.
The Thule Agricultural package had difficulty moving south. Pycrete failed to be an effective storage medium, except near the snow caps of mountains. The immigrating Thule came to be known as the Mountain Lords, using the cold altitudes for storage. The traditional Thule microclimate engineering, which was such a key to their arctic success was not particularly useful in the already warm southern regions, there were no vital needs for windbreaks, or water storing. Indeed, the southern regions were awash with water. In the southern regions, the Thule crops grew more rapidly with warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons. But even there, local plants grew faster, wild harvest was more productive.
The Thule package adapted to local conditions, turning on its head. Local marsh plants, arrowhead and cattails were domesticated and cultivated. If climate and temperature no longer mattered, a stable water regime for the marsh plants became critical. In the transformations and accommodations of the Thule culture’s movement into the region, the skills that underlay mound building and placement were adapted to terracing and ponding, storing and releasing water. Even the Caribou was supplanted by tamed and then domesticated Moose.
The Hybrid Tinglit/Thule culture has come to dominate the region, and the peoples of the region. The Thule, or sometimes Thule/Tinglit blends rule as local aristocracies. A stratified society has emerged. The region is awash with diversity and complexity. The southern crops are much more productive than the northern crops, but they require more maintenance and store more poorly. Like riding a bicycle, the hybrid society must continually move forward, continually balance.
By 1600 they are just beginning to come into their own. Just beginning to get it right, the domesticates maturing, the art of cultivation mastered. Becoming a literate society or artists and artisans, of cities and wonders. A cultured people in their own right, emerging from the northern shadow.
Their potential is vast. The danger they face is even vaster. They would not be the first to vanish without a trace without even a memory left behind.
The Alaskan Thule pushed down into the lands of the Tlingit, the Haida, the coastal peoples, and the Athabaskan peoples of the interior. Before them, they drove the northern Dene, fragments of the Aleuts and other peoples. In turn, these people were piled on top of one another, pushed up against each other. Territories were invaded, lands exchanged, alliances formed and broken.
In the end, the southern peoples were too numerous to truly replace. Through marriages or conquest, alliances and usurpation, and the application of slowly acquired innovations, the Alaskan Thule factions dominated the coast and mountains to the south. But the people remained.
The Thule Agricultural package had difficulty moving south. Pycrete failed to be an effective storage medium, except near the snow caps of mountains. The immigrating Thule came to be known as the Mountain Lords, using the cold altitudes for storage. The traditional Thule microclimate engineering, which was such a key to their arctic success was not particularly useful in the already warm southern regions, there were no vital needs for windbreaks, or water storing. Indeed, the southern regions were awash with water. In the southern regions, the Thule crops grew more rapidly with warmer temperatures and longer growing seasons. But even there, local plants grew faster, wild harvest was more productive.
The Thule package adapted to local conditions, turning on its head. Local marsh plants, arrowhead and cattails were domesticated and cultivated. If climate and temperature no longer mattered, a stable water regime for the marsh plants became critical. In the transformations and accommodations of the Thule culture’s movement into the region, the skills that underlay mound building and placement were adapted to terracing and ponding, storing and releasing water. Even the Caribou was supplanted by tamed and then domesticated Moose.
The Hybrid Tinglit/Thule culture has come to dominate the region, and the peoples of the region. The Thule, or sometimes Thule/Tinglit blends rule as local aristocracies. A stratified society has emerged. The region is awash with diversity and complexity. The southern crops are much more productive than the northern crops, but they require more maintenance and store more poorly. Like riding a bicycle, the hybrid society must continually move forward, continually balance.
By 1600 they are just beginning to come into their own. Just beginning to get it right, the domesticates maturing, the art of cultivation mastered. Becoming a literate society or artists and artisans, of cities and wonders. A cultured people in their own right, emerging from the northern shadow.
Their potential is vast. The danger they face is even vaster. They would not be the first to vanish without a trace without even a memory left behind.
Thule 1600 - Siberia
The Thule first came to Siberia across the Bering strait as supplicants. The people they met, the Chuchki, the Chuvan, the Koryak and Italmen were more than a match for them originally. They had dog sleds, herded caribou, their lands were richer, they harvested and hunted more.
The Thule, as in our time, found themselves confined to the most marginal lands. The agricultural revolution changed the equation. Their own domesticated caribou changed it further. New domesticates, ptarmigan and musk ox tilted the field. The Thule built their strength in the most barren lands, and when they became strong enough, they pushed outward.
Three centuries of warfare have resulted. The Chuchki, the Chuvan, the Koryak and Italmen were fierce enemies, brilliant in their own ways, devastating fighters and quick to take advantage of any opportunity. But the Thule kept growing, more numbers coming from Alaska each year, more innovations, more crops.
The Siberian Thule rule the Bering peninsula and the northern shores of Siberia, and every generation, they push further south and further west, until by 1600, they’ve encountered the Sea Thule at the Talmyr peninsula.
Contact with the Sea Thule have wrought changes. Their cousins are a dissolute lot, cannier and cunning. They lack the ferocity of the Siberians, the ready willingness to raise up armies, to drive their enemies into oblivion. But they're effective traders, they have a knack for resolving situations without bloodshed, useful among the councils of the Siberians, and perhaps not without some advantage in dealing with foreigners.
The Sea Thule have contributed their own toolkit, varieties of plants and animals, tools and techniques. Much of it is useless. Some of it, is quite remarkable. The ships and sales of the Sea Thule are adapted to the Siberian rivers, giving the Siberians a greater mobility and access. Bad, bad news for the peoples of the interior.
In 1600, the Siberian Thule are restless. Are there no more worlds to conquer?
Their territories are so vast they spend much of their time fighting each other, the feuds and rivalries of their Alaskan homeland blown into full scale wars.
Their traditional enemies no longer yearn for open battle, war with the tribes is now a game of scorched earth, of denying each other the use of the lands. The Siberian Thule have not stopped, but they have slowed.
At the rivers and river mouths, they have begun to meet explorers, traders, factors. As they go east, the tribes they have defeated so easily, are occasionally sporting weapons they have never seen before. Sicknesses are being experienced.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, occasional reports filter back of an impossible people. A people who ride Musk Ox and Reindeer, who grow their crops in ice and stone, a people consumed by the lust for war, and in a land mostly barren and empty, somehow produce an inexhaustible supply of warriors, who can raise up armies out of nowhere.
The Siberian Thule yearn for a true challenge.
Careful what you wish for.
The Thule first came to Siberia across the Bering strait as supplicants. The people they met, the Chuchki, the Chuvan, the Koryak and Italmen were more than a match for them originally. They had dog sleds, herded caribou, their lands were richer, they harvested and hunted more.
The Thule, as in our time, found themselves confined to the most marginal lands. The agricultural revolution changed the equation. Their own domesticated caribou changed it further. New domesticates, ptarmigan and musk ox tilted the field. The Thule built their strength in the most barren lands, and when they became strong enough, they pushed outward.
Three centuries of warfare have resulted. The Chuchki, the Chuvan, the Koryak and Italmen were fierce enemies, brilliant in their own ways, devastating fighters and quick to take advantage of any opportunity. But the Thule kept growing, more numbers coming from Alaska each year, more innovations, more crops.
The Siberian Thule rule the Bering peninsula and the northern shores of Siberia, and every generation, they push further south and further west, until by 1600, they’ve encountered the Sea Thule at the Talmyr peninsula.
Contact with the Sea Thule have wrought changes. Their cousins are a dissolute lot, cannier and cunning. They lack the ferocity of the Siberians, the ready willingness to raise up armies, to drive their enemies into oblivion. But they're effective traders, they have a knack for resolving situations without bloodshed, useful among the councils of the Siberians, and perhaps not without some advantage in dealing with foreigners.
The Sea Thule have contributed their own toolkit, varieties of plants and animals, tools and techniques. Much of it is useless. Some of it, is quite remarkable. The ships and sales of the Sea Thule are adapted to the Siberian rivers, giving the Siberians a greater mobility and access. Bad, bad news for the peoples of the interior.
In 1600, the Siberian Thule are restless. Are there no more worlds to conquer?
Their territories are so vast they spend much of their time fighting each other, the feuds and rivalries of their Alaskan homeland blown into full scale wars.
Their traditional enemies no longer yearn for open battle, war with the tribes is now a game of scorched earth, of denying each other the use of the lands. The Siberian Thule have not stopped, but they have slowed.
At the rivers and river mouths, they have begun to meet explorers, traders, factors. As they go east, the tribes they have defeated so easily, are occasionally sporting weapons they have never seen before. Sicknesses are being experienced.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, occasional reports filter back of an impossible people. A people who ride Musk Ox and Reindeer, who grow their crops in ice and stone, a people consumed by the lust for war, and in a land mostly barren and empty, somehow produce an inexhaustible supply of warriors, who can raise up armies out of nowhere.
The Siberian Thule yearn for a true challenge.
Careful what you wish for.
Thule 1600 - The Hudson Bay Empire
The western shore of Hudson Bay has acquired a ferocious gravity. It is becoming the axis around which their world has begun to revolve.
The Ellesmere Trading network is dividing between those clinging to their ancestral island, and those who see their future on that coastline. The displaced warlords and armies of Baffin see warm berths and riches rolling off those shores. Heroes riding Musk Ox are trickling in from one direction, Manupataq’s missionaries from another.
Change is in the air, the farmers in the fertile valleys can smell it in the blooming of their crops. The timber barons taking wood and lives in the south for trade north sense that their comfortable equations are about to change. The herders and traders can tell in the clicking of the Caribou’s hooves that something is in the wind.
The Europeans know it too. They’ve found their way to Thule, and although they still don’t quite know what they’re finding, they know they’ve found something. They haven’t quite made the connections, don’t quite realize that the Labrador, the Greenlanders, the Sea People and the Siberians are the same nation. Or what that means. The Europeans are discovering wonders around every corner, the Thule are just another wonder. They pursue opportunities everywhere, but and the Thule are another set of opportunities.
An Empire is being born, although who what that means and who is running it depends on who you ask and which week you are asking it.
An age of wonders and horrors is being born.
The western shore of Hudson Bay has acquired a ferocious gravity. It is becoming the axis around which their world has begun to revolve.
The Ellesmere Trading network is dividing between those clinging to their ancestral island, and those who see their future on that coastline. The displaced warlords and armies of Baffin see warm berths and riches rolling off those shores. Heroes riding Musk Ox are trickling in from one direction, Manupataq’s missionaries from another.
Change is in the air, the farmers in the fertile valleys can smell it in the blooming of their crops. The timber barons taking wood and lives in the south for trade north sense that their comfortable equations are about to change. The herders and traders can tell in the clicking of the Caribou’s hooves that something is in the wind.
The Europeans know it too. They’ve found their way to Thule, and although they still don’t quite know what they’re finding, they know they’ve found something. They haven’t quite made the connections, don’t quite realize that the Labrador, the Greenlanders, the Sea People and the Siberians are the same nation. Or what that means. The Europeans are discovering wonders around every corner, the Thule are just another wonder. They pursue opportunities everywhere, but and the Thule are another set of opportunities.
An Empire is being born, although who what that means and who is running it depends on who you ask and which week you are asking it.
An age of wonders and horrors is being born.
Not really. The Chinese are aware that something is going on with the northern Barbarians. But there's a lot of distance between the Thule of the Bering peninsula and Arctic shore and the Chinese realm.
More to the point, there's a lot of tribes between the Thule and China, and its not friendly. The Chuckchi and Koryak are not exactly friendly.
Between 1620 and 1660 there seems to have been conflicts and actual military engagements between China and Russian explorers. But this was far to the south.
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The Sandman
Banned
Hokkaido, the Kurils and Kamchatka are going to be interesting here. The Thule are forcing the people of Kamchatka south even as the Japanese are starting to push across the Tsugaru Strait. It's a recipe for quite a mess to develop.
In Europe, I think the Swedes will eventually come for Norway. It's potentially rich enough to be worth the trouble of conquering now, and unlike Poland or Germany there isn't anyone else who would care if the Swedes invaded. Except maybe Denmark, but Danish-Swedish wars are pretty much business as usual in that part of the world.
In Europe, I think the Swedes will eventually come for Norway. It's potentially rich enough to be worth the trouble of conquering now, and unlike Poland or Germany there isn't anyone else who would care if the Swedes invaded. Except maybe Denmark, but Danish-Swedish wars are pretty much business as usual in that part of the world.
I missed the story of the rise and fall of Iquntaq and the groundwork of the "Empire of the North Pole" earlier this summer--I have a subscription but I ignored sporadic pop-ups of replies, knowing how people like to bump and so forth.
So I've just caught up now, to the new summaries of the Thule subdivisions.
This concept, of an agricultural people rising in the tundra of the Arctic, has matured thanks to your work, DValdron, into something really solid. That's why I was devastated that you'd declared intent to cease involvement with this site--whatever is best for you is best--for you! For us it meant loss, pure and simple.
I am very glad to see the work continue; I am afraid to just jump in and start commenting when I don't know if you will be there to read them tomorrow.
But were it not for that shadow of Death that might be tapping this great timeline's shoulder any second, I would say that I am on the whole quite impressed with the description of the Thule subregions.
I wonder about the implication that the Alaskans are just going to muddle along until some possibly overwhelming challenge lands on them, borne in by European ships. But there is such a thing as news, generally in the form better called rumor of course. The Alaskans are well insulated from direct European contact until 1800 or so, but in the century before that, most of the other Thule lands are going to get majorly crunched by Europeans. In that process--I suppose the Labradorians will come closest to the typical sad story of a Native American people succumbing before European advance--but of course a lot of their oppressors will be other Thule, and the Thule population in the region will be renewed by fortune-seeking immigrants. The Europeans won't actually want much to do with the territory itself; it's just its position (and meagre prospects from the point of view of either European or Thule) that makes it the center of the European shotgun blast.
But I think maybe they'll absorb most of the buckshot. ...
I mean to write more, but I have to go back to sleep at the moment. I don't want to delay sending this though, so more tomorrow perhaps?
So I've just caught up now, to the new summaries of the Thule subdivisions.
This concept, of an agricultural people rising in the tundra of the Arctic, has matured thanks to your work, DValdron, into something really solid. That's why I was devastated that you'd declared intent to cease involvement with this site--whatever is best for you is best--for you! For us it meant loss, pure and simple.
I am very glad to see the work continue; I am afraid to just jump in and start commenting when I don't know if you will be there to read them tomorrow.
But were it not for that shadow of Death that might be tapping this great timeline's shoulder any second, I would say that I am on the whole quite impressed with the description of the Thule subregions.
I wonder about the implication that the Alaskans are just going to muddle along until some possibly overwhelming challenge lands on them, borne in by European ships. But there is such a thing as news, generally in the form better called rumor of course. The Alaskans are well insulated from direct European contact until 1800 or so, but in the century before that, most of the other Thule lands are going to get majorly crunched by Europeans. In that process--I suppose the Labradorians will come closest to the typical sad story of a Native American people succumbing before European advance--but of course a lot of their oppressors will be other Thule, and the Thule population in the region will be renewed by fortune-seeking immigrants. The Europeans won't actually want much to do with the territory itself; it's just its position (and meagre prospects from the point of view of either European or Thule) that makes it the center of the European shotgun blast.
But I think maybe they'll absorb most of the buckshot. ...
I mean to write more, but I have to go back to sleep at the moment. I don't want to delay sending this though, so more tomorrow perhaps?
I have at least a hundred years to go, Shevek, before I can lay down my weary head.
Welcome back, the place isn't the same without you.
Welcome back, the place isn't the same without you.
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