Only two more days until employment! Yay!
Okay, I've been working on my Leyguria map again. For those who don't know (which is probably a fair few of you) Leyguria is a fictional nation I implanted on the world for shits and giggles, creating a very ASB setting where Christianity was not as influential (leaving room for Paganism the farther north you go) and the Islamic socieities are considered to be on equal terms with those European ones. This philosophy, grandiosely called 'humanism', would effectively extend to all men on earth were it not for those nasty naked barbarians eating snakes in the jungles (disclaimer: not my actual views. I mean, come on, really?).
Leyguria is the country coloured in Savoyard green due to its location on the map, a unique blend of French and Italian culture with a language all of its own (Roman Empire still existed...and technically still does...so the language is still Latinised). You will see in this ATL 1914 that the spread of imperialism transcends traditional timelines even into the farthest reaches of the caves where alien space bats roost. Because doesn't it make a country look so perfectly wanked?
Leyguria has been responsible for its fair share of atrocities. The network of railroads connecting the far-spanning towns and cities in the North Mauretanian (or what those of you unfamiliar with butterflies...none of you, I'd hope...call Africa) districts were built by slaves, which have been sent en-masse back to the jungle upon the criminilisation of owning other humans. Of course, some of the darker-skinned hard-working folk still linger but it's hard to say if their lives would be that much better.
Conversely, the Leygurian Kingdom of Meyico (probably the most prosperous nation on the continent of Pellegrina (North America)) has created what we might view as a perfect society considering race-relations. The huge numbers of blacks imported for the sake of plantation farming kind of made it necessary. Better to have loyal darkies than disloyal ones, after all, even if those pesky Mayans wouldn't budge on the matter.
Pellegrina is about as linguistically diverse as Europe. In the north we have the creatively-named Vinland, an ex-Norweigan colony with a huge native population that thank Thor for rain and pray to the all-father and hope dearly to dine in the halls of Valhalla one day. Such a thing might seem bizarre to us, but in this world Paganism in its many varieties (or at least, in its European varieties) is about as 'normal' as Christianity or Islam. The Europeans are still a bit iffy when it comes to Buddhism, but hey, those bald dudes aren't really hurting anyone.
In Pellegrina, we see a lingering English colony called - you guessed it! - Virginia, just north of the other Virginia, which broke away and didn't bother to change its name (how rude!). South along the coast, we see ex-Swedish Thorenland, ex-French New France, and the other ex-English colony of New Wales. To the west of all of these...prosperous...free nations is the sprawling Federation of Rio Colas (complete with Caddo Free State!), and west again to the multi-cultural nation of Costa Agitada (the Agitadic Ocean being the Pacific - the Magellan equivalent found just the opposite of 'calm seas' when he arrived ITTL). Just up from there is Deschtia, which broke away from the colony of New Poland, the 'escht' being the logical English-isation of the Polish equivalent (which I forgot after I wrote it down).
Then of course there's Meyico (go Leyguria!) ruled by the first son of a man that was the second son of the Leygurian king (yes, it's really that confusing!). Loyal to a pinch to the home country and a whole lot more stable than the Mexico we know of. It hasn't suffered any violence since the Mayans broke away, and even then it was sort of, "Bang-bang-bang...okay, okay you can have autonomoy. Bang-bang-bang...fine, fine, independence, whatever dudes."
The Focan Sea (Caribbean) is as always home to a number of diversely-owned islands.
Then there's the continent of Alpera (South America). The west and south was colonised by the French, but the west broke away to form the Federal States of the Brumes, Les Montagnes Brume being the name of the Andes ITTL. North of those is the Republic of Philipea, named for the revolutionary asshat which broke the country free and turned into a one-party misery-land, and then of course the violently-freed United States of Alerpa (convergence ho!). Oddly enough, Alerpa is what it's called because of a stutter that was uttered when the only dyslexic member of the Founding Fathers suggesed the name. ("We hearby name our new confederation....the United States, for it is only by these many independent states uniting that we may exist, of Al-Al-eh-Alerpa, so all may know our ambitions extend beyond our current borders, so all may be free.").
The big nation covering the jungles is the ex-Dutch colony of Regenwoud, which just means rainforest. Because when they arrived they found two things - a big-ass river, but without words to aptly call a nation 'big-ass river', they went with the next thing - rain and a forest.
The rest of the world ought to be pretty self-explanatory. Mauretania (again, in case you've forgotten, Africa) was colonised a bit earlier than OTL because the Leygurians jumped in to get their northern lands secured, and the Hispanians took the southern cape (Cabo Tiburon, Cape of Sharks...yeeeh
) to secure their sea route to India.
Eirean Kongo (Irish Kongo, of course) isn't much different to Belgian Congo, even when the reasons it was given to Eire are considered. Everybody wanted it, but nobody wanted anyone else to have it, and nobody could agree on a realistic or reasonable partition of territory or resources. Of course, the Kongolese might have been spared a whole lot of drama has the Europeans had the common sense to do what they later did to Australia (Antarctica) - make it a no-man's land.
Mauretania is probably even more linguistically diverse than Pellegrina; everyone from Alba to Rome (Eastern Rome) has territory on the dark continent. The English are probably the only ones having any real success at colonising, however. Their settlers flood their East Mauretanian colony and it's already got self-government. The hope is that, essentially, the English won't have to lose it at all.
Of course not all of Mauretania was swallowed. There are four kingdoms which remain; Mossi, Bambara, Bornu and Dar Fur. There was also Mali, but the Leygurians got pissy when the Hispanians jumped in between their Moroccon protectorate and their colony of Gambia and wanted a land-connection from north to...southwest? The logic was pretty flimsy.
In Asia, the three 'untouchables' of OTL were very greatly touched. Southern China had been occupied by Leyguria for a long, long time. First by missionaries, then by merchants along the coast, then by soldiers. Much and more of the population ditched their local religion for Christianity when it became apparent the Leygurians weren't leaving. The north had its own troubles, what with rapidly-expanding Poland right above it. In the end, the Leygurian Kingdom of China gave a woman to the third-born son of the Leygurian King, and she became Queen of China. Now, a mixed-race king sits on the throne, with a Leygurian wife, and most historians predict it will only get more confusing as time goes by. Japan was also swallowed by Leyguria, although Korea was spared...only to be eaten alive by Poland.
And so we have a world where the balance of power is probably a lot more balanced than OTL. Sprawling European Empires cover the globe in flags that really ought not to be there, but hey, the white man has a burden after all.
Will there be another major war breaking out? Probably. France is getting too big for its briches with ambitions in Germania and many states are starting to wonder if, hey, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to let Poland get so out of control. The League of Tuscany wants to unify all the Italies, but the Venezians want nothing to do with it (although some of that Roman territory would look delicious with tomato sauce). The Pagans of Germania are starting to get a little angsty with all these Christian churches popping up here and there, while Pagan Brittany is starting to wonder why it pays taxes to Paris when they don't even share a language! The French are looking at Africa with bedroom eyes that say "I want to tear you a new one and fuck that new one" rather than "hey baby, how about a strawberry dackery and we see how the night goes?", and that makes the Eireans nervous since their only colony lies right in the middle of a whole lot of French ones.
The Leygurians don't really want anything to do with anyone, but alas they ought to keep those Tuscans from getting too uppity even if the nations of Eastern Europe would rather let them do their thing, and you know what, France IS getting too big for its britches and that's just not okay.
Anyway, here's a mappity map. It may seem recognisable from some of my older Leyguria maps I've posted over my history with this site, but that's because I really liked some aspects of those maps and decided to keep them.
