Diversity Maximized World Map | Atlas Altera

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Hi all,

I've been lurking around in this forum for years but I never felt like I fit in. Though I'm quite interested in history, my other interests are a little different. Over the years, I've been quietly working away at my own alternate history project, which I call Atlas Altera. Now that I'm putting my hobby out into the open, I thought I might see if there are people here who would appreciate what I've been doing.

*Balkanization Trigger Warning*​

www.atlasaltera.com

As you would call it on this forum, my world is full of ASBs. In my project, I have tried to respect the general historical trends and the logic in the motions of history, and I do stop to ponder butterflies, but all of those considerations are of less importance to me when using alternate history as a creative device to maximize linguistic and cultural diversity represented through political territories. What I'm after is overlaying the diversity of OTL nations, languages, and peoples that have survived to the present day with the status quo of privileging the nation-state in international relations beginning in the early modern period. The point is to see in every major turning point in history, if there was a way to minimize the ramifications and to make the losers lose less so that more make into onto the world map...

In a way, this is a different kind of story. The project has been a way for me to chart my own journey in learning about the world. It's my take on that cliche push pin world map. My method is not meant to be methodically pure, and the way I see it, the main point of alternate history is to create and inspire. I'm not interested in empire building or satisfying any one group's irredentist fantasy.

I have amassed a huge manuscript (330 pages, which I first started to keep track of my decisions and historical deviations), and multiple excel files for tracking languages, cultural inputs, religion, food staples, and some stats, and I also have printed out my own wall-mountable world map, as well as made a series of other map graphics. My thinking is that I should now produce all of this stuff for people to look through, which is why I started the website. There, I'll be posting map plates (blog posts) every month, I'm also working on discussion videos to accompany each map plate one. If there's enough interest here, I'll also continue posting in the forum as well.

I'm starting out small. I've got a patreon set up, and I'm working on YouTube. You can view high resolution images on https://telamontabulicus.imgbb.com/albums. I've left plenty of Easter eggs and references, some to things I've come across on this forum.

If you have any ideas for helping me bring this project to its true potential, let's talk.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

To further explain, I basically made it my goal to represent at least one language from every language family currently in existence, or which is being revitalized.

So on Papua, you'll notice, there's a ton of stuff. It's dense in there, but that's because there are like 800 languages from around 60 or so language families. In contrast, all of Eurasia has probably a score, and adding Africa to that, you'll probably only match that amount on Papua.

The other point was to try to balance out religious, world-view, and cultural spheres so that there would be a more culturally multipolar world. Islam, Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism, for example, find their way as majority religions in many of the cultures of these states (many of which are also secular), but so does Zarathustrianism (OTL Parsis) and indigenous religions.

Over the years (some ten years I think), this exercise has had a profound impact on me. It's really helped me with understanding what decolonization really means and to discover where my biases lie and how to let them go. It was also heartbreaking to watch, as my project progressed, languages go extinct (i.e. western America, South America, and southern Australia). It also, however, exciting to watch for new knowledges being produced by linguists and anthropologists, with cutting edge papers linking certain languages with others across the globe, as well as re-evaluating established family groupings, or to see new content on Wikipedia or stub articles to be expanded (presumably by academics making available their own work and studies...)

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

I thought I should just post my latest content in this thread:

Rising from azure coasts to the sheltering plateaus and ridges of the Atlas Mountains, the lands of Atlasia have long been seen as the counterpoints to European countries across the Mediterranean Sea. Atlasia is located right at the edge of the African continent, on the precipice of the great waste of the Sahara. Even native Atlasians regarded their lands as the frontier until the use of camels, introduced from the east, became regular. And yet, ever since the time of Hannibal, Atlasia has also been a cultural core in its own right, forming the main settled areas of the region of Libya. Though distinct in culture and, for the majority of history, religion, the nations that formed here were locked in a waxing and waning cycle linked directly to their counterparts in Europea up until the modern period. In times of great power imbalance, ambitious rulers on either side set their eyes upon the other and launched earthshaking conquests. In other periods of history, when peace could find its way to settle in this part of the world and maritime trade pursued, the constant harrying of sea traffic and the pillaging of coastal villages was still an everyday reality. In the rare instances that this cycle was interrupted, the great forces of lasting change came not from the north, but instead, came far from the east—Asea.

For the full content: https://www.atlasaltera.com/post/atlasia

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Here's another graphic I did, this time a regional map. The full size can be viewed here.

Jutting out as a peninsula in the northwest portion of the continent of Borealea, Europea itself consists of a series of minor and major peninsulas, the abundance of coastline allowing for much of the region to be tempered by maritime winds and currents. Europea is a region of historically warring states, shifting borders, and innovative systems of governance. In ancient history, the region's cultural landscape was constantly reshaped by great migrations of peoples, sometimes resulting in abrupt demographic changes, though more often than not resulting in the emergence of new cultures through cultural assimilation.

In search of better access to eastern spices, kingdoms in Europea launched the world into the Age of Exploration when the Iberian monarchs embraced the technology of oceangoing vessels from Libya and set sail for the far side of the world. Their unexpected discoveries led to the conquering, colonizing, and settling of distant lands, ultimately reshaping the world in drastic ways.

Read about the other regions on the website www.atlasaltera.com.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Gomeria, Esmiria, Senegalia, Taregia, and Getulia.

Spanning beyond the Atlas Mountains into the great waste of the Sahara, the lands of Mazicia have long been regarded as the limits of the known earth. Contrary to popular belief, it is the Sahara, and not the continent-dividing Mediterranean Sea, that formed in antiquity the greatest barrier between peoples in this part of the world. Like black holes are for astronomers today, few from the outside knew how far its towering dunes extended, what lurked beneath the sands, and what lay in waiting on the other side. And yet, the peoples of Mazicia are widely documented in history. The great renaissance man of Punice, Ibn Khaldun, wrote of them extensively, as did the Romans and Carthaginians, but almost all accounts were written from hearsay—travelers' tales, merchants' bluffs, soldiers' accounts, stories given by expedition survivors. One thing, however, is for certain: like the remote atolls and islands of Polynesea, every oasis in the Sahara has been found to have been continuously inhabited or frequented as a watering station since time immemorial, making this part of the world one of the first places to see permanent human settlement at a dense scale. With the introduction of the camel from Arabia via Atlasia, the dunes and plains of the Sahara became just another sea for merchants to regularly ply, and contact with Nigeria, on the other side, became regularized, so much so that the mystical and exotic geographies of Timbuktu and the Niger River—once regarded by Europeans in the same way as Marco Polo's Xanadu and the Ho River—seemed as familiar as the sun-drenched lands of Aramia and the Holy Land.

Read the full map plate on the website www.atlasaltera.com.
And I'm on YouTube now, with audio/podcast versions on Spotify and Anchor, for all those who want more background explanations. Give it a go and subscribe, please!

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Here's a spinoff theme for the project!
Click on the image or here the higher quality version on Deviantart. You can also view the original Reddit post here.


From the Centre to the Margins - The Extents of the Sinosphere:
Mammoth-riding Yukaghirs, Hmongic nations, Langfang and other konsi republics in Nusantara, transoceanic contact by the Ainu in their itaomachips, Nisean horses preserved and traded in the Tea Horse Road, Phags-pa-writing and katana-carrying PNW Indigenous nations, Japonic-Austronesic cultural infusion in Okinawa, Ming Restoration, Rangaku policies and more organic modernization in the Far East...

Support this kind of content:
To access in-depth lore and footnotes (explanatory etymologies for the Sinic meanings for each country and its nation-signifier), or to download a high resolution print-quality version join the Patreon! Your funds will go to supporting me as well as other collaborators of the project. It took many long nights to produce something this in-depth and thought out, so really do consider showing us your support if you can.

More content:
I'm doing backstage-style discussions for this project with my friend, which you can watch on YouTube and or listen on Anchor/Spotify. Also, check out my YouTube for more backroom explanations and in-depth discussions

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Treblesia, Saconia, Phasania, and Marmoria.

Here's a cute little excerpt:
Much of early economic activity on the peninsula instead centred around the gathering the seeds and stalks of an endemic Ferula plant, Sicatian silfer, known as silphium in antiquity, and a close relative to the more pungent Chorsanian silfer, Ferula foetida, known in Asea as asa chitt by Jews or anqowzeh by Zarathustrans and in Indea as hing. Such was the reliance upon this cash crop that it is believed to be at the centre of one of the first recorded incidents of Flemish Disease, as exports of Sicatian silfer suddenly plummeted, coinciding with a sharp decline in the local economy and population of the Pentapoli Coast.

Read the full map plate on the website www.atlasaltera.com.
And I'm on YouTube now, with audio/podcast versions on Spotify and Anchor, for all those who want more background explanations. Give it a go and subscribe, please!

P.S. yes, I know, Syrtis Major has moved west...

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Here's to the drinks that keep us going! This is a map I did with Zveiner. It features the staple steeps preferred by every state in Altera. To view a larger version of the graphic, go to my Deviantart. Also, it goes along with this video.

What is a steep? A steep is basically the go-to drink that people in different cultures keep going back to, every few hours, or day by day. It's something we rely upon for work, for more formal social functions, or just to get up first thing in the morning. It's coffee, tea, even hot cocoa, plus more! I've long been fascinated by ethnobotany. I sometimes lament that we no longer drink all the wonderful things that kept our ancestors awake or energized throughout the day. Thankfully, Atlas Altera gives me the latitude to explore a world brimful with different steeps.

The map style is an ode to the aesthetics at the turn of the last century. You see on the map the supposed or hypothetical originary points of domestications, as well as the preferred staple steeps of every country. The text blurbs on the map add more "colour" in the sense of giving details on cultural variations of the steeps/drinks from one part of the world to the next. Then there are little blurbs or introductions to each steep on the legend, as well as two corner maps that focus only on tea and coffee. I highly encourage you to search up the scientific names of each of the steeps I've listed (as I sometimes use a different name than the OTL name). A mildly stimulating adventure awaits...



Support this kind of content:
To access in-depth lore and footnotes (such as the spreadsheet of detailed linguistics information/data that goes with this map), or to download a high resolution print-quality version join the Patreon! Your funds will go to supporting me as well as other collaborators of the project. Otherwise, please join the community around this project on r/AtlasAltera or Discord (link in the subreddit).

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Here's a historical map, circa 1600s, of the Southeast Asia version of Altera, so Sumatrea and nothern Tamirea. For a larger image, see the Deviantart.

The Nine Mandalas at their Height c. 1600 - The Political Leagues of Sumatrea and Tamirea Prior to Company Rule.

Nine Mandalas. At the turn of the 17th century, nine political entities rule much of the oceanic continent now called Gandrasea. Within Gandrasea, these political entities spanned across the region of Sumatrea and the northern half of Tamirea, effectively controlling the production source of some of the most sought after spices and commodities before the rise of European dominance and Company Rule in the region. Portuguese presence is marginal, the Spanish are unable to break into the monopoly despite their recent capture of the northern Miniras, and the Flemish East Indea Company is still in its exploratory stage in mapping the furthest reaches of the region, all the while the British bide their time.

Rings of powers. Mandalas are a way of referring to political leagues or blocs in which power radiated from maritime-based city-states. Unlike formal empires, mandala rule was based on large degrees of local autonomy, balanced cultural hegemony from the core city-state. But they were also more than military alliances, and tributes and regional tariffs and trade policies were the norm.

Indean origins. This form of political relation stems from contact and cultural diffusion from nearby Indea. In fact, it was the Chola invasions and explorations of much of Sumatrea and northern Tamirea that led to the establishment of such a dense and complex network of regional trade. Indean exploration of the eastern Emporic followed whiffs of cloves, nutmeg, and sandalwood, leading them to go beyond the spice-adorned isles of the Malukus all the way to Tamirea and its vast interior Chandara Sea, as well as beyond the ocean to a new frontier marked by the Rovianas and Solomas.

Cultural legacies. Despite Flemish dominance in much of the region in the 18th century and eventual British takeover in the 19th century, much of the territorial and cultural divisions of the former mandalas remained largely static, even when they were grouped into colonial presidencies with new political centres or cores. A lasting legacy from the Mandala Period, for example, is that religious patterns of Hindu and Muslim sects, as well as literary traditions, can all be explained from the cultural connections made during tis period. Foodways and agricultural techniques also spread during the period. Hardy staple crops were brought over to Indea from the drought-prone areas of Dinataga and Irini, and in exchange, advanced irrigation techniques from Rajputana made it over to much of Tamirea.

Support this kind of content. To access in-depth lore and footnotes, or to download a high resolution print-quality version join the Patreon! Your funds will go to supporting future collaborations and commissions for Atlas Altera.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

This is a language family map for Atlas Altera and is based on the primary language used by a state. There are over 200 represented here (hence the colour theory nightmare). To put it in perspective, in OTL, only about a dozen language families can be represented on the political world map.

Check out https://www.atlasaltera.com/language-families for a full legend of the language families, inspired by the Periodic Table of Elements.
For those interested in taking a closer look, all the linguistic data for Altera has already been released on my Patreon.
Join us on r/atlasaltera and stay tuned for a future version that will be fully interactive.

For more on Altera or if this is your first time introduced to the project, check out my videos on YouTube, see my Deviantart for my maps, or see the comment thread of my first post for questions answered.

On a more personal note, I've been itching to share this as I worked to fix all the glitches over the winter break. I have not been able to fully imagine what the language spread of the world I created until now, when I generated this map with my data set. So although this map doesn't look like much, it's a bit of a personal milestone haha.

PS: yes, there are new additions/countries on this map from the update that I am releasing later in January. Consider this a sneak peak / first look.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

I made this to give a little historical context for the project. I plan on doing more 20th century maps but also maps of the late modern period to explain how the contemporary world turned out. Some lore is in the graphic itself. I'd be happy to answer any questions here.

You can see a higher quality version on DeviantArt or a print vision on Patreon.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Zveiner and I made this Risk game for the r/atlasaltera community. To see a larger version, go to my Deviantart. You can also download a 3 feet png file and print off your own tabletop version if you support me through my Patreon.

There isn't too much lore to say here. If this is your first time seeing the project, check out the preface on the website or read through my responses to questions on my first post on ImaginaryMaps.

Minor tweaks on gameplay:

• Maritime invasions are 2:2 for dice rolls between attack and defense, with defense trumping in ties.
• There are 60 territories instead of 42 (territory cards will come later this month).

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

And I'm back! After taking some time off and then putting a lot more time in refining the way i make my maps, I've finally been able to produce a new map for my project, Atlas Altera, based on religion. If you're new to this project or looking for more context, check out www.atlasaltera.com

See a crisper version on DeviantArt and follow the conversation on Reddit.​

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Here's a map featuring the four most prominent bat-and-ball or safe haven games to be played professionally around the world of Altera. Even though I'm not into sports myself, I recognize the connection between sports and games with culture, and I'm very interested in painting culture with broad-yet-interesting strokes to give people helpful clues of what's going on in the countries of Altera.

For a better version of the map, view it here.

Support this kind of content:
To access in-depth lore and footnotes (such as the footnotes that goes with this map), or to download a high resolution print-quality version join the Patreon! Your funds will go to supporting me as well as other collaborators of the project. There's also a special offer of receiving two free vinyl stickers in the mail right now for anyone who pledges this month.

Otherwise, please join the community around this project on r/AtlasAltera or Discord (link in the subreddit). I'm also doing backstage-style discussions for this project with my friend, which you can watch on YouTube. I'm hoping to start a new style of shorter videos too, so do subscribe to the channel to stay tuned.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

This is a map for the Atlas Altera project, and is the first map for a new series of maps I will be racing to pump out over the next little while as I work to completing my linguistics spreadsheet for the whole project. This one is on Africa, and the next ones will also be continent-based. Each country depicted has an easy to Google 3-letter code that corresponds to an OTL / real ISO-639-3 code for a lect/language. I urge you to search some of these up. There are so many interesting Wiki rabbit holes awaiting you!

For a better version of the map, plus all the corresponding OTL languages written out, see the Deviantart version.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

This next map from the Sprouting from Babel series is on what I call Crucea in Altera. Each country depicted has an easy to Google 3-letter code that corresponds to an OTL / real ISO-639-3 code for a lect/language. I urge you to search some of these up. There are so many interesting Wiki rabbit holes awaiting you!

For a better version of the map, plus all the corresponding OTL languages written out, see the Deviantart version.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

This next language map is on Septentrea. Each country depicted has an easy to Google 3-letter code that corresponds to an OTL / real ISO-639-3 code for a lect/language. Again, I urge you to search some of these up.

Go to here for a better version of the map and for the corresponding OTL languages written out.

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

 

[Telamon Tabulicus]

Here's my latest video, which attempts to explain the reason behind the project in a simple way.