Dominion of Southern America - Now with Tyrannodrakons!

-Good point, might make for a "backyard brawl" in the Chinas for who gets to space first!

-My thinking is that the Royal Navy (and, if it forms, Royal Southron Navy) has the sea and airlift to offset that logistical hurdle, we ARE talking about The Andrew after all. That being said, I can't argue with using a mainland location since it does make things cheaper. I'm not married to the notion of Canaveral itself, although it provides a stand-off location from inhabited areas in the unfortunate event of a rocket going "ka-BOOM". I suppose the Everglades could work too, although not the Keys (too small of a terrestrial footprint, Canaveral is close enough to land and has enough dirt to build on, not to mention the speed boost it provides in getting a rocket into orbit AND, being sea adjacent, makes for easy recovery of failed liftoffs).

-The Wallops Flight Facility IOTL belongs to NASA for launching sounding rockets, as well as boosting NOAA assets into high altitude and/or low orbit. Lots of military rocket/missile testing for things like SAMS, ABMs, and ASATs if I recall as well.

-IJS, the US can use the space race as a way of proving their mettle on the world stage without nasty wars or foreign entanglements (which I wouldn't personally consider a joint space program as such, given its economic and scientific potential rather than setting any kind of permanent political tie, necessarily).

 

Indeed it could be!

True but I think it will be an eastern coast rather than the Royal Navy (or partners).

Not really - East Florida is narrower than you might imagine.

What's the speed boost there? Lunar orbit?

Thanks for that tidbit!

That's very true, though they have already had their big war with the Population War.

 

Does anyone have a map of the course the moon takes over the earth for launch windows?

 

-Oh I agree the east coast is a likely launching point, just considering alternatives.

-Narrower than a key on a strip of coastline and a barrier island like OTL? But point taken on suitability.

-The closer you get to the Earth's equator, the faster the Earth's rotation gets due to it spinning faster than other points; the land at the equator moves at 1670 km per hour, and land halfway to the pole is only moving 1180 km per hour, so launching from the equator makes the spacecraft move almost 500 km/hour faster once it is launched.

-Of course!

-Naturally (I even have had ideas on wartime highlights for American efforts alongside Britain, Southron America and their allies). The race to space offers a way to maintain their high standing globally (along with Pax Legion sponsorship) and more importantly offering more scientific discoveries.

 

I’ve only recently joined alternate history discussion, I got into the subject through AlternateHistoryHub and the only other story I’ve read here is Shield of Liberty, but can I just say this timeline is probably one of my biggest inspirations when it comes to stories. It’s just so creative and original, I’m exited for the next update to come out! (speaking of, when do you think it will?)

 

Fair

True!

Yes - I would love to see your ideas on that.

 

Thank you for your patronage and I am humbled that I could inspire you - I will get that update up soon and look forward to seeing your own efforts!

 

Holy crap, @Glen lives! Looking forward to anything you may have in store for us (the South must rise again, after all!). As for ideas on American activities during the Population War, I had some musings I may PM you.

 

The Evolution of Hindoo Deism

With the onset of the British Raj, the colonization of India by the British, there also started a Hindoo renaissance in the 19th century, which profoundly changed the understanding of Hinduism in both India and the west. Hindoology as an academic discipline of studying Indian culture from a European perspective was established in the 19th century which brought Vedic, Puranic and Tantric literature and philosophy to Europe and the United States. Western academics searched for the "essence" of the Indian religions, discerning this in the Vedas, and meanwhile creating the notion of "Hinduism" as a unified body of religious practice and the popular picture of 'mystical India'. This idea of a Vedic essence was taken over by Hindoo reform movements including the Brahmo Samaj, which was supported by Western Deism, and promulgated the idea that all religions share a common inspiration. This "Hindoo modernism", became central in the popular understanding of Hinduism.



Raja Ram Mohan Roy (22 May 1772 – 26 September 1833) was the founder of the Brahmo Sabha movement in 1828, which engendered the Brahmo Samaj, an influential social-religious reform movement, the religious component of which was Brahmoism, an early form of Deist Hindooism. His influence was apparent in the fields of politics, public administration and education as well as religion. Raja Ram Mohan Roy was known as the Father of the Indian Renaissance.

Ram Mohan Roy's impact on modern Indian history was his revival of the pure and ethical principles of the Vedanta school of philosophy as found in the Upanishads. He preached the unity of God, made early translations of Vedic scriptures into English, co-founded the Calcutta Deist Society and founded the Brahma Samaj. The Brahma Samaj played a major role in reforming and modernising the Indian society. He successfully campaigned against sati, the practice of burning widows. He sought to integrate Western culture with the best features of his own country's traditions. He established a number of schools to popularise a modern system (effectively replacing Sanskrit based education with English based education) of education in India. He promoted a rational, ethical, non-authoritarian, this-worldly, and social-reform Deist Hinduism. His writings were of great interest among British and American Deists particularly Freedom Deists.

The following doctrines, as noted in Renaissance of Hinduism, are common to all varieties and offshoots of the Brahmo Samaj:

• Brahmo Samajists have no faith in any scripture as an authority.
• Brahmo Samajists have no faith in Avatars
• Brahmo Samajists denounce polytheism and idol-worship.
• Brahmo Samajists are against caste restrictions.
• Brahmo Samajists make faith in the doctrines of Karma and Rebirth optional.

The Brahmo articles of faith derive from the Fundamental (Adi) Principles of the Adi Brahmo Samaj religion.

• On God: There is always Infinite (limitless, undefinable, imperceivable, indivisible) Singularity - immanent and transcendent Singular Author and Preserver of Existence - "He" whose Love is manifest everywhere and in everything, in the fire and in the water, in the smallest plant to the mightiest oak.
• On Being: Being is created from Singularity. Being is renewed to Singularity. Being exists to be one (again) with Loving Singularity.
• On Intelligent Existence: Righteous (worshipful, intelligent, moral) actions alone rule (regulate [preserve, enhance]) Existence against Chaos (loss [decay, pervading emptiness]). Knowledge (Intelligence [reason, sentience, insight]) of pure Conscience (light within) is the One (Supreme) ruler (authority [law, dharma]) of Existence with no symbol (creation [scripture, book, object]) or intermediary (being [teacher, messiah, ruler]).
• On Love: Respect all creations and beings but never venerate (worship) them for only Singularity should be loved (adored, worshipped).

Articles of faith
The Articles of faith for Brahmos are:

• Brahmos embrace righteousness as the only way of life.
• Brahmos embrace truth, knowledge, reason, free will and virtuous intuition (observation) as guides.
• Brahmos embrace secular principles but oppose sectarianism and imposition of religious belief into governance (especially propagation of religious belief by government).
• Brahmos embrace the co-existence of Brahmo principles with governance, but oppose all governance in conflict with Brahmo principles.
• Brahmos reject narrow theism (especially polytheism), idolatry and symbolism.
• Brahmos reject the need for formal rituals, priests or places (church, temple, mosque) for worship.
• Brahmos reject dogma and superstition.
• Brahmos reject scriptures as authority.
• Brahmos reject revelations, prophets, gurus, messiahs, or avatars as authority.
• Brahmos reject bigotry and irrational distinctions like caste, creed, colour, race, religion which divide beings.
• Brahmos reject all forms of totalitarianism.
• Brahmos examine the prevalent notion of "sin".
• Brahmos examine the prevalent notions of "heaven" or "hell".
• Brahmos examine the prevalent notion of "salvation".

Brahmoism in general enjoyed success beyond the borders of Bengal after the Sepoy Uprising of 1857 in part due to its pro-Western orientation. While the British Imperial officials were somewhat concerned with the movement's ties to Deism, they saw it as a useful tool to moving Hindoos closer to English ways even if they would have preferred a more "British" influence.

However, as the Indian Dominion sought to develop its own identity, more classic forms of Hinduism began to reassert themselves and Brahmoism had not seen growth in India past the turn of the 19th to the 20th century. The rise of Malthusian influences, the Thuggie scourge, and the United Nationalities of India, saw Brahmoism along with several other minority groups in India as threats to the new nationalist and Malthusian worldview. From the 1920s on oppression grew and became outright attempts at extermination during the Population War. The Brahmos who survived were those who fled India while they could or joined partisan groups either fighting side by side with the beleaguered British outposts or hiding out in the wild places of the Indian subcontinent. Many mainstream Hindoos and Muslims who did not fully support the Malthusian vision of UNI hid Brahmo and other oppressed minorities in India as well. Brahmoism would remain a small part of the diverse Indian populace after the Population War but would have more significant influences overseas.

In North America, Freedom Deists had embraced a number of religious traditions that had adopted Deist principles and 'rediscovered' Brahmoism with the Brahmo diaspora sending several to the United States and the Dominion of Southern America. Southron Hindoos at the same time were struggling to gain equality and an identity in the DSA and many were attracted to incorporating Deist and Brahmoist features into a resurgence in Hindoo religion in the Dominion. Hindoo leader Shush Raja in his later life would embrace Deist Hinduism and after that Deist Hinduism became a large influence on the Southron version of Hinduism, much to the chagrin of some more traditional Southrons who had always been wary of the odd Deist minority that had such influence in their neighbor to the North.

For a generation in the West post-Population War there was a lull in Hindoo studies given lingering anger towards the Thuggies and the UNI and their role in the Malthusian movement. However by the 1970s, somewhat rehabilitated by the impact of the Brahmoist diaspora and the interest of Southron Hindoos and Deists in general, all things Indian and Hindoo saw a resurgence of interest. A new generation of Hindoologists would translate, reformulate and presente Hinduism's foundational texts for contemporaneous audiences in new iterations, raising the profiles of Yoga including Tantra in the West and attracting followers and attention beyond India.

Hindu practices such as Yoga, Ayurvedic health, Tantric sexuality through the Kama Sutra spread beyond Hindoo communities and have been accepted by several non-Hindus.

​

Hinduism is attracting Western adherents through the affiliated practice of yoga. Yoga centers in the West—which generally advocate vegetarianism—attract young, well-educated Westerners who are drawn by yoga's benefits for the physical and emotional health; there they are introduced to the Hindoo philosophical system taught by most yoga teachers.

Some of these approaches have actually come full circle and become popular among the newer generations of Deist Hindoos in the West, particularly in the Dominion of Southern America.

 

Well the Hindoo South has!

Feel free to share here or by PM.

 

That update on Hindoo Deism's birth, philosophy, and spread beyond India to the Americas was outstanding! As a side note, not only can I see how it became entrenched abroad as a old-as-new philosophy, but it's good to see yoga and the Kama Sutra still gain an audience (having no OTL Victorian prudishness helps I imagine!)

Still gotta draft some ramblings into at least semi-coherency before posting anything, but I'm a-working on it!

 

The Kama Sutra was actually touched on in a prior post, as was the Perfumed Garden.

I am glad that you appreciated it and look forward to your thoughts!

 

​

Biology developed on the twin pillars of diversificationary and inheritance biology. The gradual development of diversificationary biology provided a good explanation for the plethora of life seen in the contemporary world as well as the march of life seen in the fossil record such as the Tyrannodrakons. Diversiologists theorized that random changes to the building blocks of inheritance (identified as residing on the azurocorps of the cellular nucleus) that resulted in expressed traits that filled environmental niches either not previously exploited or in a way more effective than others would spread through inheritance through breeding populations and with the accumulation of enough differences in traits between breeding populations diversification would occur. Advances in crystallography allowed for the identification of the helical molecules that served to carry traits through reproduction.

​

 

So is diversification this timeline's closest analog to evolutionary theory, with an emphasis of the tendency to produce diversity?
And I like the name Tyrannodrakon for dinosaurs. The "tyrannical dragons". However, your Tyrannodrakon link connects to the Chromosome page. Speaking of Chromosomes, how did you come up azurocorp as the name for a chromosome?

 

"Tyrannodrakons"? That's probably the most badass name for a pile of bones that I've ever heard. Seriously, it even works etymologically since "drakon" is just as Greek as "sauros" but also imparts a more imposing, grandiose image of the wights in question. Very cool update!

 

Thanks! The post was having a lot of issues with glitching when I wrote it so I will have to fix that thanks for finding.

Chromatin was initially found using basophilic aniline dyes and named for being colorful - here they focused on it staining blue and thus the azure part Corp is just another word for body just like some.

 

Thank you! I rather thought it worked well too - I tried to keep to something that was correct etymologically and would have a chance of being ascribed. I also like that it parallels in Greek the Mandarin name for dinosaurs...

 

I very much like the in depth plausibility on names and ideas!

 

Very kind of you - any timeline of length especially in the “modern” age ideally would address the rapid addition to language due to the rapid proliferation of science and technology.

 

It's one of the things I look at in any reference to "modern" times.