With two maps done and a third coming, I have decided to create a thread for this scenario.
So what is this thing?
The basic idea is that various historical things in our world which are generally forgotten about and rarely appear in alternate history are elevated to significance. These include the Khitans, the Nestorian Turkestanis, the kingdom of Dali, the Ryukyu kingdom, the pre-Spanish Philippines, the Emishi, the Plains Algonquians, native Mesoamericans other than the Aztecs and Maya, the Terra Preta and Acre-Rondonia cultures, and so forth.
There are two main points of divergence, both in the latter half of the 1100s. : Temujin Khan either never is born or dies yung, and Minamoto no Yoshitsune flees overseas, averting the second sack of Hiraizumi.
Here are the two maps so far :
Argyre [South America] in 1640:
View attachment 724984
High Asia [East Asia] and India in 1640:
View attachment 724985
WRITEUPS :
Argyre:
This is based off of a really weird dream I had. The names "California" referring to Argentina and "Kaitonuma" referring to a Japanese sorta-colony in Brazil are from that dream. I genuinely have no idea where the name "Kaitonuma" came from and will assume it is some sort of bastardised Tupi word.
The dream that gave rise to this map was almost certainly inspired by my reading 1491, which is the origin of most of the other stuff here.
The reason why I wrote "大日" instead of "Da Ri" or "Great Ri" or "Inca Empire" or "Tawantinsuyu" is that "Tawantinsuyu" and "Inca Empire" ITTL become terms used to refer to the area and the dominant state in the area in general, especially as TTL historiography for a decent period of time viewed the area as having a dynastic state, with the Warri, Tiwanaku, Nazca, etc. being viewed as previous dynasties. "Da Ri" is Mandarin pronunciation specifically, and I intend for Mandarin to be less dominant less dominant ITTL (and may fragment into multiple languages), and the Inca would initially mostly have contact with Hakka and Yup Chinese, who would pronounce it "Thai Ngit" and "Ai Ngit", respectively, and the Sino-Quechua pronunciation would likely be ta-Inti or a-Inti.
"Argyre" and "Chryse" are TTL's names for South and North America, originating from names of two mythical islands said to exist east of China (knowledge of them being actual proper continents with highly developed societies in Europe came through Malaysian sources. Prior to that, they were assumed to be a series of large islands called the Hesperides, which was later used in an analogous manner to "the Americas" or "the New World").
China and Central Asia:
The Li Dynasty is significantly different from most OTL non-Han dynasties. Rather than trying to show that they were superior to the Han or trying to become Han, they instead claimed that the Bai were another group of Han, similarly to the Wu, Min, and Yue.
The Li dynasty also, somewhat uniquely, has a somewhat federalised structure. Zhili/Hubei and Yunnan are in the top tier of the structure, being ruled over directly by the Emperor or crown prince. The second tier are the "inner circuits", namely Sichuan, Henan, Huainan, Liangzhe, Jiangxi, Huguangnan/Hunan, and Guizhou, and the circuit-level administration of Xikang. Most of these (exceptions: Sichuan and Xikang) are ruled by governors and have centralised administrations. Sichuan and Xikang, on the other hand, are themselves federations. Sichuan was assembled from several provinces around the time of the move of the capital from Yonzonmix to Liangdu, and some administrative functions remain delegated to the old provinces while others are centralised around Chengdu, and does not have a single head of state. Xikang, meanwhile, was assembled from many minor states, mostly Tibetan vassals, which retain most of their administrative functions, although some are overseen by the Ministry of Western Kham and Eastern Tibetan Affairs or by the military governor of Xikang. The third tier are the "outer circuits", namely Shaanxi, Shanxi, Hebei, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi, as well as the circuit-level administrations of Antou, Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang, and Xingkai. These are also ruled by appointed governors (except for Jilin), except that these governors are more like appointed mini-kings. Notably, Guangdong and Fujian maintain colonial empires outside of China, and Sha'anxi has its own miniature empire within China. Jilin and Guangxi are exceptions. Guangxi is also a federation. The cities and the roads between them are under the direct rule of the governor, with the rest being subprovincial protectorates. Jilin's hereditary governor is a descendant of the last kings of the Northern Jin, but real power is held by "meritocratically" appointed bureaucrats. The fourth tier are various protectorates, while the fifth and sixth tiers are external vassals.
Stabilising forces unique to the Li Dynasty:
1. The federalised system tends to mean that problems in one circuit stay in that circuit (or spill over outside of China) and allows the national government to play the good cop.
2. The system where the Crown Prince becomes Governor of Yunnan (pre-Mingzong) or the Governor of Yunnan inherits the position of Emperor (post-Mingzong) prevents child emperors or other severely incompetence.
3. Both of these tend to help keep power over the national level of government in the hands of Hubei and Yunnan elites (which helps the Bai and Yi remain dominant without seeming like a foreign ruling class).
Destabilising forces:
1. The federalised system also causes slower responses, a less coordinated military, and can cause diplomatic incidents when governors act independently
2. Additionally, there is the threat of governors rebelling.
In the latter half of the 1200s, the Jurchen Jin conquer the Xixia, and later the Southern Song, with the exception of Lingnan, which breaks off as the independent state of Yue. Also in the 1200s, the Liao successfully invade the Kipchak Khanate, pushing the Kipchaks west into the Caucasus and Ukraine. They also conquer the Volga Bulgars in the early 1300s. The Black Death happens as OTL, and causes the collapse of the Jurchen Jin in the mid-1300s, after which they are supplanted by the "Latter Qi" in the north, and Yue in the south . Additionally, it causes depopulation on the steppe, allowing the Khongirad Khaganate (which had a higher base population) and Kyzyl Khaganate (Altai was less badly affected) to expand. The Kyzyl Khaganate protectorates the Selkup and Naimans, and then expands into Liao-held territories. The Liao relocate to the Khwarazem, and when the Khwarazem becomes untenable, the Volga Basin. The Khongirads conquer most of inner and Outer Mongolia, but are in turn conquered by the Latter Qi, who also expand south and west, and at their peak control approximately the lands owned by Northern Qi and Northern Zhou during the Northern and Southern Dynasties except Yunnan . However, the Latter Qi lose a war against the Dali Kingdom, and with it lose southern Sichuan. From here, Dali continues to expand against the Latter Qi and beleaguered and collapsing Yue. By 1450, Dali controls China south of the Qinling-Huaihe line, and the capital is moved. At its peak, the Kyzyl Khaganate controls all of Turkestan other than western Kazakhstan, as well as the Altai, some other nearby parts of Siberia, and parts of Iran and Afghanistan, and has protectorates over western Mongolia and Xinjiang and sometimes even parts of Gansu. However, Persia goes Salafi and launches wars against the Kyzyl, and over the course of the 1500s drives them out of Turkestan south of Lake Balkash. They expel Nestorian and Shi'ite Turkestanis, who knock out the collapsing Delhi Sultanate and take over. In the mid-1500s, the Latter Qi collapse, with the Li gaining control of Shandong, Henan, Hubei and Liaoning by the mid-1570s. Persia moves into Xinjiang, resulting in the governor of Shaanxi submitting to the Li and the Kyzyl Khaganate agreeing to accept vassaldom (and just being a "khanate"). The Li and Kyzyls make some successes against Persia, and then the Liao and Qazaqs decide it's time for revenge, and then Rumelia, Kartvelia, and Oman decide to seize their chances (needless to say, Iran is not in a great shape at the moment). The Liao and Li, however, have a spat over the division of spoils , resulting in a war that neither side wins or loses (although the Liao do better out of it and the Qocho Uyghurs (who the Shaanxi Clique view as a 5th column) certainly lose).
