Look to the West: Thread III, Volume IV (Tottenham Nil)!
- Thread starter Thande
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Well certainly. The earliest maps I have been able to find seems to indicate that Thande originally intended for socialism to serve the role that societism now serves, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be able to discern the shapes of things to come from these maps (I mean, note that he had Danubia figured out as early as 2006), and the shape of things to come from those maps would appear to be that Virginia and Carolina are joined as a single entity at the end of the Great American War.
Now, it seems he has entirely decided to go "know what, f*ck that!" but still included a note on that possibility as an alternate historical possibility within the alternate history.
Who the hell hides such incredibly difficult-to-find easter eggs in their timelines?!
Thande
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Glad people got the Lego reference - of course it could make things a bit awkward if LTTW ever gets popular enough to get a Lego videogame adaptation 
Societism was always Societism, I just originally called it "Socialism" as one of those althistory false friend things, and also because I couldn't think of a name at the time.
As Vosem says, those maps are long obsolete (they are based on the earlier version of the TL whose POD was a different character for George III, not Frederick being exiled) - they do contain a few concepts here and there that will survive to appear in the final version of the TL, but the challenge for you is to guess which ones!
Anyone who has read my AH.com Wars spoofs knows that I enjoy putting in references so obscure that even I struggle to get them when I reread my own writing a year later
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As Vosem says, those maps are long obsolete (they are based on the earlier version of the TL whose POD was a different character for George III, not Frederick being exiled) - they do contain a few concepts here and there that will survive to appear in the final version of the TL, but the challenge for you is to guess which ones!
When you eventually do finish Look to the West, will you then agree to write a lengthy post trying to outline how its overarching plot has changed over the years as you've written it?
Thande
Donor
Sure, as much as I can remember at least. The details of the overall outcome of the Great American War have changed about five times just since I started writing this volume, for instance...
Alex Richards
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You should start taking notes. We can publish them as a supplementary ebook- The History of Look to the West Part 1, by T.R.R. Anderson
I enjoy putting in references so obscure that even I struggle to get them when I reread my own writing a year later
I'm glad I'm not the only person who does this.
Personally, I'm so concerned about missing the references and allusions that I myself have put into my own writing that I annotate my personal notes so that I don't end up accidentally losing stuff that I felt rather witty about when I wrote them down originally.
...and then you can write meta-alternate history! What if Thande had decided to go with George III becoming obsessed with the Americas and fighting in the Seven Years' War as the PoD after all?
By the way, I did ask something similar to this last year in this thread:
...and received a reply:
But I do want to ask you if you have figured out a resolution to the story about the first team's mysterious disappearance?
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Nice couple of updates. Scotts is an interesting character. And the way this conflicting war is going is funny but realistic in terms of national ideals vs. geopolitical realities.
But I am getting confussed about Carolina's future. It seems like they're going to lose to the ENA, or is this more about their Societist future? (If I'm remembering this all correctly)
But I am getting confussed about Carolina's future. It seems like they're going to lose to the ENA, or is this more about their Societist future? (If I'm remembering this all correctly)
Thande
Donor
More or less, it's just that we rarely hear about them because there's only so much story to that and it has to last out for enough updates to cover 150 years of in-universe history
We won't hear from the metaplot again until the end of this volume (part #200) I think.More or less, it's just that we rarely hear about them because there's only so much story to that and it has to last out for enough updates to cover 150 years of in-universe history
Which why I decided not go this angle when doing my TL. I was really considering it, but since mine is nearly 500 years of AH...
More or less, it's just that we rarely hear about them because there's only so much story to that and it has to last out for enough updates to cover 150 years of in-universe history
Speaking of that, since you've said you intend to take this TL roughly until the present day and you've covered about 130 years so far, based on the current rate there will end up being something like 400 or 450 parts to this TL...
More or less, it's just that we rarely hear about them because there's only so much story to that and it has to last out for enough updates to cover 150 years of in-universe history
Argh, dammit!
The metaplot is my favourite part of this timeline, if only because the present of the timeline contrasts to much with the point at which you've reached so far. Had it not been because we have the benefit of the hindsight through the history books, it would have seemed likely that Pablo Sanchez will end his days with little legacy beyond having been an obscure albeit interesting man of letters who settled in Buenos Aires. The kind of character who appears in a Borges short story, but little more...
I've found that the further you get from the POD the more in depth the timeline goes as the author has even more control and needs to fill in more things.
That's a good point. In that case 550 or maybe even 600 chapters is possible.
I'm going to do one of those 'sweeping predictions how things will turn out' posts, because no-one's done one in a while and it's always fun to go back to them afterwards and poke fun at how wrong you were/be smug about what you guessed right.
So, the Great American War... I think the Kingdom of Carolina isn't going to consist of the entire pre-war Confederation of Carolina - the way things are now I'd say North Province, South Province and Eastern Franklin (that is, the ENA's current occupational holdings) will remain part of the ENA post-war, probably along with some of the Caribbean holdings. Carolina is unlikely to have the strength to retake them on its own, and their allies will be all too happy to use them as a bargaining chip with the ENA to strengthen their own positions elsewhere. Louisiana, on the other hand, will almost certainly remain independent of France. I can see some kind of economic union with Carolina coming up, since both would be small, slaver powers with reasons to hate or fear their immediate neighbours. California will probably end up independent - they have the support of three significant powers, and whilst those powers are distracted so is the power they're rebelling against. How much of California will they end up with, though? According to the last map, they have no support in Lower California, and Far California is prime territory to buy off one or both of the Russians and Americans. The ENS will likely also lose Old Spain, which could mean they'll throw their all into aiding Carolina or that they start pushing for peace terms with the ENA. I don't see Brazil being a major participant in this war, but given the nature of the Spanish revolution and its already-discussed links with Portugal, I can see Brazil gaining a permanently-resident monarch (which seems ironic, given the Braganzas' attitude to the place). I won't even attempt to parse the Patrimonial War or the Celle Mutiny until we know more about them. The UPSA is probably the only power likely to claim the war as an out-and-out victory, which will do nothing to aid their own internal strife and probably heighten their victory-disease. And of course there's the wild card - Virginia. My gut instinct says they won't leave the ENA, but Governor Owens-Allen has to get his crown from somewhere...
(Whited-out so people who don't want to read my mad ramblings can skip over them without fear of catching something whilst skimming past.)
So, the Great American War... I think the Kingdom of Carolina isn't going to consist of the entire pre-war Confederation of Carolina - the way things are now I'd say North Province, South Province and Eastern Franklin (that is, the ENA's current occupational holdings) will remain part of the ENA post-war, probably along with some of the Caribbean holdings. Carolina is unlikely to have the strength to retake them on its own, and their allies will be all too happy to use them as a bargaining chip with the ENA to strengthen their own positions elsewhere. Louisiana, on the other hand, will almost certainly remain independent of France. I can see some kind of economic union with Carolina coming up, since both would be small, slaver powers with reasons to hate or fear their immediate neighbours. California will probably end up independent - they have the support of three significant powers, and whilst those powers are distracted so is the power they're rebelling against. How much of California will they end up with, though? According to the last map, they have no support in Lower California, and Far California is prime territory to buy off one or both of the Russians and Americans. The ENS will likely also lose Old Spain, which could mean they'll throw their all into aiding Carolina or that they start pushing for peace terms with the ENA. I don't see Brazil being a major participant in this war, but given the nature of the Spanish revolution and its already-discussed links with Portugal, I can see Brazil gaining a permanently-resident monarch (which seems ironic, given the Braganzas' attitude to the place). I won't even attempt to parse the Patrimonial War or the Celle Mutiny until we know more about them. The UPSA is probably the only power likely to claim the war as an out-and-out victory, which will do nothing to aid their own internal strife and probably heighten their victory-disease. And of course there's the wild card - Virginia. My gut instinct says they won't leave the ENA, but Governor Owens-Allen has to get his crown from somewhere...
(Whited-out so people who don't want to read my mad ramblings can skip over them without fear of catching something whilst skimming past.)
Still, the control works both ways, with a PoD in 1727, you can, by deliberately being ambiguous and vague indicate that there has been extreme changes in a particular region by 1927 and hand-wave it away with "those were some two hundred years, those!".
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