Look to the West Volume IX: The Electric Circus

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Thande

Thande

Donor
This is quite possibly the silliest reference I've ever put into LTTW, yes, even beating out Le Diamant and his Sans-Culottes, the Pirates vs Ninjas in the Euxine War, Five Knights at (Emperor) Freddy's, and the Space-Filling Empire. But it did neatly provide an excuse for a travelogue covering some (albeit not all) of the far-flung parts of the world that commenters had asked about!

Also good to see you back @Beatriz and thank you for your continued speculation (and the same to other commenters).
 

Beatriz

Great work - are there any OTL Inspirations for Eljiso?
Also, what is the language policy of the Eternal state? Is itfavoring Turkish above other languages like OTL Turkey?

Also, since Salonika was a center for Balkan Jews, what is the ES policy towards them?

Also given that I am at a East European festival rn, how much of Eternal State/Danubian culture e.g food, music etc. Would br recognized by someone from OTL Eastern Europe
 
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Fleetlord

Fleetlord

I confess I'm also missing the reference (possibly because I'm insufficiently British), though I'm getting strong A-Team/McGyver vibes from Eljiso.
 

Leonidas

Nice update with a neat framing device! I think Elijso is a clear Che Guevara analogue (maybe with some Gandhi thrown in); not sure what the silly part is though. It’s interesting to see how Mentianism fits into TTL’s political spectrum in situations like this, where leaders of doradist-leaning Diversitarian countries attempt to use him as a truncheon against their enemies but can’t truly control him. Also, the map nerd in me is already pondering the new provinces of Guinea, so that’d be neat to learn about at some point.
 

Beatriz

Interesting how Scandinavia uses “protecting colonial minorities from exploitation” as an excuse for colonialism. Is the Guinean province reform inspired by the OTL Indian province reform?

Another sticking point is that absent European imperialism, some smaller nations would have been absorbed or remained into local empires (Cambodia, Lebanon)
 
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Codae

Fleetlord said:
I confess I'm also missing the reference (possibly because I'm insufficiently British)
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Leonidas said:
not sure what the silly part is though.
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It's gone over my head too. There's not a famous globe-trotting mercenary named "Erheil" or "Rywvfb", is there?

Continuity nitpick:
Thande said:
Konstantinas, mindful of the feelings of his people, warned his brother Fyodor that he would assert Lithuania’s independent agency and no longer follow Russia automatically into wars.
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Part 137 established Fyodor IV as Pyotr IV/Petras I's brother, not Konstantinas I's.
 

245

Beatriz said:
Interesting how Scandinavia uses “protecting colonial minorities from exploitation” as an excuse for colonialism. Is the Guinean province reform inspired by the OTL Indian province reform?
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It looks like a little bit of France has rubbed on Scandinavia.
 

Snaut

We saw the place I asked for, sweet! And some loose ends got tied up about how Russia took over Lithuania again and how the Pressburg Pact formed.

Thande said:
Lithuania and Poland were united as the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania, which you may remember from that – somewhat romanticised – film The Vienna Hussars. (Audience cheers and cries of ‘Freedom!’, followed by sigh from speaker)
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The ultimate victory: ascension to meme

Beatriz said:
Possibly “he-man”?
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And his enemies are sCelatores...
 
Thande

Thande

Donor
Codae said:
It's gone over my head too. There's not a famous globe-trotting mercenary named "Erheil" or "Rywvfb", is there?

Continuity nitpick:

Part 137 established Fyodor IV as Pyotr IV/Petras I's brother, not Konstantinas I's.
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That's an error on my part, I'll fix it.

Thanks for the comments everyone - if nobody gets the reference I'll post it in a week or so. It is a tad niche (and topical) but it is the sort of niche I'd expect some posters on here to be be in ;)
 

EmmettMcFly55

It's a reference to those recent 'Bad Translations' videos of the World Wars (among others) on YouTube, isn't it?

The stuff like him (or 'Him', if you prefer) being referred to as 'he' and being ambiguously born in Spain first tipped me off (and the 'youngest son of the Societist Revolution' made it sound a lot more plausible), but stuff like him taking time off to establish a school and a church and then almost becoming king in Crete established it beyond doubt. And then there are all those other references I found, culminating in She becoming president of the Philippines.

That is definitely silly and niche, but also really great. You should link this chapter in the comments of one of StarvHarv's videos.
 
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Thande

Thande

Donor
EmmettMcFly55 said:
It's a reference to those recent 'Bad Translations' videos of the World Wars (among others) on YouTube, isn't it?

The stuff like him (or 'Him', if you prefer) being referred to as 'he' and being ambiguously born in Spain first tipped me off (and the 'youngest son of the Societist Revolution' made it sound a lot more plausible), but stuff like him taking time off to establish a school and a church and then almost becoming king in Crete established it beyond doubt. And then there are all those other references I found, culminating in She becoming president of the Philippines.

That is definitely silly and niche, but also really great. You should link this chapter in the comments of one of StarvHarv's videos.
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Well done! That wins you a cameo yourself if you want one.


The funny part is, I had total writer's block on this segment, then everyone in the thread gave me helpful suggestions on areas they wanted to see - but they were all spread across the world and wouldn't fit well into any theme I could think of - and then I was reminded of all the Youtube commenters trying to come up with elaborate explanations for all 'his' adventures across space and time, and decided to roll with it.
 
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John_Smith12

It's gonna be really interesting to see what the modern Anglosphere looks like in LTTW. You have Guinea and Bengal being stable English speaking nations
 
PerhapsItsChondoLal

PerhapsItsChondoLal

Hawkeye said:
I thought Bengal spoke a Bengali-English-based pidgin language?
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By the 1930s, English and Bengali are considered the primary languages of discourse in Bengal and are what are primarily taught in schools - though there is also an 'Anglo-Bangla' business pidgin that has grown increasingly respectable (with its own dictionaries etc) and not just a traders' tongue.
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Seems to imply that the Anglo-Bangla pidgin is not really the official language of state administration.
 

Beatriz

How does Diversitarianism intersect with 3rd genders given that cultures that will be less marginalized ITTL like Polynesian, Indian and Native American cultures have 3rd genders? As Mattystereo suggested, some cultures may “copyright” a gender

Also which post-colonial states are considered to be aggressively homogenizing to the extent of rivalling the Combine, per the last update?

Also? What will the Russian Empire split into?
I count
-Soviet (European) Russia
- Vostochny Russia
- circassia
- Georgian
- Armenian
- Azerbaijan
- Chechnya?
-Ruthenia[Ukraine]
- Crimean Israel
- Livonia
- Estonia
- Lappland (?)
- Ezo/Aynu Mosir
- Povilskaja
- Tatarstan
- Kurdistan
- Assyria?
 
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Beatriz

Rickdukulous Rex said:
Speaking of we haven't seen the Crimean Jews in a while.
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Per the latest update that mentioned them, they formed a defacto state that controlled the Peninsula. Also I get Aynu Mosir from an early Thande comment saying the it would be considered (part of) a separate country by modern LTTWers.

One wonders how Russian rule has affected the Aynu or Corean rule that of (eventually independent) Okinavans.

Ironic how the Sunrise War pits Russia against Europe excluding Italy, both Ottomans, China, and the Combine - they’re screwed even without Nindzhyas assasinating the tsar and suitcase-nuking Petrograd. America might want to sit this one out, barring sending RPLC people to the Far East
 
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