Map Thread XIX

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This is a work in progress of Canada from my alternate history timeline "Balance of Power". I'll be updating it as I work on it. Not sure I like it, as I wasn't intending it to look so 1990s school atlas after exporting from QGIS.

Looks good, I always prefer an "organic" border to a straight line.
 

Bytor

Monthly Donor
Question: How do you color in Inkscape?

Colour what? For areas not necessarily inside an object there is the bucket tool, as in most paint programs. For inside objects and their edges, or for lines, use the Fill and Stroke toolbox (Shift+Control+F in Linux & Windows).
 

Bytor

Monthly Donor
I'm not sure who needs to hear this, but QGIS is hell

As I discovered when I started using it a few years ago, you cannot treat it as if it were just another paint program. GIS has been around a lot longer than any graphics editing program and goes well back to the good ol' mainframe days of the 1960s. As such it has developed it's own paradigm for how things should be done. That's not to say it's perfect - I have filed my fair share of bug reports - just that it is different. It ain't no Adobe Illustrator.
 
MYJzCY7.png


A map I made for a fantasy roleplay with the Roman Empire, set around 1450 right before America would be discovered.

Do explain more please. It looks really interesting.
 
*Drumrolls*

I present to you:

Hyperborea - The Last Nazi Stronghold!
Hyperborea small.png

For the love of all that is holy, check it out on DeviantArt. This is the largest rendition of this map I was allowed to post on this site.

My DeviantArt
 
QGIS was terrible, but I have found its now very close to being able to do most of what ESRI software can do, for cartographic purposes anyways. But honestly, im ride or die ArcGIS unless I cant use it for some reason.
 
*Drumrolls*

I present to you:

Hyperborea - The Last Nazi Stronghold!

For the love of all that is holy, check it out on DeviantArt. This is the largest rendition of this map I was allowed to post on this site.

My DeviantArt

I was with you until the point where the geographical entity of Germany embarked on a boat and sailed north.

MontyPython-colonel_too_silly.jpg
 
The Four Earths
On November 1st 2019, The Separation occurred. Three new Virgin Earth-Moon systems appeared in our solar system, one directly opposite us on the other side of The Sun, and the other two half way in between in either direction. Instantly all the countries with a majority Christian population were ISOT’d to one, those with a majority Muslim population to another, those with a majority Hindu population to another, and those with no religious majority or a majority of any other faith stayed behind.

On the first of November Winston the ASB was feeling bored and wanted to shake things up, he decided to split the world into 4 based on the most popular religions, and give each their own planet. Being a lazy ASB he didn't use his omniscience to figure out the exact majorities of every nation but instead just checked a couple of lists on Wikipedia and trusted them to be accurate enough.

The mechanics of the ISOT are as follows:
  • The three Virgin Earths are taken from a parallel timeline where humanity never evolved but everything else occurred exactly the same. Sea level and average temperature are the same as they were OTL before the industrial revolution (about 25 cm lower and 2 °C below current). On these worlds their is a lot of megafauna that humans drove to extinction in OTL, also the deserts tend to be smaller and the soil more fertile (no farming degrading it) but the land is much wilder and harsher than OTL.
  • Every country (disputed and unrecognized states included) with a Christian, Muslim, or Hindu majority is moved from Earth Prime to it's designated planet. The Virgin Land and Sea replaced by those countries takes their place on Earth Prime. All of the land area and territorial waters of a country are included, the area goes far enough down to include all mines and oil wells and high enough up to include all planes flying overhead.
  • Any military boats and planes in or over international waters go or stay with their home countries. Any civilian boats and planes in or over international waters go or stay with the country of the port/airport they are scheduled to dock/land at. Any tunnels, cables, pipelines, etc, through international waters are transported if the countries at both ends are on the same world.
  • In earth orbit and on the moon any satellites, rovers, and space debris go or stay with whichever country put it there. The ISS goes with the christian world since the USA footed most of the bill. Same rule applies to other international programs.
  • Antarctic bases go or stay with the country operating them. Territorial claims in Antartica are ignored with the continent staying on Earth Prime.
  • (I will edit the answers to any other questions about the mechanics into this space)

4 Earths day of.png

General developments
  • Space travel has advanced in leaps and bounds over the last 50 years. An interplanetary voyage costs "only" about 2-3 hundred thousand dollars depending on the destination, which remains prohibitively expensive for most private individuals but not impossible and governments routinely send diplomats to other worlds. This has allowed upper and some middle class families (as a once in a lifetime expense) to immigrate to the world of their faith if they were previously in a minority left behind by the separation.
  • The worlds are labeled by the common english names given to them. Earth Prime remains simply Earth to those living on it and Prithvee and Al'Ard are anglicizations of Hindi and Arabic words for Earth. Terra was chosen by the Christian countries for their world to distinguish it from Earth Prime in regular English conversation.
  • The Fishing has boomed as the virgin seas of the three new worlds yielded massive catches and to a lesser extent recovered on Earth Prime because so much less fishing was occurring after the event.
  • Exploitation of new lands is harder than one might expect because they have never been touched by man and the environments tend to be harsh and unforgiving.
  • None the less thousands of small communities and homesteads exist on every world out in the virgin lands away from the long arm of governments, but few have serious prospects of statehood and most have accepted the inevitable and only hope to delay it.
  • The religious implications of this event remain unclear. Yes, most Christians, Muslims, and Hindus were given their own planets but millions more were left behind. Generally it has strengthened the faith of most Muslims and Hindus on Al'Ard and Prthvee and weakened the faith of everyone else (seeing other religions also chosen suggests that yours is nothing special).
Earth Prime
  • The story of Earth Prime has been dominated by the inevitable rise of China as a global superpower and the ultimately futile efforts of others to resist.
  • Estonia didn't last a month before being brought back into the Russian fold.
  • Taiwan was quickly conquered by the Chinese after the event, Bhutan was incorporated peacefully a little later.
  • All of SE Asia is under heavy Chinese influence, its future remains uncertain but if things go as Beijing wishes annexation is in the cards.
  • Suriname rejoined The Kingdom of the Netherlands laking other trade partners and fearing Chinese influence.
  • The Netherlands, Czechia, and Israel are under moderate Russian influence, and the former two have defence agreements to shield them under the Russian nuclear umbrella.
  • Japan and New Zealand are both very isolationist pacific democracies with their own nuclear deterrents.
  • Most westerners in China during the event ended up in NZ. Those in Africa or Russia generally fled to The Netherlands.
  • The Guinea region of Africa is a patchwork of small states, most with fluid borders. Same goes for Eritrea.
  • Mongolia maintains its precarious balance between the Chinese and Russian superpowers. Cooperating with both but trusting neither, they have ensured their independence for years to come.
Terra
  • Terra has enjoyed the most stability following the separation of the four earths, probably on account of having the highest number of countries and counting many of the most developed countries among them.
  • Terra is also by far the most united planet, with the UN continuing to function after the separation (with significant reforms) and organizations like the EU, African Union, Pacific Islands Forum, and Latin American Parliament guiding cooperation and integration while sharing the wealth of the virgin lands.
  • The trend towards atheism in developed countries has continued unabated on Terra. With many arguing that since several religions were separated and given their own planets it completely undermines the existing faith systems. A logical explanation for the Separation has yet to be proposed.
  • The area of Suriname, the only country in the new world besides a few Dutch islands not ISOT to Terra, was peacefully split between France, Brazil, and Guyana.
  • The EU engaged in a crash course integration of the Ukraine and Belarus to get to the essential natural resources where Russia used to be. The are plenty of industrial outposts in the vast expanse of northern Asia.
  • Hejaz is the only new country formed on Terra after the separation. It's also the only Muslim majority country, being settled primarily by former Muslim immigrants to Europe.
  • The Jerusalem Authority is a direct dependancy of the UN, it's run mostly by EU bureaucrats though.
  • Britain brexited hard, lost most of the last holdouts of its empire, started colonizing again, and rejoined the EU in the 40's.
  • An EU decision that all dependant territories must be integrated into the Metropole (proposed to deal with the colonies in North Africa) drove away a few of the French imperial vestiges.
  • The EU has reached the natural limits of its membership, with only the Jerusalem Authority seen as a remaining potential member. They Poached a few island nations from the African Union but don't really want to get involved south of the Sahara.
  • Schemes of going global and inviting Australia and Canada exist but don't have much support.
  • Australia has expanded into the virgin lands of Indonesia and New Zealand. Timor joined as a state and has been fully modernized.
  • The USA has focus its colonial attention on East Asia, but West Africa and Southern Arabia haven't been forgotten.
  • Canada has grown a bit in the arctic and Caribbean.
  • The Americans and Europeans have invested a fairly massive amount in developing Africa to higher living standards and have been quite successful. A few military interventions also furthered the cause.
  • English is by far the dominant language on Terra, spoken by over 3/4 of the population.
Al'Ard
  • The first 20 years after the separation were rough for Al'Ard. With no market for oil and no foreign investment or support from the west several Middle Eastern states failed. Never mind those that already had like Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Afghanistan.
  • Iran and Turkey were quick to forge and alliance which has stood the test of time.
  • In the 2020's most Kurds were deported by the Turkish and Iranian governments to the horn of Africa. They hate the Iranians, but remain under their influence because the other option is a sustenance agriculture economy.
  • The UAR is the new kid on the block. Forged out of the ashes of North Africa and the Levant, Cairo rules the largest and second most populous state on the planet.
  • Indonesia conquered Malaysia to "Unite all ethnic Indonesians" but really because the new dictator though a war would bring his people together after The Separation.
  • Morocco took over all the land they had historically claimed in Africa, and is now colonizing southern Iberia.
  • Logone is one of only two christian states on Al'Ard. They broke of from Chad shortly after the Separation.
  • Kazakstan has expanded across the Asian Steppe. Some Russians left to rebuild Moscow
Prthvee
  • Prthvee is the exclusive domain of the Republic of India, which claims the entire world as her sovereign territory. Gifted to her by the gods.
  • Nepal was coerced into joining as a federal state within a year of the Separation.
  • Hindi has replaced English entirely as an official language on Prthvee. Every child now learns it in schools, making Hindi almost universally understood as either a first or second language.
  • The federal government has gained quite a bit more authority over the states, but is planning to relax that again as more of the world becomes settled.
  • India has maintained its democracy and developed significantly but many of its current problems still remain.
  • To extend the long arm of the law and prevent attempted independent states from being established there has been a focus on settling key areas on every continent.

The Separation 2069.png


All done. Whew! This has been my biggest project in a while. Please ask away if you are curious. I'll do my best to answer any questions.
 

Bytor

Monthly Donor
QGIS was terrible, but I have found its now very close to being able to do most of what ESRI software can do, for cartographic purposes anyways. But honestly, im ride or die ArcGIS unless I cant use it for some reason.

It has it's ups and downs, but when I was evaluating both, I found ArcGIS just too infuriatingly un-intuitive to use that there was no way I was going to pay touse it. Plus, QGIS is multi-platform and I am a Linux user at home and OS X at work.

Personally, I find it extremely useful to not only get my maps cartographically accurate before exporting to SVG for artistic work in Inkscape, but also to speed up things like tracing other layers, editing/splitting shapes for countries/provinces/etc…, plus for reusing data from map to map, like coastlines, lakes and rivers, and so on. One of my favourite plugins is a time manager that auto-filters layers based on date/time attributes which has enabled me to do timeline maps fairly easily.
 
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