Ok, so since I got a break from finals I decided to entertain myself and make something that, while not a gift, I could call a Christmas treat for y'all
Although not necessarily Christmas-related, for some reason I associate this setting with Christmas. Perhaps it's because there's "snow" in the title, perhaps because of the Messianic themes involved. In any case, this is inspired in an alternate ending to one of my favourite books, Leo Perutz's
Saint Peter's Snow, which is mostly about a history-loving monarchist German noble pursuing what is it that caused faith to run out in the modern world, discovering religious devotion has its source in a wheat mold called Saint Peter's Snow that acts as kind of a LSD substance and gives people both religious fervour and divine-right-of-kings monarchism, which was wiped out due to selective breeding of wheat during the Agricultural Revolution, leading to the rise of secularism in the 19th century.
After making this discovery, the baron begins working towards recreating by synthetic methods the substance, so as to bring the Christian faith and the Holy Roman Empire back... under a restored Hohestaufen dynasty, surviving modestly in Northern Italy. He also hosts regularly other "legitimate" leaders of other realms, such a surviving Tudor and a White Emigre Rurikid.
In the end, a miscalculation backfires upon these plans, for reasons I won't spoil (it's such a great book, do read it!), but in this scenario I imagine if it didn't and the baron was successful in "re-establishing" his rather romantic image of feudalism. So I took the most renowned national dynasties and mostly invented heirs where the story didn't mention them, placing them on the throne and giving them small blurbs
Questions are very welcome, here's a few I thought of:
1) America, country and continent alike, is freaking out, and holding on on transatlantic trade. The USA is worried about the wiping out of the Protestant Reformation in Europe and the Latins are not thrilled with the potential of waking up wanting to recreate the Spanish Empire or something like that. In the US, they have captured some Saint Peter's Snow to figure out exactly how Americans would react to such a substance
2) Turkey is also freaking out, the Kemalists know very well what Saint Peter's Snow means: Ottomans. And they don't like it. And they don't exactly like the "Byzantine" aspect of the new Hellenic monarchy either
3) Japan has adhered to Saint Peter's Snow like it's the poppy, fuelling a fervent devotion to Emperor and Fatherland. So Imperial Japan on steroids. They are carefully to keep it away from the Chinese, but rumours float around of a restored Ming Dynasty raising arms in China
4) India is a mess, with the British leaving everything behind to return to the good old country. Or countries. There's tales of a Maurya Emperor rising over there
OK Christmas has me rushing, so if you're interested in knowing more or spot a mistake please say something!
Happy Holidays!