Yes! End-of-page syndrome is no more!
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So I was reading historian and Iranophile extraordinaire Michael Axworthy's book, "Revolutionary Iran" (or at least 50 pages in, until I realized I had forgotten to return it for a full month and was promptly fined approx. 80 HKD
), and began thinking up a scenario centered on a Iran where the Constitutional Revolution (1906-11) was far more successful. But, that idea slowly went off course and swiftly became something completely different that includes a teeny tiny bit of pixel art. It's also somewhat linked to my Medvedev's Folly map.
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So I was reading historian and Iranophile extraordinaire Michael Axworthy's book, "Revolutionary Iran" (or at least 50 pages in, until I realized I had forgotten to return it for a full month and was promptly fined approx. 80 HKD
), and began thinking up a scenario centered on a Iran where the Constitutional Revolution (1906-11) was far more successful. But, that idea slowly went off course and swiftly became something completely different that includes a teeny tiny bit of pixel art. It's also somewhat linked to my Medvedev's Folly map.--
The 21st Millennium first saw familiar names, powers very much expected to rise to prominence—the United States; the Chinese Republic, the Indian Union, the Nigerian Commune. But then came a power that was very much unexpected—Iran.
By the waning days of the 21st Century, the tables had turned. Iran saw the rise of China as well as the ever-dwindling strength of Saudi Arabia as a chance to finally shatter the encirclement of her nation. China throughout her hegemony was an economic power unrivaled that had but one Achilles heel: her military. The PLAN was strained to patrol the seas, with the ascendant Indians often taking the place of the PLAN as one passed the Straits of Malacca.
The planet’s oil reserves would finally run out in 2170. It was then that a new wave of unrest in the Middle East similar to that at the beginning of the previous century dawned upon the oil-dependent regions of the middle east—a time that while threatening Iran greatly, too allowed Iran the greatest chances for expansion. With the second collapse of Iraq, Iraq was now, no matter how hard you looked at, a failed state. With every single day, more Iraqis found themselves holding less and less faith in their state, many taking up a new "Mesopotamian" identity that abandoned the concept of a state founded on the Arab peoples. Eventually, the increasingly radical ideologies ended with Iran having to directly occupy the region, taking in Iraqi provinces as full-blown parts of the Iranian nation with the admittedly audacious plan of centering the Iranian nation on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates for the first time since the time of the Sassanids some 15 centuries prior.
But that was not the only effect of the oil crisis. China, an industrial and diplomatic behemoth had built her empire upon oil. From the Chinese textile factories of downtown Mombasa to the pristine streets of Shanghai, oil from around the world feeds through the Chinese trading empire into the factory of the world--Africa. China had, in previous decades attempted to pursue Nuclear Power or Hydropower as an alternative, but it was too little, to late. It appeared that the Chinese Century was at an end.
Doomsayers preached the coming of nuclear war with India, and the politburo found the Chinese Empire collapsing around them. Riots broke out across China, much like how the Americans came to an abrupt, unexpected end. Soon, it appeared that the only way to soothe the anger of the populace was war--war against the vile Indians who dared challenge Chinese supremacy.
Iran, in her greatly strengthened position was still in no position to challenge the behemoths the likes of China and India. However, by acting as a “mediator” between the two giants, Iran played a key part in the establishment of a Sino-Indian condominium and a relatively peaceful transition of hegemony. Indian troops were sent to prop up a new government devoted to maintaining stability and cutting China's losses.
The Indian Century marked a new beginning, a beginning where the prosperity--and thus many problems that the previous hegemonic era had brought to the third world would be refined. The technological stagnation that had plagued the century prior was deemed unacceptable: the Indian century was to be one of progress and growth, one where space--as Prime Minister Andra (Term: 2168-2178) stated, was to be "humanity's new frontier."; the world order that blindly pursued economic development was to be removed--India would neither allow challenges to her dominance rise so quickly, nor allow the uncontrolled pollution of the African continent continue. One aspect that did carry on from the Chinese era was the authoritarian democracy trumpeted by the politburo, a system that many in India (really the entire third world, but no Indian will accept that fact) saw as the key to good, stable governance.
The Indian century saw a scientific renaissance unparalleled in human history, with Chandra--India's lunar colony growing to house 0.5 billion by 2293; robots replacing most manual labor, and even interplanetary battleships being constructed as--to put it more colloquially, "Dick measuring contests" between the various powers. Indian power reigned supreme on all 7 continents.
India's ascension, while infinitely more glorious than China's, saw a much harder fall. Her rivalry with the Communist Nigerians ended in a conventional war that saw the invasion of the subcontinent itself, and the final collapse of the Indian state with an exodus to Chandra.
Nigeria maintained supremacy over much of planet Earth, but was virtually powerless beyond the planet. A confederation of human colonies made full use of their interplanetary battleships to blockade Earth--a move that resulted in a great many attempts by the Nigerians to construct land-based shipyards. The escalation continued until Nigeria was positioning railguns across the planet's surface to counter the continuous bombardment that rained down from above.
Back in Iran, the state continued the usual policy of siding with whoever was the premier hegemon at the time. But with Chandran guns now trained upon Tehran itself and the holy city of Qom next on the list, Iran saw little alternative but to turn on the Nigerians.
In 2378, Iran rose in rebellion against the world order imposed by Lagos in an event that the propagandists of Tehran declared of equal magnitude to Cyrus' conquests. Iran expected a narrow victory, and that was only if all things went according to plan and Iran's rebellion sparked similar movements across the planet. Fortunately for the world, it did. Nearly all of Asia and much of Africa rose in defiance against the Nigerian world order, and rebel forces were soon marching on North Africa in a neo-Achaemenid fashion. After a decade of fighting, Chandran shock troopers were occupying Lagos herself and exerting some much-desired revenge.
But Iran soon realized that she had simply traded one overlord for another, as Chandra now sought to impose her influence on all Earth-based states. Iran snatched leadership of Earth from Chandra, expelling her former allies from the planet and enforcing herself as the spiritual successor to the old Sino-Indian Condominium and premier power on the planet. All of this in the span of 4 months, long before Chandran forces had arrived in any significant number. Iranian forces took over Nigerian railguns, using them to cripple the unprepared, undersupplied Chandran battleships in orbit over the span of a 3 month Battle for Earth.
From Tehran, the Supreme President (the roles of Supreme leader and president have been long since merged) rules over an Iran that experiences a new golden age previously thought impossible. Iran of today is a nation the very symbol of multiculturalism, with a thousand ethnicities calling the same nation their home--much of this being thanks to the fact that the Supreme President rules with a light hand, as the shahs of old once did. In place of the satraps, a great many cooperative states have been established as Iran's closest allies--countries that are offered a place in Iran's empire if they bend the knee.
Beyond the immediate surroundings of Iran, the remnants of century-old superpowers stand yet: Russia has long recovered from Medvedev's folly but looks upon her former vassal with pure fear. Kazakhstan and her many Turkic allies were once true challenges to Iran's hegemony, but have long since been humbled, with Tehran seeking to assimilate the Turkic peoples within the empire's boundaries. India remains a mess of republics and princedoms, but the Gujarati government supported by Iran seeks to reestablish the long-lost dream of a united India.
Going even further, China is ironically the last state practicing liberal democracy, but while the system itself may not be faulty, China has never managed to rebuild her devastated economy with the turmoil that has engulfed the nation for years. Europe is a group of tinpot dictatorships and banana republics, one which even Iran hesitates to go near. America meanwhile has largely recovered from the humiliating defeats along the centuries, and is even showing signs of revival.
Finally, Chandra is silent, with only a select few knowing what is happening behind the scenes. Tehran knows very little, as defectors are gunned down by the thousands of spaceships that patrol Chandra's atmosphere.
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