Scenario: In the next few years, the US' birthrate inches up in several red states thanks to cuts to sex ed and contraception funding. Remembering that the US under Bush was the only developed country to consistently obtain above-replacement fertility, the Japanese government decides to adopt a new right-wing economics program that is aimed to increase the birthrate in Japan. Their reforms include sharp cuts to contraception, birth control, and financial benefits for childless adults as well as a rewritten sex-ed program that focuses on the joys of parenting at an early age and an ad campaign - "Done with school! Start a family!" that encourages Japanese to have sex and settle down as soon as their education is completed. In addition, the Japanese government not only tolerates but actively encourages the practice of mail-order brides (and, to a much lesser extent, mail-order grooms) by launching an online matrimonial service that helps single or loner Japanese find spouses, mainly from Southeast Asia, Latin America, and Russia with smaller numbers from the US, China, Nepal, and East Africa). About 80% of the matches made through Nadeshiko, the "Japanese matrimonial portal", are Japanese men to foreign women; it does not have an LGBT option.
Except for the US, they're mostly poorer countries (and those from the US are mainly from the lower socioeconomic statuses). North Korea is totalitarian and South Korea is too affluent to be a sender of mail-order brides.
Jesus. They work to prevent trafficking, I hope. And life must *really* suck for the non East Asian spouses (besides the Americans, who'd have some cachet).
Somethin' tells me there's something not right about this, especially with the implication that childless adults are being punished simply for being childless.
A rather quick and simple map based on the lowkey dispute between India and Pakistan regarding Junagadh, a former princely state in Gujarat. The small Muslim-ruled state considered joining Pakistan but due to pro-Indian revolts in the periphery of the state the Indian army marched in, leading to the integration into India. I made this map throughout the afternoon.
15 riffs on a post-scarcity world, ranging from the utopian to the hellish. "Not all happy families are alike, but neither are all unhappy families." You have happy and extroverted Latin Americans alongside happy and introverted Finns, Balts, and Russians, and the dystopias range from tribal and religious to cyberpunk, sin city, Black Mirror, and Muh Capitalism (TM).
This map is from my usual 'Greek Napoleon' scenario
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As stated on previous maps, because Napoleon was crowned the King of Greeks in 1800 the OTL Directory never was overthrown during the coup of 18 Brumaire leading to a defeat against the Austrians who restored the Bourbon Dynasty. With many Revolutionary leading political and military leaders leaving the restored French Kingdom for Napoleonic Greece, the populace who were too poor to travel and were stuck under oppressive Royalist rule again rose up for a second time.
Although returning Paris to Royalist Rule was relatively simple, they had problems regaining control of the edges of the Kingdom; especially in the North, Brittany and Normandy who had become accustom to the equality instead of being run as food production areas of the Aristocrats. The French Kingdom reached out to his neighboring states to help 'deal with the problem' by promising small but reasonable land concessions.
Civil unrest died in Brittany and Normandy not long after the first sight of the mighty British Navy because the local populace knew they were no match for a combined French and British attack. Britain saw this as a change to get back some former Medieval possessions and was granted the Calais and the Cherbourg areas. Cherbourg, unlike Calais, was made a 4th Crown Dependency in recognition of the shared heritage with Guernsey and Jersey.
With a failed harvest in the Autumn of 1805 the hungry and disgruntled populace rebelled again, only with this time the equally starving army joining the rebellion. By the Winter of 1805, with Royalist Control limited to the Loire Valley with it's castles, the King of France once again cried out for help to his neighbors; who being rather reluctant to go keep the peace in France once again only did so after the promise of yet more land concessions. In the Congres of Orléans, which took place before foreign intervention as to assure favorable conditions, the Dukedom of Normandy was restore as a British royal fief and the said Dukedom was extended with the shown Bailiwicks.
15 riffs on a post-scarcity world, ranging from the utopian to the hellish. "Not all happy families are alike, but neither are all unhappy families." You have happy and extroverted Latin Americans alongside happy and introverted Finns, Balts, and Russians, and the dystopias range from tribal and religious to cyberpunk, sin city, Black Mirror, and Muh Capitalism (TM).
How did all of North Africa come under the control of Maghrebi tribes (I assume this means the Tuaregs and related groups...?) and how did the entire Middle East, including Iran and Turkey descend into total chaos?
My entry for the 169th MotF contest, the challenge is to make a country that has existed for a long time.
The Kingdom of the Angels
The origins of Angelcynn are shrouded in legend and folklore, with tales of guiding maritime fairies, alizarin wyverns and the causeways of the gods. In actuality it is thought that the great Germanic tribe of Anglii were evinced of it's existence and subsequently migrated there in the wake of Khristian[1] missionaries as the Celtic petty kingdoms rallied and Slavs invaded Preten[2]'s east coast. Regardless of the kingdom's beginnings as either a utilitarian exodus or a clairvoyant gallivant across the sea, it is abundantly clear that the little kingdom has existed since at least the Post Imperial Period.
Isolated and sparse, the Kingdom has changed rather little since their initial settlement and Khristianization. There have been periods of intermittent, internecine warfare, royal coups and even a brief republic; but the culture, language and disposition of the Angels has remained constant and so alien to much of the outside world. Though they regularly traded with such neighbours as Skotland and Telemarke[3] in woollen cloaks, dried cod and birch sap, this droll commerce rarely imbibed foreigners with a sense of wonder for the icy northern isle and the Angel traders themselves were historically infamous for their inscrutable jejunity[4].
It was only within the past four centuries that they became relevant to the outside world, primarily in the discovery and colonization of the Hesperides[5], and herein they became especially well known for their boat building. Angelcynn's birch wood forests were and are meticulously kept, concomitant with their historically strong central government and bookkeeping tradition adopted from the Abbots of Saint Wigmund[6]. Having bred and experimented with these woods for over a thousand years, they had developed a remarkably durable and light material[7] that could be applied to the boat building practice en masse. And so they became key to the exploitation of the Hesperides.
Later, their shipbuilding practice would see their merchants flood abroad to warmer ports as far afield as Cina and Hindoostan[8], where the one most lasting and exceptional cultural evolution would occur; the adoption of tea. It proved incredibly popular with the Angels, so much so that it would entice an adventurous consortium of Hindoostani shreni[9] to arrive in the state and plant the roots of the country's first and largest expatriate community; Wúscbearn Zæstræn (Little Zastrayana).
When the colonial period waned and the world's great powers gradually fell, Angelcynn remained and subsequently remains to this day. They are the only country in the world to have an uninterrupted 2000 years of existence.
~
[1] - Fuck yeah, Christians with a K!
[2] - The term for this world's Britain.
[3] - Roughly OTL Norway, but bigger.
[4] - Y'know, just like real British people pre-Empire.
[5] - The Americas.
[6] - Historically, Iceland's birch forests were cleared away due to unbridled clearing and consumption as fuel during the Medieval period, that has not occurred here.
[7] - An early form of plywood.
[8] - China and India.
[9] - A form of ancient Indian guild, the term is more widespread ITTL.
~
Now, every single one of the names of the towns and cities on this map were developed by flicking through an Old English dictionary and smashing words together, and I imagine you'd all be quite interested in as to what they exactly mean. They are (roughly) as follows, in no particular order:
Angelcynn - England
Atlantshaef - Atlantic
Niðerecg - The lower edge of the brink
Cúéage - Eye of the cow
Ísgeblædell - Ice blister hollow
Abbodríburh - Abbey town
Brycgweard - Defender of the bridge
Benorþanfeor - North of Feorbuend
Scýn - Shy
Sanct Ethel - Saint Ethel
Stángefeall - Pile of fallen stones
Wealhmærburh - Wealhmær's town
Weatendell - West end hollow
Angelcotlíf - Fishing hook village
Feorbuend – Far off dwelling
Wæterhelm - Covering of ice
Dismburh – Town of steam
Fierddæl - Campaign dale
Fengeládcotlíf - Village on the fen
Æfnoðcotlíf - Village of Æfnoð
Súþdældell - Southern hollow
Bælegsacroft - Fire croft
Acsanmúða - River mouth
Langeástæp – Long southern shore
Brecanóra - Broken shore
Sanct Wigmund Abbodríce - Saint Wigmund's Abbey
Æblæc – Bleak
Gicel – Ice
Æg – Water
Scrínburh - Box town
Gáraburh - Cape town
Áglæcwífcotlíf - Crone village
Ásweartianbeorg - The hill that turns black (at night)
Wúscbearn Zæstræn - Little/Childlike Zastrayana (founded by Indian merchants)
Cynrio – A Germanic king
Fægre Cniht - Beautiful boy
Hereburh – Harbour
Efesmere - Lakeside
Healhsæburh - The maritime town in the nook
Mægenwundor - Striking wonder
Smiþþan - Smith's workshop
Jup!! as in OTL at the beginning of 1798, the War of the First Coalition had come to an end and following the Treaty of Campo Formio, where Napoleon Bonaparte decreed the final dissolution of the Venetian Republic, the city of Preveza (like other Venetian possessions in Greece and Albania) was ceded to Revolutionary France. 280 French grenadiers arrived in Preveza under the commands of General La Salchette. The people of Preveza welcomed the French troops, and formed a pro-French civic militia.
Around this same time the poet Rigas Feraios (who in OTL was killed on his way to France) was combining support for the ideas of the French Revolution with calls for a Greek uprising against Ottoman rule and arrived in the town to begin rudimentary discussion with French commanders. Napoleon Bonaparte, however, focused his attention in another direction; launching the French Campaign in Egypt and Syria, gave little thought to the fate of the small Preveza garrison exposed on the edge of Ottoman territory. The local Ottoman governor Ali Pasha Tepelena attacked Preveza with an overwhelming force. In the Battle of Nicopolis the 7,000 Ottoman troops of Ali Pasha and his son Mukhtar completely overwhelmed the 280 French grenadiers and their local allies, the 200 Preveza Civil Guards and 60 Souliote warriors under Captain Christakis. Over the next two days, a major massacre of the French troops and the local Greek population which defended the city took place in Preveza; during which Feraios was killed, Christakis and General La Salchette however managed to escape to French Corfu.
in TTL Napoleon, being on Malta at the time, diverted his fleet towards Corfu instead of Egypt. There he met with General La Salchette, Christakis and local Greek leading figures. While French and Ottoman Fleets were facing off in the Ambracian Gulf, the negotiations on Corfu became a secret congress including several Greek rebel leaders and Russian officials, who saw in Napoleon a potential solution for their Greek Question. In 1799 both France and Russia committed ground troops to the Conflict, and together with Greek Revolutionary Forces were standing at the gates of Constantinople by March 1800. In the following Treaty of Adrianople, who was chaired by the UK, the Kingdom of Greece was proclaimed and Napoleon was crowned King of Greeks. His coronation was essentially a bribe to not further involve him and his army in the French Revolutionary wars while also providing a safe heaven for fleeing French Revolutionary thinkers.
Once upon a time, an Alien Space Bat caused Russia and Turkey to form a loss alliance together early in each others history. The ASB further made it so that eventually, the two nations formed a union similar to that of Austria-Hungary. When the Byzantines were conquered in 1453, they called themselves a successor to the Byzantines, and therefore the Romans. In the years following, the Russians expanded into Siberia while the Turks took control of the Middle East and North Africa. In there latest wars of expansion, they conquered the Italian peninsula, and the city of Rome, for the first time, was theirs.
Meanwhile, the Holy Roman Empire is considering changing their name to showing else.
We are making the largest equirectangular map of the site in the VT-BAM Thread, and work is proceding very fast due to to how easily the equirectangular projection can be used
