The Map Thread is dead. Long live the Map Thread!
Inner me: "
...so, anything post-worthy?"
Me: "
hmmm... the QBAM is only partially finished, the Wagner World Atlas of the major Nations is still a WIP, the Main TL writeup isn't done, and the Character Graphics are neither done nor are map. What to do?
Ah, I know. Let's butcher the WorldA and QBAM for an interesting country to cover."
This is a Map of the Kingdom of Arabia in my WIP timeline, "World of Nightrise". (for all people new to the concept, WoN is a 1852 PoD arcanepunk/fantasy timeline which I've been working on for a while and hope to release by the end of this year (or earlier)).
Since this is a QBAM the map isn't on the level of quality which my maps usually have, but I hope that is compensated by the information on the map and the fact that the map itself is actually in English this time (I usually make them in German due to the theme of the TL, and provide a translation of all texts).
The Kingdom of Arabia is one of the secret world powers, and a very rich and developed Nation. Despite its location, the country is economically and politically stable and enjoys good Relations with the Bisphere (the German and Asian spheres combined).
]]History[[
The Kingdom of Arabia has its origins in the small Anazzah revolt of 1858, a demihuman-friendly tribe that has despised the Ghayrbashr pogroms of the major Arab tribe leaders since the Great Magical Awakening in 1852.
The cause of the revolt were killings of humans which had entered relationships with demihumans or refused to kill them, causing the Anazzah to present an ultimatum to the Hashemite tribe.
Using the internal instability of the Hashemite and their overlords, the Ottomans, the Anazzah quickly overthrew the Hashemite after said refused an answer to the ultimatum.
During the years between 1860 and 1872, the country further occupied regions up north, step by step, occupying an area up to Mesopotamia, with Kuwait creating an eastern panhandle.
In 1872, during the Great Viennese Victory Congress, the country's borders were set into a proper definition, ceding a small area in the west (which is now Nabatea) to the newly created state of Israel, getting a defined border with Najd, a competing country in the region, and a defined northern border.
After having won the war against Hashemite and the Ottomans, and getting the support of the major powers of the world during the Victory Congress, the Kingdom of Hejaz was eager and ambitious to conquer all of Arabia, in order to unite all Arabs in the Middle East.
Their Unification Wars began with the war between Hejaz and Najd, a country with similar ambitions and strength.
It is still debated on how Hejaz defeated its elephant-like neighbor, though it is widely assumed that the country got financial and technological support from both Danubia (seeking a powerful demihuman-friendly state in Arabia, and seeking better relations between Hejaz and Danubia's Vassal Israel) and the British Empire in-exile (weakening Najd in order to snatch Abu Dhabi from them).
Step by step, the country then unified the several Yemeni states under its flag during the timespan of 1887-1893, while a new enemy formed near its borders: the Republic of Britain.
Having beaten Najd and regained control of British Muscat, the Colonial Empire of Britain became an obstacle in the unification of the Arabian Arabs, and also being a place to which demihumans regularily were kidnapped to as certain demihuman races were legal to trade with in the British Empire.
The solution came during the Great War of Asia between 1902 and 1907, a colonial conflict between the Asian alliance (Chinese Zhou Federation, Japan, etc.) and most of the European Colonial Empires (France, Italy, Portugal, the New Zealand and Australia-based Republic of Britain and the Canada-based British Empire in-exile), as Republican Britain was distracted with its war effort in South India and French East India. When the Danube Monarchy, a previously neutral country with a large chunk of developed colonial territory in the Melay Archipelago, declared war on the European alliance in 1905 due to the false flag terrorist attack on Weihaiwei (Wilhelmshafen) staged by France, the Kingdom of Hejaz declared war on Britain and seeked to unify Arabia in this war.
Seeing a potential ally of the Danubian&Asian spheres, the Danube Monarchy asked for an alliance with the Kingdom of Hejaz and the final recognition of the Israeli State, in exchange for direct war effort and the the Israeli Territories east of the Jordan - now known as the Emirate of Nabatea.
With the Power balance noticeably shifting to the Asian/Arabian side of the conflicts due to the Danubian War entry, the war is quickly won and ends in 1925. The British territories are annexed (with the exception of the United Emirates of East Arabia, an autonomous client state) and the British influence in Persia diminished.
Additionally they gain several client states on former European colonial territory in Africa such as Djibouti, Eritrea and Somaliland.
In 1909, the UE of East Arabia vote to join the Kingdom of Hejaz, and with the now complete unification of Arabia, the Kingdom renames itself to the Kingdom of Arabia.
During the time period between 1920 and 1960, sometimes even considered up to modern day, the Kingdom enjoys economic boom as the discovery of major oil fields, the establishment of technology hubs in East Arabia and Kuwait and the closeness to the technological hub of Israel set the country into a new period of prosperity.
With its immense wealth, Arabia starts its own space program with a space station and later a moonbase in cooperation with Danubia, as the Danubians set their first man on the moon in 1934, causing a worldwide technological and cultural hype and vibe named "Xenonwelle" (Xenon Wave). This cultural period also influenced Arabia and extends up until the late 1940s and early 1950s (early 1990s tech), slowly being replaced with the modern period.
In 1972, the Country is expected to issue a great parade and festival of the 100 year anniversary of the Great Victory congress, which is prognosticated to be as large as the 1952 and 1962 parades of the Danube Monarchy and the 1958 parade of Arabia.
]]Politics[[
Despite being a Muslim Kingdom, nominally practicing Shariah law, the country has developed a Western/Eastern-inspired political system in the last couple of decades, similar to OTL Kuwait.
It's a Constitutional Semi-Absolutist Monarchy, meaning that it has a democratic parliament and a constitutional judiciary, but also a powerful king that can issue laws or judicial pardons as long as these are constitutional. Basically a one-man parliament/court (except the constitutional court which he has no influence on).
This system is very similar to the original one from the Danube Monarchy which is also why Arabia has implemented parts of the Danubian "Drei Volksprinzipien" Ideology, nationalizing public utilities and electric/water service companies.
]]Culture[[
As a nation in the middle east mainly consisting of Arabs and containing the most holy sites of Islam in their territories, the country is culturally very islamic, practicing a modern version of Islam which is more secular and Demihuman-friendly. Due to the destruction of countries such as Najd and Yemen, fundamentalist islamic ideologies have never touched earth since 1880 and it is unlikely such an ideology will spread in modern times even though the Weltnetz (WorldNet) is a way of spreading information fast.
Due to the high percentage of demihumans in the Country, it has a culturally very positive stance of these and they are mostly integral, like in the Asian or European Countries. However, some social discrepancies exist, as a weak version of a caste system exists, in which some demihuman races suffer from social discrimination or disadvantages. The intensity of this, however, is relatively small and is roughly the same as in an average Asian Country.
Internationally, the country has most been influenced by the Danube Monarchy and its culturally influent periods like the Grand Line nostalgia or the Xenonwelle, including its music and movies of these periods. Additionally, cultural influence from Japan or Danubian East India ("Melayarchipel") has becoming more and more influent with the rising numbers of immigrants from these countries working in Oil/Engineering Jobs or doing pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Islam.
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Thanks to Wyyt for allowing me to use the caste system idea and the Mannequins
