Very nice map! It has a perfect "textbook" vibe.
I wish the model UN at my university had been more... involved. It was basically just 5 rich kids doing surface-level diplomacy, and each session was self-contained.
Map Thread XXI
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I wish the model UN at my university had been more... involved. It was basically just 5 rich kids doing surface-level diplomacy, and each session was self-contained.
My friend was given the role of an Austrian diplomat in 1991, the MUN conference starts with Croatia and Slovenia's declarations of independence. The direction she's decided to take her character is trying to arrange a diplomatic/peaceful secession of Croatia and Slovenia in a way that doesn't spook the Serbs in Croatia too bad, and trying to generally prevent the Yugoslav wars.
The starting situation is that the Serbs in Croatia have since 1990 had a self declared parliament, barricaded roads into areas they claim, held a referendum declaring "sovereignty" but not independence, and declared the creation of 3 Serb Autonomous Oblasts, though they have not yet united into the separatist Republic of Serbian Krajina so I will actually need to correct that. Serb militias occupy the land.
Essentially, the Croats are letting the Serbs legally have the autonomy that they were demanding, getting to control their own education and policing, among a few other things, which is important since they basically fear that they will be terrorized by Croatian police and will be prevented from teaching Cyrillic in schools. The Serbs feared that the Croatian government would exterminate or expel them (it ended up expelling them IOTL, sending them from ~12% of the population to ~4% in a year) so the autonomy is in place to soothe that fear.
The Serbs on the other hand give up their massive panhandle into western Slavonia which, though majority Serb, creates border gore and almost cuts Croatia proper off from Slavonia. They also give up Baranja and most of Eastern Slavonia which are majority Croat. They agree to be put under the Croatian government and to remain part of Croatia. They agree to let the Croatian military in, to stop blocking roads, and let the Croatian government make some amount of decisions for them.
Basically, Serbs in Croatia get autonomy instead of independence and certain things to guarantee their safety in exchange for giving up some of the territory they either occupy or claim, giving up separatism, and giving up on some more ambitious desires like an independent army.
This option lets them keep quite a lot of territory, and I imagine whoever is representing Croatia at the conference will reject it, while the Serbian delegate will push for this, the later ones will be less and less. This is likely to be modified by the Serbian and Croatian delegates and is just meant to be a framework, the beginning of a compromise around which to negotiate.
Thanks, I based it off the style of a map of the Vance-Owens plan for Bosnia.
I wish the model UN at my university had been more... involved. It was basically just 5 rich kids doing surface-level diplomacy, and each session was self-contained.
Unfortunate. My friend's model UN seems to be a bunch of overachievers struggling for nerd clout. Every irrelevant delegate (cough cough Austria) is trying to be the one to implement THEIR plan.
Whether the Amazons count as alternate history, well, that's up for interpretation I suppose. Nevertheless, I'm not at all well-versed in Greek myth, but I thought this would be a fun way to continue a Caucasia kick I've been on for the longest time.
The alternative to the earlier map, this one is the most favorable to Croatia, putting Knin, the capital of Krajina but also the medieval capital of Croatia, under joint control between the two. Krajina gets control of natural resources and while Croatia proper manages the police, Krajina appoints oversight officers to monitor its conduct. Schools in the Knin district choose whether to use the Krajina or Croatian curriculum. Krajina is also stripped of its access to the sea and of all of Eastern Slavonia.
Honestly, I'd love to see more maps like this: defictionalizations of legendary kingdoms and peoples across worldwide mythologies, from the territories held by a mythic ruler to locations of great national epics.Whether the Amazons count as alternate history, well, that's up for interpretation I suppose. Nevertheless, I'm not at all well-versed in Greek myth, but I thought this would be a fun way to continue a Caucasia kick I've been on for the longest time.
Is this a Model UN or a Nation RP? If the latter is it a public one?
Model UN sadly. Someone ran a Yugoslav collapse in Bosnia RP on this site (character driven not nation based) but you know what I'm lowkey tempted to run a broader version of such a game.
Absolute madness. Love it. The Balkans are rather based and Lazarpilled, though a little nitpick, Kosovo should be labelled Vuk's Country or the Branković Realm or something of the sort based on what it was called at the time. Kosovo field was not important before the battle and therefore did not lend its name to the region. If anything the fact that it contained Methojia or Raška would be more relevant at the time, or Vučitrn after the lord's seat.
Anachronistic and Planned world.
Thanks. I guess making a better version of this map will be in the bucket lists.
I'd like to note that historians place some credence in the Amazons being inspired by the practices of the Scythians (who weren't a matriarchy but did have a lot of female warriors as they defended themselves when the men went off raiding) so these mythic amazons here probably fought the people who inspired their legend to conquer the land shown.
So, earlier this week, I made a post on Facebook about my latest DnD campaign (set in the multiverse of Magic: the Gathering), and several members of my church commented saying they love DnD and would love to get a game going, half-jokingly calling it "DnD Ministries." Ever since, I have been consumed by the thought of running a DnD campaign based on Abrahamic mythology applied on a more-or-less global scale. That's my approach to worldbuilding in DnD: taking a single concept and blowing it up to a massive scale (like what MTG does when designing planes). So, without further adieu, I present my basic sketch of this world, tentatively called "Abrama."
Quick rundown of locations:
1. Gibantak Herz - Land of Giants. Essentially, this is a massive territory inhabited by human beings roughly 12 feet tall (aka, the land of Goliath). In the past, these giants had enslaved humanity but a Moses-like figure led his people across the sea to settle the main continent, drowning his giant pursuers. Gibantak Herz consists of various city-states run by giants. In many instances, these giants hire themselves out as mercenaries on the mainland.
2. Irvmar. This is the capital of a large empire that spans much of the main continent. Djinn form the upper echelons of society, claiming that they are blessed by divine magic from birth, but humans play a major role in society too. In effect, this is an analogue of the Roman Empire. It is highly militaristic and highly structured.
3. Iusrida. Once an independent kingdom, a series of plagues led to a collapse of civilization here. The Irvmari Empire swept in and took advantage of the chaos, conquering the territory and brutally suppressing indigenous religious practices. There are rumblings of individuals starting a rebellion with a more-or-less religious bent to usurp the Irvmari and retake their homelands. In effect, this is an analogue of Judaea.
4. Dishov Herz - Land of Demons. Across the Blood River lies the land of demons. Millenia ago, a pit connecting the human world to, in effect, Hell opened up. Demons and their kind flooded the world, so God literally flooded the world in retaliation and separated demonkind from the rest of the world. Often demons find a way across the boiling Blood River and terrorize humanity, trying to reassert their former authority. Some human soldiers fight against this demonic incursion, and some take advantage of these incursions to boost their own desires.
5. Maloth Salungar - Place of Angels. Seeing the demonic threat, and fearing that God was too busy or apathetic to do anything further about it, a contingent of angels left, in effect, Heaven and established a gleaming city of gold on earth. They lay claim to a tiny island on the south of the continent and occasionally sweep across the land exacting divine justice on demonkind, and any humans they deem too close with those demons. Angels and demons often clash in massive skirmishes that leave no regard for any bit of the natural world or civilization in which they do battle. These battles leave massive scars across the land and leave many innocents dead in their wake. The angels see these skirmishes as necessary for the greater good. Angelic civilization is lawful good to the extreme, taking on incredibly Orwellian tones.
6. Abira. This is a loose collection of nomadic tribes, content to sit out the world's conflicts. Some of these tribes do occasionally ally themselves with the various other civilizations for their own benefit, but these alliances change on a whim. Moreover, these tribes reject the monotheistic traditions that the rest of the world ascribes to, believing that God is merely an incredibly powerful angel and that, in reality, a pantheon of all-powerful gods, apathetic at best and malicious at worst, rule the world as their playground. Very very loosely based on pre-Islamic Arabic tribes.
Quick rundown of locations:
1. Gibantak Herz - Land of Giants. Essentially, this is a massive territory inhabited by human beings roughly 12 feet tall (aka, the land of Goliath). In the past, these giants had enslaved humanity but a Moses-like figure led his people across the sea to settle the main continent, drowning his giant pursuers. Gibantak Herz consists of various city-states run by giants. In many instances, these giants hire themselves out as mercenaries on the mainland.
2. Irvmar. This is the capital of a large empire that spans much of the main continent. Djinn form the upper echelons of society, claiming that they are blessed by divine magic from birth, but humans play a major role in society too. In effect, this is an analogue of the Roman Empire. It is highly militaristic and highly structured.
3. Iusrida. Once an independent kingdom, a series of plagues led to a collapse of civilization here. The Irvmari Empire swept in and took advantage of the chaos, conquering the territory and brutally suppressing indigenous religious practices. There are rumblings of individuals starting a rebellion with a more-or-less religious bent to usurp the Irvmari and retake their homelands. In effect, this is an analogue of Judaea.
4. Dishov Herz - Land of Demons. Across the Blood River lies the land of demons. Millenia ago, a pit connecting the human world to, in effect, Hell opened up. Demons and their kind flooded the world, so God literally flooded the world in retaliation and separated demonkind from the rest of the world. Often demons find a way across the boiling Blood River and terrorize humanity, trying to reassert their former authority. Some human soldiers fight against this demonic incursion, and some take advantage of these incursions to boost their own desires.
5. Maloth Salungar - Place of Angels. Seeing the demonic threat, and fearing that God was too busy or apathetic to do anything further about it, a contingent of angels left, in effect, Heaven and established a gleaming city of gold on earth. They lay claim to a tiny island on the south of the continent and occasionally sweep across the land exacting divine justice on demonkind, and any humans they deem too close with those demons. Angels and demons often clash in massive skirmishes that leave no regard for any bit of the natural world or civilization in which they do battle. These battles leave massive scars across the land and leave many innocents dead in their wake. The angels see these skirmishes as necessary for the greater good. Angelic civilization is lawful good to the extreme, taking on incredibly Orwellian tones.
6. Abira. This is a loose collection of nomadic tribes, content to sit out the world's conflicts. Some of these tribes do occasionally ally themselves with the various other civilizations for their own benefit, but these alliances change on a whim. Moreover, these tribes reject the monotheistic traditions that the rest of the world ascribes to, believing that God is merely an incredibly powerful angel and that, in reality, a pantheon of all-powerful gods, apathetic at best and malicious at worst, rule the world as their playground. Very very loosely based on pre-Islamic Arabic tribes.
In this timeline, the battle of Khalkhin Gol is a decisive victory by Imperial Japan that emboldens the Empire to join Operation Barbarossa in June 1941. Due to the defeat, Stalin reinforced the far east and the Japanese army found fortifications around Vladivostok and the Amur River and the offensive stalls. The next six months saw Japan’s supply of fuel dwindling and the strike to the south is far more limited in scope than in OTL, mostly focusing on the Dutch East Indies. The US and UK responded to this aggression by forming warzones around their colonial possessions in the Pacific which denies the Japanese the chance to capitalize on their initial success. Japan is forced by desperation to launch a surprise attack on various British and American military installations in March-1942 but only finds success at Clark Airfields and Hong Kong where they destroy many American bombers and dog fighters while the British are overrun. With the capture of Vladivostok Japan disengages as much as it can from the Soviet front to save the deteriorating situation in China. Meanwhile, the US wipes away the Japanese forces in the Pacific at a rapid pace but suffer heavy casualties in Okinawa after its capture in 1943. Hitler is forced to declare war on the US to prevent an invasion of the Japanese home islands and with no obvious landing sites or nearby staging ground, the US refocuses its efforts on defeating Nazi Germany in Europe. The Manhattan Project builds its first atomic bomb in 1945 and are used against German forces at Calais on this timeline’s equivalent of D-day and western allied forces capture Berlin in 1946. Back in the Pacific Theater, a Soviet invasion of Hokkaido draws enough Japanese forces away from Kyushu that gives the Americans the confidence to try and take the southern island. It uses more atomic weapons at Hiroshima to wipe away the remaining garrison, but the Americans still suffer massive casualties establishing a beachhead on the island. But with allied forces in both the north and south on top of the fear of suffering more atomic bombings as Germany did, Emperor Hirohito ordered the Imperial forces to surrender, finally ending the war in October 1946.
The post-war world would be dramatically different from our world’s history. Soviet influence in Europe is less prominent while more ground is occupied in Asia. Nationalist forces faired much better during the war and are thus much more effective at preventing Mao’s Communist party from overrunning them. To prevent escalation into another world war, the UN brokered an armistice splitting China into a Communist North and a Nationalist South. Mao for his part, lost support in his party for failing to unify China and a more pro-Soviet rival usurps him with the help of the USSR and the PRC becomes a Soviet puppet.
While in Europe the Western allies unify their parts of occupied Germany which enrages the Soviets who retaliate by creating the East Austrian Democratic Republic and put Vienna under siege. Our world’s Stalin had a heart attack in October 1945 which kills him in this timeline due to the stress of the USSR’s more dire situation. The person leading the USSR during this alternate Berlin crisis is Gregory Malenkov who seized power with the help of Lavrentiy Beria. The Vienna crisis soured the already unpopular Malenkov with the rest of the politburo and Beria uses the crisis to backstab Malenkov and seize power in a coup. Beria lifts the siege on Vienna and purges all opposition to him in the politburo. Leaving him in complete control of nearly the entire communist world.
The post-war world would be dramatically different from our world’s history. Soviet influence in Europe is less prominent while more ground is occupied in Asia. Nationalist forces faired much better during the war and are thus much more effective at preventing Mao’s Communist party from overrunning them. To prevent escalation into another world war, the UN brokered an armistice splitting China into a Communist North and a Nationalist South. Mao for his part, lost support in his party for failing to unify China and a more pro-Soviet rival usurps him with the help of the USSR and the PRC becomes a Soviet puppet.
While in Europe the Western allies unify their parts of occupied Germany which enrages the Soviets who retaliate by creating the East Austrian Democratic Republic and put Vienna under siege. Our world’s Stalin had a heart attack in October 1945 which kills him in this timeline due to the stress of the USSR’s more dire situation. The person leading the USSR during this alternate Berlin crisis is Gregory Malenkov who seized power with the help of Lavrentiy Beria. The Vienna crisis soured the already unpopular Malenkov with the rest of the politburo and Beria uses the crisis to backstab Malenkov and seize power in a coup. Beria lifts the siege on Vienna and purges all opposition to him in the politburo. Leaving him in complete control of nearly the entire communist world.
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Why do you think so?
I chose to split up Austria because the Soviet offense was delayed due to the loss of Vladivostok so the US had to send lend lease through the artic and Persia. I wasn't sure how far into Europe the Soviets would get.
My headcanon TL has a certain Slovene (well, half-Slovene, half-Croat) named Broz coming to power in Austria (and certain... adjoining lands) - but, as in OTL, he'll still stay a bit aloof from the Soviets
Love this setting. I've had similar concepts in the past.
One thing I would suggest? Could use some Irem of the Pillars action. In general it feels like Islam is a tad under represented, especially since the Arab espies are now Yezidis
Good idea! My Islamic knowledge is far more historical than it is theological, so I will definitely look into that Irem of the Pillars thing!
I also had a friend who suggested making Lilith the BBEG (or, rather, her son by Adam) and making the wild areas full of foul beasts that, IOTL mythos, God instructed Noah to abandon to die.
EDIT: Just looked up the Pillars and I love them!!! Might make them a lost elvish city, completely made from gold. They did something displeasing to God and were swept under the sand, eking out an existence below the desert, having forgotten their original glory.
On a similar vein, maybe have dwarves somewhere working on the Tower of Babylon?
If I was just doing my own fantasy setting, I would just make these elves and dwarves all humans, but I don't want to restrict player creativity too much.
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There's a lot of interesting tidbits to pick up on like in Islamic lore, both in the actual Quran and in Islamic thought more generally. Did you know, for example, there was a belief that there were something like 3 or 4 quasi-Djinn races that inhabited the earth prior to Adam, successively being wiped out? That was never a universal belief obviously, but it was out there.
Or, for example, hat technically Djinn are considered to be basically the same as people, they're just made out of smokeless fire etc and come from another plane of being. The djinn that we find in our reality are sorcerers who have pierced the veil. The djinn who stay on their side are the moral equivalents of human beings, and indeed Muhammad even gave the Djinn their own revelation from God. The djinn in our world tend to do bad things because they're sorcerers, just as human sorcerers tend to be evil.
I think it might make sense to even flip those around - have Irem of the Pillars as an extinct dwarf city, and the Tower of Babel be an extant Elvish city. On the one hand, Irem of the Pillars was swallowed up by the earth, and in the HP Lovecraft story "The Nameless City" it is supposed to connect to vast underground tunnels where the alien race that built it lives. The Tower of Babel on the other hand, with all of its loftiness and defiance, strikes me as a classically Elvish endeavor. And "Nimrod" strikes me as an Elvish name for whatever reason. Though of course you should probably find alternative names for both elves and dwarves. "Rephaim" might be a good one for elves.
If you started a thread somewhere for this setting, I would be happy to discuss and contribute further.
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That rump Austria is not viable, and you've slowed down the western advance also.
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