Karl der Große
Banned
Uhhh I'm sure the lack of the Nile as essentially a highway to the Mediterranean will extremely change pre-human and prehistoric human population movements. Hittites, Kanaan, Etruscans, etc. will not exist at all.View attachment 883555
Whispers of the desert, the Gift lost [~400 BCE]
[This is a draft. Nathaniel, please re-read, correct the errors, and remove anything censore-unfriendly. Thank you in advance]
Dear Council,
The BL-77 'Moral Hazard' research team reports their progress on the world of TL-051, nicknamed No Nile. After four months of research, we are ready to proudly announce the following facts:
- The P.O.D. is the turn of the Nile River to the east due to an unknown natural disaster sometimes at the end of the African humid period. Such points are always interesting to the esteemed Council due to their rarity; geological and natural divergences are isolated cases. Our geologists, led by professor Sofia Martinez, are already studying the location of the supposed break in the flow, but so far they are far from making any conclusions about the nature of such an anomaly.
I had the honor to read the reports of Dr. Tristan Bauer from the Quantum Reality Research Group on the world where the Nile turned west in the Pre-Nile period. Based on his text, I can conclude that he managed to find the answer to the Nile's turn, so I request access to a classified section of his work.- This is the first found world whose timeline lags behind the Baseline chronology by more than two thousand years. This finally makes professor Prudon's theory of a single multiuniversal time obsolete. Our team’s scientist, Dr. Anastasia Korovina-Lepekha, has already created a theory about the uneven birth of the multiverse. You can read it in the attached file [Don't forget to attach it].
- The lack of widespread technology for papyrus production, as well as the more primitive 'Syrian' alphabet, led to a wide technological lag of this universe. The concentration of rough parchment-like paper in only temples and palaces significantly slowed down this world both commercially and culturally; while the less flexible variation of the alphabet prevented the 'modernization from below' through merchants and craftsmen. Even though it is the 5th century BCE [Add other accepted dates], technological progress is stuck at the 9th century BCE level. The local Bronze Age Collapse is not yet over.
- Without a doubt, being in this time period will help us shed light on the blind spots of the many worlds' ancient history. We can access a lot of historical records lost in the depths of Mesopotamia in other universes. It is also an opportunity to study ancient languages that died out elsewhere; for example, the languages of the Hurrito-Urartian family. Undercover agents of commandor Kuka Pari are collecting important data; and the linguists team of professor Mbow (Martin) Lugande is already working on their translation. [Damn, I heard that they just found a universe where these languages survived to the present day, check it out].
I suggest you read the report below on the main states of the Middle East and Mediterranean. I will use our internal names for ease of reading.
Incident # 11-6-88
- Neo-Hittite Empire: the Bronze Age Collapse (BAC) and the local 'sea peoples' marched through the Fertile Crescent with fire and sword. In the end, only ruined cities and feuding warlords left. In this world, neither Assur nor the other Mesopotamian cities were able to bring a semblance of order to this mess, so the Hittites from one of the Syrian fragments of their fallen empire took on the burden of bloody civilizators. They are not as brutal as the Assyrians from most timelines, but don't let that fool you - Neo-Hittites suppress uprisings with no less bloodshed.
- Kanaan coast: the alternate post-BAC ethnogenesis led to a radically different situation in the region; almost all coastal Levantine cities became maritime thalasocracies. Of course, the absence of Egyptian civilization and lack of trade routes crossing significantly weakened its potential. In the first centuries after the BAC, local peoples, a mixture of Semites and 'sea peoples', engaged in piracy activity and the slave trade throughout the entire eastern Mediterranean to as far as Italy. Eventually, money and leaders with a big sticks won and the Kanaan became a mercantile civilization similar to Baseline Phoenicia. The Greek-Dorions gladly took the place of the region's main sea bandits.
- Elamtu: good old Shushan and Anshan, their history has changed little. Shushan is currently at war with the Neo-Hittites and clearly shows the sights of guerrilla warfare.
- Arab Peninsula: the region is significantly culturally divided. The northern and eastern tribes aimed to trade and cultural exchange with Mesopotamia, while the south was very much influenced by the Abbay River civilization (more on this below).
- Yered Empire: the absence of the Nile Valley resulted in many waves of Afroasiatic migration moving east into the Iranian Plateau, where they provided significant competition to subsequent Indo-European migrants. Currently, Afro-Asians control the Empire, but they do this to the same extent as (apparently) the baseline Medes did it - very nominally. The further from the capital, the weaker the leash.
- Ellopia: after contacting the civilized world, the Greeks-Dorions outranked all previous generations of Mediterranean pirates and built a domain of terror from Spain to Cyprus. The Kanaanites had to sponsor the most adequate warlord with gold and resources so he could unite the peninsula under his (pro-Kanaan) heel. So far, the Ellopia project has been very successful.
- Empire of Ishkuza: the lack of Egyptian bread quickly attracted Kanaanite traders and colonists to the northern Black Sea coast. Soon the local nomads realized what a mountain of gold they were sitting on and began to consolidate into proto-states. Today's Ishkuza is a powerful and wealthy empire that threatens to destroy Kanaan's monopoly on the wheat transit trade and to enter the world-market itself.
- Confederation of Eritria: as the golden age of Greek piracy came to an end, many bands found themselves with no homeland to return to. Some continued to raid the distant western lands without purpose, some began to settle under strong leaders in their pirate coves. Their bays turned into cities, later into unions of cities, until one day a naval military genius united most of them into a kind of loose empire. Today, their descendants, sitting in the capital city of Eritria (ironically next to the Baseline site of Carthage) became the successful traders and the worst Kanaan's enemies.
- Garamantes: a mix of desert nomads and alien 'sea peoples', with a significant majority of the latter. The Garamantes monopolized trade routes throughout the Sahara all the way to Sinai, as well as the entire slave trade in the western and central Mediterranean.
- League of Rasen: more or less the Baseline Etruscans, but here they arose as a reaction to the Greek sea threat. Judging by the reports of Professor Lugande, we are closer than ever to unraveling the Etruscans' ancestral homeland (or at least their language).
- Contesta Confederation: the same story as in Italy, however, the Iberians hate the Greeks much more than you imagine. Their aggression and 'counter-piracy' are the reason why the Fertile Crescent inhabitants have not sailed beyond the Pillars of Melqart for a couple of centuries.
- Abbay River civilization remnants: the Nile may have flowed east, but it still created conditions to attract people and to create a civilization, albeit not as significant as the Egyptian one (and without the pyramids). The Abbay civilization has experienced periods of ups and downs and is currently fighting for survival with newcomers from Arabia.
- Musnad Empire: peninsular Semites have always consumed the benefits of trade with both the Fertile Crescent and the Abbay civilization. Having absorbed the power and knowledge of both worlds, Musnad has gone rogue and intends to subjugate its former teacher.
- Oxus civilization: a lot of Indo-Aryans stopped here on their way to India, which contributed to the creation of an interesting mixture of locals and newcomers.
- Magadma: after the fall of the Indus-Saraswati civilization, the Aryans failed to take a dominant position in northern India; they had to compete with the waves of Afro-Asian expansion. This created the most unique multiverse culture that our researchers have not yet gained access to.
[DATA REDACTED]
[Gosh, Linda Brown added this text to the report at the last minute. Good thing I noticed. Nathaniel, information about the exposure and capture of Liuse Lee in Babylon must not reach the Council at any coast. The consequences will be much more dangerous for our mission than if Lee tells a bunch of priests about something they will never ever understand. Moreover, without Egyptian knowledge of anatomy and medicine, the torture process would not pose any particular inconvenience for our respected engineer. Commandor Pari's people are already scouring Babylon for his whereabouts; next week he will be here at HQ safe and sound.]
Sincerely,
Professor Maximilian Zenus
Credits:
The color scheme is inspired by maps from this TL
