Medieval America Mark III

[tehskyman]

Edits made:
State of Illinois restricted to Chicago area until late 2500s when the Duponts (who were of cowboy heritage) come in and adopt a pure cavalry army.

Date of conquest changed to 2624

 

[Flashman]

The Erie Isles

• System of Government: Feudal Vassal
• Head of Government: Count, inherited in the ruling Bull family
• Population: 3,000 permanent inhabitants
• Religion: Nondenominational Christianity
• Totemic Symbol: Great Lighthouse of Perry

The Erie Isles lay between Ohio and Michigan. Once, they were prime vacation destinations, sought after for their pleasant climates and fecund greenery. Today, they are sought after for a different reasons: not only are they rich in stone, lumber, and wine, they are among the most strategically vital locations in the Great Lakes. Contested by not only Ohio and Michigan, but by all of the great merchant clans of the Lakes.

Early in the Neo-Medieval Era, all of the islands fell under the de jure rule of Ohio. However, as the centuries wore on, the great cities of the Lake Erie coast began to break away from formal Ohio control. In the 25th century, Sandusky (alongside Cleveland and Toledo) were considered formally independent, and it took the Erie Isles (and the great fortress of Cedar Point) with it. The isles flourished under Sanduskyite rule, becoming prime ports and some of the most important wineries in the Midwest.

Nothing lasts forever, though. In 2529, disputes between Sandusky and distant Chicago spiral into a full-blown League War. By war's end, Sandusky has been razed to the ground, the isles left to fend for themselves. With the League shattered, chaos reigns as local tycoons and strongmen prop themselves up. The isles become a haven for piracy in the absent of strong government.

In 2550, Michigan has subjugated the unruly burghers of western Ontario. They use this as a base to claim rich Pelee Island and tiny little Middle Island, Canada's southernmost point. From here, with approval from the new League (based out of Saulte Ste. Marie), they subdue the pirates of the Erie Isles and spin them off as a vassal states with a similar status to Western Ontario.

In the 27th century, Ohio once again begins to assert control over the cities of the Erie Coast. Instead of ruling with an iron fist, Ohio adopts a policy of benign neglect - funds are poured in to the region to develop its infrastructure, but otherwise the cities are declared Special Economic Areas that are allowed to conduct their own business. One of the most important treasures of the Erie Coast that is denied the Buckeye Throne, however, is the Erie Isles. Ohio takes the case to the Supreme Court. While the Court finds that under normal circumstances the land is Ohio's by legal right, they failed to properly administer the land whereas Michigan was administering it, making Michigan the proper warden of the territory or the duration of the Emergency. Nevertheless, Ohio launches a war for the territory which it loses. This serves as further encouragement for Ohio to better develop its naval capabilities. Minor islands would trade hands over the next few centuries, but Michigan would remain dominant.

Round two occurs during the Toledo War of the 2700s, which ends indecisively with no land changing hands despite a major Ohioan victory at the Battle of Gibraltar. It seemed that Ohio's hopes of re-taking the Erie Isles were lost once and for all following the Great Midwestern War when Ohio lost Toledo and was forced to grant major concessions to the merchants of the Erie Coast. The Dabney Raids further distract Ohio, forcing them to grant even more independence to the Erie Coast merchants, and losing it control over Allegheney County.

Its dreams would finally be realized during the Michigan Punitive War, however, when Michigan was roundly defeated by the allied powers, and the League would see fit to not only return Toledo to Ohio, but to grant it control over all the Erie Isles. Michigan had proved itself over the past few decade to be a far more overbearing master of merchant activities, making the restoration of Ohioan control the natural choice.

The Erie Isles were spun off as a county separate from Sandusky, granted the greatest independence of all of Ohio's Lakeish territory. Interestingly, the Erie Isles are home to several of Ohio's only remaining Masonic Lodges - when Wallace I dissolved most of the Masonic Lodges in the Commonwealth's territory, he left a few in key strategic points. One of these was the Erie Isles, for free reason: their ambiguous legal status, the several prosperous wineries and public works maintained by the Masons on the Isles, and a desire to keep the Erie Tycoons from gaining total control. Many Masons fled to the Isles following the dissolution of their order in Ohio. The Mason's run the branch campus of Ohio State on the fortress-isle of Gibraltar.

The Great Commodore's Lighthouse

The Great Commodore's Lighthouse was originally built to commemorate the victory of Oliver Hazard Perry in the battle of Lake Erie, and to celebrate a lasting peace between the US and Canada.

As with so many other things, the meaning would get twisted in the centuries after the Regression. Sailors passing through the isles looked upon the tower in marvel - truly, the men of Old America were Gods. How could they build such a marvelous thing? Simply to commemorate a victory all the way back in 1812? This could not be.

First, Admiral Oliver Perry became conflated with his brother, the great Commodore Perry who forced the opening of Japan. Then, this became conflated with America's War against Japan - from the infamous attack of Pearl Harbor to the 1,001 celebrated naval battles that occurred half a world away. Prime among these were the Battles of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where it is said that blood-crazed Americans fought so hard that they reduced those cities to smoldering craters. Finally, the memorial became one to America's naval prowess in general. Even the provision for peace fell into disregard - instead, following the incorporation of Ontario into the Nondenominational Union, it came to symbolize the American conquest or Canada.

The tower sits not far from the town formerly known as Put-In-Bay, now Commodore's Bay. The greatest town in the isles, guarded by the mighty fort of Gibraltar Island. It is here (guided by the Commodore's Lighthouse) that most merchants stop.

The tower was first refurbished and made a useful lighthouse during the reign of Sandusky over the isles, and served the League well as a navigational aid. However, following the fall of the League and the razing of Sandusky, the tower fell into disuse. The pirates that held Great Bass Isle had no desire to aid the passage of ships. Instead they used the tower as a lookout point to spot approaching ships. When the interregnum was over and Michigan came into possession of Great Bass Isle, the tower still remained disused. It would only be when the Buckeyes retook Great Bass Isle alongside the rest of the Erie Isles in 2804 following the Peace of Toledo and the conclusion of the Michigan Punitive War.

A great rebuilding was ordered, and the President poured money into the coffers of the local Masonic Lodge that had long maintained the lighthouse. With this cash in hand, they set about building the Commodore's Cathedral, a great building that incorporated the tower as its steeple. Not only did the lighthouse become one of the most important navigational aids in the lake, it became a great site of pilgrimage - in the summer trading season, the population of the Isles swells up to 10,000 as countless sailors come to ask the maritime Patriot-Saints for safety on their journey. Among the many relics there are the bones of Perry, a rib from Jonah's whale, a splinter from the hull of Old Ironsides, and one of the teeth of Jaws. The ancient Inscription Rock was also moved to the Cathedral by the Mason, a relic of the ancient Indians.

In 2978, a second refurbishment was ordered by President Wallace I "The Great" Ingram-Wolf. Not only did he expand the size of the Cathedral, he ordered an alteration to the tower to make it truly his: he ordered that inside and outside, the history of Ohio and America would be carved into the granite, beginning with Columbus's discovery of America and ending with the coronation of Wallace I. Constructions are ongoing, and it is predicted that it will be finished by the dawn of the New Millennium.

At 352 feet high, the Commodore's Lighthouse is the second building in the Americas - arguably the first if you do not consider the Washington Monument a proper building. The smoke from its fire can be seen as far away as Detroit, and its light can be seen from almost anywhere in western Lake Erie. Every day, the masons march up the winding spiral staircase carrying fuel for the fire, contemplating the sacrifice of Christ and America's role in the Creator's plan.

 

[Flashman]

Semi-Canon: Erie Isles Timeline

Spoiler

2172: The formal dissolution of Canada as the Anglos can no longer tolerate the French.

25th Century: The cities of the Ohioan Erie Coast are independent, for all intents and purposes.

2487: In April the first Laurentine Crusade is launched.

2529: Disputes between Sandusky and Chicago spark a League War. Sandusky is razed, and the Erie Isles become a haven for piracy.

2550: Michigan subjugates the burghers of Western Ontario and the pirates of the Erie Isles.

2570s: Canoes become an extremely popular means of transport.

27th Century: Ohio attempts begins to assert control over the Erie Coast once again. This leads to several wars with Michigan over control of Toledo and the Erie Isles.

2624: Bradley II Dupont crosses the Mississippi at Rock Island in the spring, smashing the cowboys all the way to Omaha and establishing Illinoisan control from the Missouri to the Wabash.

2670s: The Big Wall of Iowa is completed by Henry I "The Cruel" Dupont by enslaving tens of thousands.=

2700s: President Robert II Ingram of Ohio constructs the Toledo Road to permanently break the influence of Michigan and the Mackinaw League. This leads to a war between Ohio and Michigan, which ends indecisevely.

2710s: Bradley IV Dupont accuses the Elks of heresy, forcing them to move camp to Michigan.

2756: The death of Governor Clarence IV of Michigan while on campaign in Ontario leads Ohio to attempt to press a claim on the throne, leading to the Great Midwestern War.

The Great Midwestern War comes to an end, and Michigan comes out with the most having gained control of Toledo and the newly completed Toledo Road. It wrests away the few remaining Erie Isles not under its control.

2770s: In 2270, the Baileys sack St. Louis, burning the city to the ground while the Dabneys cross the Mississippi to conquer Illinois, from whence they would launch yearly raids into the midwest.

2790s: George Bailey dons the Hawkeye Crown and sets out to moderate the Baileys and bring them into the Non-Denominational world. He converts to the Church, and sets out alongside a grand alliance of all the Midwestern powers to destroy the Dabneys using a fleet of Memphite riverboats.

The Mackinaw League joins the crusade, and Buffalo dispatches a fleet to take Chicago and restore the Daley family to power.

2800s: After the defeat of the Dabneys, Michigan declares war on Genesee County and Iowa to press its claim to the throne of Illinois. the Lake League and Iowa together easily destroy Michigan, forcing a palace coup to dethrone Luthor III and install Ryan I. In the Peace of Detroit, Michigan loses Toledo, loses its influence in the Upper Peninsula, and is forced to give League cities and merchants far more autonomy, ending the Strait Toll.

2942: Some of Ohio's vassals "independently" raided Tennisy and Pope-Gallatin County, allowing Ohio to negotiate an annual tribute from them, in return for keeping its vassals under check.

2970: Wallace I conquers southern West Virginia.

2978: Wallace I orders the refurbishment of the Commodore's Cathedral, and the inscription of American and Ohioan history onto the tower. It is set to be complete by the year 3,000.

2991: Ohio sent 1500 lancers to Ontario in order to support them in the 7th Northern Crusade.

 

[tehskyman]

Whats the difference between semi-canon and canon?

 

[Flashman]

Whats the difference between semi-canon and canon?

Just that things that are explicitly labeled as semi-canon can be taken more lightly. They can be bent to fit new concepts that might contradict them. Alternatively, it means a post may have some good ideas but also some bad ones, or that a post just isn't a proper fully-formatted post.

I've been making all explicit time-line posts semi-canon because I don't want to be too boxed in by chronology. Since we're working backwards from the "present" of the setting (2900-2999) history ought to be malleable. I just make the timelines while I'm organizing my thoughts on a post, and figure I should post them to help others do the same.

 

[Richard Drummond]

A timeline/historiographical note:

In his post on the conquest of Iowa, @tehskyman stated that the conquest of Iowa and the subsequent construction of the Big Wall of Iowa by the Illinoisans occurred in the mid-24th century. However, this was later contradicted by Augustine Sedira and his timeline post who stated that Iowa was conquered and the Big Wall constructed in the 27th century. Which should take precedence? The easier answer would be teshkyman, since his post came first and has been declared canon whereas Augustine Sedira's is only semi-canon. However, I sort of prefer the later date - if the DuPonts rose to become regional hegemons and just stayed that way for over four hundred years... well, that's not very interesting or realistic, now is it?

Thoughts? Preferences?

I am under the impression that the Baileys built the Great Wall so I would side with Augustine Sedira on this.

 

[Flashman]

I am under the impression that the Baileys built the Great Wall so I would side with Augustine Sedira on this.

Sedira still said that the Big Wall was built by the Illinois.

 

[Richard Drummond]

Sedira still said that the Big Wall was built by the Illinois.

Ah okay, I would have to check his post out again. Etruscan enthusiast makes a good alternative proposal.

 

[LostInNewDelhi]

Leroy Hebert’s THE LABORS OF SANTANOO; or, A HOUSE WELL-ORDERED. First performed at the N’awleens Carnival of 29XX, as an embellished history of events from the formative era of Caribbean civilization.

...

ACT 2, SCENE 1: Northern Haiti. Within the gardens of the Cacique’s Palace.
[SANTANOO, the Dougla conqueror, attended by his MARINES, imposes the terms of surrender on MARIE-CLAUDE, Cacica of Cap-Haitien, attended by her GUARDSMEN.]

[Alarum within, conches]
SANTANOO: Play more softly, brothers mine; the Lady’s
Guardsmen cannot bear such roars ferocious.

MARIE-CLAUDE: You brood of Trinidad have lately grasped
The rod of sovereignty; still I’ll keep such
Staff as I please.

SANTANOO: Then please, since we’re now friends,
Spare the cost of hiring thrice-whipped men, and
Drain not coffers I now claim. What shields you
From harm is my grace, and not your arms.

MARIE-CLAUDE: The country-filles are strange to your men’s grace.

MARINE: You’re madame, not fille, and have a matron’s frame.

[The MARINES laugh. SANTANOO shrugs.]

SANTANOO: Peace, my sons.

MARIE-CLAUDE: What peace from warriors? Why hold
Parley ‘mid such racket? Must we leaders
Strain to be heard o’er the noise of the Low?

[SANTANOO gestures to Marines]

SANTANOO: I trust them to wield oar and blade; they are
Citizens in commonweal, and know well
What I’ll get from every port I’ve stormed since
I sailed out like a squall from Borinquen.
I’ll have your harbors, eat of your harvest,
Tax your treasures and sell them to strangers,
Levy your troops and make slaves of masters.
The Dougla clans have made nations their subjects
From Guyana to Guadeloupe; but I,
Who all nations look to, will plant my flag
In the greatest isle. And we will become
The greatest sons of the Middle-Ocean!

[The MARINES whoop and cheer.]

MARIE-CLAUDE: So you say, but you know what mysteries
Masters of households do keep. I know what’s
Hidden in caves and locked up in cellars.
What you’d give to have them— you may have some
Inkling, which you keep concealed. I declare:
I will parley with you, and may give up much
But I’ll have much from you, so spare yourself
The hasty reproach of your citizens.

[A pause, as SANTANOO scratches his beard.]

SANTANOO: Out with your guards, though they threaten me not.
[gestures to MARINES]
Follow them out; make your meanest faces,
Not too mean, or they’ll spook and fly away.

[Exeunt the MARINES and GUARDS. A pause.]

MARIE-CLAUDE: Time to see what lies beyond the bluster.
You do not jest— you mean to take Cubao?

SANTANOO: The Boricua tell me the greatest
of isles is a tattered and sorry thing.
A king proclaiming blood-red brotherhood
Butchers his sons, and their blood mingles with
That of chickens in street-sacrifices.
Exiles of far Miami land daily
On the sands, come to avenge old insult;
Half return home after eating their fill.

MARIE-CLAUDE: No harder to you, than this island was.

SANTANOO: Strife cannot long last in this world; it will
Soon birth a man like me, to bring its end.

MARIE-CLAUDE: You might well do it; but what comes after?

SANTANOO: One night, on placid tide, I saw a star
Leap westward ‘cross the sky; the gazers say
Its seat will be a throne of wave and sand.

MARIE-CLAUDE: West of Cubao? You don’t mean New Orleans?
They cling to the coast with splayed finger-tips;
Their walls are weak, and they’ll soon be done in
By the barbarous centaurs upriver.

SANTANOO: Still, I’ll tear down their paltry foundations
And inherit their precious destiny.

MARIE-CLAUDE: Who are you, to go steal a prophecy?

SANTANOO: I am marked by fate.

MARIE-CLAUDE: Whence such baffling pride?

SANTANOO: Exiled to death, I came to revelation.
As I rested on the sand, a woman
Stepped out from the waves; and I understood.
She was Ganga, muse of my forebears’ poems
And the whole sea was the sacred river
Said to be her domain. I married her
On the beach which would have been my grave.
I took the name Santanoo, and just then
A ship came to my rescue. But I saved them:
When the clouds hid the stars, I set my way
By the direction of the Sea's whispers.
So came I to Borinquen.

MARIE-CLAUDE: You would say,
That your spirit gives you such contentment
You won’t take a wife of sound body?

SANTANOO: Your soldiers were the husbands of wives;
See how they’ve failed you.

MARIE-CLAUDE: Who will succeed you?

SANTANOO: That lucky man the Sea would marry.

MARIE-CLAUDE: Raving pontiff, savage bandit; don't you
Fear for anything?

SANTANOO: My ancestors believed,
That he who died in Ganga’s embrace,
Faced the hereafter with no trace of fear.
Such is the bliss of Kasimarana.
Sailing to me is quiet pilgrimage,
What care I, if this journey never ends?

MARIE-CLAUDE: A man must sit down to write his story!

SANTANOO: Haitian patience let my people emerge
From Trinidad to bedevil you; your
Fathers and mothers could have used my fire.

[A pause, as MARIE-CLAUDE ruffles her hair and growls.]

MARIE-CLAUDE: Puffed-up cock, too proud by far! I’d hoped to
Profit somehow from this pox on my realm,
But you’re madder than I feared. The point’s made.
I’ll work with you another day. Let us away,
And show we’ve not yet killed each other.

SANTANOO: An amusing game; I suppose I’ve won.

[Exeunt all. Alarum within, conches.]

 

[Flashman]

Your prose pieces really have breathed a new life into the project, Lost. I've wanted to do something similar for a while, and sort of did with the Account of Chief Hawken, but my prose is worse than HPL's. Yours are so naturalistic and they really fit in with the world

 

[Richard Drummond]

That was a great post, I love it. I take it that the Caribbean Empire was established by Hindu Trinidadians?

 

[LostInNewDelhi]

Your prose pieces really have breathed a new life into the project, Lost. I've wanted to do something similar for a while, and sort of did with the Account of Chief Hawken, but my prose is worse than HPL's. Yours are so naturalistic and they really fit in with the world

Thanks! Although I will say what I've liked about your encyclopedia-entry posts is how immersive they manage to be while still being out-of-universe, the Bermuda posts have been a recent highlight. Also love the humor, like the New Mexicans just throwing up their hands and going "all right, guess we'll make the heirs do a death-race" and New Israelite Tiger-Kings, which I think I've only really managed to approximate with this latest post. The reason I stick to prose or in-universe writing samples because some of the encylopedic-posts I've made as guest contributions in other TLs just turn into these sprawling messes of pointless details, and so I stick to a format that demands focus.

Re-reading the Chief Hawken post, the tragedy is effective but the format is kinda limiting, since Olmstead isn't staying very long. It definitely seems like an idea worth revisiting, especially which all that's been written on the New Israelites since then.

That was a great post, I love it. I take it that the Caribbean Empire was established by Hindu Trinidadians?

I thought of the rough concept here before looking at the semi-canon Caribbean posts, so to explain the Dougla: I see their original homeland as coastal Trinidad, Guyana, and Suriname, where Indians are plurality and they haven't all converted to Christianity (as is the case in French Guiana IIRC). With post-Regression die-offs and social reorganization their culture becomes the dominant one and remains that way after recovery, but the population itself would ofc have significant European and African admixture and influences. The Caribbean being what it is, there's already a term for such people-- Dougla.

Then they'd need a reason to migrate, which I figured could come from the Maroons of inland Guyana and Suriname, descendants of escaped slaves who've hacked villages out of the forest and grow African rice. They're pretty likely contenders to come out on top in the reforested desolation of post-Regression northern South America, so I figure they'd constantly be pushing at the coast-dwellers. Meanwhile the coast-dwellers are getting better at warfare and navigation (developing the outrigger and sail) from this constant confrontation and the need to move quickly to help allied settlements but honestly this homeland doesn't have a lot of options. One hypothesis for why the Vikings turned to the sea is that it would be cheaper than colonizing their inland forests (plus all the social benefits of glory and foreign treasures), so I figure something similar could lead to the Greater Antilles focusing more on resettling their comparatively much larger amounts of land (and then falling apart into warring chiefdoms because the geography is that hostile) while the Lesser Antilles reach their carrying capacity earlier and produce the first big explorer-raider group. Another thing worth noting is that the Arawak/Taino that settled the Caribbean were migrants from South America who might have island-hopped from the Lesser Antilles to the Greater.

But getting back to the earlier Caribbean speculation... I'm not sure if I see the Dougla as a unified empire? I imagined them a lot more like the Vikings, a group of competitive groups that manage to leapfrog off each other, using each other's newly conquered ports to launch expeditions ever outward. Santanoo's empire of Cuba and Hispaniola (I imagine him sending tribute missions across the Gulf after that, to expand his fame without overextending his forces even more) is just one of those, but easily the most quixotic-- I'm imagining a mix of the Great Heathen Army and Alexander the Great-- but still, like those two, very influential on politics down the line. Dougla settlement is probably densest (though likely not a majority everywhere) in the Lesser Antilles up to the Virgin Islands, where I'm imagining them fostering a revival of the spice plantations of those islands, and then some who couldn't hack it as raiders can set themselves up as exporters. Their legacy elsewhere may be more in the establishment of local nodes on the Dougla network and transmission of cultural mores, attitudes about the sea, and naval tech-- all of which the Haitians, New Orleaners, Mayans, and others may use more effectively to build more lasting thalassocracies and imperial states.

 

[tehskyman]

Various ideas for the Caribbean

• A wave of migration out of the Yucatan (prolonged drought) could cause the collapse of an existing Caribbean Empire.
• The crown of the Caribbean emperor could be the combined crown of Cuba, Hispaniola and the Lesser Antilles (The two great crowns and the string of pearls)
• If the Yucatan and Guyana have waves of migration into the Caribbean, they could be considered a part of the Carib-Sphere
• Northern Venezuela and Lake Maracaibo could be a part of the Caribbean, but Caracas wouldn't be because it's in the mountains
• How did Louisiana and Florida turn Voodoo? Maybe they were conquered by a Caribbean Empire. The first Caribbean Empire probably spread Voodoo. Santanoo makes it all the way to New Orleans where non-denom soldiers turn him back at the Battle of Baton Rouge.

Another idea, the original Catholic Patriarch of the Americas was given to the Mexicans. However, when the Mexican President became the God-President the other claimants of the Patriarch of the Americas fled across Latin America.

So now you have the Patriarch-President in Mexico City, the Patriarch in Lima and the Patriarch in Sao Paulo.

 

[Flashman]

Presumably, Florida was re-conquered from the Voodoo by a joint Beauregardian-American Crusade. This was likely the first time that the Gullah held a significant presence in the American navy.

 

[HonestAbe1809]

I've got an idea regarding the Magic Kingdom aka Walt Disney World. Namely that the castle be rebuilt and expanded as a fort during the Crusade. And now it's either a residence of the Floridian Governor or a prominent supporter.

 

[Flashman]

I've got an idea regarding the Magic Kingdom aka Walt Disney World. Namely that the castle be rebuilt and expanded as a fort during the Crusade. And now it's either a residence of the Floridian Governor or a prominent supporter.

An interesting idea - though I've always imagined it as a moldering Eldorado. Much like the rest of Florida's interior only small civilized villages exist in the swamp lands, with most of the rest being inhabited by peculiar tribes and strange animals.

 

[pattontank12]

One thought is that the medieval American peasants probably eat better than their ancient European ancestors. Since unlike in the original DARK AGES they have access to both New World crops and the descendants of modern NGO old world crops. It's probably the same for livestock too when you think about it... though life in general still tends to suck.

Actually I was thinking that over in medieval Australia they've developed new types of domestic crop from the Australian plant life. Similar to those found in the Land of Red and Gold timeline that have begun to spread across Austronesia and into Eurasia.

 

[HonestAbe1809]

An interesting idea - though I've always imagined it as a moldering Eldorado. Much like the rest of Florida's interior only small civilized villages exist in the swamp lands, with most of the rest being inhabited by peculiar tribes and strange animals.

My thought was that the crusaders discover the ruins during the long crusade and rebuild it as a fortress. So maybe both ideas can work at once. I just like the idea of a phony castle becoming the nucleus of a genuine fortress.

 

[Flashman]

Actually I was thinking that over in medieval Australia they've developed new types of domestic crop from the Australian plant life. Similar to those found in the Land of Red and Gold timeline that have begun to spread across Austronesia and into Eurasia.

Seems unlikely - takes a lot of work to develop a new agricultural package, a lot of acres that could instead be planted with crops that are guaranteed to have a good return on investment.

 

[pattontank12]

Seems unlikely - takes a lot of work to develop a new agricultural package, a lot of acres that could instead be planted with crops that are guaranteed to have a good return on investment.

True. Though considering that gunpowder has been completely forgotten in the Americas Australia developing a few new crops isn't too far of a stretch.

Actually is gunpowder still around in Asia?