MoF 17: May God Have Mercy On My Enemies

[Krall]

May God Have Mercy On My Enemies


Because I sure as hell won't.


Your challenge this fortnight is to make a map of the world or a part of it in a world where a military genius, who was not born in our world, was born and brought a nation to victory over another.

The map may show basically anything as long as the life of the legendary general had some effect on it (one of the general's battles, the territorial gains during his campaign(s), the victorious nation after the war(s), a colony of the victorious nation that would not have existed had the legendary general not led the country to victory, and so forth and so forth). The birth of the legendary general himself need not be the PoD.

Maps may be from 600BC to 2000AD and may not be ASB.​

This round shall finish on Sunday, 11th of July.

!THIS THREAD IS FOR POSTING OF ENTRIES ONLY!

Any discussion must take place in the discussion thread. If you post anything other than an entry to the contest here you will be disqualified from competing in this round of the contest.

Remember to vote on the previous round of MoF.

 

[A.M. Turtle]

*ignore

*filler*

 

[ah-sue]

POD : Julius Caesar falls into the Rubicon and dies, 49 BCE.

“Some talk of Alexander, and some of Hercules,
Of Hector and Lysander, and such great names as these.
But of all the world's great heroes, there's none that can equate,
To that Celt of old, Ysgawyn the bold, who made Brydain great!”

Nearly every nation has one, supreme warrior hero. For Brydain and the other Celtic nations that hero is Ysgawyn, who in the 1st Century CE not only kept the island of his birth from assimilation into the mighty Roman Empire but by a combination of generalship and diplomacy brought together many Celtic tribes and welded them into one nation. By today’s standards, Ysgawyn was a fierce and often bloodthirsty General who is reputed to have said before the decisive battle against the Romans in 46 CE, “May the Gods have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't.” Whether he said those words, his ferocious and brutal treatment of the invaders, both during and after the battle, led to few of the estimated 40,000 Romans escaping back to Gaul. The Roman commander, Lucius Calidus, surrendered to Ysgawyn only to be flayed alive and his skin said to have become a trophy on a wall in Ysgawyn’s fort.

But from the poets of old to the film makers of today, the preferred the image is one of a clean cut saviour of his people. In the most recent example we have the actor Melwyn Ysgyb conducting battles and his treatment of prisoners almost to the terms of the Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch Convention. The ascension to near godlike status appears to have arisen around the 6th Century, which is the first time we find the story that he did not die but was carried far away to the west over the ocean by the goddess Uathach and that he would return should his beloved Brydain ever be in mortal danger.

The ‘Beloved General’ Ysgawyn and his wife Boudicca carried great influence and made, or caused to be made, many political and social changes that led not only to the creation of the first true Celtic nation state but also to the growth of scholarship. Ysgawyn also urged the creation of a navy, a policy strenuously pursued by his son Pryderi.

The legend of Ysgawyn was strong enough in the 13th Century for the Celtic discoverers of the New World to name the continent Ysgawynia, although perhaps also partly because of the legend that the warrior was carried westwards at the end of his life. On that continent the modern Celtic Kingdom of Breanainn’s capital city is, of course, called Ysgawyndinas (or by some traditionalists ‘Dinas Ysgawyn’) in his honour.

Timeline and Major Battles:
(Note: letters and numbers in brackets = key to map)
? 30-20 BCE – Panon (father of Ysgawyn) in Roman Empire, returns with renegade Roman General Manius Rutilus, attempts to unify certain Celtic factions and introduce disciplined military practices, with some success particularly in the territory of the Trinovantes, where he settles.
? 10 BCE – Ysgawyn born near Canewdon in the land of the Trinovantes
? 10 CE (A) Ysgawyn leads Trinovantes to victory against the Cantii. Cantii pledge allegiance to the Trinovantes
? 12 CE (B) Cantii renege on pledge, various attacks on Trinovantian merchants etc. Ysgawyn leads Trinovantes to second, comprehensive, victory against the Cantii. Cantii lands incorporated into Trinovantes
? 21 CE (C) First battle against the Atrebate, Ysgawyn and Trinovantes victorious
? 21 CE (D) Second battle (4 weeks after the first) against the Atrebate, Ysgawyn and Trinovantes again victorious. Atrebate lands incorporated into Trinovantes
25-29 CE Unrest and uprisings in the now expanded Trinovantes kingdom. Put down bloodily and with subsequent reprisals by Ysgawyn, who is now regarded by many as more powerful than Cunobelyn, the King.
31 CE Esuprasto, King of the Iceni, leads his people into Union with the Trinovantes. New kingdom named Brydain, thought by some scholars to be a Celtic adaptation of the Latin ‘Britannia’.
33 CE (E) Ysgawyn leads Brydainians to victory over Catuvellauni
35-36 CE Durotiges & Dumnonii form alliance against Brydain
35 CE (F) Ysgawyn leads Brydainians to victory in first battle against the alliance in Duritoges, but he is seriously wounded
35 CE (G) The alliance defeats the Brydainians in second battle where Ysgawyn commands but does not take part due to his wounds
36 CE (H) & (I) 7 months later, Ysgawyn leads Brydainians to victory in two battles separated by 17 days. Lands of the defeated Duritoges and Dumnonii incorporated into Brydain.
36-43 CE Fears of Roman invasion grow. Ysgawyn persuades Brydain rulers to form a standing army.
44 CE Ysgawyn marries Boudicca, a noblewoman of the Iceni
43 CE – (1) Third Roman invasion, led by Aulus Plautius. Romans met by Brydainians under Ysgawyn. No clear victory but Romans failed to progress beyond a narrow beachhead and retired after 10 days.
46 CE – (2) Fourth Roman invasion, led by Lucius Calidus. Secured beaches, but comprehensively defeated some 11 kilometres inland by Ysgawyn and the Brydainians. Remnant of the Roman forces withdrew to Gaul, last Roman attempt to bring Brydain into the Empire.
50 CE (J) Ysgawyn leads Brydainians to victory over Coritani
50 CE (K) Ysgawyn continues march northwards, engaging and narrowly defeating the Parisi
52 CE (L) Following numerous border raids by the Silures, Ysgawyn’s forces march west and crush the Silures
56 CE (M) Ysgawyn’s last campaign. Now in his 60s, he marches his armies to the north west where the Deceangli are defeated
66 CE Death of Ysgawyn.

 

[The Kiat]

The Napoleon of Italy

The PoD here is Victor Emmanuel II dying young and not being the one to unify Italy. In 1852, he was succeded by his brother King Fernando Alberto, who lived. In our history, it was Fernando who died (before he could take command of Sardinian soldiers in the Crimean War). What if he had lived, and turned out to be a military genius?

1852: King Fernando Alberto I crowned King of Sardinia-Piedmont.
1858: Mainland Italian allies agree to a Union under Sardinia.
1860: Crown of Lombardy added to Sardinia.
1862: Start of the Neapolitian War, Austria declares war. Fernando leads campaign against Austria, conquering Venitia.
1864: Plebiscite held in Naples; 54% of the people vote for union. Fernando declares himself King of Italy. Emperors of France and Austria see a united Italy as a threat to the balance of power and move in to stop him.
1865: Fernando victorious in North Italian War, crowned King in Caligari.
1867: The Papal State is brought into the new Italian Kingdom. Capital is moved to Rome. The Church retains control over parts of the city, including St. Peter's Basillica.
1873: In order to pave a way for a colonial empire, Italy goes to war against the Ottoman Empire in the War of 1873.
1874: Italy annexes Libya. Fernando defeats the Ottoman Navy at the battle of Rhodes.
1882: French annexation of Tunis threaten's Italy's new empire. Italy declares war.
1883: Nice annexed.
1884: In his last campaign, King Fernando leads his army to victory over the French in North Africa.
1887: Death of Fernando I.

 

[Jman]

Most of the explanation's in the map, all you need to know is that this is supposed to look like it's from a textbook, which, by the way, is not a completely reliable source; it's written by a left-leaning author who paints a fairly rosy picture of Ekindi while glossing over any criticism of the PAS regime. What can I say, I read too much LTTW and the idea of biased historical sources is really cool.

 

[B_Munro]

"Although most Westerners are better acquainted with his illustrious predecessor, it is Gantulga which is generally held by his countrymen to be the true father of modern Mongolia and the Greater Uralic Federation..."

"Some have criticized Gantulga for his dream of accomplishing the reconquest of China, which in the event led to nearly two decades of intermittent and ultimately fruitless warfare against an as yet undecayed Ming China. However, in the process Gantulga created a successful synthesis of gunpowder infantry and steppe cavalry which would play a vital role in the struggle with Russia a century later..."

"Although it would be another century and a half before Korea became firmly integrated into the imperial system, in the long run the absorbtion of this tightly organized, Confucian, agrarian state would have a catalytic role in the transformation of the late Empire..."

- Quoted from From Empire to Federation: the Evolution of the Second Mongol Empire, 1499-1921, by Percival Yamada, University of Shimatter-on-the-Ewey, Dominion of Naypon

 

[GodRaimundo]

The decline of the Byzantine Empire was reversed in the mid 17th century, after a Byzantine victory in the Armenian War, which established Byzantine hegemony over the West.

However, during the following century, the Yuan dynasty in the East also became extremely powerful, and over the years, bot sides fought a number of increasingly vicious proxy wars in India and Central Asia, culminating in the Great Death of 2121, in which each side used no less than three hundred nuclear weapons and released countless numbers of bioengineered diseases onto the world.

But by 2721, civilization, in a mediaeval form, had reestablished itself, and Justinian XIV, reigning from Korinthos, embarked on a campaign to reunite the Byzantine Empire as a great power once more.

He succeed in his goal, but fell to an assassin in Jerusalem, ending a career which might have lasted for many years longer."

(Text reproduced with the permission of Byzantium Publishers)



The following is an excerpt from a map of Post-war Eurasia featuring the Byzantine Empire at the death of Emperor Justinian XIV (copyright The Post-Death World, Byzantium Publishers 2721)

 

[tormsen]

EDIT: I thought I wouldn't have time to polish it off, so I uploaded it before I was completely satisfied. But I got some extra time unexpectedly and decided to go with my original idea. The map is meant to be using the names for the states used within the timeline (a Yue language based loosely on Vietnamese), but I have included the standard OTL Chinese names as well as a reference.

As the picture is now longer, I'm breaking up this post so as to keep the lines from running off the ends of people's screens. See the fluff below.

 

[tormsen]

The Glory of the Vuet Empire

A brilliant general called Ou Fujian of the state known then as Yue rises to the challenge of of the Wu in the early 4th century and leads an astounding counteroffensive. After conquering the Wu, he turns east and subdues the Chu. The most powerful of the Han states, namely Ten [Qin] and Nha [Zhou], are humbled and their territories redistributed. Allied Han states recieve benefits, such as the small state of Lo [Lu] which grows to become one of the most powerful of the Han states.

In his old age, he retires from the field and focuses his aggressive energies upon his own empire. Like the Qin Shihuang of OTL, he is a centralizing figure, but instead of forming the basis of a Han Chinese state, he creates a powerful empire defined by it's cultural and political opposition to the Han Chinese. Elements of Han culture are adopted, but almost always altered to fit with a national Yue identity. By uniting the Hundred Yue tribes, with the sword and pen, he forms a cultural bulwark against Sinicization. A national script was instituted, based on the intricate bird seal script, and a national language, Yue, is propagated to mixed success (becoming the most widely used language, and the language of government and learning, but regional dialects of Yue would remain.)

Han immigration into the empire of the Yue is tightly controlled and positions of power are limited to Yue or those Han who can forge a Yue lineage. Eventually a large wall was built across the middle of the north China plain, from the mountainous Shandong peninsula to the Qingling mountains, using brute human force to subdue geographical destiny. With advanced weaponry, a complex network of canals and a naval focus, the empire will survive for a thousand years, and it see the establishment of the standard of East Asian history: a powerful, unified south lording over squabbling northern kingdoms.

Today, the situation is retained. The Yue now refer to themselves in their language as the Vuet Empire, which is represented in the map. The Han states are kept separated by their own squabbling and Vuet intervention against upstarts. Lacking an imperial patron, Confucianism never succeeded in overwhelming it's opponents, and their remain a dozens of fermenting philosophical schools. Mohism, with it's emphasis on austerity and defensiveness, has the edge and is the most widely practiced philosophical school. The Vuet have settled on a form of Buddhism (introduced directly from Tibet and India), informed by ancestor worship and traditional religion as their religious ethos, and Legalism has made the most impact on their political face.

The northern states, the furthest removed from the Vuet behemoth and with the most autonomy, are constantly threatened by Hong No [Xiong Nu] and other barbarian tribes who harry them from the north. In the west, the state of Yen [Yan], pushed slowly eastward and northward by the expanding Lo [Lu], have entered an existential struggle with the Korean state of Traosan [Joseon, or more accurately Gojoseon], while the Tan [Dong Jin (Eastern Jin)] confederation has been heavily influenced by Mohist Te [Qi]. The most interesting thing about the Tan is how their form of Mohism combined with the confederal government has seen the rise of a form of classical republicanism (or oligarchy). Meanwhile, the Nuy [Wa] tribes of Japan, influenced by the Tan and Vuet, are beginning to move from barbarism to civilization.