Hey there y'all, it's finally time for the next chapter, and we're back with a
bang! This chapter is the longest so far, sitting at well over 6000 words and that's before you take in the
extensive list of footnotes (a staggering
94 in total, which will be completely optional to read, though they give you a lot of context with regards to Italy's Red Biennium in OTL and the Fiume Expedition, as well as some of my creative/narrative decisions) that I've written. Unfortunately, I'll have to split this chapter up into two posts, since the ten file limit per post makes things slightly more difficult than I'd intended, so the footnotes will all be in the second part of the chapter. Regardless it's an absolute monster of a chapter and I had a blast writing it, and I hope everyone enjoys reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. After this chapter, the post schedule is going to be somewhat different than what I outlined earlier, with roughly three to four Italian POV chapters, from the perspectives of three Carnarist figures and one neutral international observer. Following that, I'm gonna delay heading over to the US in favor of switching things up and going back to Russia, the rise of Kamo, and two detailed ideology posts on the tenets of Carnarism and Petrosianism. I've made this decision for two reasons, first because as
@Laserfish has guessed in previous posts upthread, Carnarism and Petrosianism play a major role in the world of OPAS, and second because I consider it unfair to you guys to make you wait for the chapters on the Italian and Russian Civil Wars to be complete before talking about their respective ideological currents. After that, we're gonna take a look at the losers of the Great War, Germany, Austria-Hungary (with a particular focus on Hungary more than Austria and the rest of the Empire), and Turkey. Finally, while this chapter doesn't go into the total numbers of each faction in the Italian Civil War, I'll be posting a brief interlude before the POV chapters focusing on the manpower and the advantages/disadvantages of the factions in the war.
As always, I encourage reader discussion and feedback on my baby, in particular what you like or dislike, as I'm certainly open to criticism as much as I am to praise. I'll hopefully be able to pound out more chapters this week, since I'm currently on fall break (which unfortunately is just one week
) and can spend a lot more of my free time writing than usual. As an aside, if anyone in the audience is inclined to make a TV Tropes or All The Tropes page (preferably the former, as the latter doesn't seem to be updated nearly as much) for OPAS sometime in the future once the timeline has picked up speed, I'd appreciate it a lot. Having an eager audience and a TV Tropes/All The Tropes page would confirm that I've "made it" among the AH.Com community, so to speak, and I'd be more than willing to dedicate a chapter to whoever made the page as a token of my gratitude. On one last note, it tickles me pink that Chapter III is post
69 of the thread, because if you can't have a little bit of fun with your timeline, what's the point?
Now then, here are a couple of listening suggestions for when you read the post. In the future, I'll be providing plenty of musical accompaniments to go along with the written and visual aspects of the chapters, to help create an interesting reading experience for you guys. First up is
Babylon is Fallen, as performed by Jeremy Bass. This one is an American song, but the haunting tone and lyrical content fits well with the theme of Italy going to hell in a handbasket.
If that's not your style or you'd prefer something with more of a genuine Carnarist feel, there's
Fiamme Nere (Black Flames) or
Il Canto degli Arditi (The Song of the Arditi), the Great War era marching song of the Arditi shock troops, who make up a large part of the Carnarist army during the ICW and afterwards. It's a decidedly patriotic and somewhat uplifting tune that really exemplifies the spirit of the Arditi (and by extension, the spirit of Carnarism in general).
Finally, if classical music is more your thing, we have a compilation video of various performances of Vivaldi's sacred vocal works, something that I listened to more than once during the writing process of this chapter.