You guessed it! In my mind, the monastary is located near OTL St. John’s.Oh crap, here comes the plague!
BTW is the Island they're on OTL Newfoundland?
Loved the new update; your writing style is engaging, informative, and seems to have a trace of dry wit Can't wait to see what comes next.
Naw, it’s not Justinian’s plague.Oh shit, is this Justinian's plague?
Also, idea: Arians try to make their way across the ocean to run away from Nicene authority.
Indeed, beyond some knives and a bow for hunting, the monks currently have little in the terms of weaponry.Very interesting update! The monks don't seem to have weapons and generally did not carry weapons around this time, so interested to see if the plague makes the natives and Irish monks have to fight over resources. Also curious to see which of those petty kings is going to claim the colony as his own, and wondering if we see a more unified Ireland earlier under the leadership of a petty king who can use the resources of this colony. The most interesting butterfly to me here is that there is less of a technological gap between the monks and the natives than later on in OTL. Curious to see how that butterfly flaps.
The notion that no monks have died on the trip back and forth strikes me as dubious.
I’m not planning on dropping this, so no worries!I love this. Please, please don't drop this!
Dark Ages + Alternative Christianity + North America = AMAZINGNESS
I love this. Please, please don't drop this!
Dark Ages + Alternative Christianity + North America = AMAZINGNESS
Well, thank you as well! It has been a lot of fun to work on.Not just amazingness; this is one of the more unique ideas for a TL I've seen...
What are your plans with the Arian controversy right now?
I go back and forth on this one. If a butterfly in Newfoundland started flapping its wings in 512, would the breeze reach Mecca by 570? There are arguments both ways, in my mind at least. Right now I am leaning towards a no birth, but I have yet to make my mind up fully.I know it has no correlation to what's being currently discussed, but, will Muhammad be born ITTL? If so, do you have anything planned for what TTL Islam is going to be? Are you open to suggestions?
Right now I am leaning towards a no birth
I think preserving Islam but having it be radically different from OTL could be a very interesting take. For example, in the Map Thread, in a post about the "Sultanate of al-Yaman" by @HowAboutThisForAName, the Hegira is different, Islam has "a more pluralistic and mercantile bent", the Caliphates are butterflied and Islam is seen more like Buddhism, "esoteric, pacifist and popular among spiritualist hipsters".
Another take that I personally would find very interesting is having Islam being an ethnic arab religion...
Of course you have the last word, this is just what I think would be cool
The monks definitely won’t mean for anything to happen.The old Irish were quite adept at sailing, so them reaching Newfoundland by sheer chance is not that implausible; they might've reached Iceland as well in OTL, after all.
Hopefully they won't genocide the locals.
Érinn go Brách! I’m thinking of doing some narrative stuff in the future, more in the sense of a “slice of life” kind of thing. Show what daily life is like in this ATL. Some big events also might be discussed narrativly.Brilliant! I would be very interested in how Celtic Christianity develops ITTL, and as a Hibernophile, hoping for Éirinn go Brách! Love the writing, but will there be narrative scenes in the following updates?
Thanks! And also some very interesting thoughts, thank you for sharing!Oh wow, is this a cool TL or what?
Random thoughts on things:
—The plague is gonna mess things up and mess things up bigly. There’s a spectrum of options from most of the monks dying and the natives running away (are they Beothuk?) to most of the natives dying and Brendan developing a massive guilt complex over it
—For Islam, it will definitely not be exactly the same as IOTL, but do keep in mind that much of its core was logical development from Arabian culture at the time, so you can’t create a radically different religion and call it Islam. Things can easily be radically different, though—a huge potential PoD is the Ethiopians succeeding in conquering Mecca in the Year of the Elephant
—For Arianism, you’d need something to change in the ERE for it to not just fade away as it did IOTL. This is the era of East Roman dominance over Christianity—the Roman successor states in the West gradually converted away from Arianism due to East Rome’s massive economic, political, and military strength.
Someone remembers the original! Thank you!This is a really cool idea and I'm liking that you're keeping it plausible. No Muhammad also makes things interesting in terms of the wider world.
I'll miss High in Erin Sang The Sword, but this is really cool too