For those who don’t know, 5500 years is a thread started by Atom, which tells the story of the Americas in a world in which Eurasia is hit by a deathly plague in the XV century and no one from the Old World ever colonizes this continent.
A few considerations:
Language
Please excuse my English. I’m not a native speaker, and I’ve never stayed more than two weeks in an English speaking country (and that was five years ago). I know both the style and vocabulary need to be improved a lot; but this is just a draft. If I don’t post it now, I’ll be revising it forever.
Names
I’m having a problem with names. In Argentina and Uruguay, most places have Spanish names, and the original Amerindian names have been forgotten. Calling River Plate “Río de la Plata” is rather absurd given the premises of this TL; calling an island “Martin Garcia” makes no sense at all. But as I don’t know how to get the Amerindian names for places, I’ll use OTL names, at least for now (except when Amerindian names are known, such as “Tawantisuya” or “Anahuac”). Maybe I’ll change this later. Any suggestion in this respect (or any other) is welcome.
Chronology
This TL is aimed to be written as a children’s history book composed in a future Amerindian civilization from around the year 5000 AD. By then, the Americas would have reached the level of technology we enjoy nowadays, and would have imposed their civilization across the globe. The problem is,...what chronology would this civilization use??? I’d like the idea of using something based on both the Incan and Mesoamerican beliefs. Both civilizations thought there had been 4 eras (“Suns”) before their day. The Incas thought they were living in the 5th era. I thought it was cool to use that system, even if this future Amerindian civilization would know the first 4 eras were mythical.
I know it may be odd for a modern civilization to use and ancient calendar (It would be like if we counted the years based on the Egyptian calendar!). But, on the other hand, the Jews use a calendar that goes back to the year 5000, so this may not be as strange as it sounds.
However, on this stage, I’ll use OTL dates, as this is a draft and I don’t want to do the work of making the equivalences yet.
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Well, here it goes...
A few considerations:
Language
Please excuse my English. I’m not a native speaker, and I’ve never stayed more than two weeks in an English speaking country (and that was five years ago). I know both the style and vocabulary need to be improved a lot; but this is just a draft. If I don’t post it now, I’ll be revising it forever.
Names
I’m having a problem with names. In Argentina and Uruguay, most places have Spanish names, and the original Amerindian names have been forgotten. Calling River Plate “Río de la Plata” is rather absurd given the premises of this TL; calling an island “Martin Garcia” makes no sense at all. But as I don’t know how to get the Amerindian names for places, I’ll use OTL names, at least for now (except when Amerindian names are known, such as “Tawantisuya” or “Anahuac”). Maybe I’ll change this later. Any suggestion in this respect (or any other) is welcome.
Chronology
This TL is aimed to be written as a children’s history book composed in a future Amerindian civilization from around the year 5000 AD. By then, the Americas would have reached the level of technology we enjoy nowadays, and would have imposed their civilization across the globe. The problem is,...what chronology would this civilization use??? I’d like the idea of using something based on both the Incan and Mesoamerican beliefs. Both civilizations thought there had been 4 eras (“Suns”) before their day. The Incas thought they were living in the 5th era. I thought it was cool to use that system, even if this future Amerindian civilization would know the first 4 eras were mythical.
I know it may be odd for a modern civilization to use and ancient calendar (It would be like if we counted the years based on the Egyptian calendar!). But, on the other hand, the Jews use a calendar that goes back to the year 5000, so this may not be as strange as it sounds.
However, on this stage, I’ll use OTL dates, as this is a draft and I don’t want to do the work of making the equivalences yet.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, here it goes...
