Where the River Flows: The Story of Misia: A Native American Superpower
- Thread starter JSilvy
- Start date
I personally believe that the Misian and American textile and silk industries are ought to be much more ubiquitous than is depicted. While it won't be a full-convergence with the Chinese, they will all still be quite clothed up nevertheless.
The tl itself began on reddit.
You can find some of the maps and spoilers for the tl on reddit.
Windows95
Banned
That's an important factor for industrialization, though you don't need sheep/wool for this, where you can just hemp for it.
Yep, hemp is an insanely versatile textile before it got shoehorned into being basically 'ship rigging' and later, a drug
Chapter 32: Salmon and Slaves
Chapter 32: Salmon and Slaves
(Note: I plan to include a vignette where this note is at a later date)
When studying the history of the Americas, perhaps one of the most overlooked regions is the Pacific Northwest of the North American continent. Its location far from the maritime powers of Europe as well as from the Misians meant that they were often regarded as peripheral. Indeed, its distant location made the Pacific Northwest one of the last regions on the continent where advanced civilizations would emerge. However, its location also meant that it had one of the richest pre-histories of any area on the continent.
As shown by both greater genetic diversity and an extensive archaeological record, the ancestors of all Americans entered the vast supercontinent through a land bridge across what is now known as the Dezhnyov Strait, and the Pacific Northwest was one of the first stopping grounds. For thousands of years, despite the lack of agriculture, this region sustained a large population. Food was plentiful in the chilly albeit temperate and generally mild environment, and the seas and rivers provided plentiful populations of fish, which would make up a significant portion of the regional diet up to the modern day. Agriculture was uncommon, not being firmly established along the coast until around 500, thanks to the introduction of Manoomin grown along lakes to the east and the advent of seasonal cama and wapato cultivation in the Kalapuya valley, and remained incredibly small-scale for about a century. Much more prominent was aquaculture, in which fish were farmed in closed off lakes, ponds, and inlets. This seafood diet rich in protein meant that despite the lack of large-scale agriculture, the Northwesterners were typically quite well-fed. In Haidaguay, the average height is above 1.8 meters thanks in large part to the particularly protein-rich diet. Around the end of the Last Ice Age, the Pacific Northwest along with the rest of the West Coast made up the most densely populated regions of the continent.
By the year 600, a well-established system of trade was established along the West Coast of North America stretching all the way from the north down to the Pericu lands. In the southern portion of this route, trade was dominated primarily by the Pericu due to their strategic location and seafaring capabilities, who were initially uninterested in the far northern forests. In the north, the presence of massive trees, plentiful fish, a jagged coastline, and limited agriculture north of the Wilamut Valley, a variety of peoples all built ships and went out to sea, trading and raiding each other. The Leshutsids, the Nuchanulth, the Kawaku, the Heilstuk, the Tsimshians, and the Tlingit, all fought both each other and amongst themselves to control these valuable trade roots.
However, by the year 1000, the clear masters of the Northwest Coast were the Haida. With their homeland of Haidaguay being separated from the mainland by the large Haida Strait, they were nearly immune from outside raiders and were able to focus on both developing the home islands and improving their own seafaring capabilities. With the increasing importance of agriculture, the large northern island of Masst was able to support large inland settlements as well as coastal fishing villages. This was doubly so with the importation of mountain goats from the mainland, which were easy to maintain and due to the absence of large predators that the Haida had mostly wiped out and whose wool became considered a luxury product. With the increasing importance of seafaring, several major ports grew particularly powerful. In the south, around the Gaad inlet separating the northern island of Masst and the main southern island of Haanas, a number of towns vied for dominance of the natural harbor. This region became so populous that overcrowding led many to sail off and colonize other regions. In particular, it was a group of Haida raiders that raided and conquered Yelapu in the 12th Century, establishing a dynasty that ruled the city until its defeat in the Ohlone Wars. This can be seen in the Ohlone word duu meaning “seafaring ship” derived from the Haida word tluu meaning “boat”, or in the Ohlone word for slave being chimshen due to the large number of Tsimshian slaves sold in Dadacia.
The largest population center, however, were the flat lands of Masst, where the most powerful city was the rapidly-growing Utewas on the northern shores of the island at the mouth of the Masst inlet, an important inlet with a number of settlements that provided access to the island’s interior. Gradually, Utewas conquered the entirety of the Masst plain, and in the year 1014, King Khuyah declared the establishment of the Kingdom of Masst. Khuyah’s dynasty would dominate the region, seeing both a domestic population increase as well as the colonization of nearby areas, coming into conflict with the Tlingit and Tsimshians in particular. In the year 1152, a Haida chronicle would tell of the great journey of Tajaw, the northern explorer who founded a Haida colony in Alaska named after himself before journeying west following an archipelago to another large landmass only to be turned back by hostile natives. Despite the stratified nature of Haida society, with a strong leadership class and a significant slave population, the potlach system found across the region in which the wealthy were expected to give away their riches as a status symbol meant that there was a strong social safety net and poverty was quite rare. The king of Masst would even invite foreign dignitaries to the island for potlaches where the riches being given away were very often the same ones stolen from them by Haida privateers.
Another aspect of Haida culture that would set them apart from the rest of the Pacific Northwest was the adoption of Maasawism. The religion was not uncommon among the local population, but in 1386, King Gujaay adopted the faith, which he merged with the local Haida mythology, as the official religion of the kingdom. Much like Pericu Maasawism, Haida Maasawism was a highly unique sect highly removed from the original tradition that had emerged centuries prior among the Hopi. While Maasawists traditionally condemned raiding, the Haida justified their military actions as a way of pacifying their untrustworthy neighbors in order to achieve peace. The Haida also continued selling non-Maasawist mainlanders into slavery all along the West Coast. Additionally, while King Gujay made a year-long pilgrimage to Orayvi, he was utterly impressed by the concept of underground temples, and even the domed structures often built above them. According to the Haida rite, the proper way to connect with Maasaw and the Creator was through mountain-top shrines and wooden towers that soared among the totem poles.
The wave of plague engulfing the entirety of the Americas hit Haidaguay in early 1507, seeing the population drop from a high point close to 300,000 down to less than 60,000. The kingdom, which had up until that point remained perhaps the most stable political entity in the entire hemisphere due to its geography, was faced with a succession crisis, with violence erupting throughout the small island. In response, Chief Skaay of Juskatla led an army of soldiers from the nearby towns of Gamadiis, Tlell, and Hlk’aay northward to the mouth of the inlet, where they marched on the royal compound of Utewas. With peace restored in 1515, King Skaay declared a campaign to bring the other towns of the archipelago under his reign. Decimated by plague, no settlement resisted. In exchange, the surviving leaders or elders of each town were invited to a potlach hosted by the king, in which he bestowed gifts upon them. In 1521, he declared the entire archipelago to be united as the Kingdom of Haidaguay, and was crowned in Daajing Giids before returning to rule from Utewas.
Upon arriving back in his capital, King Skaay received a letter from Ketchikan, a Haida settlement on an island to the north closer to the mainland, stating that the colony had come under attack from Tlingit raiding parties. With the Haida now being united under a Maasawist kingdom, Skaay declared the start of the Dlaaya Wars, a series of crusades against the mainlanders allegedly attacking Haida colonies (even though a number of the mainland villages that were destroyed themselves had significant Maasawist populations). These on-and-off campaigns of expansion would last up to the arrival of Europeans in the region.
I wanted to get this chapter out first before I started on some of the other concepts we've been discussing. While my initial plan after this chapter was to discuss events in the latter half of the 1600s in the Northwest, I will instead be changing course a story set in the final years of Pre-Columbian America.
For any Tahkoxia fans, I will be involving a familiar albeit different setting that has been absent from this timeline so far.
For any Tahkoxia fans, I will be involving a familiar albeit different setting that has been absent from this timeline so far.
Since life the past week has distracted me from writing, I figured I would provide a little in-TL fun fact.
A variety of languages in this TL write the name of Misia in different ways. In Misian, it’s Mihsiwahk, meaning “the great kingdom/land/country”. In Lenape for example, it’s Mihsihoken, with -hoken being a cognate to -wahk. In most European languages, while early notes from explorers describe “Misihua” or “Misiwa”, most languages settled on “Misia”. In German, it’s “Misien”. In Hebrew, thanks to influence from Monsaic and Shavashic, both Misihok (מיסיהוק) and Misivak (מיסיוואק) were used. Eventually, Misivak would win out. In Arabic, Al-Misiwa becomes dominant, particularly thanks to Mimia’s tour of the Middle East.
However, most interesting is Chinese. Chinese people would first learn about Misia through European traders, who would bring them news of an large rice-growing empire not too dissimilar from themselves across the Atlantic from Europe. The Chinese would adopt the term 米西国 / Mǐxīguó, which funnily enough, directly translates to “rice west country”.
A variety of languages in this TL write the name of Misia in different ways. In Misian, it’s Mihsiwahk, meaning “the great kingdom/land/country”. In Lenape for example, it’s Mihsihoken, with -hoken being a cognate to -wahk. In most European languages, while early notes from explorers describe “Misihua” or “Misiwa”, most languages settled on “Misia”. In German, it’s “Misien”. In Hebrew, thanks to influence from Monsaic and Shavashic, both Misihok (מיסיהוק) and Misivak (מיסיוואק) were used. Eventually, Misivak would win out. In Arabic, Al-Misiwa becomes dominant, particularly thanks to Mimia’s tour of the Middle East.
However, most interesting is Chinese. Chinese people would first learn about Misia through European traders, who would bring them news of an large rice-growing empire not too dissimilar from themselves across the Atlantic from Europe. The Chinese would adopt the term 米西国 / Mǐxīguó, which funnily enough, directly translates to “rice west country”.
Haven’t really thought about the name they would use. Probably Misiwa.
Also adding in the Taino name is also Misiwa, the Nawatl name is Mistlan and the Dinei/Nabeho name is Misetah.
In the Misian language, some country names are:
Ihnewahk- England (sometimes also “Ihnelan”)
Fawansa- France
Isapanya- Spain
Mingowahk- Haudenosaunia
Netewahk- Netherlands
Dochewahk- Germany
Chonqua- China
Nipon- Japan
Koyo- Korea
Dinewahk- Dinei Empire
Mayawahk- general name for Mesoamerica, false cognate with the term “Maya” (in modern times more commonly refers to Mayan lands do to convergent development)
Nawahk- land of Nawa peoples, often used to refer to the Meshica Empire
Kusan- Kutsan
Pasia- Persia
Tokia- Turkey
Loving the translations
I wonder what the name of Brazil and Portugal would be?
I mean when they start projecting power they'll have to deal with those pesky lusos so ya know
Also did you already mention their name for the continent? I might have missed it, if you didnt I wonder what it could be since I dont think they'd be going with America
i am a bit curious how that would be spoken in their language though, Amewika maybe?
I wonder what the name of Brazil and Portugal would be?
I mean when they start projecting power they'll have to deal with those pesky lusos so ya know
Also did you already mention their name for the continent? I might have missed it, if you didnt I wonder what it could be since I dont think they'd be going with America
i am a bit curious how that would be spoken in their language though, Amewika maybe?
I wonder if this list of names can be used to make qualified predictions on the future political developments 🤔
E.g. I see no Portugal, does that mean Spain unified the Iberian peninsula or no Austria, does that mean Germany encompasses all German lands? May be overthinking the information we are given though