Table of Contents
The Westward Wind
A medieval timeline in narrative/novel form, about earlier, but post-viking, pre-Columbian contact between Native Americans and Europeans, during the late Middle Ages. Written by Petike, you can read it here.
First entertained as an idea in March and April 2018, Petike posted the prologue and opening information in April 2019. Since then, he's been working on gradually writing and posting new chapters in this narrative timeline.
Premise and POD
In 1415 AD, a lone fishing hulk from Gascony (in today's southwestern France) gets lost in a freak storm while exploring new fishing areas deeper into the Atlantic Ocean. With some ships of the small fleet lost at sea or forced to return hime, the lone ship is driven by the storm westward, to the shores of eastern North America.
The men aboard, a small group of ordinary commoners from various social classes, do not come as conqustadors, but as uncertain and curious castaways. They gradually meet the native peoples, and from thereon begins a story about the difficulties and nuances of first contact… and how it might subtly influence the course of history…
Petike's often described the story as a “semi-robinsonade”, because though the medieval European sailors are stranded in an unfamiliar land with unfamiliar native peoples, they aren't confined to the wilderness and their own devices throughout the story. Quite the opposite. The native North America of the 15th century is also depicted as quite densely settled in many places, with the more untamed wilderness being further inland or in places that prove too difficult for human habitation and economic activities.
Chapters
TBA
See Also
Amerindian Arbalists - Petike's other, much shorter and compact Native American timeline / AH story, in three chapters. Imagines a medieval divergence in the 10th century AD, when a native bowyer invents a simple crossbow, independently of other crossbow developments worldwide.