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The Third HoS List Challenge

The Third HoS List Challenge

  • neonduke

    Votes: 1 10.0%
  • Time Enough

    Votes: 5 50.0%
  • Charles EP M.

    Votes: 4 40.0%
  • SenatorChickpea

    Votes: 3 30.0%

  • Total voters
    10
  • Poll closed .

Venocara

God Save the King.
Pronouns
He/him
Welcome everyone to the Third HoS List Challenge!

How it works is simple: every fortnight there will be a theme, and the challenge is to write an alternate Head of State list (with an accompanying description of no less than 200 words) based on that theme. The theme is intended to be a prompt, and as such the amount of focus you give to the theme can vary as much as you wish. Cabinet lists are also acceptable. All HoS/Cabinet lists should be plausible. Unless stated otherwise, the list can be for any country.

The theme for this challenge is “The Rise of the Empire”.

Fun fact: On this day 299 years ago the Russian Empire was proclaimed by Peter I of Russia, eventually growing to be the third-largest empire in recorded history.

For this challenge, there are no time restrictions.

Entries should be posted in this thread and you can submit as many entries as you please but only the first will be considered to be competitive. At the end of the contest a public vote will be held to decide on a winning list. Entries are open with immediate effect, and will close on the 5th November.

Any questions, comments or suggestions are welcome either in this thread or sent to me by PM.

Good luck everyone!
 
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Thinking about it, this theme probably doesn't need them so we'll try it without restrictions this time.
I feel like time constraints in general aren't a good idea. The best type of theme for a challenge like this is really broad, because that gives people the freedom to use their imaginations and create something really unique. And really broad themes don't need time constraints.
 
"to the strongest"

Kingdom of Bactria

171BC - 138BC: Eucratides I
138BC - 130BC: Eucratides II
130BC - 125BC: Heliocles

Great Bactrian Empire

125BC - 123BC: Heliocles
123BC - 112BC: Diomedes I
112BC - 97BC: Diomedes II
97BC - 81BC: Eucratides III
81BC - 76BC: Antiochus I
76BC - 38BC: Antiochus II

Kingdom of Bactria

38BC - XX: Antiochus III

Antialcid Empire

38BC - XX: Antialcidas

Greater Indus Kingdom

38BC - XX: Diomedes III

"and escaping from the trap of Demetrius Eucratides retreated back to Bactria in good order. There he marshaled his forces and set them against the Parthians, throwing them back to their lands. At this Demetrius launched himself fully against the Bactrians, but this was a folly and he met his end in the foothills of the Kush. Secure in his Kingdom Eucratides would name his first born son sole heir.

There followed a period of consolidation as the sons of Eucratides secured and expanded the kingdom. It was to be the aged Heliocles who would proclaim the Empire having vanquished the remaining Greeks in the Indus. The heirs of Heliocles would soon turn their attention West and consume the Parthians who were falling upon themselves in civil war.

For a time the Bactrians would rule an Empire stretching from Isfahan to the Ravi and the knowledge of the Far East would flow to the West. But greed and ambition can cause even the strongest of Empires to fall, with Antiochus II falling in battle as he attempted to expand even further East.

His sons would rend the Empire into three parts and war amongst themselves, until the dangers posed by the rapacious lesser kingdoms took precedent. While the Bactrian Empire would never be as it was for a time the Bactrians were masters of the civilized world"

From the collected works of Tacitus, Brahmin of Gaul
 
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The Rise of the Empire: The Commonwealth Problem

Presidents of the U.S.A:
1897-1901: William McKinley (Republican)†

1896 (With Garret Hobart) def: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic-People's), Joshua Levering (Prohibition)
1900
(With Albert J.Beveridge) def: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic-Populist), Eugene V.Debs (Social Democratic)
1901-1913: Albert J.Beveridge (Republican)
1904 (With Henry Cabot Lodge) def: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic), Eugene V.Debs (Labor)
1908 (With Henry Cabot Lodge) def: William Jennings Bryan (Democratic), Eugene V.Debs (Labor)

1913-1921: William Randolph Hearst (Democratic)
1912 (With William McAdoo) def: Henry Cabot Lodge (Republican), Eugene V.Debs (Labor)
1916 (With William McAdoo) def: Henry Cabot Lodge (Republican), Algernon Lee (Labor)

1921-1927: Leonard Wood (Republican)
1920 (With John W.Weeks) def: William Randolph Hearst (Democratic), Emil Seidel (Labor)
1924 (With John W.Weeks) def: William McAdoo (Democratic), Robert LaFollette (Indpendent Republican-Labor), Jack Reed (Workers)

1927-1929: John W. Weeks (Republican)
1929-1933: Albert Ritchie (Democratic)
1928 (With Franklin D. Roosevelt) def: John W.Weeks (Republican), James H. Maurer (Labor)
1933-1934: Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Republican)
1932 (With Harold L. Ickes) def: Albert Ritchie (Democratic), Floyd B.Olson (Labor), Emilio Aguinaldo (CommonWealth),William Z.Foster (Workers)

Presidents of the American Commonwealth:
1934-1941: Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (Republican)

1936 (With Harold L. Ickes) def: Franklin D.Roosevelt (Democratic), Upton Sinclair (Popular Front), Augusto C. Sandino (CommonWealth)
1941-1944: Wendell Wilkie (Democratic)†
1940 (With Paul V.McNutt) def: Harold L.Ickes (Republican), Henry A.Wallace (Popular Front), Carlos Prío Socarrás (CommonWealth), Gavin Arthur (Liberterian)
1944-1945: Paul V. McNutt (Democratic)
1945-: Antonio Guiteras (CommonWealth-Popular Front)
1944 (With Earl Browder) def: Paul V.McNutt (Democratic), Robert A.Taft (Republican), Gavin Arthur (Libertarian)

How a Cuban Socialist became President is certainly something, it’s in Cuba where this begins to be fair, when a stray bullet catches Roosevelt between the eyes. McKinley looking to shore up his ticket decides to go with another’s Progressive...Albert J.Beveridge. McKinley meets his fate and Beveridge takes over. Trusts are busted, Progressive Reform is brought around and America creates an Empire.

Important one that last one.

The Philippines, Cuba and several islands in the Pacific are subsumed into the American hegemony as essentially colonies of America. The Army and Navy are built up more. When Beveridge is ousted he’s replaced by the angry Populism of Randolph Hearst who decides this colonies lark works out well for America. Whilst France, Britain and Germany mulch each other in Europe, Hearst is sending the Army in to take over Guatemala, Panama and eventually kick around Mexico. By 1921 much of Central America is the hands of the U.S.A. whilst Trade Unions are smashed for there beliefs which doesn't work as the more radical elements gain more support.

The Wood, Weeks and eventually Ritchie are pretty dull for the most part when it comes to the colonies, until the Stock Market melts in 1929 and the United Fruit company causing a massive famine in Central America in 1930. By 1932, people are pissed.

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. gets into office on his policy of Liberal Technocratic Reform which includes the colonies. Voting rights for colonies are extended fully and become part of the newly formed American Commonwealth, an attempt to help dampen the appearance of Left Wing Populists in the colonies.

It doesn't work.

As the 30's and 40's roll on, the Left becomes bigger and more popular with Henry A.Wallace beating Harold L.Ickes in 1940 and Wendell Wilkie tries to spend his time performing wack a mole against the Left whilst turning back some of the more Big Government aspects of the Roosevelt administration, this fails as America heads towards another economic recession. This followed by Wilkie pursuing an Anti-Red Pact government that appears in Europe causes him to viewed as another Hearst in waiting. He dies before anything major can happen but a spiralling economy, chaos in the 'colonies' and a lame duck McNutt Presidency means that a united front of CommonWealth and Popular Front takes over on a Left Wing Populist message. It seems that the American Empire may be ending with a bang not a whimper.
 
Arthurian Empire

436 - 455: Arthur the Great of the Britons

455 - 492: Mordred I of the Britons

492 - 501: Mordred II of the Britons

501 - 542: Mordred III of the Britons

542 - 579: Morgana the Great of the Britons

579 - 592: Slaine of the Britons


592 - 615: Guinevere II of the Britons

615 - 641: Mordred IV of the Britons

642 - 647: Guinevere II of the Britons

647 - 691: Tiffany of the Britons

691 - 734: Alaric of the Goths

734 - 742: Haakon of the Norse



Young Arthur was a formidable warlord, unifying Britain, driving back the Saxons, and forming an overseas empire that, after the 452 Conquest of Gaul, saw him march on Rome and despose Valentinian III. Unable to hold the Empire by force alone, Arthur formed the Round Table of Lords - where client kings would serve "as equals to each other, under protection of the Britons". The Kings of Gaul, Ireland, Iceland, Orkney, Daneland, and Great Rome met alongside the next in line for Arthur's throne, the Prince of Briton.

The series of bloody wars left him without an heir and his nephew Mordred became his heir, and even married his wife (a source of sharply suppressed gossip in the 450s).

Modred and his line would hold the Arthurian Empire against the Norseman, the Goths, and the Byzantinian Empire, though did not expand further: instead there was a series of great infrastructure developments to better manage the empire, bringing prosperity and, crucially, greater ability for Camelot to run the place. The Round Table members became increasingly discontent but a mix of divide-and-conquer tactics, financial bribes, marriages, and a few murders kept the peace - until a female monarch took the throne due to Prince Mordred's death from disease. Morgana was married to the second-born son of the King of Ireland but that, of course, meant nothing to the overseas kingdoms, who saw a chance to rebel.

Morgana turned out to be a highly capable and (from primary sources) quite sociopathic warlord, and the communication networks for the Knights of the Round Table were stronger than the rebels anticipated. The Salting of Rome in the second year of her reign ended any thought of rebellion (as well as seeing Great Rome hacked into two new kingdoms), and a bloody war of conquest saw the Vikings - who thought to take advantage of the civil war - brought to heel. Following this, there was peace and dominance of Europe for her reign and that of her romantically-named son and granddaughter. (The Visigoths, seeing how the wind was blowing, would join the Empire of their own free will for fear of being crushed)

The Empire would continue as a trading power and fight a series of brief wars against the Byzantiums but otherwise settle into a quiet stagnation, and the interconnected empire would see a primitive democracy develop among the landholding elites (including women, due to Morgana the Great establishing a precedent of matriarchy). Everything seemed stable - which was boring the hell out of Mordred IV, who considered himself an Arthur or Morgana in the making if he just got the chance.

In 626, the Persians and Slavs laid siege to Constantinople and Mordred saw his chance: he launched a war of conquest against the Byzantiums from the other side, seizing huge chunks of land. He had not expected this to mean "the Auld Enemy" would fall to the Persians, and soon he found his Empire in constant war against the Persians and Slavs both. Mordred IV was not an Arthur or Morgana in the making, forced into a humiliating peace with Persia and facing constant assaults from the emboldened Slavs and recurring Byzantine rebellions. Soon, discontent and small-scale rebellion spread throughout the Empire

The Empire needed a new great leader and unfortunately Guinevere II, while better than her father, was not good enough. The festering sore of Arthurian Byzantine was allowed to leave so the rest of the empire could be fixed up, but it was too late: various 'democratic' Althings had taken control of their regions, and they felt the monarchy was leading them to ruin. Camelot fell fast, betrayed from within by the queen's fourth daughter, and the vast empire became a republic: the monarch would now be an appointed leader with less powers, the servant kings & queens would be elected chiefs. (This took five years to complete, with the Siege of Iceland ending in a draw where the kingdom was allowed to remain)

The appointed Queen followed the advice of her Round Table and enjoyed a decadent lifestyle, while the newly republican empire saw a boom in localised control as various rich locals set up Althings and Round Tables of their own. A final decisive battle broke the Slavs but otherwise, the Empire focused inwards with the exception of the rich who relied on external trade. A new boom in wealth and showing off spread in the last years of Tiffany and in the term of her successor. However, under the uninterested eyes of the republican elite, even smaller Round Tables and Althings had formed among the common folk, or minority groups like the Jews, or among industries & trades left out at the big tables. And once the symbol of a monarch with a tie to Arthur of the Britons, there was no single thing to command everyone's loyalty, leadership was clearly Them Rich Fuckers.

It all came down when Alaric gave his blessing to a faction in the Round Table who wanted to explore and colonise the newly discovered "New World" of Greenland [OTL Canada]. Great riches were expected and would have been found, except first costs had to be spent on boats for a lenghty voyage, the establishment of settlements, and war against the various native Greenlanders who didn't know who these ghostly white people were but definitely didn't want them hitting them with swords. Discontent grew in the empire as the rich taxed the less rich, and every problem was blamed on "because the bosses only care about Greenland".

Haakon was, far as primary sources tell, a thicko. Not a bad person, just crap. He did what his Round Table said and he went to church. All fine if the Round Table had a grip - they did not. When the People's Revolts hit, the entire system shattered as every rich elite and region decided to look after themselves first. The Arthurian Empire collapsed into two dozen nations after the dust settled, with the Republic of Ireland (where rebellion had failed) as the single greatest power among them and the Greenlanders winning, learning how the ships worked, and turning up in Europe to trade.

(The Kingdom of Wales was formed around then by Arthur II, a self-proclaimed descendent of the imperial founder - and as far as we can tell, probably a real descendent of one of Tiffany's sons - and would feud with Ireland for influence in Britain until the Plague killed half of both nations and rendered it mute)
 
THE LORDS OF MEN


House of Atreus

Agamemnon, King of Mycenae ?-C. 1220
Marshal of the Achaeans and the Danaans and the Argives (wide-ruling lord,) C.1220-1208
High King, C.1208-1207 (1)

Aegisthus, High King C.1207-1200 (2)

Orestes, High King, C.1207-1194 (3)

House of Tydeus

Diomedes I, High King, C.1194-1180 (4)

Diomedes II, High King C. 1180-1150 (5)





(1) According to epic and fragmentary evidence, Agamemnon bound the kings of the southern balkans together but did not achieve the unrivalled position of dominance that he must have hoped for- hence the imagery of the King as the 'Shepherd of the People,' leading rather than commanding the war chiefs. The long war with the Assuwa Confederacy and the slaying of King Piyama-Radu (Priam) in his burning citadel of Ilion led to the fulfilment of his ambition and its ending; returning to Mycenae as undisputed King of the Aegean and controller of the Bosporus, the High King was murdered in a palace coup- supposedly by his axe-wielding queen, though more recent historians view this as a conflation with the Amazon axe-women who the Achaeans had first encountered in the late war.

(2) Little is known of Aegisthus after his monuments were destroyed, apart from the easily dismissed myth that he was born of incest after his father Thyestes raped his daughter Pelopia. He appears to have been a cousin of Agamemnon, probably the steward left to rule Mycenae during the war against Ilion. He married Agamemnon's widow, and appears to have banished several of the most distinguished of the lesser Kings- see the prevalent trope of the wandering Lord at this time- Menelaus in Egypt, Odysseus etc.

(3) After what was apparently a spectacular and successful revenge plot, Orestes reclaimed his father's throne- and apparently went quite mad. Believing that he and his sister were being tormented by the gods, he was a distracted ruler at best. The wandering kings generally returned at this time, and though this compromised the power of the High King it probably saved the polity- a return of these able warriors and leaders helped keep Mycenae afloat during the chaos that was engulfing the wider Mediterranean world. Orestes died in unclear circumstances after six (eleven) years as High King. His son Tisamenus was too young and weak to take the throne, and his uncle Menelaus too old and unpopular to seize it outright. According to legend, it was the wily King of Ithaca who proposed a solution to the incipient civil war: gather the Kings together, make them vow to support whoever they chose from among their number, then vote. It is unclear whether this is an echo of the vow of Helen's suitors, or that was a pre-figuring of the historic event, or if neither happened at all.

(4) An old man when he became High King, Diomedes was nonetheless an energetic monarch. His earlier life is obscure- the epics have him as nearly as great a warrior as Achilles, nearly as cunning as Odysseus, nearly as lordly as Agamemnon, right down to lifting passages of those other men's lives (complete with returning home to an unfaithful, murderous wife.) He appears to have spent his years of exile in the Italian Peninsular, where he founded a handful of colonies. However, more importantly was his reconciliation with another exile- the Prince-Consort of Carthage, Aeneas. Supposedly Diomedes returned a sacred relic of Ilion to the Assuwan lord, and made the agreement that 'divided the waters,' where the Great Queen Dido and her descendants would be unchallenged in the seas west of Malta, and the Achaeans would have supremacy in the East. This is clearly a later interpolation to give weight to those mighty allied empires' later claims- at the time, the Achaeans were at best peers with the Hittites and Egyptians, and the Didine Kingdom (and eventually the Puno-Latin Republics) were but dreams of a few settlers in Africa. However, it is clear that the old warrior-king probably returned to Mycenae with a great haul of Carthaginian gifts, which would have helped his comrade Odysseus smooth the way to the throne. Diomedes' reign is also important for marking the increasing turn towards Athena- always an important member of the Pantheon, Diomedes viewed her as a patron and venerated her above all others.

(5) A long-reigning King and a weak one, Diomedes II's tenure was largely that of his Chamberlain Telemachos, King of Ithaca. Son of Diomedes' old comrade Odysseus, Telemachos continued to promote the worship of Athena. He built a rudimentary bureaucracy that for the first time could collect taxes rather than 'gifts' from the lesser kings. Telemachos also cultivated Diomedes I's alliances, and married the Italian Priest-Queen Circe (supposedly the lover of his father!), siring a son named Latinus who would later go west and famously found one of the most important noble houses of Carthage. Diomedes II married Hermione, daughter of Helen and Menelaus, cementing the ties between the Atreides and Tydeides dynasties and finally lancing the boil that was the royal succession. When he died, he left an empire that stretched from Sparta to the Chersonesus. He was acclaimed Lord of the North, as Ascanius was Lord of the West, Ashur-Dan the Lord of the East, as Ozymandias was Lord of the South.

From the straits of the Bosphorus, to the harbor of Piraeus, the Achaeans were the Lords of the Wine Dark Sea.
 
I think doing this once a fortnight is too often. I'd suggest doing it once a month.

When it was a month, people asked me to make it a fortnight. Personally I think a month may be a bit too long anyway, but the next challenge will be longer.

I also find it slightly strange that a lot of the people who took issue with the time constraints haven't submitted entries, although I do still think they were unnecessary for this one.

Anyway, a big thank you to everyone who did compete in this challenge. Submissions are now closed and the poll will be up shortly.
 
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