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Tibby's Graphics and Grab-Bag Thread.

CONCORD-GDI-SECRET-1314
"THE SHROUD OF BRASIL"
DESCRIPTION: FOR MILLENNIA, THE ISLE OF BRASIL [ALSO KNOWN AS KEVOUNA, OR ZOOTROPOLIS] WAS SHROUDED BY MOSTLY IMPASSABLE FOG THAT CONFOUNDED ATTEMPTS AT DISCOVERING IT, WITH THE ONLY CONFIRMED SUCCESS KNOWN TO BE LED BY IRISHMAN ANDRIU UI BRESAIL BACK IN THE EARLY 5TH CENTURY COMMON ERA. LATER REPORTS ARE AMBIGUOUS, OR EVEN HOAXES. THE SHROUD LIFTED FROM BRASIL IN THE 15TH CENTURY, AT ROUGHLY THE SAME TIME AS THE "YEARS WITHOUT SUMMER". THE UNITED SZALAI ACADEMIES ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR ROLE IN CREATING THE "YEARS WITHOUT SUMMER" [SEE: SECRET-2000 - "THE TSALAL" FOR THE REASON]. THE GDI BELIEVES THE SHROUD TO BE LIFTED DUE TO THIS USE OF SZALAI TECHNOLOGY ON EARTH CLIMATE. IT IS NOTED HERE FOR ARCHIVAL REASONS AND THE POSSIBILITY THAT GLOBAL WARMING MAY SEE THE RETURN OF THE SHROUD TO BRASIL.
THREAT: ITS RETURN MAY CAUSE PANIC IN BRASIL, WHICH HAS RELIED HEAVILY ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE, AND HARM OUR EFFORTS THERE TO STUDY THE HIGH WINDS OF MAGIC FOUND THERE COMPARED TO ELSEWHERE [SEE: SECRET-1315: "THE ISLE OF WANDS"].
THREAT LEVEL: MODERATE (CONTAINMENT IS A LOW PRIORITY)
CONTAINMENT LEVEL: ULTRA-VIOLET (NEUTRALISED) [FOR NOW]
AUTHORISED RESPONSE: DELTA (NON-LETHAL RESPONSE IF NECESSARY)
 
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The Republic of Ingria is a republic with a crisis of identity. It is a post-Russian country politically, emerging in the fall of the old Russian Socialist Federative Republic, but increasingly it is becoming that culturally as well. The youth identify as not just Ingrians, but as having a common identity with the Nordic countries as "fellow brothers of the North" and reject old pan-Russian ties as that of the past. The older people tut at this of course, and maintain that one day Russia will come back together and Ingria will lead the way, with St. Petersburg [never Nevagrad, they never call it that despite it being the legal name] as the natural capital. But with close to fifty years of post-Russia, is this but a fantasy?

The Izhorian-Votic Autonomous Volost (red in the west) and the Veps Autonomous Volost (green in east) are the successors of the old People's Socialist Republics in the Ingrian Governate, set up in the 50s. They both have extensive devolution, especially on linguistic matters.

"Nevagrad is pleasant. I like the cold wind on my face as the sun sets in the winter. I like the warm coffees they serve in the many cafes here. The Philarmonic regularly shows many of the great pleasures of pan-Russian music. My friend Alya lives here. When I call this place Russian, she gets weird about it and very insistent that I call it Ingrian. Post-Russians confuse me. We're seeing a nation in collapse and the birth of new ones, I think. A traumatic and unpleasant experience for many, I find. Births often are, especially for those going through it."
- Lime Baudelaire, commenting on Nevagrad and wider Ingria.
 
Other Nordic countries' opinions on if the Ingrians count as Nordic
Commonwealth of Vinland
"What? Fuck off skraeling."

Greenland
"Why tf are you asking us."

Icelandic Commonwealth
"Eh. Not our problem."

Kingdom of Arendelle
"Just let it go, Ingrians. Just let it go."

Republic of Free Norway
"Mumble mumble, they're not really, but eh, as long as they send volunteers to help us kick out the fash, we won't object."

Norwegian Resistance
"They are bleeding and dying for us against the fascists. Voluntarily. They fight with the passion of the old Vikings. They are our brothers."

United Kingdom of Denmark and Skaneland
"Ehhh. Nah. They're just Russians."

Gothic State
"Um. Probably not. There's not a lot of Scandinaian influence there."

Technate of Sweden
"What a backwards concept, pan-nationalism."

National Republic of Scandinavia
"They are inferior Slavic, only fit to be shot."

High Kingdom of Elfdalia
"They count as much as we do. We don't care about identities like that."

Socialist Republic of Northern Europe
"National identities are a bourgeois concept."

Realm of Sweden (Sweden-in-Finland)
"Eh. Nah."

Republic of Suomi (Finland)
"They're neighbours so we can work with them. When they lump us in with the Swedes, that's just time for us to leave and drink vodka to forget."

Estonians
"They're helping us topple the Baltic German tyranny. Brothers are brothers, even from different mothers and fathers, in our opinion!"

Assembly of the Karelian Nation
"Sure. Plenty of ties. No problem. We're post-Russian too, so we get it."
 
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Tenisi was a county constituency for the British Senate from 1794 when it was created from the split of the Permont seat, to 1843, when it was abolished as part of creation of the Dominion of Southern America. A mostly-safe constituency for the Reform Society (later Liberal-Democratic Reform Party], it was known to be one of the most republican-thinking constituencies, even electing twice in the 1820s the Radical Antoin ffeil Iagom, a man who refused to take his oath to the King, even to the point of threatening duels with anyone who tried to compel him to.

In 1843, as part of a spate of colonial reforms, the British and English Parliaments came together and negotiated union of their southron colonies.

Senators from Tenisi
- Created from Permont 1794 -
One seat: 1794-1821
Awstin Dysbellur, 1st Viscount Keistar (Independent) 1794-1802

Carol Dysbellur, 2nd Viscount Keistar (Independent) 1802-1807
Sir Dunad Allt (Independent [Reform]) 1807-1821

Two seats: 1821-1843
Sir Dunad Allt (Independent [Reform]) and Antoin ffeil Iagom (Independent [Radical]) 1821
Sir Dunad Allt (Independent [
Reform]) and vacant 1821-1824
Sir Dunad Allt (Independent [
Reform]) and Antoin ffeil Iagom (Independent [Radical]) 1824
Sir Dunad Allt (Independent [
Reform]) and vacant 1824-1827
Sir Dunad Allt (Independent [
Reform]) and Cristian Dysbellur, 3rd Viscount Keistar (Independent) 1827-1834
Garfan Geory (Liberal-Democratic Reform) and Cristian Dysbellur, 3rd Viscount Keistar (Independent) 1834-1841
Garfan Geory (Liberal-Democratic Reform) and Iago Polein (Independent [Radical]) 1841-1843
- Constituency abolished: See Tenisi (Southern America Parliament constituency) -
 
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The Realms of the Danubian Alignment, the Lands Ruled by Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty Andrea the Second, Holy Roman Empress of the German Nation, of This Name the First, Empress of Austria, Apostolic Queen of Hungary, Queen of Bohemia, Croatia and Illyria; Queen of Jerusalem, Archduchess of Austria, Duchess of Salzburg, of Styria, of Carinthia and Slovenia, of Carniola and of Slevania, Margravine of Moravia; Princely Countess of Habsburg and Tyrol, Princess of Trent and Brixen; Lady of Trieste, in the Windic March and of the Pannonian Avars.

Ahem.

Austria
Imperial Archduchy of Austria
Once the beating heart and core of the Habsburg Monarchy, it has increasingly been pushed out of that role by the Hungarians, much to Austrian nationalists' alarm. Before Germany fell, there was a growing schism in the far-right between "Austrofascists" [aka those who fetishes the twelve year dictatorial rule of Engelbert Dolfuss in the 30s way too much] who argue that Austria needs to reassert control over the Alignment and "put the Magyars back in their place" while rejecting any talk of German unification as against Austrian [read: Catholic] values, and those of the "National Freedom Party of German-Austria" that argue that the German people of Austria [including Bohemians] should leave the Alignment and join Germany.

Her Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty is of course, non-political, but she is known to be a firm nationalist. Her move to declare herself the Holy Roman Empress with South German monarchies' support in the midst of the German civil war has somehow managed to unite most Austrians behind her. The more ""moderate"" German-nationalists split from the NFP [which of course support the NFP regime] and formed the "Imperial-Democratic League", a fiercely pan-German and pro-Habsburg movement. It is still third in the polls, but it has done well, comparatively.

Hungary
Kingdom of Hungary
Lands of the Crown of Saint Stephen

The current "top dog" in the Alignment, the recent declaration by the Empress has unnerved them somewhat. However, the Empress is nothing if not canny, and has arranged for a separate coronation as Queen of Hungary in the new year, her second coronation as Queen of Hungary but her first as solely that and not as the wider Empress. It is planned to be heavy in symbolism. The current Chief Minister of Hungary is a firm loyalist to the Crown, and wholeheartedly backs this move. The republicans mutter that it's just meaningless symbolism. Still, the people seem to like the idea.

Bergetalia
Crown Lands of Bohemia, Moravia and Slevania
"Bergetalia". Even the name alone tells you it's an artifical construction. Created as part of the awkward post-WWI compromises that radically changed the old Austrian Empire into the Danubian Alignment, it is an awkward union of three radically different nations.

- Kingdom of Bohemia
A nation heavily split by language, with the Sudeten Germans and the Czechs often clashing on which language should take priority - German or Czech, alongside Bohemian. Meanwhile the Bohemian speakers, the silent majority, just sit there and hope the two tire each other out.

- Margraviate of Moravia
Firmly Czech speaking, it feels squeezed between the Slevans, the Hungarians, the Bohemians and the Silesians. A Slavic nation surrounded by non-Slavs, it has acquired a very strong pride in itself and is known as the "Loud Dwarf" of the Alignment for often having politicians that muscle their way into getting Moravia what it wants, and damn the consequences.

- Duchy of Slevania
A land speaking a Romance language close to that of the neighbouring Venedic people, there has often been Slevan politicians arguing for an union of the two countries, similar to the German-nationalists. Indeed, once you could easily find Pan-Venedic, Pan-German, Pan-Italic and Pan-Slavic nationalists enjoying meals together in Vienna as political allies in a common cause - that of breaking the Alignment. Otherwise, it is rather quiet.

Croatia
Kingdom of Croatia
The Croats have historically been the most sceptical of the Alignment and the Empress' recent actions have not engendered it to them, honestly. They once had a referendum in the late 1990s that was planned by a right-wing nationalist party and was held under a centre-left and firmly pro-loyalist government, with a landslide majority of 78% for staying. Many decried it as fake, but after two years of unrest, the place simmered down.

Carinthia-Slovenia
United Duchies of Carinthia and Slovenia
Once the United Duchies of Carinthia and Carniola, the later changed its name officially to "Duchy of Carniola and Slovenia" as a compromise in favour of Slovenian nationalists, and the United Duchies changed its name to match the more-used name five years later. Mostly German-speaking, but Slovenians have a firm majority in Carniola-Slovenia and the language seems to be reaffirming itself as a sign of local pride.

Tyrol
Princely County of Tyrol
Those days the government of Tyrol has sent quite a few "diplomats" south to Italian countries, a move that has concerned foreign-policy wonks in favour of the Alignment. However, it is very unlikely that Tyrol would break completely free from the Alignment, as polling suggests that it is one of the most firmly-monarchist parts of the Habsburg Monarchy.

Styria
Duchy of Styria
The only Muslim-majority state in the entire region, surrounded by Christians. The Muslim-majority was the result of a series of migrations north after brutal Muslim persecution in Serbia and in Byzantium. Unluckily, they ended up in the land most likely to persecute them centuries later. Still, they have persevered. And in the Agreement of 1920, Styria finally got independence. Sure, by this point they mostly speak German, but it's still momentous.​
 
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Alright, new thing for TABE. It isn't an infobox or a snazzy map. Or even a list. It's more an explanation. If you follow me on Discord, you know this already. Or if you've seen my post here about the book I bought. Or looked at my signature. Anyway anyway, yeah, you know Britain here is Muslim.

A few weeks ago I decided that they were to be Ibadi Muslim, upon a cursory glance of the three significant schools of Islam and a discovery of an Ibadi emirate in the Maghreb circa the 600s-800s. Now, I didn't want to just go in this blind and twist the doubtlessly unique perspective Ibadi Islam could add beyond recognition for my own ends. I wanted to honour it while using it cleverly.

Now, why did I choose Ibadism in particular? I've already established, before that, that this Britain was historically aloof and disassociated from fellow Muslim countries, no matter if they were Sunni or Shi'a. And the Ibadi belief that they were the only people who could be regarded as genuine Muslims, ahl al-istiqama, the people of straightness, fit with that. I once came up with the whole notion that this Britain would fight with the Christians for Constantinople, just purely because they identified as Roman and the Byzantine Emperor called for aid. That implies a high disassociation.

I have dialed it down after that in the chronology, and included some foreign policy moves that would fit a more traditional Muslim country, like defending Granada from Catholic Spanish invaders. So I wanted an explanation for this shift. And I found it in The Essentials of Ibadi Islam.

Let me introduce you to the Husayniyya, followers of Ahmad ibn al-Husayn of Tripoli, Libya. A sort of Ibadi "heresy", they disagreed with the mainstream Ibadi thinking regarding who could be called a polytheist or not. They believed that anyone who believed in God, even if their beliefs contradict that of Islam, could not be regarded as a polytheist. They were a thing in the Maghrebi Ibadi community up until the 13th century.

In TABE, some of their number managed to strike lucky in Britain and got their particular set of beliefs accepted as the standard Muslim school in Britain. Mainstream Ibadi scholars were pretty cool with different thinking but the Husayniyya, they were more firm that having different opinions made you a disbeliever. This particular and very specific combination that existed in OTL, would exist in TABE Britain, and fuel their rather... idiosyncratic foreign policy that baffled even Christians at the time. Still, even the Byzantine Emperor welcomed their aid.

Anyway, by the 15th century, further contact with Arab states would result in efforts by mainstream Ibadi imams to bring Britain into the fold, which it succeeded in that century. That would result in a shift in British foreign policy which would fit the latter policies I've given them.

Yes, I've got in really obscure historical heresies of a somewhat unknown school of Islam, just for this timeline. I'm dedicated. :p
 
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So just here's a quick rundown of the various states of Kazakhstan and Kushinya (Tocharian-speaking people) in TABE's history.
Kazahkstan as part of the Russian Empire (1856-1917)
Governate-Generalship of the Steppes (1856-1917)

Kazakhstan as part of Russian Democratic Republic (1917-1919)
Governate-Generalship of the Steppes (1917-1919) - in dispute with Alash Horde

Alash Horde (1917-1920)
- in dispute with Governate-Generalship of the Steppes (Russian Democratic Republic)
- in dispute with Steppes Autonomous Governate (Russian Socialist Federative Republic)
- in dispute with Steppes Autonomous Socialist Republic (Russian Socialist Federative Republic)


Kazakhstan as part of Russian Socialist Federative Republic (1919-1954)
Steppes Autonomous Governate (1919) - in dispute with Alash Horde
Steppes Autonomous Socialist Republic (1919-1920) - in dispute with Alash Horde
Alash Autonomous Socialist Republic (1919-1924)
Kazakh Autonomous Socialist Republic (1924-1954)

Kazakhstan as part of Turkestani Socialist Federative Republic (1954-1993)
Kazakh People's Autonomous Socialist Republic (1954-1992)
Alash Republic of Kazakhstan (1992-1993)

Alash Republic of Kazakhstan (1993-present)

==========

United Cities of Kushinya (1703?-1834)

Kushinya as part of Russian Empire (1834-1917)
Arshi Governate (1834-1917)

Kushinya as part of Russian Democratic Republic (1917-1919)
Arshi Autonomous Governate (1917-1919)

Kushine Free States (1919)

Kushinya as part of Russian Socialist Federative Republic (1919-1939)
Tarim Autonomous Krai (1919-1923)
Kushine-Uyghur Autonomous Socialist Republic (1923-1925)
Kushine Autonomous Socialist Republic (1925-1939)

Kushinya as part of Islamic Republic of Tarimia (1939-1941)
Kushine Autonomous Province (1939-1941)

Kushinya as part of Russian Socialist Federative Republic (1941-1954)
Tarim Military Occupation Krai (1941-1945)
Kushine-Uyghur Incorporated Socialist Republic (1945-1951)
Kushine Autonomous Socialist Republic (1951-1954)

Kushinya as part of Turkestani Socialist Federative Republic (1954-1993)
Kushine People's Autonomous Socialist Republic (1954-1992)
United Provinces of Kushinya (1992-1993)

United Provinces of Kushinya (1993-present)
 
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Flag of the Kushine Autonomous Socialist Republic (1931-1939 and 1951-1954)
Flag of the Kushine People's Autonomous Socialist Republic (1954-1957)

The first of two "Red Star" Flags combined the old deep blue colour of the Kushine civilisation, with that of the red soil, leading to "prosperity", i.e. gold, and ultimately to socialism, as represented by the red star. It was the first Kushine flag to conceptualise using the flag to tell a story.

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Flag of the Kushine People's Autonomous Socialist Republic (1957-1992)
Flag of the United Provinces of Kushinya (1992-1995)

The Turkestani SFR had a tendency to prioritise the usage of Turkestani light blue [a colour the Kushine weren't unfamiliar with using tbf], and this led to the flag being redone to prioritise Turkestani unity and the red star, dropping the gold and deep blue in favour of the light blue.

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Flag of the United Provinces of Kushinya (1995-present)
The deep blue oasis water, the white water-wheels and the dry reddish soil leads to thriving green cities and a people that unite under the sky blue banner, the traditional Kushine colour for their people. [well, not really traditional, they kind of copied the neighbouring Turkestani who also used the sky blue banner, but yeah, it's the traditional Kushine colour too now. Yes, sometimes people just do that.]
 
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CONCORD-GDI-SECRET-781
'THE PRIME MINISTER'
DESCRIPTION: A MIDDLE-AGED HUMANOID FEMALE WITH BLONDE HAIR AND AN UNUSUAL FACE WHO CALLS HERSELF 'CATREN MOLINEIR' AND IS CURRENTLY PLACED AS THE TOSAIG ['PRIME MINISTER' IN ENGLISH] OF BRITAIN. A CLANDESTINE SCAN OF HER BRAIN-WAVES SUGGESTS SHE IS ACTUALLY ONE OF THE FAIR FOLK [SEE SECRET-512 - 'THE FAIR FOLK'] SENT HERE ON AN UNKNOWN PURPOSE.
THREAT: CURRENTLY DOES NOT POSE AN IMMEDIATE THREAT, BUT SHE IS IN A HIGH POSITION AS LEADER OF ONE OF THE WORLD'S SUPERPOWERS, SO A TEAM MUST KEEP WATCH ON HER AT ALL TIMES SO TO DISPOSE OF HER IF URGENTLY NEEDED.
THREAT-LEVEL: CRITICAL (CONTAINMENT IS OF THE HIGHEST PRIORITY)
CONTAINMENT LEVEL: RED (AT LARGE, BUT UNDER SUPERVISION)
AUTHORISED RESPONSE: GAMMA (NON-LETHAL RESPONSE AUTHORISED) WITH CLAUSE FOR BETA IN EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCES.
 
Not to do with TABE, just me trying to construct an ideology out of Emile Durkheim's social contract thinking and the Dutch VVD's weird ideology.

National-Liberalism is an ideology with a background in the Chinese fascist movement. That is fundamental to understanding it and its motive. It may be a liberal movement now, but the core thinking is one descended from the thoughts of the Second Yihetuan.

National-Liberalism sees society as contracts. Contracts between people, contracts between entities, contracts between people and entities. Even the state’s existence is based on contracts. And contracts must be renegotiated. The contract you made with your wife when you two get married? You renew that contract, and renegotiate it, without speaking, every day. Society is made out of those implicit contracts, and National-Liberalism wishes to make those contracts be as healthy as possible.

When wider society is sick, the contract people make to the nebulous Big Society, the one thing that keeps everyone from becoming barbarians, is under threat. Every move must be made to fix that contract and avoid the worst thing possible - Anarchy. National-Liberalism, despite the name, is very much a thinking that prioritises the Nation above the Individual. But it sees the Individual as having a role in the Society. Only that the Individual must work within Society, work to the Contract. Just as an employer would reasonably expect a worker to fulfill their obligations in the employment contract, so would the society reasonably expect the individual to cooperate within society’s obligations. Those such obligations can, and will, be redefined over time via negotiation.

The Purple List in the 1980s tried to renegotiate the contract too much, and too fast, and got a revolt from the social collective that quite reasonably said they did not agree to any of that. Like good negotiators, we have to be canny when it comes to changing those obligations and agreements with wider Society. The National Society is the sole guiding light of China, the quiet nods in the drinking places, the muttered consensus in the streets. It is a Society that rejects any forms of control over it. We must acknowledge the contractual nature of Society, and seek to be like expert negotiators, not arrogantly assume we can go in government and just order it to change. We are not the ones in charge, we are not the employers. The Chinese people are.

However, the Social Contract can exclude people. Minorities mostly. Those of undesirable racial, sexual or gender minorities. This is a Bad Thing. Our predecessors thought this was a desirable, natural evolution of the Social Contract, to create a unifying Us vs. Them dynamic. Nothing can be further from the truth! It merely creates discontent and dissonance that threatens to undermine the wider Society. We must, as politicians and chief negotiators of the contracts, seek to widen the eligibility, ensure that everyone gets the same contract and so feel like they are part of the Chinese Contract, and so is as Chinese as everyone else, and so avoid any potential for causes of Anarchy. Everyone deserves a chance to be part of China. This is what makes National-Liberalism Liberal, the belief that the contracts have to cover everyone.

Disorder, riots in the streets, public violence, those are all examples of Anarchy, and should be crushed as much as possible and without mercy. The contract people make with the State covers several areas, but one of the most crucial is this - law and order. People reasonably expect the State, in exchange for the tax they pay, to maintain the peace. If the state withdraw from this responsibility, the people will feel like they have been cheated. And they will have been cheated, for the State entered into a contract with every citizen from birth to protect them as much as possible from Anarchy.

The people of China have entered into the Chinese Contract. The people of India have entered into the Indian Contract. Just as businesses fight for monopoly, so does nations and states. It is the natural way. We may not always do it via war, but just as capitalism encourages competition, the existence of nations encourages competition. And just as capitalism leads to the best outcome, national competition leads to the best outcome. We of course prefer no war, and instead just a display of how much more beneficial China’s contract is to its people than the Indian one is to its own. But sometimes, less enlightened contracts try to provoke its people into bloodlust for no reason, and we must always be ready to defend our land, our Society and our Contract against competition.

Capitalism is the natural system of the human race. Humanity is a competitive animal. Socialism merely seeks to reduce this competition, and reduce our advantage on the world stage as a country and as a contract. However, we do not support capitalism to its fullest extent. Capitalism to its fullest extent enables Anarchy. Competition must be tamed by contract. Not a socialist contract which only weakens the Nation. A liberal one. One which balances all elements of Society and keeps the economy working for all, while allowing for progress and innovation via natural competition.

The President of the Republic is the Supreme Negotiator. They are the head of the metaphorical negotiation team between the Government and the People regarding the Social and State Contracts. With the former, they can only try to persuade the People to agree, but the State Contract is the primary one the negotiators can alter. That is the role of the Government, to renegotiate both Contracts so they can be the healthiest and most sustainable possible, and to reduce any possible risks of Anarchy that emerges from it. In opposition, the leader of the Kuomintang, as of 2008, is the supreme negotiator of the alternative proposal committee, to put it in business language.

Politics is just like nations, just like society and just like capitalism. It is mere competition. Competition that must not stop, to stop it robs it of dynamism and robs the people of genuine choice. The more ruthless [within acceptable limits of wider contracts of course] the better! However, there comes a point where polarisation leads to a breakdown in the contract the political establishments have with the people. We must not forget that we are all part of the Chinese Contract in the end. A breakdown in the political contract leads to a breakdown in the state contract. Hence Anarchy. Better to have a short-term compromise that heals the contract than long-term harm.
 
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Hey, Slavs, there still lives
the spirit of our grandfathers...

Right?

The six peoples of the Federated Kingdom of Yugoslavia, as delineated out by the realms, are the Bosniaks, the Serbs, the Montenegrins, the Ghegs, the Vardars and the Illiridians. Such lines are convenient. But not always correct.

Indeed, Serbo-Croatian is widely accepted as one language with five pluricentral standards - Serbian, Croatian, Montenegrin, Bosnian and Styrian. Styrian (the only non-Yugoslav one) is still spoken by some, but Styria as a whole has turned back to German. But language does not always define culture.

But religion can. Vardar and Illiridian culture are widely considered to be similar by the others and regarded merely as "Slavo-Macedonian" by some [which the Byzantines have firmly rejected as a label of course], with the main distinction being those caused by the religious divide between the Orthodox Christian Vardars and the Sunni Muslim Illiridians.

The Ghegs regard themselves as the "true" Albanians, seeing the independent Tosks as corrupted by their authoritarian-socialist regime. Indeed, they don't even perceive themselves as Slavs, pointing out their massive difference from the rest of the Yugoslav lands, the difference their language and culture has. All reasonable arguments of course. And their being part of Yugoslavia is a long story apparently.

But the Vardars and Illiridians, and the Ghegs and Tosks, are not the main issue that is threatening the future of Yugoslavia. That is the establishment's decision to ally with a far-right party based on "Yugoslav supremacy" and an internally-dividing party structure, the Party of National Salvation. Why did the establishment do this? Because Yugoslavia was kept together for a long time, perhaps since the 1940s, by a strong "red scare" tactic. Once the Russian SFR and its allies collapsed, leading to a wave of new regimes, most of them not socialist, Yugoslavia started to fracture.

The King at that time, Alexander III, decided to support turning the old "red-scare" tactics explicitly towards a hard-right pan-nationalism and the establishment agreed with him. Once the Party of National Salvation proved the major benefitor of that tactic, they were made government.

And Yugoslavia lingered. Even as the (tending-liberal) Bulgars voted to leave in 2000 in disgust at the move, reducing Yugoslavia considerably, it still held on. Rebels were crushed and the Kingdom's safety guaranteed. Even as democracy died with a whimper, not a bang, it held.

The only thing that would bring the system down was the decision, a wise one it seemed at the time, to invest the government's responsibilities with the Party of National Salvation. While the SNS was popular, it also was riddled with deep ethnic splits that it's a wonder it even existed. And it came to a head in the late 2030s after growing tensions ever since the 2010s. The "Ustashe" faction, named after a hard-right Croatian nationalist movement in the 1920s, felt that the government was too dominated by Serbs and Orthodox Christians and not enough Croats, Bosniaks or even Catholics or Muslims. So it decided to split from the SNS and lead an uprising primarily in Bosnia and the Herzegovina region of Montenegro.

This proved the kindling for the cremation of the SNS. The Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, from the "Chetnik" faction [descended from a pro-Nazi uprising against the Yugoslav government], declared that this meant that Bosniaks and Croats were now "subhuman" and that the SNS was no longer "holding back" in the realisation of turning Yugoslavia into "Greater Serbia". And the world was rudely reminded of the Chetniks' true past and ideology.

King Petar IV was a God-fearing man. He was a man who went to Church every Sunday. He knew deep in his heart that the Prime Minister's ambition would lead the Balkans to be remembered like the Oregon Country, as a fractious and bloody land. So he made his move, dismissed the SNS and appointed a nonpartisan cabinet of ethnically-diverse people from all across Yugoslavia. This was welcomed in global newspapers as a "shining example of the positivity of what New Monarchism can do".

The now-former Prime Minister had a rally in his home-city and declared that he was now heading a "Serb Republic of Yugoslavia" and that the King was now "a traitor to his own race". This dragged Yugoslavia further into the bloodshed.

With Vardarska and Illiridia heavily considering independence, the Ghegs even muttering "thinking the unthinkable", the Montenegrins sending feelers out to the Danubian Empress for possible intervention, the lands of Yugoslavia may not be united for that much longer.

There is a fear that it could end up "Oregonised", but there are also people working hard to avoid that. Will they succeed? Who knows.​
 
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Heads of state of Serbia, and later of Yugoslavia

Grand Vožds of Revolutionary Serbia
Karađorđe (Karađorđević) 1804-1807
1807: Ičko's Peace was agreed upon with Byzantium

Princes of the Principality of Serbia (Byzantine autonomous state)
Karađorđe (Karađorđević) 1807-1845
Alexander I (Karađorđević) 1845-1848

Presidents of the National State of Serbia
Miloš Obrenović (Independent) 1848

Princes of the Principality of Serbia (Byzantine autonomous state)
Alexander I (Karađorđević) 1848-1885
Peter I (Karađorđević) 1885-1894

Kings of the Kingdom of Serbia
Peter I (Karađorđević) 1894-1918

Kings of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Peter I (Karađorđević) 1918-1921
George (Karađorđević) 1921-1927 (Murdered by an anarchist bomber)
Peter II (Karađorđević) 1927-1943 (Regency by his uncle Prince Alexander 1927-1941. Murdered by Chetniks 1943)
Alexander II (Karađorđević) 1943-1947 (Younger twin brother of Peter II, oversaw federation of Yugoslavia)

Kings of the Federated Kingdom of Yugoslavia
Alexander II (Karađorđević) 1947-1994
Peter III (Karađorđević) 1994-1996 (Perpetually sick, Peter III died bed-ridden)
Alexander III (Karađorđević) 1996-2034
Peter IV (Karađorđević) 2034-present

The House of Karađorđević is led by fictional descendants of George, Crown Prince, who never murders his valet and thus never loses his heirship.
 
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His Most Royal and Imperial Majesty, Constantine the Fourteenth of His Name of the Most Honourable and Ascendant House of Pendragon, King of Britain and High King of Aotearoa-New Zealand, of Araucania and Patagonia, of Armorica, of Cumbria and of Dumnonia; King of Arish, of Australia, of Belize, of Britain-in-Southern America, of British Columbia, of Cadiz and the Rif, of Canada, of Fiji, of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, of Mauritius, of Newfoundland, of the Philippines, of Ramalho, of Rhodesia, of Seychelles, of Trinidad, of Vanuatu, of the Veld and of the Vellai Islands; Emperor of Japan; Samraat of Britain-in-India; Prince of the Ionian Islands, of Maui and of the Pepper Coast; Lord of the Chagos Islands, of Cyprus, of Gelant, of Guam, of Guyana, of the Jovian Cities, of the Lunar Territories, of Malta, of the Paracel and Spratly Islands and of the Virgin Islands; Chief Executive Officer of the British Further Stellar Company; Scholar of Scholars and Protector of the Faith

Or at least that's the official (well still WIP obviously) full title in English. Costenhin XIV is a very peculiar fellow. Being king of a shitton of different places before you're sixteen will obviously affect anyone. The Constantinian Era (1983-present) is a long era approaching its sixtieth year in 2043. And many generations of Britons [and those of the multitudinous dominions] have grown up with the King ruling over them. From a young schoolboy taking his oath in his Friday best to the gruff and disillusioned man who looks over his many realms with dark and weary eyes.

Despite being Scholar of Scholars and Protector of the Faith, Costenhin XIV is not particularly observant in his Muslim faith. Known to be an avid user of tobacco even after Islamic theology more or less turned against it, his switch to e-cigarettes [which he uses via fashioning it into a sort of pipe] in 2011 is reckoned to be one element in why British and Commonwealth Ibadi interpretation of the usage is more lax than other interpretations. And he revels in his reputation as a loud eccentric man, deliberately dressing attire that invokes the 19th century. His much more muted son and heir, Crown Prince Macsen, just quietly sighs as he puts up with his peculiar father.

Some may dismiss Costenhin as a man past his prime, or as a safely-disregarded eccentric, but he looks at the direction the world is going in, and shakes his head sadly. He have had many prime ministers from his many realms. The vast majority of them, he saw as mere politicians. Just in it for power, prestige and glory. None of them genuinely for raising humanity above its station. But perhaps in his ripe old age, he finally gets the prime minister he wishes for all along, in his newest British Prime Minister, the deeply-conflicted human-raised fae Catren Molineir?

Certainly, she's the first one he sees potential in a long, long time.
 
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