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Tibby's Graphics and Grab-Bag Thread.

Neat stuff!

Would that even work with China remaining part of the cold war though?
Ultimately I figure that while this bears a lot of superficial appearances to the OTL cold war, it'll likely become something like the Great Game by the 80s or so after a period of detente, especially as the Imperials are facing economic strife that makes business uncertain and oh, isn't there that Chinese leader saying the USSR is now open for business?

Hence why China got rich still.
 
A Contentious People: Illinois 2020
2020 Illinois parliamentary election
  • Boldly Onwards! - 31 seats, 16.95% [Barack Obama's vaguely liberal, mostly personalist, movement, sells himself as a "new change"]
  • Downstate First - 20 seats, 10.97% [Formerly fringe right-wing party railing against "Chicago dominance", benefited off corruption scandals]
  • Solidarity - 15 seats, 8.70% [Traditionalist-left Polish and wider Slavic interests, got votes from religious trade unions abandoning Labor or CPP]
  • Labor - 15 seats, 8.48% [The normal "big left" party, it has increasingly split and split before the recent corruption brought it down]
  • Libertarian - 11 seats, 6.44% [Got a surge as big donors decided to leave a GOP seemingly tied to nativist populism, not knowing they're nuts]
  • Anti-Madigan Labor - 8 seats, 4.81% [Mostly just "Labor, but fuck Michael Madigan", so emphasises anti-corruption measures]
  • Republican - 8 seats, 4.58% [Tried to skew more nativist to take away votes from the right-wing, only managed to fuck up stuff]
  • Protestant - 8 seats, 4.39% [De facto the party of Southern Baptists due to the Methodists voting for other parties, so very right-wing]
  • Catholic People's - 7 seats, 4.05% [Once was a strong force, but since the scandals, have been hit hard, especially to parties like Solidarity]
  • All-American - 6 seats, 3.76% [Very much clear what it wants, no more immigrants, build a wall. Also white-supremacist of course]
  • Sinn Féin - 5 seats, 3.14% [The party of the Irish in Illinois that vote on the basis of ethnicity, they've made some gains]
  • Social Democratic - 5 seats, 2.91% [Formerly the German Social Democrats, they're trying to appeal to Scandinavians now]
  • Liberal - 4 seats, 2.68% [The traditional party of the middle-class who generally aren't hot on the Republicans, but tainted due to Lab-Lib pact]
  • National Association - 4 seats, 2.49% [Once the party of African-Americans, this election Obama all but took most of their votes]
  • Democratic Labor - 3 seats, 1.91% [The traditional-leftist, anti-Labor party that didn't like the idea of supporting a Slavic party]
  • Jewish Labor Bund - 3 seats, 1.90% [Those days it's a generally social-democratic-ish and pro-Jewish minority rights party. Mostly the later.]
  • Green - 3 seats, 1.90% [A trendy eco-socialist party popular with young people who want a proper left-wing, non-ethnic and not-corrupt party]
  • Christian Democratic - 3 seats, 1.69% [Once a heady attempt at creating a pan-Christian party, it's now just the mushy Christian centrists]
  • Black Panther - 3 seats, 1.67% [Normally never was anywhere even 2 seats, the fact it got this high shows this election is quite unique]
  • German Conservative - 2 seats, 1.10% [There has been some murmurs of copying the DSP and going for a multi-ethnic approach.]
  • Indian National Congress - 1 seat, 0.96% [The biggest Asian minority in Illinois is the Indians, but the INC struggles to unite them.]
  • Pride - 1 seat, 0.87% [LGBT rights, and seen by many younger LGBT people as just that, with it eagerly supporting neoliberal centrists in deals]
  • Green-Progress - 1 seat, 0.85% [Only different from the Greens because of a procedural dispute in the early 2000s that never was resolved.]
  • Kuomintang - 1 seat, 0.85% [Chinese interests. Currently floating the idea of a pan-Asian "Asian Alliance" with INC and smaller parties]
  • Socialist - 1 seat, 0.66% [Democratic socialism, but currently much ignored.]
Parties that failed to get enough votes for a seat
  • Forgottonia! - 0 seats, 0.52% [Fell below the threshold after a few decade hovering above it, this party is a regional one just shaking its fist]
  • Farmer-Labor - 0 seats, 0.46% [A merger of Grange and a Labor splitter in 1919, this party has been safely irrelevant for the most part]
  • Grange - 0 seats, 0.31% [In the 70s, there was a dispute between the left and right, and the right refounded the Grange as a party.]
Resulting Government
- Dan Lipinski (Solidarity, with Anti-Madigan Labor, Catholic People's, Sinn Féin, Social Democrats, Democratic Labor, Christian Democrats, German Conservatives, Indian National Congress and Kuomintang, with Downstate First and Labor supply and confidence)
Majority - 1 (85/169)
 
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Ikiru ka Shinu: Kunigami Chōten and his "First Modernisation"
In future I'm gonna post role-play I do for each election-game here depending on if I think they're good enough.

First, this game (Ikiru ka Shinu) is set in 1858 Bakumatsu Japan, and never got past the first turn. But I really got deep with that, including digging up what might be the most detailed English writing about the history of Ryukyu, to form my character.

So who is Kunigami Chōten? Well, why not post his character form here? [I also have pasted the explanations for each issue for full clarification].

Picture (Okada Saburōsuke)
1612655331620.png
Name: Kunigami Chōten
Age: 31
Gender: Male
Allegiance: Ryuk-... Satsuma.
Class: Nobility
Occupations and Offices: Bureaucrat in the Ryukyuan Administration (1850-present)
Bio: A quiet and cerebral man, Kunigami Chōten grew up with a burning ambition in his heart. That of Ryukyu standing, well not tall, but proud. That on its broken and divided islands, it can craft a new society, one of industry and of progress. He sees the West, and all he feels is… jealousy.

He knows they merely see Ryukyu as a puppet, at best, of Japan. And that irks him. He sees Japan’s present society, and sees it as tiresome and backwards. He wants his kingdom to blaze into the future, to well, to ‘Westernise’. Perhaps only through putting on Western attire Ryukyu can break free.

His passion is painting, and he paints both the traditional Okinawan style and increasingly the new Western. He hopes to one day, fuse both to show a new Ryukyu, one that blends Ryukyuan tradition with Western learning. And to show that Ryukyu can take both, become a true kingdom in its own right.


Or at least prevent a future annexation by the Japanese…
Flaws and Traits:
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters - You are likely a charismatic idealist, and envision yourself leading the righteous into battle, be it in war or revolution, but you possess few actual martial skills; Generalship is capped at 3.
The Man of Ryukyu: Hailing from the Ryukyuan islands in the Satsuma Domain, Kunigami Chōten has made a name for himself among the local aristocracy of the islands and is today a champion of the cause of the Ryukyan people. +5 to initiatives about or taking place in Ryukyu
Stats:
Generalship - 3
Subterfuge - 4
Administration - 6
Charisma - 6
Issues:

Kurofune: (In 1853 the kurofune, Black Ships, of Perry crashed through the carefully cultivated barrier of bakufu control. Dozens more have followed in their wake. A flurry of treaties has slowly begun to open Japan to the Americans, British, Russians, French, and Dutch. A mere 8 years ago our contact with the west was tightly regulated through a single artificial island in Nagasaki where only the Dutch could enter at the Shogun’s blessing. Now foreigners walk freely in numerous cities subject only to the laws of their own nations. Their goods flow into the country as protective tariffs are being forced down to nearly non-existent levels. Anger is rising at both the foreigners who have entered the country and the bakufu which appears powerless to resist them. There have already been several incidents of violence associated with the sonnō jōi (Revere the Emperor, Expel the Barbarians) movement although they remain somewhat infrequent. The sonnō jōi gain power by the day despite Shogunal condemnation with the Emperor himself rumoured to be a sympathizer. The Shogun and his advisors warn we must take a cautious approach and build up our strength until we can confront the foreigners on an equal footing lest Japan go the way of China. There are also some, albeit a somewhat small group, who believe the time has come for the country to embrace the international system. What is your position on this pressing issue? Righteous violence against the invader? Pragmatic diplomacy while marshaling Japan’s strength? Or acknowledgment of the modern age?)
"This is an opportunity for our land to get more cards to its hand. We must seek to acquire as much of the foreigners' technology as possible so we can make Ryukyu as powerful as possible. We must take their technology and use it to make our land prosperous!

Bakufu: (For some 250 years the Tokugawa bakufu has ruled Japan. The Shogun stands at the center of a circle radiating from his person to the broader Tokugawa family, its vassals and cadet branches, their ostensible fudai allies, to the tozama outsiders. The Emperor’s supreme authority has long been moral and theoretical rather than concrete as the military government exercises real control. Yet centuries of peace, relative prosperity, and urbanization brought change to the delicate balance between central authority and regional autonomy created by Tokugawa Ieyasu in the early 17th Century. Many of the mechanisms designed to keep the daimyo and domains obedient have fallen into mere formality. The distinction between by fudai and tozama blurred as lords found common cause in protecting their rights against centralizing impulses. Evidence of the bakufu’s erosion even before the arrival of the west came in 1840 when an order for a daimyo to exchange his realm for another was flatly refused with the backing of local grandees and both fudai and tozama lords. Now the humiliating treatment of Japan at the hands of foreign powers has further shaken the legitimacy of the bakufu and led to a groundswell of support for “restoring” the emperor to his proper power. Tozama leaders advocate loosening central controls to increase the ability of domains to modernize on their own. On the other side there are many within the bakufu and their fudai allies who argue it must begin a process of strengthening and transforming itself into something closer to a modern western nation-state. In the debate over the system which has governed Japan since the 17th Century, where do you fall? Has the Shogun had his day and is it time for the Emperor to return? Do the domains need greater control of their own affairs? Can only a reinvigorated bakufu bring peace to Japan?)
"Do not speak to me of Edo business!"

Sunno: (Sonnō, the first word in the slogan sonnō joi, refers to reverence for the Emperor. The Emperor of course has always been a figure of reverence through his status as a living deity descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu herself. As Shoguns usurped Imperial power, they nonetheless continued to view the Emperor as a great and powerful man worthy of respect. Yet this has taken a turn in the last few decades. Adoration changed from a spiritual and cultural value to a political one. Scholars began advocating more temporal power for the Emperor to bring peace to a country that appeared to be slipping towards disorder. The arrival of the west has transformed this relatively small scholarly school into a grassroots movement extending through the length and breadth of Japan. With the bakufu entering crisis many now look to the ancient court at Kyoto for guidance. There is variance within the movement, however, as to some it simply means the Shogun should heed the wishes of the Emperor more closely and form something resembling a proper power sharing agreement. Even some members of the bakufu itself have come to see some merit in the idea for the sake of improving national unity through Kōbu gattai (Union of Court and Shogun). At the same time more radical members are moving towards supporting a full “restoration” of Imperial power and deposing the Shogun who stands in the way of the Emperor’s divine will. Such men are still outside the halls of power but appear to be inching closer in numerous tozama domains. What is your opinion on the Emperor and Imperial power? Is the current situation sustainable? Should a new Kyoto-Edo partnership be established? Can the Emperor and court take power for themselves?)
"I have reverence for my King. Some for the Emperor, who is of course the Sun God and whatnot, but I revere my sovereign the most."

Rangaku: (Contrary to the belief of some, Japan has not remained a close-minded place these past centuries. The phenomenon of Rangaku, or Dutch Learning¸ has brought a steady flow of western knowledge from the Netherlands through their trading post at Nagasaki. Japanese scholars have come to increasingly understand fields such as biology, astronomy, and chemistry from a western point of view. This has only accelerated in the past few decades as traditional Confucian approaches to the sciences gradually give way to western empirical methods. The arrival of Perry convinced both the Shogun and many domains that they must embrace a modernizing approach or risk being crushed by the outside world. The bakufu invited the Dutch to establish a naval academy at Nagasaki in 1855 and hurriedly purchased several modern steamships. Numerous domains rushed to do the same. After them came other military, scientific, and industrial advisors alongside a flood of texts. This has not been undertaken without considerable resistance. There are some who view this as a perversion of traditional Japanese cultural as well as evidence the Shogun is selling out Japan to foreign powers. In a perhaps curious twist, others believe both that foreigners are an existential threat to the purity of Japan and western technology must be adopted to resist it. Although numerous scholars, engineers, and officers are eager to learn from the west there are an equal number who feel their position is threatened in this new age. Is the growing official acceptance of western knowledge a fundamental threat to our ancient culture? Must Japan modernize as fast as possible or risk colonization? Or can we afford to take a more measured approach?)
"Knowledge can never be a dangerous thing. Read, note and learn from them, so we can use it for our means."

Mibunsei: (For centuries, the Japanese class system has been rooted in Confucian morality which became formalized in the mibunsei system. Under its principles there is strict separation between the four ranked classes of samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants with the Emperor and court nobility above all. Each class ought to remain in its proper place and occupation. In practice, however, this has never fully been the case. The samurai intermingle with both the court nobility above and wealthy commoners below. Well off commoners often purchase commissions or marry into samurai families which allows them access to higher rungs of power. As the Japanese economy developed into a sophisticated form of proto capitalism the legally superior samurai and daimyo often found themselves indebted to powerful merchants or landholding peasants. Some scholars blame this blurring of lines for a rise in internal unrest, corruption, and infighting within the ruling class. Of course, others chafe at the formal restrictions in place which stigmatizes new entrants to the upper ranks and bar those who do not have this status from official positions above the village level. Within the samurai class itself many positions have become hereditary which keeps talented men from rising. Should the status quo simply remain lest any change only worsen matters? Is it time to embrace true Confucian morality through strict adherence to mibunsei? Or are these restrictions remnants of a less enlightened past?)
"We need reform, that is clear. But we cannot sacrifice our traditions. Note, learn, but keep who we are. And by we, I mean Ryukyu."

Gimin: (Gimin, “virtuous men,” occupy a key part of popular memory among Japan’s rural and urban labourers. These men stand up to cruel landlords, unfeeling officials, and nature itself to fight for the common people, often becoming martyrs in the process. Japan has a long tradition of lower-class protest ranging from withholding taxes to presenting petitions all the way to rioting and organized rebellion. Even during the so called “Tokugawa Peace” this has remained a fact of life. Yet the daimyo and bakufu are alarmed at the increasing rate of disturbances since the beginning of the 19th Century. The advent of proto capitalism brought dislocation to the countryside resulting in a growing gap between desperately poor agricultural labourers and wealthier landowners. Population increases have sent many to the cities where they are dependent on cheap supplies of rice and often insecure work. As urbanization continues and a growing portion of commoners are employed as wage labourers they are vulnerable to swings in the economy or sudden increases in the price of grain due to natural disaster. Efforts to counteract this trend through a mix of suppression and enforcing a Confucian “moral economy” have largely failed, much to the consternation of the ruling class. Is this a sign the common folk need greater support or loosened restriction from their betters? Should they simply be repressed with force despite possible economic consequences? Is it the fault of immoral merchants and landowners?)
"They're inconvenient. The West however, have managed to quell them to an extent. The last major Gimin rebellion there was a decade ago, and the one before that was sixty years ago. We should take notes so we can learn how to modernise our economy so the gimin no longer rebels."

That sums up Kunigami. A Ryukyuan nationalist to his bones, he loves his island-home and wants to see it prosper. And he sees true prosperity as only coming via modernisation. To him, the days of old are dead and Ryukyu must act boldly.

Hence why he advocates what he calls his "Modernisations". The First Modernisation is that of industrialisation, the Second Modernisation is that of government reform and the Third Modernisation is that of education. But do not think he wishes for Ryukyu to sacrifice its culture and become "Westernised". He thinks that Japan has made Ryukyu lose its treasured past, including that of the priestess system and belief in the spiritual superiority of women. This is a man who believes fervently in gender equality for nationalist reasons, but as of the First Modernisation, he is holding back for now.

Now, the below is the role-play itself. It is an incomplete (sadly) letter from Kunigami to the King of Ryukyu about the First Modernisation.

====

To the great, magnanimous, wise and enlightened Shō Tai, King of the Ryukyu Islands and Lord of Okinawa, from your most obedient servant Chōten, Lord of Kunigami.

I present the first part of my threefold proposal to enrich and empower your Realm.

Your ever-beloved islands have never wanted for knowledge of foreign countries nor their advances. Trade with China and with Japan have much enriched it. But actions by England and France the last few decades regarding the Kingdom have deeply disturbed the Realm, especially their dalliances with aggressive missionarism. It is clear that if the Realm wishes to develop itself into one that can turn back those missionaries and protect its cultural heritage, it must take notes of the technological advancements the foreigners have done.

As China takes its last steps as a great power at the hands of the industrial might of England, Ryukyu’s vulnerability is clear. When even the power of China cannot stand against industry, the Kingdom’s age-old strategy of being tributary to two empires cannot last. It is clear that it must adapt to a new and terrifying age. This humble plan of mine is designed to be a proposal on how it can do the first, and most vital, part.

For what unites the European foreigners? Industry. The Kingdom’s northern masters have dallied with industrialisation efforts the last decade, but tides are turning there according to information the court has received from its men at Satsuma. With China falling and Satsuma turning sceptical, it is time for the Kingdom to take advantage of the opportunity it has, and modernise.

One may say that such a small and geographically fractured Kingdom such as Ryukyu cannot industrialise, and my response would be that industrialisation is but a young and green idea. The world has not seen its full bloom yet, nor its limitations.

If this Kingdom desires to industrialise, first it has to consider what sort of energy source that it needs to rely on. There are many options, but in this I am focusing on five. The one the foreigners mostly use. The other one the foreigners tend to use. And the three I believe are best.

The foreigners mostly use coal. The Kingdom is aware that Admiral Perry noted four years ago that there existed coal in the southernmost parts of your Realm, in the Yaeyama Islands, but that due to the Kingdom’s interests at the time you ordered the location to be covered up. If you, in your eternal wisdom, choose to exploit coal for the Kingdom’s industrialisation, this such location will have to be revealed. And I have to note that the Realm has no knowledge or awareness of the amount of coal in those possible seams, so any possible industrialisation based on coal may fall short.

Another source for the foreigners is that of crude oil, also known as petroleum. They extract it from under the soil with drills. This is a source that they have rapidly grown an interest from. However, the Realm knows of no oil fields within itself. There is an alternative, however. Whale oil. This country has a tradition of fishing and whaling, and whale oil may prove a good burner for the possible machines the Realm may wish to import. But whale oil needs to be regularly harvested by whalers, and the challenges comes of balancing the Kingdom’s small population between industrial workers and whalers.

Wood may be a useful source, but it is a limited source that must be restored. The Kingdom must not bring down every tree it has. It must seek to plant one tree for every one it takes down, for its inner peace demands a birth for a death. The Kingdom’s natural beauty depends a lot on its trees, and if they all were to be taken down in the quest for industry, that would be a tragedy beyond compare.

If the King would accept my counsel, I would recommend walking away from any form of coal or oil for the primary form of energy in industrialisation. Those demand too much of your people to extract, and become industries in of themselves. This country needs a regular, steady source of energy that does not demand men’s labour. Fortunately, there is one resource this Kingdom does not lack.

Wind. The Kingdom is noted for its abundance of breeze, and if Ryukyu can exploit such a resource, it may be able to construct industries that do not rely on coal or oil for such purposes. This is not an unknown idea, the Realm’s most familiar Europeans, the Dutch, habitually use it to drain water. The Kingdom is also familiar with turning gears, which transports movement from one area to another. By combining the gear and the wind, the Kingdom may be able to fuel machines using such power.

However, wind by itself, despite the Kingdom’s weather, may be unreliable. There may be still days, and this Realm cannot afford its industrialisation be determined by the fickleness of the skies. This is why I propose a three-source industrialisation. Wind, wood and... water. Ryukyu has considerable peaks with mighty rivers pouring down them. The energy they spend into blazing down the slopes could be used to great ends by fuelling watermills which may be used to develop power for industries.

The use of three sources instead of one enables flexibility. If the Kingdom takes down too much wood, it may rely more on wind and water until its new seedlings dominate the scenery once more. If the wind is still, the Kingdom may rely more on wood and water until the skies bluster and blow once more. And if wood is short and wind is still, water faithfully runs down Mount Yunaha every day and has done so for thousands of years. It is the most reliable of sources.


The tragedy of the Kingdom is that it unfortunately do not already possess sufficient knowledge of industry. So the unfortunate conclusion is that it shall have to invite foreign advisors. There must never be another Bettelheim, that is certain, but there is no chance the Realm may industrialise without learning from foreign powers.
 
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Decided to do this piss-take going off the idea of "The British has a socialist revolution, but it ends up like the first republic".

Note: I have no clue how left-wing factionalism worked in the 30s, so apologies for any horrendous mistakes there.

"So This Is How The Revolution Dies, With Thunderous Applause"

Monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1910-1931)

George V (Saxe-Coburg-Gotha/Windsor) 1910-1931

Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (1921-1931)
Arthur Bonar Law (Conservative majority) 1921-1923
1922: def. J. R. Clynes (Labour), David Lloyd George (National Liberal), H. H. Asquith (Liberal)
Stanley Baldwin (Conservative majority) 1923-1926
Philip Snowden (Labour-Liberal coalition) 1926-1929
1926: def. Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), David Lloyd George (National), H. H. Asquith (Liberal)
Winston Churchill (National-Conservative coalition) 1929-1931
1929: def. Philip Snowden (Labour), Stanley Baldwin (Conservative), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)

Convenors of the People's Commonwealth of Britain (1931-1938)
Bertrand Russell (Independent) 1931-1933
1931 (supported by Fabian Society): def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)
1932 (supported by Fabian Society): def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), R. Palme Dutt (Communist)
Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour) 1933-1937
1933: def. R. Palme Dutt (Communist), A. V. Alexander (Co-operative & Fabian Society)
1934: unopposed
1935: def. Albert Inkpin (Communist), A. V. Alexander (Co-operative & Fabian Society)
1936: unopposed
Albert Inkpin (Communist) 1937-1938**
1937: def. Fenner Brockway (Independent Labour), Tom Mann (Independent Communist), A. V. Alexander (Co-operative), Beatrice Webb (Fabian Society)

Chairmen of the Provisional Committee of the People's Commonwealth of Britain (1938-1949)
Oswald Mosley (Independent Labour) 1938-1940

Stafford Cripps (Independent Labour) 1940-1948*
Harold Nicolson (Independent Labour) 1948-1949

Monarchs of the Popular Kingdom of Great Britain (1949-present)
George VI (Windsor) 1949-1952

Elizabeth II (Windsor) 1952-present

Prime Ministers of the Popular Kingdom of Great Britain (1949-present)
Harold Nicolson (Labour majority) 1949-present
1949: def. A. V. Alexander (Co-operative), John Loverseed (Radical-Democratic), Evelyn Waugh (People's)

The announcement by the Provisional Committee, which replaced the Trades Unions Congress in 1938 in an upheaval of centralisation and rejection of what was perceived as "Russian influence", that an invitation would be sent to the King in Canada was an unexpected one to many as it closed the page on Britain's second experiment at republicanism and a much more radical one than the first.

But as the King was crowned in Revolut- Westminster Abbey and the restored Family moved back in Buckingham Palace [please excuse the burnt bits], they're acutely aware that the Britain they return to is a radically different one. While Parliament is once again back, the upper-chamber is more or less the old TUC rebranded as the "House of Trades", the political parties dominating the conversation [apart from that weird Mr. Waugh's People's Party] are solidly left-wing only in different forms, and the economy is firmly not capitalist, being primarily an uncomfortable mixture of various socialist policies, with some mutualised cooperatives, some state-controlled enterprises and some suspiciously "market" socialist experiments here and there. The days when Britain was the land of nobles is firmly over, and all power belongs to the workers.

And yet somehow they're fine with a crowned head. Both Stalin and Barkley could agree on one thing - they didn't know how to respond. Nevertheless, the Popular Kingdom of Great Britain now exists, a huge "up yours" to people who think countries have to make sense ideologically.

real shades of the mladorossi
 
testi.png

Random stuff I don't think I can shove into a proper update. Might get added more, who knows.

- Emmanuel Macron was the Second Coming of Jesus, but he said nothing that changed any theology so his impact was nil.

- Monarchism is still seen as credible in this world, with republicanism still having left-wing implications due to being associated with the Narodniks.

- There is some weird spatial anomaly at the top of Mount Everest that haven't been investigated much because it's inconvenient to get there.

- Britain leased a piece of Antarctica from the penguins for 3,250 years off defining a year in small print off the local days and nights, so it's 99 Antarctic years. The penguins themselves aren't happy, but at least the Brits bothered with a treaty rather than seizing it via war.


- Tom Daschle was the last Chairman of the Committee of the Volga German Autonomous Socialist Republic before transitioning it to a democracy.

- The Tsalal existed, but died out, being replaced by the Yamanians in the peninsula. The penguins hate green, seeing it as an evil colour. The exiled Nazis in New Swabia venerates Tsalal as the "first Aryans" and seeks to underneath "ancestral Aryan knowledge" in abandoned snow-covered cities.

- There exist a LGBT-led communist utopian community in the Coral Sea Islands just off Australia.

- France is in this situation where the head of government is agreed upon, but one of the two heads of state varies on where you are. The President
selected by the National Assembly is undisputed, but the other, the monarch, varies. Legitimists, Orléanists and Bhopalists [yes] compete for control.
- Napoléon's line rules an alternate Anglo-Corsican Kingdom [the Corsican Principality] since the 1800s, as a reward of him pulling off a major win at Waterloo, the first major blow since the liberation of the Netherlands to France's ambitions.
- Burgundy has never lost its independence, although it has definitely got on hard times, up to becoming the Burgundian Soviet Republic.

- Tasmania is German, but has quietly declared independence since Germany collapsed. It's now a republic.

- There is a libertarian socialist republic in the Balkans named 'Liberland'.

- Iran used to have a Muslim plurality, but is now firmly Zoroastrian.

- The Concord of Nations is based on Ni'ihau after a dispute with the Commonwealth over its New York City base.

- Nekomimi (cat-folk) exist, they're a mutation, but one of the most common. They have tended to be persecuted in the past.
- There is a nekomimi nation in the southern Ryukyu Islands [the Yaeyama Islands, here the Yeema Islands] that's sort of a 'land of sanctuary' for them.
- The Russian name for nekomimi is koshavek, a portmanteau of kosha [cat, lady-cat] and chelovek [person]. The plural of koshavek is kosheti.
- There was once a Koshavek Autonomous Socialist Republic in the far east, but after Narodnik Russia fell apart and the area became controlled by the Manchus, most moved to the Yeema Islands. There's only 10% left in the former Koshavek ASR, and it's shrinking every year.

- The conspiracy theory about Alexei Kosygin, that he's Tsarevich Alexei, is true in ATL. His descendants rule Moscow, and the Anchorage line refuse to accept their claim, of course. The House of Romanov is divided between the two, and badly.

- The Kalmyk people never move back to Dzungaria, and hence there is still a strong presence in the west.

- Transylvania is led by a vampire lineage [the Grand Counts], but vampirism is but a human mutation and not something that creates 'monsters'.

- The accepted terms for LGBT people are as forth
-- Variant (aka gay or lesbian, can also be used as a wider 'not-straight' application)
-- Ambisexual (the term for bisexual)
-- Diem (the old, and offensive term for trans, comes from diemfylikos, used before the western gender revolution)
-- Metamorphic (the new term for trans, mostly used to label people as such outside the West, also vaguely covers third-genders)
- And for the opposite...
-- Linear (means straight)

- The Sultanate of Zanzibar is a British puppet on behalf of Oman, but it is very unstable.

- This is the flag of Britain
1612846996542.png
- The blue, red and green can be interpreted two ways. The first is that it describes Britain's tripartite identity, with blue for Celtic, red for Latin and green for Muslim, with the white lines denoting the three exists in harmony. Or it can represent the fiery essence of the people (red) on grass (green) under the sky (blue). The later is not the original meaning (the first was), but it is more used those days for a more 'secular' Britain.

- There are elves in Dalarna, which is called Elfdalia. They tend to be more mysterious and insular than the elves elsewhere. Also, really anti-fascist.

- Ruthenia is socially-liberal for the region's standards, mostly because of a crippling awareness of their past being one of a poor, rural land powerless to do anything, and hence they had this whole obsession of being 'modernised'. It's dying down now, with the country relatively developed.

- Beef is banned in La Mancha because it offends the talking cows. Yes.

- There's a Latin-speaking country in North Africa named Numidia. They dislike everyone else, especially the Rational State of France-in-Africa, which is a country ran entirely by the Cult of Reason. Yes. Don't ask me why. They thought the 'Historical Compromise' of France in the 20th century was too much.

- Avatar [not the blue-skinned ones] is a show about Azula as the Avatar. It's surprisingly good.

- Sam Nunn [which if you read the dramatis personae was an edgy rock-star] was leader of the Southern Greens for a joke, but resigned immediately.

- The popular video-game franchise Assassin's Creed has its main character be Isabella Auditore da Firenze, someone who although she ends up a trained Assassin and a silent killer, never loses her utmost faith in humanity, and tries to face every task with a pep in her step.
- A fan favourite character in another video-game franchise, named Animal Crossing, is the eagle character Ezio, who speaks in an Italian accent (toned down from Mario-style to an authentic one over time) and likes to flirt with people, even as he helps them as the main secretary of the town.

- The Ottomans once had control of New England (the one in the Caucasus), which they called Yeni İngiltere Kralı.

- The Guanches of the Canaries still survive. Their language is spoken by around 20% of the Canaries. The land is part of Britain.

- The Canadian Province of Little Egypt [southern Illinois] is an area where Egyptian immigrants tends to reside as a result of the place being sold as 'Little Egypt beyond Egypt' by Canadian companies looking for more workers. The architecture is also very Egyptian Revival, mostly fuelled by patriotism for the 'old country'. There even was a successful referendum in the 2000s to have the ceremonial head of state be the Pharaoh.

- The Simpsons is a medieval fantasy drama about the ruling house of the Spring Kingdom, the Simpson dynasty, and their bitter feuds. The aging King Abraham disinherits his son Crown Prince Homer in a clash between the two before forgiving him and restoring his succession, but upon Abraham's death his bastard son Herbert emerges from the Winter Realm claiming to be the true heir. Meanwhile, the estranged mother Monica plots her next steps and there's murmurs that Homer's children with his wife Margaret (Bart, Lisa and Maggie) are not his own. [genuinely might expand on this]

- Cyrillic-writing countries doesn't use Arabic numerals, they use Cyrillic numerals.

- It's "the" Ukraine here. Or "the Ukraines".

- British hereditary rules are based on a concept of contract with the monarch. Titles are not an one-time gift, but the forging of an understanding between the crown and your family. Hence any change of succession rules is ultimately determined by family law, not the Crown's.

- Null Island exists and is owned by the Musk family as a private-owned island. The Musks are Martian billionaires those days.

- The Michigan Upper Peninsula is the Canadian Province of Ylämaa, and is Finnish-speaking.

- Eugenics is unfortunately still a thing, and has been much more into genetic manipulation, with all the implications that has.

- Ed Miliband once acted as The Doctor in Doctor Who.

- Glamorgan sausages and laverbread are still eaten in ATL Britain, and probably more than OTL.

- The dinosaur island of Roarack [a bit north-east of Madagascar] has two major parties - Dinocrats and Reptilicans.

- German is still written in Fraktur.

- Speakeasies are a sort of relaxed atmosphere. Light music, wide variety of food on offer, tea, coffee and of course soft drinks, and comfy chairs. Alcohol is generally avoided unless the place is registered as a "alcoholic establishment". Prohibition went further than in OTL.

- Natas are a normal part of Canadian cuisine due to Portuguese influence.

- Western Islamophobia often makes the distinction between what they call "indigenous" Islam (i.e British) and immigrant Islam. Pim Fortuyn and Geert Wilders in TABE would couch their rhetoric more in "immigrated non-Western values", rather than "Islam" as a general thing. Ibadi Islam is seen as the "good Islam", because of its perceived difference and especially in its British form, the most "Westernised" of all.

- The standard Romanisation of Mandarin Chinese is Romatzyh, replacing Wade-Giles in the 1930s.

- Albanian is written in the Elbasan script, albeit the alternatives (Arabic and OTL Latin) are valid alternatives in Tosk and Gheg areas respectively.

- The Australian Commonwealth has never celebrated Australia Day. For them, the national day was always Wattle Day.

- The Sumerian word for 'drone' is ragabanna (air-rider).

- There is a second, smaller, moon, Minmun, and there is an extremely rare eclipse that can happen incorporating Minmun. Basically you need the moon to not cover the sun, just most of it, and you need Minmun to be a certain distance from the Moon and to be in front. The whole thing is nicknamed the "divine gaze", or "God's eye" because of the whole resemblance to an eye. Here's an illustration.
1612852001815.png

- All Seven Wonders of the Ancient World survive. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon tends to be socialist propaganda those days though.

- List of fun religions.
- Atlantis has their religion, which is a distant relative of the Berber traditional religion. Cult of the dead, ancestor worship, all that sort of thing.
- The Penguin religion venerates the cold and sees heat as evil. To them, hell is fiery, yes, but heaven is cold. And their "evil colour" is green.
- The Lemurs have a polytheistic religion rooted in natural phenomenon. Volcano god, etc.
- The Elves in Scandinavia are a strange mixture. They say they're Protestant, but they also do all the nature rituals and whatnot of their ancestral religion. They're basically double-jobbing religions. Syncretism and all.
- Equestria is obviously a dual-deity worship, based around their immortal princesses, Celestia the Sun Goddess and Luna the Moon Goddess.
- Kushinya is mostly Muslim those days [and a fair few irreligious/atheistic people due to the socialist history], but you can feel traces of a very old religion here and there, one based around worship of the life-giving oases they built cities around.
- The Naga are the sort of people that more or less keep to themselves. Slithering around, they tend to have their own religion based around their snake-goddess. They also say they're Muslim, but that does seem to be mostly because they found it "trendy". They have a very very loose interpretation of that faith, and syncretises it a lot with their native religion.
- The Orcs are firm Calvinists. They may interpret God more militaristic and prefer the Old Testament to the New, but overall very Calvinist.
- The dinosaurs of Roarack, they worship the Meteor. Not because they love it. But because they fear it. They know they've been spared somehow, while every other dinosaur perished. But they don't know why. It tends to be either "the Meteor has a special plan for us" or "the Meteor didn't see us". This has led to a bit of a sectarian divide, but overall the religion is united.
- The Siren, they're kind of odd. They have a sort of malformed version of Greek polytheism, with the Muses taking prominence. They worship the Muses, and see Calliope as their superior goddess.

- The Basque Republic still tries to get the world to stop calling them Navarre. And they fail every time.

- The main global organisations
- The Concord of Nations: The long suffering United Nations equivalent, it tries to get all of Earth-Prime to work together...
- The Global Socialist Union: Battered, but still strong, it leads its ragtag countries against the tide of cyber-capitalism.
- The World Pact: Once at death's door, the inexplicable fascist supranational alliance is crawling back.
- The Earth Monetary Organisation: Tries to get people to consider the idea of abolishing national currency and adopt the "Universal Credit".
- The International Democratic Congress: It bitterly fights for liberal democracy in theory, or in actual practise, liberal capitalism. So NATO.

- King's Lynn in Norfolk is in ATL Queen's Lynn due to a different monarch being on the throne at the time it stopped being Bishop's Lynn. The republicans tried to change it to Lynn, but after a while they got it reversed back because "it's our name, we don't want it changed by you".

- The Great Unknown is something under the Pacific Ocean. And no, Mu has confirmed it isn't anything like "Mu 2".

- Zombies exist. Well, they're zombis, but yeah. Thankfully they're not much outside periodical breakouts in the Caribbean and West Africa.

- There was once a "Republic of Two Nations", of Poland and Veneda, before it collapsed to foreign invaders. The last President of the Republic, and the last head of state that governed both Veneds and Poles, was a Pole by the name of Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz.

- There are a lot of ways to refer to people who have magic, but the most preferred by the present is "magically gifted". The Burnsand Academy for the Magically Gifted, located in the mountainous French-speaking Canadian province of Vermont and the premier magical school in the American Dominions, was one of the first to use the term, back in the late 19th century, when it was established.

- Integration of citizens of other specieses varies quite a bit in countries and by specieses. The four Japans all integrate the native nekomimi very well but struggle with other variants. In the last British election, multiple Equestrians were elected to the Senate and the country had one as Tosaig once. (and unknowingly, the country elected a changeling Tosaig, but that's not really applicable). Overall, "visible variants", as the PC term is, face considerable discrimination and ignorance. Hence why a lot of them prefer to stay with their own, often in their own countries.

- Smedley Butler is widely regarded as similar to OTL Eisenhower in Canada since he led the forces in WWII. He was appointed the first native-born Viceroy of Canada after the war despite his obvious socialist beliefs and having once said that he voted Democratic Socialist despite their "clear reformism". And because he's from the Philadelphia suburbs, he speaks British, not English. So his name here is Caradag Drystin Bonter.

- Donald Trump in ATL achieved nothing of note apart from being a B-list movie actor and the spouse of the Prime Minister of Carnolia-Slovenia.
 
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This is a fun format for getting a lot of worldbuilding down.

- Emmanuel Macron was the Second Coming of Jesus, but he said nothing that changed any theology so his impact was nil.

This is the funniest thing I've read in a week.

The Russian name for nekomimi is koshavek, a portmanteau of kosha [cat, lady-cat] and chelovek [person]. The plural of koshavek is kosheti.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I feel that it's very you to spend time working out what Russian word would be used to describe cat-people.

- The Simpsons is a medieval fantasy drama about the ruling house of the Spring Kingdom, the Simpson dynasty, and their bitter feuds. The aging King Abraham disinherits his son Crown Prince Homer in a clash between the two before forgiving him and restoring his succession, but upon Abraham's death his bastard son Herbert emerges from the Winter Realm claiming to be the true heir. Meanwhile, the estranged mother Monica plots her next steps and there's murmurs that Homer's children with his wife Margaret (Bart, Lisa and Maggie) are not his own. [genuinely might expand on this]

Nice!

Logically, the next step is to reskin Game of Thrones as a wacky animated comedy focusing on the dysfunctional Stark family.
 
This Sceptred Isle: Wales Extracts 1 & 2
Extract from “A Complete History of Wales Vol. 5 – ‘Subjection’.” by Aneurin ap Gruffydd, 1974.

The Conquest of Wales was complete with the last Prince, that of Gwynedd, bending the knee and acknowledging Cnut II as ‘Lord of All Wales’, ending centuries of constant struggle against English expansion. To understand the period between conquest and integration, the so-called ‘Marcher Years’, we have to dissect Welsh society at this period, both in the Marches and in Gwynedd, and how it interacted with English domination.

The ‘Long Peace’ that Magnus the Ancient enjoyed in Wales during his reign was enabled by the rise of what was at the time described as either ‘Marcher’ or ‘Walian’ people. To understand the stability of the ‘Long Peace’, we must understand the Walian people, what historians refer to as the ‘Cambro-English’. Cnut II was a man dedicated to Christian beliefs in just rule and law, and hence appointed the Hardradas he believed to follow those beliefs the most similarly as he did. This would have a long effect on shaping Welsh society. There could have easily been more harsh rulers that would have ruled differently from the men Cnut appointed instead.

While Haakon ‘Ironfist’ of Powys would be known widely in England for his brutal response to the Earls ensuring the young Magnus would reign smoothly, and his rule of Powys be more firm-handed than that of Harald of Dyfed and Rolf of Gwent leading to a minor rebellion, he was known for cultivating a minor class of translators, inspired by his dearly-departed brother’s deep reliance on a translator to talk to Anglisc-speaking people. He was ruler over a vast Kymraec-speaking populace, and he had to make his will known to them so they could obey. Those minor class of translators would increasingly grow more and more wide until it proved to be less a label of employment and more a signifier of class, the ‘aspirational’ sort that aligned with the feudal elite’s interests while regularly having contact with the peasantry. This practise which proved so effective at dictating Haakon’s will on to his Kymraec-speaking subjects would spread to the other earldoms of the Marches as they paid close attention to what Haakon performed, and this vague class grew rapidly in those more light-handed areas.

By necessity, the ‘Walians’ were bilingual – knowing both Anglisc and Kymraec – as they served as the ‘bridge’ between the Anglisc/Norse speaking elite and the Kymraec-speaking masses, ensuring that the former could communicate their demands and ensure taxes could be collected promptly and without any misunderstandings that could occur. It was noted that by the end of Magnus the Ancient’s long reign, the ‘Walians’ were in multiple generations and carving out considerable influence over government via dominating the trade economy and the translation industry. While Haakon’s successor noted a discomfort with their growing influence, the expectations set out by Cnut and upheld by Magnus via his Ancient Laws and Parlement held firm and they were increasingly relied upon to ensure the ‘just rule’ principle was consistently held to.

By the very end of Magnus the Ancient’s reign, it was even noticed that the children of prominent Marcher lords under the Earls were growing up more and more influenced by the ‘Walians’ as it proved extremely easy to hire a ‘Walian’ nurse than hire one from England or throw hostage to fortune and hire a Welsh one. Indeed, those children would go down in history as the second stage of the ‘Walian Ascendancy’ as history marked this period as, the stage in which the 13th century would see a growing class of bilingual minor nobles of dubious loyalties expand influence in the realms of Wales.

Indeed, if you look at notes from English visitors to the Marches, you find many scathing notes of the ‘Walians’ and their ambiguous loyalty, as well as the Marcher Lords for enabling such. Those notes will often pin all the blame on the ‘soft-hearted’ Cnut and his weakness for ‘Christian justice’, hindering their ability at bringing the matter to an English court still dominated by Cnut’s children.

But historians do concur, the growth of the ‘Walian’ class of collaborators with the new regime, originally created as a form of necessity by Hardradas influenced by the idea of ‘Christian justice’ and emerging as an embryonic middle-class in medieval Welsh March society, played a key part in defusing tensions that could have led to a major rebellion within Magnus the Ancient’s reign, and ultimately enabling his successor to believe he could complete it peacefully via a marriage with the daughter of the last independent Welsh ruler.

However, for most Welsh people, who remained firmly peasants and solely Kymraec speaking, the emergence of the ‘Walians’ changed little. They were told in their language what obligations they had, what taxes the new lord demanded from them, what the prices were at market. They spent their entire lives speaking Kymraec, just like their ancestors did, and had little incentive to learn any Anglisc. The ‘Walians’ tended to come from the ambiguously-defined ‘common gentry’ that grew to achieve more power by leveraging bilingualism to enter themselves into key positions in the new regime. It was not a popular class, but one of the common gentry expanding power.

With the Earldoms loyal Hardrada family members and the common gentry enjoying power via being interlocutors, the only exception was that of the Prince of Gwynedd. The sole ‘truly’ Welsh ruler of Wales, it would be a mistake to assume his court was that of a realm yearning for lost days. While there were of course nostalgia, there were benefits to being cooperative with England, including noted greater trade with the Marches and Lancaster, and the Prince was extremely conscious of his fragile status, despite being in comparatively defensive ground. It was why after the Powys Revolt started, the Prince ordered a man with a quick horse to gallop to the royal court with a letter disavowing the revolt and re-asserting his oath of loyalty to the King as Lord of all Wales.

Gwynedd did not benefit from any possible ‘Welsh Revolt’, and the growth of the ‘Walians’ made it more difficult than ever to truly unite the ethnic Welsh against the English, for who was Welsh in those times? Was it the powerless Kymraec-speaking peasantry or did it include the bilingual common gentry making a living as interlocutors in all things? A more harsh rule of Wales could have created alienation of the common gentry and created the roots for a more potent Welsh Revolt, but skilful handling of it by the Hardradas in Wales and the ‘Walian’ class defused that and created the ‘Long Peace’ that Magnus the Ancient enjoyed.

Then arrived Erik, Magnus’ fourth son and successor. Influenced by this new status quo in which Wales was seen as a relatively peaceful area, and the ‘Walians’, as dubiously loyal as they may appear, to be maintaining that such peace, he deemed the area worthy of being integrated via the altar, not via the axe, and made preparations to ask the Prince of Gwynedd for his daughter’s hand in marriage and the final unification of Wales with England, and with promises considered generous for the time.

Aiding him was the shift in English thinking of the Welsh as fundamental enemies since time immemorial [actually around 500 AD] to a more ambiguous stance. Poems and notes at this time cultivate the imagery of the Welsh as a mystical race with great powers, and fascination was mixed with fear. However, it was a safe fear, as the Welsh was then considered mostly pacified and even the Gwynedd Lord bowed the knee to the King, and even upheld his word. The true fear, not the exoticising fear, was the Saracens, a far away and merciless alien race that could slaughter many good Christians. Compared to the Saracens, the Welsh were comparatively small potatoes.

One amusing note is that of a noble at court who wrote in his letters approvingly of Erik’s idea to wed the Princess of Gwynedd, but did not justify it by any form of realpolitik, but by the idea that by marrying into Welsh blood, the ‘magic’ of the Welsh would be inherited by the Hardradas, and that any Welshman would refuse to take up arms against a Welsh ‘ruler’, no matter how diluted the blood may be. This noble then went on to reference the old English foundational tale of expulsion of the Welsh to Wales in the settlement of England, and completed rather snarkily ‘It took us a Cnut to conquer most of Wales, but Erik shall conquer a cunt for the last’.

===

Extract from “A Complete History of Wales Vol. 6 – ‘Balance’.” by Aneurin ap Gruffydd, 1977.

The Wyrmcrieg, or as the Walians called it in their developing version of Anglisc deeply influenced by Kymraec, the ‘Draicrec’, divided many areas of Britain. But it never did Wales. The Kymri and the Walians could agree on one thing, that their loyalty was to their Prince. The son of the ‘Good Queen’ Siwsan of Gwynedd [commonly referred to in Anglisc as Susanna] and grandson of the last Kymro monarch, their loyalty to Prince Edmund was twofold.

First was of course that many of their number became influential under Edmund’s father Eric, who became celebrated in many well-to-do families as the one who ended the conquest and the rebellions, and indeed today you can still see his legacy in the Welsh name Iareg. As part of his historic agreement with the Prince of Gwynedd was that Edmund’s son would be recognised as Prince of all Wales. So almost from the outset, the Rauther line was strongly associated with the emergence of a united Welsh national interest, to the point of adopting the Red Dragon of Wales as their symbol, as contrast with the White Dragon of England.

This led to the second fold of their loyalty, which was to the House of Gwynedd and the perceived senior line namely that of Edmund’s. While it may seem confusing to readers today accustomed to houses being inherited solely through the male line in medieval times, the Kymri had numerous examples in their past of houses surviving through the female line, such as the house of Gwynedd itself, which was descended from lords of the Isle of Man that married into the house proper.

This legal argument was strikingly class-based. The middle-class Walians made pains to avoid such overt association of any Rauthers with a house that was not Hardrada, but the more poorer Kymri believed in it fervently, mixing it with the folk-myth of ‘Y Mab Darogan’ to portray this chivalric heroic saviour that would come to free Wales from the oppression of the Hardradas. It was sheer fortune that Edmund would turn out to be the peak of courtesy and chivalry, fitting the folk-role the peasants envisioned him as. This in turn cemented their loyalty to the line and the belief that they were fighting for Gwynedd, not quite Rauther. But such an argument never entered the King’s court as long as the Walians could help it.

However, the Walians themselves had their own esoteric legal arguments. Being firmly middle-class merchants and translators, their class interest laid with the Parlement, but their regal (and ethnic) loyalty laid with the Witenagemot. Keenly aware that they were disadvantaged either way as a Hwiter victory would lead to Walians being excluded from power and reduced to Kymri once more, their deepest fear, yet a Rauther victory and Parlement being abolished would dent their class influence, they worked overtime to come up with the concept of the “parlement pur”, as it was described as such in the French, or in the original Walian as the ‘Senath’.

The concept of the “parlement pur” was at its heart much more absolutist than the Parlement that Magnus created, calling for a centralisation of power away from what one Walian called “the weakness of the division of right to rule” and pushing for centralisation of power into the crowned head. The “parlement pur” Walians argued for was the unorthodox idea of the abolishment of the Rauther-favouring Witenagemot along with the Hwiter-favouring Parlement, arguing that even the oldest chamber compromised itself. Only a period of “phoenix-fire” could cleanse the country of the faults lingering in the three chambers.

Ultimately, the motivation for this argument came back to what the Walians deemed the ‘Great Betrayal’, that of their promised Prince-King, the one so much heralded as the true unification of the Welsh and English thrones being overlooked in favour of his uncle, and this was done with the explicit approval of the Cyningesgemot, Witenagemot and Parlement. Since that fateful decision, the Walian intellectuals have always been embittered by the system, and wished to destroy it.

For what worth was a King’s guarantee if his advisors could turn back on it? The ideal chamber, in the Walian eyes, was one that guaranteed their influence via representation, but ensured that nobody could compromise the regal right to rule. Hence the “parlement pur”, a parlement like the one Magnus created, but ‘purified’ of any treasonous elements and made explicitly submissive to the Crown. A key element of this ‘purification’ was the explicit abolishment of the chambers having the right to determine succession. It was to be primogeniture, but unlike the more Salic sort advocated by their European allies, the Walians was firm on it being what was described as ‘agnatic-cognatic’ in formal parlance, or like what Ethelrada described later on – ‘sonnen afore doutren, doutren afore brethren’. This was mainly because they were deeply sceptical of any succession rule that could fall into the hands of the hated Hwiters, and would much prefer a Rauther daughter above a Hwiter son.

Ethelrada would be the one to take the ‘parlement pur’ concept on, but she took it from the vague concept of ‘abolish the three chambers, centralise everything, destroy the system, hereditary rule’ it was up to that point and turn it into a much more codified concept, the Grand Courts. It is often easy to dismiss the Walian exiles’ influence as merely symbolic, as they were considerably negligible in terms of presence at court, but they had influence above their numbers, up to the heir to the Rauther claim marrying a Walian noblewoman and siring half-Walian children, including Ethelrada, who grew up surrounded by her mother’s family as advisors due to her father often being someone who was more interested with sins of the flesh than on any parenting.

When Wales was under Hwiter rule, both Kymri and Walians chafed under their rule, as Hwiters grew to distrust any of them as the same, the hated “Welsch”. It is from this time that we see the (now-slightly-archaic) proverb “to welsh”, meaning to work against someone behind their back. It is commonly associated with backstabbing, but seen as less spontaneous, more plotting. This came from the Welsh of both variants never giving up on the Rauther ideal and with Hwiter rule inherently meaning marginalisation of the pro-Rauther Walians which were at that time the only class that could faciliate communication, it worked to ensure that while the ruling elite was pro-Hwiter, they had very little ways to cement their rule over the peasantry which understood little of them and actively disliked them. Hwiter rule of Wales was thus made inefficient and impotent outside their earls’ courts. ‘We aren hal þe oll kardei” one Walian exile noted of the situation.

Ultimately, this situation was untenable and as the Wyrmcrieg continued to rage on, something had to break.
 
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List of EG/SG Characters
Decided to make a list of all the characters I've done for an election-game or succession-game that I've actually put time in beyond an one-off election.

Edmund Acina, Auphi Acio-Siadro (17th Marchioness of Penuvor), Tiffany Arkwright/Tiffany Bridgerton, Stephen/Lauren Astudillo*,

Austin Blanchet (the Elder, 1st Baron Wilmington), Austin Blanchet (the Younger), Justin Blanchet, Euphemia Bloom, Haimric Brymdun, Raminta Buinickaitė,

Valérie Bonnay de Casa, Julia Casanova, Sel Case*, Anton Chayka, Tyffa Comyn, Apikalia Kalākaua/Pika Connors, Vika Mikhailova/Vika Connors/Vicky Michael*, Harry Crane,

Artemis Fowl, Astrid Frost,

Aethelred Galbraith (5th Earl of Strathclyde), Alfred Galbraith (12th Earl of Strathclyde)

Priska Jahn/Mieke Jans,

Lily Kamiya, Kristín Hilmarsdóttir*, Kunigami Chōten,

Luci Label, Melody Lam Tsam-yui, John Lancelot, Evie Larkin, Kim (Kayode)-Lee/Kimiko Tanimoto, Casella Lemonwood, Liang Zemin, Astra Lion-Core, François Jean Locronan (2nd Earl Lockrona), Francis Lockrona-Taylor (6th Earl Lockrona), Charles Lockrona-Taylor, Francis Lockrona-Taylor (10th Earl Lockrona), J. M. Lockrona-Taylor, Edmund Lockrona-Taylor, James Lubbock, Emily Lubbock, Andrey Lylley,

Sir Theodore of Macedonia, James A. Maxwell, Tonya Melnik, Marie-Rose de Montfaucon, Arya Moon, Fabian Morgenstern,

Taylor Nakamura, Nguyễn Tiến Chí, Strawberry Night [1st Countess Mallorquin],

Azuolas Ozols,

Tobias Lothair Pabst, Evie Park, Joel Ambrósio Pinheiro,

June von Rentelen, Zika Rhenniyaw*, Dietrich von Rosenberg, Ruan Mei,

Pishoy Salib, Remember Schofield, Mélanie Song Guiying, Godric Spekter, Lily Sun,

Tanimoto Saki, Tanimoto Sora, Tanimoto Sota, Viserea Targaryen, Natalia Tarkovskaya*, Chika Temple/Tuesday Townsend, Edward Templeton-Black (5th Duke of Canterbury), Matthew Thomson (as Danny Rennie), Pavle Tomić, Naomi Tostig-Byrben, Emily Tsang Yaling,

Harry Wilde, Audrey Wilson, Darren Wilson, Buzz Windom, Alfwin Wyndham, Johan Wyndham,

Aurelia von Verdin, Taleah Vesikula/Talia Hamilton, Lewis Vest,

Zoia.

* Planned characters
 
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Friendship is Politics: Strawberry Night's "Instrument of Government".
testa.png
We, the assembled representatives of the Equestrian Ponykind, do declare that all power to govern this realm comes from the divine nature of our Holy Princesses, Celestia and Luna. Long may they reign, long may the sun and moon rise in turn, and may none of our actions counteract their Divine Guidance.

As part of our service as Their Majesties’ ever-faithful and true assistants in governance, we have submitted this humble proposal for constitutional reform which we earnestly hope will receive their approval.

Noting the limitations of unicameralism in representing and working for the interests of all ponies, we humbly propose the creation of two different chambers, one to represent the important aspects of our society, the other for ponykind as a whole and the Four Races. The two chambers assembled shall be known as the Paddock.

The first chamber shall be named the High Loft and be composed of four different measures. The first measure shall be the totality of all ponies of good breeding and good character that the Divine Princesses had seen fit to ennoble, and their heirs thereof. Any future nobleponies bearing an honourable title shall be given a seat in the High Loft as well on the date of their ennoblement, to be held by their heirs and their heirs’ heirs for as long as their lineages hold.

In place of strife, we seek to bring harmony to all of Equestria. We seek to ensure that the workings of government rises above disputes that cloud our days. There shall be two councils set up, one elected by every pony that has registered their status as a business-owner and hence representing the interest of those who manage and those who seek to enter the glorious world of entrepreneurship. The other council shall be elected by every worker registered with a union and seek to represent the working pony and the interest of those who toil for the nation’s prosperity.

Those two councils, the Business and Trade Union Councils respectively, shall be of the same number of councillors and together make up the National Arbitration Board which shall be the court of final appeal on any labour dispute. It is hoped by the drafters of this bill that such a structure encourages those who produce and those who manage to work together for the common interest of the Realm. To ensure the interests of the two are represented further, they shall be the second and third measure of composure to the High Loft, appointing Economic and Labour delegates.

In the interests of efficient government and ensuring the will of the Princesses are communicated greatly to the ponies of Equestria, no matter where they be, this bill will be reorganising the local governments into ‘ranges’, each governed by a ‘derby’, a paddock in miniature in other words. They shall be unicameral at their commission, but be granted permission to reorganise themselves if they so desire, and be supervised by a ‘vicereine’ appointed by the Princesses to communicate their words and guidance to the range in question. The vicereine shall appoint an avener to be head of the range government, taking the Princesses’ advice and the derby’s leanings in consideration. The avener will nominate people to be part of their cabinet and have the derby confirm them.

The fourth and final measure of composure to the High Loft shall be ponies directly elected on basis of the range boundaries. Those ponies shall be referred to as ‘lofters-elect’. In the case of any ponies suffering from demise in their office as lofter-elect, the range derby in question is granted permission to appoint a substitute until a by-election is held for a permanent successor. All four measures of composure is mandated to be equal in presence in the High Loft.

The second chamber, and the primary one of governance, shall be known as the Stable of Commons, which shall be the legal successor to the current chamber. In the interest of adequate and equitable representation of the races of Equestria, the measure of election used in the 1009 by-elections chosen in the interest of accelerating the representation of thestrals to the present chamber shall be extended to other races and set in perpetuity.

Any previous customs set for the present chamber’s conduct and governance of its own business shall be considered extant in the Stable of Commons as its successor unless measured otherwise by this bill or any future bills passed by the Stable for its own management. Internal management of paddockian conduct in either the Loft or the Stable shall be exclusively the domain of the relevant chamber.

When the Stable considers a bill worthy of being presented to the Princesses, it shall be first sent to the High Loft for review. The High Loft can deem it worthy in their eyes too, or it can send it back for revision. In the case they send the bill back, the High Loft must give clear reasons why it is not worthy in their eyes and offer substantial recommendations for alteration. The Stable may not be able to send the bill back to the Loft without alteration. No bill may be presented to the Princesses unless it have had both chambers of the Paddock’s stamp of approval. This is hoped to avoid or lessen any clash of the Princesses with the Paddock as we have experienced such too much recently.

The sun and moon are two halves of the same whole, we cannot have a day without sun nor a night without moon. Any bill presented to the Divine Princesses must have both of their approvals for it to become a full-fledged law. If one or both of the Princesses think such a bill is not worthy, she or they may send the bill back to the Paddock with clear directives they deem in need of revision.

In extraordinary circumstances, the Paddock may be prorogued in the interests of national order. Such a decision needs to be true in the day and in the night, and hence shall have both of the princesses’ approval before such a decision becomes true. The Paddock may be re-assembled with the stamp of approval from one Princess, but be treated as a ‘plot paddock’ with limited powers until the second Princess grants assent to it being formed as a full paddock.

The two chambers can also be subjected to election if both of the Princesses deem it in need of renewal. They can subject the Stable, the Loft, or both together, to a stamp election. If the Loft is subject, it means that the lofters-elect and the business and union councils are all up for election once more. If the Stable is subject, it means that all ponies elected are now subject to a new election by the measure of election as legally set out in law.

The Divine Princesses have seen fit to appoint a pony of good stature in the past to govern the Realm on their behalf, the High Chancellors. Such a laudable tradition shall be continued, with the new position of Cheval Regent superseding the position of High Chancellor, and shall be determined in the same manner, namely that of the Princesses, both of them, coming to an agreement on who is the most fit pony to govern on their behalf.

The Cheval Regent shall present their choices for their cabinet to the Stable and if each of their choices enjoy a majority of the Stable in their favour, they shall be able to serve in the position for as long as the Cheval Regent serves their term, or unto their resignation. Special disposition is made to the position of Leader of the High Loft, which shall be selected by that chamber alone.

The Cheval Regent can recommend the Princesses declare a state of emergency with the backing of a majority of their cabinet. In a state of emergency, the paddock is prorogued and all power of governance lies with the cabinet and the Cheval Regent, all on behalf of the Princesses. The Princesses must agree as one to grant the Cheval Regent this request. Either one of the Princesses may break this state of emergency if they so deem such. The state of emergency can be no longer than ten years, and cannot be called again without a renewal of the paddock.

All of those reforms above are designed to further our assistance of the Divine Princesses, for without them the sun and moon would not rise in their turn. It is from them that we see the glory of Equestria, and it is ultimately from them and their benevolent reign that we are assembled here, for we are nothing but servants sent by ponykind to serve our beloved Princesses in the arduous task of governing the greatest Realm in the world, the Holy Principality of Equestria.

May those reforms bring around an age of peace, prosperity and harmony to all ponykind, and make the Divine Princesses smile once more!
 
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A major revision. Everything to do with Finland in the past is now considered non-canon.

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The Kingdom of Finland is not a land that sits at ease. While it has reconciled itself to a monarchy after decades of tension culminating in a forced abdication at gunpoint in the midst of wartime, it has always been a country deeply influenced by foreign ideas surrounding it. From the Bolshevik-influenced Reds in the Civil War to the flight of the Swedish exiles in the 2000s, the current realm is defined by one thing above all – tension.

There is nothing more tense to discuss in Finland at the present than the language. The Swedish exiles, including the government-in-exile of the former Scandinavian Realm, are very unwilling to give up their language or their cultural heritage, and clashes with both Finns and Swedish Finns. While there are exiles that full-heartedly embrace their new home (especially those of younger generations), the majority refuses to let go of the dream of a restored Scandinavian Realm and treats Finland as essentially ‘little Sweden beyond Sweden’, refusing to learn Finnish at all.

Given that their immigration to Finland turned the beloved capital city of Helsinki Swedish-speaking once more, such an attitude creates tensions. Tensions that seem to screw over the unhappy Swedish Finns as the radical right-wing calls for ending Swedish as a state language and the Swedish exiles seem to be as obstinate as ever. The fall of the National Republic after a few long decades heralded the possible end to the tensions, but when the Stockholm government refused the return of the monarchists and the Goths set up an independent Gothic State, such a hope was dashed.

The Swedish People’s Party of Finland is at the heart of this internal feud. Much grown since the 2000s with many Swedish exiles joining it, they have all but taken over many local branches and has grown to threaten the Swedish Finns’ control of the party. There is a leadership election in early 2041 scheduled, and there are just two candidates. Elina Nyström represents the Swedish Finns but has conceded on a toughened up stance on the Technate and opposing recognising any Scandinavian government as the Realm is still the legitimate state [a major concession since the Republic of Free Norway is a cause celebre with younger Swedish Finns]. Opposing her is Sten Göransson, who is the zenith of the Swedish exile community despite he himself being born in Helsinki. He argues for the SFP shifting away from its old platform to a more explicitly pro-Swedish exile one, and backing the extending of the limited autonomy given to Swedish-speaking communities to major devolution status, something Nyström opposes as ‘dividing Finland’.

Nyström is already guaranteed the win, as her concession on the Scandinavian recognition was enough to get a lot of Swedish exiles’ support, but it is a marked disappointment for Swedish Finns seeing even their candidate shift to appeal to the exiles. This tension between Swedish Finns and Swedish exiles is not alone, as the Finns themselves have been increasingly influenced by radical right-wing demagogues stirring up anti-Swedish thought. Calls to abolish bilingualism are rife with several marches going on at once in major cities for it [even the Swedish-speaking Helsinki]. Talk of the need to truly assimilate or expel the Swedish-speakers is growing with the die-hard reactionaries who call for a renewed Fennicisation.

Who knows how things will go for this unhappy land in this coming decade.

Heads of State of the Kingdom of Finland
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (Military) 1918-1919 [as State Regent]
Fredrik Kaarle (Hessen) 1919-1940 [officially King since 1918]
Vilppu (Hessen) 1940-1943 [forced to abdicate]
Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim (Military) 1943-1947 [as State Regent]
Mauri (Hessen) 1947-2013 [officially King since 1943]
Henrikki (Hessen) 2013-present
 
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Kings of Corsica (1811-1975)
Nabulione's Line (1815-1832)
Nabulione I (Bonaparte) 1815-1821 [granted as a gift for his war services]
Nabulione II (Bonaparte) 1821-1832 [son of Nabulione I]

Lucianu's Line (1832-1924)
Lucianu Bonaparte, younger brother of Nabulione I, refused succession 1832
Carlu Bonaparte, son of Lucianu, refused succession 1832

Luziu Lucianu I (Bonaparte) 1832-1891 [son of Lucianu]
Luziu Lucianu II (Bonaparte) 1891-1894 [son of Luziu Lucianu II]
Orlandu (Bonaparte) 1894-1924 [son of Petru Nabulione, son of Luziu Lucianu I]

Ghjilormu's Line (1924-1945)
Nabulione Carlu (Bonaparte) 1924-1945 [son of Ghjilormu Nabulione, son of Ghjilormu Nabulione, son of Ghjilormu, younger brother of Nabulione. In exile 1940-1945.]

Abeyance Years (1945-1948) [lack of a male heir of male descent from Carlu led to a revision to acknowledge adoptive succession by government-in-exile]

Nabulione's Line (1948-1974)
Sergiu (Beauharnais) 1948-1974 [son of Ghjorghju, son of Massimu, son of Eugene de Beauharnais, adopted son of Nabulione]

Abeyance Years (1974-1975) [lack of a heir found led to tensions and Narodnik-funded rising]

Presidents of the Corsican People's Republic (1975-1978)
Emiliu Talamoni (Corsican People's) 1975-1978 [defeated by Franco-British forces]

Kings of Corsica (1978-present)
Abeyance Months (1978) [British ended up revising the succession laws to allow women to inherit after men to prevent another republic]

Nabulione's Line (1978-present)
Federicu Guglielmu (Hohenzollern) 1978-2010 [son of Federicu, son of Guglielmu, son of Leoboldu, son of Ghjuvanna, daughter of Stephanie, adopted daughter of Nabulione]
Carlu Federicu (Hohenzollern) 2010-2029 [son of Federicu Guglielmu]
Alesiu (Hohenzollern) 2029-present [son of Carlu Federicu]

Succession Laws
Male-only descent from Carlu Bonaparte, preference given to Nabulione's descent. (1815-1945)
Male-only descent from Carlu Bonaparte, preference given to Nabulione's descent - adoptive descent permitted (1948-1975)
Male-preferred descent from Carlu Bonaparte, preference given to Nabulione's descent - adoptive descent permitted (1978-present)
 
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FACT SHEET - KINGDOM OF CORSICA
Country NameKingdom of Corsica (English)
Riame di Corsica (Corsican)
DemonymCorsican (English)
Corsa (Corsican)
Official LanguageCorsican
GovernmentUnitary parliamentary monarchy
Head of StateAlesiu I Hohenzollern (as King of Corsica)
Prime MinisterRaffe Bartoli (PaC)
Government StatusAssembly: Pè a Corsica majority
IndependenceFrom Republic of Genoa
1755 (as Corsican Republic)

From Kingdom of Britain
1815 (Treaty of Corti)
1978 (Corsican Agreement)

From Italian State
1948 (Treaty of Pisa)
ReligionRoman Catholicism (state religion)
Islam (protected minority)
CurrencyCorsican soldi
International AlignmentCommonwealth of Nations
Mediterranean Cooperative Area
Crisis LevelLow
Official Government Websitedigi.safe//guvermenti.cor
Fun fact!: The Corsican Republic implemented female suffrage, which was revoked by the British, but it was reinstated in the 1840s!
 
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Rip Corsican People's Republic.
It was just unlucky, very unlucky. I can promise you that the restored Kingdom had a very difficult time reestablishing control and that there's still a strong left-republican element to Corsican politics.

The House of Hohenzollern does not sit easy here.

But yes, this is a good example of the different cold war that went on. Between socialist and left-influenced republicanism on the other hand, and monarchism of all stripes (but mostly constitutional) on the other.
 
It was just unlucky, very unlucky. I can promise you that the restored Kingdom had a very difficult time reestablishing control and that there's still a strong left-republican element to Corsican politics.

The House of Hohenzollern does not sit easy here.

But yes, this is a good example of the different cold war that went on. Between socialist and left-influenced republicanism on the other hand, and monarchism of all stripes (but mostly constitutional) on the other.

I don't think I've followed all your pieces in the thread, did you write about the Narodnik revolution? I imagine Russia is still the big revolutionary country?
 
I don't think I've followed all your pieces in the thread, did you write about the Narodnik revolution? I imagine Russia is still the big revolutionary country?
Only sparingly, but there's definitely plans to build on it. I think there's some stuff in my list (first threadmark), it should be under The Shattered Bear in that.
 
Only sparingly, but there's definitely plans to build on it. I think there's some stuff in my list (first threadmark), it should be under The Shattered Bear in that.

Checked it out. Feels a bit too convergent, and it falls basically on the same timeline as OTL, but I guess Russia as the sole center of revolution can't really sustain itself.
 
Checked it out. Feels a bit too convergent, and it falls basically on the same timeline as OTL, but I guess Russia as the sole center of revolution can't really sustain itself.
Indeed. But I'm always revising stuff, so the internal dynamics might be quite different once I properly get around to it.

Ultimately I'm kind of constrained really, by the requirement of the timeline to justify a map in where all colours of a scheme is used, and that particular scheme had Moscow be monarchist. So kind of out of my hands.
 
Boris Johnson (Conservative) 2019-2030
2019: def. Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Sajid Javid, Rory Stewart, Dominic Raab, Matt Hancock, Andrea Leadsom, Esther McVey
2019 [365]: def. Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) [202], Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) [48], Jo Swinson (Liberal Democrat) [11]
2024 [343]: def. Keir Starmer (Labour) [227], Nicola Sturgeon (SNP) [51], Ed Davey (Liberal Democrat) [5], Adam Price (Plaid Cymru) [5]
2029 [331]: def. Alex Sobel (Labour) [250], Humza Yousaf (SNP) [37], Layla Moran (Liberal Democrat) [7], Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru) [6]
Suella Braverman (Conservative) 2030-2037
2030: def. Gavin Williamson, Alok Sharma, Michael Gove, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak
2031 [342]: def. Alex Sobel (Labour) [253], Humza Yousaf (SNP) [21], Mhairi Black (Tús Nua) [8], Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru) [7]
2036 [321]: def. Nadia Whittome (Labour) [279], Mhairi Black (Tús Nua) [12], Humza Yousaf (SNP) [8], Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru) [6]
Lee Rowley (Conservative) 2037-2045
2037: def. Alex Chalk, Darren Henry, Holly Mumby-Croft, Anthony Mangnall
2037 [340]: def. Nadia Whittome (Labour) [261], Mhairi Black (Tús Nua) [14], Kate Forbes (SNP) [7], Ben Lake (Plaid Cymru) [6]
2042 [381]: def. Sam Tarry (Labour) [178], Emma Hendrie (United for Scotland) [34], Owen Hurcum (Plaid Cymru) [21], Matt Craven (New Alliance) [15]
Claire Coutinho (Conservative) 2045-present
2045: def. Tom Hunt, Anthony Mangnall, Bim Afolami

As the Union frays once more, and Labour falls back into infighting of their left and right benefiting the New Alliance, the Conservatives sit back with their strongest majority since 1983, backed up by an extremely pro-Tory media climate that regularly blasts Conservative propaganda to extreme effect.
 
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