It seems to be something German. Related to Charlemagne, perhaps?
Perhaps his lands aren't divided between his grandsons, allowing the Frankish Empire to continue for several more generations...
I am curious. What exactly made you think that happened?
Though the time period is actually pretty close.
Why is Anatolia balkanized - are those Turk tribes, or Greeks, or Crusader states...?
The western state is the Despotate of Ionia (Greek). Around Ankara is the Kingdom of Angora (Turkish, but Christian and under strong Greek and Armenian influences). In the south is the Republic of Adana (theocratic Arabo-Turkic Muslim republic). Lastly, in the east we have the Armenian Empire.
This ethnic diversity already explains the balkanisation, in part. Basically the region had an even more chaotic history than in OTL. The Turkic invasion was much less organised, for one thing, and no equivalent of the Ottoman Empire ever arose. Other powers, including the Crusaders, the Venetians, the Hungarians and certain Slavic countries, had destabilised things further. Borders often got redrawn there; the latest major changes were the Serbian and Chernigovian conquests in the north.
Aye, its awesome, and still not in any terrible decline, though stagnating a bit.
And a Britain ruled from....Quebec?!?!!?
Its not called that neither.
To clarify, this is the Kingdom of Arcadia, the largest successor state to the Kingdom of Britain (and the British Empire, though it wasn't an official empire); it is still ruled by the main line of the House of Northumbria (which ruled England since the Rising of 1388), which had simply fled to the colonies during the Fifty Years War (1724-1774). The problem was that when the British Isles were reconquered, they were in such a terrible state (the French occupying authorities had made sure to cripple Britain's economic potential as much as possible and generally wrecked things beyond recognition) that it was decided to rule on from Arcadia, which had by then gained considerably in population thanks to the constant stream of refugees and immigrants. Not all the other colonies accepted this, however. That mostly brings us to where we are today.
And what in heck happened to China?
a) Long, drawn-out war with the Qing;
b) Endless and ruinous peasant uprisings and warlordism;
c) Rise of the Japanese Shogunate, with the Chinese eastern coast as one of the natural targets for a campaign of conquest;
d) Portuguese meddling and expansionism;
and
e) All-around bad luck.
All those factors had united in the 17th century to screw over China, and the Qing too had failed to fully conquer it due to complications of their own and an unexpected war with the Shogunate. Over the course of the 18th and early 19th centuries, China was carved up between Japan, Portugal and the Qing, and small warlord states and "dynasties" in the south. Later in the 19th century, however, a popular uprising led by a Ming pretender and the White Lotus movement had overthrown those warlords and pushed the Qing out of central China. The Xin Ming Dynasty is even now plotting to reunite China fully, combining populism with pragmatic modernisation; while uprisings are organised in barbarian-occupied territories, a new, more modern army, trained by European "freelance" military advisors and paid for by the Flemings, is being prepared in the depths of China.
Also, why has that Ukrainian nation (whatever it is) got two capitals?
Officially and historically the capital of the Grand Principality of Chernigov was, well, Chernigov itself (the northern capital). For practical reasons (growing importance of south and the southern direction in foreign policy plus the Tverian border being so darn close), however, most of the actual government has been moved to Odessa. A bit like Israel with its Jerusalem-Tel Aviv capitals.
Given the French capital I'd say something to do with the Hundred Years' War but that's probably wrong too.
Indeed it is wrong. Actually the French capital being in Tours doesn't have all that much to do with the PoD itself, though it is more directly connected to a significant butterfly effect that went into place about three hundred years after the PoD itself.
das, if your thinking of a PoD to do whenever you decide to do one, this would be a nice refreshing change
If I ever go back to modding this shall be one of my options at least. There is a lot to do in this world.
What is the steppe nation - the one in Turkestan - and why has it got that autonomous region or whatever it is? Looks Timurid or Mongol...
Oh, its Mongol all right, its the Golden Horde as a matter of fact, though it is obviously different from the original (both the OTL and the ATL one); in fact it was only recently revived. The Uighur Khanate is its obligatory vassal/tributary state.
Or even Turkish - it\'d be nice if for once they didn\'t leave their ancestral homeland.
I have to disappoint you here, though the main mass actually settled in Persia and the whereabouts in this world. There are some OTL "Turk" tribes in the Golden Horde, though.
EDIT:
I think it's earlier than the Hundred Years War. We need a PoD that supposedly radically changes demographics, as well as creates a stronger Holy Roman Empire.
You're on the right path, though technically one can alter the demographics as late as in the Age of Exploration, and the Holy Roman Empire was actually weaker than in OTL in the High Middle Ages (but did it compensate for that afterwards or what...).
