pre-TNESIV: Let The Bodies Hit The Four

Done and done. Vladimir is definitely not a standard NESing nation though; it's actually a fairly chaotic collection of internal polities that I'm really too lazy to sketch out on the map.

Okay so I'm down for a chaotic nation. The description of kuzakhs and kulaks and church politics cranks my tractor. I am, as bestshot said, interested in E Europe and glorious state tractor factories, so I'm not going to justify my request any further. The 1630s are also currently my favorite decade in the history of high fashion, show me that hairy ankle, girl. I'll add some more serious info once I get more background from you and do some meditating on the matter.

The following polities are major and important and need to be filled.

al-Andalus
The Kingdom of Aquitaine
The Frankish Empire
The Empire of Lithuania
The Roman Empire (of Serbia)
The Alshamid Qadirate
The Aravithi Empire
The Kingdom of Aegypt
The Tumenates of Anadoliin

If I had to pick 3 from this list that I wanted players to play in most, I'd pick al-Andalus, the Frankish Empire, and the Alshamid Qadirate.

As I said in my previous post, I would be up for Al-Andalus, although I'd gladly cede it to a more interested player, should such one person appear.

I'm going to give the Andalusians to Immaculate, who previously expressed interest in them.

Also I haven't finished naming all the polities yet, but here's a nice little preview of Southeast Asia. I might change around some of the colonial base locations. Andalusian and Chinese colonial rule in Indonesia is fairly decentralized, except in Sunda where the Andalusians took more direct control with the encouragement of their Javan allies.

very nice thylaylee

I'd be interested to hear the backstory of the Roman Empire in Serbia and the Caucasian nations.

I'd like to play as the Kingdom of Ægypt as I really like the idea of the once great renaissance power becoming a declining nation fraught with religious and ethnic difficulties. I want to see it through the changes that would be occurring as the outdated values of the monarchy stand opposed to the coming storm. With the almost inevitable invasions coming to deal the death blow to the old crusader state I think it would be fun to see if they can try and rally their European allies or find the cash to hire the mercenaries that would allow them to maintain their hold on Alexandria for just a few more years.

Second choice would be the Jatafid Sultanate as they seem as though they could begin to become a powerful nation in North Africa despite their current state of decline. Their proximity to the Italians makes them uniquely in danger but at the same time in a position to rally those around them in opposition to Italy. I feel they have great potential to influence events throughout the Mediterranean.


I'll add more choices if there two become unavailable

Sure Can't, you'd probably be good in Ægypt.

Hopefully we find a skilled player to play the Alshamids, though I of course am capable of making them very interesting myself.

Albia-Norway to Cadellon.

I still really need a player for the Alshamids.

And I'm renaming the alternate name for the League of Munster from the Antipapal League to the Remonstrant League, after having talked with CD a bit. I'm super sick but still plugging away at the New World. Hopefully we'll have a big post this weekend.

Circadia Part One:



There are many names for Mundus Novus. Asphodel. New Canaan. al-Jedidah. The Farisles. While the naming conventions for these vast, uncharted continents (as well as where their borders might truly end) are in flux, many cartographers have begun to refer to the region as a whole as 'Terra Circadia,' a clever Latin invention in a world of many such inventions to indicate the land's presence on the other side of the day.

The southern continent, which is known as either Asphodel or Jedidah, depending on whether or not you speak to a Latin or an Arab, was first discovered by Andalusian traders in 1487, who thought it was an island. Basque and Asturian fisherman had long been aware of other such islands in the North Atlantic, so the presence of other islands was not a great surprise. The first Andalusian expeditions were cautious as befitted their reputation, and were mostly limited to setting up basic trade relations with native groups and then being confused when they all disappeared.

It was not until a few followup expeditions by the Andalusians realized the scope of the "island" that the first Latin expedition was launched, by an Anglo-Normand by the name of Bartholemew Milere. Milere, something of a classicist, charted the great island chain of the Hesperides, named the southern continent Asphodel and the swampy northern peninsula Tartessos.

Circadia rapidly became a world of claims and counterclaims, but the Pope-in-Synod quickly acted to declare these virgin lands the possession of the Church, and theirs to grant. Though this was before the final break of the Ecumenical Wars, many of the metropolitan assemblies failed to acknowledge this claim, but many still did.

One of the last effective measures taken by the Papacy before its removal to Frankfurt in the Ecumenical Wars was the declaration of the Seventh Crusade to take Circadia for Christ. The Knightly Orders of Europe answered the call from Ægypt to Toledo. Honed by constant wars with the Moghuls (and occasional ones with the Andalusian heretics,) their horses and steel toppled vast Mesocircadian native empires, who nonetheless took more than fifty years to entirely subdue, and are not, in any sense, eliminated from the political picture.

The Knights of Our Lady of Alexandria ultimately asserted their control over the other orders, as the vicious infighting amongst the Knights (and their native proxies) for territory and control began almost before large-scale resistance was extinguished. Over the next several decades, a feudal order gradually began to take hold, along with the formation of a decentralized theocracy in which native aristocrats, properly schooled in the teachings of Christ, could take part in a limited fashion.

The Normans, original exploiters of the Hesperian Chain, were not happy with any of this, and fought for decades to expunge Knightly influence from Asphodel, limiting them to their realm of New Canaan to the north of the narrow peninsula.

The Ecumenical Wars in Circadia featured a massive civil war among the Knights, with most of them supporting the Imperial Papacy but a significant number denouncing the Frankish Emperor's actions as heretical and unjust. Ultimately the pro-Imperial faction won, but not before a rogue knight and his supporters broke off from the Order of Alexandria, their leader declaring himself Emperor of the Hesperides. In the decades since this borderline-pirate kingdom has existed as a Norman client state for the sake of interdicting Knightly efforts to send silver to the Frankfurt papacy.

Occasional Remonstrant pirates operating from League ports have compounded this problem, further isolating the Knights, who nonetheless, if they were able to properly leverage their fragmented, factional leadership and direct its ambitions, could build the first true Circadian empire.

Meanwhile, the Andalusians sail two and fro, working their dastardly crypto-Mahommedan plots, and supporting and educating various tribal groups to more effectively resist the expansion of their colonial rivals. Arab explorers into the interior of the continent have successfully catalyzed the formation of a Pueblan confederacy who expelled Knightly missionaries in favor of Arab ones, though this tribal alliance remains very fragile.

I think a labelled map would be really useful...

It will come. In the meantime, the Knights are yellow, Hesperides is green, that purple thing in the Yucatan is a particularly intransigent native state, Norman Asphodel is dark blue, small Asturian colony in purple, Andalusian ports in light blue. The other light blue in the far north is Pueblos.

Okay, here's a new labeled map. There will be changes in Southeast Asia, but I just haven't made them yet.

I take a long time to name things appropriately, so I'm sorry if I haven't named something properly yet. Traditionally I go back to find relatively contemporary historiography, where possible, or barring that I look up dictionaries to determine what people might call something. Then I permute it a little to simulate linguistic divergence, where I can.

I'm also horribly inconsistent with using endonyms vs. exonyms, and in all honesty I tend to just pick whichever one I think sounds better. I tend to let my lack of knowledge in certain areas slow me down, as one of my biggest obstacles in moderating is my internal perfectionism. Sorry about that.



I hope to have the Americas Circadia finished in a few days; I'm just agonizing over 1st millennium South American empires. Latin America in particular is very hard because I have two struggles; the first is determining linguistic and political divergence among native peoples (the Classic Maya Collapse probably happened, but the 15th century round of empire formation leading to Aztec and Inca dominance probably didn't turn out the same way), and the second is removing the Spanish linguistic overlay that lies on the entire region. So that's a lot.

Also, you know, figuring out what actually happened.

Updated roster! If I've confirmed you and forgotten to add you, please let me know. Wow, 26 players so far. This is pretty exciting, isn't it? My goal is to have 35! Recruit your friends. Surreptitiously recruit your enemies and form coalitions against them out of pure spite.

North King - Knights of Our Lady of Alexandria
Azale - Empire of the Hesperides
Cadellon - Kingdom of Albia-Norway
Immaculate - Emirate of al-Andalus
Shadowbound - Kingdom of Normandie
OwenGlyndwr - Kingdom of Aquitaine
Chief_Designer - League of Münster
angst - Kingdom of Denmark
Communisto - Most Serene Republic of Genoa
TMG - Principality of Rome [Florentine System]
Tolni - Kingdom of Moravia and Pannonia
Arrow Gamer - Roman Empire (Serbia)
Thomas - Roman Empire (Constantinople)
Robert Can't - Kingdom of Ægypt
DC - Patriarchate of Coptos
spryllino - Alshamid Qadirate
Bair - Great Khanate of the Magyars
Anonymoose - Great Knyazate of Vladimir
bestshot - Kuzakh Hetmanate
Lord of Elves - Dominions of the Kanishah
Polyblank - Ertukid Sultanate
Southern King - Sri Nevayana
Christos - Kingdom of Nanjur
Johanna - Zhung Dynasty
Luckymoose - Nan Song Dynasty
Decamper - Nihon-teikoku

Did Masada not join?

He expressed interest in the Knights (without an app), but then NK put out a super great application post. And NK's kinda sorta getting his master's (PhD?) in Native American history so I really don't think I'm being too favoritist here.

So I'm gonna try to set him up with another cool polity in America somewhere.

Eventually I will read everything and I will sign up.

Sounds good, Defacto.

Great map, Thlayli.

When will the first update be posted?