New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[Immaculate]

Orange in North America could be some sort of westernized United AmerIndian nations.

 

[Azale]

Mexico looking thing and Latin America in general por favor

 

[Grandkhan]

Divergences inspired? I like it.

Also, mega-Poland, Great Old Bulgaria, and gigantic Armenia. Somewhere a nationalist is grinning massively and he doesn't know why.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Mexico looking thing and Latin America in general por favor

The United Estates of New Spain -- potentially to be renamed -- was the crown jewel of Spanish possessions in the Occident and Hesperia (North and South America, respectively). Ultimately it was lost over the course of the German Wars (roughly 1790-1820ish), which can be thought of as analogous to the Seven Years War + Napoleonic Wars and were fought between the United Kingdom, Burgundy, Spain, Sweden and others for control over the increasingly-rotten corpse of the Holy Roman Empire. Unlike OTL New Spain/Mexico, the old peninsulare class is somewhat intact, as aristocrats who were disenfranchised or marginalized by centralization and absolutism in Spain proper found it possible to establish considerable estates and possessions in New Spain. The name "United Estates" is meant very literally, as the country is divided into a confederation of feudal kingdoms, fiefs and duchies, large and small which owe allegiance to the "Emperor of New Spain" who is sometimes styled as the Emperor of All Hispania. New Spanish pretensions to the Spanish throne are mostly harmless, but the New Spanish monarchy needs all the titles it can get to retain authority and legitimacy.

New Spain can be thought of along the lines of OTL Mexico on steroids. The Emperor holds court in New Toledo (Mexico City) but is largely beholden to the will of various feudal lords, the most powerful of which openly style themselves as kings. The Emperor's tenuous grasp on power is maintained only by playing the various feudal lords off of each other and allying with religious factions within New Spain, of which there are many. New Spain, and the rest of the former Spanish Occident and Hesperia, is a haven for religious dissenters. Rogue factions within the Church of Iberia, the Roman Catholic Church and various other religions have established themselves as landholders within New Spain along the lines of the Catholic Church OTL, and while they are prone to internecine conflicts, they are almost uniformly loyal to the Emperor of New Spain as the benefactor of a kind of twisted freedom of religion. There are no established churches in New Spain, not even the Church of Iberia (of which the Emperor of Spain is nominally pontiff), and the Imperial Court recognizes no religious faction as having supremacy within the nation. Ecclesiastical entities are entitled to reap taxes from their quasi-feudal serfs if they so desire, but their political authority is not federal, and is permitted in their own fiefs at the pleasure of the Emperor.

The exception to this rule is the Holy Order of San Fernando, of the eponymous Saint Fernando, a martyred prophet who went around preaching in the 1750's and 1760's about some ancient Aztec tablets he had found which foretold the Second Coming of Jesus in the Occident. He wasn't particularly influential or important until the Emperor of Spain agreed to have him killed in order to placate religious hardliners in Madrid, and then he was you know, martyred. Sometime after that, probably in the lead-up to the War for Independence, a rebellious general in the garrison named [TBD] declared that he had received a vision from the late Saint Fernando and became the Second Prophet of His Holy Church. TBD managed to cause enough trouble that for fear of his large personal army of disgruntled peasant-converts the Emperor of New Spain quickly granted him a large swath of land on the frontier to settle where the San Fernandites could have autonomy. What was once regional autonomy has transferred to what is basically formal independence, and the Holy Order of San Fernando doesn't pay much tribute material or in terms of lip service to the Emperor of New Spain anymore.

Interesting tidbits thus far about the San Fernandites is that the Second Prophet has a harem of both men and women, and according to some visitors, goats who have been possessed by the "spirits of angels".

Hesperia (South America) is considerably less-mapped out. Colombia is the United Provinces of Hesperia, which is like the anti-New Spain. Whereas New Spain is some kind of factious, quasi-medieval confederation of kingdoms and fiefs, the United Provinces is something that resembles more a centralized state. Or at least, the early American republic OTL. New Spain is solidly monarchist, or at least aristocratic, while the United Provinces was founded by some kind of Simon Bolivar-esque revolutionary figure who established what resembles a republic. In practice it is probably more like an oligarchy run by the military for the benefit of merchants. Unlike New Spain, the United Provinces is also a free nation, as slavery was abolished immediately after independence. It is sometimes called the "Hesperian Free State" and slaves escaping from plantations in central America to the border of the United Provinces is a significant annoyance to the Imperial Court at New Toledo.

Peru and Bolivia are the "Union of Dorado" which is more like New Spain, in that it's not properly any kind of republic, and has a nominal king. It is very sparsely-settled in comparison to its neighbors and is controlled almost wholly by a small cabal of landholders who form the backbone of the state. More here later.

The Empire of Alenquer is much more interesting. The Viceroy of the colony here just straight-up declared independence when he got the opportunity and used the loyalty of his own soldiers and the aristocracy that reported to him to establish his own private country, where he is called Emperor and "Supreme Protector of the People". More here later.

Orange in North America could be some sort of westernized United AmerIndian nations.

Except that's patently not what it is, and the Holy Order of San Fernando is one of the genuinely good and interesting ideas I had and I have no intention of significantly altering it.

 

[m.t.cicero]

1. You can go ahead and assume that's the Ilkhanate sure why not. Is about as good as any of the other explanations I've come up with and makes sense. That is indeed a Christian, crusader Egypt, which you can think of as the Kingdom of Egypt and Outremer for the moment. Empire of Serbia, Empire of Bulgaria and Empire of Romania all claim the the title of Roman Empire for the moment.

2. Yes to England, Iberia, Burgundy and others. All states in the Americas are independent. United Estates of New Spain (self-explanatory), United Provinces of Hesperia (Colombia), Union of Dorado (Peru, Bolivia), Empire of Alenquer (Argentina) are all former Spanish colonies. Not sure what's going on in Brazil yet. What looks like Deseret is actually the Holy Order of San Fernando, which you can think of as a much more interesting, much crazier Catholic Deseret + Taiping Rebellion with republican overtones. The southern state is the Josephinian Confederation, which was definitely an Anglo-French colony. Northern may have been Burgundian, may have been French, and may be a union of former French and Burgundian colonies.

3. No formal Reformation, various churches all over the place, some are nominally part of the Roman Catholic Church and some are independent. The United Kingdom of France and England is mostly France, I'm not sure where the capital is though.

So what happened in China? I don't think you'd remove a huge portion of the world's population, not to mention economic power, lightly. Was it the Mongols or some superplague?

 

[Lord of Elves]

So what happened in China? I don't think you'd remove a huge portion of the world's population, not to mention economic power, lightly. Was it the Mongols or some superplague?

Areas of the map that are pretty usually inhabited -- like China -- and aren't colored in yet just haven't been colored in yet. Work in progress is the operative term here.

 

[m.t.cicero]

Areas of the map that are pretty usually inhabited -- like China -- and aren't colored in yet just haven't been colored in yet. Work in progress is the operative term here.

Ahh alright. Actually it'd be pretty cool to have some sort of Neo-Yuan Dynasty that has successfully taken over Japan, to reflect the success of Mongols elsewhere. And it'd remove Japan which seems to be able to wriggle its way into basically every alt-hist.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Ahh alright. Actually it'd be pretty cool to have some sort of Neo-Yuan Dynasty that has successfully taken over Japan, to reflect the success of Mongols elsewhere. And it'd remove Japan which seems to be able to wriggle its way into basically every alt-hist.

Yes, it has been intimated to me before how many people feel about the Nipponese.

 

[Azale]

I call New Spain or the United Provinces of Hesperia, no preference so someone can claim one or the other but not both

 

[Bair_the_Normal]

The South looks pretty awesome.

Can I have dibs?

 

[talonschild]

The claims, they fly fast.

 

[Lord of Elves]

The claims, they fly fast.

I call New Spain or the United Provinces of Hesperia, no preference so someone can claim one or the other but not both

The South looks pretty awesome.

Can I have dibs?

I am not accepting any reservations at this time because I have no expectation of running an NES any time soon. This post is entirely for my own, selfish benefit, and the benefit of the setting.

@Bair_the_Normal, do you mean the Josephinian Confederation? (dark greenish in Virginia and the deep south). I'd love to have someone ask me about that one

 

[Bair_the_Normal]

Whatever it is, it's awesome-looking. I'd like some information on it if possible.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Whatever it is, it's awesome-looking. I'd like some information on it if possible.

Originally I imagined the Josephinian Confederation -- former French colonies -- as the antebellum south brought to an extreme. Now I'm picturing it as the antebellum south brought to an extreme at the mercy of the Church of France and England (or whatever). Whereas New Spain is inhabited by various religious institutions and cabals (I do mean cabals, small provincial churches with weird quasi-pagan practices and rites no one's ever heard of) the Josephinian Confederation is entirely loyal to the Anglo-French Church, and is a resort where ecclesiastical hardliners go to burn witches, hang out and have large parties at the estates of plantation-owners and postulate about the glorious, pious new world to come.

 

[Terran Empress]

Am I the only one here that sees the Big Blue Blob?

 

[Gem Hound]

Am I the only one here that sees the Big Blue Blob?

Dark Blue or British Colonies?

 

[Lord of Elves]

Am I the only one here that sees the Big Blue Blob?

You may very well be. I'm not entirely certain to what "blue blob" you are referring to

 

[Arrow Gamer]

He means France, in a reference to Paradox Interactive games.

 

[Terran Empress]

Dark Blue or British Colonies?

France/Britian, in adition I would like to lay caim to said Big Blue Blob

 

[Terrance888]

SilliNES3: The Search for Imago IS POSTED.