I just posted to coin the term "polar bear" as a mod forgetting an order.
Oh, and to post this:
Historia Futurum: Age of Bloodshed, 1415 1515.
This was an era in which the technologic revolution of the last century stopped. Sure, some advances were made here and there, but they were minor if excepting the 1490 invention of the steam locomotive.
This was, however, an era of much strife throughout the world, with numerous wars even more bloody then those of the Age of Crusades (1215 - 1315). There were several conspiracy theories involving aliens, penguins and polar bears about just why did so much violence happen within this time period. None of these were proven as of yet.
In Atlantis, the TSA used the Time of Troubles in Messipia to seize the Messipian east coast. Later on, though, the coming to power of Woborn III in Messipia (in 1472) not only reversed many of those gains but also led to the loss of several other TSA territories. All in all, TSA was successful, though it expanded westwards greatly, and it fought back a Britannian crusade. It experienced a series of effective military reforms after Woborns War, and since then even seized Nova Scottia. TSA also waged a war with the Mayans and the Incans, seizing the former Lombard colony there and East Guatemala (the easternmost territory of Maya), and, most importantly, a piece of the Incan coastland. During this period, Lakota was divided between Japan and Messipia (1433) and the Japanese fought a series of ultimately-inconclusive wars with the Incans, the Mayans and the Messipians, gaining and losing many lands but ending with some minor territorial gains after the War of 1512.
The Incans in this period have, on one hand, consolidated the Amazon region, on the other hand though, they had a brutal civil war in circa 1419 leading to temporary division of the Incan Empire into two halves that were in a state of on-off warfare. By 1515, though, the Empire was safely reunited if having lost several territories to TSA and Japan. It now planned to take those lands back.
In Europe, Renus II of Burgundia started a revival in 1422. His gamble paid off while Britannia was busy fighting the Alexandrines, Burgundians took back the lost territories from Severoslavia, Visgothia and Lombardia and more and even annexed Ratoslavia (OTL Rhaetia), crippling Severoslavia for the rest of the period. The Pope also used this moment to go insane, build up a private army and conquer all of Ireland, despite the Britannian efforts at a countercoup. Embittered by the numerous setbacks, Britannian king Artoros VI created in 1439 the Britannian Church, independent from the Pope. Before that happened, Londinium branch of Mithrism experienced an alarming revival, and though it was later limited to several eastern provinces in Britannia Proper, Scandinavia almost got away with declaring independence, but in 1441 this initiative was crushed and the final steps were taken to eliminate Anglian, Svenian and Fennian cultures. Apart from huge violent uprisings, crusades against Britannia and many inconclusive wars in continental Europe between almost any possible combination of states, there also was the Polian War in which Khazars overran half of Polia, while the other half was taken by Croatia for protection. Indeed, Croatia was an emerging power, as after a coup in Lombardia in 1499 resulting in a bloody civil war, Croatian voevod managed to get himself crowned Emperor of Croatia-Lombardia. The Alexandrines seemed concerned, though Croatia was, throughout much of the period, distracted by a greater threat.
The Alexandrines were going through hard times in 1419-1430 period (and later as well), due to the drawn-out war with Britannia, where Britannia devastated Alexandrine fleet at Howilspar and eventually got a favorable peace taking one of the Alexandrine West African colonies and making the Alexandrines renounce their monopoly on African colonization. The Alexandrines, though, also fought a somewhat-good war with the Zulus, seizing the contested territories. In 1435, though, after the Ming Dynasty in China was overthrown by the far more conservative and isolationist Lang Dynasty, the Ugul Empire was recreated first in the Chinese colony, and then seizing the Alexandrine Ugul territories as well. The Timbuktu was still on the rise, too, and Alexandrines were in bad straits against by 1440. By then, came what was at first a blessing, and later a curse. It came from the east.
The Zulus were not doing all that well lately. As they sunk lower and lower into corruption and stagnation, the Zulu lost a war with a Lombard-Britannian-Burgundian-Visgoth coalition in 1444-1448. As a result, the Zulus had to cede numerous coastal cities, pay tribute and were, in 1451, put under the control of a puppet emperor. It remained so until the ages end. But in 1500, a boy was born, Ruwekta. He will eventually lead the Zulu Empire back to greatness..
The Sinhalese Empire collapsed during this era, losing control over northern India to Pratiharan Empire in 1425 and over much of Indochina to the Chinese in 1433. The rest was in a state of civil war until 1497, when Indir II finally restored order and begun planning the reconstruction of this empire. By then, after all, a certain threat already withered out, weakening Pratihara before collapsing as well.
The Lang dynasty closed China from the world in 1435. Before that, though, China fought a war with Korea gaining some of the western territories. It then lost a war and a huge army against Khazaria, which was interpreted as the Mings losing the Heavenly Mandate. It might interest a certain B.L. that Sabah regained its independence and even unified all of Borneo in due time. Korea, after losing to China, chose to fight the Japanese instead. The Koreans stole the Japanese colony in the mainland, but the war didnt get anywhere after that both Koreans and Japanese bashed each others fleet against each other until the end of the period. Java in that time grabbed some of the Sinhalese colonies.
Did I forget anything? As in, apart from the thousands of bloody conflicts that changed nothing and were too many to list? And apart from millions of silly and bloody misunderstandments, and those funny peasant rebellions here and there?
Ah yes, ofcourse I did.
In 1411, as you might remember, Tamarlyn took control over the Turkic Horde. Under Tamarlyn, the Horde, first off in 1415, stampeded into Sinhala, making its troubles even worse, and exerted tribute and pledge of non-aggression. A NAP was signed with Khazaria. Tamarlyn bided his time, gathered and trained his forces (making them perhaps the most efficient war machine in the world), and finally, in 1423, when another Mithrian rebellion begun in Persia, struck into Persia. The Turks burned, pillaged and slaughtered, siding with the Mithrians until the war was won. After it was... the Mithrians were killed just as well. All this was a shock attack, and soon after it, the Turks chose to move even further. In 1424, the Judean army retook Ctesiphon. Later in the same year, it was pushed out and the Turks invaded Judea. The Judeans stopped the Turks only on the outskirts of Jerusalem, but were exhausted, while another Turkic army adopted camelry and dominated Arabia after the Battle at Ir-Shlomo in early 1425. By 1427, the Turks, promising not to kill the Rabbi and to allow freedom of religion, accepted Judean capitulation.
By then, though, the Alexandrines already occupied territory all the way to mid-Sinai while the Byzantines retook much of Anatolia. The Turks then launched two well-coordinated strikes. Tamarlyn himself, despite the harsh terrain, crushed the Byzantines decisively at Ankara and at Sakarya. Byzantine Empire was crumbling, as the Turks entered Europe in 1429. The Croats exploited this to seize Greece Proper. The remaining Byzantine territories in Europe were added to the Turkic Empire as well, though. But the Emperor has fled a massive exodus with the entire Byzantine fleet passed through the Herculean Canal and to Kangappura where a new empire was set up, as was allowed by the Alexandrines who wanted to add insult to the injury they gave the Turks. What injury? Back in early 1427, Tamarlyns brother, Marlyk, defeated the Alexandrines at Hashal, in Sinai. The Turks crossed the Herculean Canal, and reached Alexandria itself, plundering and burning everything down as they advanced. The Alexandrines, though, outwitted the Turks and trapped Marlyk west of the Nile. His army was surrounded, decimated by artillery fire and slaughtered. The de facto Alexandrine-Turkic border was on the Herculean Canal.
Tamarlyn, ofcourse, wanted to start a new campaign but, sadly, got *a little* too drunk in 1430 and died. Expansion stopped, only minor raids continued. The Turkic Empire survived for surprisingly long. In 1453, though, it was divided into two the western Itzhakist Mustafid Empire, or Mustafia and the eastern Buddhist Atarlykid Empire, or Turkia. Both were stagnating, but still rather powerful even if Turkia lost in 1470 grasp over Tibet.
p.s. Black Armies had occasionally invaded various nations around the world and intervened in the Incan Civil War. An armed band of polar bears was also sighted in Scandinavia, raising a series of peasant rebellions and destroying a Britannian fortress before suddenly disappearing just as the Britannian army approached. There are rumors of a secret convention between Black Army and Polar Bear leaderships, as the two international organizations plan to cooperate in a bid to conquer the world.