pre-snekIOT

Thanks christopher_sni!

Southeast Asia

Around the city of Pyay has coalesced Myanmar, and today Myanmar is nothing if not the dominant country in Southeast Asia, and perhaps the most powerful state the region has ever seen. Pyay became the most dominant of the Burmese city-states following the decline of Pagan in the 14th and 15th centuries, and as Pyay expanded influence through the 16th century, it began to enter conflicts with the then-powerful restored Khmer Empire of Angkor. But with the rapid decline of the latter in the 17th century, Pyay took its place as the region's dominant power. In recent decades, Myanmar has evolved further, centralising Pyay's mandala into a relatively unitary state. Pyay - today a city of over a million inhabitants - has also become the unofficial intellectual centre of Theravada Buddhism, surpassing even the fabulous university town of Nalanda in Bihar.

One of the two polities stuck in the middle is Krung Tai. The Tai people migrated into Southeast Asia in the medieval period, mostly settling in the upper Mekong and establishing polities which between the 12th and 14th centuries were in fact dominant in Southeast Asia. But that period passed, and for a while, this was the frontier of the Khmer Empire, and the Tai were tributaries to Angkor. With the decline and fall of Angkor, a new independent Tai polity has coalesced around [Vientiane].

The Mon state of Ayudhya is the other of the two states. Formerly the core of a large polity that centuries ago could contest Angkor, Ayudhya was militarily defeated several times in the 16th and century and has declined significantly from those heights. The fall of Angkor at least gave Ayudhya some new life, but it was not much. Ayudhya can at least take comfort in the fact that it has some degree maritime power - admittedly still one wedged between multiple rather more powerful polities.

Champa is the other pole of Southeast Asia. Formerly a maritime state ruling over the coast, the Chams profited from the decline of the second Khmer Empire in the 17th century to expand inland for the first time in their history. It was the Cham capture of Angkor in 1688 which definitively brought the Khmer to their knees. Now having solidified itself both a naval and land military power, and with a blossoming foreign trade, Champa looks to challenge Myanmar for regional dominance.

Sunda began its long rise to dominance in Nusantara after the decline of Mataram in the mid-16th century, culminating in establishing military dominance of Java by about 1620. Through the rest of 17th century, Sunda began expanding influence into Sumatra and Malaya (themselves divided into a number of mostly Hindu petty states - such as Pasai, Palembang, Kedah, and Temasek - which had never truly coalesced into a long-lasting larger polity following the fall of Srivijaya in the 15th century). By 1700, Sunda had expanded as far west as Ligor. The Sundanese monarchs now seek to follow in Myanmar's footsteps and attempt to consolidate their realms into a more centralised system, but they meet heavy resistance from the fringes of their mandala, especially in Malaya. Still, Sunda is perhaps the wealthiest polity in Southeast Asia, even more so than Myanmar.

(Vietnam I'm going to include in the China/Japan section because they're more related to them than the states being described here.)

Hinduism and Buddhism are still dominant everywhere. Hinduism tends to be more popular in maritime Southeast Asia. Aside from a few trade-induced communities in the major port cities, Islam and Christianity are completely alien to the region.

Brittany, Scandinavia, and Albion have all established permanent presences in the Spice Islands and the other maritime parts of the region. The Leonese, as in most of the rest of the world, had colonies here, but they were all abandoned or otherwise conquered following their defeat at the hands of Maghrib.
 
Persia
Francia
Sigurdia
Kyiv
Jalairids
 
Currently:

1.) Nanyue/Vietnam
2.) Pontic League

May flip those around, depending on what the China/Japan description looks like.
 
I am very willing to take a Great Power cause **** yeah SKNES.

However my #1 choice is Egypt. Second is Persia, third is Bilyar. I can do most anything though.

Edit: Also interested in Italy, Maghreb, Albion.
 
One cannot discuss the history of Western Europe without discussing two things. The first is the Normans, whose rise began with their of northern France. During the 11th and 12th and 13th centuries, the Normans were the undisputed masters of Christendom. By the 12th century they had managed to unite both England and France under one realm, and it was Normans who simultaneously spearheaded the Crusades.

But, as with all such empires, the Normans quickly fell prey to succession disputes, and through the 13th and early 14th centuries, the realm was badly weakened by oft indeterminate succession crises. Ultimately, all this culminated in the Partition of Saint-Denis in the mid-14th century, when the Norman realm was split in two halves - Albion and Francia. In less than a century all dynastic goodwill had faded; the two became quickly bitter rivals.

Albion emerged as both a land and naval power, quickly becoming involved in affairs on the continent as well - a series of alliances and military force led to Albionese control over not just the Low Countries, but also Normandy and large swathes of what is now Northern Francia. By 1600, Ireland had been brought under Albionese control. It was Albion who served as the main rival to Leon in Europe during the latter's height - leading to birth of the Albionese naval juggernaut and relatively large colonial empire which it holds today. But the abrupt resurgence of Francia in the 17th century curtailed Albionese influence there to Belgica and Brittany. Albion also is the centre of the Church of Canterbury, established when the Archbishopric of Canterbury was forcibly severed from the Papal structure by the Albionese monarchy in 1645. (The exact reasons for this are explained below.) Canterbury and the Albionese crown have become increasingly intertwined, with the monarch claiming the former's authority in an almost divine right sense.

Francia, though initially stricken by general feudal problems which caused her to lose control over much of the north, eventually recovered, evolving into a parliamentary system which achieved its current form amidst some disputes in the early 17th century. Simultaneously, Francia was able to consolidate a territory which extended east to the Rhine and south to the Mediterranean, and successfully defeat Albion in war. By 1650, Francia had successfully thrown Albionese control out of Normandy. In the latter half of the 17th century, Francia began building herself a colonial sphere as well.

The other states in the region are in some way caught up in the mixture. Brittany for instance is the last remnant. Instead, Brittany has turned to the seas, building for herself a somewhat impressive colonial empire for a country her size, and a sizable pile of wealth to boot. But for all this, Brittany exists very much under the shadow of far more powerful neighbouring Albion - at home, it is quite clear she only exists because the Albionese wish for a thorn in the side of Francia - the Bretons must continue to retain this precious balance, as her possessions are coveted by more states than one.

And, in the north, there is Scotland. Once, the Scots were powerful enough to challenge even the Normans for dominance of Britain. Their borders once included Northumbria and extended as far as the Humber. But then in the 16th century the Albionese turn their eyes north, and vanquished the Scots in warfare, to the point where now they are little more than a nuisance along Albion's frontier. But the Scots have fallen under the aegis of the Scandinavian sphere and the Nordic Church, and with a growing if fledgling colonial sphere, perhaps they can become powerful once again.

To the north, the Scandinavian Commonwealth over centuries developed an elaborate yet elegant elective monarchy whose power is limited by a strong assembly. Scandinavia evolved out of the union between Denmark and Norway, which by around 1300 had completely incorporated Sweden. While only a loose union at first, this developed into a mostly unitary state by around 1600, after which point Scandinavia began looking abroad. Scandinavia today is a budding naval and colonial power, and generally one with more interests overseas than in Europe.

Christianity steadily did take over the Norse lands during the Middle Ages, but it more often than not syncretised with local traditions to create something that was unacceptably not Catholic. Still, the people here held fast to their new beliefs, even in the face of medieval Papal attempts to enforce orthodoxy. It was sometime around 1200 when this Church formally broke off from the Papacy and formed an independent Nordic Church centred in Skiringssal. Many Christians in the surrounding lands began turning to Skiringssal instead of Rome. While there have been disputes in the past, in this era of Papal weakness, Skiringssal's spiritual independence is uncontested.

The Austrasian Confederation is what remains of Austrasia, a country formed by [Poles], displaced by the Bulgarian-induced Magyar migrations northwards, migrating into Germanic lands around the 10th century. Austrasia was a feudal power once, dominating most of Central Europe. But over the following centuries, feudalism won out over central authority, and with the region gradually became increasingly weak and divided. Now Austrasia is little more a fractious collection of principalities divided between Francian and Sigurdian influence.

The Romansh duchy of Raetia was once part of the Austrasian Confederation, but managed to wiggle out during one particular war in the late 16th century - currying Francian support - and never looked back. Raetia has so far nicely dodged the geopolitics ongoing elsewhere in Europe, staying on friendly terms with both Francia and Italy, but how long they can continue to do this is unknown.

Italy herself acts as an auxiliary power in the geopolitics of this section of Europe. The current Italian state has its origins in the early medieval Duchy of Spoleto, who, starting in the 12th century, began profiting nicely in both land and gold from Crusades, first against Muslims in South Italy - by 1200 the entirety of Italy south of Rome was under Spoleto's control - then abroad. Italy slowly expanded northwards to encompass the entire of the peninsula by the 16th century.

Here we come to the second thing that must be discussed - the so-called Crisis of the Seventeenth Century which struck the Papacy. By mid-century, the Papacy - its territory completely surrounded by Italy - had become so intertwined in Italian politics that many outsiders merely saw the Pope as an Italian puppet. This situation, coupled with other pressures on the Church (such as historic corruption) led to warfare breaking out with other states, primarily Francia, threatening to cause the entire Church to collapse altogether. It did not help that the Maghribis showed up in Iberia at around the exact same time. Albion did in fact use the opportunity to exit. In 1658, a compromise was made: the Pope would move out of Rome, to the neutral city of Grenoble. This saved the Church, though the costs are still becoming clear six decades later.

Following this messy compromise, the Papal State now exists lording over little more than Grenoble and its urban area. The Papacy today has become a battleground between Francian and Italian influence - presently, the Italians seem to be in control, but of course, this situation is far from permanent.

The duke of Provence was the one ruler in southern France to escape falling under Francian control. Provence had once been a powerful merchant state in the same vein as its Italian city-state neighbours, but the circumnavigation of Africa and the discovery of the New World - and, more importantly, Maghribi conquest of Iberia locking the Mediterranean out of the Atlantic - brought those glory days to an end. Provence of today is a state that has little to show for its past glories.

And now, we move to Spain. For centuries, Leon, which had united Castile and Galicia beneath it during the medieval period and been successful in reconquering much of the Moorish part of the peninsula, had been the dominant state in Europe, mostly through its conquest of the New World. But then the Moors returned in the form of today's Maghrib in the 1650s, expanding from their never-conquered enclave in Granada and so thoroughly vanquishing Leon that the latter state outright collapsed.

One of the critical elements in Leon's defeat was the fact that Catalonia had struck an alliance with the Maghrebis and gained quite a bit of territory in the process. One of the first acts of the Grenoble Papacy - perhaps in an effort to show unity amongst the Catholic world - was to in 1659 excommunicate Catalonia for this supposedly heinous act. However, this had far less effect than intended; the Catalans just formed their own independent church and generally carried on with few hiccups. It is only a few rabble-rousers, especially in the conquered lands, who protest and make a nuisance for Barcelona. These have never truly gone away, even sixty years later.

Pamplona was one of two states to emerge from the smoldering ashes of Leon. Pamplona had been independent for a long time, and even under Leonese domination had maintained a good deal of regional autonomy. After the fall of Leon, the Basques consolidated a good swathe of northern Iberia. Pamplona clams the legacy of Leon, but so far has little to show for it.

Galicia was the other of the two. Their capital lies in the great pilgrimage site of Santiago de Compostela, underlying a thread that runs through the entire state. Galicia, while a monarchy, is virtually a state run by Church-affiliated military orders, many of them the descendents of remnants of the Leonese military, in the hopes that one day they can strike back at the Maghribis.
 
I'm going to redo some bits of the religion map (thank you terran empress for the help here) as such it's been temporarily removed from post 2.

Ask me if you need to know anything in regards to this
 
Brittany bestany
 
Great stuff SK! Looking forward to whatever backgrounds you get to next.
 
tumblr_nggavquxUM1s940p0o2_500.jpg


thanks! I'll put something up later today, hopefully, and the backgrounds should hopefully all be done by the weekend. Then is finals week, and then I'll try to start after that as quickly as I can
 
Is it caught in the wires? Poor thing!
 
Finland, in the far northeast corner of Europe, never came under the power of anyone else. The Scandinavians were always too focused on the west and the south to have particular interest, other than a few abortive late medieval expeditions and missionary activity by Skiringssal which led to Finland becoming predominantly Nordic Christian. The city of Turku had, by the 15th century, emerged as an independent trading power, and its principality became the core of which present-day Finland coalesced around. With the fall of Novgorod to Bilyar, Finland took advantage to seize the previously Novgorodian Baltic coast, with the intent to extend control over the Baltic, and expanding closer to the heart of Europe for the first time.

Sigurdia (derived from the Magyar word for "lowlands") has its origins in the northward migration of most of the Magyar peoples from Pannonia to the lands along the Baltic coast in the 11th century. Over the next several centuries, the majority of the Magyars had been converted to Catholicism, but steadily, Skiringssal's influence grew. It was during the Crisis of the 17th Century when the Sigurdian king officially pledged communion with Skiringssal. All this while, Sigurdia managed to become the most powerful of the duchies and principalities of this corner of Europe, using a combination of marriage and military prowess to integrate many of them. By 1600, Sigurdia had become powerful enough to undermine and eat into the increasingly Austrasian Confederation. Despite its unquestioned status as a power, Sigurdia now has plenty of less-than-contented Catholics and other non-Sigurdians within her borders, and even with her newfound power, the question of what to do with them remains.

Pannonia evolved from the Duchy of Carinthia, a unique creation of the 10th/11th century migrations, formed by Germans who came under Italian cultural influence. The region-turned-duchy formed the southeastern frontier of the Austrasia for some time, before becoming an increasingly strong power within the Confederation itself, before exiting it, much like Raetia, in the late 16th century. The country's ruling dynasty eventually entered into marriage with neighbouring Arberia, a country settled by another Balkan group forced out during the 10th and 11th centuries and in turn driving the Magyars north under the leadership of one particularly strong warlord, who became Arberia's legendary first king. In the 17th century, this marriage alliance evolved into a personal union, and ultimately, in 1682, a formally unified country: Pannonia. But Pannonia quickly came into conflict with neighbouring Sigurdia, leading to warfare; the most recent war ended in 1715 with Pannonia losing and being forced to cede some northern territories.

The region of [Belarus] was for centuries under Novgorodian rule, but when Novgorod rapidly disintegrated the late 17th century, Minsk established herself as the centre of an independent principality. These days Minsk is an island of devout and fervent Christianity surrounded in a treacherous sea of heathens and Muslims, one Minsk shall have to navigate carefully should she wish to survive. Yet Minsk is also the sole nominally Russian state remaining independent.

Kyiv is a product of Turkic migrations west. The Cumans and Kipchaks ultimately ended up rampaging through the area around the great city of Kiev by the 12th century, bringing Kievan Rus to an end, and the area splintered. It would take another century and a half for the Cuman-Kipchaks to finally settle into a handful of principalities, and another century still for these principalities to coalesce around Kyiv, still a great city, and a natural centre for the region. Kiev rose quickly, and her sultans had grand dreams of becoming the hegemon of Rus, before warfare with Novgorod ended those hopes. Novgorod is gone now, allowing for Kyiv to expand again, but there is now Bilyar.

Bilyar is an evolution of the state some called Volga Bulgaria. This Islamic state at the confluence of the Volga and Kama rivers emerged as a trade hub in a chaotic Rus during the Turkic migrations of the middle to later Middle Ages. The current Bilyar state began with the eclipse of Bolghar - the traditional heart of the people the Arabs referred to as al-Saqaliba - by nearby Bilyar in the 16th century, after Bolghar was military defeated by Novgorod. It was not long before Bilyar was able to exit the shadow of Novgorodian hegemony, and with Novgorod finding herself overextended, Bilyar's rise was quick, and they soon began to outmatch Novgorod militarily. Bilyar's capture of Novgorod itself in 1676 was the end of this process - and the Nordic Christian, Novgorodian domination of Rus was quickly replaced by Bilyar's Muslim one. Bilyar expanded quickly in the following decades, including to the south, extinguishing the last of the steppe Oghuz Turks' independence. Whether Bilyar can tie together its realms to become a power is yet to be seen.

The predecessor to Rumelia was formed when Pechenegs, pushed out of their lands further east by Cuman-Kipchak Turks moving west, moved west into the Danube and Dniester in around the 12th century. Being pagans surrounded on nearly all sides by Christians, the initial Pechenegs were Christianised somewhat quickly. This lasted another three centuries, before one by-now-Muslim Turkic clan, having lost a succession dispute in what is now Kyiv, invaded with their allies and conquered the Pechenegs, thus forming the current Rumelian state. The state expanded across the Danube, taking advantage of Bulgarian weakness. While the country's elite is almost entirely Muslim, the population is very heterogeneous, and especially away from the very Muslim capital of Kostence on the Black Sea coast, Christian unrest is growing.

Of all the countries of the Balkans, and perhaps even of Europe, it is Bulgaria which has the most storied history. It was the Bulgarians who brought the great Byzantine Empire to its knees, and it was the Bulgarians who forced the 10th and 11th century Balkan migrations that completely reshaped Europe's ethnic map. But after the fall of that Bulgarian Empire by the end of the 12th century, Bulgaria has never regained that height. It was around this time that a new religious movement started in Bulgaria and spread like a pestilence through the Balkans: Bogomilism. The Bulgarian Church tried to stamp it out, only resulting in revolts and a long, protracted war. The Church only grew increasingly puritannical, and by the time the revolt had been stamped out, Bulgaria had in effect been transformed into a theocracy. The theocracy has proven remarkably long-lasting, finding enemy after enemy - heresy after heresy, or in some cases, Islam - and even today it still rules Bulgaria. But it cannot last forever, and already, the cracks are starting to appear.

The Serbians surprisingly managed to survive the 10th and 11th century Balkan migrations more or less intact. The current state of Serbia emerged from a disintegrating Bulgaria in the 12th century and has remained independent, with varying fortunes and varying degrees of unity, ever since then. Today, Serbia has begun to increasingly feel threatened by the bordering Pannonians, and have turned to Italy for support.

Epirus is Italian, the latter having gained it in the 16th century thanks to arcane inheritance laws dating back to the Crusades. The region is very much a backwater as far as Italy is concerned - the only purpose it serves Italy is to act as a military base from where influence can be extended in the Balkans.

Though Macedonia came under Bulgarian control, and the population was Bulgarianised in the Middle Ages, Thessaly and parts below did not. The region bounced between the control of Byzantine remnants, Crusaders, and weak local rulers for centuries before finally coming - in the early 17th century - into the hands of the Egyptians, who saw the region as an easy foothold into gaining and countering potential Anatolian influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. Egypt sought to levy military control over Greece. This, coupled with religious differences with the by-then very un-Catholic Egyptians and ethnic Greeks treated effectively as second-class citizens, lead to a great deal of Greek chafing under Egyptian administration.

In 1692, a revolt broke out in Thessaly against Egyptian rule. It should have by all rights been an abortive one, but thanks to - ironically - Persian funding, as well as indirect Italian support, it quickly spread out of control. In 1695, the rebels symbolically captured Athens, and Greece was born. The Greek state that emerged from this was ostensibly a republican confederation of a number of provinces, with its capital in the original rebel nexus of Thebes, though some of the provinces were in fact monarchies. Many of the Aegean islands, their own local petty rulers seeking protection from a number of foreigners, have turned to Thebes and in effect joined Greece. Nonetheless, the Peloponnese remains Egyptian, and Greece faces challenges aplenty both within and without.
 
Spoiler :


An Albionese sailor named Norman Hadley, in the employ of the Leonese crown, was the first man to discover the New World. He made landfall in 1541, first arriving near what are now the Breton colonies, and at first believed that he had found the mythical island of Hybrasil. Further expeditions revealed that what he had found was not, actually, an island. Nonetheless, the name stuck, if in an altered form: the northern continent of the new land would become known as Hibracia. Another later expedition would give the name Atlantis to the southern continent.

Though slowly at first, the Leonese quickly realised the sheer bounty of the lands they'd come across. By 1600, both the once-thriving Aztec and Inca states had fallen to Leonese control, though, even under Leonese rule and subsequent Christianisation, their memories and their respective identities would survive. Leon quickly set about exploiting the lands in rather brutal fashion. Diseases ravaged both Hibracia and Atlantis, wiping out at least two-thirds of the native population.

But scarcely a century later, Leon fell, hard. And all the Leonese New World colonies, by now extending from [Texas] to [Chile], were quickly cast adrift, left with an entirely uncertain fate.

One particularly adventurous prince of the Leonese royal family, watching his country rapidly disintegrate about him, left along with a number of his friends and a hundred ex-soldiers for the New World. They seized control of a wide swath of land in Northern Atlantis, and in 1660 the kingdom of Nuevo Leon was born, with the lands and administrative posts redistributed between the new conquerors, forming a new elite. Promises of increased rights and freedom from Leonese quasi-slavery - which were, in fact delivered - were able to raise Nuevo Leon a significant native base of support. Nuevo Leon has also boomed in population in the last several decades, as a steady of trickle immigration from the Old World has helped to create an even more multicultural society.

With the success of Nuevo Leon followed a good number of copycats, but those largely ended as soon as other countries found out they could effectively gain easy land in large quanities. Albion - who had already settled some of the Atlantean east coast beginning earlier in the 17th century - was by far the most successful, seizing control of most of [Mexico and the Caribbean], but Francia and a number of others followed in during the latter half of the 17th century to stake their claims.

Nuevo Leon itself could not hold onto Southern Atlantis. The Nuevo Leonese crown sent an expedition to [Peru] in the mid-1670s to establish control there, but upon hearing tales of the great civilisation which had once lived there, and perhaps after a few artificially altered dreams, the general in charge of the expedition had a better idea. He established control, but he did not give the lands back to Nuevo Leon.
Instead, he married a local girl who claimed to have royal blood and declared himself the Sapa Inca of a restored Tawantinsuyu. This incarnation of Tawantinsuyu has adopted a peculiar form of Christianity in which God is one and the same with Inti, and who directly gave the new emperor's line power in a vision. The country - both in elite and in general population - is remarkably heterogeneous, with many of the conquerors mixing with the natives.

The Maghribis also followed to the New World, first arriving in 1670, and establishing a port settlement in a river delta along the Hibracian coast, which has become the major inlet and outlet to the vast, untamed Hibracian interior. And into that interior followed Shi'ite missionaries. Many of the missionaries were wildly successful as they brought with them medicine to the native Hibracians to protect against smallpox and other diseases.

As Islam took hold even far north as the [Great Lakes], the Meskwaki Sultanate was born. A people along the northern side of the lakes, the Meskwaki's rise began in the 1680s when they were militarily defeated by the Wyandot, driving them south, where they came into contact with Muslim fur traders plying the [Ohio Valley]. One Meskwaki chief was the first to convert to Islam in exchange for the fur traders' assistance, taking on the name Abdullah and styling himself a sultan. Abdullah bin Meskwaki quickly became the most powerful of the Meskwaki, and by 1700, most of the Meskwaki had converted. The fledgling sultanate quickly expanded - the Erie were subjugated and converted by force and the Haudenosaunee were driven out. Changes are afoot; the Meskwaki language has begun to be written, in an Arabic-derived script. But even as other native Hibracians now look to the Meskwaki's newfound, Islamically derived power, the Meskwaki now find themselves facing up against the Scottish, Francian, and Scandinavian colonies along the east coast.
 
Editing my country choice priority based on the backgrounds:
1. Minsk Principality, because I see some hidden opportunities there;
2. Bilyar, because it's kinda Bolghar, but not really, sort of a horde... I see some potential in this state, but I really don't quite get what it's shaped of, to be honest;
3. Assyria, because an underdog and an unlikely independent state.
 
Choice Preferences:

1. The Greek Republic
2. The Greek Republic
3. Champa
4. Karnataka
5. Damascus
 
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