What? You expected something well though out?

[talonschild]

And sky-dhows, courtesy of a Persia comprising most of modern-day Iran, reaching through coastal Pakistan to a little piece of India. Among the greater powers. Its best ally is a Central Asian state descended from one of the Mongol hordes, with whom it has an extremely petty and jealous relationship the instant there are no external threats.

This is a fairly decentralized empire, a sort of coalition of most of the Muslim Indian states with a Persian core in the west.

 

[mythmonster2]

Japan's ruling dynasty was overthrown by a European-backed coup. Now the island nation is practically a puppet state, but the ownership passes between influential families of Europe distressingly often. The exiled dynasty has made its home in the former colony of Korea, now the only holding of the Japanese Empire.

 

[Lord of Elves]

Britain, Spain and France constitute the backbone of absolutist states in western Europe. By virtue of the Persians, Muslims in eastern Africa have established large slave-trading empires (by no means centralized polities, but considerable in economic and cultural significance) by use of aforementioned sky ships. Persia has contributed to the decay of the Ottoman Empire by inciting religious sectarian violence in the Arab provinces, nationalism not being a primary international force.

Merchant republics, while defining themselves as lands of opportunity in contrast to western/north European absolutist states, are entrenched plutocracies and will be as liable to Jacobin-style revolutions as the absolutists.

 

[theDright]

Mad scientists continually scheme to overthrow the ruling order, and sometimes do.

The 7 popes continually quarrel with the 9 patriarchs and 4 caliphs over who has the bigger crown and right and stuff.

 

[Terrance888]

France and Spain are diminished in size. Both Catalonia and Occitanian regions are semi-allied but independent groups of city states.

 

[Grandkhan]

All seven popes have been forced to flee Europe, and each Pope only controls a single city in Brazil, where they are in a state of continued war.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire is the result of the feuding Caliphs breaking off and proclaiming that only they have the right to rule the Caliphate and that the Sultan is illegitimate. The Persians are supplying the Four Caliphs as per Lord of Elves suggestion.
(Pretty sure that counts as sectarian violence, right?)

 

[talonschild]

Three caliphs live in Persia proper, mantaining the only armies independent of that of the shah which sabotage each other incessantly. The Shah generally plays them off against each other, and none defy the royal army. The fourth caliph rules the independent city-state of Trebizond.

Meanwhile, Turkey consists of independent cities who swear nominal allegiance to whichever Caliph has the largest force in the area, promptly switching sides as the armies come and go.

Hope this meshes with what GK wrote.

 

[Terrance888]

Ireland is a revolutionary republic of some kind.

Yes, I did say there is no such thing as radical republicanism. I see the great story opportunities offered by radical republicanism, and so retroactively cancel out my former statement in agreement with later posts.

 

[Lord of Elves]

By virtue of the dissolution of large and centralized ecclesiastical authorities religion is a secondary matter in politics to dynastic concerns.

@Grandkhan, shure.

EDIT: Ireland is actively in rebellion against the British crown, arguably the most oppressive and retrograde of the absolutist regimes.

 

[talonschild]

Recent events that utterly fail to captivate the globe - interfering in what is a traditionally a Persian sphere of influence, Karachi has set up a trading post in Oman. The Tibetan people, considerably less embracing of the Buddhism than in other time periods and timelines, are massacring town after Nepalese town. Two popes died in a naval battle in the Caribbean; each of their thrones were claimed by two pretenders. Recife and Belem are seething. Yeesh.

 

[qoou]

I like this terrance. He reminds me of myself.

 

[Nuka-sama]

The Jewish people rule a massive empire stretching from Poland in the west through Russia reaching the Pacific ocean. They keep Aryan Germans as slave laborers in their numerous factories and massive plantations

Korea is united and ruled by a glorious God King that seeks to expand his wisdom over Japan

 

[talonschild]

Japan's already reduced to a holdout in its Korean colonies, while the great European powers shuffle the home islands between them. (Post 22)

The central asian state, the Turkhanate, is mostly agnostic. Far more centralized, the Turkhan has eliminated most authority of the tribal chiefs, and replaced them with a Pony Express-serviced bureaucracy, not unlike the Confucian-inspired one seen in OTL Imperial China. The current Turkhan has designs on the lands of the Uyghurs and Tibetans.

 

[NinjaCow64]

Due to Indonesia's crazily xenophobic (they hang you if you don't have the right kinds of chest tattoos) and isolationist society, Australia and New Zealand was never discovered. They are inhabited by Kangaroos with a Neanderthal level of civilisation and technology.

 

[Terrance888]

I will restate Nuke's post.

The Russian Empire spoken of earlier is inherently Jewish. They often attack German City States both to enslave them and to pressure them to keep their trade networks open.

And the Korean God King used to be the Japanese God King, so that's fine, just reinterpreted.

 

[Grandkhan]

In order to reconcile Talonschild's, mine, and LoE's suggestions:

The Ottoman Empire is less like the Ottoman Empire of old, and more like a feudal Caliphate or the HRE in Europe. Despite nominally being a nation where the rulers of the various city-states and principalities are vassals of the Emperor in Istanbul, in reality the local rulers have significant autonomy, to the point where one of the claimants to the Caliphate is literally ruling Trebizond and the Sultan in Istanbul can do nothing about it.

However, even this high level of autonomy is not enough. Much of Arabia and the Levant is in full rebellion, egged on by the other Three Caliphs in Persia seeking to overthrow the Sultan and establish one of the Four Caliphs in his place as Caliph of all Islam. In Anatolia, armies loyal to various Caliphs roam and the Sultan roam almost freely, with some of the rebel armies led in absentia by the Caliphs in Persia.

Frequently, cities simply roll over and accept the rule of whatever army is nearby, and in practice the citystates are mere military dictatorships paying lipservice to various Caliphs and the Sultan, with the exception of Trebizond and the cities under its rule which is a theocracy led by the Caliph of Trebizond, Piri Reis.

Meanwhile, the other powers watch and cackle as the Ottoman Empire consumes itself. The Persians host the Three Caliphs and supply their armies in Arabia and Anatolia with weapons and technology, with Persian sky-dhows frequently docking in Trebizond to deploy more equipment. Meanwhile, the Merchant dynasties of southern Europe also plot to bring about the destruction of the Ottomans, supporting the factions in the cities of the Levant - the de Medicis, currently ruling Florence, Bologna and Abruzzi, have made great inroads into Jaffa, the Ferrarias (currently ruling Venice) have taken control of Antioch after a brutal coup in which they murdered the supporters of the previous dynasty there, and the newly rising Vukovics of Belgrade have recently captured Haifa.

 

[Seon]

May god have mercy on us all.

 

[Nintz]

The European-backed coup of Japan was led by a totalitarian Christian regime, meaning all Japanese are now Christian or dead.

China is ruled by Mongols from the north, who have successfully resisted the advances of both Siam and Europe by sheer weight of numbers. Tibet is independent. They rule via consent of the governed, who invited them after the formerly Chinese emperor declared the nation's biggest problem as "Tea on my jacket! Tea on my jacket!". Hence, the Mongols are part of a pseudo-democratic authoritarianism rule. The Chinese people are surprisingly okay with this.

 

[Ailedhoo]

The Isle of Man became a merchent republic after beating the Scottish navy. It then fell to Welsh control for several generations till the Great Revolt of Peel which saw the Isle of Man become indepedent by Irish backing. Then the Isle of Man became a indepedent duchy.

In the space race the moon was colonised by the Manx, who then sold half of it to mining companies (half of them from Poland) and then made the rest of the moon a massive tourist honeypot. Only 2 mining trips have so far been set to the moon, both by Irish companies, while only a total of 15 tourists have visited, 7 of which were Chinese, 4 Irish, 1 Manx, 1 Zulu, 2 Russians and 1 Aztec.

 

[ChineseWarlord]

Japan has started settling colonies in the new world.