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Tulip
Jun 3, 2008

yeah thats pretty good


Dibujante posted:

Maybe our Greeks, Turks, and Bulgarians live in harmony with each other, but all of those Persians have only recently been integrated into the country militarily; they have certainly not been integrated into the country philosophically. I think they'll prove hard to digest in the next few decades.

"Digest" is an unfortunate word choice.

If the Greeks and Turks in Byzantium don't get along well, the narrative arc of EUIV is just weird.

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BwenGun
Dec 1, 2013

Dibujante posted:

Maybe our Greeks, Turks, and Bulgarians live in harmony with each other, but all of those Persians have only recently been integrated into the country militarily; they have certainly not been integrated into the country philosophically. I think they'll prove hard to digest in the next few decades.

Maybe, or maybe they've been labouring under the rule of a foreign dynasty and aristocracy for centuries, with the nearest point of liberty being Rome. Maybe they've sent thousands of sons to die in the Anatolian Highlands only for the survivors to come back telling stories of how Greek, Turk and Italian live there in harmony where the blood or station do not dictate a man, or womans, path, but rather his ability.

This world is not our own, in this world I'd imagine that the cultures of central asia will be so radically different as to make for a very interesting narrative unbound from the stereotypes and per-concieved cultural biases of our own world.

BwenGun fucked around with this message at 18:04 on Sep 11, 2014

GunnerJ
Aug 1, 2005

Do you think this is funny?

Dibujante posted:

Maybe our Greeks, Turks, and Bulgarians live in harmony with each other, but all of those Persians have only recently been integrated into the country militarily; they have certainly not been integrated into the country philosophically. I think they'll prove hard to digest in the next few decades.

I thought the Persians are in a semi-autonomous Iranian Republic which is a Byzantine protectorate? Since the beginning, Byzantine presidents seem to have been comfortable creating "sister republics" in areas too difficult to directly govern. It might make sense to create events for potential breakaway nations with the choice "Create Sister Republic!" to make a subordinate republic (as a sphereling or colony or whatever makes sense as a vassal equivalent in V2) but lose out on whatever not directly governing that territory gives plus a prestige hit, or "Keep them in line!" to deal with their revolts as normal.

eta: full disclosure, all I know about V2, I know from Let's Plays.

YF-23
Feb 17, 2011

My god, it's full of cat!


Dibujante posted:

Maybe our Greeks, Turks, and Bulgarians live in harmony with each other, but all of those Persians have only recently been integrated into the country militarily; they have certainly not been integrated into the country philosophically. I think they'll prove hard to digest in the next few decades.

I can't see the Bulgarians being accepted, not with the history of Bulgaria actually having successful nationalist revolutions against us.

Cestrian
Nov 5, 2011

Tulip posted:

We're America, we'll be fine.

Reiterating proposal that we get the SoL on Rhodos and it zaps people into Byzantines with its Byzanting Ray.

Building the statue of liberty on Rhodes would only help the true byzantine empire, though. Not the republican traitors in Constantinople, Athens and Rome.

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker

Cestrian posted:

Building the statue of liberty on Rhodes would only help the true byzantine empire, though. Not the republican traitors in Constantinople, Athens and Rome.

When we bring Rhodes back into the fold, the Statue of Liberty will be erected to forever remind then that they are free under our yoke.

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
Awhile ago I was wondering if we would ever become a Bureaucratic Despotism under the committees of state. Could have been an interesting alternate route.

Not that I am displeased with how we ended up!

theblastizard
Nov 5, 2009
Yilang should just be a Satellite of Byzantium

Ghetto Prince
Sep 11, 2010

got to be mellow, y'all

AJ_Impy posted:

When we bring Rhodes back into the fold, the Statue of Liberty will be erected to forever remind then that they are free under our yoke.

The Statue of Unitas? Er, I mean Unity?

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

AJ_Impy posted:

When we bring Rhodes back into the fold, the Statue of Liberty will be erected to forever remind then that they are free under our yoke.

And then s Komene can be a Rhodes scholar! :v:

Empress Theonora
Feb 19, 2001

She was a sword glinting in the depths of night, a lance of light piercing the darkness. There would be no mistakes this time.
Our V2 accepted cultures will be broadly based on where we were seeing nationalist rebellions. In a crude guesstimate, it'd be Greeks, Turks, Pechenegs, and Northern Italians accepted, with Southern Italians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Serbians, etc. not accepted. But this is all subject to playtesting and balancing first, obviously.

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker

Rincewind posted:

Our V2 accepted cultures will be broadly based on where we were seeing nationalist rebellions. In a crude guesstimate, it'd be Greeks, Turks, Pechenegs, and Northern Italians accepted, with Southern Italians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Serbians, etc. not accepted. But this is all subject to playtesting and balancing first, obviously.

The Northern Italian/Southern Italian thing seems really odd: we've had the Two Sicilies for much of the last two thousand years with only brief interruptions during crises such as the Deluge. Northern italy on the other hand has been a battleground.

BwenGun
Dec 1, 2013

AJ_Impy posted:

The Northern Italian/Southern Italian thing seems really odd: we've had the Two Sicilies for much of the last two thousand years with only brief interruptions during crises such as the Deluge. Northern italy on the other hand has been a battleground.

Maybe have Southern Italy be an accepted culture, but with a much larger population of aristocrats and peasants inclined to reactionary/conservative beliefs. Thus simulating the revolutions as a reactionary attempt to secede from the new Republic before re-establishing the Empire itself, not as a desire to be rid of the nation as a whole.

AJ_Impy
Jun 17, 2007

SWORD OF SMATTAS. CAN YOU NOT HEAR A WORLD CRY OUT FOR JUSTICE? WHEN WILL YOU DELIVER IT?
Yam Slacker

BwenGun posted:

Maybe have Southern Italy be an accepted culture, but with a much larger population of aristocrats and peasants inclined to reactionary/conservative beliefs. Thus simulating the revolutions as a reactionary attempt to secede from the new Republic before re-establishing the Empire itself, not as a desire to be rid of the nation as a whole.

I like it. Wouldn't be the first time Sicily had been the saviour of the Empire: I can imagine them decrying the presidency as Branas reborn, and harking back to the successful restoration of the early 15th century.

Dibujante
Jul 27, 2004

BwenGun posted:

Maybe, or maybe they've been labouring under the rule of a foreign dynasty and aristocracy for centuries, with the nearest point of liberty being Rome. Maybe they've sent thousands of sons to die in the Anatolian Highlands only for the survivors to come back telling stories of how Greek, Turk and Italian live there in harmony where the blood or station do not dictate a man, or womans, path, but rather his ability.

This world is not our own, in this world I'd imagine that the cultures of central asia will be so radically different as to make for a very interesting narrative unbound from the stereotypes and per-concieved cultural biases of our own world.

Maybe, but we're entering an era of stupidly belligerent nationalism where many groups of people historically decided that they'd rather be poor and on their own than wealthy and part of a larger polity. It's not rational, but it was the first set of naive conclusions drawn from the growing notion of nationalism (one nation, one state). It was wildly wrong and pretty stupid in retrospect but was totally cutting edge back then. It was largely accepted as a commonsense truth even in places where it honestly shouldn't have applied: see Woodrow Wilson's 14 points, even!

Empress Theonora
Feb 19, 2001

She was a sword glinting in the depths of night, a lance of light piercing the darkness. There would be no mistakes this time.

AJ_Impy posted:

The Northern Italian/Southern Italian thing seems really odd: we've had the Two Sicilies for much of the last two thousand years with only brief interruptions during crises such as the Deluge. Northern italy on the other hand has been a battleground.

The empire had Sicily, and its loyalty was predicated on the close personal alliance between the monarchs of Rome and Sicily, both of whom have been beheaded. Since the revolution, it's been having frequent rebellions.

(Obviously the real in-game reason for this is that Sicilian is a separate culture with SIC as the primary tag, so they kept their cores for the entire game after being diplo-annexed, so in the generally low stability we had in the first decade or so the Republic it was a prime breeding ground for nationalist rebels, but this is all about finding the right narrative behind those EU4 mechanics.)

EDIT: All these other sprawling, multinational empires are going to have similar difficulties, so this isn't just me dogpiling onto us to make our lives miserable.

theblastizard
Nov 5, 2009
Italy should probably be less north and south and more pro-Byzantium anti-Byzantium. You could divide it into Latin and Italian cultures to represent that.

Rejected Fate
Aug 5, 2011

Rincewind posted:

Our V2 accepted cultures will be broadly based on where we were seeing nationalist rebellions. In a crude guesstimate, it'd be Greeks, Turks, Pechenegs, and Northern Italians accepted, with Southern Italians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Serbians, etc. not accepted. But this is all subject to playtesting and balancing first, obviously.

Northern Italian would, I suggest, not be accepted either - there should be quite a lot of catholics there whatever EUIV's mechanics say and just because we accept them does not necessarily mean they accept us.

Nationalist revolts for all the major powers!

PleasingFungus
Oct 10, 2012
idiot asshole bitch who should fuck off

megane posted:




Incan Empire flags? The cross shape is a Chakana.

Probably I should stop making flags.

Instead, make more.

HiHo ChiRho
Oct 23, 2010

sniper4625 posted:


Father Brucikos Dickingios, Royal Musician







Catholics came across the sea
He brought us pain and heresy
He killed our flocks, he killed our creed
He took our faith for his own need

We fought him hard we fought him well
Out on the plains we gave him hell
But many came to kill "thodoxy
Oh will we ever be set free?

Riding through Gallician clouds and Grecian plains
Burning it all into wastes
Chasing the Faithful back to their church
Fighting them at their own gates
Murder for freedom the stab in the back
Bogols and Sunnis are biding - attack

Run to the walls, run for your lives
Run to the walls, run for your lives

Blues and Greens in Anatolian space
Flying the crescent and cross
Turning up churches and flaying the priests
The only good Grecians are tame
Selling them Rosaries and taking their gold
Enslaving the young and destroying idols

Run to the walls, run for your lives
Run to the walls, run for your lives
Run to the walls, run for your lives

Run to the walls,
run for your lives.

sniper4625
Sep 26, 2009

Loyal to the hEnd

HiHo ChiRho posted:

Catholics came across the sea
He brought us pain and heresy
He killed our flocks, he killed our creed
He took our faith for his own need

We fought him hard we fought him well
Out on the plains we gave him hell
But many came to kill "thodoxy
Oh will we ever be set free?

Riding through Gallician clouds and Grecian plains
Burning it all into wastes
Chasing the Faithful back to their church
Fighting them at their own gates
Murder for freedom the stab in the back
Bogols and Sunnis are biding - attack

Run to the walls, run for your lives
Run to the walls, run for your lives

Blues and Greens in Anatolian space
Flying the crescent and cross
Turning up churches and flaying the priests
The only good Grecians are tame
Selling them Rosaries and taking their gold
Enslaving the young and destroying idols

Run to the walls, run for your lives
Run to the walls, run for your lives
Run to the walls, run for your lives

Run to the walls,
run for your lives.

The song I've been waiting for since Smyrna. The spirit of Orthoroxy will never die!

In a better world:

quote:

With wild fire
We're burning
Those heretics
Traitors to Rome

Red thunder
Gold lightning
Let Demons cry
The Bog Patrol
The Bog Patrol

We fight on
Through long odds
We won't stop
Til they're all dead

In Christ's Name
Flames blazing
We're heaven bound
The Bog Patrol
The Bog Patrol

Brutalize them
Neutralize them
Send them back to Satan
as we incinerate them

Liberate them
Sanctify them
Gonna save their souls as they moan
And we'll pray to heaven!

Instrumental

War Masters
Christ Warriors
Soul Redeemers
Burning the bog!

We're Devil Dogs
The Bog Patrol
The Bog Patrol

sniper4625 fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Sep 12, 2014

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
I'm curious whether Da Qin will end up the Arabian tag, ie becoming the Arabian Republic if the monarchy is abolished (or maybe even name changing under a HM's Government, maybe not) or if Arabia will be a tag only formable by Alis/theoretical breakaways.

Empress Theonora
Feb 19, 2001

She was a sword glinting in the depths of night, a lance of light piercing the darkness. There would be no mistakes this time.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
by Edward Gibbon (1737-1830)

CHAPTER LXXI

Prospect of the State of the World in the Nineteenth Century — Lesser Nations Featuring Heavily in this Work — The Secondary Powers of the Globe — The Great Powers — Conclusion of the whole Work

While in most of the later epochs of its history, even in the eras following the resurrection of the empire from the brink of extinction by the House of Komnenos, the limits of the Roman empire's influence were regional rather than continental or global, the fall of Rome and restoration of republican rule to the empire's territories has excited the interest in the furthest reaches of the globe. As we have already seen, following the subjugation of Persia by Aphrodite de Bassot's government, even the Chinese empire, for all its unsurpassed and irresistible power, realised that the Byzantine state was both resilient and a potential rival in the struggle of the great powers.

This volume, therefore, appropriately ends with a prospect of the world of our current age.

First, we shall briefly take note of those nations which, though not powers in their own right, have figured in one way or another in our narrative.

The New Bulgarian Republic is divided between relief that after an interval of some centuries a Bulgarian state once more exists and worries that the Byzantines' hostility to nationalism will override their love of democracy.



President Stracimir Djordjic

Poland continues to benefit from the patronage of their de Valois-Vexin cousins in France and the total collapse of German sovereignty in northern Europe; however, it was checked in its ambitions to become a dominant power in the region by the rise of the Dunin dual monarchy to its east.



King Uscieh de Valois-Vexin

The aged King Mathias II von Habsburg still presides over the ruins of the Holy Roman Empire. It had been saved from total extinction when it became necessary for the Polish to cede some small portion of their territory in a punitive peace treaty; with the majority of Charlemagne's conquests under the de Valois-Vexin yoke, however, perhaps extinction would have been a kinder fate than the present lot of the inheritors of his title.



King Mathias II von Habsburg

The Mad Emperor Theodoros I Komnenos of Rhodes still insists that he, not the sovereign people of Byzantium, nor even the surviving Yaroslavid dynasts in Holland or elsewhere, is the true emperor of Rome. His island domain has become a dark mirror to the revival of the antique arts and culture seen in the late Roman empire and the Byzantine republic.



Emperor Theodoros I Komnenos

Queen Olga I Yaroslavovna has perhaps a more credible claim to the inheritance of Alexios V Yaroslavich, and indeed the remaning monarchists in Byzantium hold her to be the true empress of Rome and indeed have sent several of the personal effects of the last emperor to her court. After Holland's territory was cut in half following a disastrous war against the French and a premature end brought to its ambitions to dominate the low countries and northwestern Germany, however, she is said to recognize that she is scarcely more able to press her claim to the legacy of the Caesars than Theodoros of Rhodes.



Queen Olga I Yaroslavovna

In Austria, or, as it is still called by some, "Ao Dee Lee", the Austrian Germans and their Hui conquerers have grown closer and closer as Byzantium encroaches from the south, France from the north and west, and Hungary from the east. The Xu dynasty still reigns, but it has often been observed that Austria is still where a German can enjoy the greatest degree of liberty and security in the Near West.



Sultana Xu Xiulan of Austria

For centuries, the Sultanate of the banu Riyahs was one of the most stable states in the Near West, escaping so many of the disasters which befell their Mediterranean neighbors. The al-Saids who inherited the kingdom, however, have met with considerable misfortune and as I write this are reportedly being overrun by the Somalian republic's armies.



Sultan Najib al-Said

Russia, so-called 'Third Rome', one seemed to be on an irresistible ascent to the lofty status of a great power. It stagnated under in the early modern era, however, before entering a decline that was gradual under the later Yaroslavid tsars and precipitous under the von Wismars. The extinction of the Roman empire was doubtless a fatal blow to any lingering ambitions of becoming a 'northern Rome'.



Tsarina Elizaveta von Wismar

Fortune been much kinder to Da Qin than their neighbors in Yilang, of course, but the Near Western empire seems at the threshold of decline. The dreams of imperial grandeur entertained during the years of Rome's Deluge, however, have failed to materialise. The unification of the Seljuk rump state with the realm of the Ali sultans was a further blow to Da Qin's prestige. Of all of the Ming Frontier Army successor states, it was the most rigid and inflexible with respect to its conquered minorities, in which a Hui ruling class still recognizably foreign in character presides over the Turkish, Persian, and Levantine masses. After the shocking toppling and execution of the emperor of Yilang, however, the empress seeks to adopt a more liberal attitude towards her subjects. With their strong martial tradition and continued foot-hold in central Anatolia, Da Qin can perhaps still re-establish itself as a regional power of some consequence.



Empress Lai Ang Xiu-lan III of Da Qin

Now, we shall turn to those states which are doubtlessly powers to be reckoned with, but whose influence is secondary to that of the great powers.

Great Britain, united by the Scottish Kyle monarchs and guided into modernity by the von Habsburgs, has in many ways been lately frustrated in its ambitions. Its aspirations for colonial hegemony in Avalon were checked by the rise of the Ayiti Federation, the loss of Ireland and the continued presence of the French in Cornwall are both persistant embarrassments to the prestige of the Habsburgs, and the obliteration of its traditional allies in Norway, the Holy Roman Empire, and the Papal State have all contributed to a somewhat grim mode in the court at Edinburgh and the markets in London. Still, Great Britain is secure, protected by a formidable navy, rules a not inconsequential colonial dominion in North and Central Avalon, and advanced in matters of trade and industry. Queen Beatrice IV needs only look at her Habsburg counterparts in Germany to realize how fortunate she and her realm are.

The young princess Victoria von Habsburg is phenomenally popular and her accession to the throne eagerly anticipated in all quarters.



Queen Beatrice von Habsburg

Ghana continues to rule West Africa in splendid isolation; eagerly participating in commerce, trade, and technological development, but remaining steadfastly apart from the rest of the Near West in the political and military paroxysms which so frequently engulf it.



Sultan Khalifa I Keita

Brunei, often known by its sinicized name "Boni", has slowly and patiently built itself a sizable trade empire in the broad expanse of the Pacific. They fiercely competed with Silla, the Fujiwara empire, and Aceh for a trade monopoly over of the terraqueous region. With Aceh devastated by wars with China, the Fujiwara extinct and their successor Republic destroyed by the Bakufu, the two trade kingdoms eye one anothers' colonies and possessions avariciously. With the blood of the Ming flowing in their veins, the king of Brunei believes his odds favourable.




King Sayf ar-Rijal II Zhu

Scandinavia, the mighty northern redoubt of Orthodoxy forged by the Danes, has lost many of its conquests in north Germany. But the core of its territory-- Denmark and Sweden-- remained intact, and it vanquished first Norway, then the British Habsburgs who inherited its remnants, and has furthermore begun advancing into Finland and Russia as the Tsardom continues to collapse. It has, therefore, fared much better than so many of the unlucky nations of Europe.




Queen Ulrika II af Belev

The sprawling dominions of the Dunin dual monarchy of Lithuania-Hungary have, by this time, entirely displaced Russia as the premier power of eastern Europe. It remains to be seen, however, if shared loyalty to a single monarch will be enough to check Hungarian patriotism and hold the union together in years to come.




Queen Darate I Dunin

The Kamakura Bafuku has finally eliminated the republican successors to their hated Fujiwara rivals and repulsed Chinese events to restore the Republic as a client state. For the first time since the Mongols seized Shikoku and Kyushu, Japan is united under a single government. With a lengthy regency for the three-year-old 'shogun' likely, the mother and aunts of the young ruler have a broad latitude to build their reunited nation in their own image.



The regents of the child Shogun Nabeshima Teruhito

From the furthest reaches of Siberia to shores of Karatgurk, from the East Indies to Africa, Silla trade ships ply waters all over the globe. Enjoying the patronage of the Chinese Empire, which considers directly administering colonial dominions beneath its attention, the Korean metropole is guarded by the strength of Ming arms against all interlopers. Whether the peninsular trade kingdom can extend the same protection to its empire remains in doubt.




Queen Kim Gyeonghyeon

Asitelahan was thwarted by the failure of its plan to use Ukraine as a proxy for an invasion of the Byzantine republic, but nonetheless had risen considerably in power and stature in recent years as its neighbors in Russia and Yilang faltered.




Sultan Hu Fuxiang III

Finally, there are the eight great powers of the world.

Among all of the formal successors of the Ming Frontier Army– and, indeed, many of the Hui states which rebelled against direct military rule in the War of the Hungarian League and its aftermath– 'Lai Ang' (León)- created the most harmonious society. The Hui conquerers, and the Christian Spaniards and Portuguese and Muslim Andalusians and Mauritanians who had spent so many centuries at odds with one another found it necessary to make common cause with one another to resist French attempts to extend their borders even further south of the Pyrenees. Now, the abundant natural resources of their colonies in Nuevo Xi'an and Tianhui Catalina-- including some silver mines-- have enriched the Iberian metropole of Lai Ang immeasurably and funded a construction of a navy which humiliated the Byzantine Republic and is surpassed only by those of the Ayiti Federation and the Somalian republic. In addition to their sprawling dominions in South Avalon, Lai Ang also boasts a number of smaller colonies in strategic locations around the globe, including Tangiers, Massachusetts Bay (or, as the Lai Ang have dubbed it, 'Zheng He Bay'), Bermuda, and the Black Sea.




Sultan Lan II Juan de León

The Byzantine republic and its client states, far from collapsing into anarchy as many in the Near West expected it to in the absence of an emperor, has maintained its grip the vast majority of the territory claimed by the Roman commonwealth-- and, if one counts its client republics in Persia and Azerbaijan, has considerably expanded on those conquests. In spite of its recent defeat by Lai Ang, it still enjoys the prestige of being the great cultural center of the Near West– the liberal attitudes of its new rulers combined with the diverse peoples who live within its borders have made it the birthing-place of many an outlandish and wildly popular fashion, artistic or literary movement, philosophy or political idea. Its neighbors regard it simultaneously with awe that such an ungainly democracy can survive and even thrive as it lurches from one political crisis to the next and alarm at their tendency towards regicide as their first resort when faced with political challenges.

One gets the sense that the Revolution has not yet resulted in a permanent settlement, and has instead merely entered a second phase.




President Samuel Pytheid

While the Indian league was founded in the 1440s with the intention of resisting any Ming designs on the sub-continent, it quickly turned into little more than an arena for the princes of India to make war on one another as the frontiers of Yilang slowly pushed east. In the end, it was not League cooperation but Marathas strength of arms that turned back the tide. The Suryavamsi monarchs of the Buddhist kingdom of Orissa, sensing Marathas hegemony over the whole of India lurking on the horizon, united the remaining princes of the east into a single realm. The resulting union of Hindustan (or, more properly, 'Eastern Hindustan') and its meteoric rise to the status of an undisputed great power would make a fascinating history in its own right.




Queen Padma I Suryavamsi

The Somalian republic that dominated trade from India to the Mediterranean in the middle age met a calamitous destruction at the hands of the Ming Frontier Army at the dawn of the modern era. Gradually, however, the boqors of Abyssinia reunited the feuding Somali successor states and destroyed the Hui-administered empire of 'Suo Ma Li', restoring the Somalian republic to something approaching its former splendour and pre-eminence. In the present era, however, Somalia faces challenges to its stranglehold on trade both external and internal. The Ayiti federation, with its vast tracts of unexploited territory in Avalon and colonial ventures beyond, have surpassed Somalia as the dominant force in global commerce. In addition, conflict between the patrician classes and the multitudes who peopled their empire, Somali commoner and conquered Egyptians and Ethiopians alike, became increasingly common as liberal ideas proliferated throughout the Near West in the late eighteenth century. The patricians appointed a Lord Protector to manage the affairs of the republic until the emergency passed; however, they soon found that the 'emergency' seemed to endure in perpetuity. The result was the total extinction of republican liberty and the Lord Protector's heirs ruling as kings in all but name.




Lord Protector Maxamed Muzaffar

The rise of the Maratha empire was as gradual as Hindustan's was sudden. Slowly and deliberately, the rajas of the Marathas gathered strength within the Indian league, absorbing its constituent princes and electors into its domains and gaining permanent control over the emperor's throne. Then, suddenly, it dealt a terrific blow against Yilang; the defeats Yilang met at the hands of the Marathas were so complete that it led not only to the end of Yilang's designs on India but, ultimately, the end of the entire Yilang state. Now, however, the Raja finds his dreams of a united India thwarted by the unification of eastern Hindustan under the Suryavamsis.




Raja Ragunath Rao Sharqi

In a world riven by the convulsions of revolutions; political, technological, philosophical, and otherwise; France, against all conventional wisdom, remains much as it always has. The de Valois-Vexin kings have rejected the constitutionalism that has taken root from the Forbidden City to Habsburg Britain, and remained steadfastly committed to the idea of absolutist rule by divine right. None of the three estates dare challenge the king's hegemony: the clergy utterly dependent on de Valois-Vexin patronage for their offices within the Gallican church; the feudal aristocracy have been overawed by the splendours of Versailles or distracted with royal commissions to govern territories in Germany or the vanquished low countries; and the bourgeoisie's frustrations deftly deflected towards the aristocrats and clergy rather than the person of the king himself. In an age defined by liberal thought, the French have haughtily embraced absolutism. In an age when the other preeminent powers of the world take trade, commerce, industry, and colonial empires as the basis of their standing among nations, the furthest-flung possessions of the sprawling Continental empire of the French are Corsica and Cornwall. Byzantine and Chinese political theorists are said to anticipate the day when the French and German masses labouring under the whip of Versailles will rise up against their masters and establish a more modern form of government (republicanism or Chinese constitutionalism, respectively).

And yet France remains much as it always has been— unsurpassed hegemon of all Europe.




The Most Christian King Gui de Valois-Vexin

The Ayiti Federation immediately realized the boundless ambition of the first handful of sailors from Britain and Lai Ang who appeared on their shores in the fifteenth century, and quickly went about claiming as much of Avalon as possible before these foreign interlopers could achieve their ambitions. While the Habsburg and de León colonial dominions are not insubstantial; and the Maya, Inca, Lenape, and Haida maintain their independence, it is safe to say that their plan generally met with a high degree of success. Now, not content with conquest of the balance of two continents, Ayiti colonial expansion has moved even further afield; most significantly in the South African colony of Cape Nitaino, which has become a valuable base for Ayiti ships whose reach now extends to all corners of the globe. They have surpassed even Somalia, Lai Ang, and Silla in the realm of maritime commerce; and indeed make the 'great' trading states of the middle age such as Venice, Belgorod, Pisa, and Genoa seem quaint by comparison.




Cacique Executive Officer Anacaona IV Nitaino
(image source)

Of course, when one writes of the great powers vying for supremacy, what one means in actuality is vying for the status of being second to the Chinese empire. The Ming dynasty remains the most powerful nation in the world; advanced in the spheres of industry, culture, political thought, technology, and warfare. The only check to their power is the inferiority of their navy to those of the Ayiti Federation or of Somalia. Still, with the Kingdom of the Silla firmly in their sphere, they hardly need their own maritime apparatus to project their interests abroad. The nineteenth century, as were the eighteenth and seventeenth centuries before it, is very likely to be a Chinese century.

Byzantine art critics have remarked that the newly crowned empress of China seems unmistakably smug in her official portraits; however, she is likely right to be.



Empress Zhu Chunmei II

Of every reader, the attention will be excited by an History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: the greatest, perhaps, and most awful scene in the history of mankind. The various causes and progressive effects are connected with many of the events most interesting in human annals: the artful policy of the Caesars, who long maintained the name and image of a free republic; the disorder of military despotism; the rise, establishment, and sects of Christianity; the foundation of Constantinople; the division of the monarchy; the invasion and settlements of the Barbarians of Germany and Scythia; the institutions of the civil law; the character and religion of Mahomet; the temporal sovereignty of the popes; the restoration and decay of the Western empire of Charlemagne; the conquests of the Saracens and Turks; the renewal of the Greek empire; the reconquests of the Komnenids; the mending of the Great Schism; the arrival and subsidence of the Ming Frontier Army; the disasters of the Deluge; the authoring of the roman Constitution; the restoration and decline of the Yaroslavid emperors; the state and revolutions of Byzantium in the present age. The correspondant may applaud the importance and variety of his subject; but, while he is conscious of his own imperfections, he must often accuse the deficiency of his materials. It was among the rebuilt edifices of the Capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised near fifty years of my life, and which, however inadequate to my own wishes, I finally deliver to the curiosity and candour of the public.




WORLD MAP, 1827



Note: The Great Power/Secondary Power breakdown here is extremely preliminary-- especially the secondary powers. Da Qin, Inca and the Haida in particular are strong candidates to displace some of the more marginal secondary powers, like Asitelahan, Japan, or Boni. So don't read too much into it! Gibbon would have been like 90 years old when he wrote this anyway. :corsair:

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
Since the Somalian Sultanate is being treated as one-in-all-but-name, will they be a monarchy in V2 or a Presidential Dictatorship?

Empress Theonora
Feb 19, 2001

She was a sword glinting in the depths of night, a lance of light piercing the darkness. There would be no mistakes this time.

GSD posted:

Since the Somalian Sultanate is being treated as one-in-all-but-name, will they be a monarchy in V2 or a Presidential Dictatorship?

Presidential dictatorship. There's enough monarchies out there!

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo

Rincewind posted:

Presidential dictatorship. There's enough monarchies out there!

Excellent. Somalian Liberty will live on. Eventually. (Now watch reactionary rebels convert it to an Absolute Monarchy one month in :v: )

Also, I hope Great Zimbabwe will be given some more land in the interior in the conversion. Hopefully they will also be able to get into the African colonization business once it kicks off, but they don't have that many ports, so they will likely soon run out of points for that.

Patter Song
Mar 26, 2010

Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.
Fun Shoe

GSD posted:

Also, I hope Great Zimbabwe will be given some more land in the interior in the conversion. Hopefully they will also be able to get into the African colonization business once it kicks off, but they don't have that many ports, so they will likely soon run out of points for that.

I don't know, I kind of like their dumbbell shape. :v:

Ratoslov
Feb 15, 2012

Now prepare yourselves! You're the guests of honor at the Greatest Kung Fu Cannibal BBQ Ever!

Hoooly poo poo Ayati. :stonk:

I suspect that the Ayati's gonna do some border cleaning-up and just blob up the rest of North America or something. Jesus Christ.

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo

Patter Song posted:

I don't know, I kind of like their dumbbell shape. :v:

I just want to them to gobble up a good chunk of Africa.

As is their rightful destiny. :colbert:

Funky Valentine
Feb 26, 2014

Dojyaa~an

Best part of V2 will be the ability to use old photos of people for portraits.

Empress Theonora
Feb 19, 2001

She was a sword glinting in the depths of night, a lance of light piercing the darkness. There would be no mistakes this time.

Funky Valentine posted:

Best part of V2 will be the ability to use old photos of people for portraits.

That's going to make things way easier. I spent longer trying to find an image to use for the Cacique Executive Officer of the Ayiti Federation than I did actually writing about the Ayiti Federation, before finally just giving up and using a modern painting imagining what the historical Taíno cacica Yuisa might have looked like even though it looked totally out of place and also wasn't in the public domain like most of the rest of the images I've been using.

megane
Jun 20, 2008



Empress Theonora
Feb 19, 2001

She was a sword glinting in the depths of night, a lance of light piercing the darkness. There would be no mistakes this time.

Yes, exactly.

StrifeHira
Nov 7, 2012

I'll remind you that I have a very large stick.

This is pretty much the best. :allears:

Nationalism will/should hit a number of these empires pretty hard. I mean look at France, they basically have eaten most of the German nations, and the Ming... well, yeah. For them I'm kinda thinking modernized substates/satellites would go a long way in making it both powerful but still somewhat balanced.

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
Catalunya will be free!

Rejected Fate
Aug 5, 2011

Aistelahan's pretty big now, maybe a sinicized version of Tartary would suit it?

Readingaccount
Jan 6, 2013

Law of the jungle
Unlike Denmark I just can't imagine Byzantium starting a nuclear war (though she'd be way more likely to win it with the offensive military strategy and wealth of resources), which is sad to me in that it's one strategy that won't be seen, though it's good for the world... :)
Byzantium hates nationalism though, so there's the good old expansion game... I'm hoping it'll expand its girth come Victoria 2, or we probably won't ever diplo-annex Yilang like we should. How is diploannexation done in Vicky btw?

Readingaccount fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Sep 12, 2014

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo

Readingaccount posted:

How is diploannexation done in Vicky btw?

It isn't, except in some specific cases like if Germany spheres a German minor that somehow was not already absorbed into it, it can get an event to annex the minor. But for cases that do not involve an union tag and a minor of the same nation, it just isn't a thing to annex your Satellites.

Edit: Having a Satellite is often better anyway, when dealing with unaccepted cultures.

GSD fucked around with this message at 08:08 on Sep 12, 2014

ThatBasqueGuy
Feb 14, 2013

someone introduce jojo to lazyb


Readingaccount posted:

Unlike Denmark I just can't imagine Byzantium starting a nuclear war (though she'd be way more likely to win it with the offensive military strategy and wealth of resources), which is sad to me in that it's one strategy that won't be seen, though it's good for the world... :)
Byzantium hates nationalism though, so there's the good old expansion game... I'm hoping it'll expand its girth come Victoria 2, or we probably won't ever diplo-anne Yilang like we should. How is diploannexation done in Vicky btw?

It isn't. Satellites do increase the size of your name on the map tho, which is the most important thing

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Minority Deport
Mar 28, 2010
So what's the status of the Haida? I know we technically don't know anything about them, but I'm super interested in knowing what's up with them.

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