MotF 33: The Pilgrimage

My first ever MotF entry, in a slighty edited version.

The map at hand showcases the Holy Route of Vareshava, a pilgrimage route of Zoroastrian faith, on which the believers follow the way of religious reformer Vareshava who, among other things, introduced Monasticism in 240 AD.

My entry-

In this timeline, Jesus follows his regular path as per OTL until his faithful capture by the Romans. Instead of being betrayed, Jesus raises a militia which fights the Romans. During the Roman siege of the city, Jesus escapes with several followers to Cyprus. Christ assumes a new identity, and joins the local populace as a tailor. Jesus becomes part of Cyprus culture by helping others and writing down his thoughts in the book "Musings of Jesus".

Eventually, Jesus flees as Roman authorities close in on him. Over time, he escapes to Greece. There, Jesus is turned over to the police by the populace. The small town becomes the scourge of many due to this act, even millenia later. Jesus is taken by the authorities to Roman Italy to stand trial.

Jesus, when interrogated by the Romans, agrees to help them. Jesus will work together with the Romans and his followers to make a peaceful resolution to the rebellion in Israel. This event becomes known as the Holy Unification between Christ and Rome. Jesus works with the Romans, writing several books on religion and philosophy. Jesus becomes a Roman statesman and hero to both the Romans and Jews. Christ dies at age 67 in Rome, and is buried with full honors in the center of the city.

Many followers of Roman Judaism (explained in the map) follow the pilgrimage route of Jesus along his life every year, from his birth to his public tomb in Rome.

When a map challenge suite my fancy, I occasionally make a quick map of a general idea I have about it. Usually, I don't post those maps, as I tend to think they're terrible (with a few exceptions).

However, since this contest seems to be very lacking in entries, I shall provide you with the quick 'first idea I came up with after reading the challenge description taken to a silly but sort-of satisfying conclusion' map.

The bit-poem is meant to be read- preferably in a very preacher-voicy way- in trochee with a strong ending on every second line (though that does make Jerusalem a bit odd).

Essentially, this is what happens when Christianity takes the lessons it learned with the Germanic tribes in the first few centuries (steal all their ideas and make them your own) of its existence and applies them again around the same time as a much stronger mid-1800s pagan resurgence. (In other words, i made it because it was fun, not because it made sense- again, note I wasn't planning on releasing this for general consumption).

A few notes on the map:
-I have a bad habit of renaming things when there's no particular need.
-'Christianos Athenia' is what outsiders call it- essentially, Athena as Sophia as God.
-'Arabic' is a name for a rather benign crossbreed- think 'Muslims for Jesus.'
-Christianity with Chinese Characteristics. You knew it was coming.
-Imperial- Basically, the Emperor is sort-of an antipope.
-Thoric, Odinic- well. Like I said, increased paganism.
-Presbyterians in Vancouver- Why the heck not.
-Kivatic- Essentially Deism (Kivati was a Puget Sound Indian creator/trickster god who did stuff, then he created the world. Then he decided to sit on a rock and wait until time ended. Because yeah.)
-Contanzistabluzantiumbulople.

A quick and simple one. The holy centres of a Chola-colonized Tamil Madagascar.

In the early 19th Century CE, a man by the name of Xiong began preaching about a new religion and way of life that was centered around humility, selflessness and kindness. He preached the end of the autocratic governments and the dawn of a new era led by the peasants. This new faith was called Xiongism after the name of the prophet. Thousands flocked to the new faith and by 1450, it's ranks were nearly 7 million strong. Many Xiong Worship Centers were constructed in the cities of Shanghai and Taipei with many more scattered in the countryside. However, the emperor of the Chinese Empire frowned upon this new religion and ordered that it would to be banned in 1880. Xiongists were harassed by law enforcement officers and many were arrested at house meetings. Mobs of people began beating up and sometimes killing Xiongists. Not even the largest Worship Centers in Shanghai were safe from the hands of the mob. This discrimination and oppression carried on for 2 long decades.

In 1900, Xiongists all over Southern China began revolting against the Chinese government and demanded that the entirety of Southern China which was nearly 67% Xiongist, increased autonomy and for the government to halt discrimination and oppression of Xiongists. When it was obvious this had fallen on deaf ears, the Holy Republic of Xiongjing was proclaimed in September 1900. A militia was quickly created to fight back the inevitable invasion by Chinese forces. Despite the overwhelming odds, the Xiong forces had won the Chinese Civil War and the humiliated Chinese were forced to sign a peace treaty with them on October 1905, recognizing the independence of the Holy Republic of Xiongjing.

Today, Xiongjing is one of the more developed nations in East Asia and the richest Theocratic state. Places said to have importance in the Xiong Guidebook were now visited by crowds of pilgrims. One of the more popular destinations is Xiongystan, the alleged birthplace of Xiong and Shanghai, where the first worship centers were constructed.

This has been ok'd by Krall

Come, take the path of Surak as he preached the path of logic to the war-torn peoples of Vulcan.

His first journey to his fellow peoples around the Sea of T'karr and the rivers that feed it, to his incarceration at Shun'a for "sedition".

His second journey to the canyon cities along the great River Shokk, and thence along the caravan train to Senhir, and his great ministry there.

His third journey to the peoples of the Great Sea and the lakes surrounding it.

His fourth journey to the nomads of the northern desert.

His fifth journey along the caravan path of the west to his final resting place. There, at the monestary of T'Chir he spent his last years, sending his prime disciples out to the world as his health failed.

Okay, this is a map depicting the pilgrimage sites and routes of a monotheistic religion worshipping Sol Invictus developed in AD 294 by a man named Agathon of Byzantium.

Contains minor spoilers for my TL.

The Prophecy of Theophilos Michaellis

In the year 6150 AM a monk in S:t Catherine's Monastery by the name Theophilos Michaellis had a revelation that would forever change Christianity. Michaellis believed he had seen the Archangel Gabriel, and that he had recieved an incomplete message that Emperor Justinian's general Belisarius was a link to the salvation of humanity's good, and that it was Michaellis' divine task to spread the word of this by travelling to the site of Belisarius' burial in Rome.

He first travelled to Jerusalem, in hopes that the Holy City would bring him a piece in the puzzle. It did, in the form of a hidden mosaic that instructed Michaellis to find another revelation at Tauresium, the site of Justinian's birth.

He then travelled to Antioch to ask the priests there about similar epiphanies in the past. The priests threw him out in reaction to the perceived heresy he had communicated.

After this incident, Michaellis made headway towards the Imperial capital of Constantinople, and had another vision at an inn in Ancyra. There, the Archangel had supposedly instructed him to seek guidance and spread the word in the Queen of Cities, pointing out the Hagia Sophia as a key place in his search. As he preached in Constantinople, more and more people started believing in his epiphanies, and a large crowd of people followed him on his path to Tauresium, only stopping as he approached Salonica.

When he finally arrived at the Emperor Justinian's birthplace, he was stunned to find all of the Archangels in the small house, there to inform him about how he should continue preaching in Rome, and how the belief in his prophecy would lift the people to a higher status of life. After this Michaellis passed out, and awoke to find himself in an uninhabited house in the city of Tarsatica.

From there, Michaellis journeyed through the Constantinopolitan tributary state of Langobardia to Rome. Upon his arrival in 6153 he immediately started preaching the holiness of Belisarius, as he had been instructed. Unfortunately, some fiercely Catholic people in Rome would not buy his prophecy, and after only three weeks of preaching he was killed by an angry mob. His martyrdom, however, inspired the people who had accepted his prophecy to continue spreading his lost word, and by the year 6300 the Belisarist cult had become a major branch of Christianity. Many Belisarists make the pilgrimage to all the cities visited by Michaellis, and this pilgrimage has created immense wealth for the cities involved.

Map of the Belisarist pilgrimage route

Something I cooked up from the Ameriwank universe that I thought would be fun.