AHC: Wank an obscure ethnic group

[Mort the Reaper]

There have been plenty of challenges where the objective is wanking a particular ethnicity. But these are generally ethnic groups most people have at least heard of, such as the Ainu, Samaritans or Zulu.

So, with this in mind, your challenge is to wank a more obscure ethnic group.

 

[oshron]

part of my ASB ATL has Wallachia maintain its independence partly through lying about their country being plague-riddled and receiving alot of attention in at least three different narrative projects and a few short stories. does that count? (the relevant ethnic group would be the Vlachs)

 

[Mort the Reaper]

part of my ASB ATL has Wallachia maintain its independence partly through lying about their country being plague-riddled and receiving alot of attention in at least three different narrative projects and a few short stories. does that count? (the relevant ethnic group would be the Vlachs)

I think so.

 

[cmakk1012]

A Berber wank, with many different potential PoDs from circa Carthaginian times to the middle medieval period, could be fascinating.

 

[Arkenfolm]

There have been plenty of challenges where the objective is wanking a particular ethnicity. But these are generally ethnic groups most people have at least heard of, such as the Ainu, Samaritans or Zulu.

So, with this in mind, your challenge is to wank a more obscure ethnic group.

Depends on your definition of obscure. The TL in my signature, while in general being a PNW/California Indian wank by virtue of its agricultural PoD, gives certain groups (well, their ATL equivalents) an even bigger boost. For instance, I don't know if can be called Nuu-chah-nulth/Nootka especially obscure as far as American Indian peoples go (in that area there's more obscure groups by virtue of smaller numbers and/or their earlier destruction), but having an alternate version of them expand quite a ways down the Pacific Coast should count for something. I justified it by their OTL expertise at whaling (rather ancient) and an actual expansion to the mainland they did (the origins of the OTL Makah people) plus their frequent slave raiding (although that was common amongst most PNW cultures).

The most important reason would be a TL-specific push/pull factor where they want more land (especially coastal land, since their land is overcrowded), wealth, and slaves, and the best way to get that is by raiding other people and eventually subjugating them and inviting in followers, allies, and relatives to their new area. Over enough time and through cultural pressure the local populations assimilate to their culture/language, leaving a big chain of offshoot cultures stretching down the West Coast.

Other than that I've occasionally written some for other obscure cultures. I'd consider the Punic people of Late Antiquity obscure (unlike their more famous Carthaginian ancestors), but I think it's plausible to have them settle Malta (and neighboring islands i.e. Lampedusa) and then avoid Malta's Arabization and then persist until modern times.

A Berber wank, with many different potential PoDs from circa Carthaginian times to the middle medieval period, could be fascinating.

Easiest way could be to keep Morocco Berber, and that's possible even with a post-Islamic conquest PoD.

 

[Byzantion]

There have been plenty of challenges where the objective is wanking a particular ethnicity. But these are generally ethnic groups most people have at least heard of, such as the Ainu, Samaritans or Zulu.

So, with this in mind, your challenge is to wank a more obscure ethnic group.

Maybe an independent Kashubia ? How could something like this happen ?

 

[Hagre]

Have the ethnic Agaw elite of the Zagwe Kingdom remain in power after somehow avoiding Yekuno Amlak's overthrow of the Dynasty in 1268-70. Its large military, approximately 60,000 men according to Taddesse Tamrat, allows it to expand toward the Red Sea while it becomes a more militant-expansionist empire over conflict with the Islamic principalities. I can see the Zagwes successfully conquering Eritrea and Djibouti, maybe even expanding into Somaliland to claim ports such as Zeila or Berbera. It might facilitate the Christian settlement of northern Shewa and with this, war is inevitable with the pagan Damot Kingdom so there'll be an annexation of the aforementioned kingdom but it'll be difficult to pacify as it was IOTL.

Parts of Begemdir (Gondar province) and Gojjam were predominantly Agaw before they eventually became Amhara. I can see more provinces in northern, western and central Ethiopia becoming mostly ethnic Agaw if the Zagwes take on the same policies of resettling people from the Imperial centre that the Solomonids did.

 

[Atamolos]

I almost did an entire one-off TL based purely around this idea of “wanking the underdogs of history”. I could not figure out any plausible PODs, so I just worked backwards. The world’s great powers included a Korea-dominated East Asia, a massive Kurdish Empire claiming to inherit the throne of the Achaemenids, and a massive Illyrian/Slavic empire in southeastern Europe battling for influence with the United Gallic-Etruscan States

 

[DanMcCollum]

In my Amalingian Empire timeline, I have the Samaritans choosing to side with the winning team in a round of Byzantine Civil Wars and then became instrumental in leading a geurrila war against Persian occupiers.

The result being that the Samaritans are seen as useful and loyal subjects of the Empire - despite their religious beliefs - and avoid the worst of OTLs persecutions. They come to be mmore numerous and influential within the province.

Not the main point of my timeline, nor have I gone super in detail about them; but it seemed like too good of an opportunity to pass up!

 

[ramones1986]

Yeniseians, particularly the Kets/Kotts.

 

[Born in the USSA]

Would some sort of independent Yazidi state be possible? A scenario with surviving gnostic Christianity would make Yazidism somewhat more tolerated, as opposed to the old "devil worshipers" canard.

 

[Byzantion]

There have been plenty of challenges where the objective is wanking a particular ethnicity. But these are generally ethnic groups most people have at least heard of, such as the Ainu, Samaritans or Zulu.

So, with this in mind, your challenge is to wank a more obscure ethnic group.

Ashkenazi policy in Caucasus ?

 

[Gintoki Sakata]

Successful Portuguese Empire in the East = Macanese and Kristang wank, probably more Luso-Indian/Luso-Asian groups as well.

 

[GauchoBadger]

“Terra preta” agriculture in the Amazon develops much earlier, giving the local tribal societies enough impetus to expand. A second PoD would involve curbing the excesses of European-introduced diseases in order to preserve such societies.

 

[Kaiser of Brazil]

We could have the Heavenly Kingdom toppling down the Qing and creating a Theocratic Empire in China, Hong Xiuquan was a Hakka and that minority had some special privileges under his rule.

 

[Arkenfolm]

Would some sort of independent Yazidi state be possible? A scenario with surviving gnostic Christianity would make Yazidism somewhat more tolerated, as opposed to the old "devil worshipers" canard.

Doubt it, there's plenty of ways for gnostics to hate the Yazidi, from Melek Taus being identified as the Demiurge (so still devil worshippers) to simply having false and heretical beliefs (like Christianity vs Islam).

 

[Pralaya]

We could have the Heavenly Kingdom toppling down the Qing and creating a Theocratic Empire in China, Hong Xiuquan was a Hakka and that minority had some special privileges under his rule.

The slow collapse of the Qing Dynasty in China allowed for the rise to power for many minorities, most interestingly the Hui Muslims of Yunnan with the Pingnan Guo or the Taiping Rebellion. Especially the latter's victory would be a huge PoD and from there on, it would be quite easy to wank South Chinese minorities like the Hakka or the Zhuang.

My not-that-obscure ethnic group to wank would probably be the Cham in Champa, South East Asia. Butterfly Chinese immigration due to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty away (which in itself would also be a nice way to wank the Huis under Li Zicheng and his short-lived Shun Dynasty) and/or let the Vietnamese invasions fail and you would probably have an independent Cham polity with its own cultural identity (which was also heavily influenced by Islam by the 17th century by the way, those damn merchants and Malays reach every place).

 

[Nagisaki]

In the collapse of the Soviet Union, Azerbaijan gets a much more raw end of the deal, with Armenia steamrolling them in the early days of their war. In the chaos, that Tat People seize control of part of it, and slowly come to control the largest remaining section of it.

 

[Byzantion]

There have been plenty of challenges where the objective is wanking a particular ethnicity. But these are generally ethnic groups most people have at least heard of, such as the Ainu, Samaritans or Zulu.

So, with this in mind, your challenge is to wank a more obscure ethnic group.

Sorbian polity in Texas.

 

[P L Richards]

Sorbian polity in Texas.

I like the concept of a slavic polity in the Americas, but please explain how the Sorbians, of all people, come to be the dominant group in part (or all?) of Texas, and presumably much more numerous than in their homeland.