Map Thread XXII
- Thread starter Balkanized U.S.A
- Start date
Note the colouring - client state of Persia, not a sovereign country. I drew that distinction deliberately because otherwise I'd also find myself having to list all of those North African tribes...
I thought that might be the case but the border colour looked more like the international border colour than those used in North Africa or between HRE subdivisions.
Well spotted!
This is a deliberate distinction, because there is functionally an international border between Kuwait and Persia owing to legal differences. For instance, alcohol is legal to import and produce in Persia proper, but completely illegal in Kuwait. Conversely, writings criticising Shi'a imams are banned in Persia proper, but legal in Kuwait. So it's a border that's patrolled, and Persian or Kuwaiti officials may conduct stops on crossings to check what you're bringing in.
I guess you could compare the Kuwait-Persia relationship to OTL French Guyana-Metropolitan France (in that you're allowed to move freely between the two but you'll still get stopped somewhere along the way), or perhaps Hong Kong-China.
North Africa meanwhile uses subdivision borders because this is not the case; unless you use a map and sextant you're generally going to have no indication of where those borders are because they have very little impact on day-to-day activities. If you steal something from a market stall you're obviously going to notice whether you're being chased down by a Spanish soldier or a Tuareg tribesman, but that's a pretty niche situation to find oneself in!
John Waters
Banned
Wow that's certainly a real treat! Love it! Have you already decided on the PoD yet?
i think its on the right peninsula; the dark grey bit above it is part of china (long story)
non, as its the Comanche, who allied with the USA, and due to a less expansionist USA (they gained florida in the revolution (no one helped them ittl), with them filibustering louisiana outside of louisiana proper, who joined later), they kept their independence.
Is this version right?. I used a very low res image as reference son there might be mistakes.
ohhh... that's on me for not noticing it's the same grey as the foreign territory!
I guess I assumed it was shaded to single it out as the capital territory or something like that
Chinese treaty port is wild tho. Would have loved to see a writeup or wikibox to elaborate on the details
Crossposting my MOTF entry. It's been a while!
As the 22nd century begins, The Republic of Colombia operates three of the world's five space elevators. They were built largely in the late 21st century, during a period of intense rivalry between Colombia and the rising power of India for global leadership. Colombia ultimately would lose this cold war, and even its local hegemony in the Americas. When Cuba, Concessionary Tejas, and much of Central America split off in 2098, the Republic's power fell lower than they had for two hundred years. In that crisis, the government threw itself into the task of completing the third and most advanced space elevator, the PDC Colombiana in the Galapagos. Although the Colombiana's original purpose--contesting the skies with geopolitical rivals--is no longer relevant, she has salvaged her country's international prestige as an economic and scientific center. Colombia, no longer counted with the great powers of Earth, still retains some of the glory in space, where it is a leader in asteroid mining and coordinates the operation of lunar facilities for most other nations, thanks to the space elevator program.
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My other thought for this challenge was to do a map of an alternate birth of civilization, showing the earliest settlements with two-story buildings.
As the 22nd century begins, The Republic of Colombia operates three of the world's five space elevators. They were built largely in the late 21st century, during a period of intense rivalry between Colombia and the rising power of India for global leadership. Colombia ultimately would lose this cold war, and even its local hegemony in the Americas. When Cuba, Concessionary Tejas, and much of Central America split off in 2098, the Republic's power fell lower than they had for two hundred years. In that crisis, the government threw itself into the task of completing the third and most advanced space elevator, the PDC Colombiana in the Galapagos. Although the Colombiana's original purpose--contesting the skies with geopolitical rivals--is no longer relevant, she has salvaged her country's international prestige as an economic and scientific center. Colombia, no longer counted with the great powers of Earth, still retains some of the glory in space, where it is a leader in asteroid mining and coordinates the operation of lunar facilities for most other nations, thanks to the space elevator program.
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My other thought for this challenge was to do a map of an alternate birth of civilization, showing the earliest settlements with two-story buildings.
Returning after nearly a decade of absence with a WIP (probably about 85% complete) I've been pottering away at for some time.
What could be going on here... 🤨
What could be going on here... 🤨
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This is very cool! Some questions I have:
- I assume that the PLH is a republic?
- Is Greece a surviving Byzantine Empire?
- How centralized is the HRE?
I have a question and don't really know where to ask. So I'm just gonna ask here.
You know that sometimes maps will use darker colour schemes for grimdark scenarions.
Like a TNO map for example. Very dark colours. For the ocean, the smaller and prominent countries.
Is there something in reverse? Like a soft/light colour scheme? Like if for example you want to show the "good guys" from your maps view, so you use lighter colours compared to the "villains", who would get the typical TNO like colour scheme colours.
You know that sometimes maps will use darker colour schemes for grimdark scenarions.
Like a TNO map for example. Very dark colours. For the ocean, the smaller and prominent countries.
Is there something in reverse? Like a soft/light colour scheme? Like if for example you want to show the "good guys" from your maps view, so you use lighter colours compared to the "villains", who would get the typical TNO like colour scheme colours.
1. No, it's a Hetmanate *badum-tss*. Jokes aside - not in any proper sense of the term, no. You could call it a quasi-republican stratocracy. There is an elected legislature, the Sejm (the franchise extends only to landowning males as well as non-landowning males who are either currently serving or have completed at least 5 years' service in the military). The Sejm in turn elects the Hetman for life; the Hetman must be a military officer. He has effectively unchecked power, including amending legislation passed by the Sejm, and there is no mechanism whatsoever to remove an incumbent Hetman aside from asking him nicely to resign (...well, there's murder, but no legal mechanism).
The system arose out of an early 18th-century revolt against the monarch, where they didn't want to keep the existing elective monarchy but also failed to come up with anything significantly better. There has been some progress; in 1880 the constitution was amended to change the requirement of having seen battle to having served in the military or currently serving. This happened in large part because (somewhat unusually for a stratocracy), Poland-Lithuania had concluded its most recent war 31 years ago at that point, and they realised the electorate for the next Sejm election would end up risibly tiny and in the long run you could conceivably end up with no electorate.
2. Surprisingly, no! Byzantium still ended up falling ITTL, but in the long run the Ottomans didn't do as well and so their collapse happened a lot earlier (early 19th century). For ideological reasons relating to their weird conception of race/ethnicity at the time, the UKSII was very sympathetic to the Greeks and helped them turn the megali idea into megali reality if you'll pardon the pun. Needless to say, the struggling rump-Ottomans didn't stand much of a chance against them.
The Greeks actually wanted to call their new state the "Roman Empire" again (reflecting the fact that Ottoman Greeks still referred to themselves as "Ρωμιοί" much like IOTL; click here for a cute example in the form of a folk song), but the HRE kicked up a stink about it so they ended up settling for "Empire of the Hellenes".
3. Roughly equivalent to the OTL German Empire. The TTL Germans were more centralisation-minded somewhat earlier, in no small part because the TTL Kipchaks briefly made it all the way to Vienna (unlike the TTL Ottomans), leading to the "Ewiger Landfriede" not only happening more than a century early, but also actually being observed much more diligently.
When the Reformation led to the disintegration of the Archbishoprics of Cologne, Trier, and Mainz, and the departure of the Kingdom of Bohemia, left with only 3 electors, the imperial dignity was made hereditary (in the event falling to the Ascanians, hence the location of the capital), and things continued to develop organically from there.
Has there ever been any Polish-Lithuanian Hetmen who are related as of 1900?
Were the Greeks able to get a Palaiologoi to become their monarch?
Do the Habsburgs still exist ITTL?
I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that; honestly I wouldn't use a lighter variant for the good guys for a few reasons, firstly the darker version only works because most of the color systems are moderately light as is and it's easier to darken them than lighten them, secondly the 'good guys' should just be normal color to shown that good is the default/normal, not an exception and thirdly I think lighter colors and pastels to for that matter work more for fantasy settings or showing fantasy elements.