I’ve been posting on this site for a while now and have been lurking for even longer but I haven’t yet written a TL yet so I think it’s time for me to get cracking on the research. Which of the following seem the most interesting to you?
King Strange’s Men
POD: Ferdinando Stanley, an important patron of Shakespeare, plays his cards better during the Hesketh Affair and lives long enough to succeed Elizabeth I.
Focus: Elizabethan politics, all of the blood-drenched lunacy that makes Now Blooms the Tudor Rose so entertaining and the intellectual ferment of the Northern Renaissance getting a boost from having an enthusiast on the English throne (but for how long?). Lots and lots of love for the Bard of course.
The Land of Trees and Bees
POD: African pygmies figure out the basics of beekeeping very early on and develop low-level horticulture by the time the *Bantu show up.
Focus: lots of focus on agriculture and its effects in the spirit of the Lands of Red and Gold. Rain forest isn’t generally a good place for farming, but a lot can be done with it using the pre-Columbian Amazon for inspiration, especially with fish management and the domestication of rats and (if I can find a way to make it plausible) parrots. A lot of emphasis will be placed on the development of pygmy culture as they move away from hunting and gathering and interact with the *Bantu.
Into the Setting Sun
POD: while trying to get the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 passed, the Duke of Wellington challenges the Earl of Winchilsea to a duel and instead of deliberately missing (as IOTL), Wellington shoots and kills the earl, perhaps because his arm gets jarred at just the wrong moment and vast flocks of butterflies blanket the world.
Focus: Victorian politics are fascinating, but a lot of the focus here would be on economics, with the development of industrialization, economic theory and economic ideologies being followed closely. I have a lot of neat little ideas such as the Bubble of All Flesh, but it’ll take a lot of research to tie it all together into a coherent narrative. It would also include a lot of Lovecraft references and shout-outs (with Richard Whately, who won’t become Archbishop of Ireland, and the American Pickman family playing important roles as well as the Lovecraft family itself).
Se ti saber, ti responder
POD: Musa ibn Musa, a Basque Muslim, beats the Asturians at the Battle of Albelda in 859.
Focus: developing the politics and culture of a more cosmopolitan al-Andalus with Basque and other Muslims of European descent playing a more important role in its politics and culture. There’ll be buckets of blood with shifting alliances cutting across family, ethnicity and religion but a lot of focus will be placed on the development of a very different set of Spanish cultures. Muslim Span itself won’t be wanked per se, but it will have a bigger cultural impact on the rest of Europe with TTL’s Iberian equivalent of the Sabir language spreading even more widely.
Thoughts?
King Strange’s Men
POD: Ferdinando Stanley, an important patron of Shakespeare, plays his cards better during the Hesketh Affair and lives long enough to succeed Elizabeth I.
Focus: Elizabethan politics, all of the blood-drenched lunacy that makes Now Blooms the Tudor Rose so entertaining and the intellectual ferment of the Northern Renaissance getting a boost from having an enthusiast on the English throne (but for how long?). Lots and lots of love for the Bard of course.
The Land of Trees and Bees
POD: African pygmies figure out the basics of beekeeping very early on and develop low-level horticulture by the time the *Bantu show up.
Focus: lots of focus on agriculture and its effects in the spirit of the Lands of Red and Gold. Rain forest isn’t generally a good place for farming, but a lot can be done with it using the pre-Columbian Amazon for inspiration, especially with fish management and the domestication of rats and (if I can find a way to make it plausible) parrots. A lot of emphasis will be placed on the development of pygmy culture as they move away from hunting and gathering and interact with the *Bantu.
Into the Setting Sun
POD: while trying to get the Catholic Relief Act of 1829 passed, the Duke of Wellington challenges the Earl of Winchilsea to a duel and instead of deliberately missing (as IOTL), Wellington shoots and kills the earl, perhaps because his arm gets jarred at just the wrong moment and vast flocks of butterflies blanket the world.
Focus: Victorian politics are fascinating, but a lot of the focus here would be on economics, with the development of industrialization, economic theory and economic ideologies being followed closely. I have a lot of neat little ideas such as the Bubble of All Flesh, but it’ll take a lot of research to tie it all together into a coherent narrative. It would also include a lot of Lovecraft references and shout-outs (with Richard Whately, who won’t become Archbishop of Ireland, and the American Pickman family playing important roles as well as the Lovecraft family itself).
Se ti saber, ti responder
POD: Musa ibn Musa, a Basque Muslim, beats the Asturians at the Battle of Albelda in 859.
Focus: developing the politics and culture of a more cosmopolitan al-Andalus with Basque and other Muslims of European descent playing a more important role in its politics and culture. There’ll be buckets of blood with shifting alliances cutting across family, ethnicity and religion but a lot of focus will be placed on the development of a very different set of Spanish cultures. Muslim Span itself won’t be wanked per se, but it will have a bigger cultural impact on the rest of Europe with TTL’s Iberian equivalent of the Sabir language spreading even more widely.
Thoughts?
, so why not? And bees in Africa, whodathunkit? 
