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Displaced World

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This is a request map for [link] (mdc01957), based on one of his alternate history/Axis Powers Hentalia scenarios...

It’s a fantasy map, an ISOT [link] or more accurately a Mysterium [link] .

Into a world where humanity never evolved (the most developed primate is an herbivorous plains ape with huge jaw muscles), several nations and Empires from different alternate timelines and dates AD were somehow transferred, in whole or in part. The Germanized Greater Mexico (the Habsburg possessions were divvied up rather differently in the late 16th century) helped defeat the aggressive and ruthless United Socialist States of America, and then vanished again, presumably to wherever it originally came for (much to the annoyance of the other states: why don’t _we_ get to go back?)

A decade later, a framework for cooperation and coordination of efforts, the Global Council, has been set up, and the various wilderness regions not replaced by Displaced nations have either become internationalized or shared out among interested nations (with a few disputes still undecided, alas: there hasn’t been any shooting, but debates in the Council get heated at times). The core territories of the USSA still remain under international occupation as the nation undergoes de-Communization (and the work is not negligible: the USSA was a nastier regime than the OTL Soviet Union any time after Stalin): the breakaway areas are fairly screwed up themselves (think Putin’s Russia, although messed up in various other ways).

The biggest powers come from two timelines. One is the Imperium of Liechtenstein: the Empire-Principality, whose history diverges from ours in the 11th century, is the center-point of a vast block of allied and economically unified nations tied together by dynastic ties, historical political fealty, etc., an “Imperium” or “area of authority” rather than a centralized state. Although modern and industrialized, it is a more “traditional” and conservative world than ours, where noblesse oblige remains a powerful force and personal loyalties are more important than OTL. Huge as it is, in fact it has shrunk in the Displacement, having lost territories in Africa, the Americas, and SE Asia.

The other two biggest powers, the People’s Empire of Brazil and the Nihonese Federal Empire, come from the same world, diverging from ours in the 16th century, where the alliance between a much more successful Portuguese Empire and a Catholic Japan dominates the globe. Brazil (rather more populous than OTL) is something with no exact OTL counterpart, a state with a leftist, interventionist economy and a “populist” monarchy: it retains close ties to the Federated Kingdom of Africa, a very racially varied and largely color-blind nation where it is not so much the color of your skin as the color of your money that determines status. The Lusophones have lost territory in India and Europe. The Nihonese Federal Empire, on the other hand, has held onto most of its territory, and with the disappearance of their traditional enemies and friendly relations with the Imperium, has grown a bit more distant from its old allies. Their joint protectorate, Catholic China (somewhat poor and more backwards and menaced from inland), has come along for the ride.

Not quite on the same level due to low relative population is the Steel Republic, a state run by those ideological also-rans of our timeline, technocrats. It is in some ways the most technologically advanced of the Displaced nations, and non-corrupt, but also one of the less democratic: eligibility to public office requires tests of practical knowledge, IQ, and loyalty to technocratic ideals (the Republic is also big on sophisticated lie-detection equipment). They aren’t entirely trusted by the other Displaced nations, and they in turn grumble a great deal about the “irrationality” of the other Council members. The Steel Republic is anti-ethnic nationalism, if not as viciously so as the USSA: although most of their population is Russian-speaking, the name of the state is not “Russia”, and the provinces into which it is divided are largely not nationality-based. It’s perfectly OK to speak your own language (as long as you also learn Rationalized Russian, the common language) or follow national customs, as long as there is no political organizing done on an ethnic/linguistic basis. It is the second most recently diverging world from ours, with a divergence during French revolutionary times.

The least influential (although they Try Harder) of the Council member states is the Federal Republic of America, which comes from a world that although it diverges from ours earlier (well back in the 18th century) than the one the Steel Republic comes from is a bit less odd. Democratic but highly nationalist, they Republic hopes to fully regain its pre-Displacement borders, which south of OTL Kentucky extended west to the Mississippi. However, although a number of USSA states were eager to gain FRA standards of living and legal rights, the expense of bringing “up to spec” the new states and the problems involved in assimilating their somewhat culturally alien inhabitants have proven onerous enough that the FRA is currently not accepting any new applications for membership.

This, combined with stories of discrimination and limited opportunities for “Ex-Reds” in the FRA, has led to something of a sour grapes mood among the states remaining within the occupied USSA (now renamed “The American Union”) and a rediscovery of a sort of patriotism of the “us vs. the outsiders” kind. The USSA, whose history diverged from ours only after the Civil War, used to rule from the Arctic to Panama and was the world center of Red revolution: after Displacement, it planned to make itself master of this new world and crush the competition: thanks to certain swift actions on the part of the Mexicans/New Austrians (who _knew_ from Totalitarian Crazies with dreams of World Conquest from back home) this failed badly, with several million deaths and the collapse of the Regime. Nowadays an occupied rump, many of its inhabitants call for full independence and a chance to make of themselves a power to respect again.

Aside worrying about the Technocrats and the former Reds, the major concern of the Displaced Nations is how to return home: all states are pouring huge amounts of money into research into the nature of the Displacement, and even the Technocrats are willing to openly share any new information and discoveries: all, after all, have lost allies and territories as a result, many families have been broken up, and there is a great deal of worry about what the Bad Guys (and to hear the Steel Republic folks tell it, their bad guys were _particularly_ bad) have been up to in their absence…still, since it wasn’t the same AD in their various timelines when they were Displaced, if they can figure it out, they might just be able to return just after they left…
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Lediblock2's avatar
Besides that primate, are there any other unique species in this world?