April 2017 Challenge: Fashions Made Sacred, Europe

[Diamond]

Cool. Is that a surviving Ottoman Empire? And I'm curious about that English-owned bit in the south of France - is that some kind of Avignon-Pope propped up by England?

[Ares96]

Cool. Is that a surviving Ottoman Empire? And I'm curious about that English-owned bit in the south of France - is that some kind of Avignon-Pope propped up by England?

This is a commission (of sorts), so I'm not really all that well-equipped to answer questions regarding the actual content. I do, however, know that that is indeed a surviving Ottoman Empire, and as to your other question, England-Scotland-Ireland is still ruled by the House of Orange in this world, so my assumption is that that's some sort of expanded Principality of Orange that fell under their rule - France and England being staunch allies here. Sorry I can't be of more help.

[Ares96]

I've now reached the edges of the basemap - the only things remaining to do now are the rivers in Russia, the Caucasus and the Middle East (urgh), as well as the borders in those areas and the presentation.

### Latest WIP ###
FMS-eu-preview5.png

[Ares96]

And now it's all done except the rivers of the Volga basin. And, of course, the insets.

### Latest WIP ###
FMS-eu-preview6.png

[Ares96]

It's done! I've also managed to coax the author of the story over here from alternatehistory.com, so hopefully any questions you have should find a more coherent answer than I've been able to manage.

### Latest WIP ###
FMS-eu.png

[Mouse]

Very tidily done

Just like a page out of a printed atlas

[Ares96]

Very tidily done

Just like a page out of a printed atlas

The style I was going for was one of those big roll-down maps you sometimes see in schoolrooms, but updated somewhat for the modern age (because minimalism is just easier).

[Mouse]

An atlas, a poster or rolling map - the same basic style, so I would say it is a success

[Ciclavex]

Hello, all, I'm Ciclavex, author of the AlternateHistory.Com TL (timeline), Fashions Made Sacred (account needed to view, as it's in the private section of the forum), which Ares has been graciously mapping based on my notes, with far greater skill than I've ever been able to manage with maps. They really are quite stunning, I have to say.

The Point of Departure in FMS is in the 1670s; in real life, in the aftermath of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, part of the price that William of Orange, the Stadtholder (sort of a President-for-Life) of the Netherlands, demanded for peace with Charles II of England was the hand of his niece, Mary, in marriage. Mary was second in line to the throne - Charles' wife, Catherine, was barren, and Mary's father, the Duke of York, had no sons, and she was the elder daughter, so William was essentially demanding the English throne, barring unforeseen circumstances (William himself was fourth in line, and first man after the Duke of York; he and Mary were cousins).

The two of them married, and quickly got pregnant, but Mary suffered what seems to have been (it's disputed, but this is what I and some historians think happened) a stress-induced catastrophic late-term miscarriage that damaged her uterus, and would never have children afterward, and always had poor health the rest of her life, meaning they had no children. In FMS, the pregnancy went to a live birth, and they had several children afterward; obviously, this changes things massively, and by the 21st century, over the centuries, one of the major changes is... the lack of major changes. There have never been serious, popular revolutions that really caught on with the Enlightenment, the way that the French Revolution did in our timeline, and, over time, things have changed drastically, so that the world of 2016 (when FMS takes place) is almost unrecognizable compared to the world of 2016in our timeline, and the ideas of the Enlightenment - at least, as we know them - have never set in. They're there in fits and starts, democracy's still evolved and all sorts of changes have happened, but they weren't the same changes and they weren't as drastic.

Anyway, let's go to the standing question.,

Looking good, Ares

Is there a particular reason you have spelled Romania the way that you have? I know it is sometimes spelt that way, but its a lot more common in 'English speaking' maps to spell it with just the 'o'. Its not wrong - just really quite unusual

In French it's Roumanie. In Romanian it's România and in English it has been Romania for quite some time now.

Roumania is the transcription used in English in FMS; it derives from the French "Roumanie", which derives from the Romanian. It came into in being in FMS as a Polish puppet-state broken off from the Ottoman Empire wholesale, not directly annexed due to its different religious and cultural sensibilities, that eventually became aligned with England and France. The term "Romans" to refer to the people of that region - which hadn't been a unified country before - dates back long before 1600s, and possibly back to the time when the region was part of the Roman Empire, and the Latin settlers there were abandoned when the Empire withdrew from across the Danube, though it may also have evolved much later, when the territory was under Eastern Roman (Byzantine) rule.

Cool. Is that a surviving Ottoman Empire? And I'm curious about that English-owned bit in the south of France - is that some kind of Avignon-Pope propped up by England?

The Ottoman Empire - or "Osmanli" Empire as it's called, in a more loyal transcription of the Turkish - is indeed still present, and still rules a healthy chunk of Europe. It's democratized to some extent, and gives its Christian minorities (Greek, Slavic and Armenian) far more say, as, without the Levant their rule, they're rather bereft of quite so dominant a Muslim majority as the Ottomans had in real life for most of their existence.

In the English-owned bit - that's the Principality of Orange, the hereditary Imperial principality of the House of Orange, which was seized by the French and annexed in the confusion of the succession after William died without children in real life. It has annexed the old Papal estates in the region, Avignon and Venaissin, which it bordered during the chaos of a set of wars long ago, in which the Papal States was destroyed and annexed into what would become the modern Kingdom of Italy. Because France and England have been broadly aligned for most of this period, and, unlike the various princes who claimed Orange in real life after William's death, England has the military force to fight with France over it, it's just remained a part of England - something the people there, as culturally and linguistically French as they are, are perfectly okay with, because it's a dominantly Protestant country.

Did I mention official religion is still a thing in France 2016? Official religion is still a thing in France 2016.

[Diamond]

Interesting, verrrrrry interesting. Dang, I need to get back into AH one of these days...