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Also, the royal palace and estates of the Rurikid dynasty would be located in Vyshhorod, just north of Kyiv. It wouldn’t be sacked by the Mongols and thus remained as a royal residence, though Kyiv was the political and economic capital.
After reading some of the recent CK3 dev diaries, I wonder if Kairouan would work better as an economic/political/cultural hub for North Africa over Carthage? I remember we talked about Carthage being the hub of North Africa due to the Mexica southern wave making it all the way there and burning down Tunis before Birama relives the besieged Carthage, but surely the Kairouan basins being destroyed would have a detrimental effect on the area?
Since the Umayyad Mosque was apparently the seat of an important archbishop in the Patriarchate of Antioch, I guess the Reich would convert it back into a cathedral or an eparchy palace. I could see the Patriarch of Antioch moving to there after Antioch itself is destroyed after Red Christmas, at least until Jerusalem inevitably destroys in Tabula Rasa due to being a former Islamic Mosque and pagan temple.
Perhaps the flagship of Victoria III during Sunrise Invasion could have been constructed at Drassanes. As for Sunset Invasion, I guess it would be the site of an important battle between Beathan of Tavira and the Mexica southern wave.
Also would there be anything like the Achilleion here?
Since Mindaugas' Lithuania became the dominant power in the Baltics, what ideas do you have for the region’s pre 13th century history and other polities there like Estonia?
After reading some of the recent CK3 dev diaries, I wonder if Kairouan would work better as an economic/political/cultural hub for North Africa over Carthage? I remember we talked about Carthage being the hub of North Africa due to the Mexica southern wave making it all the way there and burning down Tunis before Birama relives the besieged Carthage, but surely the Kairouan basins being destroyed would have a detrimental effect on the area?
I suppose Carthage would be the political capital for prestige purposes and integration with Europe, since as a port city it can rely on shipments from Italy and control trade routes, while Kairouan is still an important trade city in its own right.
Since the Umayyad Mosque was apparently the seat of an important archbishop in the Patriarchate of Antioch, I guess the Reich would convert it back into a cathedral or an eparchy palace. I could see the Patriarch of Antioch moving to there after Antioch itself is destroyed after Red Christmas, at least until Jerusalem inevitably destroys in Tabula Rasa due to being a former Islamic Mosque and pagan temple.
Perhaps the flagship of Victoria III during Sunrise Invasion could have been constructed at Drassanes. As for Sunset Invasion, I guess it would be the site of an important battle between Beathan of Tavira and the Mexica southern wave.
Since Mindaugas' Lithuania became the dominant power in the Baltics, what ideas do you have for the region’s pre 13th century history and other polities there like Estonia?
Nothing yet. I might have medieval Estonia and Latvia as being under Norse and Rusian rule—more like a patchwork of castles and forts for either side with the local tribes in between—due to the game region being put under Norse rule.
The Rasas would take more from Hindutva and traditional Indian social concepts (like a more rigid and British Raj-like caste system and Ganasangha as you mentioned), mixed with Hindu nationalism, Indo-Aryan supremacy, territorial revanchism, and heavy Islamophobia and Turkophobia. Depending on how the Sikhs show up and interact with Indian society, they could have either been persecuted or considered allies by the Rasas, seeing as the real RSS has a Sikh partner organization.
You know, since Sikhism emerged in the 15th century, I wonder how the origins of the religion and the life of Guru Nanak would play out here? I also wonder how Jainism would fare here?
You know, since Sikhism emerged in the 15th century, I wonder how the origins of the religion and the life of Guru Nanak would play out here? I also wonder how Jainism would fare here?
Not sure, but I do feel like working out a Sikh-equivalent religion to emerge in early modern India, so the world doesn’t remain largely politically and religiously frozen in the 11th-13th centuries.
I'll keep the name of the political entity as "Saray" as a Roman approximation of Saqsin's alleged original Turkic name Sarighsin. Another name used by the Romans would be "Cumania." Yes, the game had a big Jewish Khazar steppe empire, but the historicity of Jewish Khazars is extremely controversial, and in any case their era was long over by the 11th century. The only big steppe political entity I could find that fit the time period was the Cuman-Kipchak tribal confederation that was called Cumania in Latin sources, Dasht-i Qipchaq in Persian, and al-Qumāniyīn in Arabic. I can't find what they actually called themselves, so I'll just use Cumania for my own convenience, with contemporary Roman historians switching between Cumania and Saray. Since the Khazars were still present, just not as powerful or politically organized as they once were, I suppose "Khazaria" could still be used to refer to a small region in Cumania centering on the Volga region. So I imagine that the in-game political entity known as "Saray" was really a tribal confederation of Cumans, Kipchaks, and Khazars who followed various faiths, including all three Abrahamic religions, but it was not a centralized empire as in the game with a single leader. Every tribe within the confederation had their own khan, all largely aligned for purposes of trade and common defense but generally autonomous from each other. I suppose a lot of those khans were Jewish, hence why the game entity was Jewish. But there'd also be a lot of khans who were Christian, Muslim, or pagan. I could even have a few khans near the Russian cultural sphere adopt the worship of Russian deities like Dazhbog, which gradually spreads east and is brought into Central Asia by the Mongols.
I could just drag out the invasions so they don’t end within 10 years, much like the historical ones. So the plague begins decades after Ocuil Acafl and Genghis Khan are gone but their heirs and armies are still around and the parts of the Reich they occupied are still suffering. That way it won’t all be happening at once, and we won’t have people asking why the plague doesn’t just kill the two conquerors.
I also wonder if the Thirteenth Century Crisis would have an effect on the Little Ice Age? I'm pretty sure one of the cited studies regarding the Mongol invasions in my previous link has been debunked, so I'm not sure.
On a side note, I'm pretty sure the Maximist Wars would have coincided with the end of the Little Ice Age in OTL, which is a neat coincidence, but maybe we could move up the end date of the Little Ice Age to 1886 to tie in with the supernatural arc. If anything, despite the above, I feel like the carnage of the Maximist Wars would prolong the Little Ice Age, especially since it’s fought in the age of industrial warfare.
The Khazars' fall is important to Rus' remaining pagan, so that will have to remain, though I could have it be less total and with post-Khazar populations surviving into later centuries.
I also wonder if the Thirteenth Century Crisis would have an effect on the Little Ice Age? I'm pretty sure one of the cited studies regarding the Mongol invasions in my previous link has been debunked, so I'm not sure.
On a side note, I'm pretty sure the Maximist Wars would have coincided with the end of the Little Ice Age in OTL, which is a neat coincidence, but maybe we could move up the end date of the Little Ice Age to 1886 to tie in with the supernatural arc. If anything, despite the above, I feel like the carnage of the Maximist Wars would prolong the Little Ice Age, especially since it’s fought in the age of industrial warfare.
The Khazars' fall is important to Rus' remaining pagan, so that will have to remain, though I could have it be less total and with post-Khazar populations surviving into later centuries.
Or there could be the reverse, like Hungary supporting Matthias Johann and Leopold Schwann, the Transylvanian Saxons backing the monarchy, and the Dacians to the east in Constantinople’s pocket.
That’s fair. I assume the Cumans would still escape into Carpathia like OTL. Since the Annionaverse Pannonian Basin is dominated by Germanic Goths and Avars, I wonder how those groups would fare in a Hohenzollernverse where the Magyar migration most likely still happened?
On the topic of nomadic groups, how would the Roma migrate into the Reich and fare there? Assuming relations between the Angeloi and Rasa regimes break down as previously discussed, I could see Angelos viewing Roma as Indian nationals and cracking down on them, mirroring what the Rasas would do to Christians in India.
That’s fair. I assume the Cumans would still escape into Carpathia like OTL. Since the Annionaverse Pannonian Basin is dominated by Germanic Goths and Avars, I wonder how those groups would fare in a Hohenzollernverse where the Magyar migration most likely still happened?
On the topic of nomadic groups, how would the Roma migrate into the Reich and fare there? Assuming relations between the Angeloi and Rasa regimes break down as previously discussed, I could see Angelos viewing Roma as Indian nationals and cracking down on them, mirroring what the Rasas would do to Christians in India.
Also, you might find this outline I wrote 50 pages ago for this universe's Man in the High Castle interesting, partially written from an out of universe perspective (I'll put notes that weren't in the original in double parentheses):
Still working on Völkerschlacht content, but in the meantime here's a MITHC rework Zen and I worked on, hope you guys liked it.
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The Hochenberger
The Hochenberger is a dystopian alternate history series initially published as a novel before being adapted for television. Set in 1962, it explores a world where the Meru-Hara Pact won World War II in 1946 after Kaiser Otto IV is assassinated in 1933 instead of Erzkanzler Paul von Beneckendorff, setting in motion a chain of events that lead to Deputy Erzkanzler Markos Angelos, later Volksfuhrer, quickly consolidating power and invading his neighbors in a series of wars. After eliminating the weakened and leaderless anti-Angelos loyalist forces within his country, Angelos then turns his fully unified Imperium against the rest of his fascist allies in a bid for world domination. As a result, India and China form a coalition against the Angeloi Imperium and ultimately destroy it in a concentrated nuclear bombardment and massive ground invasion that sees the former lands of the Reich divided into numerous Indian and Chinese-aligned military occupation zones.
The alternate history scenario diverges from real history when Kaiser Otto is assassinated in 1933. As a result, not only are Otto’s political and economic reforms aimed at weakening Angelos’ growing power and addressing the ongoing economic crisis never fully implemented, but the ensuing succession crisis also creates a power vacuum that Angelos perfectly exploits to peacefully and completely take over the Reich by 1939. Without anybody to stop him, Angelos fully commits the Reich to the Meru-Hara Pact of India, Persia, and Abyssinia, then uses the alliance’s overwhelming military strength to conquer Nordenland, Rusia, Lithuania, Mali, and then the UVR. However, as the alliance gears up to invade China, Angelos suddenly turns on the other Meru-Hara Pact members in an attempt to eliminate them and seize all of the coming conquests for himself. The fall of Persia and Abyssinia prompts India to abandon its invasion plans and instead ally with China against Angelos. The Reich’s industry and manpower are ultimately outlasted by China and India’s vast reserves of resources and troops. China steadily pushes back the Angeloi on the steppes, while India liberates its allies in the Middle East and Africa. In 1947, Constantinople falls to Indian troops, while China destroys Berlin and many other cities in Germany with nuclear weapons, killing Angelos. What is left of the Reich surrenders not long afterward.
Fifteen years later, China and India remain the world’s leading superpowers, fighting a geopolitical cold war over the world, particularly in the Eimericas and Europe. The former Reich has been divided up into multiple spheres of influence. Persia was granted Arabia, Anatolia, and the Caucasus. Abyssinia was granted dominion over Egypt and all of eastern Africa, while western Africa and Mauretania were granted to a newly fascist Mali, which also received an occupation zone in Iberia. Greece and Italy were placed under Indian administration, while the British Isles and France were granted to a newly fascist Nordenland. Germany, Carpathia, and Dacia fell under the Chinese occupation zone. Constantinople was administered as a joint occupation zone by all major powers, while Berlin was left as an abandoned irradiated ruin. A thin strip of land in the Alps and along the Rhine is established as the Roman Neutral Zone, where the remains of the Roman government are permitted to remain as a buffer between the Meru-Hara Pact and China.
Now, tensions begin to rise as the aging Neta of India, Chandra Gupta, starts going senile, leading many high-ranking Rasa leaders to begin vying to succeed him, all while China and its military look on eagerly, waiting for an opportunity to eliminate its last remaining rival for good. The remaining equalists in the North Eimerican UPRH also wait for their chance to avenge the fall of the UVR, while in the Roman Neutral Zone, the few remaining members of the old loyalist resistance, realizing their hopes of freeing the world from fascist tyranny are dying as the postwar generation grows up fully indoctrinated, come across a strange but subversive book called The Phoenix of the Ashes, in which both Angelos and the other fascists were defeated by the Reich. Its author is known only as the Hochenberger.
Here's an Annionaverse edition of my previous post, hope you all like like. Let me know if any details contradict your lore @dragoon9105 and I'll fix them.
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The Hochenberger
(Annionaverse)
The Hochenberger is a dystopian alternate history series initially published as a novel before being adapted for television. Set in 1962, it explores a world where the Holy Roman Empire lost World War II in 1946 after Kaiserin Osterhild III (“Octavia”) and Albion Republic president Edward Mosley were assassinated in 1928, setting in motion a chain of events that lead to a unified fascist and communist coalition to invade the HRE while it is embroiled in a succession crisis in a concentrated nuclear bombardment and massive ground invasion that sees the former lands of the Empire divided into numerous Russian, Byzantine, and Chinese-aligned military occupation zones.
The alternate history scenario diverges from real history when both Kaiserin Octavia and Edward Mosley are assassinated in 1928. As a result, not only are Octavia’s political and economic reforms aimed at weakening the bureaucracies’ growing power and addressing the ongoing economic crisis never fully implemented, but the ensuing succession crisis also creates a power vacuum that Hong Liao of the Chinese Union State perfectly exploits to completely take over Asia by 1939. Without Mosley, the Republic of Greater Albion fully commits to the grand alliance of China, Michael Anatolios’ Roman Republic, Sudamerika, and Stalinist Russia, which allows the alliance’s overwhelming military strength to conquer Scandinavia, the Americas, India, and then the HRE. In 1947, Rome fell to Greek troops, while China destroys Vienna and many other cities in Austria with nuclear weapons. What is left of the Empire surrenders not long afterward.
Fifteen years later, China and Russia remain the world’s leading superpowers, fighting a geopolitical cold war over the world, particularly in Europe. Sudamerika rules all of the Americas. The former Empire has been divided up into multiple spheres of influence. The Roman Republic was granted Arabia, the Haimos, and Italy. Egypt was granted dominion over much of Africa, while the HRE’s other African colonies were divided up between the victors. Lands north of the Danube and the Alps were annexed by the Russians along with Scandinavia, and the Rhineland was transferred to Albion control. A thin strip of land in the Alps is established as the Neutral Zone, where the remains of the Holy Roman government, still based in the ruins of Vienna, are permitted to remain as a buffer between the superpowers.
Now, tensions begin to rise as the aging Hong Liao starts going senile, leading many high-ranking Chinese leaders to begin vying to succeed him, all while Russia looks on eagerly, waiting for an opportunity to eliminate its last remaining rival for good. In the Neutral Zone, the few remaining members of the resistance, realizing their hopes of freeing the world from fascist tyranny are dying as the postwar generation grows up fully indoctrinated, come across a strange but subversive book called The Empress of Steel, in which the HRE defeated all of its enemies and reigned supreme. Its author is known only as the Hochenberger.
(This document was compiled by the University of Kirovagrad using data gathered during the Holy Terran Empire’s expeditions to Lost Terra.)
So I know my last post was the one for Night City or Nachtstadt back in September for my version of Cyberpunk in TTL and once I finished that one I got to work on this one. I think that by the time I was done with this one I then started on other updates to create a type of backlog. Between then and now I have completed two updates both this one for Militech and a Volkerschlact one. I am currently almost finished with my Kang Tao update as well. After these three updates I only have a Kaisserich update for the Annionaverse and one for Arisaka and then I am done with updates for a while. But in the meantime here is my promised update for Militech that me and @zenphoenix worked on so, I hope you guy's enjoy.
Cyberpunk - Militech
Militech International Armaments is a multinational megacorporation specializing in weapons manufacturing and private military contracting. The company provides equipment for many nations around the world, including both private and governmental organizations, like the New Reich military and law enforcement. Another branch is responsible for providing private military forces officially for defensive purposes, peacekeeping and nation-building missions, though equipment bearing the company's mark had been used by terrorist organizations and in coups in the past.
History
Militech was founded in 1996 under the name Audaios International. The company got its start by participating in tests of new standardized assault weapons for the Roman military in 1998. Despite bringing with it widespread economic hardship, the Collapse also created a large market for weapons, ammunition, vehicles, and trained military personnel that was perfect for Militech to exploit. Militech ultimately defeated its other rivals and won the Roman military contract in 2004 due to its reliable and cheap designs, while rival designs currently in use demonstrated their ineffectiveness in ongoing wars. Furthermore, the Collapse destroyed many other rival corporations that didn’t have the funds or connections to survive this period of upheaval, allowing Militech to focus its efforts on buying out or destroying those rivals that did survive.
By the 2010s, Militech had become the largest defense contractor in several countries, most importantly the Reich, as well as a supplier to many other corporations, establishing its economic dominance in the Western Hemisphere. This was due to the efforts of its CEO, the ex-Roman soldier Hans Pölzl, who wanted to further expand its dominance over the rest of the global economy, causing frequent clashes with its nemesis, the Chinese corporation Kang Tao. As a result, Pölzl was heavily disliked by his board of directors, who feared he would start a new Corporate War. However, none of the board dared attempt to oust him from power. In 2020, Pölzl’s power over the Reich was solidified when ex-CEO Elsa Schön became Erzkanzler, and afterwards internal company opposition to Pölzl became scattered and disorganized. Pölzl had the perfect opportunity to realize his ambitions now.
The next year, tensions between two rival aquacorps escalated into open corporate warfare. Militech and Kang Tao backed each corp, supplying them with weapons and private military contractors. Pölzl initially adopted a policy of avoiding direct engagement with Kang Tao, instead focusing on using the conflict to advertise his weapons and personnel on the global market. Nevertheless, Pölzl never abandoned his initial ambition of destroying Kang Tao, which he believed could only be achieved with total physical annihilation before legal dissolution. Once he ran out of patience, he ordered his personnel to attack Kang Tao. The early stages of what became known as the Ocean War ended on February 27, 2022. Afterwards, Militech and Kang Tao teams began operations against each other around the world. First, Kang Tao attacked Militech’s Nachtstadt offices, provoking Militech reprisals against Kang Tao offices in Europe, Central Asia, and Africa. As collateral damage occurred and casualties rose, various governments attempted to rein in these corporations. Many of Militech’s and Kang Tao’s assets were nationalized, but this only spurred both corporations to take increasingly bolder and more aggressive actions against each other. Militech finally ordered a strike team led by Johan Silberhand and others to destroy Kang Tao Towers in Nachtstadt by detonating a nuclear weapon inside Deng Yuhan’s office. The blast killed twelve thousand within Nachstadt’s Corporate Center, five hundred thousand throughout the city, and ultimately another quarter million over the next few days.
Elsa Schön used the Kang Tao Towers attack as an excuse to solidify her own position and not only shake of Pölzl’s control over her but also seize the company for herself. Her administration proceeded to nationalize many Militech assets, and she placed Militech officials loyal to her in positions of power within her military and Militech’s Board of Directors, infuriating Pölzl. Pölzl himself could not be fully ousted from the company even with Schön wielding the power of the Roman government as a blunt hammer. His force of personality, allies, and prior record were enough to keep him as CEO, albeit with a pro-Schön Board of Directors starting to tighten his leash. Nevertheless, Pölzl’s obsession with destroying Kang Tao remained, and he used what remained of his power to continue fighting them until Schön finally amassed the corporate backing needed to force him into retirement.
Despite this power struggle, Militech remained the largest military manufacturer in the world. Working closely with Roman military and law enforcement for decades gave it a reputation for producing reliable and cheap weapons that could be counted on to get the job done. The coming decades marked a shift in the balance of power between the Roman government and Militech. Schön’s efforts ensured that while on paper the Roman government controlled Militech, in practice her ex-Militech status and appointing of Militech personnel to political and bureaucratic offices meant that Militech completed its regulatory capture of both the Roman government and military, turning them into mere arms of the corporation.
Also when I was looking thorough the chapters for those replies I realized that you have two chapters that are (Chapter 46) those being "Chapter 46: Traianos's Rebellion" and "Chapter 46: End of one Era, Beginning of Another". Just a heads up.
Also I was looking back at some of the older chapters on this thread for some potential ideas for the DE and some of the links are broken. The two I found are "Chapter 411: Iconoclasm (1 July 1950 - 3 November 1951)" and "Chapter 416: Muderous Pacifism (1 January 1956 - 1 January 1957)" the actual page for Chapter 411 is on page 13 not 12 and the one for Chapter 416 is on page 15 not 14. Just a heads up.
Also I was looking back at some of the older chapters on this thread for some potential ideas for the DE and some of the links are broken. The two I found are "Chapter 411: Iconoclasm (1 July 1950 - 3 November 1951)" and "Chapter 416: Muderous Pacifism (1 January 1956 - 1 January 1957)" the actual page for Chapter 411 is on page 13 not 12 and the one for Chapter 416 is on page 15 not 14. Just a heads up.
Should be fixed now, hopefully. Though I'm not too confident about that. Stuff like that's been happening to my links for years, but when I try fixing them the new links have the same url as the old one. So while I hope it directs to the right post, I don't know if it actually does.
Han Xianyu only heard the sounds of croaking frogs around him. The usual insects he would have heard were noticeably absent, since the average temperature was noticeably lower. Summers in late August were supposed to be sweltering, but Han felt chilly today. Outside his garden pavilion, the sky was overcast again, filled with dull gray clouds. A pen sat in his hand, and a sheet of paper lay on the table before him, but he couldn’t write anything. His mind wasn’t in the proper mindset, because nothing about his surroundings was right. Stupid Romans, look what you’ve done now. The entire planet had been irreparably damaged for generations because of them. Even the Mongols of Genghis Khan weren’t as brutal, callous, and downright stupid as they had been. Truly there was nobody more befitting of the name “barbarian" than them. The rest of the world concurred. Yet…
“Is this really what victory looks like?” he said to nobody in particular. Nobody would hear him. His bodyguards had been posted by the garden entrances, where it led to other wings of the palace. They were too far to hear him, unless he shouted. Not that he needed to. He had been so victorious that none of his subjects would even want to kill him. Heaven’s will had been carried out. The Chinese flag flew over Aden, Mecca, Medina, the Suez Canal, and Alexandria, and it was poised to seize much more by the time the final treaties were signed two weeks from now. The Roman upstarts had been destroyed so utterly that their entire nation ceased to exist. The other nations had either been destroyed with them or bent the knee, as they had in ages past. China was finally the undisputed and unchallenged ruler of the world. All other pretenders to the title, both internal and external, had been absorbed or eliminated. Such a feat hadn't been achieved since the Tang Dynasty.
Yet he understood the reality. The world lay bathed in radiation, reduced to ashes and rubble. China was indeed triumphant and at the center of the world for the first time in a thousand years, but now there were few remaining who could acknowledge this fact and pay tribute at his feet. All of the glorious battles against Jerusalem that he expected nine months ago had been disappointments, and the would-be rulers of all humanity had instead destroyed themselves in petty squabbles and blunders that exhibited their hubris, arrogance, and incompetence to the entire world. Then he dropped a single nuke on top of Berlin, and the whole continent crumbled like a house of cards. They should have at least stuck to their own principles and fought to the end, like true men. But apparently Elias Anhorn was all bluster. That idiot couldn’t even make it to the end of the war he started.
“So…what now?” he asked himself.
He had always imagined this day would come, sure. This was the culmination of years of work. But now that he had finally reached this day, he realized he never thought about what came next. He had been prepared to spend his entire life advancing his cause. It would have started with a long rise to power through the democratic system as he built up a resume, assembled a coalition, rallied voters to the polls, wrote policies, gave speeches, and won elections. Once he was Grand Chancellor, he would then spend his term balancing his own priorities and those of his allies against the needs of the nation and his overseas ambitions. Then, after many decades of work, he would retire as an old man, having reshaped China’s government in a way his ancestors would have approved of, with the rest of the world having been reshaped in the same way without anyone realizing it. He didn’t expect to get all this done in less than ten years, before he was even fifty.
“Damnit…” Han imagined the faces of all those who had stood before him and were swept aside in the name of Chinese renewal. His grandfather, who was never once satisfied with anything Han did. His father, who wanted him to pursue a civil service career after he passed the imperial civil service examination and earned a jinshi degree, then threatened to disown him when he instead set his eyes on the legislature. The old guard career politicians within his party who opposed his campaign from the very beginning. The corporate interests who panicked when he funded his campaigns with grassroots donations instead of lobbyist checks. His alma mater, which refused to acknowledge his existence as soon as he won his first election. The media, which ran hit piece after hit piece on everything remotely negative about his personal life. His mother. His long-serving predecessor and her party, who would throw away everything that made China unique if it meant getting a little richer. Elias Anhorn and the idiots he surrounded himself with. That old fool of an emperor and his even more foolish son. They were all gone now, too soon and too easily. “I thought you would be stronger than this…”
Then again, it wasn’t like Han was completely bored or blindsided. The schedule had simply been accelerated beyond what he initially predicted. It could still be done at the new pace. Unlike those political fossils he had eliminated, he could easily adapt. China could easily adapt.
“My work isn’t over yet. Our destiny lies ahead of us.” He spotted Princess Hao sitting on a bench in a distant corner of the garden, staring at coi fish in a pond. She said little, despite the efforts of the boy next to her to cheer her up.
“Why did they take Father from me?” Hao said. “He left me all alone…”
The young Han Qian patted her on the shoulder again. “It’s okay, Hao. You’re not alone.”
Tears flowed from Hao’s eyes. “But…”
“It’s okay. I’m here. We can make it through this, together.”
“Thank you, Qian…let’s make his killers pay.”
“But we’re kids, Hao. We shouldn’t be thinking about this stuff for a while.”
Han didn’t care much for the rest of their conversation as it veered into random topics more appropriate for little kids. That part of the plan was going well. By now, his son took the initiative for everything about Hao. Not that Han had done much besides moving the chess pieces near each other to begin with. It worked better if things flowed organically. He could always put the pieces back into place if they drifted apart.
Yes, you shouldn’t be thinking about that for a while. Leave it to the adults for now. Then a thought crossed his mind. Was Hao serious about what she said? Would she remember that when she grew up? And if she did…would she learn the truth about her father? Would she come after him? Another thought crossed his mind. He could easily just eliminate her right now, just like he had done to her father, and spin a story to the public. The act would be over in a minute, and the job would be done in a day, the easiest he’d had in a long time. And yet…
“No, I don’t kill kids,” he muttered to himself, without a single shred of irony. It would be a waste of his time and money to dispose of Hao now, after everything he had done to mold her into the perfect imperial puppet, just for the very small chance she might rebel against him in a few decades. He wasn’t about to discard such a useful pawn.
You will be empress soon—my empress, through which I will rule over all under heaven. I expect a long, prosperous, and loyal reign from you. But on the off-chance you do choose to come after me sometime down the road… A chill ran down his spine, and his mouth curled up in a smile more befitting of a dragon than a man. Han smugly sipped his coffee and chuckled as he imagined the possibilities the future held.
Then I eagerly await your challenge. Don’t disappoint me like all the others, Princess.
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Sorry for the long wait. The last four months haven’t given me that much time, and I had to deal with writer’s block on top of that. No April Fool’s Day joke as usual, since that’s always ended badly in this thread. I hope to get the rest of this batch out by May, since I’ll be out of town then. After that my schedule will get a bit more chaotic since there’s a lot of things happening in my life at the same time and I’ll have to rearrange which writing projects I prioritize first. That’s not to say I’m cancelling anything—I’ll tell you upfront if I do. But some things might be delayed depending on what needs to be posted first, like TESB. On the other hand, because of this schedule, I’m thinking of launching DE earlier than planned. I’m looking to start the thread around June, after this batch is done and I’m back from the trip.
Anyways, on to the commentary.
I imagined this batch as being like the game Trails in the Sky the 3rd, which was an epilogue to the previous two games that resolved all remaining plot threads and character arcs while also setting up many future narratives and characters in subsequent games. In that same vein, I want to send off the current cast of characters and finish their stories. Some might continue being relevant, while others fade into obscurity because their work is done. Meanwhile, I’ll set up the direction I want to go in the remainder of NWO as we finally enter the Stellaris setup part of the story. I believe I said a long time ago that the events of 2015-2039 will have a massive impact on the rest of the century and beyond, so it’s time to follow up on that. I have a lot of cool ideas I can’t wait to write about and the Japan arc inches ever closer.
The title refers to the dragon and tiger motif I’ve referenced previously in the Battle of Ryukyu. In Chinese and Japanese tradition, the dragon and tiger represent two equal yet opposing forces, which I applied to the Sino-Roman rivalry. Of course, China is the dragon, but Jerusalem being the tiger also makes sense. While the dragon and tiger are held to be equal in strength, the dragon applies its strength strategically, while the tiger relies on brute force.
Nanjing has been renamed to Yingtian, since it got that name when the capital was moved to Beijing.
I had a bit of writer’s block when starting this chapter, so I relied a bit on Savinkov’s ending event from Kaiserreich for inspiration. Also snuck in a little reference to the meme from Invincible.
I didn’t expect to take Hao in this direction, but I like what I’m setting up here, just to shake things up a bit. There’s some slight inspiration from a certain scene from Trails in the Sky the 3rd and what it sets up in Trails of Cold Steel, but I’m not going to mention it because spoilers.
Memes aside, Great update as usual Zen. It's nice to get a look at Han's mindset now that he is effectively king of the ashes, and I like that Hao is shaping up to parallel Ilyana.
Speaking of Ilyana, would "Romanov" still make sense as the name of Kirill's line given the new lore for him and Sbyslava? We could have it so that one of Kirill's legitimate pagan siblings took the throne after he died and sidelined his children, thus creating the "Romanov" cadet branch.
Memes aside, Great update as usual Zen. It's nice to get a look at Han's mindset now that he is effectively king of the ashes, and I like that Hao is shaping up to be a mirror of
Speaking of Ilyana, would "Romanov" still make sense as the name of Kirill's line given the new lore for him and Sbyslava? We could have it so that one of Kirill's legitimate pagan siblings took the throne after he died and sidelined his children, thus creating the "Romanov" cadet branch.
That's what I've always assumed, that Kirill's line was usurped by that of Sbyslava's pagan siblings and forced to adopt the name Romanov, though presumably his children were raised as pagans following the death of their father.
“Damnit…” Han imagined the faces of all those who had stood before him and were swept aside in the name of Chinese renewal. His grandfather, who was never once satisfied with anything Han did. His father, who wanted him to pursue a civil service career after he passed the imperial civil service examination and earned a jinshi degree, then threatened to disown him when he instead set his eyes on the legislature. The old guard career politicians within his party who opposed his campaign from the very beginning. The corporate interests who panicked when he funded his campaigns with grassroots donations instead of lobbyist checks. His alma mater, which refused to acknowledge his existence as soon as he won his first election. The media, which ran hit piece after hit piece on everything remotely negative about his personal life. His mother. His long-serving predecessor and her party, who would throw away everything that made China unique if it meant getting a little richer. Elias Anhorn and the idiots he surrounded himself with. That old fool of an emperor and his even more foolish son. They were all gone now, too soon and too easily. “I thought you would be stronger than this…”
Sorry for the long wait. The last four months haven’t given me that much time, and I had to deal with writer’s block on top of that. No April Fool’s Day joke as usual, since that’s always ended badly in this thread. I hope to get the rest of this batch out by May, since I’ll be out of town then. After that my schedule will get a bit more chaotic since there’s a lot of things happening in my life at the same time and I’ll have to rearrange which writing projects I prioritize first. That’s not to say I’m cancelling anything—I’ll tell you upfront if I do. But some things might be delayed depending on what needs to be posted first, like TESB. On the other hand, because of this schedule, I’m thinking of launching DE earlier than planned. I’m looking to start the thread around June, after this batch is done and I’m back from the trip.
Although I am exited for the next batch of story chapters, an early start to the DE and off course the Japan arc. If you need to still take a break and deal with real life then I would completely understand if you needed to do that to sort out some things. I think like with many other's who have stood by you (even as this part of the story alone has grown to 520 pages) would agree that we are in it until the end of Stellaris or as in my case even ROTCE2 or even beyond.
If you need to still take a break and deal with real life then I would completely understand if you needed to do that to sort out some things. I think like with many other's who have stood by you (even as this part of the story alone has grown to 520 pages) would agree that we are in it until the end of Stellaris or as in my case even ROTCE2 or even beyond.
Thanks. Though I don’t want to keep you all waiting too long, and I fear if I take too long, it’ll end up like so many AARs and other fanfics that go on permanent hiatus without warning.
Cartels/gangs and their "specialties" differ based on the ethnic group they are built around. Russian cartels, which can be found all over Russia, are focused on drug dealing and human trafficking, particularly smuggling illegal immigrants over the border to the Reich. They have a substantial presence in the Reich as well, which they use to escape prosecution in Russia and earn money for their Russian accomplices at home. On the side, they produce counterfeit goods on an industrial scale using corrupt factories. The most powerful cartels use their massive wealth to buy influence in the economy and national government or produce blackmail material. It is believed the leaders of these cartels are among the wealthiest Russians, if not the wealthiest. Some even believe they are the true rulers of the country, not the Tsar or the Duma. Even members of the royal family have been arrested under suspicion of ties with the cartels.
Lithuanian gangs are based around local towns in southern Russia with Lithuanian populations and aren't as organized or widespread as the Russian ones. But they have significant public support (whether through drugs, community investment, or protection rackets) and are just as brutal if not more so than the Russians. Their main operations focus on traditional mafia activities like money laundering, arbitrating disputes between local criminals and gangs, gambling, loan sharking, prostitution, and fraud. They also do some drug trafficking. They are more skilled at bribing and controlling local law enforcement agencies and government than the Russian cartels. Many Lithuanian gangs have their own lawyers (who they pay to go to school and get a law degree) to get their leaders out of sticky situations. They rely more on blackmail than the Russian cartels. They have a substantial presence on the internet, which they use to disguise their transactions, run profitable scams, and defraud organizations and individuals.
Mongol cartels are based in the ethnic Mongol east near the Yavdian border and are more mobile than the Lithuanians and Russians. They are far more violent, but they are not indiscriminately violent. Mongol gangsters use violence or the threat of violence to make their targets do their bidding or to teach the public a lesson. Mongol cartels place significant importance on murder and how it is carried out. Honor killings and revenge murders are so common the Russians and Lithuanians do not have a presence in the east and fear killing any Mongol gangster, as even killing one low-level gangster could provoke all-out war. Mongol hit men are widely feared and respected, commanding high prices in the criminal underworld. Even national governments secretly employ their services to assassinate certain individuals. In contrast to the drug dealing Russians and money laundering Lithuanians, Mongol cartels are primarily arms dealers who get their weapons from abandoned Soviet stockpiles and sell them to the highest bidder. It is believed the Mongol cartels are secretly arming separatist and nationalist groups in North Eimerica and even the Russian and Lithuanian cartels. Lately, the Mongol cartels have also expanded their internet presence, but they focus mostly on spreading malware and waging cyberwarfare. Mongol cyberwarfare consists of sabotage and espionage conducted against rival cartels and the Russian government to both steal information and to impede their operations. Such attacks have become more common and bolder in recent years, with some cartel hackers launching attacks against the Russian electricity grid and internet providers to deny their services to rival cartels and frustrate law enforcement. There have also been numerous attempts to sabotage the stock market. Mongol viruses can be found on computers around the world. There are rumors some national governments secretly pay certain Mongol cartels to hack rival governments' databases or to spread disruptive viruses/malware to their rivals.
Organized crime wouldn’t take off, especially in popular culture, until brought over by the second wave of immigrants. Fusang’s literature would instead have their roles filled by secret societies, regional cults, and merchant guilds.
I thought about reworking how organized crime would work in TTL, because from what I understand from wikipedia, the Sicilian Mafia was born out of a chaotic transition to capitalism and reorganization of land property, and Chinese triads originate from anti Qing secret societies. I guess both circumstances could emerge in post UVR Eurasia after WW3, while in China there would be anti-colonial/authoritarian resistance groups in Japan, Vietnam, Penglai, Fusang, and mainland China that could turn to crime following independence and the restoration of democracy. I'm also not sure how well the term "cartel" and "mafia" would work in post UVR Rusia, so I guess bratva would work better, tho there should be another term for Lithuanian and Yavdian crime syndicates. As for a replacement for the word "triad", how about Hongmen? That last one might not work too well for Vietnam tho.
I thought about reworking how organized crime would work in TTL, because from what I understand from wikipedia, the Sicilian Mafia was born out of a chaotic transition to capitalism and reorganization of land property, and Chinese triads originate from anti Qing secret societies. I guess both circumstances could emerge in post UVR Eurasia after WW3, while in China there would be anti-colonial/authoritarian resistance groups in Japan, Vietnam, Penglai, Fusang, and mainland China that could turn to crime following independence and the restoration of democracy. I'm also pretty sure how well the term "cartel" and "mafia" would work in post UVR Rusia, so I guess bratva would work better, tho there should be another term for Lithuanian and Yavdian crime syndicates. As for a replacement for the word "triad", how about Hongmen? That last one might not work too well for Vietnam tho.
In light of my new Japan lore and some inspiration that came to mind as I started watching a let’s play of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and recalled the origins of the Ha’la’tha crime syndicate from Caprica (a Battlestar Galactica prequel), I feel like a lot of Asian organized crime would be done by Japanese organizations. Japan was just as organized, developed, and militarized as China, Korea, and Vietnam in the early modern era, yet it was subjected to brutal invasion and colonization under the first two. It also had an OTL history of militant Buddhist sects and peasant rebellions. Defeated daimyo and ronin continue the fight against the Yuan, Later Jin, and Goryeo forces, at first frequently propped up by one side against the other. Some of these threw in the towel and sided with Goryeo once it became clear they would win, while others went underground and continued fighting for years. Militant Buddhist sects periodically emerge and are suppressed by Korean troops. Groups like the ikko ikki show up in remote regions where Korean rule is looser and are generally tolerated until Goryeo’s power further increases and centralization demanded. Many of these groups are deported to Penglai like Tsuruhime was, and others migrate to Fusang to escape Korean rule. I can see a lot of these groups eventually becoming yakuza-like organizations when they realize it’s more profitable and safe to do organized crime than fight, with the ex-daimyo families becoming yakuza bosses. Various ronin set up their own rackets or leave altogether for Fusang as they don’t have the resources and connections of the ex-daimyo. Outside of Japan they’d do all sorts of stuff: organized crime again, mercenary/bodyguard work, or Wild West-style law enforcement. The militant sects would stick to their temples, but if they were expelled from those temples I could see some monks establishing militant secret societies which over time become organized crime groups with a distinctly religious angle. The ikki would follow a similar path as the Chinese triads. They’d have a variety of names depending on their origins, what they call themselves, how the Koreans view them, and so on. Mainland Korea probably has its own organized crime rings emerging out of its industrialization and colonial exploitation, which eventually spreads into China and Vietnam. They’re probably also of Japanese origin. So in a way, Japan still carved out its own empire in the shadows of the other three.
For European organized crime, there’s probably a lot of groups that emerged as the Reich dismantled the feudal system of Western Europe and frequently attempted land reform. The collapse of the Catholic Church and the continued power struggles between the Patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople could lead to a lot of religious-based criminal organizations and secret societies emerging, either as pawns of one patriarch or in opposition to both factions. Of course, the same could happen to the new religious movements of the Fifty Years’ War, as well as the groups involved in the Unterstrasse in Poland. I suppose my previous analogy of “Rusia=Mexico” means that a lot of drug cartels come out of post-equalist Rusia as a result of a chaotic transition to meritocracy (basically, the opposite of OTL Russia and its oligarchs). They can still be called bratva, or rather бра́ття bráttja, which as far as I can tell is the Ukrainian equivalent albeit a little archaic. I don’t know about Lithuanian or Yavdian groups yet. Now that I think about it, Nordenland would have a lot of these groups, many of them Ragnarokers.
After reading up on the Tiandihui/Hongmen, I think it’s better to make them the Asian equivalent of the Freemasons than another organized crime group. Their name cleanly translates into the four major Sinosphere languages: 天地會 Tiandihui, Thiên Địa Hội, 천지회 Cheonjihoe, てんち Tenchikai.
