Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World?

Moved this back to the front page

Grubnessul said:

wow, good stuff! Didn't expect the cardinal to be still alive and kicking after Zio took him. Also, Im really impressed you're willing to kill of your main characters, even tho Isabella's death nearly made me cry...

(a slight note, the next chapter should be XL not XXXX)

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Thanks XD Though I promise I haven't done that to Isabella just because I can ... everything has a meaning ! Oh and I changed it to XL , thanks for teaching me Roman Numerals !!! o

Llywelyn said:

So that means I can't change my praise to "Timelines. It doesn't suck."?

What if I edit my post?
j.

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ROFL i'm afraid we already have you on candid camera !

P.S. update coming tonight !

December 23, 1582

Alvaro stood over the second figure with his breath held in a bubble somewhere in his throat. The dawn was encroaching over the pond’s embankment just enough so that both laying figures were now shrouded in a regal gold despite their morbid positions on the bare dirt closest to the cold water.

“Another one…” Alvaro whispered to himself as he stepped even closer to the second figure half shrouded in a cloud of scarlet folds.

The young boy held onto the two makeshift stick and rope fishing poles with his left hand while his right reached forward with a trembling curiosity. His small digits made a careful grasp of the clothing. Slowly his hand traversed downwards pulling the shroud away from the man’s face. Curly hair and curly beard marked this one, unlike the straight and clean look of the previous dead man.

Alvaro couldn’t stop a tickle run up his spine. On the way to the pond to catch what remained of the winter fish, it seemed like an ordinary day for a young village boy, but he never expected to come upon two still bodies as he stepped over the embankment. The first closest to him that he looked at was covered in black plate armour and he nearly fell back at the sight of a broken splinter lodged into the man’s neck. He wanted to see the face of the second man…

The horse he noticed that was tied to the nearby tree startled him with a sudden fit of displeasure and forced him to turn his head to the old withered tree. Despite being only seven, he would need to take that horse back to his village, he thought, lest some bandits take advantage of the poor animal. Kneading his bottom lip with is top lip; he thought about giving the animal a nod of reassurance but instead tore himself back to the morbid sight underneath him. He was quite surprised to see live eyes staring back at him.

Letting out the pocket of nervous air that had been lodged in his throat, Alvaro leapt backward with so much force that he fell backwards against the grassy embankment. Shivering uncontrollably, he saw the huge figure begin to bring its upper body upward with a hand on its head. Pressing his small frame against the cold morning dirt and holding his fishing poles against his chest, Alvaro watched as that man stagger his way to his feet.

“Y..You’re alive!” Alvaro managed to stutter.

The man attempted to place unadjusted eyes onto the boy but was blocked by the blinding yet comfortably warm greeting of the sun.

“Yes I’m alive,” was the gruff response, “and who are you?”

Alvaro stopped his dread as he began to pull himself away from the sloped side of the pond’s surrounding crater.

“I… I’m Alvaro de Guzman from the local village… who are you?” was both the answer and the curious question. Indeed, the boy’s inquisitiveness overrode any compunction to avoid this stranger that seemed to have risen from the dead.

As the man attempted to balance himself on his feet, Alvaro’s young eyes noticed that through the slightly tattered clothes fell onto the ground a round object. To the young child, the object that thudded against the earth was like something he had seen on a rare trip to the capital to the north. In the markets, marble or glass spheres were sold as toys and it was this memory that entered his mind as he watched this larger version roll towards the pond.

It was a captivating sight; unlike its smaller facsimiles, the sphere was almost the size of his head and was as dark as pitch in its colour. He could see some strange discolouration along its latitudes, however, like purple curved clouds swirled along this small planet. He took a few steps toward it as it rolled to a halt near some pond grass. His childish hands reached out for it unable to hide the amazement reflecting off his eyes.

“Don’t touch that!” the man suddenly called out making the young one startled enough to turn in attention but Alvaro continued to stand just a few inches from it.

“What is it?” he immediately asked hoping to at least satisfy his curiosity indirectly.

As the man came closer, Alvaro did not flinch but bravely held onto his fishing rods with a sincere stare of his eyes upward to that approaching tower.

“This is a very important but dangerous relic,” the old man explained with some hesitance as he scooped it up unsteadily and once it again hid it in the folds of his clothing. Alvaro could tell something was amiss since the tone the man took reminded him all too well of how he would explain where he’s been to his mother—there was a lie or half truth in there somewhere.

Alvaro watched the man turn away from him and begin to stagger up the slope towards the horse that was tied near the tree above.

“You still haven’t told me your name!” Alvaro reminded the man nearly jumping forward to say it to the stranger’s back.

The taller individual seemed to groan a tired and hurt breath although he tried to hide it. He turned around with a fatigued magnanimity and smiled at the boy.

“I’m Cardinal James DeWitt, son, and I’m on very important business at the moment so why don’t you run along and…” there was a pause as the man inspected the poles in Alvaro’s left hand, “catch some breakfast, hm?”

“I don’t think it would be proper for me to do that here, sir,” Alvaro quickly interjected before the man could turn back around to the horse.

“Why is that?” the man asked smiling once more to the boy’s face.

Alvaro replied only with a gesture of his hand. His finger was pointing to Zio’s dirt covered head touching the edge of the far embankment. The man seemed to blink in surprise at the corpse before letting out a sigh and staring with an understanding gaze at the boy.

“Who was he?” Alvaro asked sincerely while the other attempted to find a solution to the young one’s predicament. “Was he a bandit?” Alvaro added to press the question.

The boy watched as the older man began to untie the horse from the tree and shake his head. “He was a madman,” was the answer.

“And you say you’re a Cardinal?” was the next question almost as soon as the first was answered.

“Yes,” he responded while bringing the horse over to near where Zio lay. “I will take the body with me to your village,” he added with a bit of a reluctant sigh, “and you can fish in peace.”

Alvaro smiled with that resolution and watched as the stranger begin to heave the heavily armoured man up the slope.

“Mr. Cardinal,” the boy began innocently, “even with your horse, it would take an hour or so to get back to my village and you look very hungry. Would you like to catch some breakfast with me?”

The boy stepped forward gingerly with a silly little smile. ‘Mr. Cardinal’ shook his head with a kind smile as he heaved the body further upward but Alvaro could distinctly hear the man’s stomach rumbling like an earthquake at the mention of breakfast.

“I’m afraid I don’t have the time or a pole of my own to fish with, young Alvaro.”

Alvaro frowned but immediately brightened up again as he leapt forward towards the top of the embankment where the Cardinal was casting off some of the heavier pieces of armour from the fallen one’s body.

“You can borrow one of mine,” Alvaro said beaming and holding out one of his poles.

Mr. Cardinal stood up for a moment and once again gave the young boy a comforting look, but this time with a bit more humility and gratitude. “I really appreciate it, son, but—”

That’s when another roll of thunder emanated from the Cardinal’s gut interrupting him with a sharp wanting pain like a lead weight pulling his abdomen inwards. Alvaro let out a peal of laughter before nodding victoriously. “I’ll start finding a spot, you should start the breakfast fire,” the boy said before sprinting down the grass towards the pond. The Cardinal couldn’t help but oblige.


Whenever the boy would ask him how he was doing with his line, he would turn his head with a contrived grin and say that he was doing alright. Turning back into the solitude of his huge shoulders he’d frown with such intense dissatisfaction that it was no wonder no fish were biting on his end of the line.

It had been twenty minutes and while his young seven year old companion had already caught two specimens, the only thing the Cardinal could boast of was that his worm was still alive at the end of his hook.

“If you don’t catch any, I’ll share with you some of mine!” he heard the boy call out and his frown once again inverted into a smile enough to shake his head as he looked at the boy before returning to its embarrassed and morose expression. Why aren’t any biting?!

“I’ve got another one!” the boy exclaimed as he struggled to get the third onto land.

Once again, Cardinal DeWitt flashed a wondrous smile to the boy before staring back at the cool depths of the pond water. He could see them alright, those lousy fish swimming around like pompous courtiers. None had come close to his line, however. Perhaps it was the fact that his figure overshadowed nearly a whole fifth of the pond and he was reduced to a ridiculous crouch. Luckily no one was around to see him—even the pole that the young boy lent him was only as long as both of his fists lined up. What a silly sight he must look like.

With the hour getting late, the Cardinal stood up. Despite the kindness of the boy, he would not come to the breakfast fire empty handed. Pulling back the rope and disconnecting his hook; he instead lodged the sharp object into the soft wooden portion of the opposite end of the rod. Looming over the side of the pond, he thrust the rod itself into the water and a split second later pulled back on the rope. Retrieving his ballista, there was none other than a flapping fish on the other end. Suddenly happy with his familiar method of achieving his objectives, he gave his young companion a smile whilst that boy could only stare at him in amazement.


Alvaro seemed to munch loudly on the roasted fish and the Cardinal couldn’t help but nibble on his own particular catch. He would leave some of his catch to the child, he thought, as a thank you for his charity.

“What is a Cardinal anyway?” the boy suddenly asked with still a mouthful of food. In the chilly dawn on this plain of Spain, the Cardinal nearly let out a chuckle at how he had taken for granted the ubiquity of his rank in the capitals of the world.

“It means… that I’m a helper to the Pope and a prince of the Church,” he replied trying to explain it in the best way a country boy would know.

“A prince? You’re too old to be a prince!” the boy said with another peal of laughter. “Princes are supposed to be young like me!” he said astonishingly without a hint of pride.

“Perhaps you’re right,” the Cardinal relented with a refreshed smile on his weary face. “Perhaps one day you too can be a Little Prince.”

“Of course!” the young boy seemed to say proudly as he stood up still with a stick of fish in one hand. “And I’ll earn my nobility by assisting lost travelers just like you even in the deserts of the Sahara!”

The Cardinal couldn’t help but laugh at the charity and naïveté of the boy. He took another bite of his meal with a lightened heart. Ever since the ghastly encounter last night with Zio, it seemed as if the world was finally becoming less dark.

“You have a good heart, son,” the Cardinal commended him eagerly. “You remind me of an old saying that my mom used to read me as a child. They say Saint Exuperius of Toulouse once said: ‘l'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux. That is… what is essential is invisible to the eyes.’”

When the Cardinal looked back to the boy, he was sitting down in awe at the kernel of wisdom.

“You mean like Jesus hidden in the Eucharist?” the boy made the simple connection.

It was the Cardinal’s turn to be amazed. The child had better wisdom than learned men four times his age. The Cardinal couldn’t help but give an approving smile as the coldness of the morn was being mitigated by the ascending sunrise. The boy gave him a smile in return but then lowered his eyes to the young fire that had procured their food.

“I wish I could visit Jesus again,” the boy said quietly.

“What do you mean? You can see him every day at the church in your village,” the Cardinal pointed out with some concern.

Alvaro looked at the prelate’s face and shook his head sadly before saying, “our local priest was killed the other week…” the boy voiced out with a slight chill approaching him, “the villagers say he died suddenly of some disease… but my father says that someone killed him… He says someone named Zio killed him because he was going to uncover some bad things that were happening in Toledo…”

Cardinal DeWitt froze on his stony seat as he stared at the boy’s sad eyes. He resisted the urge to look back towards where he had transferred Zio’s corpse.

“My father went north to Madrid—even though the mayor kept threatening him not to interfere—to ask the bishop to send another priest but he hasn’t returned… Now the mayor says that my father’s a fugitive and that he’s sent out patrols in the country to stop anyone from crossing north towards Madrid.”

Cardinal DeWitt couldn’t help but feel his heart sink back at this revelation. If Zio’s cult had been found out, then there was only a small chance that Alvaro’s father was still alive. Added to that, the mayor might be one of Zio’s henchmen and would be patrolling the plains for him. Although he would be fully capable of trying to run the patrols, he had a different plan.

“Do you think you can introduce me to your mother and some of the other people who thought your priest was murdered, Alvaro?” the Cardinal asked carefully.

The boy seemed to be slightly confused by the request but nodded nonetheless. That was it then, the Cardinal thought, he would pass through the enemy nets through their very headquarters. He once again beamed at the boy with a smile. With the Little Prince on his side, he might just make it.


“Fleet status,” Grubby barked out in the center of the open air office that he and his colleagues had occupied all those days prior when news first reached them about the disappearance of the Panzerkardinal.

Having received a parchment, General Grubby gave another nod as he returned the paper; all was well on the sea-front—nothing but merchant ships going to and from the harbors. He personally knew from his staff that the lines were holding on both beachheads and that reinforcements would be arriving in the coming months as was planned. It seems as if the Tercios were holding up to their name as far as defending these two new provinces for the Spanish Empire.

“As I was saying, General,” a shrouded man in the room resumed after having been interrupted by Grubby’s attention to the military details. “Our espionage network is below critical to accomplish the goals originally set up by Duke Jimenez. Especially with most of our senior men missing, the department simply cannot hold up against the swarms and nets that Beijing is projecting out towards us.”

Grubby leaned forward on his desk in serious contemplation. This was true, with Isabella missing, Sweet off to the homeland and many of the top operatives who went with Isabella to retrieve Antonio either dead or similarly lost, he had no means of carrying out an offensive intelligence agenda.

“Retreat our agents to the provinces and concentrate on counter-intelligence,” Grubby instructed and the man nodded, but did not leave the room. “Is there more?” Grubby asked rudely. Being a general did not exactly make him the most kind to his cloak and dagger rivals.

“There is another way,” the man stated simply.

“Explain.”

“We can use dissenting factions already in the country to our advantage.”

There was a short pause while Grubby sat back in the office chair while more papers were being piled onto his desk. There was certainly merit to this idea.

“Find me a cell we can use,” was the order from the General, “preferably an old one so that we know it’s not some Ming ruse.”

“I already have one in mind,” was the quick reply of the proud spy. Grubby did not bother to ask who they were so he continued. “Fifty years ago some European merchants formed a guild to protect trade interests in the Far East and were based not too far north from here. They evolved into an information agency and thieves den paid for by wealthy merchants to keep the Ming off their back. We can use them to run operations for us since a Spanish dominated economic situation here will mean greater profits for them.”

Grubby was astonished at the amount of resource gathering, but narrowed his eyes to the shrouded man. “You guys were wrong about the location of the House of the Rose, how reliable is this information?” There was a small edge of bitterness in Grubby’s tone.

The hooded figure bent his head forward until not even his chin escaped the shadow of his cowl. Properly chastised he added: “This information is different; our agency has been gathering and cross checking this information since three decades ago. Unlike the frantic search for the House, this is more thorough. We also know that they’ve been mostly successful because for the past ten and a half years they’ve been lead by an English spymaster named Jesca. Reportedly she’s an English princess who escaped during the war.”

Another pause and Grubby muddled through the situation. Decisive action was his forté and he gave a resolute nod to his subordinate. “Contact this Jesca and begin negotiations immediately.”

With a bow, the cloaked individual left the presence of the pondering General. Grubby took a moment to think about the situation before scurrying back to his papers—if this plan works they might finally open a road to Beijing and end the war.


Hayato bounced up and down against the floor as the bass pumped that hot underground club with its rhythmic counting. It was these ends of every week when the faceless masses of youth assembled and surrendered their muscles to the slave master’s beating of the synthetic drum. Already, the sweat drops were condensing on the roof.

As Special D continued to excite wave after wave of Osaka’s weekend splurgers of dance and song, Hayato’s rear pocket signaled an unusual occurrence—his phone was vibrating. Deciding at first to desert the call being stuck in the middle of dozens of dimly lit figures caught in snapshot poses from the strobe lights and bursts of illumination from the stage, he was surprised to find that the tactile reminder would not go away.

With a sigh, he slid past smiling faces and entranced bodies before finding the quieter areas near the restrooms and bar. Looking at his now procured device, he could see the flashing emblem parading across his screen: it was the double headed eagle.

“Moshi Moshi?” he answered quickly.

There was a pause as he listened carefully despite the deafening noise behind him.

“Hai… Hai… dekimashita!” Hayato replied before slapping the phone onto itself close.

Taking a moment to compose himself, he exited the surreal sight of the club into the cold wintry air of downtown Osaka. Immediately following him were two gentlemen from the club and two more joined him who were waiting outside as he stepped away from the building. A car rolled forward and one of the men opened the door courteously. The other three entered the car after Hayato made his way in. As the door closed, the driver sped into the lane. The airport would only be fifteen minutes away.


“What did he say?” Carlos asked while fiddling with some of his packed things on that cushioned jet seat.

“He said it’s finished. All the preparations will be ready when we arrive to begin investigations.” Rodrigo answered setting down the jet phone onto the table next to him.

“And who is this Hayato again that’s supposed to show us around?” Tom asked from near the rear end of the small chartered cabin. Lara was sitting across from him and similarly looked to the front in curiosity.

At first, Carlos did not answer and turned his head upward and away. With a stifled chuckle, Rodrigo informed his companion: “Ichihara Mokomichi Hayato—the Crown Prince of Japan.”

Chapter XLI: Princes and Princesses (coming soon)

Llywelyn: was my very first book as a child .

Grubnessul: thanks for your continued patronage ! Yes , General Grubby's still got a lot of work to do against those Ming hordes !

stnylan said:

Providence works in mysterious ways

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Oh ? What do you see this time , oh wise Lewis !

Karasuman said:

Y'know, I was still at Page 26 when I actually spoiled for myself that Isabella'd died after reading Grubnessel's post, so I was reluctant to finish the rest as she was one of my favorites. Reading it and Antonio's reaction to finding out was painful, but that's what makes this story good. Here's hoping this guild proves useful to the war effort.

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AHH XD yeah that was one of those shockers ! But i'm glad you liked her , she was one of my favourites . So sad to see her go =(

Lotus-6 said:

Haha, I enjoy the use of Japanese 101 in this chapter.

Cheers

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ROFL thanks XD I don't know that much so I had to go with simple things ! Chekirachou ! XD

Shadow Dragon said:

coooooooooooooool update!

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Thanks ! And thank you for your patronage !

Good evening everyone and welcome once again to our weekly interview segment here on Timelines where we take patron authors of the story and get to know more about them as a person , as a reader of our AAR , and as an author in their own right ! If you’re new to the programme, I’m canonized author of Timelines: What if Spain Failed to Control the World? Today’s guest is Llywelyn author of the Weekly Showcased work Collage of CAARdinals . Let’s get to the questions !

Part I: The Lord of Aberffraw and Snowdon
Llywelyn tells us about his quirky self !

canonized: I remember I had these woes too but others seem to as well : your name that you use on the forum is a bit hard to remember how to spell sometimes . Could you tell us what it means ?

Llywelyn: It's the name of one of the old Welsh princes. Gran'ma did genealogy and liked that we were descended from the English kings, but the Welsh ones seemed more interesting thanks to Arthur and The Dark is Rising series, even though they were basically just the biggest cattle rustlers in the area. So I used that. You can always just write lly or the welsh nickname llelo, though. Incidentally, ll is a letter on its own, so it's basically pronounced *hock*wellun.

canonized: so how long have you been on the forums writing and reading ?

Llywelyn: You always ask that, so I looked it up in my profile. 2002, apparently. I didn't really try writing an AAR until Nov 2006, though - I really liked Grat's Picture Scroll of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and I decided to do one for Wales

canonized: One of the things I've noticed about your own particular style both as a commentator and writer is that you have a very sharp wit ! How would you say you culminated this speaking style ?

Llywelyn: Well, first, it's very nice of you to say. Second, I dunno - I'm not up to Woody Allen, Bill Hicks or Lenny Bruce's caliber by any means, but I still enjoy their material, so some of that... way of looking at the world prolly seeped in. Last, of course, it's always easier to sound better when you can erase the first dumb things that come out of your mouth. If only more dating happened imming across laptops... .sighs wistfully.

canonized: One might also think that you spend a lot of time on Wikipedia , haha . Do you say that a lot of your online time is spent perusing the anomalous , esoteric , or humorous portions of the web ?

Llywelyn: Those pieces for the Collage of Caardinals are just written in that style, but I do suffer from some kind of browsing disease: I've always been curious, especially about writing, history, the Paradox OT kind of subjects, and even though wiki is blocked here in China, when I get on via proxy servers, yeah, I can spend a whole day learning about Tuareg mating rituals and the names of Israeli fighter jets when I was trying to find out how many Pope Sixtuses there'd been by 1095.

canonized: Speaking of China , could you tell us a little bit about your special situation about living there and how that's like ?

Llywelyn: Well, if you come to China as an expat for a company and have a European or American-level income with the prices here, you can basically live as a god, even in the major cities like Shanghai. I'm much more modest, but pick up an upper-middle-class income just speaking my native language and babysitting ~700 Chinese kids a week.

canonized: Would you say that your stay there has influenced your writing ?

Llywelyn: If I ever AAR a Ming invasion of America in EU2 or 3 or recreate Myth's Guangxi Clique, doubtless some of my experiences will shine through, but probably not much right now, unless it's stunted my vocabulary some from trying to use simpler words than when I was muddling by doing creative writing and Latin translations in college. Those majors, by the way, along with philosophy are why I'm teaching in China, so for your younger readers, let me just repeat what their fathers are hopefully saying to them daily - study math and get a degree in finance. You can do philosophy much more comfortably on your yacht after you retire!
Llywelyn: [image: The More You Know!]

canonized: Haha perhaps it's this interesting combination of humour and erudition that keeps you quite interesting , Mr. Llewellyn . What else would you like readers to take with them after having read one of your works ?

Llywelyn: I'd say the best AARs a, help your gameplay; b, are at least marginally tied to the cultures they represent, so they teach you some things about history and the world; and c, are entertaining. I'm simply not good enough at character development (yet? ) to pull off c narratively, but I hope the pretty pictures and humor work well enough in the meantime.

Part II: Office Paper Eater
Llywelyn and I talk about his adventure in reading through Timelines and his thoughts on it !

canonized: Being someone who wasn't there since the beginning of my AAR , how would you say your catching up experience was like ?

Llywelyn: Secretive. I had to print out ~100 pages of text after I'd reduced your stories to double-columned 7 point Garamond with reduced leading, and I had to do it at my office when my boss wasn't looking at the printer.

canonized: What prompted you to print it out and what kept you going through the many chapters ?

Llywelyn: you have a real style for (early) Tom Clancy style jumping between characters, creating suspense and cliffhangers that feel natural - yknow, without that trainwrecking tone-deafness you see in some TV shows and Hollywood movies. The way the style changes has also kept it interesting. My favorite scene was the adventure underneath Mecca, what one of your earlier interviewees called your Indiana Jones update. The labyrinth in San Francisco was Big Trouble in Little China, some others I'm sure you came up with all by yourself; but the mixture of all of them's been very fun to read. So far. So don't screw it up! :-D

canonized: Haha , I'll try not to ! Aside from the scenes , what are your thoughts on the characters so far and do you have a favourite ?

Llywelyn: Even though he's overpowered to the point of being a Final Fantasy character, definitely der Panzerkardinal. It's good, though, that he's balanced by all the rest of the mere mortals. I really like the sense of duty and honor Jacob seems to have so far, so I hope Myth wasn't right about him.

canonized: Haha Myth , yourself , and a few others have indeed tried to guess motives and future circumstances ; what would you say about the predictability of the Timelines storyline and its freshness ?

Llywelyn: That I didn't want [Edit Spoiler] to end up with a face full of spearpoint. Just that yes, that was decidely unexpected, as was the floating prison and the foreshadowing that (at least in one - maybe the only? - timeline) Antonio's not gonna make it out. You've been able to surprise not just with the situations they find themselves in, but with what you do narratively to the characters. Which of course makes for good reading and lots of missing reams of office paper.

canonized: Being a man of wide knowledge in funny things , what are your thoughts on the various references poked into the narrative ?

Llywelyn: That for maybe three seconds I couldn't believe I'd just read you had Ceylon baseship off your port and then spent the next minute laughing. It's slowly becoming a kind of homage to geek culture. I'm a little sad I'm going to miss what I suppose from your comments are many references to the Neon Genesis anime, since I've never seen any of it, but I figure I can hold out and come back in when you get to Neil Stephenson, Terry Prachett, and William Gibson.

canonized: Haha , well to be honest I've never read Neuromancer etc even though it always comes up because of my Armitage nom de guerre . But anyway , XD , Where would you like to see Timelines go from here ?

Llywelyn: Oh, I've just been reading through Anon's Secrets of the AARk, so maybe an alternate timeline where Haile Selasse and half of a lobster have taken over the world. They find the timepiece and invade Greater Spain with the Belgian-trained Ethiopian hordes. More seriously, I have no idea how you'll keep the timepiece undiscovered and unused for a grand campaign, likewise how Victoria, e.g., would be interesting after Spain's already overtaken the world, or where the Nazi hordes came from in the first place to start the Great War. It'd be very interesting if there were parallel worlds crossing over into and interacting with your AAR, even though I know that violates your universality theme.


canonized: Speaking of the Timepiece , what do you think it is ?

Llywelyn: Still looking for ideas, huh? ;-)

canonized: haha always

Llywelyn: I was holding out hope that it would be some magical realism - a first working clock that somehow had actual power over the Newtonian world - kinda along the lines of how much cooler the International Dateline is in Island of the Day Before than it is when you fly over it in an overcrowded Canada Air Boeing. It looks now more like it will be some kind of military tech, lost backwards in time, but I still think it'd be nice if it were an actual, working relic - the actual true cross or some Gnostic version of it, or something from the ark.

Part III: “Shoppin' online for deals on some writable media/ I edit Wikipedia”
We both discuss Llywelyn’s current interactive project and his thoughts for its future !

canonized: first question I have , is where you got the idea to have an interactive guest AAR for the Papal States ?

Llywelyn: [thinks] The same as rcduggan, I wanted to have an AAR with a less common country, I'd been modding CK for a while at that point, and the medieval Papacy was one of the (or just the) most interesting polity for the whole period. They were involved with everything. Plus it was nice to let them be in control of themselves finally. Having more than one person - it just seemed like an ideal thing: I'd just finished not finishing two AARs and didn't want another one of those, and it would mean that not only the writing style but the gameplay and personalities would be totally different from pope to pope, the same way some popes would be simonous politicians or lechers and others would be thought of as saints in their own lifetime.. Sure bad things happen like random provinces in Russia or one player killing off the army for the next three, but in between, we've had high and low comedy and now with you a serious and respectful representation of Catholicism. We've had ideas I might've thought of like the Da Vinci Code, and then others I never would've done - like the Matrix or phargle's Sam Spade homage.

canonized: What would you say is the hardest part of bringing all these different thoughts and ideas together and in making this project move forward ?

Llywelyn: Well, we've worked out the technical difficulties, and built up a great fanbase and plenty of people who want to go a second and third time; the only thing really tricky is trying to get as many new and original writers as possible before we do start repeating. Anyone reading this is welcome to c'mon over and try it out; like any good sitcom, we've already had one spin-off and it'd be nice to have others and continue introducing new writers to the community. Other than that, just trying to make it fun for everyone - even though some people are going to end up with a 78-old asthmatic with pneumonia and others luck out and have married 25-year-old valorous, energetic crusaders.

canonized: As for your own works, In each particular case you opted for the wikipedia entries that we mentioned earlier . Where did you get the idea to making it that way and where on earth did you find all these wonderful little cookies ?

Llywelyn: Well, obviously, you start out the papacy with historical people - Pope Alexander II (ne Anselmo da Baggio) - and any history geek is going to pull up wiki and the Catholic Encyclopedia. Wiki's article was a stub, really, and I was so frustrated I couldn't fix it - proxied accounts are banned from editing pages, - I basically wrote in my improvements into the AAR. Plus some stuff about brownie recipes that might not be quite exactly all the way completely historically accurate. From there, the links just seemed the most natural thing.

canonized: Haha , well it's certainly entertaining ! I know that there've been interesting agendas on different peoples' minds when they've participated ; Vassals all the way in Norway for example . How did things like that happen anyway ?

Llywelyn: Well, the rest of the Papal lands are around the Mediterranean, so when I came back in for my second go, I pulled a King John - I granted the territory back to the king in exchange for his vassalage. How he got lands in Norway, I have no idea, but I needed the manpower. So I was glad to get a few Vikings.

canonized: Although it's up to your various writers and , on your own goes , you to decide the fate of the Papal States , did you have any particular vision as to where you wish your writers would take it to ?

Llywelyn: I am very glad to have a (more or less) pious Catholic writing one of the updates and doing it well and narratively: my particular vision for the AAR itself was to have a variety of styles and visions. As far as the national history, it would be nice if a, we can avoid being so overpowered that porting over to EU3 would be too boring (the Reformation would be great) and b, we could retake the Holy Land. Algeria and Tunisia are nominally Catholic, but about as valuable as you'd expect them to be after scorched-earth conversions and the Crusades so far have had very mixed (well, almost no) success. Plus, I don't think he can, but it would be great if Turcotore could survive for a while as pope.

canonized: well I thank you for having me on the AAR it's really quite fun and exciting and a great way for writers to try their hand at experimentation without a huge committment . I think this helps the AAR community immensely for its ability to bring different styles and authors together especially in the CK sub-forum which , as I've been told at least , has been waning as of late . So as you were saying , you think you might port it over to one of the EUs and play through the Reformation ? What kind of megacampaign idea might you be imagining ?

Llywelyn: [echo-y-y-y voice] P o o O o O oP e E e S S S Ss i n N Nn nN SssS S S s P p PAAaaAyyyy C c C E e e e. Nah, but more seriously, there are of course more writers for EU3 and HOI2 since they're more developed games. CK is a fantastic game especially after the 1.05 patch, but it can be frustrating for new players when they first encounter the Sheikhdom of Praha. So, in part, one reason to keep going is just so that we'll get more people. The other thing is, if it does last that long, people being smarter than AIs and all, we'll have to get into destroying our own accomplishments a little, and it'll be fun to see how that happens or what I have to throw into people's way to keep them from creating an Ecclesia Universalis.

canonized: So then , which author who hasn't come around yet might you want to see wearing the tiara and why so ?

Llywelyn: El Pip is always saying, oh, I don't have the game - which is such a poor excuse when you don't live in a country where the government is saving your bank account records; and Anonymous4401. He says he hates me and my sheep and everything we stand for, but I really think it's just his fear of making himself emotionally vulnerable and that one day he will come around and discover the joy of friendship. Of course, he will probably just deploy it as a weapon and make people's heads explode like Nny. But c'est le jeu.

canonized: And lastly , what are your AAR plans in the future aside from Collage ?

Llywelyn: Well, I could always pick up some of my unfinished ones like George Bush landing on Iceland, but that's never any fun. I really like the picture scroll format and am currently doing one that's a Khazar Jewish AAR. I actually survived the Cumans and 've just had the Messiah rebuild the Temple, so that's always fun. As far as later, well, for some reason China's blocked Gamer's Gate, but if I ever am able to get EU3 or Ricky, those'll be fun: I've played around with the popes and exilarchs, so it's only fair I go after the Caliphs next.

canonized: Well it’s been a great pleasure , Mr. Llywelyn and thank you for coming on the programme today ! We hope to see more of you in the future in our wonderful exchanges . We here at Timelines would also like to thank our readers for tuning in once more this week ! Next week we’ll be having another author whose work has also been showcased: TeeWee ! Have a good week , everyone !