If Marth and Friedrich the Great share the same appearance, does that mean Chrom and Lucina would respectively look like Friedrich the Glorious and Saint Wilhelmina here? Anyways, very interesting look at Fire Emblem here. While we are discussing cultural trends, I also noticed these previous descriptions below for a couple Anime in TTL, Full Metal Alchemist and Code Geass, also seem to line up with modern China's anti authoritarian mindset as well. They also seem to explore Sino-Roman relations in some way, either by completly reversing them in the case of FMA or combining Rome and China together in the case of Code Geass, which is very interesting.A lot of Chinese RPGs, especially Fire Emblem, would have a very anti-authoritarian stance. I'm working on the Fire Emblem summaries right now, and the ones I'm working on currently all have themes about humanity taking its fate back from either tyrannical dragon rulers or even dragon gods who have mentally declined and have gone insane. There are tinges of Roman-style meritocracy in the new orders some of the protagonists seek to create. The design of Marth himself is based on Friedrich the Great (or rather, I currently picture Friedrich the Great's design as resembling Marth's), while future characters, both protagonists and antagonists, might seek to tear down the rigid social structures of Fire Emblem's medieval settings to create a society where people can advance based on merit. So yeah, a lot of the genre will have these themes.
Amestris would be portrayed as a quasi-Angeloi dictatorship the protagonists are forced to support, while Xing is portrayed in a more positive light. From there the rest of the manga would be similar to OTL
Also, even tho I never played a Fire Emblem game before and only know about it after playing Smash, I did notice that the Friedrich vs Hassan fight was similar to the Seiros/Rhea vs Nemesis fight from Three Houses' intro cinematic after watching it, which was a very cool fight admittedly; I see why you took inspiration from it, albeit with many significant changes to be fair. Are there any other Fire Emblem references in the story arc that I've missed?Code Geass would center on the premise that the Thirteenth Century Crisis was worse than expected. The Mongols and Aztecs/Mexica utterly defeat the Roman forces and partition the Reich between them. They then conquer Scandinavia A small group of Romans and Scandinavians flee to North Eimerica, in what would have become Kanata. There, they establish the Holy Germanic Empire, with the former Kaiser Sigismund I declaring himself Autokrator Sigismund vi Germania. The Holy Germanic Empire ends up conquering the Jin Dynasty and the rest of the New World, ironically exiling the Mexica to their conquests in Europe. Fast forward several centuries, and the HGE now has mechas and conquered Ireland from the Mexica. The Irish, who have adopted Mexica culture and religion (like real life Mexico adopted Spanish culture), do not welcome the HGE, whose culture is a strange hybrid of Roman, Scandinavian, Native Eimerican, Mexica, Jin Chinese, Mayan, and Quechua cultures.
You also mentioned in this discussion below something about Kim Jong Un running an anti Fascist YouTube channel due to Korea suffering under a right wing junta in TTL. Do you think you could include a reference to this in a later story arc, this might make for a cool Easter egg in the Forum arc.Yes, I had Kim Il-Sung lead a Korean division of soldiers in the final assault on Kantunil Kin's stronghold. I imagine he would still go into the military here only be even more anti-left than in real life.
I intended that to be a joke, actually. Korea is probably one of the most anti-far right countries in the world because it did suffer under multiple oppressive right-wing dictatorships in recent memory. Kim Jong-Un, if he still exists, would likely be a moderate conservative with a popular YouTube channel generally opposed to authoritarianism on both sides of the political spectrum (but especially fascism). Ironically, his channel would show he's also a big fan of Japanese and Chinese culture, especially anime.
Understandable, that lets you focus more on those updates in particular ideas rather than trying to flesh out multi ideas at once and getting distracted, which has happened to me before admittedly.I just don't feel like writing any other cultural updates besides Fire Emblem and the essay responses, which are more like personal notes for the school arc.
That’s an interesting idea, this might lead to India and the Tianxia intervening to prevent a Communist take over and dissolutionment of Indochina, which could result in either Vietnam and India partitioning the region between themselves, the new corporatist government aligning with either India or the Tianxia, the original government staying neutral, or the NUC getting a new ally in a Communist Indochina.That's a good idea. Maybe a few corporations could even try to subvert the government and take it over, considering it hostile to their commercial interests, which could invite a giant strike the NUC takes advantage of.
You also just recently mentioned how Friedrich the Great and Jayasimha styled themselves as the spiritual successors to Alexander the Great and Chandragupta, which is funny because there are actual event chains in CK2 about forming legitimate dynastic claims to Alexander and Ashoka's bloodlines. I don't think it would be realistic for Friedrich the Great to claim to be a literal descendant of Alexander the Great and having everyone buy it, but could see people seeing him as the symbolic heir of Alexander without problem. I wouldn't put it past Jayashimha to claim to be the actual reincarnation of Chandragupta or Ashoka, I imagine the Hindu populations of India would buy that.I forgot that detail I gave Jayasimha. His appeal was that like Friedrich the Great, he considered merit as the most important quality of the individual, not place of birth or social standing. Although the Indian caste system wasn't as rigid before British colonization, from what I heard, Jayasimha was one of the first Indian rulers to sideline the idea, and while he could not completely end it, he tried to allow for more social mobility. This appealed to millions of Indians in the lower castes, who made up a large portion of his army.
I know you played Ck2 before bloodlines were introduced, but since I've brought up I'm wondering, what kinds of bloodlines would the Hohenzollerns have at this point? You're free to look at the CK2 wiki's list of bloodlines for ideas, but I imagine the two Friedrichs and Saint Wilhelmina would each have their own bloodlines, while other Hohenzollerns would have the Saoshyant bloodline or the inheritable Sayyid or Mirza traits due to Saint Wilhelmina and her children marrying into those lineages.
I also wonder about the kinds of artifacts the Hohenzollerns would likely have at this point, besides Enonon and Saint Wilhelmina‘s coronation artifacts, and that Hungarian crown a few Kaisers wore of course. I imagine Enonon would be a level five quality artifact in CK2 terms, what with being forged with Wihelm’s help.
I think the EU4 breakdown of Roman provinces also mentioned the Carthaginian identity having some hints of Berber culture as well due to them being the majority population before being overshadowed by German settlers. Since Saint Gunhilda was Polish, and the Schweinfurts also ruled Sicily which is very close to Carthage, I imagine Carthage would a very weird mismash of Greek, German, Norman, Berber/Arab, Polish and possibly Malian traditions from neighboring provinces, with Carthagian culture becoming even more bizarre when it starts trying to emulate the Ancient Carthaginians and by extension the Phoenicians.That's a good touch for Tianxia. Carthage would've definitely developed a subculture, as its legion (the 20th or 22nd?) participated in many important battles throughout the early Reich, and the city is the ancestral home of the Schweinfurt family. The region is mostly populated by the descendants of German settlers sent by Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich, the predecessor of Friedrich the Great, who led a crusade there before the Restoration. Gallia's subculture could focus on the cultural assimilation of the French and its German settlers, who adopted some French culture.
I also remember previous notes for Tianxia France discussed before, which I'll like to go into more detail here. Feel free to add more suggestions or changes if you think they'd improve the lore.
Moving on to Tianxia ideas, we've coverd Prussia under a Kaiserin Victoria Louise, an Austrian Republic lead by Osterhild and a Hellenic theocraccy controlled by the Eccumenical Patriarch, but I think I have an idea for Gallia. Seeing as how the Karlings are still around, I was thinking we'd see a Gallic monarchy lead by either them or the Hohenzollern-Simaringens. Alternativley, it could become a right wing republic under Karl von Gallia (aside from the liberation of Gallia, I don't think he was relevant in this AAR past that, so I thought it was right to give him something to do.) or Phillip Petain (he was the governer of Gallia from 1940-1944, so I thought I'd put him here.)
I could also add a detail about Communist cells based in Brittany trying to undermine the Gallic Republic with the Socialist Rhineland Confederation’s backing. As for the candiditates for the leadership of either a Gallic monarchy or republic, lets go over that:Karl von Gallia certainly would be the one leading Gallia plus the choosing to either have the Karlings or the Capets (Assuming Zen saved them back in CK2) or any of the Hohenzollern cadet branches would be a neat analog like the exiled France focus tree for Kaiserreich, hell all three even have their own version for the nation's nane, Francia for the Karlings, Kingdom of France for the Capets and Empire of France for the cadet branch.
The Hohenzollern-Sigmarigens would likely be the family most likely to align with Prussia's faction, as they'd still be loyal to the Hohenzollerns and the idea of the Reich. With Osterhild being married to a Karling, I imagine the Karlings could either go with Austria or go in its own path, which could involve the Karlings bringing back pre Restoration French culture and have France crave a new path free of the Reich. The two republican paths, Karl von Gallia or Philip Petain, would obviously be different from each other and the monarchist and communist paths, with Karl von Gallia reforms the Gallic republic into either a true democratic republic or a constitutional monarchy under the Karlings (the Sigmarigens would be a meritocracy, either an Metternich absolutist one or a liberal one like a proto Ottonian system) while Petain would run a more authoritarian Paulist style one. There should also be unique options for a potential Franco-British relations as well, with some leaders wanting to form an alliance between them while others would consider Britain an enemy and want to conquer a Normandy under British control. I'm not sure what the Capets would do here, since you mentioned the them dying out before.
I’m still not sure about the old Vicky 2 cultural map being accurate, as while there were indeed a lot of European settlers in Africa, I feel like there’d have to be unfeasible numbers of people migranting to Africa before the local population could be overtaken, and I’m sure full cultural assimilation would be hard on a continent as ethnically and racially diverse as Africa, which the same problem we discussed with India. That said, I imagine the Vicky 2 map is accurate in saying in saying that most Africans would commonly speak German, albeit while still speaking indigenous languages and speaking German with drastically different dialects. I think you're right about the old Vicky 2 map showing the most commonly used laugage being German, while the NWO map could be how ethno-cultural divisions actually are in Africa.As for Africa, that is one situation where I would generally accept the Vicky map over NWO's as there really were a lot of German settlers who settled in Africa. But I don't want to fully retcon the NWO map, so I generally assume the "majority culture" shown on the map is really the most spoken language in the area. Still doesn't explain bizarre AI migration habits like the African majority city in northern Korea, but I'll chalk that up to an amusing moment in history.
I like that, August could be the Tianxia equlivent of Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, only even more mad, bloodthirsty and dangerous than him. He could make a very intimidating mid-game threat that could cause many former Roman states to put aside their differences and band together to stop him, while August could get many buffs that could make him confident enough to invade Russia and the former Reich at the same time.Having not been deposed here, August would have the opportunity to follow up on his insanity. Under the right circumstances, he might even declare the Commonwealth reformed into the "Roman Empire" and launch an invasion of the former Reich to press his claim. Poland might be divided into two buffer states, one led by the Habsburg dynatoi which remain loyal to Berlin and the other a Lithuanian client state. Both are intended to be annexed maybe a year into the game.
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