Napoleon in Afghanistan: A Twilight Histories Map

My latest map based on the Twilight Histories episode Napoleon in Afghanistan.  It's set in the mid-19th century where among other things...



Napoleon was far more successful than he was in our world.  One of his biggest successes was his victory against the Russians.  Napoleon chased Czar Alexander and his forces across Central Asia for quite some time.  Eventually, the French army faced off against the forces of Britain and Russia in the Khyber Pass of Afghanistan.  It was a tough and gurgling battle, but ultimately the French prevails and dealt a crippling blow to the British by capturing India.  Unfortunately, Napoleon didn't get to enjoy his success for long as he contracted cancer and was dead by his mid-sixties.  Still, despite his early death, Napoleon managed to create a French Empire stretching from Portugal to Indochina.

While Napoleon was busy building his empire the United States was going through considerable turmoil.  The Embargo Act was never repealed and New England seceded from the Union.  Soon the United States found itself in a war against New England and Britain.  All went well at first, but then Thomas Jefferson was assassinated.  James Madison severely mishandled the war and caused New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania to join New England.  By the end of the war New England was recognized as a sovereign nation and the area that would have been the states of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin Indiana and Ohio had become part of British North America.

Napoleon never wasted troops in Haiti and was able to retain Louisiana.  In recent times Louisiana has been granted a higher degree of personal autonomy, akin to the British Dominion system, as a bit of a trial run of giving other regions of the French Empire more autonomy.  Louisiana has a highly cosmopolitan culture with its citizens comes from across the French Empire.  New Orleans is very much the finical and cultural heart of Louisiana, and occupies a position not too dissimilar to New York during our world's 19th century.  There is a movement within western Louisiana to breakaway and become its own separate dominion.  Time will tell what becomes of this.

Following Russia's defeat by Napoleon many Russians, including the royal family, fled to Russia's possessions in North America.  Novorossiya has expanded to include much of the Pacific Northwest, and has opened its doors to many immigrants.  One of the most notable group of immigrants has been Mormons.  The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints originated in New England, but its members soon moved to Louisiana under the guidance of church founder Joseph Smith.  The Mormons sought to establish a nation of their own in sparsely populated upper Louisiana.  Unfortunately, it wasn't long before they found themselves in conflict with the French military in what would become known as the Deseret War.  Brigham Young, following Smith's death in the war, led the remaining Mormon's to southern Novorossiya.  The Russians allowed the Mormons to settle, but made it very clear they were not attempt anything like in Louisiana.  Novorossiya is culturally divided between a Russian Orthodox north and an Anglo Mormon south.

Latin America experienced several revolutions thanks to Napoleon.  Simon Bolivar received support from Napoleon and achieved his dream of a unified Republic of Gran Columbia.  Mexico is an empire that is ruled by a relative of Napoleon; on paper it's independent, but in practice it's very much a French puppet state.  The Portuguese royal family, as in our world, relocated to Brazil; Rio de Janeiro is the heart of the Brazilian Empire.  Argentina and Uruguay have fallen the British, eager for new lands following their losses to the French.  Chile has managed to maintain its independence thanks to its mountainous terrain.

Much of the Middle East is either under French control or French influence.  Oman has managed to maintain its independence by doing everything it can to suck up to the French.  Thanks to this tactic Oman has been able to begin establishing colonies in East Africa and is becoming something of a regional power.  There was a rebellion and uprising by Wahhabi Muslims against French influence in the region, but it we quickly suppressed.  Following the fall of the Ottoman Empire an Islamic Holy State was established around the region containing Mecca and Medina.  The French leave the Holy State mostly to its own devices, figuring that it's more trouble than it's worth.

The rapid expat ions of the French Empire gave China the motion it needed to being a modernization campaign.  The empire's cultural regulations were relaxed and non-Manchurians were allowed to practice their cultures more freely, which has led to an increase in the number of hanfu being made and purchased.  Industrialization programs are underway and China has even been able to negotiate for the purchase of several Philippine islands from France.  Meanwhile, Japan has opened itself up to the outside world and is also in the middle of its own industrialization.  The Japanese government has been reformed under a Meiji style restoration.  Korea is doing its best to prosper in the shade of its neighbors and is looking to start its own industrialization program.  Hawaii has managed to maintain its independence and is in the process of reforming its society along French lines.

The 19th century is without doubt a very French Century.  The French Empire reigns supreme and without challenge.  The British Empire has been thoroughly humbled and never quite became the great power that it did in our world.  For the most part the world has been relatively peaceful following Napoleon's wars of conquest.  Slavery has been phased out of most nation with the exception of the rump United States and Brazil, though the Brazilians are creating plans to do so.  Because of the size of the French Empire it is possible that Africa won't be colonized quite to the same extent as in our world.  Still, despite its success the French Empire is beginning to show strains and groan under its own weight.  It's possible that more regions will be granted greater autonomy like Louisiana.  Time will tell what will become of the world that Napoleon made. 

Titanic Colony: Flags of Avalon

I always love it when I get to work with my fellow alternate historians, especially when there are flags involved in it.  So, when Zach Anderson needed a flag for the Republic of Avalon for his story Titanic Colony, I didn't just give one flag.  Instead, I made flags for Avalon as well as all of its provinces.  I've decided that I'll share them over here on my blog, but first we need a bit of background and context.

You can find Titanic Colony over on Zach's blog The Weekly Chrononaut.  Titanic Colony follows the passengers and crew of Titanic as they are transported to a world without humans by humans from the far future, and are supplied with a vault of resources.  It alternates between the first year and 300 years after the Titanic gets transported to the new world.  So, now that we've cover that, let's get on to the flags.  You'll notice that they've all got red cantons with white stars, as a reference to the White Star Line.

Here we have the flag of The Republic of Avalon.  The three strips represent the three decks of Titanic while the red canton and white star represent the White Star Line, the captain and the crew.  The stripes are blue and white to represent the waves which carried Titanic to its new world.

Here we have the flag of Titanic City. It is the capital of the Republic of Avalon, and is the first area of Avalon to have been colonized. Located where New York City is in our world. I got the inspiration for the flag based on the flag of the Star Tugs from the TV series TUGS. It looked so similar to the White Star Line Flag I figured it would be a nice little shout out, and I'd been watching TUGS when I made this. For those who don't know, TUGS was made by the people who made Thomas the Tank Engine, but is a bit more mature and slightly darker series, and obviously the main characters are all talking tugboats and other watercraft.

This one is the flag of New Eire, which as the name suggests, was settled primarily by Irish passengers and crew.  As such, I made it green and gave it a Celtic harp. 

Here we have the flag of Avalonia.  It has King Arthur on it because, hey, it is the republic of Avalon after all.  I figured Arthurian imagery would feature prominently on the flags.

This is the flag of New Cork.  The phoenix represents Avalon rising from the ashes of the old world, I figured that burgundy was a nice color to use for this one.

Here we have the flag of New Virginia. The infinity symbols represent The Eternity Project, those humans from the far future who transported Titanic to the virgin Earth and provided them with all of the supplies they'd need to survive. 

This is the flag of South Avalonia.  It has Excalibur, the sword given to King Arthur by the Lady of the Lake.  The sword he pulled out of a stone was a separate sword.  Like I said, plenty of Arthurian symbolism. 

 

This one is the flag of Columbia.  It was founded by defendants of the American passengers.  Just as people several generations take pride in their ancestors, I figured it would be the same here, and the flag reflects this pride.

The flag of Edwardia.  I went with a red, white and black scheme because I thought it looked really nice all mixed together like that.  It's named after Captain Edward J. Smith, the first High Captain of Avalon.  The crest represents industry and science, since I figured those would be emphasized.

Here we have the flag of Florida.  I figured red, yellow and blue were a good tricolor and the trident seemed like a good nautical symbol to have. 

This is the flag of Finium named for...well, we're still working on that part.  I went with a simple blue cross against a white background, because that seemed like a good simple design.

Here is the flag of Mississippia, it's a bit further from the rest of Avalon so I gave it a dragon as in "here there be dragons" plus I like dragons, so I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity. I made it purple, because purple is an underutilized color for flags.

Finally, we have the flag of Astoria. It's named after John Jacob Astor.  I figured at least one of them would feature an anchor, and Hope seemed fitting given Avalon's optimistic nature. 

Well, that's all of the flags I've got for this time.  I hope you had fun.  I collaborated with Lynn Davis in two occasions, so maybe I'll post the flags from those endeavors at some point.  And hey, who knows who else I might collaborate with in the future.  Until next time gang.  

Interview: Alan Garcia

I've decided that it's high time I started kicking this blog into gear and seriously committing to it. As the first step towards this I've decided to take inspiration from Matt Mitrovitch and Dave Rubin by interview several people whom I happen to admire greatly, or just anyone I think will be worth interviewing. To kick things off we're going to start with one of my favorite artists from DeviantArt, and one who's art has been featured here quite a few times: Alan Garcia aka Shinoharaa.

Also, side note, if you haven't seen The Rubin Report and all the amazing stuff Dave Rubin is doing then do yourself a favor and check it out. Anyway, let's all give a big Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder welcome to Alan Garcia.


Welcome to Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder. To start, tell us who Alan Garcia is, in your own words.

 Hello! My name is Alan Garcia, also known as Shinohara. I'm a 21 years old Brazilian artist (mostly digital) from Sao Paulo, and I work with anime webgames.  


A lot of what you do is vector work. For our readers who may not have heard of it, can you briefly describe what that is?

Vector artist is something like getting a low quality image and remaking it in a bigger resolution. I use my own style in a 8000x8000 resolution, using what I learned from another artists' styles, mainly from meshugene89 (meshugene89.deviantart.com/), that is my first inspiration.


Your user name is Shinoharaa. Is there any story behind that name?

Actually it should be Shinohara, but that was taken I create an account, so I put another 'A' hahahah. When I was a child, I need a nickname for my in-game character. For some magical reason I chose Shinohara and uses it until today. Currently, I only play with female characters with nickname Ayumi and Usuki, but between you and me, I think that wouldn’t be very much like an artist name for me.

What inspired you to be an artist?

My entire family is made of artists. My mother painted pictures, my brother drew on paper and my father worked with TV commercials. I remember watching my brother drawing Dragon Ball characters and I started too. But I was always bad at drawing something from my mind, so since I was a kid I put the original picture beside the paper and I copied onto the paper.

When I started play Naruto games, I was the one player who was boring with new ideas and layouts, but there were characters in the game that did not have good renders over the Internet, such as drunk Rock Lee, and then I learned in one day using the Paint Tool SAI and started making characters that had no pictures on the internet to use in the game.

With time I started to get better and people started asking me to do a specific character. With more and more requests, I began to see the future in the business and began to charge pretty cheap for the arts. When I received more than 20 requests and took months to finish all, I decided to raise the price, and fortunately the people have recognized my work enough to continue the requests.

I can say that I am very lucky to work on two things I like and still be able to connect both.

You're obviously a pretty big anime fan. Do you have any favorites?

ANGEL BEATS! Oh, sorry. Yeah, I love the animation and the music from Fairy Tail, the characters from Sword Art Online, the history from many. I really like Naruto, maybe because I know every name on the anime. It’s like how some people know the name of every Pokémon for me hahah, but I admit I never watched entire classic saga. I saw only until the fight between Lee and Gaara. Yeah, I never watched Orochimaru invasion, or the famous Naruto and Sasuke epic clash on the Valley of the End, but I watched Shippuuden since the very first episode, every week, including the infinite fillers

But definitely I have two favorite animes: Angel Beats and Steins;Gate. Angel Beats is really fun, beautiful, exciting, sad but perfect! Steins;Gate, with issues about time travel and John Titor, holy shit, my mind blows up!

What can you tell us about the Brazilian anime fandom?

Well, I can talk about the players from the games that I work. They like everything, but they are crazy about the famous ones like Sword Art Online, Shingeki no Kyojin, One Punch Man, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach. You know, the main ones. Hehe!

What's a typical day like for you?

Well, I wake up 8am, go to work and back home by almost 8pm. I have from 8pm until 2am to do what I can. Play. Draw. Parachute jump. Anything. When I have a really big commission list, I try to focus on it, but without inspiration is really boring and it never ends, so I play something (STAR WAAAAARS NOOWWW).

When I’m inspired, sometimes I start and finish on the same day. But sometimes, if it’s a hard one, I can take 1 or 2 weeks, and that kills me.

What's it like making one of your crossover commissions?

I love it. I love the challenge of drawing it, and when someone comments that both characters have something in common, like the seiyuu. Btw, right now I’m drawing 5 crossovers that I always want to do, just keep watching.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m doing some characters that I always wanted to draw (secret), some Hot Spring ones (oh, I miss drawing those) and maybe some Disney ones (I love Disney hahah). Oh, and my brother told me to trying draw League of Legends Splash Arts in anime style. Well, we will see, hahah.

Any advice for aspiring artists?

DO IT! JUST DO IT! Don't let your dreams, be dreams! Yesterday, you said tomorrow, so JUST DO I---wait, that's not mine, LOL. Well, you draw bad? No problem. You need keep going, improve, learn. You just became better if you never stop! As the famous quote says, an artist never ends an art, it just abandons. Never is good enough, so you need to know when stop and start another, better than the first one. Try new styles, improve the same. Find your motivation!

Well it was really great having you over. Before you go, where can the readers find you if they want to commission you or drop a donation your way?

Thanks for inviting me! Just access my DeviantArt account Shinoharaa (shinoharaa.deviantart.com/) and keep watching my journal. I open the commissions for 1-2 weeks every time I finish the commission list

 

My First Publication with The Moonlit Road

Hello everybody.  I'm happy to report that I have recently published my first story on one of my favorite websites and podcasts, The Moonlit Road.  The story is called Irwin Tarheel and the Fair Folk and you can read it now.  I think you're really gonna like this one...okay, maybe I'm kind of biased since I wrote it, but you should still check it out, along with all the other great stories from The Moonlit Road.

Now that I'm starting to get seriously published I think I'll follow in the tradition of Aliette de Bodard and Ken Liu and start posting story notes.  These will be short little blog post that hopefully will give you some insights into my thoughts and creative process for when I came up with my stories.  So lets get on with it then.

For Irwin Tarheel and the Fair Folk it's basically a retelling of the Japanese legend of Urashima Taro set, mostly, in 19th century Shreveport.  I noticed how similar Urashima's story was to that of stories involving the Fair Folk, those from the land of Faerie, and it seems like a pretty natural fit.  That and I'd also wanted to write story about faeries that were more like they are in old myths and legends.  I guess I really killed two birds with one stone here.  As for why I set the story in Shreveport, hey, it seems as good a place as any.  Plus, The Moonlit Road specializes in stories from the American South, and Shreveport, Louisiana is a thoroughly Southern city.        

So there you have it.  I'm very excited to get published by The Moonlit Road, and I feel this is just the start of many more great stories to come.  I'll keep you guys posted on any future developments, and I will see you all next time.

Fan Art and Commissions #2

I think it's time for another showcase of fan art and commissions so let's get right on it.  Our first commission is brought to us courtesy of Swedish artist LadyLoriel.  Its another one based on The Adventures of the Silver Bullets fanfic, in fact, that's its title.  Let's take a look at it shall we?

I know that many of the characters look a tad off, but that's real a result of the artist's particular style more than anything else.  On the whole I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.  Great to see my vision come to life. I especially love the order everyone is in and how, even though the artist didn't intend it, Al and Mizore look like they're holding hands.  Anyway, who's up for some maps?

This map is based on Easternized World from The AltHistory Wikia.  It was created by Bruce Munro, a very famous map maker in the online alternate history community.  Easternized World is an alternate history where East Asia, rather than the West, became the dominate colonial and cultural power of the world.  It remains one of my favorite alternate history scenarios and I love the ways Bruce put his person style on it.  You really do want to check out the Deviantart page for the full description Bruce provides.  

And here's another scenario from the AltHistory Wikia that I had Bruce cover for me.  This one is called Aztec Empire and it features a world where the Aztec Empire never falls.  Its a really interesting scenario, thought you can tell at times that the author was young and inexperienced, and I like how Bruce was able to iron out the creases with his take on the scenario.  Again, check out the Deviantart link for the full description for the best experience. 

Here's one from our pal Shinoharaa.  It's Kurumu Korono as Sailor Neptune.  I case you're wondering the answer is yes, I do intend to commission a full set of sailor senshi and then some.  Well I can't think of anything else to add about this one, so let's move on.

And here we see Kurumu's loving girlfriend...er, I mean "cousin" Milly Ashford as Sailor Uranus.  I really think I did a good job with my selections of these two.  In Code Geass it's pretty much stated that Milly, and most Britannians for that matter, is bisexual.  Meanwhile, Kurumu certainly had her moments with Mizore.  Speaking of Mizore...

I'll conclude this post with an honorable mention.  Mizore Shirayuki as Sailor Mercury.  I didn't actually commission this one, but I certainly looks like something I would have commissioned.  This is the one that lead me to Shinoharaa, never in my wildest imagination did I expect to find such art for so cheap a price.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, that's enough art for one blog post.  I hope you had a great time as usual, and maybe we'll get to do this again soon.  I'll see you next time.    

  

  

  

Flag of The Union of Catalonia and Occitania

This is the flag of The Union of Catalonia and Occitania. It come from a world where the Black Death killed 80% of the populations of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. Among other things this meant that the Renaissance never happened, Europe remained backwards and Medieval, West Africa became the heart of Islam and Islam itself liberalized a fair bit.

Over the years the nations of East Asia and West Africa became major colonial powers. Fortunately, Catalonia and Occitania have managed to avoid colonization. Their citizens are evenly mixed between followers of the Catharist faith and those who follow the pope in Avignon. They are also noted for being more tolerant and less fanatical than their neighboring nations. It is because of that tolerance that Catalonia and Occitania has become a major trading hub and center of learning. In fact, they have one of the highest literacy rates in all of Europe.

Catalonia and Occitania are also famous for their food and wine. Their largest cities include Barcelona, Marseilles and Toulouse. With merchants from throughout the world visiting their ports, a high education rate and relative peace it might be possible that Catalonia and Occitania will be a major leader in getting Europe respect on the world stage.

Paleoworld

This is a new stonepunk/sandalpunk/silkpunk setting I've come up with that I call Paleoworld.  Its not alternate history, but it should appeal to that crowd.  As you can see, I was inspired by both Dinotopia and Tekumel.  

Several centuries into the future humanity has spread out to distant worlds and far flung stars.  Many planets were life-bearing worlds, but there were just as many that had to be terraformed; including the the planet at the center of our story.  What was once a lifeless rock was made to support life, and many creatures from Earth's prehistoric past were cloned to serve as beasts of burden and to create and ecosystem for the planet.  The terraforming process made the planet resemble land masses from various periods in Earth's geologic past.  For many years the worlds colonized by humans had lived in peace with one another, but that was not to last.  A great interstellar war broke out and the young world, still in the process of being settled, was forgotten.  Due to the lack of easily accessible metals technology and society eventually regressed to ancient/agrarian levels.  

Eventually the humans, and other sentient life forms, forgot that they weren't native to the planet; their true origins long since faded to myth and legend.  Still, remains from the more technologically advanced days are scattered across the planet, but most people don't realize what they are.  Robots are somewhat common features, but range from being viewed as magically creatures to outright feared as metallic monsters.  Most of the languages the original settlers of the planet brought with them have changed quite a bit.  English is still studied, but in much the same way Latin was during the Middle Ages and Enlightenment.  Life went on, empires rose and empires fell and thus a new world was born: Paleoworld.  Many of the nation's of Paleoworld strongly resemble civilizations from Earth's past.  Let's go meet them.

The yellow nation is The Celestial Empire.  Their culture includes elements from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia.  The Celestial Empire is arguably the most advanced nation in all of Paleoworld.  Their head of state is an emperor, but in many ways the emperor is a figure head with the real power resting with the imperial bureaucracy.  Anyone can join the bureaucracy of the pass the civil servant exam.  Unfortunately, this mostly amounts to measuring one's knowledge of the ancient classics, though as of lately there have been reforms put forward to make the exam fairer for everyone and more of a measure of aptitude in multiple areas.  The military makes use of several different feathered dinosaurs; such as microraptors for spies and scouts, velociraptors for assassins and shock troops.  Dinosaurs like therizinosaurus and protoceratops are used in the military as well, but they are more so used to help with farming.  

In the event that a city cannot be saved and is going to fall to an enemy their is a last resort: Tarbosaurus.  Cities located close or within Tarbo Country have high ringed walls surrounding them, or are built in the middle of lakes.  Those cities in safer lands are less well defended.  Several calls and scents are used to lure them in, and of course there's an equal number used to drive the Tarbosaurs away.  The religions are primarily based on ancestor veneration and leading a moral life.  There are gods that are worshiped, but the Celestial Empire's religions tend to be more on the philosophical side.  The more intelligent dinosaurs live as equals with humans.  The Celestial Empire does its best to have strong diplomatic ties to the other nations of Paleoworld.  

The silver nation is The Mammoth Rider Hoard.  They're based on various tribal and nomadic people such as the Mongols, the Sioux, and the Massai among others.  They aren't a single nations, but are more of a loose confederation of tribes.  Besides mammoths they also use dire wolves, lions and certain tribes have even tamed cave bears, elasmotherium and megaloceros.  In the past the tribes had a bit of a reputation for raping, pillaging and murdering.  There are certainly still a few tribes that do that, but on the whole the tribes have begun to settle down, with a few even establishing year-round settlements.  The tribes prefer their harsh but fulfilling existence to the ways of civilized societies.  Most civilized people are perfectly happy to live and let live as long as the tribes don't attack them.  

Mammoth Riders have pretty good gender equality, with women being equal to men in almost all regards.  Women who die in childbirth receive the same funeral rights as men who die in battle.  Marriage is common practice, but purely monogamous relationship are less so, and on the whole Mammoth Riders are pretty free love.  One's wealth is determined by the number of children and mammoths one possesses; if you have a lot of one, but not a lot of the other, then you are poor.  Dead bodies are left out for predators and scavengers after funeral rights have been provided.  It is believed that burial hurts the earth (scientifically speaking, it does) and cremation is generally frowned upon.  Leaving the body is also viewed as the dead's final gift to the world.  Religion is fairly animalistic/shamanistic with emphasis placed on paying respect to the spirits of the natural world.  

The bronze colored nation is The Kingdom of Rig Tal.  Their culture is influenced by East Africa, South India and Australian Aborigines.  Rig Tal is a major maritime power both in terms of trade and military.  Their navy and shipping fleets utilize dunkleosteus, liopleurodon, orthocones, elasmosaurus, ichthyosaurus and basilosaurus among others.  They're also quite the force to be reckoned with on land, as their possession on the mainland show.  They follow a monist religion that preaches that everything in the universe is a part of God, and worship is focus around the greater aspects of God, which we might think of as gods and goddesses.  However, as of recently there's been a schism in the faith.  The mainland has developed a strictly monotheistic version of Rig Tal's religion, and many worry this could potentially lead to war. On the whole, however, Rig Tal is reasonably peaceful and prefers good trade relations and diplomacy.  

Rig Tal is renowned for its excellent cuisine especially, not surprisingly, it's seafood.  Shipwrights from Rig Tal have served as consultants to many of the other navy's on Paleoworld.  Part of Rig Tal's religious beliefs is that all life originated from the seas, and swimming is viewed very much as a religious experience.  Upon death, and after funeral rights, the bodies of the dead are sent out to sea.  Riding the great sea beasts is considered a right of passage for many youth in Rig Tal.    

The pink, teal and blue nations are The Triple Alliance.  Their culture is based on various Native American cultures, but especially the Aztecs and Mayans.  Originally they were three separate nations, but have since been united under a single ruler.  Speaking of that ruler, The Triple Alliance is unique among the nations of Paleoworld for actually being ruled by a dinosaur; in this case, a troodon.  The emperor has traditionally been selected via trail-by-combat, but in recent times test of other skills, such as intellect and closeness to the gods, has become equally common.  The Triple Alliance is often stereotyped as being obsessed with human sacrifice, but the truth is a bit more nuanced.  Human sacrifice has largely been phased out in favor of making other offerings to the gods in the form of something personal.  It can be a meal, or some personal time but I must be something meaningful to the person in question.  

As far as dinosaurs go The Triple Alliance has all of the classic ones; tyrannosaurus, triceratops, stegosaurus, brachiosaurus, diplodocus, ankylosaurus, utahraptor, deinonychus and many more.  The Triple Alliance also keeps an air force with primitive hot balloons, gliders, pteranodons, quetzalcoatlus and other pterosaurs.  The blue colored part contains jungles with unusually high oxygen content due to force fields and leftover terraforming equipment.  These jungles are home various Carboniferous arthropods such as meganeura, arthropleura and pulmonoscorpius among others.  The Triple Alliance is very good about providing equal rights.  Women are equal to men in almost all areas of life, including reviving the same education, and intelligent dinosaurs live as equals with humans.  When possible, it is preferred for cities to be built on lakes.  

The dark brown nation is The Republic of Pindaros.  It's culture is primarily influenced by Greece and Rome.  Pindaros contains a mix of European dinosaurs as well as various Mesozoic mammals and birds such as leptictidium and gastornis.  Pindaros is famous for its many philosophies, and it is partially governed by a council of Philosopher Kings.  The Philosopher Kings serve to guide and advise the nation, but the real power is with the people themselves, and Pindaros is the only true democracy in all of Paleoworld.  This has earned them a reputation as a nation of anarchy and mob rule, but on the whole Pindaros is reasonably peaceful.  Pindaros used to worship many gods, but what little religion they still have is of an extremely philosophical nature.  Emphasis is placed on living a moral and just life rather than on prayers and piety.  

The red nation is The Kingdom of Ragnaroon.  They're culture is based on the Vikings and medieval Western Europe.  Much like Pindaros they feature a mix of Mesozoic mammals and dinosaurs such as iguanodon, baryonyx, archaeopteryx, kentrosaurus and related species.  Ragnaroon was originally a series of tribes until they were united under a single ruler.  Despite having settled down Ragnaroon still maintains a strong warrior ethos, and in particularly tough times has been known to raid its neighbors.  Despite these occasional scuffles they maintain strong trade relations to other nations.  Society is a strictly stratified feudal hierarchy with limited mobility.  Religion is based around the worship of gods who are considered cool and best not bothered.  In general, life is harsh in Ragnaroon, but its citizens try to make the best of things.

The orange nation is The Empire of The Sun.  It's culture is based on South American civilizations such as the Inca, the Moche and the Mapuche.  The Empire of the Sun is spread out across a series of vast and rolling grasslands, and it's scattered cities are connected by a series of well maintained roads; the most famous of which is The Trans-Imperial Trailway.  They use dinosaurs such as giganotosaurus and argentinosaurus, but they also have Mesozoic species such as smilodons, terror birds, giant ground sloths, giant armadillos and macrauchenia among others.  The roadways ensure that goods reach all corners of the empire incredibly fast.  In fact, even cities far from the coast can enjoy fresh fish thanks to the road system.  The government system of the empire is actually quasi-socialist.  Towns have grains stores, with rations given out everyday, and jobs are assigned based on desire and need.  Citizens work a government assigned job part of the week, and a job of their personal choosing the rest of the week.  

Giganotosaur attacks are a constant concern along the trailways.  To get around this shipments can be sent by argentinosaurs, which are big and provide more space for goods and ample protection, but are also quite slow.  Alternatively, the various mammal species can be used, and they are considerably faster, but provide less potential protection if an attack occurs.  Most cities include public gardens and parks with elaborate sculptures.  The empire's religion has many gods, but the most important (not surprisingly) is the sun.  The Empire of the Sun has also dabbled in primitive hot air balloon development.  

The green nation is the Kingdom of Aredesh.  It's based on Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Arabia during the Golden Age of Islam and with a bit of West Africa thrown in as well.  Aredesh is a lush and fertile land with plenty of rainfall year round.  Consequently, they're a major agricultural producer and are the top shipper of produce on Paleoworld.  Black is considered the sacred color of life, good fortune and prosperity; red, on the other hand, is considered the color of death, bad luck and evil.  Aredesh is famous for its stills in magic, but in reality most of this is due to their having discovered lost technology from the more advanced days of Paleoworld.  

The purple nation is the Kingdom of Mujungdar.  Not much to say other than that they're culturally similar to Rig Tal and have lots of volcanos.

The burgundy nation is the Uluru Confederation.  Culturally they're based on the Maori, Polynesians and Australian Aborigines.  Their animals include Tasmanian tigers, moa, dodos, giant eagles, giant wombats, giant snakes, dwarf elephants, megalania.  This is another part I haven't quite fleshed out.

Finally, the white nation is the Twilight Isles...I haven't really figured this one out.  

Okay, obviously there's a few "here there be dragons" territories, but I hope you enjoyed it.  I've certainly enjoyed making it and I might just makes some stories set in this world some time.