Petike
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If this hasn't won a Turtledove already, I think it definitely deserves consideration for one.
It has won 4 Turtledoves, including the Best Timeline category, so I think it certainly isn't underestimated over here.
Lands of Red and Gold
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It has won 4 Turtledoves, including the Best Timeline category, so I think it certainly isn't underestimated over here.
We're in the middle of the 17th century IIRC, with Auruian plagues having decimated and butterflied Europe; Gustav Vasa got the disease that waits some years to finish killing you and so went for broke in Poland; King Charles in England survived and cracked down on the would-be Roundheads and so England is paralleling France in Absolutism at the moment (also, IIRC, allied with France). Colonization of North America is slowed. From glimpses into the future we learn that North America won't be consolidated into the hands of one major power for the most part but instead the Atlantic coast will be a hodgepodge of several nation's settlements persisting in separate identities, and Piirist Auruian traders will be a significant ethnic contribution, forming a hybrid Maroon people with the Cherokees in the southern Alleghenies (no one calls them Appalachians here).
But ignoring previews, about 1650 at the latest. Oh, Baffin goes south instead of north, which fits if we assume the stuff about him fills in background--OTL he died in 1622, and we don't know when he was born, so if this Aururian stuff about him is well after '22 he's living on borrowed time anyway.
Overall then, the main narrative seems to have left off around 1630-40.
But ignoring previews, about 1650 at the latest. Oh, Baffin goes south instead of north, which fits if we assume the stuff about him fills in background--OTL he died in 1622, and we don't know when he was born, so if this Aururian stuff about him is well after '22 he's living on borrowed time anyway.
Overall then, the main narrative seems to have left off around 1630-40.
Glad you like it.
Yes, there will be more. The timeline hasn't stopped, as such, it's just that intervals between posts have gotten further apart.
I'm putting together some more posts, but I'm trying to build up a stockpile of them so that when I start again, I can still release posts at regular intervals for a while even when life stops me writing posts from time to time (as happens.)
In terms of when the timeline has gotten up to, the chronological sequence is a little complicated because I tend to write a sequence of posts describing a particular culture or culture, and then move on to new cultures, so the posts aren't in strict narrative order.
The Atjuntja were last visited sometime around 1633, the Islanders around 1644, the Gunnagal around 1640, the Yadji around 1642, and Europe around 1638, and a few other cultures at other times. But broadly speaking, as Shevek23 said, sometime around 1630-1640.
The next posts will pick up the story of William Baffin as he visits Daluming (of head-hunter fame), and a separate sequence which will feature a more in-depth visit to New Zealand.
Broadly right, but to nitpick, King Charles I of England died in the plagues before the English Civil War could break out, and so it's Charles II who's on the throne - with a regent, of course. Gustav Vasa also went for broke against the Holy Roman Empire, not just Poland.
Yes, there isn't a united North America. Not all of the nations in modern ATL North America have been named, but they include at the very least New England, Tigeria (*New Netherlands), an "Alleghania" which is a union of (at least) Virginia and Cavendia (*Carolinas), and a Louisiana (with unspecified borders).
The posts about Baffin are set in about 1635-37. We don't know his exact age, but given that he first appeared as a "chief pilot" circa 1612, I thought that having him last a couple of decades was still reasonable. He certainly didn't die of old age in OTL.
No. Over most of the agricultural areas, there's no native bee species which are suitable for gathering honey. Australia doesn't have many social native bee species anyway, and those that do exist are more tropical, being largely confined to Queensland and the northern parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. (They do exist in northern coastal New South Wales, but they're marginal there - harvesting honey from them tends to kill the colony since it doesn't leave the bees enough honey to survive over winter.)
Of course, if Aururians ever get access to European honeybees, then they have very good crops for making honey. Wattles are near ideal for it - honey made from Acacias is some of the finest around.
The Sandman
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No honey either?
Hell with manufactured goods and bullion, a European ship could just sail into an Aururian port with a hold full of sugar and be set for life.
Which in turn makes *Queensland sugar plantations likely to be even bigger ITTL, since there's a massive domestic market to serve that has at best extremely minimal local access to other sweeteners, or imported sugar that costs an arm and a leg.
And that, assuming that Aururian sugar plantations follow the trajectory of sugar plantations pretty much everywhere else, means either African slaves or Chinese laborers are eventually going to be showing up in large numbers.
...on a somewhat less grim note, cities in *Queensland might become major chocolate manufacturing centers, since it's good country for sugar, cacao, vanilla (once somebody discovers how to hand-pollinate it as per OTL), and can probably manage the Moluccan spice suite as well. Plus whatever Aururian herbs and spices would mix well. About the only thing they won't have is milk.
Hell with manufactured goods and bullion, a European ship could just sail into an Aururian port with a hold full of sugar and be set for life.
Which in turn makes *Queensland sugar plantations likely to be even bigger ITTL, since there's a massive domestic market to serve that has at best extremely minimal local access to other sweeteners, or imported sugar that costs an arm and a leg.
And that, assuming that Aururian sugar plantations follow the trajectory of sugar plantations pretty much everywhere else, means either African slaves or Chinese laborers are eventually going to be showing up in large numbers.
...on a somewhat less grim note, cities in *Queensland might become major chocolate manufacturing centers, since it's good country for sugar, cacao, vanilla (once somebody discovers how to hand-pollinate it as per OTL), and can probably manage the Moluccan spice suite as well. Plus whatever Aururian herbs and spices would mix well. About the only thing they won't have is milk.
If it ends up becoming the Land of Milk and Honey, we just may have to stage a revolution.
That said, I still do love TLs that focus on such aspects of life as agriculture and animal husbandry - Far more fascinating than wars, in my opinion, and not as likely to make you run afoul of foot-long lists of names as politics.
That said, I still do love TLs that focus on such aspects of life as agriculture and animal husbandry - Far more fascinating than wars, in my opinion, and not as likely to make you run afoul of foot-long lists of names as politics.
Certainly a possibility, particularly Western Australia. Although that would be bad for a lot of native bee populations.
The first ship to sail in with a hold full of sugar probably would be set for life. Of course, much the same happened with the first time Aururians cames into contact with a lot of Old World goods. The price will drop as availability rises, of course.
I do expect *Queensland sugar plantations to be a major industry in time, yes. That's one of the things that the "Coral states" grow for export.
That said, there is a reasonable local sweetener available: wattle gum. It's basically congealed sweet tree sap, and was used as a sweetener in OTL. Cider syrup (from the gum cider tree) is also available in *Tasmania, although a lot of that is fermented instead.
Neither of these are as good as sugar, of course, but it's not quite the same as having no domestic sweeteners.
Why look that far? The blackbirders didn't need to go that far in OTL: local hunter-gatherer populations within Aururia would work, or the nearby Pacific - New Guinea, the Solomons, New Caledonia. Failing that, the internecine Maori wars in Aotearoa would supply all of the forced labour which any sugar plantations would need, and selling some sugar to the Maori would be the perfect way to pay for the labourers, too.
Some of them would work quite well, although fertilisers may be required. Guano from the Pacific islands, perhaps - Nauru is an obvious choice.
Cattle would be the preferred choice, I expect. The right breeds of cattle can live in Queensland, although those breeds are mostly Asian (specifically Indian) breeds.
The large majority of the native population would be lactose intolerant. Estimates vary for the percentage of OTL Aboriginal people who are lactose intolerant: the typical figures quoted are either 70% (one study) or 84% (the other study).
This is complicated by the fact that most of these populations would have some European admixture, which would lower the rate of lactose intolerance. One study I know here of looked at Aboriginal people from central Australia (which usually has a lower rate of European admixture) and found a rate of lactose intolerance of over 90%.
Of course, the best way to deal with lactose intolerance is to produce hard cheeses, which have none or very little lactose anyway.
Land of Cheese and Honey, here I come...
You're not going to get many foot-long lists of names, if only because I have to make up most of those names, and that would take too long.
Petike
Kicked
You're not going to get many foot-long lists of names, if only because I have to make up most of those names, and that would take too long.
This is interesting and I wanted to ask you about it:
Do you make up the alternate native names from wholecloth or do you just distort existing aboriginal names and terms ? You made the Gunditjmara into the Junditmara, but was there any other deriving besides that ?
I wholeheartedly concur. One contemporary historian that I like said that history is only marginally the history of sword and conquest. Most of it is about the modus vivendi and how it shaped the basics as well as advancements of human civilization.
A combination of methods, really.
I use a few general rules for the letters and sounds which are derived from the common features of OTL Aboriginal languages. The OTL languages form a Sprachbund with those features in common that seem to have spread o all or almost all languages across the continent, even those which aren't closely related. This Sprachbund seems to go back far enough in OTL that it's reasonable for it to have formed ATL - and in any case, it was that or just pick sounds at random, which is kind of boring.
So there's a few rules about the kinds of sounds which are common in OTL Aboriginal languages, e.g. the ubiquitous "tj" sound that represents a widespread sound in OTL (it's a kind of palatal stop consonant, if anyone cares), or the widespread two forms of "r", represented as "r" (retroflex r closest to standard American "r") and the sound represented as "rr" (kind of like the Spanish "rr" in words like "perro").
With those basic rules in mind, I've sometimes modified existing Aboriginal names or words, sometimes used real words from one language or another but with a totally different meaning, and some I've just made up which sound right. Which method I use varies a lot, and there's no strict rule about how I pick which method, other than what sounds right.
Thanks for the explanation.
Sounds good to me too. One must wonder what may happen if Auraria becomes home to a significant immigrant population.......
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