Tiandi is the union of Heaven (天) and Earth (地), and all which they encompass.
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OP: Daeseong Co-ops: Sabara, Arumdaum, New Kvenland (Cartographer)
World Congress Thread || News Thread
Discord || FAQs || Map || Application || Roster
OP: Daeseong Co-ops: Sabara, Arumdaum, New Kvenland (Cartographer)
The date is 1839 but the British are not waging war on China. Instead, it is the Chinese who are flooding the British Isles with cheap narcotics and aid money.
Imagine a world in which the West never sees the light of the renaissance and enlightenment, but is instead engulfed in a perpetual dark ages by virulent plague and Islamic conquests. Imagine a historical vacuum in which the Warring States of China and the Daimyo Lords of the Sengoku Jidai rise as boundless dragons, rapidly spreading their ideals and power throughout the globe until all the world is under the sway of the great Middle Kingdom. Where cherry blossoms of smoke cover the skies of Tokyo and Nanjing supplant the London smog.
This is a world in which the eminent teachings of of Confucius, of the Buddha, of the Laozi are not relegated to the Asian Cultures sections of duty bookshops but instead become the foundations of world civilization and take on a global presence. This is a world in which it is the Japanese Samurai clans and not the Prussian Junkers who define the principles of warfare, and where the merchants of Macau and Shanghai - not Venice and Portugal - make their first intrepid ventures out into the world, uniting us through trade.
If the thought of exploring this history excites you, you are welcome to join us. This alternate history project, officially sponsored by the region of Tiandi, is open to all who find the prospect of a Sino-centric world fascinating. There is no obligation to join Tiandi or RP in its canon, though coming onto our discord and participating in this thread are required. We hope this will be more than an RP premise, but also a long-term world-building project. Therefore, this thread will be purposed as a general OOC for recruitment, general discussion, and as a hub for all potential P2TM RPs that emerge from this premise/canon.
https://i.imgur.com/D3ojVil.png
The nations in colors on the above map are potential 1st world imperial powers. If you're interested in playing a Chinese nation but don't know enough about local cultures - don't worry! Just do some quick research on the culture in question. A proper/real map will emerge once we get a bit of interest.
Historical Timeline
[Year 1] Reign of the Yellow Emperor and official start of Sinic civilization.
[3451 year of Wood Horse 甲午年 - 3459 year of Water Tiger 壬寅年] - (755-763 AD) - An Lushan Rebellion carries on as before. However...
- Gunpowder comes into far earlier use than OTL, used in all sorts of rudimentary flaming weapons, with the proliferation of hand-cannons a century earlier.
- Such weapons shift the traditional sociology-military balance of power by rendering the Tang's traditional Turkic cavalry obsolete. They were also, however, dangerous and required mercenary soldiers - therefore reducing reliance on peasant armies and more-so on hired guns. An Lushan's Turkish horsemen are unable to challenge the new weapons and are even more soundly defeated at the battle of Battle of Yongqiu to the extent that his army is unable to ever recover.
- The war's ephemeral ensures that the whole-scale slaughter of local landlords and officials never occurs, allowing their power to start approaching that of the centralized merit-based bureaucracy, especially that these lords can now hire professional mercenaries with gunpower weapons.
- Local lords - with private armies - are now better prepared to step into the power vacuum, and these armies are more effective and expensive than before.
- Various military decisions change such that reunification by force is now a much bloodier prospect. Mercenaries begin pillaging and raping cities en masse upon capture (to pay for their services) and therefore such warfare becomes entirely unsustainable.
- The development of gunpowder weapons is further developed up due to the constant wars between the new kingdoms / continued Dzungar/Turkic raids.
[3859 Year of Water Horse 壬午年] - (1163 AD) - a Mongolian Warrior by the name Chinggis Khan is killed by an arrow to the eye during his attempt to rescue his wife, Borte. And/or simply Chinggis never born. Either way, no Mongols.
[4043 Year the Fire Dog 丙戌年] - (1347 AD) - the Black Plague is tracked into Europe via Genoese trade galleys as OTL. However, a new mutation of the disease emerges in the Balkans and begins to spread which is slightly more communicative and twice as lethal. Though Europe does not face societal collapse, almost 60% of the continent's population is wiped out.
- Though also affected, the Moors capitalize on the vulnerability of Europe - porting in Sudanese and Egyptian Jihadis and mercenaries - to violently tear a path throughout western Europe while the East is similarly dominated by Hunnic and Tatar invasions. These add to the devastation of Europe.
- The Korean Kingdoms of Goryeo and Balhae, disgusted by the decline of the Confucian system in China, have likely broken off from the Chinese sphere of influence, instead purporting themselves as the last states to uphold proper Confucian heritage and tradition.
- Japan has just entered the Samurai period at this time. However, Hokkaido is never colonized. Ainu are able to become sinicized and develop independently of Japan.
- Competition between the South Chinese states and the Black Death (still occurring in China if less virulent than in the West) drives court tinkerers in the Canto state to develop a rudimentary steam engine. This invention is initially not seen for its full potential and takes until the 18th century to come into mainstream use.
- The Kingdoms in south China - unable to conquer each other - eventually begin looking towards Southeast Asia for expansion and resources, building trading posts and empowering merchants to extract resources from Indonesia, the Philippines, and the Malay Peninsula.
- Coal and Iron rich Korea, Manchuria, and Mongolia remain backwaters for the time being, and Japan is still undergoing civil war.
- Each kingdom has developed its own Confucian style of Confucian bureaucracy, each Emperor claiming his own Mandate of Heaven. The notion of a unified China still exists, but the balance of power between states and advances in economic power and weaponry prevent unification.
- By now, none of the figures born OTL in this period should be canon whatsoever due to butterflies. Please refrain from using figures from OTL for history past this point.
- Steam power is finally operationalized. Manchuria, Mongolia, and Korea, previously held back, are now able to rapidly catch up to the south Chinese and even surpass them with massive domestic coal and iron reserves.
- Panicked, the south Chinese states resort to military action and violence against their former clients and trade partners to secure coal resources. Australia sees a slew of military expeditions, and the indigenous people are obliterated.
- Further weapons advances and the continued domination of Europe by hostile foreign Emperors keeps it from participating in the great game. Asian countries scramble for the islands of Southeast Asia, then moving westwards towards India, then Iran, and eventually the east coast of Africa.
- San Francisco bay (Chinese: 旧金山, or Old Gold Mountain) becomes the hub for mass immigration from China - which is now overcrowded, especially in the South where the Pearl River Delta and medical advances have resulted in huge population boons.
- Buddhist Monk-Scholars begin - with the tides of industrialization and capitalization of society - to theorize and write treatises akin to IRL's enlightenment thinkers, pioneering the thoughts that will lead to capitalism and democracy.
- Japan might start uniting at this point, but is frankly too late to participate overtly in the colonial game. Alaska and Siberia might be colonized by Korea and Manchuria, allowing them to establish land Empires. The Mongols move through central Asia, and eventually colonize some Slavic peoples.
- Asia is industrialized or at least in the process of doing so, using steam power for textiles. China and Japan also had immense steel production by this point, so there is already ability to build massive industrial metal works.
- Many regions of the world would still be largely feudal and primitive at this point before colonization. Particularly, Europe would be colonized into two or three major pan-ethnic states by various Sinic powers.
- Weapons would be at 19th century western standards given longer experience in the East (since the 900s specifically) and hundreds years of experimentation.
- For OOC purposes, please avoid the "Meiji" style countries. There was after all only one Meiji OTL and Japan was uniquely prepared to undergo an industrial revolution. Exceptions can of course be made but avoid this if possible.
- Especially European countries. It is our opinion that powerful European nations exists all throughout the NS world. There is no reason it necessarily must be so here as well.
- History is vague but let's assume some major industrial and colonial fights. Maybe a major Great-War style event. But let's avoid IRL parallels. If a world world breaks out, the reasons should make sense in the context of this canon's history and etc.
- Individualism and capitalism have arisen in this canon. We've deemed that though Confucian background might create differences, it's not sufficient to resist economic changes. Asians can historically independently form representative governments, especially when increasingly powerful merchants begin to resent the Confucian system (in which they're at bottom.)
- Buddhist individual enlightenment + Confucian work ethic/study habits will form the basis of industrial capitalism, therefore, though perhaps with slightly more family-based emphasis and a tendency towards conglomeration.
- Confucian influences and notions of law/religion will still be present, but we want to avoid entirely absolute 1st world Mandate of Heaven countries.
- No nations attempting to reunify China either...the notion of a united China has been dead for a millennium by this point.
- Decolonization would have occurred or be in the process of doing so. Local bureaucracies would have been established in colonial nations, and local civil servants and/or local military officers might have had megalomaniac aspirations of crowning themselves as new heavenly emperors of their realms.
[4535 Year of the Earth Dog 戊戌年] - (1839 AD) - Current date of this RP. It is an entirely MT setting.
