1905: Alternative Divergence [AH][OOC-OPEN]

[Benuty]

Full Nation Name : The Golden State of the Rus.
Majority/Official Culture : A Polyglot identity based on the hybridization of the Rus' cultures and the Turkic Tribes in the south.
Territorial Core : The territory shown in the reserved map.
Territorial Claim : The vast expanses of Siberia.
Capital City : Sarai.
Population : Thirty One Million.

Government Type : Semi-elective monarchy.
Government Ideology/Policies : Preservation of the Nation, Industrialization, and Social Cohesion.
Government Focus : Cultural Hegemony.
Head of State : The Khagan (incoming)
Head of Government : High Prince of the Rus (incoming)
Government Description : A union state combined the former arrangement of the Golden Horde in the south and its former tributary states in the north. Reforms made for the sake of necessity have concentrated the polyglot identity of the nation into two power blocs. The Scandinavian aligned

Majority/State Religion : Sojournism.
Religious Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

Economic Ideologies : Mixed Economy.
Major Production :
Economic Description :

Development: Semi-Industrialized.
Development Description : /The northern half of the country belonging to the

Army Description : [[Describe your nation's army in as much detail as you can]]
Army Weakness :
Naval Description : [[Describe your nation's navy in as much detail as you can]]
Naval Weakness :
Further Military Description : [[OPTIONAL]]

National Goals : [[What are the main objectives of your nation?]]
National Issues : [[What needs to be fixed in order for your nation to achieve its true potential?]]
National Figures of Interest : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Are there any Mother Teresas or Moses that we need to know about?]]
National Ambition/Aspirations : [[OPTIONAL]] [[Not really set objectives, but rather the big picture that your nation is drawing towards]]

History : [[Can be formatted in paragraphs or as a bulletpoint timeline.]]
RP Sample: [[Either a link to a past post, or an example written right here.]]

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[Deblar]

Reservation

Nation Name: Kingdom of Prussia
Territory: Whatever's left of Germany+ Baltic Sea coast
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

[The Imperial Warglorian Empire]

Reservation

Nation Name: Kingdom of Prussia
Territory: Whatever's left of Germany+ Baltic Sea coast
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

Aaayyy, finally!

We ought to discuss our histories together since my PLC’s history includes a lot of stuff about Prussia (make sure to check my app's history).

Not that you have to fully subscribe to it, but it’d be nice to make sure we’re on the right foot.

[Lan Khao Xang Hom Krung Tai]

Reservation

Nation Name: Siam
Territory: Siam on map
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

I'm tuwa

[Tracian Empire]

Reservation

Nation Name: Oceanic Republic
Territory: Australia and New Zealand
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

Your concept could only be accepted if it is a native Australian/New Zealand Maori state, as in that case it would have precedence over the colonies. If it isn't, I'm afraid the colonies there will continue to exist.

[Tracian Empire]

Reservation

Nation Name: Alodian Empire
Territory: Rest of Sudan, Rest of South Sudan and Rest of Egypt,
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

Do you mean something along these lines?

An Alodian state could very well exist in between the Byzantine Egypt and the Aksumites, but since both would count as native states, you couldn't get any more territories from them in your reservation.

[Tracian Empire]

Reservation

Nation Name: Kingdom of Prussia
Territory: Whatever's left of Germany+ Baltic Sea coast
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

Reservation accepted

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

Reservation

Nation Name: Kingdom of Prussia
Territory: Whatever's left of Germany+ Baltic Sea coast
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*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

About time! :D

Please make sure to go through my application’s Government Description section and what I’ve written up about the Duchy of Holstein there~

[Alt Div Admin]

Map and list have been updated

[Tracian Empire]

App still in progress, just want my history to be checked.

Full Nation Name: Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth


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Overall your history looks good so far. It will obviously have to be checked with the players of the Rus and Prussia, but there should be no major issues.

For the Deluge, I'd like to once again reiterate that there is no reason the Swedes need to be as unchecked and as victorious as in real life - and the compliance of the population and vague threats from Prussia aren't going to do that much when it comes to controlling the behavior of Swedish soldiers in the field. My personal suggestion would be for the Commonwealth's armies to be more competent and to continue to oppose resistance without unraveling. Combining that with the threat of Prussia entering the war should be enough to grant the Swedes a victory, but without ravaging Poland.

As for the CSP gaining power, I'd personally either emphasize some agrarian roots, more distinctly accelerate and mention industrialization in Poland, or do some other things to lower the role of the socialists. Unless Poland experienced a much more radical industrialization, I feel like the party gaining power is happening far too early, at least a decade too early. Socialist ideas are not going to matter much outside of your urban and industrial areas, and are going to be met with a lot of opposition from the conservative and Christian movements that would most likely hold sway in rural regions and especially in Ukraine. Things you could do to help them might also involve Scandinavian influence/support, but I'd still delay their coming into power by at least a decade, if not two, and have them constantly clash and have their reforms limited by the right - no matter how much they promote nationalism, the Catholic Church would run from them like the devil.

An alternative idea would be for them to break away from an earlier, radical/progressive big tent-party or to be an evolution of it when socialism starts to matter.

[Tracian Empire]

Full Nation Name : Empire of Korea, 대한제국, 大韓帝國
Majority/Official Culture : Korean

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Unless any of my CO-OP's notice issues that I've missed, accepted

[Tracian Empire]

Application is written.

Full Nation Name: The official name of the country is Norðurlands sósíalískra ráðslýðvelda sambandsríkið (Insular Scandinavian), abbreviated NSRS, which translates to the Commonwealth of Northern Socialist Council Republics. In English-language discourse the country usually presents itself as the Northern Commonwealth, although in informal discourse many simply call it Scandinavia. In the Greek- and Latin-speaking spheres, Υπερβορεία, or Hyperborea, is common.



#AltDiv

Fundamentally the app looks great, and it is very impressive, but there are two or three things that need small changes or need to be better explained.

The first would be religion, or the religious situation overall. Even if you're secular, it's difficult not to imagine your syndicalism clashing with religion and with its authority and organization, which you do mention through the anti-clericalism. However, there seems to be no significant religious opposition or issues, even if a large part of your population is still strongly religious. Norse paganism is also by default not necessarily going to co-exist that well with socialist and syndicalist ideals, especially considering its individualistic focus. A few more details about how the faith is organized, and about any opposition to the state would work well, alternatively you could detail the reformist tendencies of said polytheism that you say led to new philosophies, because I'm personally not sure what could have happened. Norse paganism, in order to survive, should have become a bit more closed and codified, in the face of Christian influences and attacks.

Secondly, and it's somewhat tied into it, is a lack of opposition. Even the most perfect state should have its opponents. Your nation seems to have a stark divide between the industrialized, syndicalist areas, villages with their own rural life, and yet all political forces that you describe seem to not significantly oppose the revolutionary/syndicalist status quo. Even the Isolationists seem to be not opposed to your form of government. No matter how radical your government is, their opponents couldn't have just melted away. What happened to monarchists, to nationalists? Where are the political conservatives, where are the ones believing in more centralization? Where are the pro-religion faction? How you create said opposition is up to you, but from the app it sort of feels like any sort of non-revolutionary force melted away and disappeared, and the transition seems to have been a bit too smooth. Let's take the more rural areas into account as an example - there couldn't have only been farmer's associations and villages with shared land in there. There should have been a class of both landowners and free peasants that would have opposed things.

In the end how you solve it is up to you, but wherever there is progress, there is reaction, and I feel like this isn't well enough shown.

And thirdly and for your history, it's not an issue, just the fact that it generally looks good and that you'll have fine tune the details with your neighbors. Some have said that maybe your socialists gaining power happens a bit too early, and initially I would have supported pushing things forward with at least a decade into the future, but I'm not sure. I do think that the socialists becoming a junior partner in 1852 is a bit too early, unless they were propped up by their coalition partner, but the rest is generally alright. I would however like to see a bit of political opposition. Even if you were a progressive republic, a socialist constitution and the socialists gaining so much power so quickly would create a bit more internal opposition even if they were divided and failed to gain the necessary votes to oppose it in parliament.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

-snip-

The reason that I don't mention any significant anti-revolutionary opposition (although arguably the Isolationists count) is because since the Conservatives dissolved there has been broad consensus on a revolutionary society. Exactly what kind of revolutionary is up for fierce debate, but the political structure of the Northern Commonwealth is too open for the few people who held power in the pre-1848 order to have much of a political voice anymore in the face of staunch popular revolutionary sentiment. Because of the way the Northern Commonwealth was created, the concept of Northern nationhood would be quite closely tied to a rejection of monarchy and a revolutionary social order. The Isolationists would be where most of the former-aristocrats and industrial magnates dreaming of a return to the pre-1848 or pre-1873 order gather, and the somewhat less than 1/5 of the seats they hold in parliament reflects the level of influence they have in modern Northern politics.

Nationalism still exists and is still very popular; you can find them spread across the Revolutionary and Isolationist factions of government. As for centralisation, one of the tenets of the Revolutionary movement would be the drive towards a stronger centralised government; I apologise if that wasn't obvious from the way I phrased it.

As for the rest, well, to elaborate a bit on the very brief summary I've given in my application, the primary struggle in the politics of the Northern Commonwealth at the moment would be between the Autonomist-Agrarian bloc, representing more religious, social-conservative, decentralised, anti-military, and rural perspectives, for whom the 'revolution' is a concept with more economic and political themes, and the Revolutionary-Futurist bloc, representing more state-atheist, progressive, centralised, pro-military, and urban perspectives, for whom the 'revolution' is a concept with more social and nationalistic overtones. The secularist and mildly anti-clerical bent of the government is the product of three decades of tug-of-war between the parties (or, rather, primarily between the religious Agrarians and the state-atheist Futurists; both the Autonomists and the Revolutionaries have no strong opinions on religion) and can change should there be a significant electoral shift. Certainly the current Autonomist-Agrarian coalition would be interested in repealing some of the anti-clerical legislation of the previous administration.

I've mentioned that there's a lot of land held in common in the rural areas, and that's mostly because the first wave of revolutionary movements in the early 19th Century in my history arose primarily as a response to and in opposition against the large scale privatisation of common land, the enclosure movements, and the subsequent displacement of the peasantry that happened in RL 1700s Europe. Subsequent governments in the late 19th Century would've also been interested in expanding the concept of property held in common. But this does not mean that the rural economy is collectivised. This is not a communist society. You should see the joint property of the Northern Commonwealth's countryside not as a parallel of the collectivised farms of 1930s Soviet Union, but rather as a modern and egalitarian interpretation on the medieval concept of the commons and on the similarly medieval concept of tenant farmers. There would be a lot of free peasant farmers owning their own land still around; they just happen to be a minority in Norden Proper, unlike in the colonies where collectively owned land is rare and free farmers are more dominant.

[Tracian Empire]

-snip-

The reason that I don't mention any significant anti-revolutionary opposition (although arguably the Isolationists count) is because since the Conservatives dissolved there has been broad consensus on a revolutionary society. Exactly what kind of revolutionary is up for fierce debate, but the political structure of the Northern Commonwealth is too open for the few people who held power in the pre-1848 order to have much of a political voice anymore in the face of staunch popular revolutionary sentiment. Because of the way the Northern Commonwealth was created, the concept of Northern nationhood would be quite closely tied to a rejection of monarchy and a revolutionary social order. The Isolationists would be where most of the former-aristocrats and industrial magnates dreaming of a return to the pre-1848 or pre-1873 order gather, and the somewhat less than 1/5 of the seats they hold in parliament reflects the level of influence they have in modern Northern politics.

Nationalism still exists and is still very popular, and you can find them spread across the Revolutionary and Isolationist factions of government. As for centralisation, one of the tenets of the Revolutionary movement would be the drive towards a stronger centralised government; I apologise if that wasn't obvious from the way I phrased it.

As for the rest, well, to elaborate a bit on the very brief summary I've given in my application, the primary struggle in the politics of the Northern Commonwealth at the moment would be between the Autonomist-Agrarian bloc, representing more religious, social-conservative, decentralised, anti-military, and rural perspectives, for whom the 'revolution' is a concept with more economic and political themes, and the Revolutionary-Futurist bloc, representing more state-atheist, progressive, centralised, pro-military, and urban perspectives, for whom the 'revolution' is a concept with more social and nationalistic overtones. The secularist and mildly anti-clerical bent of the government is the product of three decades of tug-of-war between the parties (or, rather, primarily between the religious Agrarians and the state-atheist Futurists; both the Autonomists and the Revolutionaries have no strong opinions on religion) and can change should there be a significant electoral shift. Certainly the current Autonomist-Agrarian coalition would be interested in repealing some of the anti-clerical legislation of the previous administration.

I've mentioned that there's a lot of land held in common in the rural areas, and that's mostly because the first wave of revolutionary movements in the early 19th Century in my history arose primarily as a response to and in opposition against the large scale privatisation of common land and the enclosure movements that happened in RL 1700s Europe. Subsequent governments in the late 19th Century would've also been interested in expanding the concept of property held in common. But this does not mean that the rural economy is collectivised. This is not a communist society. You should see the joint property of the Northern Commonwealth's countryside not as a parallel of the collectivised farms of 1930s Soviet Union, but rather as an egalitarian interpretation on the medieval concept of the commons and on the similarly medieval concept of tenant farmers. There would be a lot of free peasant farmers owning their own land still around; they just happen to be a minority in Norden Proper, unlike in the colonies where collectively owned land is rare and free farmers are more dominant.

If such a broad consensus has been reached then you need to present a bit more opposition to it in its initial stages. Reactionary ideologies have never been only popular with magnates and the aristocracy, and more moderate positions would have also existed. The transition from when the socialists gained power to the present felt a bit too smooth, and a bit too idealistic.

If you add the details you mentioned in your reply about your parties and movements in your app, then a lot of my worries would be somewhat eased. Similarly you should describe the situation in the rural areas like you did here, if that's done then things should be better.

But more details about religion would also be needed. More specifically how it's organized, and how it viewed all this. Personally, like I said, I think that the relative acceptance of foreign gods that paganism in general showed doesn't necessarily transition into having an open and incredibly accepting society, especially since I feel like Norse paganism would have had to become more rigid in order to survive the encroachment of Christianity. However, since we don't know what changes happened, or what reforms you had in mind - and how much sense they'd make, paganism doesn't seem play much of a role internally other than serving as a justification for more openness and progressiveness.

So I'd like more details about what it actually is, how it interacted with the ideals of Enlightenment and with later revolutionary ideas, and how the traditional Norse pagan ideals of society and individualism dealt with the advent of all these changes.

It's things that we don't ask from Christian apps because we all know how they worked and how the Church opposed such movements, but as we know little, we are left with our own interpretations, and like I said, personally don't see Norse paganism as being open enough to accept such things. If it had some rough analogue of the Protestant Reformation, with changes, reforms, debate, and if its clerical organization was weakened maybe, but even then, I have issues seeing an individualistic faith such as it supporting syndicalism.

[Northern Socialist Council Republics]

If such a broad consensus has been reached then you need to present a bit more opposition to it in its initial stages. Reactionary ideologies have never been only popular with magnates and the aristocracy, and more moderate positions would have also existed. The transition from when the socialists gained power to the present felt a bit too smooth, and a bit too idealistic.

I don't feel that giving any more details regarding Northern political history in the 1870-1880 period beyond what I've already written is going to be all that important in the broad view of things, but sure; if that's the requirement of the OP board then I'll find time to edit it in this weekend.

If you add the details you mentioned in your reply about your parties and movements in your app, then a lot of my worries would be somewhat eased. Similarly you should describe the situation in the rural areas like you did here, if that's done then things should be better.

Noted.

So I'd like more details about what [Scandinavian polytheism] actually is, how it interacted with the ideals of Enlightenment and with later revolutionary ideas, and how the traditional Norse pagan ideals of society and individualism dealt with the advent of all these changes.

Also noted.

[...] I have issues seeing an individualistic faith such as it supporting syndicalism.

That's because it wouldn't. The 1810 Revolution and the 1848 Revolution were both liberal revolutions; as I said in my application, modern socialism didn't become a significant political force until the 1850s, after the foundation of the Scandinavian Commonwealth. When I said that intellectual exchange between reformist tendencies in Scandinavian polytheism and enlightenment philosophy resulted in new schools of thought, I don't mean socialist schools of thought. By the Socialist Constitution in 1870 there would've been a considerable distance established between religious movements and the progressivist movement.

[Tracian Empire]

If such a broad consensus has been reached then you need to present a bit more opposition to it in its initial stages. Reactionary ideologies have never been only popular with magnates and the aristocracy, and more moderate positions would have also existed. The transition from when the socialists gained power to the present felt a bit too smooth, and a bit too idealistic.

I don't feel that giving any more details regarding Northern political history in the 1870-1880 period beyond what I've already written is going to be all that important in the broad view of things, but sure; if that's the requirement of the OP board then I'll find time to edit it in this weekend.

If you add the details you mentioned in your reply about your parties and movements in your app, then a lot of my worries would be somewhat eased. Similarly you should describe the situation in the rural areas like you did here, if that's done then things should be better.

Noted.

So I'd like more details about what [Scandinavian polytheism] actually is, how it interacted with the ideals of Enlightenment and with later revolutionary ideas, and how the traditional Norse pagan ideals of society and individualism dealt with the advent of all these changes.

Also noted.

[...] I have issues seeing an individualistic faith such as it supporting syndicalism.

That's because it wouldn't. The 1810 Revolution and the 1848 Revolution were both liberal revolutions; as I said in my application, modern socialism didn't become a significant political force until the 1850s, after the foundation of the Scandinavian Commonwealth. When I said that intellectual exchange between reformist tendencies in Scandinavian polytheism and enlightenment philosophy resulted in new schools of thought, I don't mean socialist schools of thought.

In the broad view of things, the transition just feels a bit too smooth, as I said. It's not an issue that would absolutely block your app, but adding a few more details about the opposition would make it feel more natural.

I'm also very aware that reformist tendencies in polytheism didn't result in socialism, you're conflating two different things that I feel require more details. Firstly, how your Norse paganism interacted with enlightenment and the general view of Norse religion and enlightened ideas on each other, and then secondly, the more modern positions of the Norse religion on socialism and the current state of the nation. Traditionally socialism and religion consistently clashed, and seeing as at least a part of your socialists are atheistic or anti-clerical, I don't see that changing here, but I'm not sure, because I'm not 100% sure what your religion is. Had this been a Christian state it would have been easy for me to imagine and understand the reaction of faith to such changes, but since it isn't something like that or of a faith that I can look up online, I'm a little lost.

You mention changes influenced by Christianity, you mention a reformist thought that existed alongside Enlightenment, and you mention that it's radically different from the old Norse faith, but I'd like a few more details there because I find it difficult to grasp exactly what it is. How is it organized, and how did it react to the changes that happened in the traditional Norse society?

[Tracian Empire]

But other than that, the app looks great. A few more details about opposition to the socialists and how the transition happened could be added later on or expanded upon ICly if that's more your thing.

If you add a few more religious details then it can certainly be accepted.

[Elysian Kentarchy]

Full Nation Name : Catepanate of Italy/Katepaníkion Italías/κατεπανίκιον Ἰταλίας

Majority/Official Culture : Roman (officially)
Territorial Core : Reference map, south Italy
Territorial Claim : Traditionally they claim to be the rightful rulers over all of Italy.
Capital City : Naples (Neápolis in this RP and current capital), Bari (historical capital and secondary administration center)
Population : 12,634,800 (Based off of some census info from 1901 and 1911 with a few extra added to take into account Greek colonization and immigration and the lack of a mass Sicilian migration to America)

Government Type : Absolute Autocracy, subpart of the Roman Empire
Government Ideology/Policies : Absolutism, Conservatism, Orthodox Traditionalism, Pragmatism, Italian Reclamation.
Government Focus : Ensure Roman control over southern Italy is maintained at all costs, ensure that the military is prepared to face potential North Italian aggression
Head of State : Athanasios Komnenos, Despot of Italy
Head of Government : Same as head of state
Government Description : De jure the Catepanate is part of the Roman Empire but de facto a nearly independent nation of their own thanks to centuries of Constantinople being focused on other problems while the Komnenoi Despots handle things and conducts their own diplomacy. In theory the Basileus has the power to remove the Despot but in practice it has only occurred once in the Catepanate's history after the Komnenoi took power. Overall the government is structured with the Despot having absolute power and, on paper, is only answerable to the Basileus in Constantinople and the internal structure largely follows a mirror of the ERE theme system with certain alterations made in the name of expediency. Advising the Despot is the Roman Senate of Italia composed of (semi-elected) representatives of the aristocracy, the merchants (including the heads of the major industries), the large, non-aristocratic, landowners, and the common people. The Senate serves as purely an advisory body to the Despot and, while it can write laws to propose, it has no power to enact laws by itself, that power solely residing with the Despot, and is not allowed to convene without the presence of the Despot or an appointed representative from the Komnenoi family. The senators are appointed and/or elected from each Theme in their territory.

In the Byzantine court structure the Despot of Italy traditionally holds the titles of Despot, Catepan, Hypatos, and Sebastokrator.


Majority/State Religion : Roman Orthodox Church, the Roman Catholics form a good minority.
Religious Description: The state formally follows the Roman Orthodox Church while the Roman Catholic Church is legally tolerated, legal repression and outlawing of it being deemed not worth the effort.

Economic Ideologies : The Despot reserves the right to intervene in and regulate the economy as he sees fit but, besides matters of war, historically he tends to be hands off when it comes to regulation so long as taxes are paid and the industry is not undermining the nation or social cohesion. The state is fairly involved when it comes to developing industry as well which has led to a mix of capitalism and state intervention.
Major Production : Sulfur, gunpowder, marble, cast iron, steel, weaponry, agricultural products, wheat, olive oil, wine.
Economic Description : The Catepanate’s economy is notable for, historically, having a near complete monopoly on sulfur production, having produced somewhere around 80% of the world’s sulfur once upon a time. In recent years their monopoly isn’t as powerful as it used to be but they do still have considerable sway in the sulfur market. They have large sulfur mines and a good sized agricultural economy based around things like wheat, grapes, and olives. Thanks to loans from Constantinople in the previous century they have developed a strong industry, especially in sulfur and sulfur products (by far their largest industry when it comes to factories and products), steel, cast iron, and weaponry and are always looking for other ways to diversify their economy.

Development: Modern in a few areas, semi-industrialized most elsewhere
Development Description : The Catepanate spent the previous century industrializing where they can, primarily in the sulfur and sulfur products industry along with related industries, such as weaponry. They also have invested a good amount of money on expanding and modernizing their road system leading their road system to be pretty good. However they have a lot of farmers and miners leading to other areas to be preindustrial. Overall Sicily is one of the most industrialized areas of Italy (basically it is developed exactly the same as it is OTL but with a bit more of an emphasis on military, no economic depression, and no British control over their industry).

Army Description : The army is basically structured after the Roman Army in most aspects, such as the conscription of all able bodied citizens for three years followed by a certain amount remaining in the professional army while the rest spend four years in the auxiliaries occasionally training, before moving to a general reserve up to the age of 45 which leads to them having a large population of military ready men. Though it is worth noting that their professional army is, percentage wise, slightly larger than that of the greater ERE. There are notable differences between the Catepanate’s military and that of the greater ERE when it comes to specializations, notably they have more people trained in mountain warfare and a large amount of artillery, having in recent years embraced the idea of using artillery as a force multiplier to make up for manpower if it happens to be deficient, which given its limited population it tends to be. The akritai, the irregular militias primarily in the border regions of the Catepanate, are drilled more regularly, receive training from the Hikanatoi and better equipped (and they also have large cavalry units). It is also notable that they have elements of most of the Palatine Schools mixed into their military units and mostly fulfilling their traditional roles. The Teichistai commitment is pretty large though given the environment of their area and their fortifications at certain places along their border. The Noumeroi, of course, are used to crush internal dissent while the Hikanatoi are a common enough sight at militia training grounds. If their Hikanatoi elements have to be committed to open battle instead of their usual training and guerilla roles, you know something has gone wrong. Their army doctrine consists of the following: troops at the border, presumably, will be facing a superior force therefore the tagmata and the themata on hand are to either have a series of battles aimed at stalling any advance while the akritai harass them or they are to hole up in nearby forts (of which at their current borders there are several large ones, including in the mountains) and hold as long as possible. Both serve the same purpose: to buy time for the rest of the Stratós to arrive and then win through overwhelming local power. If that fails the situation basically repeats but this time time is being bought for the rest of the Catepanate's military arriving to fight. It is a strategy that has served them relatively well in their history, and has been considerably sped up with the advent of railroads, but has not been really tested against a major power and there are those in the general staff considering possible changes to that doctrine.

The higher ranking officers tend to be trained at the Basilian Military Academy in Thessaloniki while lower ranking officers consist of a mix of the native Latins and Greeks, proficiency in either Greek or Italiot Greek is required to be an officer of any rank and those with potential are normally taught one of the two if they cannot speak it already. In a notable departure from Constantinople they are willing to consider conscripting non-Romans into the themata if the situation calls for it, though that does come with it's own problems. They also devote a good chunk of the budget towards weapons research, fortification building, and modernization to ensure their forces remain the best on hand. Thanks to the sulfur industry, therefore having plenty of bullets and artillery shells on hand, they are able to be well drilled without concern for supplies. For now anyway.

Army Weakness : Their army doctrine makes a war on multiple fronts difficult to manage unless victory is achieved quickly on one front. Also, related to doctrine, if they cannot mobilize quickly enough troops arriving to reinforce the borders will take some time leading to a weaker frontline. Another flaw in it is that if someone strikes first with overwhelming power to the point they can't really hold the borders they will be put on the backfoot. There are also linguistic issues that arises if the none of the available officers can speak one of the regional languages and dialects, though Italiot Greek is pretty common so it isn't as common an issue as it could be but things can still be lost in translation. There is also the fact that since most of the higher ranking officers receive training at the Basilian Military Academy any errors in the greater ERE’s doctrine can appear in their military doctrine as well.

Naval Description: The Catepanate's navy has developed into its own independent branch from the army over the past century, though it is still incorporated into the battle plans and such of the greater ERE’s navy. The ships that fly its flag are primarily dedicated to three things: moving troops from different parts of their territory to others as quickly as they can, to patrol their shores and prevent an amphibious invasion, and to cooperate with the Empire's navy should war break out. They also have a system of naval forts to defend their coast and the men crewing them are well drilled, the primary ones being in the important ports or potential invasion sites in Sicily, Malta, Bari, and Neapolis. They have several older capital ships for heavy support and a couple of modern battleships ordered from the French to be completed this year but for the most part their ships are in the lighter classes such as light cruisers, destroyers, and torpedo boats all of whom serve the purpose of guarding the coast or waging guerilla war on the sea in the worst case scenario. They have a strict training regimen with an emphasis on the accuracy of their shells. They also have a couple dozen minelayers commissioned and have trained their crews for nighttime minelaying operations.

Naval Weakness: The Catepanate’s navy, setting aside the merchant fleet, isn’t super large, and most of their ships are of the previous generation. There is also the traditional rivalry with the army.
Further Military Description: It is notable that the military pretty much encourages war games and contingency planning amongst its officers to draw up war plans and consider where doctrine can be changed and improved depending on the circumstances. Naturally in recent years most of their wargaming and planning concerns what to do in the event of war with the Kingdom of Italy and they have several war plans drawn up for it.

The State Defense Service (Υπηρεσίας Αμύνης του Κράτους):One of the most secretive parts of the Catepanate's government, to the point that the current head of it is classified as a state secret, the State Defense Service oversees most of the internal affairs of the Catepanate that relate to protecting the state. Everything from the Hetaireia which protects the Komnenoi family, to the Noumeroi which act in their traditional role as the elite police, to the Messengers who act as couriers and secret police who are above the law, to other spies that are not commonly known, is considered subordinate to the State Defense Service even though they do have their own heads. While they have tried to keep it quiet the assassination of the previous despot by an anarchist has caused considerable turnover within the organization.

National Goals : Preserve and (if possible) expand Roman rule over the rest of Italia. Ensure the Catepanate does not collapse no matter what.
National Issues : They more or less have reached as high as they can reach without expansion and face limits on that front. Their economy is also overly reliant on the sulfur industry which means they will need to diversify in the future. While the ruling dynasty is relatively popular, and does what it can to encourage that popularity, there has always been disagreements between the Catholic and Orthodox populations.
National Figures of Interest :
-Despot Athanasios Komnenos
-Anastasia Komnene (younger sister of the Despot and special advisor to him)
-Petros Komnenos (younger brother of the Despot)
-Evangelia Komnene (younger sister of the Despot)
-Elenia Komnene (younger sister of the Despot)
-Sofia Komnene (mother of the Despot)
-Archbishop Demetrios (Archbishop of Neápolis and All Italy, spiritual advisor to the Despot)
-Strategos Spiro Valilis (second in command of the military, military advisor to the Despot)
National Ambition/Aspirations :

History: While I can't really point to an exact moment and say "this is where things changed" I will summarize the divergence as follows: essentially the Norman invasions of Sicily and south Italy was not nearly as successful as it was and ERE managed to fight them off even though they did wind up losing a good chunk of their territory. Since that time they have worked on clawing their way back, launching limited wars of aggression when they see an opportunity and has had a steady advance until they have reached their current borders. In acknowledgement of the familial ties between Palaiologos and the Komnenoi that the two families occasionally renew, as well as acknowledgement of the fact that they have done a good job of ensuring Italy is not a problem/descended into flames, the rank of Despot was bestowed upon the Komnenoi Katepano in 1448, who was the then Basileus's son in law, and since that day the title had been passed down their family line there with the only interruption being when the Basileus removed the Despot Sergius from his position and appointed his nephew, Zacharias, Despot in the 1600's. Come the 1400s the ERE reasserted dejure control over the Catepanate and funneled troops and resources in to help them reconquer the lands that they currently hold, reaching their current territorial extent by the end of the century. As the centuries passed the ERE's attention got dragged elsewhere so the Catepanate largely, while following directives from Constantinople, implemented its own policies as it saw necessary. The current Despot is the young Athanasios Komnenos who succeeded his father who was assassinated by an anarchist a couple months ago. The Komnenoi Despots are generally fairly popular and the current Despot is regarded with sympathy given his situation of suddenly being thrust into the position of leader of the Catepanate.

Up until the early 1700s the Catepanate largely followed Romanization policies but in that century they were gradually ceased in the name of stability so while there is still aspects of it ongoing the focus has been more on creating a culture that is proud to be part of the Empire, with encouragement of Italiot Greek as a language and support for the Emperor in Constantinople and the Despot in Neapolis being civic virtues. Their efforts over the previous two centuries has given rise what is a unique culture in southern Italy, distinct from their northern neighbors. The Catepanate saw an economic boon in the 1800s and weathered the rise of nationalism pretty well, doing everything in their power to redirect that nationalism into patriotism and support for the Empire, encouraging the idea that they are part of a greater whole and, besides, the ERE, through the Catepanate, is the rightful rulers of Italy anyway. They have taken a hard stance against socialism of any sort.
RP Sample: viewtopic.php?p=38149381#p38149381

#AltDiv

[Oscalantine]

[[moved to page 4... couldn't fit it all in here]]

[Old Tyrannia]

Interesting app, Oscal.

[Oscalantine]

Interesting app, Oscal.

Yeah sorry for the barebone app. My laptop had a motherboard failure literally today morning and I had to get it to the shop.

I should have the situation sorted out by tomorrow and you will get to see the glorious app of Albion complete with unique culture of Social Darwinism

EDIT. Yeah... in hindsight should have gotten my NS files out. But I was panicking after about to lose my hours of progress on my actual work for the company, so my mind was a wee bit on a single track XDDD

[Union Princes]

Reservation

Nation Name: Austria-Hungary
Territory: As close to the 1914 borders as much as possible.
#AltDiv (Do not delete this, it is used to keep track of the apps)

*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

[Guuj Xaat Kil]

Other than the history section and the naval section (not really needed, only thing left to do is ship amounts), my app should be somewhat done?

[Tracian Empire]

Reservation

Nation Name: Austria-Hungary
Territory: As close to the 1914 borders as much as possible.
#AltDiv (Do not delete this, it is used to keep track of the apps)

*Note: Reservations will last for 48 hours. The OP board reserves the right to be subjective in regards to accepting and removing reservations.

Reservation accepted

[Axis Asteroid]

Reporting in.

I’ll have my own app posted in a bit, though it’s still wip.