[IW] Pope-1

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Turhan's Bey Company

It isn't our Liberia. If you read through the description, their Liberia is essentially the same place as our US, or at least somewhere in North America.

Yes. I was aware of the potential for confusion, but it looked, well, cool to me, somehow...
And the language choice is obvious. Latin will be the international lingua franca here, since Liberia is multinational, that would be the choice.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Xenarthral

Or maybe (after a quick googling regarding the POD) Sutri for this one. I'm
not sure it really matters to Infinity whether the Council of Sutri ever took
place here when they're brainstorming names. (cf. Campbell)

A few nitpicks and questions:
I thought Gregory VI already was pope in 1046.
What happened to the Mongols to not even warrant a mention? Did they focus on China, thereby explaining its absence among the major powers
and its ranking below India?
How do Christendom manage an early colonization of Africa when they're behind Homeline at the same point in history? (Infinite Worlds p. 99 and all that.) Or am I misreading the extent of the colonization?
Which Hindu state was it that expanded to empire status? I'm pretty sure they wouldn't call themselves The Hindu Empire.

(Replying to RyanW too, here)

Please feel free to call it anyway you like, and to change it beyond recognition if that's useful to your campaign; if one can do that with the canon worldlines...! Personally, I thought that if Caliph or Armada are a guide, Pope would be straightforward and make the world's point easily understood.

The Mongols are mentioned, in passing. But redirecting them onto China would be a nice addition.

China is one of the Great Powers, yes, the last one. The Chinese civilization is not one of the major civilizations because it has little impact save within its own domain, at the regional level. That's the IW definition for civilizations that do not qualify as major, I believe. The reason for both choices is that I wanted the focus for the whole world to be on the comparison (and maybe confrontation) between Christendom and Liberia. Everybody else, more or less to the sidelines. Persia less than others, because it borders with Christendom, nothing else. The explanation is that China has been isolationist for most of its history (didn't mention that), and now it's fractured in a long civil war (feudal type of government, warlords and all; and this I did mention).

As to Africa and the rest, I mentioned settlements that "dot the coastline", and trading posts or concessions, and local tributaries. Maybe I conveyed the idea that the Europeans had full-fledged colonies, but that's not what I wanted to say, sorry. And the Portuguese, for instance, did have that sort of coastal presence around Africa and into the Far East quite early. Even so, yes, Pope is behind, technologically, but the Europeans wage much less war among themselves on their continent, which they compensate by expansion (and competition in that).

Yes, Hindu is a simplistic choice. What would your suggestion be, may I ask?

Yes, Gregory was pope but, IIRC, not the only one... a sorry state of things that I simplified by describing him and the other two (two? IIRC) as contenders and candidates.

Thank you all for the feedback!

[Xenarthral]

Originally Posted by Michele

Yes, Hindu is a simplistic choice. What would your suggestion be, may I ask?

In the interest of laziness, the Viayanagara Empire or a Mysore Empire as its
successor looks nice. The former, apart from being the usual suspect in this
kind of situation as far as I know, apparently rose to power fighting off
the Islamic invasions. Which obviously somebody did on Pope-1.

As far as I can tell both are named after the ruling city, so in theory almost
any interesting Indian city, especially the southern ones, has a shot.

Considering that the POD is in 1046, this might help - all things considered
there might not have been any Islamic invasions on Pope-1.

[AOTA]

Cool world. It will go into my file of quality to be used at a later date.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by Xenarthral

In the interest of laziness, the Viayanagara Empire or a Mysore Empire as its
successor looks nice. The former, apart from being the usual suspect in this
kind of situation as far as I know, apparently rose to power fighting off
the Islamic invasions. Which obviously somebody did on Pope-1.

As far as I can tell both are named after the ruling city, so in theory almost
any interesting Indian city, especially the southern ones, has a shot.

Thanks! I like the Mysore Empire.

[Michele]

Originally Posted by AOTA

Cool world. It will go into my file of quality to be used at a later date.

Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. If you can, post a line here when you get around to use it, to tell everybody how it went.

[Michele]

Hi,

I polished this Alternate Earth up, and made it universally available by means of Squidoo. The main advantage is that I could add some images and photos, but I also made minor corrections and updates to the text.

Here:
Pope-1 on Squidoo.

[Drifter]

Wow, nice work.

[Otaku]

This is one of the most accessible IW concepts I've read... though granted I normally avoid them because most I have read require heavy retooling to make any sense given my worldview (let alone the direction I'd be inclined to take a campaign). Granted, I don't have a current gaming group with which to make use of it, but I definitely enjoyed reading it and hope to explore the idea, some day.

[Not]

So on Pope-1 do they say the creed with or without "filioque"?