Originally Posted by
Makemakean
Mine and Ares96's entry (I did the story and the background, he did everything else, and helped with the story). Mediterranean Baltic, inspired by an earlier map of Thande's which put the Anglo-Saxons all over France.
The Scourge, as it is known, came in the middle of the 13th century, within decades turning the once bountiful and green lands of the Mediterranean countries into barren deserts. Harvests were lost, famine became widespread, and millions died, as the Scourge wrecked havoc in Southern Europe. The political instabilities and wars that followed over the scant resources that were left led to the Great Migration, when the peoples from Italy, France, the Iberian Peninsula and other Southern European nations migrated northward, to settle in countries who had been spared the vicious effects of the Scourge, but had instead flowered and prospered as a consequence. The Baltic Sea for example, developed a climate very similar to that of the Old Mediterranean, and became along with the British isles a favored destination of the migrants. To the date of the drawing of this map (the Year of Our Lord 1563), the Scourge has yet to recede from the Mediterranean, and the countries thither are yet uninhabitable wastelands. The mechanism which caused this disaster is yet unknown or understood, though senior theologians are in consensus that the root cause of the Scourge was divine punishment for failing to defend the Holy Lands from the Moslem invaders, and that the Lord has punished Christian Europe by sending it on a lengthy Babylonian Exile.
The Old Kingdoms of the Swedes and the Geats tried to remain stable as increasingly more and more Southrons immigrated, but along with the peasants, the craftsmen and the fishermen came nobles, men with wealth, who soon enough establish their own authority and begun to challenge the old order. In the Last Civil War in the late 14th century, the Old Kingdoms fell and were dissolved, and were replaced by kingdoms and principalities of the Southrons. Though the Old Tongues have not yet been forgotten, German, French and Italian are now more common than what the old Nordics spoke.
The Donatio Birgeri: The lands of the Church, governed from New Rome (Old Upsala) by His Holiness Pope Anscharius IV. When the Scourge first came to Italy, the Papacy was the first to desert the Eternal City. In 1244, Birger Jarl, Lord of Sweden, granted the papacy all the lands of the Archbishopric of Upsala, and Pope Innocent IV resettled thither. The autonomy of the Papal States has increased considerably since the Last Civil War, and nobody would any longer say that the Pope is merely a guest of the King of Sweden. The authority of Anscharius IV has been somewhat undermined since an alternate conclave produce Antipope Olaus II who now reigns from the church estates in Arosia. Both popes have, naturally, excommunicated each other as the worst of heretics.
The Republic of Wysby: The Republic of Wysby on the island of Gothia has prospered considerably since the Hanseatic Company made Wysby their headquarters in the late 14th century. As populations grew in cities and towns across the Baltic, the Hanseatic League grew rich from facilitating trade between the different city-states and principalities that replaced the Old Nordic Kingdoms. The influx of population to Gothia has been mainly northern German, and indeed, German is the language most prominently spoken here. Still, there are several families who trace their lineages back to old Nordic stock, and notable Polish and other Slavic influxes from the east. The Republic is governed by the Prince-Mayor (fürstburgermeister) of Wysby, who is elected for life by the Wysby city council. The University of Wysby (which received its Papal charter in 1423) is rapidly becoming a centre of learning, as the Hanseatics are accumulating a wealth of books that have been dispersed throughout Northern Europe since the Great Migration.
The Kingdom of Ostrogothie: The Kingdom of Ostrogothie dates back to French noblemen who followed Robert, comte de Clermont, a son of Louis the Saint, north during the early stages of the Great Migration. As time went on, Östergötland as it was still called back then, became a favored destination for French emigrants escaping the increasingly unforgiving weathers. The Duchy of Lincopie played a significant role in challenging the Swedish Crown and bringing about the Last Civil War, and one its great moments was when Jean, duc de Lincopie, proclaimed himself King John I of Ostrogothie. Since then, Ostrogothie has grown to be a considerable power on the Baltic shores, and perhaps as a consequence has gotten itself involved in a bitter rivalry with the Hanseatic League, which in recent years has led to Ostrogothie has conspired to elect an Antipope in Olaus II, initiating a schism. Currently governed by his Majesty, Robert IV.
The Antipapacy in Arosia: The Pope in Arosia, Olaus II, was elected in a conclave in Vadstena in 1551 by cardinals who, under the encouragement of diverse nobility, declared the then-Pope Celestine VI a heretic. Though ostentatiously the Great Schism has its foundations over the interpretation of certain key passages of the Book of Daniel, the Book of Ezekiel and the Revelation of St. John and how these apply to how the Great Scourge is to be interpreted, the real cause is of course the increasing political and economic rivalry between the Republic of Wysby and the Kingdom of Ostrogothie.
Mediterranean Baltic
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