History WebOriginal / IllBethisad

By applying to Latin the same sound-changes that affected the ancestor of modern Welsh over the past two millennia, Smith generated a {{conlang}} that he named Brithenig (i.e. 'Britannic'), spoken in a nation named ''Kemr'' (Cambria). The quote at the top of the page is Brithenig for "A nation without a language is a nation without a heart". A lot of people liked both of them and were curious about that language and culture.

As interest grew in the world of the Kemrese people began to develop their own ideas about the world they lived in and what else might be different about it. This led to people asking their own little what ifs:

As you can see that scope of the project expanded beyond just one conlang and just one country to include an entire world a lot like RealLife but different as a result of several different ForWantOfANail situations turning out differently.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS : Basically, alternate orthography in real world languages are sometimes used in Ill Bethisad. For example, not only Japanese in Ill Bethisad is based on the KansaiRegionalAccent, but also their Romaji seemed to be based on Spanish and Portuguese. [[note]]Which is derived from real life -- the first attempts to Romanize Japanese were done by Portuguese missionaries, and Ill Bethisad's romaji are almost certainly based on that.[[/note]]

It all began in 1997 when an amateur linguist and history buff from New Zealand named Andrew Smith decided to conduct a thought experiment. What if the Celtic languages of the inhabitants of Britain were supplanted by the Latin spoken by the settlers in that arrived during the period of Roman rule. What if these Romano-Britons were able to at least partially resist the Saxon Invasion that occurred after that Romans left in the Sixth Century AD,forming a kingdom in what in our world became southwestern England and Wales. What would the resulting language, country and people be like.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName : The Holy Roman Empire under the leadership of Hessler and [[NotSoDifferent the nationalist instead of communist analogue of the USSR]], the [[FunWithAcronyms SNOR]] (basically militarist White Russian monarchists/nationalists on acid).

** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler became a respectable writer in Ill Bethisad. But this does not stop an expy of him named Hessler from taking over The Holy Roman Empire and embarking in a second global war.

* BrandX=/=BlandNameProduct: Many of the companies in IllBethisad. Some of them even made a disclaimer that for example, "Niozul is NOT Nestle!"

* CommieLand : Subverted. The White Russians defeat the Bolsheviks in the [[RedOctober Russian Civil War]]. The first Communist country gets establish in Bavaria instead (which makes it the IB equivalent of UsefulNotes/EastGermany). Then there was the Yugoslavian Confederation of Soviet Danubian States, which was Yugoslavia plus Bulgaria. [[InSpiteOfANail It was still ruled by Tito though]].

* CommieLand : Subverted. The White Russians defeat the Bolsheviks in the [[RedOctober Russian Civil War]]. The first Communist country gets establish in Bavaria instead (which makes it the IB equivalent of EastGermany). Then there was the Yugoslavian Confederation of Soviet Danubian States, which was Yugoslavia plus Bulgaria. [[InSpiteOfANail It was still ruled by Tito though]].

* HolyRomanEmpire : Survives in Ill Bethisad until the present day.

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The {{Conlang}} that Smith Created as result was called Brithenig and the nation he created was called Cambria, or in their native tongue, Kemr. The quote at the top of the Page is also in Brithenig and translates into, "A nation without a language is a nation without a heart". A lot of people liked both of them and were curious about that language and Culture.

* What if the Roman Empire established a settlement in what is now Poland late in their history and took enough of a foothold that when the Slavs invaded, they were able to maintain the language and culture and give birth to a Slavic-influenced Romance Language ?
* What if the British colonies in America gained their independence a little later and with a lot less bloodshed and (due partly to a slight mellowing of Scandinavian influence) were not interested in expanding beyond the Mississippi River ?
* What if Castille and Aragon never were united in 1492 ?
* What if Japan was opened up not by men with guns but by men offering land and riches in return and asking nicely ?
* What if China did not dismantle its navy and remained a sea power in East Asia allowing it to successfully resist European colonialists in the Nineteenth Century ?

As you can see that scope of the project expanded beyond just one Conlang and just one Country to include an entire world a lot like RealLife but diffrent as a result of several different ForWantOfANail situations turning out differently.

The end result is called "Ill Bethisad" a sort of [[SharedUniverse shared]] AlternateUniverse, thing that has been going for about thirteen years as of the time of this writing. More information can be found [[http://ib.frath.net/w/Ill_Bethisad here]].

* ShoutOut: Egypt becoming a Scottish colony, with some Egyptians being descendants of ancient Scots, is one to L. Sprague de Camp's story "The Green Magician", as well as the Total War After-Action Report ''Fanfic/AScotsmanInEgypt.''

* ShoutOut: Egypt becoming a Scottish colony, with some Egyptians being descendants of ancient Scots, is one to L. Sprague de Camp's story "The Green Magician". I should know, as I invented it, and I never heard of ''FanFic/AScotsmanInEgypt'', though it may well be a shout-out to de Camp too. --John Cowan

* ShoutOut: Egypt becoming a Scottish colony (and mentions of some Scots being descendants of ancient Egyptians) is one to ''FanFic/AScotsmanInEgypt''.

* ShoutOut: Egypt becoming a Scottish colony (and mentions of some Scots being descendants of ancient Egyptians) is one to FanFic/AScotsmanInEgypt.

* SlidingScaleOfAlternateHistoryPlausibility : The original ConLang project is a clear Type I (Hard). The ExpandedUniverse / SharedUniverse veers more into the soft territory of the scale, ranging widely from Type II (Hard/Soft) to Type IV (ignores ButterflyOfDoom completely), naturally DependingOnTheWriter. But this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]], since [[WordofGod the authors]] [[http://ib.frath.net/w/What_IB_Is_and_What_IB_Ain%27t have stated]] that they're trying to create a [[RuleOfFun purely fun]] AlternateUniverse, not a completely realistic one.