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''[[https://www.atlasaltera.com/ Atlas Altera]]'' is an AlternateHistory project based on a world with much more cultural, linguistic, ethnic, and religious diversity than our own (as well as a few geographical changes).
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!!It provides examples of:
* AlternateHistoryWank: This could be considered a wank for the concept of diversity itself, but also for all the stateless nations today -- this world has dozens of Australian Aboriginal and Native American states, not to mention the rest of the world. In terms of religion, pretty much every religion other than Christianity and Islam gets wanked (and even Islam spreads further than in our world, being the majority in several states in South America, Australia, and Papua).
** This world has ''23'' Jewish states (more than half of which are in Africa).
** All around the world, indigenous peoples managed to hold on to and revitalize their original religions and cultures; the Hauniuism of Polynesia, Incanism of South America, Toltecism of Central America, the Kachinaism, Wakandaism, and Kappism of North America, the Sarnaism of India, and the Donipoloism of Southeast Asia, to name a few. All of these are state or at least majority religions in several countries.
** Zoroastrianism (here called Mazdaism) has a much more extensive reach, dominating Central Asia and reaching as far west as Anatolia and the Balkans.
** Gnostic religions like Druze, Manichaeism, Mandaeism, and Bogomilism all have their own states.
** Likewise for Jains, Sikhs, Yazidis, and Yarsanis.
** African diasporic religions like Vodou and to a lesser extent Rastafari are also widespread, and many nations back in Africa follow Vodou or a related tradition.
** Hinduism is prevalent across the Indian Ocean, from Mozambique and Madagascar to Papua and Australia.
** Buddhism has spread throughout East Asia, including far-east Siberia, and the Pacific Northwest of North America.
* AlternativeCalendar: The Society of Nations uses one based on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivist_calendar positivist calendar]], though with the months named simply by number rather than after people.
* AuthorAppeal: The creator, Telamon Tabulicus, is very into languages and history, and it shows in the maps and lore.
* BalkanizeMe: This world has more than one thousand countries, not to mention subnational divisions. Mainland Papua and Australia alone each have more than 50 countries, not including islands surrounding them. The British Isles alone have nine countries.
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: The Illiya (the Old City of Jerusalem) has a force similar to the OTL Vatican Guard, composed of Samaritans (who are native to the region, but have no religious connection to Jerusalem themselves, making them a perfect neutral force).
* CommonTongue: The international auxiliary language is a UsefulNotes/SignedLanguage based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indian_Sign_Language Plains Indian Sign Language]].
* CultureChopSuey: Most of the countries are distinct real-world cultures, but many are vastly different from the ones we know. For instance, most of Tamiria (Australia) follows Hinduism, but still speaks their native languages. The author has also mentioned that some Hindus back in Indea have incorporated deities based on the Rainbow Serpent into their cosmology.
* EasterEgg:
** In Central Asia, you'll find a country named [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]. This is completely supported by historical linguistics, though.
--->"From the Mongol or Khalkinese word ''nariin'' or ''naryn'', meaning “narrow,” referring to the narrow fertile lands of this country, or perhaps to the chokepoints in the parts of the silk road that run through it."
** Also in Central Asia, one of the scripts used is [[Creator/JRRTolkien tengwar]].
* FictionalUnitedNations: The Society of Nations has somewhat more power than our world's UN, and administers several regions covered under TheNeutralZone.
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Many countries have completely different names than the ones we know, and some names we're familiar with are used for other locations. For example, Brittany in this world is called "Wales", and "Iceland" is the name for the Svalbard islands. The "Black Sea" refers to the giant gulf dividing Europea from Siberea, while what we know as the Black Sea is called the Sperian Sea. Australia is called Tamiria, while the name Australia is used for a large island where the underwater Kerguelen Plateau is in our world.
* ModernMayincatecEmpire: Many indigenous peoples of the Americas (which are collectively called Gemina in this timeline) were able to achieve or maintain their own independence, leading to states like the Tawantinsuyu of Peru and the Chicuexcan of Nicaragua (stretching from mid-Mexico to mid-Panama).
* TheNeutralZone:
** Several regions, most notably Xingu in Crucea (South America) and Jagana in central Africa, are special reserves administered by the Society of Nations to preserve the indigenous peoples and wildlife.
** Holy places of some major world religions[[note]][[UsefulNotes/VaticanCity the Vatican]] for Christianity, [[UsefulNotes/{{Mecca}} the Haram]] for Islam, the Marbin for Zoroastrianism, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Jerusalem}} the Illiya]] for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam[[/note]] are their own independent city-states.
** Other regions like Antarctica and some Arctic islands have Society of Nations research stations as their only population.
** UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} is surrounded by the "Zone of Alienation", uninhabitable because of the nuclear disaster there.
** The Suez and Panama Canal Zones are also Society of Nations territories.
* NeverWasThisUniverse: The geographic changes (large seas in the middle of Australia and Siberia, enlarged lakes in Africa and North America, and extra islands scattered around the world) make it clear this world has been different from the beginning of its history.
* PhantasySpelling: Some continents and regions are spelled slightly different, like "Europea" and "Asea" (which here refers only to the Middle East).
* PointOfDivergence: ''Atlas Altera'' does not involve a single POD, but instead many ways history might have gone different.
* VestigialEmpire: Chernorus is a Russian state east of the "Black Sea" (the giant gulf in the middle of Siberia) that is TheRemnant of the White (anti-communist) forces. It's not a monarchy, though. Similarly to Taiwan in OTL, it still claims the entirety of Russia and is technically still at war with Russia.
* VikingsInAmerica: The Norse founded the country of Windmark in what would have been Newfoundland.
* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: The authors acknowledge that they're not going for realism so much as highlighting the world's rich ethnolinguistic diversity.
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!!It provides examples of:
* AlternateHistoryWank: This could be considered a wank for the concept of diversity itself, but also for all the stateless nations today -- this world has dozens of Australian Aboriginal and Native American states, not to mention the rest of the world. In terms of religion, pretty much every religion other than Christianity and Islam gets wanked (and even Islam spreads further than in our world, being the majority in several states in South America, Australia, and Papua).
** This world has ''23'' Jewish states (more than half of which are in Africa).
** All around the world, indigenous peoples managed to hold on to and revitalize their original religions and cultures; the Hauniuism of Polynesia, Incanism of South America, Toltecism of Central America, the Kachinaism, Wakandaism, and Kappism of North America, the Sarnaism of India, and the Donipoloism of Southeast Asia, to name a few. All of these are state or at least majority religions in several countries.
** Zoroastrianism (here called Mazdaism) has a much more extensive reach, dominating Central Asia and reaching as far west as Anatolia and the Balkans.
** Gnostic religions like Druze, Manichaeism, Mandaeism, and Bogomilism all have their own states.
** Likewise for Jains, Sikhs, Yazidis, and Yarsanis.
** African diasporic religions like Vodou and to a lesser extent Rastafari are also widespread, and many nations back in Africa follow Vodou or a related tradition.
** Hinduism is prevalent across the Indian Ocean, from Mozambique and Madagascar to Papua and Australia.
** Buddhism has spread throughout East Asia, including far-east Siberia, and the Pacific Northwest of North America.
* AlternativeCalendar: The Society of Nations uses one based on the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivist_calendar positivist calendar]], though with the months named simply by number rather than after people.
* AuthorAppeal: The creator, Telamon Tabulicus, is very into languages and history, and it shows in the maps and lore.
* BalkanizeMe: This world has more than one thousand countries, not to mention subnational divisions. Mainland Papua and Australia alone each have more than 50 countries, not including islands surrounding them. The British Isles alone have nine countries.
* CadreOfForeignBodyguards: The Illiya (the Old City of Jerusalem) has a force similar to the OTL Vatican Guard, composed of Samaritans (who are native to the region, but have no religious connection to Jerusalem themselves, making them a perfect neutral force).
* CommonTongue: The international auxiliary language is a UsefulNotes/SignedLanguage based on [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plains_Indian_Sign_Language Plains Indian Sign Language]].
* CultureChopSuey: Most of the countries are distinct real-world cultures, but many are vastly different from the ones we know. For instance, most of Tamiria (Australia) follows Hinduism, but still speaks their native languages. The author has also mentioned that some Hindus back in Indea have incorporated deities based on the Rainbow Serpent into their cosmology.
* EasterEgg:
** In Central Asia, you'll find a country named [[Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia Narnia]]. This is completely supported by historical linguistics, though.
--->"From the Mongol or Khalkinese word ''nariin'' or ''naryn'', meaning “narrow,” referring to the narrow fertile lands of this country, or perhaps to the chokepoints in the parts of the silk road that run through it."
** Also in Central Asia, one of the scripts used is [[Creator/JRRTolkien tengwar]].
* FictionalUnitedNations: The Society of Nations has somewhat more power than our world's UN, and administers several regions covered under TheNeutralZone.
* IstanbulNotConstantinople: Many countries have completely different names than the ones we know, and some names we're familiar with are used for other locations. For example, Brittany in this world is called "Wales", and "Iceland" is the name for the Svalbard islands. The "Black Sea" refers to the giant gulf dividing Europea from Siberea, while what we know as the Black Sea is called the Sperian Sea. Australia is called Tamiria, while the name Australia is used for a large island where the underwater Kerguelen Plateau is in our world.
* ModernMayincatecEmpire: Many indigenous peoples of the Americas (which are collectively called Gemina in this timeline) were able to achieve or maintain their own independence, leading to states like the Tawantinsuyu of Peru and the Chicuexcan of Nicaragua (stretching from mid-Mexico to mid-Panama).
* TheNeutralZone:
** Several regions, most notably Xingu in Crucea (South America) and Jagana in central Africa, are special reserves administered by the Society of Nations to preserve the indigenous peoples and wildlife.
** Holy places of some major world religions[[note]][[UsefulNotes/VaticanCity the Vatican]] for Christianity, [[UsefulNotes/{{Mecca}} the Haram]] for Islam, the Marbin for Zoroastrianism, and [[UsefulNotes/{{Jerusalem}} the Illiya]] for Judaism, Christianity, and Islam[[/note]] are their own independent city-states.
** Other regions like Antarctica and some Arctic islands have Society of Nations research stations as their only population.
** UsefulNotes/{{Chernobyl}} is surrounded by the "Zone of Alienation", uninhabitable because of the nuclear disaster there.
** The Suez and Panama Canal Zones are also Society of Nations territories.
* NeverWasThisUniverse: The geographic changes (large seas in the middle of Australia and Siberia, enlarged lakes in Africa and North America, and extra islands scattered around the world) make it clear this world has been different from the beginning of its history.
* PhantasySpelling: Some continents and regions are spelled slightly different, like "Europea" and "Asea" (which here refers only to the Middle East).
* PointOfDivergence: ''Atlas Altera'' does not involve a single POD, but instead many ways history might have gone different.
* VestigialEmpire: Chernorus is a Russian state east of the "Black Sea" (the giant gulf in the middle of Siberia) that is TheRemnant of the White (anti-communist) forces. It's not a monarchy, though. Similarly to Taiwan in OTL, it still claims the entirety of Russia and is technically still at war with Russia.
* VikingsInAmerica: The Norse founded the country of Windmark in what would have been Newfoundland.
* WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief: The authors acknowledge that they're not going for realism so much as highlighting the world's rich ethnolinguistic diversity.
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