Historica was an Alternate History map game in which players create and progressively alter a map, adding lore to go along with the map. It was hosted by shearsforest, a user of AlternateHistory.com. It can be found here
. An account is needed to view the thread.
The premise and main goal of the map game was to create an alternate history of humanity and Homo sapiens over the course of 315,000 years. The game reached up until the 1000 AD turn before being closed indefinitely.
The game is divided into 5 phases thus far:
- Beginning, which spans from 315,000 BC to 15,000 BC;
- The Great Upheaval, which spans from 15,000 BC to 4000 BC;
- Cradles of Civilization, which spans from 4000 BC to 1000 BC; and
- The Tale of Empires, which began with the 1000 BC turn and ended with the 1000 AD turn.
A full summary of each can be found on the Recap page.
Historica provides examples of:
- All Cavemen Were Neanderthals: Heavily subverted. Multiple human species exist over the course of the map game, including humans, Denisovans, Borealians (descendants of neanderthals), Aquatids (hominids that have adapted to an aquatic environment), and many others.
- Allohistorical Allusion: Plenty.
- The dominant Egyptian civilization is called Khemet, stemming from Egypt's real-life endonym, kmt.
- When the Australian Melbrin culture originates from where Melbourne would have been, it's no surprise that they would also choose a similar name: Melborn.
- The sole human city in Scandinavia is named Thule, a reference to the mythical northern land of Thule found in Greek and Roman cartography.
- Apocalypse How: The Toba supereruption in 75,000 BC acts as a Class 2, killing off all of the Gigantopithecus population except for a small percentage who fled to Australia in the thousands of years before the eruption.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: Gigantopithecus, found only within the Sundian culture by 1000 AD.
- The Discovery of Fire: Despite much of the human species in the game having developed fire by the start of the game, this trope is still applicable to Pan sapiens, who successfully manage to control fire by 85,000 BC, having received assistance from humans in 205,000 BC.
- Human Subspecies: As of 1000 AD, there are 19 human species and subspecies spread out across the world, not counting Gigantopithecus or Pan habilis.
- Intelligent Primate: Pan habilis, descendants of chimpanzees, have developed humanlike intelligence and have created numerous cities and civilizations.
- Mammoths Mean Ice Age: Subverted. Woolly mammoths survive into North America beyond the Ice Age, being used for labor as recent as 600 AD.
