OpenGeofiction
For the country I’m working on, Lallemand, my friend and I are developing its background story. So far, a big part is that the country was divided in two after a civil war, and each side was backed by one of the super powers.
I’ve been looking around the wiki, but there’s not much on world history. I was wondering which countries are considered the world powers(such as US, Russia, and China), and if there’s any large world wide rivalries between such countries.
I was also wondering if there are any world wide organizations, or political blocs, such as the UN, or EU.
Any information is appreciated, and sorry in advance if its already in the wiki and I just didn’t see it.
thanks,
alb120
Discussion
Comment from tom_m7 on 12 December 2014 at 03:47
In some of the countries that speak Ingerish (English), like Akinyaka, Gobrassanya, and Khaiwoon, there is a “natives living on their land -> colonization by Ingerish-speaking peoples ->Ingerish people taking over but natives living on albeit not how they used to” storyline. The origin of the Ingerish language (and its etymology) comes from the country of Ingerland. This wiki article, created in November, is an (incomplete) list of Ingerish colonial history.
So we could say Ingerland is a United Kingdom equivalent, which was a superpower, and still is, but not to a big perspective.
I also view Gobrassanya the India of OGF (a country colonized by Ingerland/Great Britain and growing to become a cultural and technological hotbed), Akinyaka as the Pacific Northwest (a region with varied terrain, ranging from snow-capped mountains and volcanoes (Cascade Range equivalent) to semi-arid desert (Columbia Plateau equivalent) to a thriving agricultural region), and Khaiwoon as the Hong Kong of OGF. While Akinyaka is nowhere close to a superpower, Gobrassanya or Khaiwoon could be called a modern “superpower” if they have a control of trade like their real-world equivalents.
I haven’t thought about the question of a world power much, and think neither has anyone else, but those are my thoughts.
Comment from BMSOUZA on 12 December 2014 at 05:04
In fact some countries in OGF looks similars to real countries. Ingerland like United Kingdom, Gobrassanya like India, Khaiwoon like Hong Kong or Singapore.
I see Ataraxia like France, Darcodia like Italia and Karolia like Estonia Meilan would be China, and your Lallemand is like Nigeria to me. Ardesphere is some hispanic big country, like Argentina or Mexico. Nordurland would be Norway.
I am creating Cariocas like (a mini) Brazil, and Gran Lusland maybe like Portugal (because the history and colonialism in Cariocas) (In fact, Brasonia, part of Gran Lusland, would be Brazil first, and Cariocas a Brasil later, if anyone could understand me, hehehe)
I imagine Russia like Chara or Chionova
But I do not know about the history of these countries
I think in OGFIFA we would create this paralel lines between OGF countries and real countries, but it does not works there, hehehe.
This part of the history, about United Nations etc, need to be writen yet…
I do not imagine any country in war with another in OGF. All the wars I noticed in Wiki, was internals.
We need to ask the owners of the countries I mentioned if this relation “OGF country - world country”, is real or just thoughts of mine, hehehe
Comment from Luciano on 12 December 2014 at 05:17
Actually I’ve kind of avoided this question of who the big powers are in this world. I think it isn’t clearly established. For example, despite there being lots of obviously “originally Spanish colony” countries (Ardisphere, Vega, maybe Latina, etc.) there is no obvious original “Spain” (which I have been calling “Castellán”).
I think it’s simply not decided. I’m inclined to just wait and see.
In my mind, Ardisphere is a very weird combination of Argentina (culturally?) and South Korea (socio-economically?). Not really a very big country, but with a strong economy and thus mid-sized importance globally.
My other country, Mahhal, is not really based on any earth country. Maybe the best parallel would be as a kind of Japan but, while Japan opened to the world in the 1860s, Mahhal only opened to the world in the 1960s. Nevertheless it pursued its own isolated devopment and has emerged as a mid-range country. It might have some parallels with Finland in this respect.
Comment from BMSOUZA on 12 December 2014 at 07:04
Really, this is a very dangerous topic. I remember “the fight” when I asked about the moterland of portuguese languages in OGF. Despite being a british country today, Pretany claimed ha been the motherland to all latin languages. I did not want to start a fight by be myself a portuguese speaker and wanting create the motherland to this language. So, OK, I can live with Pretany like motherland to the languages…
And, when I say that Cariocas=Little Brazil, Gran Lusland=Portugal, it do not mean that they are totally similar countries with the history in real world.
So, when alb120 mentioned a internal civil war… it is a delicate topic. I understand that Lallemand is separated in a socialist part (alb120) and a capitalist one (portopolis), but… it need to mention another country in this history?
My original history about Cariocas was about indigenous from Brasil settling a new island far from Portuguese empire. But, in OGF, there are not brazilian indigenous or portugueses conquers, so I changed a little the history of Cariocas. Cariocas was sttled by indigenous and conquered by brasonians later, anything this way…
Thinking that all (or much of the) countries in OGF are capitalists… May be the socialism was born in north Lallemand, why not? It is just a idea, to increase the history and avoid mention another countries like a superpower…
It is just a idea..
Regards!
PS: Luciano, are you from Argentina???
Comment from histor on 12 December 2014 at 09:19
There are a lot of user in the OGF-world, who had all own ideas for the history of its country. So it is not easy, to write a “officical” history of the OGF-planet. And at the other side - why? Then you had a structure, that binds everybody.
And there are a lot of international organisations (see the portal “lists” in the wiki). So now I will create a organisation of the states in Tarephia. An UNO? I think, that can be discussed. But I need it not. There are more useful organisations for shelter commerce and welfare or international sport.
In the OGF-World is no Second World War (1939 - 1945). “Great Powers” for your Island you must seek in SE-Uletha - and then ask, if your choosen “great powers” will play the role, you had imagine.
Comment from Luciano on 12 December 2014 at 11:23
I agree with histor - we don’t really NEED to have a coherent history. It’s more important to some people than others. I enjoy creating detailed history for my countries, but I don’t control other people’s countries, so mostly until now I have been “inventing” (naming and using countries) that don’t exist in OGF world (e.g. Gohanguk [Korea] or Castellán [Spain]).
If someone wants to create them later, that’s wonderful. If not, we can imagine some terrible disaster or just not worry about it. Furthermore, it’s worth pointing out that Thilo has left an “empty” hemisphere - perhaps as things develop and some more countries are needed, that region will develop some continents with some additional countries. But as I said, histor is right - it only matters if you want it to.
My suggestion to alb120 is two options:
do as histor suggests, and ask the “owners” of some countries to help you play the “great powers” for Lallemand - this is the “role playing option”
do what I have done, and just invent countries (e.g. OGF-USA, OGF-USSR), name them what you want, and don’t worry about the fact that they are not on the map.
PS @BMSOUZA No soy argentino, sino un gringo (norteamericano) “achilangado” (viví muchos años en Cd de México y también algún tiempo en la Patagonia Chilena)… ahora radicado en Corea.
Comment from isleño on 12 December 2014 at 18:28
I think it’s great for people to create international histories that interact with and complement each other. Also, I think it’s much easier to start sketching those out now, since most of the OGF past is still vague and cloudy. It’ll be a lot harder after more detailed histories have started to solidify all over the globe. If others have objections to the histories we start to shape, that’s fine: we can work out changes together, or they can create their own alternate histories. Even on Earth there are conflicting versions of the past, which can be told very differently from opposing perspectives. No one should feel bound to anything.
Ingerland’s creator, Andy, totally supports the idea of Ingerland being like an England/UK, and is excited for others who are interested in forming those historical links to help create that history together. As tom_m7 mentioned, the “Timeline of Ingerish colonial history” page was created as a forum where relevant countries can sketch out their various histories in a common space, a framework where we can place our own stories within the context of a bigger historical narrative. I actually hope the Ingerish collaboration might work as a model for other areas… where people searching for context, coherence and collaboration can come together and find the ideal balance between writing their own story and embedding it within a larger group story that also makes sense.
isleño
Re Khaiwoon: Singapore and Hong Kong were indeed the models used when building it, and it can easily be thought of as an “Asian-style, economic tiger, city-state” in a similar way. But there are big differences too. For example Singapore and HK were both colonial creations, whereas Khaiwoon was an independent nation, unique culture and major trading center many centuries before the Ingerish showed up. With only 6 million people it can’t be a “superpower” but it’s still a powerful economic hub, like Singapore or HK.
Comment from histor on 12 December 2014 at 18:45
Indeed as isleño wrote: The best way seemed for me to set rootlands. So p.e.is needed a rootland for “spanish”, “french” or “potuguese” roots of settlers. In my opinion “Europe” always lays in NW Uletha.
The netherland (dutch) root is Dagelanden (from KVh), so I managed with him/her. It is bad, that he/she is not more active there since 3 month.
Comment from BMSOUZA on 12 December 2014 at 21:33
Again we talking about rootlands. Pretany claimed being the rootland to original latin language. There is not a primary latin language today, in fact this is a anciente language, so I think we can decide the rootlands by any language like “spanish”, “french” or “portuguese”. I would like to claim Gran Lusland as rootland of “portuguese” (in fact, portuguese and luslandese are the same language, hehehe), despite being a SW Tarephian country.
I see Darcodia as rootland to “Italian”, Ataraxia as rootland to “french”, but I can not opine about other countries in OGF except about my countries. May be the ancient latin people navigate to Darcodia, Ataraxia, Gran Lusland…
But now we are talking about rootlands of languages… and about rootlands of social or economics rules? If I am not wrong, this war alb120 mention is about socialists and capitalists.
My suggestion is: This would be a internal problem, not including other countries, Socialism could had born in Lallemand, not necessary in a “OGF-Russia”. It is just a suggestion.
@histor: Count with Gran Lusland about TCC!!!
@Luciano: …e eu pensando que você fosse “hermano”, hehehe…
Comment from Sarepava on 12 December 2014 at 22:58
I’ve always assumed that the biggest countries by population and economy (so Pretany, Mazan, Chonova, Latina) would be the main powers, and dominate world trade and culture. We would all buy their aircraft and cars and watch films made in these countries, use their languages, etc. But perhaps we have in OGF a world where countries do not engage in such aggressive power games and try to fight their neighbours for wealth and resources. Certainly I never want Karolia to be a ‘powerful’ country but a idealised mixture of Estonia-Finland and the Scandinavian states; peaceful, reasonably communitarian, prosperous without getting greedy and more interested in spreading its cultural than its economic influence.
I would agree that some kind of OGF UN should exist, but then this would lead to a debate about which country the HQ should be in (Commonia, surely, in a small neutral area owned by the organisation?)
Comment from histor on 12 December 2014 at 23:55
@ Sarapeva = See I in the same manner. Latina has 100 million inhabitants - a “great power”?
The OGF-UN = Mainquarter should be in thilos land = Sathria.
Comment from NE2 on 13 December 2014 at 03:11
The only international dispute taught in Woolonian schools is capitalist goats vs. socialist sheep. Woolonia was founded when the two sides needed to work together against the invading space wolves.
Comment from thilo on 13 December 2014 at 15:30
I don’t really want the OGF UN headquarters in Sathria. I think an ideal location would be in Gobrassanya, which is already somewhat of a microcosm of the OGF planet.
However, if you don’t mind, I’d take the headquarter of OGFIFA.
Comment from isleño on 14 December 2014 at 03:04
It’s good to see the timeline of Ingerish colonial history starting to fill in. I’ve uploaded some Ingerish colonial flags (based on Andy’s awesome Ingerland flag design) and some blank templates as well, in case anyone wants to make their own.
I also want to emphasize that the Ingerish colonial timeline shouldn’t bind anyone to anything. There may have been other groups of Ingerish speaking people (that split off earlier, perhaps, or originated elsewhere?) and had their own “Ingerish speaking” migrations around the globe. Who knows? Everyone should be free to tell their story.
As for the country parallels, I think one of the great things about OGF is that even though we can see connections between the various OGF countries and countries on Earth, it’s a lot more complex than Country A = Country B. Gobrassanya for example seems to have a diverse native “Asian”-like element, but with multicultural waves of various “European”-like settlers who came to dominate in many areas. Is there anyplace on earth quite like that?
Comment from isleño on 14 December 2014 at 03:04
Also, on the UN site: I think Gobrassanya would be a bit too hot for the UN diplomats. Perhaps there is a pleasant Swiss-like location in Kalm or something?
Would “Assembly of Nations” (AN) be a good name?
Comment from tom_m7 on 14 December 2014 at 03:25
@:isleño “Assembly of Nations” would be a great name. I, like Thilo, agree with Gobrassanya (or Khaiwoon) as a great place for the headquarters of the AN.
Comment from isleño on 14 December 2014 at 04:44
Thanks tom_m7 - glad you like that name idea. I dunno, it’s a lot easier for me to imagine it in a place like Geneva, Vienna, Brussels or London. Winburgh in Ingerland might be nice.
Comment from BMSOUZA on 14 December 2014 at 05:23
“Assembly of Nations” (AN) - very good name!
Comment from Luciano on 14 December 2014 at 06:30
I propose Tarott as seat of Assembly of Nations, since it was one of the earliest cites to take shape in OGF (and remains one of the most interesting to spend time looking at!). I had been thinking this idea a few weeks ago and had started to write a diary post about proposing a OGF-UN but then never finished it and decided to “wait and see.”
Comment from histor on 14 December 2014 at 13:06
AN is a good name for me. And yes - the place is good located in northwest Uletha. In Kalm, Sathria or a neutral Erfelden?