Brother-Members of our
'League of Lace Wars Imagi-Nations', may Monte-Cristo draw your attention to
Interbellum? This new collective blog aims to be 'EvE's equivalent for
'Imagi-nations and imaginary wars set in the 1920s, 1930s & 1940s'.
Historical 'zones' (areas x periods) specially favourable to imaginary countries and conflicts combine a patchwork of numerous countries -many of them small, hardly known by the general public, either old but ignored or 'new' (resurrected from oblivion), often with bewilderingly similar names (all those Hesse- and Saxe-...; more recently Moldavia / Moravia, Slovakia / Slovenia...)- with a state of turnmoil, political instability and / or rampant hostilities. Typically, broken up or crumbled down empires: such indeed is
post-WW1 Eurasia with the post-Czarist ('Back of Beyond') East, Baltic area (not far from Indur and Tradgarland), post-Czarist and post-Austrian (after being post-Ottoman) ark from the Balkans to the Caucasus (from Cavenderia and Syldavia to Oobleckistan?).
And of course during the Interwars South America was as propitious to imaginary countries and conflicts as it had been since the wars of liberation -re the famous Gran Chapo war between Nuevo Rico and San Theodoros. While during the 1920-1950 period the
'Yellow Peril' was a real
concern, at least in fiction...
As for imaginary conflicts, the
British Civil War is already well known.
Two other recent periods are potential cradles of Imagi-nations and imaginary wars, and would deserve each a collective 'EvE'-like blog of its own:
- the 1860-1914, Victorian to Belle Epoque
one, of Ruritania fame and already well represented 'oversea' (Afriboria, Morvalistan... but also the republics of
Sonora and
Texas, the Fenian state -several incarnations- and
'progressive Hawaii'). Several novels of the time described a 'Yellow' (or 'Black') invasion of Europe and 'the end of civilization as we know it'. As for imaginary conflicts, they are currently fought by an increasing number of 'Color' armies in their 'Funny little wars' of Wells' tradition; the 'Things to come' movie could equally be set in 1905, and most of French public opinion was ready to revive the 8 centuries old tradition of 'Guerre aux Anglais!' after the Fachoda incident.
- Our very time, with 'decolonized' Africa (
AK47 Republic) and post-USSR Eurasia, from the
Baltic to all those 'new' countries in the Caucasus: Blechistan, Pukistan... And South America as always, of course: since Argentina started a war in 'The Real World™', an open conflict between Palombia and Uroguy is more than likely.
Sadly, despite (or because of?) literary precedents such as
The Land Leviathan and the
Draka series, South Africa is seemingly ignored by 'Imaginative' wargamers. While the French Huguenots who
settled there in the late 17th C. *could* have built a
country of their own. And, had Christian Ethiopia extended as envisaged in the
Belisarius sequence, it would be ruling -perhaps under the name of
Afrodizia?- from 'our' Somalia to 'our' South Africa since the Renaissance at the very least...
Hopefully, with time, Imagi-Nations first known from a given period will see their historical coverage extended, and most of their creators contributing to more than one (4 or 5 by then: what about one for the '
Confederation of the Rhine' / Congres of Vienna' Europe) of the 'period specific'
League of Imagi-Nations collective blogs.
If you are already the proud creator of an imaginary country in a given period, and now feel tempted to play in another 'time', better to extend the history of your brainchild -forward or back in time- than to create a new one or invest in some historical army. With the history and geography common to both your projects, any progress in one benefits the other. Risks of resenting dispersion, of wilting are minimized and the character / 'personality' of your Imagi-Nation -and of its regiments- get all the richer.
(Cross-posted on TMP in order to reach and intrigue a wider audience, mostly unfamilar with Imagi-Nations, and get more feed-back.)
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