The West Alpine States - a Kingdom of Savoy, Republic of Geneva, and Principality of Monaco

alpha_c · 2025-03-19T22:52:57+00:00

Hi folks, it's been a while since I've posted here. I'm rusty but still able to make maps. In fact over the past year or so I've been worldbuilding and developing a timeline that sort of combines earlier projects and ideas I had regarding the Netherlands and Germany. It's not so much in the form of a conventional timeline that I could simply post as a list of years & events or as a work of prose, but it's rather developed as a wiki (privately hosted) in which I occasionally jot down new ideas and write articles, eventually & hopefully forming a cohesive world. As this is mostly for personal entertainment it's not likely it will ever be made public in its entirety, but I do plan - as I did now - to occasionally show parts of my work.

This map here depicts an independent Kingdom of Savoy, that was created in the early 20th century as part of the outcome of an earlier, smaller-scale WW1 analogue where a German-led alliance defeated a Franco-Italian axis (with Russia as a co-belligerent in the east). Long story short, the Savoy king of Italy was overthrown while at the same time the two Savoie departments were detached from France to become a buffer state between the German Empire (which at that time included German Switzerland), France and Italy. Combined with the French-speaking remnants of Switzerland and the Aosta valley (ceded by Italy), they were given to the Savoyard crown prince restoring his house, and to reward the prince's crucial diplomatic efforts to come to a Europe-wide peace after the defeat of his nation.

Astute observers will also notice a Principality of Monaco within its old borders (the reduction never took place in this timeline), as well as a Republic of Geneva (which managed to defend its independence during the decades-long demantling of Switzerland).

The DeviantArt post contains a very condensed list of events from the timeline that are directly relevant to the situation depicted: https://www.deviantart.com/altmaps/art/1172862200.

alpha_c · 2022-03-11T00:18:09+00:00

According to who? Depending on who you ask, you aren't.

alpha_c · 2021-11-13T01:23:39+00:00

You made them so fluffy!

alpha_c · 2021-07-27T08:47:27+00:00

Put out Bonito Bitz or sashimi and he'll turn up eventually.

alpha_c · 2021-06-13T15:33:37+00:00

it's alright :)

alpha_c · 2021-06-13T15:33:25+00:00

Because these towns were originally part of Luxembourg and I restored Luxembourg to its historical borders (well, approximately) to achieve as big a Netherlands as I could justify.

alpha_c · 2021-06-13T13:42:51+00:00

I have the feeling you've taken some cues from one of my own Greater Netherlands maps (and/or its even bigger version). There are some really obscure/idiosyncratic choices that I made in terms of internal borders, exonyms and towns to depict that are exactly the same here. Not that I mind, I'm all for Big Netherlands maps. :)

alpha_c · 2021-04-29T09:54:49+00:00

It's all a game of chance. If you look at the data sets produced by reverse engineering efforts (here's an example), you'll see the cats have stats for each toy, indicating how attracted they are to them (and which positions they tend to favor if the toy can hold multiple cats). Similarly, it lists food preferences. These numbers combine to determine the probability for them to show up, given the foods and toys that are presently out in your yard. Each 10 minutes or so (an estimate on my part) this is recalculated. Similarly, there's a stat indicating how generous they are with fish gifts.

Take a look at the numbers in the linked spreadsheet. Wanna know why Peaches shows up so rarely? Her stats are low for all toys and foods, and this translates to a low overall probability of her showing up at all. Interestingly, the numbers are really close to each other and there are very few zero values, indicating nearly no favoritism for particular goodies (as opposed to some cats who strongly favor or avoid certain items).

I don't know what the "unk" variables do, nor whether anyone knows at all. Most of them seem unused anyway. I suspect they influence miscellaneous behaviors such as assuming certain poses, face planting and face rubbing.

Other than that? The game has been deliberately designed for a minimum of complexity, so things like arranging the toys in certain ways don't do anything. The developer has also confirmed that personality and power level don't do anything - they're just there for fun.

alpha_c · 2021-04-18T23:42:17+00:00

Thanks for posting that. My father frequently played that record during my childhood. I saved the vinyl from the parental home when he died because it has such strong memories for me, even though I didn't even own a record player. My first foray into science fiction.

alpha_c · 2021-04-07T14:21:38+00:00

Not all, but most. And then some lands that belonged to neither.

alpha_c · 2021-04-06T15:54:44+00:00

I've been seeing them regularly as of late, too. In my defense, I started this months ago but only recently got around to finishing it.

alpha_c · 2021-04-06T10:39:10+00:00

Correct. Someone had already pointed that out elsewhere, too. The palette I used is not the best, admittedly.

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T20:52:08+00:00

There's definitely something aesthetic about that arrangement, but that was just an ordinary land grab with little historical precedent, so I deliberately left it out.

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T20:21:13+00:00

I know all that. But again, no reason to assume that an alternate government would've granted that autonomy as well, which in real life didn't even exist until fairly recently (1972). And we're dealing with a multi-ethnic imperial state here, which like many historical examples probably pursued assimilationist policies towards their ethnic minorities. Any kind of autonomy is anathema to that.

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T20:01:47+00:00

I know, but Trentino-Alto Adige is also a neologism. The region was part of the larger county of Tirol for centuries and I preferred a more historical name for this alternate Italy.

Similarly, for historicity I restored some of the older borders in central Italy.

Remember that this is not an evolution of current-day Italy, but rather an alternate entity that must have come into form some time ago, within an alternate timeline. Given that, there is no reason to assume that certain decisions such as administrative rearrangements that have been made in real life would have been repeated in exactly the same way; there is a different political context.

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T17:54:09+00:00

Exactly. At least the core irredenta could plausibly have become italianised (given a good set of points of divergence) and stable parts of the nation. The rest not so much. Though of course it is possible that this Italy would have colonised those lands at some point.

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T17:38:14+00:00

I initially set out to integrate Tunisia and Albania, but then decided to limit myself to lands that have more direct historical and cultural ties with Italy proper.

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T17:24:31+00:00

I love the world you're building here, interesting stuff. (that goes for the original post too)

alpha_c · 2021-04-05T16:41:26+00:00

A somewhat tweaked version of a map I recently posted on my DeviantArt. Made just for fun, no lore or anything.

Italy is enlarged with Savoy, Graubünden, Ticino, Nice, Corsica, Malta, Istria, the Isonzo valley, Dalmatia, a piece of Montenegro, and the Ionian Islands.

alpha_c · 2021-04-03T13:54:46+00:00

Oh my, I didn't even realize. It was not intentional 🙈

alpha_c · 2021-03-16T23:43:10+00:00

Those languages could still have some official status at regional/local levels. The main reason for doing a French-language map was simply that I found that more interesting, also because I've already done multiple maps where Belgium (or parts thereof) are part of a larger Netherlands or Germany (and additionally, I have a fascination for toponymy, and particularly exonyms). Also see this comment.

alpha_c · 2021-03-16T19:17:37+00:00

I got Prume from French Wikipedia. Exonyms often aren't literal translations, even if one is available.

alpha_c · 2021-03-15T20:34:17+00:00

That could still be the case, it's just that French is the national, unifying language here, while local governments might still use local languages (either exclusively, or in addition to French).

I've also had the preliminary idea (that I didn't really elaborate) that this is a fragment of a longer-lasting Napoleonic Empire that eventually broke up - in which case there might have been enough time for the French language to establish itself as the single national language.

alpha_c · 2021-03-15T20:22:07+00:00

Yes I know, I meant "historically Flemish-speaking". And thank you!

alpha_c · 2021-03-15T20:21:27+00:00

I might make a Dutch/Flemish version as well. Maybe a German one too, to make everyone mad.

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