Ill Bethisad
|
|
Ill Bethisad is an ongoing, collaborative alternative history project with currently ca. 30 participants, originally created by Andrew Smith (http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/) from New Zealand.
Instead of having one central point of divergence, Ill Bethisad has several:
- Latin developed into a Romance language in the British Isles and Central Europe as it did in France and continental Europe
- the Bolsheviks in Russia were beaten by the White Army producing a nationalistic government
- Napoleon did not attack Russia, nor was he defeated at Waterloo.
- The Partitions of Veneda (historical alternative to Poland) were stopped by Napoleon, and the Venedo-Lithuanian Commonwealth exists as the Republic of the Two Crowns.
- The American Revolution didn't happen and the USA doesn't exist as we know it.
Constructed languages play an important role in Ill Bethisad. To date there are over twenty languages at varying levels of construction that play part. Among the languages spoken in Ill Bethisad are Brithenig and Wenedyk. The name Ill Bethisad itself is Brithenig for the universe, a calque from Welsh bydysawd.
Also, technologies that have either fallen out of favor or failed to develop in our world are explored and utilized. Example: zeppelins are still in use, both for war and peace uses. Computers are not highly developed and there is no 'Silicon Valley' of North America, but information technology centres are instead found in Ireland.
Due to the large number of participants, Ill Bethisad functions under two overarching principles:
- Quod Scripsi, Scripsi: What is written is written. Because of the collective nature of the group, proposed revisions to prior "canon" material are subject to review by all members. It is a means of reigning in and channeling everyones' creativity; it protects things that have already been worked out; it helps create continuity between all the threads that make up the tapestry and helps ensure that the tapestry is roughly the same shape at both ends.
- Quod Assumpsi, Assumpsi: What is assumed is assumed, meaning that unless a proposal is given about a particular region of the Ill Bethisad universe, it is the same as exists in our timeline. This serves both to protect the work of the participants, but also to leave open unexplored areas, that other participants might be involved.
External link
- The Cultures of Ill Bethisad (http://www.geocities.com/elemtilas/ill_bethisad/)cs:Ill Bethisad
fr:Ill Bethisad la:Ill Bethisad nl:Ill Bethisad pl:Ill Bethisad sv:Ill Bethisad