inkbunny.net · 3581773:5498267

Hi hey hello!

I threatened a little while back to start exploring some overlays and stuff for my giant Asantrea map - here's a few I prepared earlier!

1. Heladian Empire
The Heladian Empire (c.850BA - 155AD) is a Rome-analog classical empire whose influence on Western Asantrea is still felt in the modern era. It expanded steadily through almost 9 centuries of continuous conquest and growth, until the martyring of the Prophet Arahan in the city of Venium. The Heladians had held Venium for four centuries and it was the strategic jewel in the crown of Empire - but the martyring of the Prophet instigated a decades-long uprising that eventuated in the Heladians being ousted from their outpost in 88 AD - and the eventual collapse of the Empire, culminating with the sacking of Vinegress, the Imperial Capital, in 155 AD. The map shows the greatest extent of the Empire, in 30 AD.

2. The Arahanic Crusades
Between 30 AD and 844 AD, a series of religious and military Crusades were conducted in the name of Arahan the Prophet, to consolidate and spread the Arahanic faith around the known world. The First Crusade aimed to establish Venium as the Holy City, resulting in the Heladians being ousted from their stronghold in 88 AD. The Second Crusade established the Arahanic Empire, a theocratic power, under Quintus Spiuso the Pious and his successors. It converted most of the continent of Valasea to Arahanism at the point of a sword by 632 AD. The Third Crusade commenced in 738 AD with the Battle of Carn Tywyll, which gave the Arahanites a foothold on Doregal. Between then and 844 AD, they expanded ruthlessly, converting the people, taking over the Ysionic temples as their worship infrastructure, and conducting blood rituals known as the Sundering on Aethyrborn across the world, destroying their immortal souls and binding them to cycles of reincarnation. This is the key event that sets the scene for my stories at present.

3. Rates of Cultural and Religious Circumcision
C'mon, y'all knew it was coming.
But this should also prove that circumcision is by no means ubiquitous across Asantrea. This map indicates approximate circumcision rates in approximately 1790 Arahan Domini - and you'll immediately see some commonalities between high circumcision rates, and areas controlled by the Arahanites during the Crusades. These two things are not a coincidence - circumcision in the modern sense is usually an Arahanic religious practice. The outlier here is Tepoxtec, which is east of the Rift and completely cut off from Western Asantrea - in Tepoxtec, circumcision is an ancient coming-of-age practice and has no links to Arahanism at all.