PoD: Boudica’s revolt in the AD 61 succeeds la~!
Butt why la~?
In a dream Boudica receives a vision from Andraste showing her that the path to victory is through using captured Roman citizens as political hostages AND never succumbing to pride and abandoning hit and run warfare in favour of decisive warfare. Boudica acts on this vision from her Goddess and achieves victory. Emperor Nero has other wars to fight and decides to cut his losses and instead focus on conquering nearby Germania and repelling Parthia la~
Results: Boudica’s army takes over the Roman province of Britannia la~
In AD 63, Emperor Nero cedes the governorship of the Province of Britannia to Queen Boudica and grants the province independence in exchange for the establishment of, “a treaty of eternal peace and trade between Britannia and Rome.” Despite this being a unilateral declaration by Nero, Queen Boudica accepts the eccentric Emperor’s gesture. Boudica accepts the Roman title ‘Sovereign Governor of Britannia’ and also creates the High Queendom of Albion as her primary title with Andraste as the patron High Goddess of the Queendom la~
Under the succession laws of the Queendom, only mothers, under the age of 50, with at least two natural daughters, can inherit/possess the throne. By default, the Crown Princess is the oldest daughter that qualifies unless the Queen publicly chooses another one of her daughters who qualifies as her heir. Succession occurs automatically when the current Queen turns 50. The Queen’s mother (if alive), uncles, aunts, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters form the centre of the Royal court la~
The Queendom does not formally recognise marriage nor paternal lineage; lineage is traced purely through the mother. When a mother dies any property she owned is split evenly between her children; the only exception is the Crown itself—only the Crown Princess inherits. Both men and women inherit property, but when a man dies, all his property is split between his living biological-siblings la~
While the Queendom does not recognise marriage the other Celtic lands of the British Iles did. All these lands are eventually (by AD 800) united with the Queendom (primarily) through a mixture of marriage and intrigue.The High Queendom of Albion is soon (in)famous for being extremely (sexually) liberal yet fiercely (racist) nationalistic. However, the matrilineal nature of the nation does inspire a fair number of men to emigrate—the main destination being the Roman Empire, and later the frontiers in the New World la~
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As a result of not being focused on Britannia, Rome is eventually able to conquer Western Germania la~By AD 312, Civil War between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires is expected by all. This was due to the Eastern Roman Emperor Constantine officially converting to Christianity in AD 312 and swiftly proceeding to harshly oppress non-Christians—the the Western Roman Emperor Julian responds by calling Constantine a spiritual-Jew and traitor against Rome and by extension labels all Jews and Christians as traitors under the law. War breaks out in AD 313 when Constantine orders the first strike towards Rome—reaching the outskirts of the city before being surrounded and destroyed. The Western counterattack achieves a certain degree of victory, forcing Eastern forces to retreat to the East of the Bosporus, butt lacking the strength to pursue, Julian decides to fortify the western bank of the Bosporus. Meanwhile, Eastern forces are able to conquer Africa. This is where the war ends. With Byzantium/Constantinople split, the East relocates their capital to Jerusalem, and renames their state the ‘Christian Empire’ while the West simply calls itself the ‘Roman Empire.’ During and after the conflict Christians flee the West for the East and non-Christians flee the East for the West la~
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The Catholicism in this timeline is different and closer to Torah (not Talmudic) Judaism with the addition of the New Testament. That said, as this Constantine still initially favoured Sol Invictus, the 'Sabbath' is still moved from Saturn's day to Sun's day. Church leaders are more than willing to compromise if it means gaining the backing of Constantine's legions la~
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The rise of Islam forces the Christian Empire and the (Zoroastrian) Persian Empire into an alliance. Their combined forces are enough to keep the Caliphate contained in Arabia. The Christian Empire slowly expands into Africa. The Persian Empire slowly expands North (into modern day Russia) and East (occupying modern day Pakistan). In AD 900, Norse explorers discover North America. From that point onwards, the three Western European powers, the Norse, Celts, and Romans soon embark on a competition to take control of the new lands la~~The Zoroastrian religion spreads significantly roughly matching the spread of the Persian Empire. from AD 1000 onwards many in the Scythian Empire choose to adopt the religion, and by AD 1300 slightly less than half follow the way of Ahura Mazda as determined by the High Priest(ess) in Persia. However, conversely, Christianity has spread as a minority religion within the Persian Empire, although Catholicism (following the orthodoxy of the Pope in Jerusalem) is forbidden. Christianity is a minority religion throughout the East and has found it's largest foreign following (outside of the Christian Empire) in the Korean and Chinese Empires where slightly less than half of the population follow various 'Churches' of the religion, although the ruling classes continue to prefer Buddhism and Taoism, and like the Persian Empire, Catholicism is forbidden la~
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The customs of marriage are unique within Zoroastrianism. For-example, a mother is strongly encourage to marry one of her sons if she is currently unmarried. "Gayomart, whose elder sister conceived him by her father and in turn conceived by him the twins, who then peopled the world... The theological doctrine of xvaetvadatha, which recommends as especially pious and meritorious sexual unions between mother and son and between brother and sister... What seems unique in the theology of the Magi when compared to later monotheistic theologies, is the doctrine of xvaetvadatha so that a man acquires a significant religious merit by having sexual intercourse with his mother. They (the Magi) undoubtedly revealed the dogma of xvaetvadatha to justify the marriages with sisters, mothers, and daughters by which they preserved the divine ichor of their holy race from all danger of genetic pollution." Thus, incestual marriage is considered a virtue and female bisexuality is encouraged. However, male homosexuality is forbidden and strict female homosexuality is shunned la~
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Buddhism has also spread west all the way to Albion and the New World, however it is not the majority religion anywhere in the West, unlike the East where it is often the dominant religion la~
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Besides shipbuilding, technology is not significantly better than it was in 1000 AD (and is in many ways equivalent to 1700 AD in our timeline). Despite no period of 'Dark Ages' there also has been no 'Enlightenment' due to the continued wide spread prevalence of religion, feudalism, and private slavery. The continued prevalence of slavery means that the upper classes have little need for technology to improve production. Furthermore, these massive civilisation-empires have not broken up due policies of extreme feudal decentralisation. Following the first age of exploration kicked off by the Vikings, the world is experiencing an age of religion, lords, pirates, and privateers that it shows no sign of ending since it is not clear if an industrial revolution will ever occur la~