Maps of Zombie-infested Alternative Histories
December 10, 2009 8:34 PM Subscribe
Mapmaking + Alternative History + Zombies: The Scourge of 1866. The Great Golem Uprising of 1848. Essex County Cricket (& Zombie Eradication) Club.
A popular alternative history forum has a fortnightly map-making contest, and these are a few of the standouts from the zombie/undead/supernatural contest they ran a few months back. The board posts all of their maps in vast, many-hundreds-of-pages threads. Contest entries start here, if you want to see what the forum is like.
A popular alternative history forum has a fortnightly map-making contest, and these are a few of the standouts from the zombie/undead/supernatural contest they ran a few months back. The board posts all of their maps in vast, many-hundreds-of-pages threads. Contest entries start here, if you want to see what the forum is like.
Dude, there is a map where the KHAZARS take over the world.
You know long it's been since I've read that word?
too long.
posted by The Whelk at 9:02 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
You know long it's been since I've read that word?
too long.
posted by The Whelk at 9:02 PM on December 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
What's the deal with whole Khazar thing anyway? From what I understand it's questioable history that tends to be brought up by anti-semites...
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 9:04 PM on December 10, 2009
posted by PostIronyIsNotaMyth at 9:04 PM on December 10, 2009
Very brief-and-possibly badly informed version: A nomadic steppe people who controlled big sections of Now Russia and Ukraine who converted to Judaism and there is much mystery and woo.
posted by The Whelk at 9:13 PM on December 10, 2009
posted by The Whelk at 9:13 PM on December 10, 2009
Metafilter: There is much mystery and woo.
posted by yiftach at 9:15 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]
posted by yiftach at 9:15 PM on December 10, 2009 [2 favorites]
The Dictionary of the Khazars offers little direct insight to the whole "Khazar thing" but is a fun read.
posted by lekvar at 9:15 PM on December 10, 2009
posted by lekvar at 9:15 PM on December 10, 2009
Oh! And the Anti-Semetic thing is that the Khazars are the origin of all European Jews, and the Khazars were an unsettled and untrustworthy people and secretly controlling things yadda yadda horrifying bullshit.
posted by The Whelk at 9:16 PM on December 10, 2009
posted by The Whelk at 9:16 PM on December 10, 2009
lekvar: One of my favorite books, and got me really into the whole time period and the steppe cultures - but definitely a work of fiction.
posted by The Whelk at 9:17 PM on December 10, 2009
posted by The Whelk at 9:17 PM on December 10, 2009
The Scourge of 1866.
That map is obviously wrong. It shows Northampton as a city belonging to the living.
posted by Sova at 9:28 PM on December 10, 2009
That map is obviously wrong. It shows Northampton as a city belonging to the living.
posted by Sova at 9:28 PM on December 10, 2009
Oh! And the Anti-Semetic thing is that the Khazars are the origin of all European Jews, and the Khazars were an unsettled and untrustworthy people and secretly controlling things yadda yadda horrifying bullshit.
Not quite. The anti-Semetic thing is that the Khazars are the origin of all Ashkenazi Jews, which means they're not of Middle Eastern ancestry, which means they have no claim to Israel.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:37 PM on December 10, 2009
Not quite. The anti-Semetic thing is that the Khazars are the origin of all Ashkenazi Jews, which means they're not of Middle Eastern ancestry, which means they have no claim to Israel.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:37 PM on December 10, 2009
The Golem Uprising of 1848 is a real wasted opportunity, as they completely fail to connect it to the real European uprisings that also happened in that year (they have the Golems being beaten back by an "international coalition" during the Spring of Nations!). It's like setting a zombie movie in Paris, May 1968, and having no reanimated Maoists or Gaulliste anti-undead brutality. Do these alternative history folk have an interest in the regular kind of history?
posted by stammer at 1:26 AM on December 11, 2009 [3 favorites]
posted by stammer at 1:26 AM on December 11, 2009 [3 favorites]
Interesting ideas, bad execution. Years of being a design nerd have ruined all but the most exact of fakes for me.
posted by Optimus Chyme at 3:42 AM on December 11, 2009
posted by Optimus Chyme at 3:42 AM on December 11, 2009
I would read the novelization of most of these maps. Especially the Golem Uprising.
Also, has there every been a good book on Golems? If we all work together on this, might they be the zombies of the 2010s?
posted by 2bucksplus at 6:46 AM on December 11, 2009
Also, has there every been a good book on Golems? If we all work together on this, might they be the zombies of the 2010s?
posted by 2bucksplus at 6:46 AM on December 11, 2009
The Great Scourge should being in summer of 1858, the year of the Great Stink. Plainly the noxious humours of the sewage bred illness which turned the submerged tenth into a horde of ravening zombies!
Real history is quite interesting in its own right.
posted by winna at 7:55 AM on December 11, 2009
Real history is quite interesting in its own right.
posted by winna at 7:55 AM on December 11, 2009
Oh God these are great. I do wish someone had gone through these and posted direct links. Where is there a wiki when you need one?
posted by Kattullus at 8:53 AM on December 11, 2009
posted by Kattullus at 8:53 AM on December 11, 2009
Not quite. The anti-Semetic thing is that the Khazars are the origin of all Ashkenazi Jews, which means they're not of Middle Eastern ancestry, which means they have no claim to Israel.
Not to derail, and I realize I may be showing the weight of my own invisible knapsack on this, but how is that anti-Semetic, exactly?
posted by Amanojaku at 11:41 AM on December 11, 2009
Not to derail, and I realize I may be showing the weight of my own invisible knapsack on this, but how is that anti-Semetic, exactly?
posted by Amanojaku at 11:41 AM on December 11, 2009
It's part and parcel of the whole anti-semitic mythos, Amanojaku, here's an example [Warning: This is a crazy anti-semitic, holocaust-denying website]
posted by Kattullus at 12:14 PM on December 11, 2009
posted by Kattullus at 12:14 PM on December 11, 2009
On the lighter side they also deny that the Earth moves.
posted by Kattullus at 1:04 PM on December 11, 2009
posted by Kattullus at 1:04 PM on December 11, 2009
« Older Picturing Climate Change | I got twenty questions, but "Animal, vegetable, or... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:42 PM on December 10, 2009