Hippie Chic

Social media has definitely been abuzz with the breakout of singer/rapper Shanin Blake, who has been making the discourse rounds as the "Hippe Tiktok Girl", courting various controveries about everything from cultural appropriation to petty complaints about not finding her a pleasant listen. However, it is interesting to note her asthetic and style--A very aryan-looking woman (albeit one who claims Native ancetry), who adopts dreadloks, henna tatoos, and infuses indiginous spirituality into hip hop music, and with a somewhat suggestive, titilating manner of dresss akin to many contemporary pop stars (in a way even liberated counterculrutal figures of usually weren't). In short, she is a complete anachronism, which makes her something to take note of when looking at the project. The Pacific Northwest is the area the site has covered the least, and likely one of the many reasons is that what it'd chronicling what it would be like is the boldest "prediction". In the present day, is a realm of contradictions. Osentisbly foward thinking and unorthodox trailblazers who reject tradition (particilarly Western tradition) a day's away from nature and who's population is inordinately white. In the established canon of Medieval America, they are an almost completely isolated and "hemmed in" civillization, albeit one with an embarrasment of resources. But what makes them especially hard to picture is they are collection of city states, the most prominent being those of Italy, but those of the Meditarrenean Antiquity would do as well. And that is tough to square with a society that draws as much from Asia (where we typically think of things like Imperial China, Feudal Japan, the Mongol Hordes, or even Tibet), and quite possibly the Indginous tribes White never specifically mentions, but would logical bleed into them by trade or war. And even if "Medieval Hippie' is thereotically not hard to imagine (the counter-culture sort of intentionally going for a more tribal look), they're at odds with the materialism and structure one thinks of when they think "city state", even one from thousands of years ago. After a fashion, Blake might provide a foundatin, or a window into this. Her mishmash of cultures into something very opulent, one might say affected might fit very well for a society that has its root in a professed love for nature and easy vibes, but has not reached a point of affluence, even decadence. A civillization that has always had one foot in the east, one foot in the west, one eye on the past and the other in the future. A rapping hippie from Utah who has curated a rather over the top and colorful look might just be what you see when you visit Oregon or Seattle in 2900.

The "Eurozone"

This tweet was posted, with the joke being that Utah was a "great lake" state, but it is vert interesting to compare this region with the rest of the country, especially when imagining Medieval America. It's an easy trap to fall in to depict Medieval America as a carbon copy of other old world cultures, particularly European ones. But the fun, the point of the experiment is to see what kind of unique cultures result from the process. However, the above mentioned area, the Great Lakes region, (nd the St. Lawrence Valley) is definitely what you could call the nexus that most resembled the ten centuries of Medieval Europe. This is because the 1) The geography and 2) the ancestry. People would largely "fall back on" techniques, fashions, warefare and crops their ancestors did. Not full motalgia, not fully necessity, but a sort of synthesis of the two. Someone transported to the Great Lakes region or Quebec would find it the most familiar, if not fully comfortable. The Northeast is not radically different geographically or genetically, and it was settled at the time closest to the Middle Ages (and thus, much of the architecture feels the most "athentically quaint"), the states there have simply become too dependent on or accustimed to Republicanism. Once we get into the south, however, see a climate that's similar to China or Japan--areas that are not unfamiliar with feudalism, but sort of in their own way. And a populace with a largely non-white ancestry might now have as many romantic notions of old Europe. Though I have a theory that the Piedmont region, with its warm but mild climate, tethering to the Old World much like the Northeast, and relatively little warefare would theoertically be the most pleasant place to visit for a European tourist. The right mix of exotic and familiar. I have a theory Interestingly, even though the Pacific Northwest actually has the climate most similar to England and France, it would simply drift too far apart of Western aspects, due to Mexico, Asia, and the Indiginous tribes having as much, if not more influence on the area than Eastern America. (And of course that the West coast is inhabited by folks who porudly flaunt tradition and embrace their own quirks.) And as for Utah? That's something I often imagined. On one hand, this is in the part of country that the new Middle Ages has made the most "eccentric". The perception of Utah, and of the Mormons, has always been a subject of debate. Are tney esoteric, more American than American, or esoteric because they're more American than American. So one if left to wonder what aesthetic Utah would embrace; Something akin to the European Middle Ages, the era the Church was founded, really old school Biblical times, or something altogether new?

Kingdom Tables

 A few months ago, I made a chart displaying the states with the populations of Medieval America. Now is the somewhat more difficult task of the actual nation states of the Medieval America World. This is of course, very, very approximate. And because I already had the data on the cities, I'll list the total urban population as well. I only list realms that are at 500,000 people or more. This means I don't have any of the Cascadian City states, nor do I have Louisiana, which is to be honest, functionally a city state as well.

Because Boston and Providence are a little ambiguous on their borders, I can't for sure state what the actual data for the United States and Massachusetts are--though it's fair to say that the U.S. territory and Southern New England are some of the most urbanized regions of Medieval America. Actually, with New Jersey now claiming Philadelphia, that state is hovering near 10% as well. For the most part, the shifting borders don't have a huge effect, though Tennessee and New York splintering as they did have shifted things around a bit, with New York City not being part of any of the new territories, and a few upstate hinterlands now being very de-urbanized. It's very interesting that the expanded Ohio claiming the cities of nearby states also didn't move the needle much.

Ohio	8.5 million	(in thousands) 369  (4%)
Iowa	3.4 million	76 (2%)
Mississippi	3.2 million	38 (1%)
Georgia	2.8 million	153 (5%)
Michigan	2.6 million	89 (3%)
Redriver	2.5 million	114 (4%)
North Carolina	1.9 million	38 (2%)
California	1.7 million	222 (13%)
Allegheny	1.5 million	38 (2%)
New York	1.4 million	25 (1%)
Wisconsin	1.3 million	25 (2%)
Tennessee	1.3 million	38 (2%)
New Jersey	1.2 million	115 (9%)
Anderson	1.1 million
South Carolina	1.1 million	63 (5%)
Unite States	1 million	165-241 (16-20%)
Missouri	1 million	51 (5%)
Geneessee	950k	115 (12%)
Deseret	900k	216 (24%)
New Mexico	850k	127 (15%)
Florida	850k
Virginia	700k	38 (5%)
Evansville	600k	38 (6%)
Freezone	600k	64 (10%)
Columbia	500k
Massachusetts	500k	25?51?76? (12-18%?
Shelby	500k	51(1%)
Alabama	500k
Arkansas	500k	25 (5%)
West Virginia	500k
Unnamed Louisiana Rump	500k	76 (12%)

Ringing In the New Year

Month was 20th anniversary of the Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the conclusion to the Lord of the Ring trilogy. The overlap bewteen fans of fantasy novels and this project is probably a considerable one, and the Atlas was made in the year the trilogy was at its biggest level of hype. The movie series probably produced a generation of medievalists with its behind the scenes looks at production, giving an idea of the tayloring, metalworking, sometimes even husbandry of pre-Industrial times. So it is very tempting to draw parallels between Medieval America and Middle Earth. For the most part, you're not going to get a lot of one-on-ones. Medieval America is soley composed of Homo Sapians, possesses no actual magic, its ancestry not strictly in line with Europe, and the climate is also a little more varied. That said, there are a couple realms that evocative of J.R.R. Tolkien's world.

Perhaps the closest match is Iowa and Rohan. The fictional kingdom is pretty much "What if Vikings lived on the plains", and Iowa is very much a land where a Germanic culture found itself depending on the horse. Even in the context of the movies, Rohan feels like an anachronism, a place out of time, and Medieval Iowa has found itself experiencing a pendulum over the centuries. Apparently it was, at one point much like the other kingdoms of the rust belt, before being conquered by nomadic invaders of the west. But in turn, it gravitated towards the feudal, knight based society of the east. White says there is "no relic of its barbarian past" but maps show people still clinging to horse archery and even their old religious practices. The villages and even some of the seats of power probably feel very transitional in almost confrontational way, with more wooden foritfications dotting the area except for Rock Island. It's quite possibly an impressive and impregnable stone fortress from ages past, not unlike the Hornburg (Or as it's sometimes referred to by movie fans, Helm's Deep).

The United States of America probably has it closest relative in Gondor. Well, in general, it might be best compared to the entire Numenorean culture, an advanced and, as historians would look at it, eventually decadent civilization is now lost. In the books, there was a second kindgom of Arnor, which Aragon would reunite with Gondor upon his restoration to the throne. While the vast majority of Medieval Americans probably don't particularly yearn for a return of all 50 state reuniting under one single unit (Like Rome, it's probably likely the dissolution happened at such a gradual rate as to not particularly feel it), there might be some who hold some romantic notion of t. At the very least a figure who was capable of it is probably told him some tales. the U.S.A. and Gondor are both the rump states of these once great fiefdoms, although I'm not sure we could label Gondor a "republic". (I'm not sure what its political category is, I've seen comparison to Lucerne, Switzerland.) In any case though, it probably is relatively similar to Gondor in terms of infrastructure and aesthetics--more of a maritime tradition than great equestrians, and many of the cities probably of the classical Meditarrnean style. (In fact, the citizenry probably looks quite Meditarrnean, something the movies fail to depict.) It's actually very interesting that despite the Northeast being one of the most urbanized regions of the continent, its cities are very small, which probably somewhat resembles the Gondorian cities which feel more advanced, but are relatively small compared to real life Italian city states, and sometimes feeling more like ruins or outposts.

After that, it gets a little vague, but two regions that might feel more like gestalt of cultures, that make give one of the vibe of being on Middle Earth without having direct relative. One is the Piedmont region. Out of all of Medieval America, this is probably the region that most embodies the Acadian ideal of rolling hills and small towns. It's the place on the map that seems least mired in warfare, and it's also prime tobacco-growing country. Tobacco, in the Rings legendarium, being best cultivated in Shire, home of the Hobbits. Of course, it denizens don't literally live in the ground--there are probably castles and knights even the occasional battle. But the Piedmont might be the most relatively comfortable for a Shireling, and I've often speculated, probably the place a real Medieval European might be most comfortable visiting. 

New England, which, last time, I did talk about being something of a Halloweentown. It's something of a contradiction even today, and would very much be so in the New Middle Ages. One hand rustic, on the other, intellectual. Very spiritual, but at the same time hinting on something maybe spooky and eldrich. Austere and quirky in equal measure. I want to say wandering around New England would feel not unlike reading through the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring. We visit the Shire, itself feeling moe like it belongs in a Jane Austen novel than a mythical epic, before going on to Bree, and then the elven realms of Rivendell, Mirkwood, Lothrlorian and ultimaely the Dwarven kingdoms. New England is probably a place where, when it's very colorful, it's very colorful, but when plain it's very plain. Some of the most awe-inspiring libraries and places of worship only a few isles from hits containing woodsmen who you very well believe could turn into bears, and forests which may well hide giant spiders.