Owning the Narrative: Myth Made Flesh

The early years of the 21^st century saw a new breed of history buffs. Those who wanted to learn the history behind the myths. Sometimes this led to people looking for "history puzzles" like those popularized by Dan Brown, which resulted in a sort of pseudo-historical worldview. In a way, this is generally perfect for the New Middle Ages, which have taken nation myths and tourist traps and made them authentic parts of their culture, and an unorthodox part of statecraft.

Transylvania

Until Gary Oldman, the actual connections between Bram Stoker's vampire count and the historical Vlad was generally not played up. The fall of the Iron Curtain, Francis Ford Coppola's film, and the growind trend of "real history" resulted in an interesting gestalt where Romania juggled present Vlad Dracula as a national hero while also pushing Bela Lugosi merch. In the New Middle Ages, they have a different sort of tightrope, weaponizing superstition to keep invaders at bay. The kingdom of Transylvania and Wallachia utilizes the story of Vlad the Impaler to their advantage,with bat-like imagery, fanged portraits, and naming every wine and delicacy with "blood". Dracula becomes the royal name, handed descendant to descendant, and if some actually think it's one immortal ruler, all the better. They make the rest of Europe pretty uneasy, but as the bottleneck to the Muslim world, the Orthodox and Catholic Churches both don't want to micromanage.


Macedonia

A good rule of thumb on what nation states and polities exist in this world is look at which existed in the Middle Ages, and which exist now. France, Hungary, Sweden, Poland, are all good signers on standing the test of time. But an interesting anomaly is Macedonia. The kingdom of Alexander the Great, the first true empire of the Western World existed as sovereign nation in antiquity, it exists in the modern world (as North Macedonia), but would spend 2000 years as not truly a sovereign country. It would be would be absorbed by the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans. It's unlikely to impossible any of these nations would reform, so North, or even a united Macedonia would likely endure. And being land f Alexander the Great would lend it a great amount of pride: Alexander was already held in high esteem in the original Middle Ages, thousands of years of everyone developing their culture heroes would definitely intensify here. A lot of Gordon imagery would be in heraldry, and they would even call their guards and infantry the Phalanx, though in truth they operate just like most medieval pikemen.

Africa

There have been various attempts to restore reat empires like Mali and the Songhai, but some have actually taken inspiration from Wakanda. Some kings never know it was created by two Jewish men from New York Ciy, but it's generally understood that there was no real Wakanda, but it doesn't mean they can't try. Generally speaking these kingdoms are deritive of Wakanda, like Wakanda-Bu or Adewakan. Because of this, the Panther has crystallized as the royal animal of nobility, though white apes and rhinos are major icons as well. Perhaps one of the major features if the orders of Women Warriors. The Dora Milaje drew a lot of inspiration from real figures, the Dahomey Amazons, but they actually tend to draw more from the former in terms of aesthetic and ethics, as the women of the Dahomey actually largely did not consider themselves women, while these new orders, in a post-feminist word, more assuredly do. Like the folding of a blade, the myth becomes real becomes myth becomes real.

World Tour: Ninja Warriors

 Of all the civilizations in the new Middle Ages, Japan just might be the closest to the 20th century, chronologically. This is because right before the Meji restoration, and a concentrated effort towards industrialization and Westernization, Japan had spent centuries in enforced, strict isolation. This meant that it figured out the absolute zenith of workable feudal, agrarian society. There is one aspect however, is quite different from historical Japan. The legitimization of the Ninja.

 The popular image of the ninja was very much flourish, men wearing shadowy outfits, climbing up walls, using theatricality and mysticism, and weapons that seemed exotic and interesting. Strips malls and mail-in catalogs promised amazing Ninja secrets. In truth, the ninja costume was a stagehand uniform, the weapons often farm implements which were not particularly efficient. Those "Ninja Schools" of dubious historical veracity. And most of all, in Japan, Ninja were considered very, very dishonorable, the very antithesis of Bushido, even if it's believed everyone was doing it. However, Ninja were already becoming romantic figures in 19th century Japanese figures, like your Robin Hoods or Billy the Kids, and in the late 20th and early 21st century they were a major, major part of Japan's oversized reach a cultural soft power. More than one foreign dignitary would ask questions about Ninja, if they could maybe see one. These sort of questions might have led to Japan to re-enter isolation, but the Ninja would soon lose the stigma it had in the original feudal Japan. And those strip mall schools? Well, after 900 years they have indeed become ancient, and much more codified into techniques that actually work.

 Today, the dishonorable assassin are largely referred to, in the word that was actually much more common used, as "shinobi". In the new Middle Ages, Ninja might best be understood as something close to "Yeoman", but even this does not fully capture the unique nuances of the Japanese social order. But it's generally understood as an unmounted warrior who is neither the nobility nor strictly speaking, a peasant. Really, that's another thing to understand is that when Japan industrialized, it industrialized hard, and the concept of "middle class virtue and ethic" absorbed, it was absorbed by ninjutsu. They have their own schools, their own sports, their own units in armies, and the Japanese social order has adjusted them into being a fixture, not a subversion. The stagehand costumes aren't used, though similar outfits are worn for ceremonies or tournaments. But of course, the Ninja assassins still do exist. After all, individuals trained from childhood in deadly arts and in the ability to be inconspicuous are very useful for the Daiymo.

Winter Games

The Winter Games of the Olympic World

The ancient Olympic Games ended in the fourth century, casualties of Christianization and the outlawing of pagan festivals. Though the modern Olympics were nominally secular, they too faded—less from theology than from logistics. Globalism died, long-distance travel became impractical, and the number of sovereign states multiplied beyond any hope of coordination.

Yet the spirit of the Games endured.

Italy, China, Russia, and the United States are the cultures most often said to have kept the literal flame alive. Their successors independently arrived at similar conclusions about what was required to sustain such Games:

1. Large, dense urban populations

2. Republican or highly bureaucratic systems (as opposed to feudal ones, which favor tourneys)

3. A historical memory of Olympic success, producing nostalgia and a desire to remake the Games in one’s own image

Not coincidentally, all of these regions experience harsh winters or lie close to alpine terrain. Their cities and infrastructure exist because of the cold, not in spite of it. Frozen rivers, snowbound roads, and long idle seasons demanded planning, discipline, and public works. These same conditions gave rise to athletic traditions the ancient Greeks never imagined.

In many ways, the Chinese Bingxi serves as the organizational model for these Winter Games—even where the individual events themselves draw more heavily from Scandinavian precedent.

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Major Winter Events

Speed Skating
The most prestigious of all winter events, and often the most dangerous. In rougher cultures, physical contact is permitted; in more restrained republics, balance and endurance are emphasized instead.

Skiing
Primarily cross-country, reflecting its origins in transport and messaging. Downhill racing exists, but is usually confined to mountainous regions and regarded as somewhat reckless.

Sledding
A hill-based sport emphasizing control and nerve. In flatter regions, it is sometimes adapted for draft animals or heavy cargo, blurring the line between labor and competition.

Curling
A contest of strength, precision, and teamwork. Often favored by more bureaucratic societies, where its measured, rule-bound nature is appreciated.

Tilly / Jersey
The combat sport of the Winter Games.

• Tilly allows strikes and is popular in harsher cultures.

• Jersey forbids punching, instead permitting grappling by straps or harnesses.
  Either way, the ice punishes mistakes severely.

Figure Skating
The only major Winter Games discipline in which women routinely compete. Even here, “competition” is considered a vulgar term. The emphasis is on grace, control, and expression rather than quantification.
Some regions award personalized honors (“Most Fluid,” “Most Inspiring”); others let the audience decide through gifts, patronage, or even marriage proposals. Prestige accrues regardless. Notably, Japan—despite its otherwise insular sports culture—retained figure skating almost intact.

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The Vikings will sometimes travel across the world to compete in these Winter Games. After all, their ancestors invented many of them. Some are required to convert to the local faith in order to participate.

They do so anyway.

Free drinks for life. Thor would understand.

World Tour: The Pharaonic Revival

America is a very large place, and so in the New Middle Ages, the collapse saw its subregions lean into their more distinc idenities. In the Old World, reliving its old Middle Ages, the borders weren't always particularly big, so they embraced national identities that already existed. You also see this trend throughout Muslim countries who have largely drifted away from any dream of a Pan-Arabic Caliphate, at this point too many centuries of conflicting doctrine, too many cultures under the fold of Islan.

The New Kingdom did not occupy the minds of Medieval Egyptians. Why would it have? They were a conquered power under just like they were under the Roman, the Greeks, the Persians, and would be under the Ottomans and the Brits. But the dawn of the 20th century saw three major events: Dependence and self-governance, the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, and relatedly, aforementioned Europeans digging up their stuff and putting it in their own museums. This led to a movement known as Pharaonism, a sense of national identity, and continuity with one of the oldest civilizations on the planet. Over the next century there been tension between this nationalism and being part of the greater Muslim society. However, Egypt being ruled by Egyptians after so long was just not something they were going to let get away from them. Time had taught them, like a lead in a romantic comedy, if they didn’t claim Ancient Egypt, somebody else would.  

 Also, the collapse of industrialization saw a real back to basics approach to infrastructure, agriculture and healthcare. And you can’t go much further back than Ancient Egypt. Shadufs and saqiyas were low tech answers to harnessing the Nile River, and even ancient herbal remedies and dental practices that were advanced for the time but could do in a pinch instilled a reverence for this ancient civilization.

There are no Pharaohs, nobody worships Anubis. In fact, something like the Golden Parade in 2021 would be out of the question. But Pharonic motifs abound throughout the cities. Lotus columns and Obelisks surround libraries, market plazas, various “tourist destinations”. The silhouettes are firmly halal, but do evoke the kings and queens of old. Hieroglyphs surround wrap around clothing an architecture, Repoussé  jewelry, sometimes depicting animal heads (abstract enough to not to be controversial, and positioned as the clasp to be functional), as well as scarabs and wings are very common.

Perhaps the greatest outlet for New Kingdom romanticism is in their games and sport—real state sanctioned frivolity. Children are taught to play Senet, and wrestling (itself encouraged by the Prophet Mohammad, within reason), and of course, chariots, both racing and archery. Though more popular in Roman times, the arenas, the uniforms, and the chariots themselves really allow them to fully embrace the pomp of Ancient Egypt, and well as serve as a unifying space for the citizens, from all backgrounds.
 It’s very important for everyone to be on team Egypt, so the regimes try to take a page from an-Andulis, allowing for a certain degree of protection from institutionalized persecution upon its Coptic population. These People of the Book are themselves part of Egypt’s long history, and it’s important all Egyptians put up a united front, especially the tax paying ones.