Settings for your conlangs?

[Carolina Conlanger]

What is the setting for most of your conlangs? About half of mine are set in the real world on remote islands and about half are set in fantasy/sci-fi worlds.

[Zaarin]

I have four main ones:

The center of my focus at the moment is set in the real world in the late fifteenth century. It's basically history as we know it with two significant differences:
1) The Azores were colonized by Proto-Indo-European-speaking peoples. Though they had developed bronze by the time they arrived in the Azores, in their isolated location they reverted to Neolithic hunter-gatherers. Their language is a distinct branch of Indo-European, though it shares some minor features with Celtic, Germanic, and Italic. They colonized Madeira c. AD 800, and Azorean and Madeiran are distinctive but still mutually intelligible. The Azoreans and Madeirans, after centuries of contact with the Romans, the Canarians (see below), the Spanish, the Andalusian Moors, etc. are now technologically on par with most of Europe.
2) The Carthaginians colonized the Canaries c. 350 BC. They conquered and either eliminated or absorbed the native Guanches, and they remained independent after the fall of Carthage in 146 BC. They now practice a variety of Syriac Orthodoxy and are a major naval power in the Atlantic. They speak Canarian Punic. In this setting, the etymology of Canaries is different: Canaries Lt. Insulae Canarii Insulae Canariae Lt. scribal error/folk etymology for Insulae Chanani Punic ʾīm Kᵃnaʿanīm "Islands of the Canaanites."


The previous center of my attention was a sci-fantasy world in a which a Bronze Age culture with magic had been conquered by humans with sci-fi tech. If I revisit this project, it's likely I'll eliminate the sci-fi elements.


Probably my most interesting setting is a fantasy world based on Aristotelian physics, hermetic magic, and Native American mythology. Sadly progress has been slow as it's never been my primary project.


The least interesting is a pretty standard space opera setting, set in the real universe but after the destruction of Earth. Despite being populated by numerous alien cultures, I've never actually done any kind of linguistic work for this setting--when I need names I make them up. Really this setting exists only for the story which I'm trying to tell in it. This project, like the second one, is on hiatus indefinitely.

[Axiem]

For me, the languages serve as happenstance window dressing for my conworld—the culture, people, and politics of which is honestly more important than the exact details of their languages. I plan on having the conlangs be "only in the appendix" things, outside of the nicety of giving me a reasonably consistent phonology and morphosyntax to name people and places.

Being in the background of a conworld, which is itself a background for a novel (or hopefully more), it puts certain constraints on my phonologies (since I want readers to at least get close some of the time) and such, which is good to know.

The conworld itself is known as Mto in one of its languages.

[Lich]

I'm currently working on a proto-language called wála sâkʰayā, which means "language of the people." I'm thinking of settling them by the Baltic coast, somewhere between the Germanic and Baltic tribes, or maybe even northerner, between the Finno-Sami and the Balts. I'd optimally want to settle them in a more fantasy setting, but I'm terrible at map-creation and I don't really want to start making several language families, so I'll probably stick to beloved Europe.

[WeepingElf]

Most of my conlangs are "lostlangs", i.e. they exist in a version of the real world with some extra languages added. My main conlang, Old Albic, is a language of pre-Celtic Britain. It is the language of a lost civilization which may underly the Celtic and Germanic traditions of elves, the Greek tradition of Hyperborea and maybe Atlantis. At the same time, this imagined civilization reflects my personal views of the human condition; the language, while exploring my hypotheses about prehistoric European languages, is also an exercise in personal language aesthetics.

[elemtilas]

What is the setting for most of your conlangs?

Most of the invented languages I've worked on come from The World. A few are free-floating languages and one I worked
on years ago as part of a collaborative world-building project. I've never set an invented language in the primary world.

[Carolina Conlanger]

I feel like I can't be the only person who has done this, but one of my conlangs, Ternuan, is basically Romans and Greeks stranded on an island. Doesn't sound very creative I know, but it's my most developed conlang.

[mèþru]

Most of my conlangs are set in kårroť.

[Ketumak]

My earliest concultures were added to our world. Mostly to islands. Though of late I've focussed on a parallel Earth, known to its inhabitants as Tekuo. I'm most interested in an island there called Mohai which has no counterpart in our world. This is possible because the parallelism goes way back in geological time, to the late Jurassic. Continents on Tekuo have move around differently since then to their counterparts in our world. This subjects them to different stresses and strains, so mountains, coasts and rivers often appear in different places, too.

This approach gives me control of the things that matter and provides ready made detail in other areas. For instance, bird, insect and plant species can be taken much as is from our world, but mammals developed later, so they need more design. My sapient species are hominids - like us in some ways not in others. I have a free hand regarding their cultures and languages. There is no magic.

[Ambermoore]

My conlangs are exclusively for fictitious worlds, Fantasy and Science Fiction both, though mostly Fantasy at the moment. (I want a bit more grounding in conlanging before I attempt a language for non-human style vocal chords. Dwarves and Elves are close enough, physiologically, that it is reasonable to keep things close. Talking bears in space ships? Yeah, a little harder to justify human-style languages.)

The primary ones I'm working on currently are located on a single continent (which I need to draw *sigh* and I may need to re work things to make them geologically feasible. If they are NOT geologically feasible I'll never hear the end of it.)

Roughly in the 'center' of the region under discussion is a large empire (in it's decay phase in the current WIP). Culturally it started as a roughly Ottoman collection of city states that got conquered by roughly Germanic/Norse Mercenaries (with more Romanesque tactics.) There was a great deal of betrayal and counter betrayal in THAT bit of history. (Pro tip: Pay your mercenaries. Even when you loose.) The Kingdom for the WIP currently in editing is to the north of this region. The inhabitants having fled from their 'original' home about 1000 years earlier. (So, sofar you have the Viking language, the Ottoman Lang that I'm actually basing on Farsi, the combined lang. The language of the main culture 1000 years ago, and modern.) I have stories set in the kingdoms south of that empire (An entirely different set of language families, though one of them recently broke free from the Empire so there's a lot of overlap, linguistically) and stories set in at least three kingdoms on the north east corner of the empire. Some of whom are recent conquests. Some of these I'm having to un-muddle from my early days of 'make things up that sound good' and having a few very nice poems that I have NO idea what they mean.

Another series of language projects take place on another world on a continent roughly the size of Australia. But I haven't done more than sketch out what languages I need to do for that project and a general feel for each as well as which ones are descended from what.

The third and final cluster is based on my original D&D setting and if I take that the direction I want to (and make it an indie-release pathfinder campaign setting... though that's a hugely long way off.) I'll need to build a fair amount of over a score of languages, fortunately most inter-related because of how the different races came into being. I haven't determined much about the languages except a few things like "Gnome" is the halfling word for "Mage".

[HerljosScheindorf]

Xerossu is intended to be promoted as the language spoken by the Ereissu-Nifh civilisation in my fictional universe.
Ereissu-Nifh are a federation of several high technological species, which are probably the result of some synthetic biology works of another civilisation or their own ancestors, but the exact knowledge of their origins is more or less lost. As they are themselves experts in synthetic biology, reworking of their kind and manipulation of other living matter is pretty common.
Three main strains of their people are le leŕowukta, le reißtziāyixi and le inunaka (le is mark of plural).

leŕowukta are these things :

they are truly like, and even consider themselves as such, some kind of biological data gathering rovers. Equipped by design with a whole bunch of environmental analysis sensors : eyes perceiving well all the standard red/green/blue "visible light spectra" but also equipped with receptors sensible to some extent of infra-reds and ultraviolet, as well as a mechanism of rapid switching polarity filters giving them the ability to differentiate incoming light polarisation. no external ears but auditory system based on an internal apparatus receiving vibrations amplified by head horns and rippling through other body bones. highly sensitive olfactory system but almost none gustatory apparatus. capable of electro perception. Emitting and receiving bursts of radio waves through an array of tubes at the base of the neck, offering them the ability of a true "telepathic" network of communication...

reißtziāyixi are minimalistic highly resilient lifeforms, constituted of a complex neural system and basic metabolic structures contained in some kind of spherical shell. They remain in stasis until "entangled" with a compatible body, biological or whatever. At this point they wake up and claim control of this new host, feeding, sensing, acting, through it and until removal.
For some unclear cause, they associate themselves with the image of a creature alike the mythical Japanese "kitsune", and tziāyixi is word for something that we could translate as "fox".

inunaka aren't really well described yet, they are some kind of big dog/wolf-like creatures.

Their biology isn't common to earth lifeforms, as they exhibit at cellular level as well properties usually found in animals cells and traits in common with plants cells and even fungus or structures more common to viruses.

They have developed a strong shared culture that could be seen as some strange patchwork of highly rational and science based mindset, advanced technological capabilities, extreme collectivism at macro scale but extremely low social interactions between individuals, remains of old animistic believes put as flagship metaphors, preference for subterranean habitats, rude and martial philosophy with paradoxical high standards for peace, respect of other conscious beings lives (one keystone fact for them to be considered as civilised people, is to enforce pragmatic vegetarian diet), total leak of any strong notions of hierarchy, legal system and arbitrary ethics... and exhibit some kind of anarchist society where everyone is ready to comply to help accomplishment of a request propagated on common telepathic network of in position to to so, but attending his own personal activities without interacting with others at other time.

They have colonies on different remote planets as well as massive artificial space habitats that are partially constituted of engineered self-assembling and repairing, living biological matter presenting a structural fabric acclimated to the harsh conditions of spacial void and extremely slow metabolism. But le leŕowukta considers Nǩakarak as their homeworld, hence there are no reliable evidences of asserting this planet as point of origin of this specie or historical importance of this place in establishment of their society. Nǩakarak is an earth like world, with mainly rough climatic conditions, rock deserts, vast regions of jungle-like environment, extreme relief, tectonic activity formed lot of areas with deep caves surprisingly receiving enough indirect light from reflections in crevasses at surface level for pockets of fauna and flora to flourish and profit of much softer weather conditions. Leŕowukta are well fit for life in low light condition, don't like water and wind exposure and some preferences for secluded spaces, that's why, major "cities" are located in these caverns, but some can be found at ground level, with a typical architecture consisting on subterranean houses, a central acropolis of sometime skydiving towers used for scientific purpose and other occupations taking advantage of high vertical elevation, i.e. astronomical observation, radiocommunications. aerial transportations landing and takeoff... and some peripheral building dedicated to collective social activities : trading, leisures... as well as factories and industrial facilities.

If mankind technological, industrial and scientific progression in developed world is probably resulting on efficient collective work behaviours and social structures promoting seamless lines of goods and resources production, Ereissu-Nifh federation looks really strange in comparison : their technological level is essentially permitted by extremely high physical and mental capabilities of leŕowukta and versatility and mind efficiency of reißtziāyixi. One leŕowukta is biologically capable by design of advanced crafting skills without requiring use of external tools : it can synthesise and excrete at will a range of useful organic chemicals such as glue-like substances, acids, bases, oxidants, solvents, lubricant.. it own sharp claws cutting as well as razor blade when not voluntary smoothed, far stronger than humans, and since they can sense many things in objects with their own body without external probing device, they are able to perform easily some tasks impossible to humans.

Their collective knowledge is a direct result of relying on a collective permanent mind to mind sharing network, so they don't really have a notion of schools and individual teaching. They really like to receive from and share to others what they are feeling from experienced situation. Each one experiment himself as an individual personality, but they exhibit some extents of a collective consciousness.


Xerossu is the main language in use across the Ereissu-Nifh federation. This is not the only one, and in fact there are several sub dialects, but it's the dominant communication protocol.

[jal]

The ones I've developed the most:

Kotanian: alien world
Alũbeta̤: Earth, prehistory
Sajiwan: Earth, current day Caribbean
June 2016: Earth, Southern Bulgaria/Northern Greece


JAL

[Soap]

Lately Im working mostly on the languages themselves, but I do have a lot of detail worked out for the planet they're native to, called Teppala. It is an Earthlike planet with humans and familiar animals except that:

1) Women are often taller than men. This trait is most common in cold climates, with warmer climates being populated by humans with traditional Earth-like sexual size dimorphism. Areas with temperate climates where tall-female civilizations border tall-male civilizations can be very interesting.

2) There are other sapient animals besides humans. Each sapient species, including humans, is confined to its own section of the planet, and therefore population growth is very limited. Here again, the areas of the planet where human civilizations rub up against the civilizations of crabworms, firebirds, hedgehogs, penguins, and dolphins can be very interesting.

(There are also sapient dinosaurs, in fact several species of them, which in turn have their own territories and boundary areas, but they are on an isolated continent, and don't interact either with humans or with the other animals. It's essentially an old childhood idea that I no longer use but simply never threw out.)



In general, Teppala contrasts with earth in that traditional adult male authority and power is at best challenged, and is often completely submissive to an "alien" power such as animals , women, or a combination thereof.

[Nachtuil]

So far I have three, two will be in the same fantasty world and interact a bit and one will either be in the real world or in a different world with fantastic elements but possibly with modern technology. I prefer low magic fantasy worlds with fire breathing dragons(they spit chemicals that react energetically with oxygen) and giant spiders but no lighting spells or fireballs but it is not yet developed so we'll see how it goes.

[Foolster41]

My conworlds are all set in a sort of alt-earth, with completely different contents, but the other conditions are the same.
The main area in the world that my stories take place center around a coastal desert country called Saltha, with a lizard-folk race.

There is also a race of humans who live in the mountains, a race of humans in a more low valley, and a race of cat-people who live in a jungle, but I havn't really developed them that much.

[Herra Ratatoskr]

The center of my focus at the moment is set in the real world in the late fifteenth century. It's basically history as we know it with two significant differences:
1) The Azores were colonized by Proto-Indo-European-speaking peoples. Though they had developed bronze by the time they arrived in the Azores, in their isolated location they reverted to Neolithic hunter-gatherers. Their language is a distinct branch of Indo-European, though it shares some minor features with Celtic, Germanic, and Italic. They colonized Madeira c. AD 800, and Azorean and Madeiran are distinctive but still mutually intelligible. The Azoreans and Madeirans, after centuries of contact with the Romans, the Canarians (see below), the Spanish, the Andalusian Moors, etc. are now technologically on par with most of Europe.
2) The Carthaginians colonized the Canaries c. 350 BC. They conquered and either eliminated or absorbed the native Guanches, and they remained independent after the fall of Carthage in 146 BC. They now practice a variety of Syriac Orthodoxy and are a major naval power in the Atlantic. They speak Canarian Punic. In this setting, the etymology of Canaries is different: Canaries Lt. Insulae Canarii Insulae Canariae Lt. scribal error/folk etymology for Insulae Chanani Punic ʾīm Kᵃnaʿanīm "Islands of the Canaanites."

Cool! I actually had a similar idea for a con-culture, except in mine its the Azores colonized by a religious cult from Rome that left around 130 BC; it's my attempt at a more unique romlang. I haven't done much work on it, but I might roll it into my main con-setting, which is...

Wessex. I've been working on this one (off and on) for about a decade. The idea is an alt history where William the conqueror is grievously wounded during the battle of Hastings and dies shortly thereafter (like, within a month or so). Harold Godwinson is still killed though, so there is a lack of strong leadership on the part of the Saxons, but William's death gives enough confusion for an independent Wessex to reassert itself. It has some territory in the West Midlands until the reign of Edward I who annexes the territory and makes the West Saxon king a nominal vassal. Wessex is eventually completely annexed by England in the late 1600s, but regains independence in the 20th century.

Outside of Wessex I've also got a full on conworld that has sort of been in hibernation since I really started focusing on Wessex, and an idea for a sci-fi setting that would have an evolved form of English in it which I would hope would still be intelligible, but would have the start of some major changes to the language (like an emerging case system not based on sticking prepositions onto nouns) that would make it sound very... peculiar. But none of that stuff is anywhere near ready for primetime.

[mèþru]

The Kings of England before Harold Godwinson were actually the closest descendants of the Kings of Wessex, so the rebellion seems a bit unlikely. Harold Godwinson himself was Earl of Wessex (his father was instaled by the Danes) before becoming King of England. Most likely, the English forces would declare for Edgar Ætheling, who was around 15~16 at the time. The Norman commanders were split among loyal men and various opportunist nobles, bastard sons of nobles and knights, while most had very little reason to support Robert Curthose, the son of William about the same age as Edgar. The Norman forces would split and most would probably evacuate back to their regions of origin (many of them were recruited from Brittany and the area around Blois). Others would try to seize the throne for themselves or surrender to English forces. However between this war and Harald Hardrada's failed invasion of England, the English forces would be too weak to defend England. Sweyn II of Denmark would probably put his own force and take the island. Perhaps the surviving English forces could regroup in Wessex, making it the same as it is in your story, but having a King of England-in-Wessex instead of a King of Wessex (perhaps the descendants would make a peace treaty with England and rename themselves Wessex?) The West Saxons make natural enemies of the Welsh and natural allies of the French.

[Neek]

It all depends on the language, really.

Proto-Deithas and its descendants are spoken in a world that I haven't touched in six years.

Déru, on the other hand, is a vehicle for another story, as are the smattering of IE pseudo-lects resembling Proto-Greek, Indo-Iranian, and Proto-Italic, which belong to a Bronze Age collapse story. That one's been more active, since it has an active story in development. So, coming sometime in the near future: Rhoda, Infamy and the Serpent. Rhoda, a nobleman and warrior forced to burden his father's crime, returns from a failed epic quest to regain his power from his uncle, and finds himself a slave, being stalked by the dangerous Serpent, and on the front-lines against the blood-thirsty Sea Peoples. Will he regain freedom and fame by pushing the Sea Men back and defeating the Serpent? Will the White Liar see his world come to an End, to the chagrin of the god that dwells inside him? And will Dalia be reunited with her father? Find out!

Spaceperanto, Spacekrit, and Spacitic are SPACE LANGUAGES that I've been using for names and terms in a sci-fi based story about love, betrayal and mystery. Spaceperanto is, obviously, my take on Esperanto. Spaceskrit is a pseudo-IAL based on Proto-Indo-European with Indic vowel qualities and simplified verb/noun structures, and Spacitic is weakly a semitic language of the same purpose. In the future, there are only IALs! (No, there're other languages, I only care about fleshing those out). The story is still being hashed out, but it promises to be a romp of fun.

I've sort of drifted away from world-building for world-building's sake, or trying to shoehorn a story around it. If I can't make a story independent of the flavoring that is conworlding or conlanging, then it's not worth my time anymore.

[Herra Ratatoskr]

The Kings of England before Harold Godwinson were actually the closest descendants of the Kings of Wessex, so the rebellion seems a bit unlikely. Harold Godwinson himself was Earl of Wessex (his father was instaled by the Danes) before becoming King of England. Most likely, the English forces would declare for Edgar Ætheling, who was around 15~16 at the time. The Norman commanders were split among loyal men and various opportunist nobles, bastard sons of nobles and knights, while most had very little reason to support Robert Curthose, the son of William about the same age as Edgar. The Norman forces would split and most would probably evacuate back to their regions of origin (many of them were recruited from Brittany and the area around Blois). Others would try to seize the throne for themselves or surrender to English forces. However between this war and Harald Hardrada's failed invasion of England, the English forces would be too weak to defend England. Sweyn II of Denmark would probably put his own force and take the island. Perhaps the surviving English forces could regroup in Wessex, making it the same as it is in your story, but having a King of England-in-Wessex instead of a King of Wessex (perhaps the descendants would make a peace treaty with England and rename themselves Wessex?) The West Saxons make natural enemies of the Welsh and natural allies of the French.

I should have responded to this earlier. My actual plan was really similar to what you'd suggested, but I think I was a little unclear in my initial explanation; when I said "an independent Wessex", I meant a continuation of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom with Edgar Atheling as the king, rebelling against a the Norman invaders. These kings would for a time call themselves the kings of England, but eventually would accept the title of King of the West Saxons after they are forced to become a vassal to the Anglo-Normans (i.e. the English) at the start of the 14th century.

On doing some followup research, I've started thinking of having William die a few years after the conquest, but before most of the rebellions were put down. I'm trying to find a balance where the Normans are well enough established to be kept from being driven out completely, but weak enough that a successful rebellion was still possible. Initially I though that having William die at Hastings would be enough, but I pushed it back to shortly after Hastings. Maybe the Norman position was still too unstable though. I'm thinking maybe having William dying during the Harrying of the North might be the "right" time to have my point of departure. I'm planning on having Sweyn II invade the north for a time, but having him be driven out eventually. I'm still researching when would be the best time to change things though, so all of this is still rather up in the air.

[mèþru]

1068 (beginning of the Harrying) seems like a great time, but then you would have an independent King of England-in-York rather than a Kingdom of Wessex. (A peace treaty could make them rename themselves the Kingdom of North England, with the south being South England). Sweyn II would invade both kingdoms unless if they pay Danegeld, but I forsee both would do that. The Northern Kingdom makes a natural ally of France and a natural enemy of the Scots, which drastically reworks the whole dynamic of the island. They may also get involved in Welsh infighting on Gwynedd's side, which could lead to a unified Wales that could defy the Normans. I think that Great Britain and Ireland, besides the Normans, would be much more withdrawn from European/Global politics that in OTL. On a whole though, the North would not be able to stand up on its own to England because of demographics, so it might serve as a buffer state at its weakest moments in history (such as its consolidation).

[Herra Ratatoskr]

I'm starting to lean more towards the rebellions in Western Mercia lead by Eadric the Wild with aid from Gwynedd and Powys being more successful, and maybe having William fall during the siege of Exeter. That would put the focus of the rebellion in the right area at least. Then, in response to William's death, Sweyn could invade the north, which was still unharried at this point and rather undefended. That would give a situation with Sweyn with control of most of Northumbria north of York, the Normans in charge of most of the rest of the Danelaw, plus Surrey and Kent. The future Wessex would consist, more or less, of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, and the western parts of Stafforshire and Warwickshire. I'm imagining the Normans making a peace with Wessex after some back and forth, but the Normans see Sweyn as less entrenched and easier to drive out, so they focus on him first, driving the Danes out by the 1090s. Again, just spit-balling at this point, but that's what I'm thinking now.

[Salmoneus]

On a whole though, the North would not be able to stand up on its own to England because of demographics, so it might serve as a buffer state at its weakest moments in history (such as its consolidation).

The demographics were much less skewed back then than they are now. And demographics were much less important in the middle ages anyway, due to the tiny armies involved on all sides - if you can't assemble more than 10,000 men without half of them dying instantly of dysentry, that's a massive equaliser. As a result, some very small and underpopulated European countries succesfully remained independent from much larger enemies for long periods of time.

Case in point: Scotland remained independent of England for 800 years, and eventually merged through dynastic happenstance and poor financial management, rather than through conquest. And at the time of greatest crisis (the wars of independence and the black death), Scotland was outnumbered by England by about 5:1 (it's now more like 9:1). And the North is more populous than Scotland. An 'England' without the North or the west would find it hard to reunify the island.



Herra: one thing to bear in mind may be the dynastic difficulties of the Normans. Even with William dying later, IOT there was considerable dissension between his heirs - four sons (Richard died in 1075) and two very clever, politically-active daughters. If William died 5-10 years earlier, it's not impossible that either partitioning of his lands, or civil war, or invasion by a son-in-law (Constance ended up marrying the Duke of Brittany, for instance), might have left the Normans unable to eliminate rebellion in peripheral areas.
A bolder idea would be to diverge earlier on. Have the Saxons unable to overthrow the Danelaw, and have the Normans invade the Danelaw rather than the Saxon kingdom. If William dies soon after, there may never be the impetus to invade Wessex in the first place (particularly if the King of Northumbria is still around). Or, between those two options: make Bloodaxe or Amláib Cuarán more succesful, and have either a Norse or a Norse-Gaelic Kingdom of Northumbria around at the time of the invasion of England. Particularly if independent Wessex starts out small, it's easy to imagine a giant Northumbria (which not long before your POD had reached as far as Edinborough and Carlisle, and under either Cuarán or Bloodaxe might well be allied with holdings in Ireland or the Isles) being a much more pressing threat than the Saxon holdouts.

[Herra Ratatoskr]

Yeah, the politics of it all and the dynastic issues are one of my main pain points. Sadly I haven't found any really good source to really let me nail down my timeline, hence the rather vague and waffling nature of it atm. Eventually I'll find some good info that will let me make a timeline that gives me the historical aesthetics I'm after while being as believable as it can be (or at least a timeline with as little incredulity as possible). Ideally what I'd like to have is something like Mecislau's History of Novegrad where the world is still recognizable, but with a space hollowed out for my conculture.

Thanks for the suggestion Sal. I hadn't really considered the Danelaw still being a thing at the time of the Norman invasion, but that might make things a bit simpler. That would futz with some of the later history though, so I might not be able to make it work. Definitely worth investigating though; it could be a rather cool way of doing it, and making the whole Wessex angle a bit stronger.

[Zaarin]

Definitely worth investigating though; it could be a rather cool way of doing it, and making the whole Wessex angle a bit stronger.

I've run into the same issue, though more so as I look to the future of my timeline. At present, in terms of global politics, only three really major changes have happened: a remnant of Carthaginians survived in the Canaries independent of Rome, the Spanish invasion of the Canaries was repelled by the Canarians, and the Portuguese never bothered with the Azores or Madeira. Moving forward, however, I'd like my little island nations to take a more active role in both the Age of Exploration and Continental affairs--which means changing history.

[mèþru]

The Canaries were a major stopping point for Spanish explorers, so that may cause some difficulties for the Spanish. The Canaries, Azores and Madeira could suddenly develop importance to European empires as a stopping point and constantly face conquests. A strong maritime tradition and turning various would-be enemies against each other could turn out well. The islands could also seek refuge in becoming the vassal of Morocco and turning to piracy. They might even seize southwestern Spanish lands and southern Portugal as colonies during wars (but the natives of those regions would still be overwhelmingly Spanish/Portuguese/Mozarabic speakers). Ill Bethisad posits an interesting similar situation with The Confederated Kingdoms of the Armorican Isles (our world's Jersey and Guernsey), but they are not very relevant with in Ill Bethisad's Europe. An early 16th century king of one of the kingdoms within the isles took the idea of the world being round to its logical extreme, so he funded an expedition to go as far south as it takes to reach the poles and get to Norway. The Armoricans founded two colonies based off the places they found on their way: one in the Falklands and one in St. Helena. You can adopt a similar strategy: get to Patagonia before the Spanish do. The area was too remote and resourceless in the Spanish point of view to bother developing to the extent that they did in the tropics. In fact, much of the area was not even de facto colonised by any European power. Also, pretty much every colonial power held several islands in the Caribbean. Sugar plantations were the second largest source of colonial income after precious metal mining. They were so valuable that France gave up all of their Canadian possessions when negotiating a peace treaty with Great Britain in order to keep their Caribbean possessions. The corollary is that a Caribbean colony is highly likely to be conquered at some point. Nearly every nation or overseas territory in the modern Caribbean was held by more than one colonial power during their history. The big advantage is time. Once the Americas are discovered, these island groups are closer to the Americas than any other group and have a huge incentive to sail to possibly mythical lands beyond: a lack of resources at home. If they seize large areas of land and consolidate them while the Spanish are still in the Caribbean, they can lock out everyone from much of the Americas in a manner similar to how Spain did the same in real life.