Oha’s Earth – Anthropocene – 2.0 update



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Update 2.0.1 - North american west coast and patagonia

The planet earth, as it appears in the Anthropocene of my fictional universe, Cosmoha. There are mystical aspects present in this reality, primarily in the form of essence, a spiritual energy produced by every unique object.

While all physical things are made of a combination pre-existing matter, the essence they produce is entirely their own. For example, Robert may be a temporary assortment of organic molecules on the physical plain, spiritually, he is composed of the essence of Robert, an original substance that exists for as long as he does. Simply put, a physical form is defined by its parts, while it's spirit is defined by the sum. Many phenomena result from the presence of essence in this universe, two of which being particularly influential on the biology and history of this universe.

First is that each planet's essence manifests as a conscious being, a 'deity' of sorts. These beings consider their planets to be their most prized possessions, manipulating their forms into something beautiful which they can take pride in. Some create stunning landscapes of gems and crystals, others churn their atmospheres to fuel spectacular storms, and every once in a while, some will find curious microscopic specs wriggling around in little warm ponds, biological life, which they saw mostly as a novelty. Earth's deity is Kathelsa, who discovered the potential of biological life, its ability to diversify and grow into stupendously complex and wholly unique ecosystems, wonders that no deity could construct on their own. She studied this new life, and developed methods for making it flourish. She shared her discoveries with her peers, helping them nurture the life that developed on their own worlds, and spreading life to those who had none.

When organic life forms develop to the point of self-awareness, that opens up the door for spiritual enlightenment, drawing power from one’s own essence to be used in a variety of ways. While every self-aware life form is technically capable of honing their spiritual abilities, it is nonetheless rare practice among most civilizations, as awakening one’s essence takes drastic lifestyle changes to accomplish. One must fully dedicate themselves to a sort of strict aesthetic lifestyle, living like a Buddhist monk free of worldly desires, then can they only begin to develop their spiritual powers. Only a handful of times in this Earth’s history have groups of like-minded monks manage to establish long term communities of practitioners, who are often restricted from interacting with the societies around them by their lifestyle and beliefs.



However, in rare instances, these limitations can be transgressed. less than one in 100,000 individuals are born capable awakening their spiritual abilities through alternate means. That doesn’t mean it’s easier for them, it often takes a great amount of stress and situational pressure to bring their power out. What it does mean is that these gifted individuals can develop their powers for whatever purpose they see fit, the only determining factor being the spiritual culture of their society. Spiritual cultures are basically evolving power systems shared by a group of people inhabiting the same region. They Begin when the first gifted individual awakens their abilities in isolation from any other already-awakened individuals. Their abilities will be tied to something they’ve dedicated their life to, such as navigation of the seas, stone-masonry, or the mastery of a weapon. After that first individual in a given region develops their powers, anyone else who happens to be gifted to develop the same kind of ability.

You’ll find the biology of this planet much like our own, many areas contain an almost indistinguishable assortment of species and ecologies.

For now, let’s get acquainted with the most glaring derivations which lie on OhEarth’s surface.

Disclaimer: I will refer to many regions present in our world with the names of their real world counterparts. I do this for the sake of clarity, since this post is meant to explain the major geographical differences between this and our earth. Know that all of these places would be given wholly different names by the people who live in this world.

1. The Taevalands – home of the exiled

This region comprises an expansive non-glaciated area of Antarctica, and the nearby Taevan isles, inhabited by the people for which they are named. Most of these islands have a temperate climate similar to The British Isles. Having been isolated from all other continents for over 30 million years, its wildlife hosts the latest surviving relatives of archaic lineages that have all but disappeared from the rest of the world; the last bastion for the life that once flourished across Antarctica before its glaciation. Like its sister continent, Australia, it lacks any placental mammals, save bats, the bizarre armadillos of Etvoryn, and those introduced by humans The most distinct element of the Taevan ecosystem is its complete lack of any tree species. The resulting environment hosts biomes unlike any other; in the place of forests, the moist temperate areas of the Taevalands support dense jungles of bamboo and an assortment of towering grass species.

After an ancient cataclysm left human settlers cut off from all trade and communication, the few survivors were forced to rebuild their civilization from scratch. For ten thousand years they remained in exile from the rest of mankind, yet still Limited as they were, lacking wood, and most common domesticates, and no means of trading with the world around them, they would nevertheless rise and surpass the heights of their ancestors to one day become a powerful player on the world stage.

Learn more about the Taevan geography, wildlife, and people here: www.deviantart.com/ohawhewhe/a…

2. Lower Madagascar - No Man’s Land

For whatever reason, this lower half of Madagascar hosts notoriously hazardous terrain and wildlife that have hindered human settlement for millennia. The hunter gatherers who call this region home are among the most resilient peoples of this world; the lengths they go to survive in their hostile homeland can be described as remarkable, and even disturbing at times. Its coasts range from confounding mangroves, to jagged rocky mazes and scorching infertile deserts that continue into the mainland. Its environments contain the highest concentration poisonous and aggressive critters on the planet, giving it a reputation like Australia has in our reality.

3. Walvis Islands – The Overlooked colony

The walvis islands are a relatively recent island chain with wildlife not too dissimilar to their neighboring continent. It had been partially connected to the south African biosphere via an archipelago that allowed mainland species to immigrate via island-hopping, until those intermediates completely eroded around 4 million years ago.

Confoundingly, these lands evaded discovery by any humans until very late into the era of exploration. Through sheer happenstance, trade and exploration ships just never managed to run into it. When the Walvis islands were finally discovered by a relatively small and weak nation struggling to compete with the colonial empires that neighbored it, it finally gave them a significant foothold in the colonization game.

4. The Intermarean Peninsula

The arabian peninsula has gone through some major coastline edits to suit my purposes. The wider gap between the peninsula and the horn of africa would keep any one power from being able to monopolize trade through the pass, and the increased distance from the “Mediterranean” coast to the “red sea” coast will make it all the harder for any country to monopolize trade between the two, and overland invasions between Asia and Africa will be harder to defend against. On the other hand, the eastern crescent-shaped peninsula at the “persian” gulf’s opening is a booming center of commerce, and a sought-after territory for any nearby empires looking to “Indian” ocean trade

5. The Atlantean realm

From the receded coast of Iberia, to the north-west african peninsula, to the few island chains that stretch out to the mid-Atlantic. This realm is home to the original sailors of the Atlantic, the farthest west region of the old world.

6. Helladriata – Mixing up the meditteranean

Simple enough, I just broke off most of the “Italian” peninsula and pushed it into the “Peloponnese.” Now the “Adriatic” sea opens up into the “Ligurian” sea, and the “Balkan” states have an easier time trading with those to the west. Perhaps this results in a more homogeneous Europe?

7. Constanti-nope

Most of Thrace has been submerged into the Bosporus strait. No Constantinople-clone in this alternate earth. Well, at least not in this location.

8. The Axelsiatic sea

This sea is named for history’s first great conqueror, Axelsior, who’s 20-year long campaign saw him conquering nation after nation, through eastern Europe, the middle east, india, east asia, then north to the central Asian plains, and finally to this sea, looping back to the territory originally held by his homeland. Despite being a successful commander who’s legendary charisma quickly won over the peoples he took over, his constant pursuit of conquest caused him to leave behind new territory not long after taking it, resulting in those territories breaking away behind him one by one, almost as fast as more territory was added. In the end, he returned to his homeland to find its borders not much larger than when he started his campaign, and spent the rest of his life defending it, as the lands he left behind and became expansive and powerful nations in their own right. This one man’s ambition and the influence he left behind kickstarted a new era of human history.

9. Oviland– Another Isle

Just another medium sized island that fits in nicely with the “British” isles. Geographically unremarkable, but a cultural superpower. Oviland is spawning point of a major world religion that would be fiercely defended by its followers. The unrelenting crusading spirit of its people would ignite many conflicts over the course of their history. The pinnacle of these conflicts would snowball into the most destructive war in of all time, drawing in every nation from around the world for a brawl that would, like the conquests of Axelsior, define the next era of human history.

10. The Shattered Coast

The land of countless fjords and lakes, mighty bearded warriors and mythical creatures that roam the vast frigid wilderness. the last surviving Neanderthals live in small pockets here.

11. The Volga Ural mountains

These beefed-up mountains help to draw a harder line between Europe and Asia, to better justify its claim to being a continent distinct from the greater landmass. The Ural mountains are rougher and stretch south to the northern coast of the Axelsiatic sea, with a few significant passes near the south, so the inevitable steppe-nomads of this world will have some way to get in and out.

12. The Tarimogga Sea

This one is my favorite addition besides the Taevalands. This ancient sea has been closed off from the world’s oceans for around 40 million years. Deep in the heart of Asia, The Tarimogga region is further isolated from the rest of the world, bordered on 3 sides by the Himalayas, with barren deserts bordering the rest. Naturally this area is among the most derived both in biology and culture. It is one of two areas where the last surviving populations of yeti live, the other being northern Canada, as well as the only one where Yeti not only flourish in great numbers, but also formed a great society where the two species lived side by side for thousands of years. For the far less-social yeti, this situation is nothing short of miraculous, beginning with a handful of individuals who saw the coming demise of their kind at the hands of early homo sapiens, and radically changed their lifestyles, teaming up, developing a language, and enslaving humans, utilizing their fine crafting and communication skill to help build their new civilization. As time moved on, the balance of power shifted back and forth, slowly progressing the point where humans and yeti live and work together as equals, seeing the mutual benefit in their relationship.

As far as wildlife goes, the large sea serves to moderate the local climate, and provide the surrounding area with rainfall that sustains forests, rivers, and other fertile biomes, making it a sort of “mega-oasis,” where life of all kinds thrives. Its apex predators include a unique family of big cats, inhabiting niches ranging from forest-stalking tree-climbers, plains-dwelling pursuit predators and even several semi aquatic varieties.

I don’t have many ideas for wildlife, I just thought it’d be a cool area to play around with as far as worldbuilding goes.

13. Yellow sea coastline

My goal with the “chinese” region is to make it less homogeneous in terms of cultures and societies than how it turned out in our timeline. Part of this effort is a more jagged and peninsular coastline along the yellow sea.

14. Mixed up eastern rivers

China’s multiple enormous east to west rivers served to unite the societies that sprouted across the vast region. Now they won’t.

15. The Greater Philippines

“The Philippines” include a few hundred more islands than the thousands they possess in our world. They are home to a highly diverse patchwork of tribal peoples, including modern humans as well as various hobbit tribes, the only place besides inner Borneo and the east Australian highlands that pureblooded Hobbi populations inhabit. Despite being home to two species of human, the most intense animosity held by the archipelago’s inhabitants is between the eastern and western portions, who have historically remained politically divided and in constant conflict with eachother.

16. The Urtu Mountains and Big Lakes of Australia

Replacing a significant area of Australia’s eastern deserts is a dense mountain range with a series of large lakes. Within this area there are environments ranging from temperate forests to scrubs and wetlands fed by rivers which flow from the mountains. This provides a great boost to Australian biodiversity in modern times, as well as being a major population center for the continent’s human inhabitants, and a place where they independently develop agriculture.

17. Greater Eastern Australia

In addition to an injection of opportunity in its central region, I’ve expanded the landmass of Australia westward, adding a few mountain ranges, another patch of desert, larger forest regions, while still keeping Tasmania more or less the same. While it’s still the smallest continent, its already vast array of endemic genera is even more impressive in this world.

18. Zelanesia

I know, quite a departure from what my plans were for new Zealand in the first iteration of this map. The more I thought about it, the less enamored I was with the idea of a greater new Zealand mini-continent, as it didn’t really open up any possibilities for me that weren’t already covered by the Taevalands and Greater Australia. Ive decided it would serve me better as a large archipelago for seafaring settlers from “Melanesia” to inhabit. Another chance for a strong tonga-style civilization to form, or if not, a valuable colonial possession for imperialists to pillage later on.



19. The Caribbean Cluster

There are many many more “Caribbean” islands in this world, essentially a supercluster archipelago that makes Caribbean naval conflicts a lot more interesting. Like in our world this place was the center stage of the golden age of piracy, here leading to the rise of nations descended from the territory and alliances of pirate lords.

20. The Mesoamerican Mountains

In this world, the Americas collided earlier and harder, Connecting around 10 million years ago, and giving rise to a rugged mountain range that isolates the societies and environments of the two continents, resulting in a surprisingly greater disparity in lineages than can be seen in our world.

21. The “Galapagos” and “Darwin” Islands

Continuing with the theme of “taking islands with unique ecosystems and mindlessly inflating them,” I just made the Galapagos larger and gave them some neighbors. The names are placeholders and not how they’re actually going to be referred to by the peoples of this word, of course. Expect more fat turtles, some desert island bats, chubby flightless finches and penguins of paradise.

22. Pia’ota

The largest islands of the pacific ocean, home to the superpower of Polynesia. The remarkable and unlikely development of its native civilization rivals that of the Taevalands and Tamirogga. Early on in the age of exploration, a small ship of colonial explorers wrecked on the island’s shore. The crew was taken in with great enthusiasm by an ambitious king, whose foresight motivated him and his people to learn everything they could from the foreigners, the foundations of advanced ship building, navigation, farming of a few crops with whatever seeds they could scrounge from the crew’s food supply, medical techniques, and even a limited production of gunpowder. The king and his people used this knowledge to rapidly modernize their nation, and founded an expansive web of alliances across the Pacific Ocean that would become a major hinderance to colonization from the continents’ imperial powers.

Wildlife is like our Hawaii’s, albeit much more diverse, with a greater variety of environments.

23. Polypolynesia

I love Polynesia, and am fascinated by the variety of animals and peoples that have crossed the pacific to settle its . I’d fill the ocean with one thousand times as many islands if I felt it was reasonable. This is me trying to moderate myself. In this world, supernatural means allow Polynesia to be settled far earlier than in our own time, and from there its early peoples become the original inhabitants of central and south America.

24. Lakeapalooza

If you thought the lake problem in Canada was daunting in the real world, its about to get a whole lot worse. The millions of lakes that puncture the landmass in this world are only larger, more pervasive and difficult to work around. Will this make human inhabitation less likely to develop? Or will more extreme conditions push the natives to innovate in ways that turns this situation on its head?

Also the yeti that live here have slick fur and other specialized features that allow them to spend much of their time foraging in the water, making them actual “aquatic apes.”

25. Rajamir Highland Oasis

Surrounded by hundreds of miles of scorching desert on all sides, Rajamir Highlands are the hub of west Saharan trade and civilization. Like the “Nile” to the east, they host densely populated settlements that stick closely to their sole source of freshwater, the dozens of oasis scattered about the mountains, some sitting comfortably in the shade. Another valuable feature of this area are the many cool, moist caves, great for storage, seeking shelter, and mining precious gems and minerals. The cramped oasis settlements of the Rajamir often extend into the cliffside dwellings and fortified caves of surrounding mountains. This area isn’t just an oasis for people, but also many relatives of African savanna flora and fauna that disappeared from the surrounding environment as it became a desert. Here you can find endemic species of big cats, elephants, crocodiles, camels and even mountain-dwelling ostriches.

26. Trinitors, Abartiki, and Capricornia

The final region of islands I’ve added to spice up the Atlantic ocean are off the coast of south America around the tropic of Capricorn. My strategy with worldbuilding the Atlantic was to insert a few large island chains to that are closely tied to the societies and culture of the nearby mainlands. They’re isolated enough from each other to keep trans-Atlantic travel from happening too early, unlike the pacific islands, who interact with each other across the ocean and throughout history, distinct and for the most part independent from the continental civilizations.

The largest of these islands, Kowunassa in the south, is home to the most expansive mangrove forest biome in the world. Less than half of its area is actually dry land.

27. Gulf of India

I’ve added so many islands and peninsulas, it only makes sense to take a little land area away to make up for it. So I sunk a huge chunk of central India, that ought to balance things out.

28. Grand Soccotra

Soccotra, an island so ancient and so biologically isolated despite being so close to mainland Africa and Eurasia. Obviously I need to expand its area and biomes to bring out the potential of the archaic life that survives here. Expect desert crabs, Dragon tree forests, and, in the absence of mammals and reptiles, a hotspot of diversity of large invertebrates and lizards. “The most alien-looking place on earth” is going to be a lot more alien in this timeline.



29. Baja Peninsulas



I stacked like half a dozen additional peninsulas onto the Baja California region, to act as a cultural bridge between the Granumuria and Mesoamerican realms, and a unique pocket of peoples and wildlife in its own right. Its landscape mostly consists of semiarid savanna-type biomes, with some tropical forests along its southern coast.



30. Granumuria



This region is by far the most influential in the entire north American continent. Its land is rich in natural resources that allow societies to flourish there in all stages of their development. Its vast forests are so rich in wildlife that they can support networks of cities through hunting and gathering alone. A vast mountain range mostly separates Granumuria from the mainland, and along its coast are most of the continents best natural harbors.

Its name is derived from Granumura, a powerful supernatural entity who arrived at the dawn of the Anthropocene in a comet. He was allowed dominion over the region by Earth's native deity, Kathelsa, in exchange for his aid in biological experimentation, which his ability to amalgamate life forms made him uniquely useful for. Granumura is responsible for creating both the Gaublins and Konstants through selectively breeding humans and amalgamating their dna with that of sasquatches.



31. Greater Pattagonia



Beware the maze of foreboding mountainous islands that wrap around its Pacific coast, barren and difficult to navigate, one might prefer the lowland steppes on the Atlantic side, if it weren't for the llama-riding bandit hordes.

