Regarding Marest
<from the loanword* ‘marre’ and the Old French ‘west’>
Tales, research, worldbuilding, character ideas, and the like from an alternate history where Normaundie** became a powerful nation ultimately called Marest extending into the modern day.
This concept emerged from a popular fandom being inserted into the real world with various alt-history divergence points, and developed into its own independent thing.
The initial major departure from the historical record is that Agnarr Geirr-Þors, a figure similar to the real-world Rollo, did not convert to Christianity when he won Normaundie. The second major divergence is that his great-great-grandson, Agnarr Nasan ben Hanna, that timeline’s replacement of William the Conqueror, was a Jewish man having less than no interest in enacting a conquest of England, and instead enabled the restoration of his cousin Hatharcnut who had been deposed rather died, while offering protection and defense for his co-religionists.
Needless to say, history continues to wildly diverge from there, and Marest develops with varying levels of actual interest in conquest from its rulers. While Agnarr Nasan was not interested in conquest or any sort of crusade (perhaps obvious, considering his being Jewish), some of his descendants were more martial and land-hungry. The success of Normaundie and its allied territories also led to population explosions, which also lends itself to expansionism. Still other rulers had strong senses of justice that they sometimes impressed upon others. Due to this and other factors, Marest began and continues to be very culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse.
*not a word in our timeline, but is developed from an actual Old Norse word for ‘sea’
**Norman for Normandy
Common Tags + Explanation (if necessary)
#artistic license - reblogged art by other people that I feel fits the universe
#[character name] vibes - the post makes me think of a specific character
#faces and names - character-related; notes, bios, face claims, drawings, etc.
#research - usually links
#speaking tongues - languages and linguistics
#tidbits - little pieces of stories, world-building notes, historical divergences, etc.
#the world at large - bigger world-building pieces like this post
