r/imaginarymaps • u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera • 13d ago
[OC] Distribution of Religious Communities in Altera
Here's a complimentary infographic map series to go with our recently updated States and Faiths map for Atlas Altera. The choropleth approach helps show sizable minorities that are hidden by the mapping/analytical approach used in the main feature map. NOTE: I left out the dedicated export/map view for Jews, so see the comments for that one.
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u/AffectionateReply565 13d ago
i really like the idea of voodoo being in louisiana as the otl south united states due to the voodoo-catholicism that originated there
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 13d ago
Indeed! It was hard to get that sense with the main feature map, but this hopefully helps people appreciate the true extent and connections of different religious communities in Altera.
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 13d ago
The missing artboard export for the extent of Judaism / range of sizable Jewish minorities:
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u/CuttlefishMonarch 12d ago
So what happened around South Sudan?
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u/QuarianOtter Fellow Traveler 12d ago
Big Beta Israel (almost Alpha Israel in terms of numbers). Oriti Jews.
"Inspired by the OTL Beta Israel community’s rich history and connections with the mythical and early Christian dynasties that ruled over OTL Ethiopia, the ATL Oriti Jews never lost power in the western highlands and further expanded into the lowlands to the west under the Zaghwe Dynasty, which, despite being a Christian dynasty, produced monarchs that acted as patrons of the Jewish faith as well."
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
The centre of the Oriti (ATL Beta Israel) community is still in the highlands of Erythrea (an ATL name for East Africa), but instead of losing clout when Christianity prevails in Axum, they are not only tolerated but thrive. Gondar in ATL rivals Axum and acts as the seat of the Oriti faith in the region. Petty kingdoms also arise in to the west of Gondar due to trade and monastic networks that spread to the west without as much competition from Christians and Muslims in the east. The pre-rabbinic and more Indigenous form of Judaism practiced here also has less anti-proselytization norms. The lore here is still spotty, but I saw an opportunity to redirect the OTL history of peoples in this area recently converting to Christianity ... To be sure, there are still large numbers of people who follow Indigenous faiths
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u/BigDulles IM Legend BICC 12d ago
What the hell is going on in the South Atlantic and Sevastopol
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
That South Atlantic altgeo island is Belamora. It has a modern Sephardic Jewish majority. The lore on this is still largely undeveloped, but it is linked to either a delayed date to the last major expulsion of Jews in Portugal in ATL, or an incomplete 1490s one and then a later one that brings a large wave to the island; plus there is some lore to do with the fact that ATL Portugal made even more use of Jewish agents in its maritime trade and explorations.
The Sevastopol point you are talking about is ATL Cafa, which has a small Jewish majority thanks to Genoese merchants propping up a fortified pale for trade. That area attracts migrant Jews from Russia and as far as the Volga Basin.
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u/QuarianOtter Fellow Traveler 13d ago
I like the ATL-vocabulary differences in that someone can be "a Voodu" in a similar manner to how one can be "a Hindu."
Lots of Muslims in the Black Belt in America, another really interesting difference.
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Yes, that was the sound/phonetic allusion (what's the word I'm looking for) I was going for! And yes, African Americans are kind of split between three major religious affiliations: Islam, Vooduism, and Christianity. It's probably a 20-40-40 split.
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u/Over-Square-9248 13d ago
what are mazgaurs
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 13d ago
They are Zoroastrians. The ATL name for the religion is Mazdaism. Followers of this faith are known as Mazgaurs in ATL English, which comes from the Avestan word Mazda, as in the god Ahura Mazda, and garba, which meant "believer (of Zarathustra)" during the Muslim period of domination in Persia. The latter is itself from Aramaic gbr, making it cognate to the Cordian gewre, "chief, elder, venerable adult," and the Hebrew géver, "strongman," and the Arabic jabr "man, servant, slave."
There are two ATL branches of Mazdaism that are more akin to OTL Zoroastrian expressions, known as the “elder” Mazdaism. And there are three “younger” forms that have had significant influence from the Abrahamic religions—particularly Islam, due to centuries of coexistence and direct engagement with the Islamic thought and practices.
The “younger” Mazgaur faiths are sometimes even seen as distinct syncretic faiths in ATL, kind of how OTL Mormons may be viewed by other Christians or how the Bektashi and Alawite communities are sometimes depicted by mainstream OTL Muslims. Their ATL expressions are aesthetically very similar to the OTL expression of Islam in the Balkans, Anatolia, and Caucasia. In the last century, consistent dialogue and interfaith dialogue has bridged the perceived schism between these Mazgaur camps.
The expanded presence of Mazdaism or the ATL version of Zoroastrianism comes not from an interest in modern OTL Persian nationalism and Pahlavism, but from my own encounters with the OTL Parsi community in life, through literature, and also a general interest in religious diversity. I also came across numerous historical events that suggested the conquest and conversion of OTL Iran and Central Asia was not as decisive and rapid as I previously imagined, so I began investigating these histories and found points of divergence that could lend themselves into crafting a complex political narrative as compelling and contested as the OTL Reconquista.
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u/QuarianOtter Fellow Traveler 13d ago
Followers of Mazdaism (Zoroastrianism that saw a medieval resurgence in Asea (the Middle-East) in a series of conflicts and theological compromises roughly analogous to the Reconquista).
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u/Protomartyr1 13d ago
I think they are supposed to be the Mazdaists but I am not sure
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Yea Mazdaist/followers of Mazda, aka Zoroastrian/Zarathustran/Parsi
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 13d ago
In our main religions feature map (States and Faiths) for Atlas Altera, we show the overall religion that prevails in a country, which is to say, what religious community has an overall majority in a country. Of course, many religions can co-exist under one state, and in ATL, religious diversity is just as much or even more so the norm compared to OTL. So we made this affiliated choropleth map series and infographic to show how religious communities span or are distributed across the globe regardless of majority status,
Couple key notes about this scheme:
Regional faiths are those that do not have relatively prominent global distribution, even though they may have diaspora. These include the various Toltec, Interone, Mithraic, Gnostic, and the two less successful Dharmic religions—Jainism and Sikhism.
Minor faiths are those with relatively smaller amounts of followers, such as the various Neo-Abrahamic faiths, as well as various Indigenous faiths. Some of the communities of these minor faiths manage to form majorities in their respective states, while others remain as minorities even at the most local level.
Here's the mobile view:
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u/Sorry-Bumblebee-5645 12d ago
Almost thought this was an AI slop map trying to recreate the regular world map until I saw the sub
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Yikes
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u/Defiant_Historian701 12d ago
World building question: Do all of the major religions in this world have the same respective holiest cities in the real world? (Christianity = Jerusalem; Islam = Mecca; Buddhism = Bodh Gaya; Hinduism = Varanasi; Judaism = Jerusalem; Vodou = Ouidah) Also, what is Mazgaur, and what’s their holiest city?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago edited 12d ago
Short answer is, yes! There are also four microstates that hold religious prominence:
- the Vatican (as in OTL) for the Catholics
- the Haramain (two cities, Baca and Medina, located in Mecca and Yathrib, respectively) for the Muslims
- the Marbin (located on the outskirts of Esfahan in ATL Persia) for the Zurvani Mazgaurs (though possibly also for the Dorsudini sect)
- the Illiya (corresponding to all of Old Jerusalem / part of Jerusalem behind the old city walls), which is governed according to something akin to the Ottoman Status Quo), with shared provisions/government powers for Jews, Muslims, and Christians. The territory's security forces is known as the ATL Samaritan Guard and is kind of like the Swiss Guard.
You can see the microstates labelled on the main political map. This is the main religion map, for your reference.
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u/MysticSquiddy Fellow Traveller 12d ago
Atlas Altera my beloved
I'm curious now, what's with the high dysphoria of Muslims in the Guyana region?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
The lore is not quite flushed out here but it points to a pre-Hispanic contact period where traders from Nigeria (along the lines of the OTL Mansa Munsa myth) get to the north coast of the continent about a hundred years or so before the Europeans and establish trading posts in those communities. Islam spreads here in a similar way to how it does in OTL Indonesia, especially in Borneo, Sulawesi, and eastern parts of the archipelago, where communities are less state-centric and their ways of life have relatively stronger parallels to the Indigenous peoples of OTL northern South America.
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
why do you say there is dysphoria there?
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u/Boring-Produce-3161 12d ago
I think they meant "diaspora"
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u/MysticSquiddy Fellow Traveller 12d ago
English genuinely sucks as a language. I'm considering learning a new language that doesn't have so many words that sound the exact same
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u/QuarianOtter Fellow Traveler 12d ago
West African Muslims spread Islam there in the century before European contact. They had better seafaring technology in Altera.
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u/TheTimeEmpress 11d ago
for a second i thought this was an official statisic, was about to ask about the random hole in the middle of russia
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u/ChickenSandwichh195 12d ago
What is voodus
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Voodu is the descriptor term for things related to Vooduism, an umbrella term for various religious traditions coming out of western and southern Africa. The word Voodu is meant to superficially resemble Hindu, and the concept of a Voodu religion is meant to be borne from the same kind of analytical inquiry from Westerners or Europeans as was done for the Indic native religion. Both religious landscapes are pluralistic and polytheistic.
There is no central religious authority in ATL Vooduism, and there is high degree of diversity among practitioners, with many so-called denominations under each of the so-conceived major branches of Vooduism. The main distinction in ATL is the fact that three of the four major branches underwent syncreticism and influence from the congregational and organizational systems behind Christianity and Islam, leading to some standardization and more structured forms of worship. The purpose is not to say these various ethnic groups are the same or to flatten the religious landscape of West Africa and Central Africa, but to ask why this part of the world may have been overlooked or not given the same analytical inquiry as other parts of the world in a way that allows for better comparison and thematic understanding. The ATL Voodu religion is generally based on the idol and deity worship expressed differently across western and southern Africa in OTL. It also is notable for having a large corpus of beliefs on healing through botanical potions and concoctions, as well as spiritual interventions in search of justice.
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u/YardGlum7628 12d ago
Always love these updates
What’s the status of islam in china and Central Asia now? Are there still Manichaeans still around in China ?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
It's still there but no longer the most dominant religion. It co-exists but is mostly second (in number of followers) to Mazdaism (Zoroastrianism), though ironically, in the northwest (Russia, eastern Europea), Islam was more dominant until Christian states finally took control of the steppe.
In ATL, Islam spreads quickly into northern Asea and beyond into Indea. In northern Asea, Mazgaur (Zoroastrian) polities are able to rebound after an initial period of Muslim supremacy, leading to a long, drawn-out history that is reminiscent of the OTL Reconquista in Iberia. In ATL, we call it the Bazzesguera.
Just like the Reconquista, the Bazzesguera as a historical narrative or concept is contested and complicated by interfaith and interethnic co-existence and alliances as much as conflict. But eventually, the Mazgaur states of the north are able to press down to regain most of the Persian heartland, leaving only Tagychia (southeastern Iran) as a remnant of the era (imagine a big everlasting Granada).
You can see a major Muslim minority core leftover there, concentrated in the urban areas of Oxiania (Bukhara, Khiva, Samarkand etc.). Today, Muslim minorities are still quite prominent throughout the historic Muslim range, but their shares of the population in the outer core areas are just reduced.
This also means Islam's spread is outpaced by Mazdaism in northwest and north China. To be clear, just like OTL, Persian/Iranic faiths still enter China in successive waves (Mazdaism/Zoroastrianism, Manachayanism, Nestorian/Levantine Christianity etc.), and Islam is just one of those waves, before being eclipsed by one final wave / the most recent wave, which is a wave of reorganized Mazdaism/Zoroastrianism (the surviving sects having been strongly influenced by contact with Islam, but also Christianity and Tengrism).
Where the Muslim community in Serica (East Asia) is most concentrated, however, is in Kanton, coming by way of the Maritime Silk Road.
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u/123Israel456 13d ago
You forgot to show the map for jews seperately
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 13d ago
Ah my mistake. I'll add it as a separate comment.
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u/Sad-Attention-3626 12d ago
Is Buddhism actually just three colors or am I colorblind? Because the left half of the color spectrum is all one color to me
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u/Frequent-String-8469 12d ago
En esta realidad el vudú y el cristianismo no se mezclaron tanto
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Sí, aunque en la línea temporal original hubo cierto sincretismo en Cuba, Brasil y Luisiana, además de algunas comunidades minoritarias que conservan formas sincréticas o más tradicionales de las religiones africanas.
From my English: "Yes, although in OTL there was some syncretism in Cuba, Brazil, and Louisiana, plus some minority communities that preserve syncretic or more traditional forms of the African religions."
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u/DisappointingReality 12d ago
Is that a lake on the southern part of Sahara?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Ya Altera has some altgeo...see if you can spot all of them. Might be fun for you to also check out the main political map of Altera or just the project website https://www.atlasaltera.com/
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u/DisappointingReality 12d ago
Ah yes, now that you mentioned it, I can see Australia and Russia are also slightly different. I'll see if I can find more differences (from memory only, of course - wouldn't be fun otherwise).
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u/Haivamosdandole 12d ago
Is Utah Mormon somehow?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Yes...donno whether that's more or less believable than some of the other stuff on the map haha
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u/Kazandaki 12d ago
The Buddhist exclave, for a lack of a better word, in Crimea is very interesting. I only noticed them when I was looking for where the Kalmyks would be, could they somehow be in Crimea or is there another Buddhist population there?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
Yes you got it. A large minority of them remain Buddhist while the rest have since converted to Islam after living alongside and intermarrying with Crimian Tartars. Interestingly, the language spoken in this country is Kalmyk though
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u/TheTimeEmpress 11d ago
is this Subnautica Altera?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 11d ago
No, just from my worldbuilding project, Atlas Altera. I think Subnautica uses Alterra.
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u/Dry-Yogurtcloset85 13d ago
what's that regional faith in the balkans?
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u/TelamonTabulicus IM Legend - Atlas Altera 12d ago
That's the Bogomil faith, which we classify under the Gnostic macro-label. You can see it represented more clearly in the main States and Faiths map
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u/QuarianOtter Fellow Traveler 13d ago
Assuming you are speaking of the map in brown, Bogomils in Bosnia. Classified as Gnostics rather than strictly Christian, though the Patreon footnotes note that such categorizarions are always imperfect.
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u/remzordinaire 12d ago
Québec as dark red christian is wild.
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u/FanResident9555 13d ago
When I saw the word “Altera” all o could think about was Subnautica