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Alternate History: The Island of the Crescent Moon Universe Name: The Island of the Crescent Moon Universe Profile: In this alternate timeline, the Barbary Corsairs, infamous for their raids along the Mediterranean coasts, manage to successfully raid Iceland in the early 17th century. Instead of simply plundering the island, the corsairs, aided by the local divisions, establish a long-lasting foothold on the island. Over time, Islam spreads across Iceland, leading to an Islamic Iceland in a very different world from the one we know today. The island’s geography, far removed from the center of European Christianity, and its remote nature, allows the Islamic influence to develop in ways unseen in the mainland of Europe, blending Viking traditions with Islamic faith and culture. This radical departure from the Christian-dominated history of Iceland leads to an entirely different societal development, with deep cultural and religious shifts. Islamic Iceland emerges as a prosperous maritime power and a key player in global trade while remaining highly unique in its blend of cultures, particularly the Norwegian Viking heritage and Islamic influence. Universe Timeline: 1620: The Barbary Corsair Raid In this alternate timeline, the Barbary Corsairs, led by a coalition of Ottoman and North African forces, stage a massive raid on Iceland. The attack is successful in a way that it wasn’t in our history: instead of only taking captives and loot, the corsairs manage to establish a long-term presence on the island due to divisions within the Icelandic society—which had been dealing with tensions between the Danish Crown and local autonomy. The island’s small population and remote location make it vulnerable to an invading force. The corsairs begin settling, establishing a fortified base in the north, and converting many of the locals to Islam. The conversion to Islam spreads quickly among the Icelandic Vikings, who find common ground in certain aspects of the faith, particularly the idea of divine destiny and the call for personal transformation. 1620-1670: Islamization of Iceland 1625: By this time, the initial Islamic presence on the island begins to solidify. The Icelandic Muslim community grows, and a new ruling class of Icelandic Muslims emerges. The former pagan and Christian influences are absorbed into a new cultural identity that blends Viking traditions with Islamic practices. 1630: The first mosque in Iceland is built in the city of Reykjavík, where the capital shifts from the old Norse-style pagan stronghold of Þingvellir to a newly-founded, Islamic-inspired Reykjavík. This mosque becomes a symbol of Iceland’s transformation, providing a spiritual center for the growing Muslim population and a stronghold of the Ottoman and North African influences. 1640-1670: The Islamic rulers of Iceland begin reforming local customs, blending Islamic education with traditional Viking codes. Schools and libraries promote learning, trade, and Islamic law (Sharia), replacing the Norse and Christian structures of governance. By the end of the 17th century, the island is almost entirely Islamic, with Viking traditions now intertwined with Islamic practices, creating a unique hybrid culture. 1700-1800: The Age of Expansion and Cultural Synthesis 1700: Iceland, now fully Islamized, becomes an important player in the transatlantic trade, using its maritime expertise and the strategic location of its island in the North Atlantic to control key trade routes between Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East. The Ottoman Empire, in turn, invests heavily in Iceland’s economy, offering financial support and military protection. Iceland's naval power grows significantly, and it becomes a stronghold in the North Atlantic. The Viking heritage of exploration and raiding blends with the Ottoman naval tactics, giving rise to an exceptional fleet that dominates trade and piracy in the North Atlantic and Arctic seas. 1750-1800: Iceland experiences a cultural renaissance, fusing Islamic art, architecture, and poetry with Viking heritage. The Icelandic version of Islam becomes a fascinating blend of Sufi mysticism and Norse mythology, with Islamic cosmology blending with Viking tales of the gods, resulting in a vibrant artistic and intellectual movement that spreads throughout Europe. 1800-1900: The Height of Islamic Icelandic Power 1800-1850: Iceland becomes a major imperial power in the North Atlantic, competing with Britain, France, and the growing powers of the United States. The island’s trade dominance and access to resources in the North Atlantic allow it to establish a colonial empire, with outposts in Greenland, parts of Canada, and the Faroe Islands. Iceland also plays a significant role in the abolition of the slave trade, using its Islamic values to promote human rights and equality in a time when other powers are still benefiting from the exploitation of enslaved people. The island's maritime network becomes a key player in the global abolitionist movement, offering refuge to escaped slaves from the Americas and Africa. 1850-1900: The Islamic state of Iceland becomes a cultural melting pot as it embraces diverse populations: Muslims, Jews, Europeans, and indigenous people from around the world. This cultural fusion helps the island become a beacon of religious tolerance, allowing for the integration of Arab, Turkish, Nordic, and Indigenous cultures. 1900-2000: Iceland’s Modern Era and Global Influence 1900-1950: Iceland, now a global powerhouse, serves as a mediator between Western powers and the Middle East, using its position as a maritime hub and cultural melting pot to bring about significant diplomatic influence. The island also serves as a military power, maintaining a modernized navy and army, while its scientific advancements in navigation and climate sciences help lead efforts in Arctic exploration and global diplomacy. 1950-2000: Iceland becomes a key player in the post-World War II world order, working to mediate tensions between the Soviet Union, United States, and European powers. It maintains a neutral stance in the Cold War, and its rich history as an Islamic maritime power allows it to broker several peace treaties, preventing war in the Arctic and North Atlantic regions. Universe Lore: In this timeline, Iceland’s transformation from a Norse Christian island to an Islamic stronghold creates a unique and powerful civilization in the North Atlantic. The fusion of Viking and Islamic cultures leads to the development of a society that is distinct from both its European and Islamic counterparts. With a focus on trade, military expansion, and cultural flourishing, Islamic Iceland becomes a prosperous and influential empire. It serves as a beacon of cultural tolerance, religious diversity, and scientific advancement, acting as a neutral hub for global diplomacy. Despite the tensions that arise between the Ottoman Empire and other European powers, Iceland remains a steadfast beacon of Islamic unity, drawing influence from the Ottoman Empire while maintaining an independent and unique identity. Universe Tagline: "From Viking raids to Crescent sails—an island reshaped by the tides of faith and destiny." Universe Theme/Genre/Motif: Genre: Alternate history, cultural fiction, political drama, empire-building. Themes: Religious transformation, cultural synthesis, maritime dominance, resilience, tolerance, and trade. Motifs: Islamic-Viking fusion, exploration, cultural renaissance, faith and destiny, autonomy. Additional Notes: Religious Influence: The Islamic faith integrates with the old Norse beliefs, resulting in unique traditions such as Sufi mysticism blending with Viking sagas, Islamic architecture fused with Viking longhouses, and shared ideas of hospitality and honor. Global Connections: Iceland’s geographic location in the North Atlantic allows it to bridge the gap between Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East, giving it an essential role in global trade, diplomacy, and cultural exchange. Consequence of the Butterfly Effect: Islamic Iceland becomes a major maritime empire, with influential trade routes connecting the Middle East, Europe, and the Americas. The island’s unique cultural and religious landscape sets it apart from other powers, creating a neutral haven for cultural exchanges and scientific advancements. Iceland’s success as a global power contributes to the spread of Islam in the North Atlantic, changing the course of European colonialism and shaping the modern world in ways radically different from our own.

CONTENT WARNING: just rambling, contains male inflation, hardcore femdom, crazy ideas and concepts for fetish based worldbuilding. Sorry in advance for my bad english :/ Recently i have been circling around the topic of populations and their growth, or should i say development. My initial description of the velkhari included the fact that their population is heavily unbalanced sex wise, there is aproximately 7 men for each woman. This absurd imbalance has brought concerns about the state of society and the roles each sex has to play, my main concern arose in reggards to the modernization of velkhari society, thus far the state of their world has been primitive, but it won't remain that way. I know i always repeat this in every post and story, but i feel like it is necessary, in this world men are inflatable and this fact has altered the development of society as a whole. Anyway as i said population, i might have overdone it with the imbalance, but i did so accounting for the high mortality rate of a prehistoric age, and considering that male velkhari are in essence weak lonely creatures. The key part in this being that with the advancement of civilization, the mortality rate will plumet leaving behind a male surplus, a surplus that will inevitably reshape society. Given how female centric and supremacist velkhari society is, I theorize that women will mostly be pushed upwards in the social hierarchy given that men as abundant and expendable by nature, will be made to fill up the low end positions. That is not to say that there won't be women who are marginalized, in fact i believe that with more and more men being born a tendency might arise favoring more female births, this in itself could change lots about how things work. What will certainly occur is that in every field women will occupy positions of power which wont ever be contended for by men. So this opens up plenty of spaces and new ideas, for instance male children being mostly unwanted might end in marginal conditions, however much like pets (loved by the majority of people, but not given personhood legally) institutions like adoption centers and similar facilities might appear, places where men are raised in bulk and reintegrated into society after being rejected by their particular mothers. Said places might even teach certain trades exclusive but not limited to men. At the end of the day adoption centers will probably be funded by the goverment as a way to prevent men from becoming dead weight on a societal scale, but they will also serve as a place for women to consult in order to acquire low end men to serve certain functions, im not speaking about marriage, more like menial work. Speaking of, in the industrialized and modern world, marriage will truly become a matter of pride for the women of high society. Like i explained before (in another post) ruthless sexual selection on the part of women will lead to the refinement of male traits, so the men of the future will undoubtably be fit to fullfill the most outrageous standards, they will no doubt be extremely gorgeous, shapely and to an extent grossly hypersexual, their hair will shine with vibrant colors and their bodies will inflate to extremes not ever seen before. They will be almost the livid image of perfectly developed sex toys, almost custom made for each woman. But thoose men won't exist for free, a knowing woman will recognize the signs, and knowing that her son or sons have potential to incurr into high society as husbands of some influential woman, she will play the hand shes been given. Agencies will exist dedicated to making the right match, women of all kinds will submit their sons to be registered into a sort of catalogue, and in the other side high end women will filter out the database based of their personal taste, ultimately the marriage will be arranged to the benefit of both parties the mother or legal owner and the future bride. After acquiring what could be simply described as her perfect match, the woman will undoubtably presume her adquisition her exotic husband, her marvelous balloon toy, choosen to a t. Not surprisingly marrying upwards in the social hierarchy might be the best outcome a man can aspire to in life, as the husband of a succesful woman, a man might be treated as a trophy or a simple sex toy, but compared to his less fortunate peers he will live out a rather safe, calm and pampered life, adding in the prospect of having children which for a large majority of the male population is unheard of. In contrast, the men who arent particularly liked or appreciated by a woman may face the challenge of building their own fate, they will labour and take on jobs which will expose them to great risk, as the expendable gender, males will be expected to live out productive but short lives, eventually giving out to either the circumstances or their own inner dessires. This large chunk of males who will inevitably find themselves frustrated, both due to the lack of sexual attention and by the lackcluster living prospects, will most likely resort to self destructive tendencies, i suspect popping to become a mainstream way to nope out of society, probably it might even be done as a statement in the most visible and eyecatching way, with men filling themselves to bursting point in the most busy of public spaces, utilizing colorful substances to leave a huge splatter behind. The remaining males might actually fill their desiree for affection by bonding together and developing homoerotic relationships where one of the parties involved pretends to be the femenine and authoritative figure by objectifying and degrading the rest. However that format might not be representative of all relationships between males. Another option for men might be found with other sapient species, like the vasii, a bee-like humanoid genre of beings, whoose population consist mainly of infertile worker females. This could prove largely beneficial as the vasii and the velkhari might grow to live and coexist in harmony, but several challenges would have to be surpassed to arrive at that result, for instance languague, the velkhari communicate with spoken words, the vasii use their anthennae to buzz. There would also be the fact that velkhari sexuality and vasii sexuality are not exactly analogous, if a male velkhari started to swell the vasii female might just see it as nothing, in fact she would probably appreciate her mate being smaller not bigger than her, as vasii males are quite diminute. In the matter of jobs for a largely male workforce, i suspect that with technology advancing leaps and bounds, a lot of really taxing physical labour will be done by men despite their relatively weak physique, places and activities previously thought as female oriented will be turned inside out as men take over, at the beigining it may become chaotic given how throught velkhari history men were kept as workers in less physically demanding and less cooperation based roles, but female leadership might be key to solve the issue. One particular area worth exploring might be the military, as male soldiers would be preferable not for their battle prowess but because they are numerous and expendable compared to their female counterparts. I particularly doubt that many males would find the military appealing in anyway given how selfcentered they are, but if the situation became dire enough i dont think they would be given a choice. Velkhari warfare remains a largely unexplored subject, as i have only ever described the use of men as airships to assault enemy positions, in a more modern setting i could definitely picture airships being viable still, just for being cheap and easy to produce, difference being that they would be sturdier, bigger and faster, not to mention they would probably use several men as buoyancy balloons instead of one, as a contingency in case of damage. Boots on the ground action might not differ much from our world, except of course for the most outrageous body inflation aspects, projectile weapons have already been on use by the velkhari and they will probably evolve much further, i suspect chemical and biological weapons will dominate much like artillery did during some of our human wars, said weapons will exploit certain aspects of velkhari biology causing the target to expand to a varying degree and with distinct results, some might simply be designed to inmobilize, others might trigger an explosive finale for their victims. Speaking of which, the applications of inflation and bursting in combat situations. Somebody once suggested to me that perhaps male velkhari could be used as parachutes to deploy airborne troops, or they could also be used as sappers to help build or destroy structures by using their inflatable bodies, or god forbid they may be used as living bombs, filled with compressed gas or oil, producing massive fire explosions. I have decided that indeed thoose will be some of the applications, but i would take it further, i suspect that given the right equipment and training male velkhari could be used as long distance discrete transportation units, im not talking about a blimp or hot air balloon sized transport, im thinking something compact 2 or 3 meters wide for 1 or 2 passengers max, using some type of really light compact gas, said vehicles might be used as couriers or to carry equipment over long distances. Further into the future men might pilot themselves without needing a woman, and they might do so with certain mechanic riggings to adjust trajectory or buoyancy, so there's that. Besides the most normal jobs, in which men could replace women, the positions only available for men will remain, and yes, thoose positions mostly require the "worker" to be a balloon, off the top of my head i can actually name a few unconventional jobs designated for velkhari men; -advertising balloon, this one speaks by itself, males who's function is to just inflate and float in place or tied to a mechanical anchor point, with pictures, signs or words plastered all over them, obviously the bigger the balloon the more ad space. Not to be confused with decorative balloons. Cargo balloon, using their buoyant bloated shapes these men are used to lift or move construction materials from point A to B, they are the closest thing to a full on utility blimp but on a much smaller scale, bonus points if the workers also use them as makeshift air matresses. Fermenter balloons, this one is a tricky one, here goes a little lesson in velkhari biology, male velkhari possess a sack of sorts existing just under their skin, this organ is called Balloon, and its the anatomical part that gets filled with air when men inflate, said balloon has only two defined entrances one is in the oral cavity under the tongue, this one is called Valve, velkhari men can often easily open and close their valve, the second entrance is located in the penis as a second duct running paralel to the urethra, this entrance has been lovingly named Hose, velkhari men have no control over their Hose but locally they dont breath through their genitals so theres no risk of it just endeslly absorbing gas. Anyway, the internal balloon of a male is a particular location, its an empty space and it has been at times used to store water, this comes in handy for fermenter balloons; these are males who are used as living fermentation vessels, they are filled up with various substances and then their Valves and Hoses are vacuum sealed tight for years. These are used to produce wine and other beverages, kind of fucked up, but the flavor might acquire some special refinement due to the process (i mean irl people drink coffee from grains which have been eaten and excreted by animals so i think this is plausible). I have also been thinking about this concept of a hunting game reserve, so remember how i said institutions would be developed to funnel male velkhari into working, learning trades or finding overall function to their lives, so what with the males who say "fuck that" thoose who wont work and are nobody's love toy, the emancipated male free to rule himself, no owner, no wife, no tutor. The game reserve is a home to this kind of male in exchange for some cooperation, basically this is a huge plot of land, several acres of wild forested terrain, surrounded by comfort installations, the reserve is a place were velkhari women can hunt men, this hunt being an emulation of a far less civilized time, the hunt does not involve violence, instead it is expected that the huntress shall inflate her prey and carry it back to display, some hunts are televised or have an active audience. The men who participate do it knowingly, in exchange they live comfortably in what basically is a resort hotel with the only downside being that they will be stripped naked and chased around every once in a while, of course the huntresses take pride on pursuing and catching men, they take pictures of their balloons but they can't claim them as property. If thought about, the life of a constantly inflated male sounds like quite the boring ordeal, separated from the subjective aspects, the sensation and mindset, and with our privileged viewpoint as simple expectators of the whole situation we are left with what is almost an inanimate object, but an inanimate object that feels and thinks, this of course has gotten me thinking about the result of a situation like that. If we inflated a regular human and treated them like a living piece of decoration their mental health would deteriorate at record time pace, but velkhari men aint human, and they have dealt with this happening for millenia all throught their know history, so i wonder what kind of mindset and emotions would surge when being faced with similar scenarios such as the ones i have described before. I suposse the answer lies at the beigining, velkhari men inflate for attention and ultimately this is supossed to land them a mate, is their way of peackoking, so i imagine that if a male were to remain the main focus and the subject of lustful gazes, from women, specially a girlfriend or wife, then they would remain relatively content even if their situation as a balloon is totally out of their control. In other words a balloon that is pampered and always in the heart of his woman, will be happy and wont succumb to the degrading condition that hes made to live on. On the contrary a man existing solely as a thing, unloved and ignored by people will fall to the darkness a phenomenon that we shall call balloon gloom.

Isolate Consolidates Lost Cities, Hidden Kingdoms, and Crypto Nations—these Secret Places Are Steeped in Mystery and Echo with History. They Linger at the Edges of Our Memory, Poised to Be Forgotten, Sustained by Captivating Myths; Each Story a Fragile Thread Holding Their Truths. Yet, These Remarkable Realms Are Real, Cloaked in Enigmatic Forces That Guard Their Secrets from Prying Eyes. The Inhabitants of These Ancient Sanctuaries Fiercely Protect Their Sacred Knowledge, Unwilling to Let Any Hint of Their Existence Reach the Ignorant World Around Them. While They May View the Outside World as Wild and Unrefined—Deficiencies Easily Remedied by Their Wonders—Preserving Their Power Remains Their Utmost Priority. The Foundations of Isolate Consolidates Are Distinct Materials That Possess Unique Qualities. These Qualities Influence Their Applications and the Development of the Societies Surrounding Them. Due to the Numerous Advantages These Resources Provide, Isolate Consolidates Prefer

The Skeksis, ruling the planet Cosmar for a thousand trine, are a grotesque and malevolent species, each embodying a distinct aspect of corruption or dominance. Their reign is a blend of tyranny, decadence, and ruthless control. Here is a detailed description of the key Skeksis that make up the ruling elite: skekSo: The Emperor The supreme ruler of the Skeksis, skekSo is a figure of immense power and cruel authority. His presence is imposing, his voice dripping with command and contempt. His cruel and manipulative nature defines him as the epitome of Skeksis leadership. With a demeanor that mixes arrogance and paranoia, skekSo clings to power through fear and cunning, maintaining a reign built on oppression and deceit. skekSil: The Chamberlain A master of courtly intrigue, skekSil is the embodiment of sycophantic manipulation. His smooth voice and devious mind allow him to maintain influence over the other Skeksis, though he is often seen as weak and servile. However, his talents