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Description
This is a map of Midgard, one of the settings from the GURPS sourcebook Alternate Earths 2. It's a Norse-dominated world, naturally, with a successful Viking sack of Constantinople in 860 as its PoD. The Norse are able to use the treasure and Greek Fire they obtain from the attack to supercharge their raids and conquests and essentially demolish Christian Europe, leaving Scandinavia as the center and foundation of European culture. As a result things in Europe and the Norse realms (stretching into Russia and North America) are notably less religious and less feudal than in OTL - Thorism is as common as Christianity and neither can afford to be dogmatic, and Norse culture is one of laws, councils, and freemen (and thralls, but hey, who's counting) where the king is first among equals if there even is a king at all. Now in 1412, a number of reasons including the economic and technological benefits of the Silk Road link to China left by the Mongol invasions (ship designs, gunpowder, the printing press...) and the push factor of the Little Ice Age have combined to create a resurgence of Norse culture, characterized by innovation, instability, and prosperity, and above all else by Viking raids across the world, deep into Asia and the Americas, creating links of trade and culture across the world, forging new empires, and destroying old ones.

Description
This is a map of Midgard, one of the settings from the GURPS sourcebook Alternate Earths 2. It's a Norse-dominated world, naturally, with a successful Viking sack of Constantinople in 860 as its PoD. The Norse are able to use the treasure and Greek Fire they obtain from the attack to supercharge their raids and conquests and essentially demolish Christian Europe, leaving Scandinavia as the center and foundation of European culture. As a result things in Europe and the Norse realms (stretching into Russia and North America) are notably less religious and less feudal than in OTL - Thorism is as common as Christianity and neither can afford to be dogmatic, and Norse culture is one of laws, councils, and freemen (and thralls, but hey, who's counting) where the king is first among equals if there even is a king at all. Now in 1412, a number of reasons including the economic and technological benefits of the Silk Road link to China left by the Mongol invasions (ship designs, gunpowder, the printing press...) and the push factor of the Little Ice Age have combined to create a resurgence of Norse culture, characterized by innovation, instability, and prosperity, and above all else by Viking raids across the world, deep into Asia and the Americas, creating links of trade and culture across the world, forging new empires, and destroying old ones.