A World a Week: Powderpunk Left to Right-1

Oops forgot Crimea was a peninsula. Still not bad from memory.

So apparently this is what I was working on Sunday AM (Saturday Night really) from 2 until about 6am. Lotsa typed notes about  Portugal, the Spanish heartlands (the Crown of Castile) of the 16th century, and the semi-autonomous kingdoms of Navarre and Ireland. Whoa. So this is going to take some crashing and mashing to even begin to roll things into an RPG campaign setting for sure.

Okay so Ireland is not a bunch of counties, but as of 1542, it is the Kingdom of Ireland where the autonomous nature of the "Lordship of Ireland" is dissolved and the nation is coming more under the personal governance of Henry the 8th of England. Kildare's rebellion under Silken Thomas twelve years earlier is a distant memory with the establishment of the Royal Irish Army.

In my 15550 time frame in mind, Navarre-Bearn is able to maintain its uneasy independence from the Crown of Castile (Spain). Under the leadership of Queen Joan the 3rd known for popping out the "Good Henry" (Henry the Fourth of France) with her boy toy of Anthony (Hotty Pants Tony), the south of the region could still be considered not under the tutelage of the Hapsburg lords or ladies of Castile and Aragon.

The union of the Castile and the Aragon lines, Spain is becoming even more the major powerhouse Europe. From the low countries in the northwest, to in the Mediterranean, as well as the Iberian peninsula. Phillip the Second is about to start rocking it. Aragon is taking in the Jews and Moors being expelled from Castile and revitalizing its waning vitality while their westward kin are starting to reap the booty of the slave economy now starting in the New World.
Speaking of the New World the Spanish are consolidating their power over the central American isthmus region and the Yucatan peninsula and campaigning into Peru. finally starting to make some money. The new silver mines in central Mexico and the Andes allow all the racists colonialists to breath a sigh of relief in their search for something to be enslaving people for.

The Kingdom of Portugal and the Algraves isn't down and out despite its wars with Spain. Despite being a bit aged John the third is bringing home the groceries, that means pricey spices, from Brazil and the far east, as in Asia. Spanish-born Joanna is about to return to Spain and babysit the throne there while Phil 2 (Spain) is chasing chicks in England for a couple years. Catherine of Austria doesn't trust her son, Joãs Manuel, to take the throne so she's going to babysit the heir Sebastian and the Kingdom.