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REGIONS

Altera is made up of three landmasses separated by great oceans. Each can be divided into continents, and furthermore, regions.

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EUROPEA

NORTHWEST BOREALEA
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EUROPEA

Europea_Icon.jpg

ASEA

SOUTHWEST BOREALEA
Asea_Icon.png

ASEA

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Asea_Icon.png

SIBEREA

NORTH BOREALEA
Siberea_Icon.jpg

SIBEREA

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Siberea_Icon.jpg

SERICA

EAST BOREALEA
Serica_Icon.png

SERICA

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Serica_Icon.png

INDEA

SOUTH BOREALEA
Indea_Icon.png

INDEA

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Indea_Icon.png

POLYNESEA

EAST GANDRASEA
Polynesea_Icon.png

POLYNESEA

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Polynesea_Icon.png

SUMATREA

WEST GANDRASEA
Sumatrea_Icon.png

SUMATREA

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Sumatrea_Icon.png

TAMIREA

SOUTH GANDRASEA
Tamirea_Icon.png

TAMIREA

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Tamirea_Icon.png

LIBYA

NORTH AFRICA
Libya_Icon.png

LIBYA

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Libya_Icon.png

ERYTHREA

EAST AFRICA
Erythrea_Icon.png

ERYTHREA

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Erythrea_Icon.png

GUINEA

WEST AFRICA
Guinea_Icon.png

GUINEA

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Guinea_Icon.png

AZANEA

SOUTH AFRICA
Azanea_Icon.png

AZANEA

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Azanea_Icon.png

CETECEA

NORTHEAST ANTARCTICA
Cetecea_Icon.png

CETECEA

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Cetecea_Icon.png

MALVINEA

NORTHWEST ANTARCTICA
Malvinea_Icon.png

MALVINEA

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Malvinea_Icon.png

PLATINEA

SOUTH CRUCEA
Platinea_Icon.png

PLATINEA

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Platinea_Icon.png

MERIDEA

NORTH CRUCEA
Meridea_Icon.png

MERIDEA

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Meridea_Icon.png

COLUMBEA

SOUTH SEPTENTREA
Columbea_Icon.png

COLUMBEA

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Columbea_Icon.png

HANUNEA

EAST SEPTENTREA
Hanunea_Icon.png

HANUNEA

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Hanunea_Icon.png

THULEA

NORTH SEPTENTREA
Thulea_Icon.png

THULEA

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Thulea_Icon.png

HESPEREA

WEST SEPTENTREA
Hesperea_Icon.png

HESPEREA

THE

PAINTED

EARTH

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Hesperea_Icon.png
Regions_Selection.png
Europea_Icon.png

Northwest Borealea

Asea_Icon.png

Southwest Borealea​​

Libya_Icon.png

North Africa

Erythrea_Icon.png

East Africa

Indea_Icon.png

South Borealea

Siberea_Icon.png

North Borealea

Serica_Icon.png

East Borealea

Sumatrea_Icon.png

West Gandrasea

Tamirea_Icon.png

South Gandrasea

Polynesea_Icon.png

East Gandrasea

Cetecea_Icon.png

Northeast Antarctica

Malvinea_Icon.png

Northwest Antarctica

Platinea_Icon.png

South Crucea

Meridea_Icon.png

North Cruea

Columbea_Icon.png

South Septentrea

Thulea_Icon.png

North Septentrea

Hanunea_Icon.png

East Septentrea

Hesperea_Icon.png

West Septentrea

Libya_Zoom.jpg

LIBYA

TYPES OF EXONYMS

NORTH AFRICA

Hemmed in by the Mediterranean and Sahara, Libya was long a world apart from Asea and Europea, and yet, ironically, early advancements in maritime navigation and the adoption of camels made it accessible and easy game for traders and conquerors from afar. The emergence of Islam, and its spread westwards from Arabia, eventually engulfed desert peoples to the south and pushed the boundaries of Libya further to the marches of the Sahel.

The peoples of Libya share of similar cultural adaptations as those peoples across the Mediterranean in Europea, and the ones in the north even appear to be of the same ancestry. Yet, by religion, material culture, and linguistics, they are quite distant. Long famed for its oasis cities, gold deposits, and mythical rivers and inland seas, Muslim and Christian foreigners alike only began to explore Libya's interior in the last couple of centuries, discovering the Niger's inland delta and the true extent of Lake Chad in time.

MAP PLATES

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ON TOPONYMS

Ethnocentrism has always dogged geographers. Atlas Altera is written in English for those of the Anglosphere, who have generally inherited neighbouring European traditions. Here, countries and regions are rendered as if it is the tradition most familiar and accepted in practical usage by native English-speakers in Altera. Thus, the political map of Altera is rendered with exonyms, and the atlas draws deep from situated knowledges while simultaneously attempting to push the boundaries of those knowledges.

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TYPES OF EXONYMS

The names of earth’s landmasses, continents, regions, and toponyms in Libya, Asea, and Erythrea were normalized by Venetian cartographers, who readily brought west maps of the south and east via their contact with the Grecians in Constantinople, a critical nexus point for trafficking things and knowledges across Borealea and Africa until the Age of Discovery. Toponyms of western continental Europea, generally corresponding to historically European Catholic areas, are derived from the naming conventions of the Dieppe school, which was influential until becoming eclipsed by the mapmakers of Antwerp. The Antwerp School made places of the Arctic and Norway known to the rest of Europea. Thus, the -ny, -land, and -ia suffixes generally correspond to these three schools of cartography influential to the English tradition.

The Dieppe School also began to incorporate the less systemic toponyms of the Spanish and Portuguese, which came out of early conquests in Septentrea and Crucea, most of which broke from the practice of naming places after native inhabitants but instead came from the Doctrine of Discovery. The Antwerp School fully normalized the practice of transliterating foreign toponyms through the lens of the regional hegemons in places where there was closer power parity between Europeans and natives, especially in Indea, Serica, and in the parts of Septentrea and Crucea that retained autonomy. The transliterations made in this time preserve the local pronunciations in the 18th and 19th centuries and may now be quite distant to the modern endonyms.

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