Lemuria



The Continent of Lemuria, also known as Kumari Kandam in the northern parts of the continent, is a continental landmass located entirely in the eastern hemisphere, and predominantly in the southern hemisphere. The major surrounding land masses are Africa (to the west), the Indian subcontinent (to the north) and Australia (to the east).

The continent is home to the nations of British Lemuria, Kumari, Meru Kumari, the French territory of Pantiya, Kobaulashlvi, Macehualuti, Utura, Sidura, Portuguese territories, Dutch territory, Chola, Kalari, Lasnova, Lankr and Akamatuli. Lemuria contains a large range of cultures which are usually divided into the four major culture groups: the Afro-Lemurians,  the indigenous/native Lemurians, the Indo-Lemurians and the Euro-Lemurians.

Lemuria covers approximately X,XXX,XXX square miles (X,XXX,XXX square kilometers), or about XX% of the Earth's exposed land or XX% of Earth's total surface area. Lemuria is the Xth largest continent, following South America and Australia. It is also the Xth largest in population. Lemuria's population, as of 2018, was estimated to be roughly XXX million people in 14 distinct nations and in various overseas regions/colonial holdings of foreign nations (see French Pantiya and Portuguese Utura).

It is estimated that human populations reached Lemuria as early as 70,000 BCE, or very soon after modern humans left the continent of Africa. However there have been a significant number of major colonization events onto the continent. The earliest settlers on the continent are thought to have derived from the early migrations of humans across the southern coasts of Asia as they spread toward modern day Indonesia and Australia. Subsequent waves of colonization have been tied to various human movements like the Austro-nesian or Austro-muror migration events, ancient Lemurian slave raids onto the southern and eastern African coastal regions and the territorial expansions/colonial settlements of Tamil, Dravidian and Indo-aryan peoples. In more recent history a large number of European peoples colonized the continent (primarily across the southern coasts of the continent), thus changing the cultural and ethnic landscape dramatically.

The history of the continent of Lemuria can be divided into three broad stages: Ancient Lemuria (Distant Past up through about 1270 AD/CE), the Medieval Period, and Modern Lemuria.

Due to the continent's tumultuous history as a sort of cross-roads between three other continents there are a large number of languages and cultures, many of which are heavily influenced by either Europe or the Indian subcontinent.

=Name= The one of the earliest documented European explorer to the continent, Englishman Daniel Randolph Fitzherbert, travelled in 1504-1505 with Arabian traders across the Indolemurian Ocean and landed in what is likely modern day Pantiya. He reported a land "fule of the wyldest beestes, whoys eyes shyne in the night lyke those damned spirits who walk the earth without rest." Fitzherbert named these animals lemurs (from the Latin lemures - ghosts or spirits) and published a small book "Voyages in the Land of the Lemures" of which no extant copies exist. While his book was only widely read for a short period across Europe, soon the continent was widely described in Europe as the "Land of the Lemurs" and thereafter Latinized to Lemuria. Sadly, Fitzherbert provided no real description of these first 'lemurs' so no specific species or group of species can be pointed to as the original lemurs for which the continent was named. =Geographical Extent= The United Nations has defined Lemuria as "that continental mass which lies to the south of the Indian subcontinent, west of Australia, north of Antarctica and east of Africa." While the island of Utura (home to Utura, Siduru and Portuguese Utura) is defined as being part of the Lemurian continent, the Maldives (despite their position on the Lemurian continental plate) are generally considered to be part of the Indian subcontinent. Also considered to be part of the continent is the Kerguelen islands however these do not lie on the Lemurian Plate.

Regions
Lemuria can be geographically divided into a few diverse, unique regions: the Island of Utura, the Chola Peninsula, the Western Coasts, the Western Ranges, the Obsidian Desert, the Northern/Kumari Plain, the Central Highlands, the Central Ranges, the Southern Plains, the Ackerson Desert, the Eastern Ranges, and the Eastern Seacoasts.

Countries & Territories
=Natural Characteristics=

=History=

Ancient Lemuria
Distant Past - 1270 CE

In distant pre-history humans arrived on Lemuria via primitive rafts via island hopping across the Indo-Lemurian Ocean. Gradually these proto-Lemurians filled the continent. Several smaller, local civilizations arose, but none grew to span more than about ¼ of the continent at any given time.

One of the ancient Lemurian empires, Ank-Moarporq, grew so powerful that it began to raid for slaves across the SE African coast. These slaves, horrendously mistreated for about three centuries by their Lemurian masters, eventually revolted and threw off their oppressors. The slaves throughout the Eastern Ank-Moarporq empire were slaughtered in droves, but those that escaped settled in the far western reaches of the continent. These escaped slaves eventually formed their own tribes which over time grew into petty kingdoms. Two of these kingdoms, Macehualuti and Kobaulashlivi, rose to regional prominence. Neither kingdom became more than a regional power and their fighting amongst themselves prevented their conquest of any significant area. Yet, no Lemurian civilization ever again rose to power enough to wipe these slave-kingdoms from the face of the continent.

It is estimated that the proto-Kumari people arrived in the northern reaches of Lemuria in about the 5th millenium BCE. Various states arose, and crumbled, throughout the tumultuous history of the north. Numerous trade and marriage links kept north Lemuria (called Kumari Kandam by the people of the area) linked with the peoples of South India. Some such interchanges left large cultural impacts on both India and Kumari Kandam, with various sea-empires covering some lands on both continents. Notably, the Tamil people of modern India are descendants of many of these sea-empires. One such empire, Chola, lasted from roughly 300BCE to 1270CE, and controlled the regional spice trade leading to great influxes of riches from areas as far away as the Levant and Japan.

Medieval Period
European Colonization

For centuries Europeans remained blissfully unaware of Lemuria believing it to be merely a fairytale land made up by Hindu and Muslim merchants. This state of affairs remained until the beginning of the Crusades, when Nasrani (Syriac or Eastern Christians) of India and Kumari Kandam arrived in the Levant to fight alongside the Europeans. This would have been a devastating advantage to the Christian forces, if it were not for the Kumari jihadis who also came to fight. These expeditionary forces from Kumari Kandam, both Muslim and Christian, only took part in the early Crusades. After that point, they remained in Kumari Kandam and fought bitterly amongst themselves for dominance of the political organs and trade routes. Ultimately neither side emerged victorious, as the Pantiya empire, a successor empire to the larger Chola empire, swept across the region and subjugated both Christians and Muslims alike.

The Chola Empire, weakened from before and completely ejected from India, maintained a strict hold on the trade routes that passed near northeastern Lemuria. They benefited from the trade, but were never able to dislodge the Pantiyan ‘usurpers’.

Also during this period a number of strong states arose among the islands and along the coasts of Kumari Kandam. One such nation, Kumari (for which the area was eventually named), came to control the bulk of Lemuria’s north-central coast. This empire, while never as rich as Pantiya or Chola, was militarily quite powerful, its warriors known for their strength and prowess in battle. Kumaran conquests came to include the largest extent over Lemuria that any empire had ever achieved. The Kumari lay claim to the interior deserts of Lemuria, as well as the trade ports that lay close off the Indian coast. The peak of the Kumari empire came right as the Europeans arrived en masse.

The first Europeans to mount an exploratory expedition to Lemuria were the Dutch. Their drive to circumvent the Ottoman blockade of the spice routes led them to search for new sources of spices. The first Dutch colony, Rodeklif, succumbed quickly to disease, wild animals, and depredations of native tribes. The Dutch, not recognizing Pantiyan sovereignty, sought to claim the NW coast of Lemuria for themselves. After a few more abortive attempts to establish colonies the Dutch merely leased a port in northern Kumari which they used as a staging area for their conquest of the far less organized East Indies.

The Portuguese also attempted colonization of Lemuria, but concentrated their efforts on the coast of Kobaulashlivi, eventually carving out for themselves a small area with the help of local allies, akin to their Indian port of Goa. This port, Maria Bonita do Abundância, or Abundância, became one of the most important stopping points along the Spice trade for the next three hundred years. While Kobaulashlivi resented the Portuguese conquest, eventually they came to appreciate the influx of goods and trade, forging an uneasy, but lasting, true with the Portuguese.

British colonial efforts were by far the most successful on Lemuria. Instead of challenging the northern empires of the continent, Britain turned its efforts south. Early explorations of the coast showed a number of weak nations ripe for Britain’s outstretched imperial arm to pluck up. Early British colonies, like Thunder Bay and Tinton, suffered from attacks by the native Lemurians for years until the establishment of the Lemurian Garrisons in 1706. This permanent quartering of imperial troops led to a few very beneficial outcomes. The English cattle brought Mycobacterium bovis or Bovine Tuberculosis. This devastated the local Myoula (the Lemurian distant cousin of European cattle), leading to a precipitous decline in numbers of the animals, which in turn destroyed many economies. This economic collapse, coupled with European disease, colonial encroachment, and fighting with the British Lemurian Garrisons, led to a 65% drop in the Lemurian population over a 30 year period. The broken kingdoms no longer able to resist the British advance into the continent were destroyed or fell back into the interior of the continent where continued starvation and disarray bled their strength away to nothing. The last Lemurian king, King Wanulu of Qlach, famously declared at his surrender to the British, “Our gods have cursed us, and your white god has blessed you. This is not our home any longer, it is our prison.”

The last European power to attempt any major conquest on Lemuria was France. Given France’s success in Africa they had more success than the Dutch on Lemuria due the staging area that Africa provided. Starting in 1873 the French bombarded Pantiyan ports and landed troops. The fall of the Pantiyan empire took 12 years in total, with the last hill forts holding out until the French starved them into submission in 1885.

After its formation Germany also attempted to gain a foothold on Lemuria. Following many of the same moves that Portugal had made almost 300 years earlier, in 1896 Germany tried to establish a beachhead in Macehualuti. By this time, however, the Afro-Lemurians had been preparing for European colonial assaults. The Macehualutian and Kobaulashlivian armies massacred the garrison and razed the German settlement of Schwarzhafen. The German government, humiliated by this attack, turned their focus to their colonial holdings in Africa.

Modern Lemuria
1900s and on

In 1942 German ethnologists working for the Nazi government travelled to Kobaulashlivi and Macehualuti with the intent of proving the ‘racial inferiority’ of the Afro-Lemurians. While there they discovered that the Portuguese had not only instigated the Afro-Lemurian attack on the German colony of Schwarzhafen but had armed and funded the attackers as well. This lead to a complete severing of diplomatic ties between Germany and Portugal for a period of two years, despite the previously neutral-to-cordial relationship the two authoritarian countries had previously had. This also allowed the Allies to pressure Portugal into cutting off trade to Nazi Germany toward the end of the war, thus preventing needed war materiel from reaching German factories.

=Demographics= =Economy= =Culture=