A Brief Guide to the Albian Parallels

Central to the Metaverse, Albion is where transparallel travel was first discovered. This level is called Arthur Tudor after the monarch credited with leading the way to the Golden Age of Albion.

King Arthur I barely survived tuberculosis early in his life. This, and the fact that the 15th Century had been devastated by plague, lead Arthur to encourage the sciences and their practical application. This improvement in medicine and healthcare led to the English Scientific Revolution in the mid 1500's. This, in turn, led to the English Industrial Revolution as the new knowledge was applied.

King Arthur and his wife, Catherine of Aragon had 14 children and 42 grandchildren who married into other European royal houses earning Arthur Tudor the nickname “the grandfather of Europe”.

The two English Revolutions led to what became known as the Golden Age of Albion as increasing industry and mechanisation and increased health, vitality and long life brought lessened toil and freedom. Free education for all brought in an era of peace, harmony, stability, and prosperity. This golden age attracted many of the great thinkers of the world to settle in Albion and the nation's stability and freedom encouraged a huge influx of refugees fleeing religious persecution.

By 1701 England had peacefully united with Scotland and Wales to form the Royal Union of Albion (RUA). The name Albion was chosen as it was an ancient name for the island of Britain and it was considered neutral and all encompassing. The head of the Tudor College at the time, Leonardo Pallavicini was Italian. "Alba" means dawn in Italian and the name was considered to be a particularly fitting way to herald the new age.

In Albion education was free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 and 20. 

A Citizen of the RUA was known as an Albian, as was the language. Although formed from three separate countries Albians considered that none were separate, all of Albion was Scottish, all of Albion was English, and all of Albion was Welsh. (This ethos followed through when the 7 Parallels of the Commonwealth of Albion were formed, each CoA parallel may be considered a separate state but all are equally Ashanti, Bharatiya, and Avalonian etc.)

1747 Albian astronauts land on the moon 

1765 Albian astronauts land on Mars

1793 Barnaby Fitzwilliam disappears from his laboratory in the Royal Tudor College whilst performing experiments with an FtL (Faster than Light) engine

1795 Barnaby Fitzwilliam reappears in his lab after being returned to our universe by the K’afamjadali humans who exist on a parallel earth. Three K’afamjadalis return with Fitzwilliam - Eshvan Alstus, Rarter Bish and Gweth Jutla.

1801 Albion embarks on an era of exploration into new parallels and the Royal Albion Rangers are formed to lead the exploration. By 1810 the RA Rangers are the sole military force of Albion and have 5 components, Air Rangers, Land Rangers, Scout Rangers, Sea Rangers and the Space Rangers.

1803 The first parallel colony - Nova Anglia is formed

1804 The parallel colonies of Caledonia and Avalon are formed

1805 The Irish are the first non-Albion people to be given their own colony. It is called “Éire Nua” or New Ireland 

1806 The parallel colony of Cymru is formed.

1807 The Swedish are allowed to form their own colony called “Nya Sverige”.

1808 The Greater Netherlands are given their own parallel which they name “Nieuw Nederland".

1815 Scout Rangers enter a stricken parallel and find two surviving populations - the Ashanti in West Africa and the Bharatiya in northern India.

1816 The Ashanti and the Bharatiya are moved to an empty parallel which was originally called “Vita Nova” or New Life. Six months later the Ashanti express a desire to move to their own, empty parallel (empty of human life) and are allowed to move to one which they simply call “Ashanti”. Vita Nova becomes “Bharatavarsha” or the Land of the Bharatiya.

1840 France, the German Confederation and Spain declared war on Albion after the Heidelberg Pact. The war was about access to new parallels as the Albians allowed only their allies to form parallel colonies. Many other European powers feel that they should also have the right to access the metaverse and form their own colonies. The Albian Alliance (which included Ireland, Sweden and the Netherlands) may have had better technology, the Heidelberg Powers were prepared to use nuclear weapons.

1842 A nuclear bomb was exploded on the Falkland Islands with the threat that others would be detonated close to the Albian mainland if the Albian Alliance did not capitulate within 7 days. The Albian Alliance responded by opening temporary gates in Sweden and the Netherlands in an attempt to evacuate the entire populations of both countries into their parallel colonies. Albion herself turned on machines given to them by the Nantktar which translated all the Isles of Albion and Ireland into new parallels.This meant that from that point onwards both countries existed in isolation on separate parallels. These machines worked only once and are believed to have been have be powered by vacuum energy, which was at that time, beyond the capability of known science.

1844 The 5 parallels of Albion plus those of the Ashanti and the Bharatiya form the Commonwealth of Albion (CoA). The CoA is a federation of independent states each with its own government to run the affairs of the parallel. Military and foreign relations are run by the CoA. All parallels are considered to be separate but equal in every respect. As it was in the old RUA - although each parallel is a separate state, all are “of” each state in that all 7 parallels are equally of Caledonia, Cymraeg, Albion Bharatiya and Ashanti etc. Free movement of commonwealth citizens, goods and trade is allowed between all parallels.

Éire Nua, Nya Sverige, and Nieuw Nederland all declined the offer of joining the CoA but citizens of these parallels are allowed to visit, trade and even emigrate to the Albian parallels. These three parallels are all military allies of the CoA and military officers from all parallels are regularly involved in secondments to other parallels.

The head of each Albian state is the reigning Monarch of Albion. The monarch on each state is represented by the First Lord of the Parallel who is generally a person elected from the state that they represent, the title is the same regardless of sex.

The Monarch of Albion, as the head of state for each parallel, is considered to be in residence on each parallel as represented by the First Lord. The official home of the Monarch is one of the Seven Palaces of Albion which exist on each parallel state. Officially the monarch lives on each parallel for 4 years before the monarch and the Albian government move on to the next parallel in a revolving residency (it takes 28 years before a parallel again becomes the official home of the monarch and government).

The Senate of Albion is the body that runs affairs at Commonwealth level. The Senate also acts as the upper house for each parallel state and, in theory, the Senate has the power to scrutinise, over-rule and amend bills passed by any of the 7 Parallel Governments. In practice it is extremely rare for the Senate to use these powers.

Senators are directly elected by the parallel state that they represent and cannot serve terms longer than 7 years without elections. However, they are allowed to serve consecutive terms if re-elected.

New Albion is something of a misnomer as it contains all of “Old Albion” in a new parallel that was previously uninhabited by intelligent life. London remains the capital of New Albion and is still considered to be the heart of the Commonwealth. Inhabitants of New Albion proudly call themselves “Arthurs” after the legendary Tudor King.