Rename successor states: Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus) and Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus)

- Volga-centered empire: Great Khanate (大汗国), claiming supreme authority
- Mongolia homeland state (Tolui line): Mongol Khanate (蒙古汗国), claiming Genghis Khan's legitimate succession
- Updated all references throughout the document

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

1 files changed, 24 insertions, 24 deletions

diff --git a/WORLDBUILDING.md b/WORLDBUILDING.md
index a39a339..2b8d090 100644
--- a/WORLDBUILDING.md
+++ b/WORLDBUILDING.md
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ Song Huizong's northern campaigns succeed instead of ending in the Jingkang disa
 - The most industrialized nation in the world
 - Controls China proper + northern territories (Manchuria south) + likely South China Sea / Southeast Asian colonial possessions
 - Political system: evolved from Song's civil-military dual structure, possibly constitutional monarchy or some form of representative government evolved from the keju-scholar-official class
-- Key V3 gameplay tensions: North-South divide, colonial management, relationship with Mongol-Rus Empire
+- Key V3 gameplay tensions: North-South divide, colonial management, relationship with Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus)
 
 ---
 
@@ -121,19 +121,19 @@ Song Huizong's northern campaigns succeed instead of ending in the Jingkang disa
 - Capital: Tabriz (northwestern Persia/Azerbaijan)
 - Eventually independent after succession crisis
 - **Already substantially Islamicized by ~1300** (historical pattern: Ghazan Khan converted 1295)
-- Persian bureaucrats are the administrative backbone (mirror of Byzantium's role in Mongol-Rus)
+- Persian bureaucrats are the administrative backbone (mirror of Byzantium's role in Great Khanate)
 - Culturally evolving into a Mongol-dynasty Persian-Islamic empire
 - **Egypt**: governed by Mongol military governor (replacing Turkic Mamluk elite). Mongol hereditary military aristocracy replaces the non-hereditary Mamluk slave-soldier system. Arab/Coptic administrative class retained. Al-Azhar and Islamic institutions preserved. Tendency toward autonomy over time (Egypt always separates eventually — Tulunids, Fatimids, Muhammad Ali pattern). By V3 era: likely a Mongol-blooded but fully Arabicized/Islamicized dynasty.
 
-### Tolui Khanate (Far East)
+### Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus) (Far East)
 - **Mongol homeland** (now the imperial periphery, not the center)
 - Northern Manchuria (Jianzhou/Jurchen tribal areas north of Song border)
 - Siberia and Russian Far East (nominally - actually scattered tribes)
 - Very sparse population, poor but strategically positioned
 - **Interesting V3 playable faction** with multiple gameplay paths:
-  - "Mongol Restoration": claim Great Khanate during Mongol-Rus instability
+  - "Mongol Restoration": claim Great Khanate during Great Khanate instability
   - "Mandate of Heaven": exploit Song internal crisis to invade, recreating the Qing scenario
-  - "Far Eastern Balancer": play Song and Mongol-Rus against each other
+  - "Far Eastern Balancer": play Song and Great Khanate against each other
 
 ---
 
@@ -148,15 +148,15 @@ Ogedei dies (alcoholism, historical pattern). Succession crisis ensues, but fund
 - Resolved faster (proximity) but more violently
 
 ### Outcome: Possibility B (Rus core consolidates, periphery separates)
-- **Mongol-Rus Empire**: Ogedei/Jochi lines merge. Controls Rus + Golden Horde territories + Hungary + direct corridor. Strongest successor state.
+- **Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus)**: Ogedei/Jochi lines merge. Controls Rus + Golden Horde territories + Hungary + direct corridor. Strongest successor state.
 - **Chagatai Khanate**: Central Asia becomes fully independent
 - **Ilkhanate**: Middle East becomes fully independent, Islamicizes
-- **Tolui Khanate**: Retains Mongol homeland + Far East, becomes a peripheral power
+- **Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus)**: Retains Mongol homeland + Far East, becomes a peripheral power
 - Volga capital's geographic advantage: close enough to maintain stronger authority over Golden Horde and Central Asia than historical Karakorum, but still loses control of distant Ilkhanate
 
 ---
 
-## The Mongol-Rus Empire (Post-Split, ~1300 onward)
+## The Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus) (Post-Split, ~1300 onward)
 
 ### Nature: Between Ottoman Empire and Qing Dynasty
 - Not as many radically different ethnic groups as the Ottomans
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ Ogedei dies (alcoholism, historical pattern). Succession crisis ensues, but fund
 
 ### Qing Dynasty Parallels
 
-| Qing Dynasty | Mongol-Rus Empire |
+| Qing Dynasty | Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus) |
 |---|---|
 | Manchu minority rules Han majority | Mongol minority rules Slavic majority |
 | Adopts keju examination system | Adopts Orthodox Church + Slavic civil service |
@@ -191,12 +191,12 @@ Ogedei dies (alcoholism, historical pattern). Succession crisis ensues, but fund
 
 ## Vassal and Neighbor States
 
-### Hungary: Absorbed into Mongol-Rus Core
+### Hungary: Absorbed into Great Khanate Core
 - Hungarian Plain = western terminus of the Eurasian Steppe
 - Directly incorporated, not vassalized
 - Mongol/Kipchak/Cuman nomads settle the eastern plain
 - Magyar population pushed to margins (Transdanubia, northern mountains/Slovakia)
-- By 1836: ethnically mixed region (Mongol/Turkic/Slavic/Magyar), core province of Mongol-Rus Empire
+- By 1836: ethnically mixed region (Mongol/Turkic/Slavic/Magyar), core province of Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus)
 - Magyar identity possibly extinct or reduced to minority status (like historical Avars)
 
 ### Poland: "Korean Model" Vassal
@@ -236,7 +236,7 @@ Ogedei dies (alcoholism, historical pattern). Succession crisis ensues, but fund
 - Teutonic Order destroyed by Mongol advance
 - German colonization of Prussia interrupted -> Prussian Germans remain a small minority
 - Teutonic Order remnant: submits to some power for protection, eventually becomes a German-minority autonomous district (parallel to historical Livonian Order fate)
-- Region managed by Novgorod as the Mongol-Rus Empire's Baltic proxy
+- Region managed by Novgorod as the Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus)'s Baltic proxy
 - Baltic tribal peoples (Latvians, Estonians, Old Prussians) persist without German colonization pressure
 - Denmark may retain northern Estonia
 
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ Ogedei dies (alcoholism, historical pattern). Succession crisis ensues, but fund
 - **Possibly bypassed** by main Mongol thrust along the northern plain
 - Czech national identity too strong for absorption into German nationalism
 - Silver mining wealth, industrial potential
-- Strategically positioned between Greater Germany and Mongol-Rus sphere
+- Strategically positioned between Greater Germany and Great Khanate sphere
 - In V3: mid-tier independent power
 
 ### The Partition of France and the Plantagenet Kingdom
@@ -301,7 +301,7 @@ Mongol raids into northern France (Flanders, Picardy, ~1240s-1250s) weaken the C
 - **Formation**: Capetian cadet branch declares independence as France collapses
 - **Territory**: Duchy of Burgundy (Dijon) + County of Burgundy / Franche-Comté (Besançon)
 - **Language**: Almost entirely French-speaking (~100%). The Franco-German linguistic border runs along the Vosges Mountains; Burgundy is fully on the French side. Franche-Comté was in the HRE but linguistically Romance.
-- **Relationship with Greater Germany**: Strategic ally but NOT part of German unification. German ethnic nationalism cannot absorb a purely French-speaking state. Alliance based on shared threats (Plantagenet France to the west, Mongol-Rus to the east).
+- **Relationship with Greater Germany**: Strategic ally but NOT part of German unification. German ethnic nationalism cannot absorb a purely French-speaking state. Alliance based on shared threats (Plantagenet France to the west, Great Khanate to the east).
 - **Claims**: May claim to be the legitimate successor to the French crown (Capetian blood vs. Plantagenet usurpers)
 - **V3 role**: Mid-tier independent French-speaking state, buffer between Plantagenet France and Greater Germany
 
@@ -339,11 +339,11 @@ Mongol raids into northern France (Flanders, Picardy, ~1240s-1250s) weaken the C
 - **Kalmar Union will form** (even more pressure than historical):
   - Anglo-French union across the Channel
   - Earlier unified Greater Germany
-  - Mongol-Rus Empire with Novgorod buffer
-- Denmark may lose northern Estonia to Mongol-Rus sphere
+  - Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus) with Novgorod buffer
+- Denmark may lose northern Estonia to Great Khanate sphere
 - Sweden continues Finnish expansion unopposed
 - Norway maintains Atlantic possessions (Iceland, Greenland, Faroe Islands)
-- No Great Northern War equivalent (Mongol-Rus doesn't prioritize Baltic access - their window is Black Sea/Constantinople)
+- No Great Northern War equivalent (Great Khanate doesn't prioritize Baltic access - their window is Black Sea/Constantinople)
 
 ### Italy (~1300: No significant divergence yet)
 - Protected by Alps from Mongol invasion - no direct impact
@@ -357,7 +357,7 @@ Mongol raids into northern France (Flanders, Picardy, ~1240s-1250s) weaken the C
 ## Key Trade Routes
 
 ### Silk Road (Enhanced)
-Song goods -> Central Asia -> Mongol-Rus territory -> two routes:
+Song goods -> Central Asia -> Great Khanate territory -> two routes:
 1. **Northern route**: -> Novgorod -> Hanseatic League -> all of Europe
 2. **Southern route**: -> Black Sea -> Constantinople (Byzantine) -> Mediterranean
 
@@ -377,7 +377,7 @@ Song goods -> Central Asia -> Mongol-Rus territory -> two routes:
   - Site of Song's northern industrial expansion
   - Jurchen minority gradually sinicized
   - Key to Song's industrialization story (labor scarcity -> mechanization)
-- **Northern Manchuria** (Heilongjiang, outer Manchuria): Tolui Khanate sphere
+- **Northern Manchuria** (Heilongjiang, outer Manchuria): Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus) sphere
   - Forest/tundra, very sparse population
   - Jianzhou and other Jurchen tribes maintain semi-independent hunting/fishing lifestyle
   - Too cold and poor for Song expansion, too marginal for Mongol attention
@@ -386,14 +386,14 @@ Song goods -> Central Asia -> Mongol-Rus territory -> two routes:
 - Historical Manchu unification required: weak Ming control of northeast + space for Jurchen consolidation
 - In this timeline: Song industrial control in south + Mongol sphere in north = two strong powers squeezing Jurchens
 - Jurchens never unify into a single state
-- By 1836: minority ethnic group split between Song (assimilated) and Tolui Khanate (tribal)
+- By 1836: minority ethnic group split between Song (assimilated) and Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus) (tribal)
 
 ---
 
 ## Religion in This World
 
 ### Eastern Orthodoxy
-- Becomes the dominant religion of the Mongol-Rus Empire
+- Becomes the dominant religion of the Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus)
 - Mongol ruling class likely converts to Orthodoxy (similar to Bulgars converting after conquering Slavs)
 - Reasoning: ruling a majority Orthodox population, deep integration, Orthodox Church provides administrative network
 - Constantinople remains the spiritual center (under Byzantine vassal state)
@@ -433,10 +433,10 @@ All major regions defined at the 1300 checkpoint. Summary of world powers:
 | Power | Center | Nature |
 |---|---|---|
 | Song Dynasty | China (Kaifeng/Hangzhou) | Industrial superpower, expanding into SE Asia |
-| Mongol-Rus Empire | Volga River | Largest land empire, Orthodox, Mongol-Slavic hybrid |
+| Great Khanate (Yeke Ulus) | Volga River | Largest land empire, Orthodox, Mongol-Slavic hybrid |
 | Ilkhanate | Tabriz | Islamicized Mongol-Persian empire, controls Middle East + Egypt |
 | Chagatai Khanate | Samarkand | Central Asian, Islamicizing |
-| Tolui Khanate | Mongolia/Siberia | Peripheral, poor, strategic position |
+| Mongol Khanate (Mongol Ulus) | Mongolia/Siberia | Peripheral, poor, strategic position |
 | Plantagenet France | Paris | Atlantic power, cross-Channel, rising |
 | Greater Germany | Hanseatic cities | Commercial power, emerging from Mongol vassalage |
 | Crown of Aragon | Barcelona | Mediterranean + Languedoc |
@@ -462,6 +462,6 @@ All major regions defined at the 1300 checkpoint. Summary of world powers:
 4. **The Americas**: Who discovers/colonizes them?
 5. **Africa and India**: Song colonial sphere? European competition?
 6. **Song's North-South civil war**: When? Outcome? What does Song look like by 1836?
-7. **Mongol-Rus internal evolution**: Slavic nationalism? Industrialization attempts?
+7. **Great Khanate internal evolution**: Slavic nationalism? Industrialization attempts?
 8. **Ilkhanate fragmentation**: Does Egypt break away? Persia's trajectory?
 9. **1836 technology levels**: Who has what? Is Song far ahead of everyone?