Oceania

Image of a lone Muslim practicing his faith in Sumatra, Indonesia.

### Minority Culture(s)

Lesser Sundanese cultures, Sulawesian, Sumatran, Timorese, Papuan, Polynesian, Micronesian, Melanesian, German, Finnish, Aborigines, Mauri

### Minority Religion(s)

Shia Islam, Catholicism, Aborigines Dream-Time & Pacific Islander Shamanism

**Oceania** is a continent and region located east and south of Asia, and west of South America. It is comprised of the many islands scattered across the Pacific Ocean, beginning east of the Philippines, Borneo and Java, stretching across thousands of islands eastward, and ending at Hawaii and Rapa Nui. It is a very diverse and complex region, having historically been the site of a variety of empires. This has resulted in an incredibly diverse continent, made up of a variety of different cultures and peoples mixing together to form a single greater Oceanic cultural zone.

## Indonesia

Indonesia is the region of Oceania consisting of the islands of Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Lesser Sunda Islands, Sulawesi, Timor, the Maluku Islands, and Papua New Guinea. These islands each carry their own distinctive language, culture, and history. However, most of these islands are united by a shared religion, that being Sunni Islam. Islam was introduced to the area before the beginning of the server by Arab traders migrating through the region for commerce, many of whom would go on to settle the Nicolides in northeastern Australia, spreading their religion far and wide. This was only exemplified under the rule of the Sultanate of the Nicolides, which cemented Sunni Islam as the state religion of much of Oceania. These people's Islamic traditions hold firm, even while the nations that helped foster it have largely fallen into insignificance.

One notable exception to this is the island of Timor, which is radically different from the rest of Indonesia. This island is instead inhabited by Portuguese-speaking Catholics, largely of Iberian-Indonesian mixed heritage, who've lived on the island for centuries. These people are notable for their creation of the vast Timorese Empire, which dominated much of Southeast Asia during the early 200'sAD. Unfortunately, not much is left of this civilization after the solar flare, and their unique culture and religious practices remain largely isolated on the island.

Another notable culture in this region is that of the Papuan Japanese, who are descended from Japanese soldiers who garrisoned the island during the era of The Empire of Japan. These people speak a unique dialect of Japanese crudely dubbed "Japuan", which appears to be a interesting mix of local papuan tongue and Honshu Japanese. They are the only practicing Shintoists in the entirety of the Indonesian Islands, however their people are at risk of disappearing within the next two centuries due to incredibly low birthrates and an elderly makeup.

Modern Indonesia is mainly dominated by the Dutch East Indies, who use the region as a rubber-exportation colony.

## The Philippines

The Philippines is the island chain north of the Indonesian Isles, being made up of roughly 1,000 unique islands. Many of these islands speak unique local languages, however a common language is spoken amongst them commonly referred to as "Tagalog", or simply "Filipino". English is also quite prominently spoken in the isles, alongside Arabic. The Philippines traditionally were an Islamic stronghold, being brought under that by the Nicolides and Sultanate of Libya respectively, but were eventually converted out of it upon the arrival of the Finnish whom introduced Christianity to the islands. This Christian tradition would continue to spread and flourish largely untouched until the modern era, where the United States has introduced it as the national religion fostering even more conversions to Protestantism. Regardless, much of the southern islands remain Islamic with large Arabic-speaking communities as a direct result. The Philippines is notable for being the hearth of a prominent nation in the 300'sAD, who participated in the "Reawakening War" with Bharat.

An interesting tid-bit is that most of the local island cultures actually use variants of the Japanese Kanji writing system for their languages, left-overs from the Empire of Japan introducing the system to the region via force.

## The Pacific Islands

The Pacific Islands are an incredibly diverse region that can only be grouped together under a common heritage of Polynesian explorers who settled across the tens of thousands of islands littering this vast ocean. As a result of the sheer diversity across the islands, there are possibly thousands of different tongues and religions practiced- although the vast majority of them can be linked together with the Ancient Polynesian practices originating out of the island of Taiwan. These islands have seen empires come and go for centuries, although none particularly imposed cultural influences upon the region- with the exception of the United States of America. The Americans have introduced Christianity and the English language to much of these islands, and in particular Hawaii- whose ethnic makeup has now largely shifted to that of Anglo-Americans, with the native Hawaiian peoples becoming an unfortunate minority within their own home.

This region, due to its substantial lack of resources, has only seen a singular empire ever rise out of it; United Melanesia. United Melanesia comes from the island of New Caledonia, and came to control various islands across Indonesia. They lasted for roughly five decades before their collapse, and left nothing of note behind in their wake besides political chaos and poverty.

## Australia & New Zealand

Australia and New Zealand have perhaps seen the single most success out of any other region in the Oceanic area, unsurprising due to the large amounts of territory they have to offer and vast natural resources contained within both.

Australia in particular has a long and diverse history, having been split between a variety of powers for millennia. Some of the first of these empires were the Byzantines, New Portuguese, and Japanese who divided the continent amongst themselves. These empires would come to lose control of the continent as time went on, with the exception of the Byzantines who would come to control New South Wales for almost two centuries before selling the territory to the Terran Federation. The Finnish would come to conquer the westernmost portion of the continent, and introduce their culture and language to the region. Australia afterwards would come under control of the South African Republic, which in itself was a former British Colony, where the English language and people were introduced to the lands. South Africa and Australia would come to split and become rivals, while the English-speaking Australians would rule over the entire continent, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea for nearly two centuries before finally fracturing. This period solidified the Australia as firmly apart of the Anglosphere, with the possible exception of Nicolidesland in Cape York which retained much of it's culture and islamic heritage after revitalization efforts occurred in the area by the Australian government to support these peoples and their cultural hearth of Nikalidian. Nicolidesland itself would come to briefly unite with some of it's surrounding territories, before largely falling into obscurity once more- until the modern era, where the United States has once again pushed for a United Continent (with the exception of the German colony in the west of the continent) during the Davao Conference. Unfortunately though, Australia and the United States now find themselves in a state of war against one another.

Australia, as a result of the empires which have came and gone, is an incredibly diverse place. Along the western coast exists the Australian Finns, who number in the mere thousands, and small communities of German settlers dominated by English cities scattered across the harsh outback and the rest of the continent. In Cape York- or Nicolidesland and it's commonly known- a strong islamic culture continues to thrive, while Austro-Arabic dominates the area. In the rest of the continent, Protestantism and English are the undisputed rules of the continent. In the very depths of the continent lay the remaining Aboriginal tribes, who've largely been pushed out of the coastal regions from colonial powers into harsh lives within the Outback. These aboriginals practice an interesting belief more akin to a morality compass simply known as "dream-time", which is unlike any other religion in the world. The Aboriginals however face a continual declining population, and if none is done, they may disappear to the sands of time forever. Regardless of what the future holds for Australia, the future appears bright.

New Zealand holds an incredibly close history to the Australians, having been linked together for the vast majority of their existence. Something notable from these islands however was the New Zealand Socialist Republic, which would come to conquer large portions of eastern Australia and participate in the Cold War with the Russian State. This Socialist Paradise was then followed up with a Anarchist "state" which flourished until the Australian Commonwealth formally introduced their rule to the islands, bringing them into the fold until the eventual dissolution of much of the continent.

Culturally, New Zealand is identical to Australia- being a Protestant-majority, anglosphere nation. The only real difference is the presence of the Mauri, a native Polynesian tribe which holds significant pop culture influence amongst the New Zealanders and globally.

## Summary

Overall, Oceania is an incredibly diverse place rivaled nowhere else in the world in it's natural beauty and culture-religious diversity. This region continues to flourish to this day despite their vast differences and history of conquest, but perhaps one day that'll change and an empire akin to that of the Timorese will rise once more and push Oceania into the limelight it has lacked for a millennia.