The Duchy of Tatarstan

For those who are interested, there will be another Fallow post.

In the meantime, I am still steadily writing wiki posts upon parts of Moscovy that I posted last Friday.  Today's contribution is Tatarstan:

It's a detailed, time-consuming process, particularly as I notice small errors on maps or tables that then need to be re-saved as images and then updated into the wiki.  The process for updating an image in the wiki is tedious, as the safety features of the wiki require that first I change the name of the old image before uploading the new (it won't overwrite).  Then if I delete the old image, it will sit in the trash bin for 30 days before going away.  This is great for people who delete too quickly, but for me it means a lot of stuff I don't need just sitting there.  Anyway, that is why you will see versions of maps with the word 'junk' in the title; it is a note to myself that I need to go find those files and delete them, as I have changed the name in order to insert a new image.

I'm explaining this because I see from my data that there are some 50 unique visitors who view about 400 pages daily, without being told to look.  That's terrific!  Without urging, there were 78 views yesterday on my Ryazan page (which I created yesterday morning).  I'm glad the readers are enjoying the wiki.

The history is tricky.  I've never tried to be precise before about what race was occupying which land at what time.  With the inclusion of all these other races, who in turn need kingdoms and histories created and then worked logically into human history, I find myself really pressed to keep it logical.  Please, if I goof up somewhere, let me know!  There's a lot to keep straight and I can easily forget that I've written something somewhere else months ago that disagrees with something I've written today.  Obviously, this will mean reinventing the 'facts' I'm inventing - but I see the whole project as a sort of fiction novel.  Changes in continuity truth are part of the process.

We were laughing over the weekend at the prospect of someone who has no idea what the wiki represents stumbling across it and foolishly using it as research for their high school or university paper.  The early execution of Ivan the Terrible as a boy, for instance (which no one mentioned - I hope some of you noticed!), would be quite the omission if someone thought I was talking about actual Russian history of the 16th century.

I fully expect that sooner or later I'm going to get an email from someone demanding to know what the FUCK I'm doing writing all these lies and misinformation.  How irresponsible.

Well, time to stretch, apply for work and turn my mind back to Fallow.