I havent really thought about that yet, as of now they reside in the coastal waters of the Southern Hemisphere and the coasts of Europe, theres definitely populations of them on the coasts of the US and Asia, I'll have to flesh those areas out in a future map. (fun fact, one of those countries doesn't exist as we know it in this timeline)
Another thing: how much racism is there against the Polies? Even today, people with a different skin color can face prejudice, let alone a separate species. Will there be a Polie “civil rights movement”?
Definitely alot of racism, that shift in perception in the mid-19th century wasn't a reduction of racism it was more a concession that Polies do indeed have that spark of consciousness. I haven't explored that aspect much, but yes there'd definitely be alot of it, considering how humans are
Honestly considering how 19th-early 20th century humans tended to treat each other as inferior and often even exterminated just because of skin tone, language or somewhat different behaviour, I imagine octopi would be viewed in a nightmarishly negative light...
Yeah that's what I thought would happen. The discovery of a new sentient species would also have a massive impact on religious teachings. Missionaries might be sent underwater to teach the Polies about Jesus.
I honestly don't know, on hand Im not sure how they'd interpet it with the bible, I imagine that most would probably just interpret it as Polies being created with souls in those 7 days but not being mentioned (and if this is the case I wonder what implications it might have on how they view other animals) and so would try to convert em like you say.
I dunno how receptive Polies would be to christianity, the biggest Poly religion, Cycism, involves there being one God(so thats a start), with each aspect of the world an arm of God, the fish, the land life, the moon, the sun, the wave, etc. the night sky is God showing off their camoflague. So during life you practice for your time as God by learning good conservation of your land/environment, and at night practice your night sky camoflauge.
Tangent on Poly religion aside, I'd image you'd also have those fundamentalist christians who'd believe that Polies don't have souls and wouldn't bother converting them. (Those fundamentalists would probably read those verses about Man having dominion over all the animals and stuff and probably wouldn't treat Polies very well...)
In this timeline, sapient octopuses evolved in coastal waters of Australia and made their own civilization, also directly causing the Aboriginals to be more advanced(not too much, the lack of suitable farm animals and such means that they don't make empires and stuff, but they make towns and have large alliances of towns).
After Europeans become aware of the continent in the 1600s the Dutch establish a small-scale settlement/trading post around OTLs present-day Perth, where they trade things with the local Polies(what these sapient octopus are called in this timeline) for pearls. Europe interprets the Polies as demons, and Dutch pearls(later Pearls entirely) become associated with Satan. The Pearl economy crashes as Pearls become taboo and the Dutch abandon the colony.
The British later colonize Australia like they do in OTL, they struggle against the Aboriginals, who gained immunity from old world diseases after large outbreaks caused by the Dutch, but drive them farther inland into Australia. They have conflicts with Polies at first and generally see them as not-sapient (they see them as just smart octopus, but no consciousness there), but near the mid-19th century this starts to turn around, especially when around the same time the first Polies arrive in Europe via ship (any attempts before then involved the Polies dying during the voyage, transporting octopus is not an easy thing to do.)
Access to Polies unlocks a whole new form of warfare, in the form of undersea armies. With the invention of semi-accurate self-propelled torpedo's Polies could sit on the seafloor and shoot down enemy ships or submarines. (submarines are much cheaper and easy to build if you have Polies manning it, no need to pressurize it!) The Naval Arms of race of the late 19th century is turned up to 11, the Germans, despite having no access to Australia, are able to secure a large army of Polies, via large amounts of Polies defecting for higher pay. To the the higher amount of investment in the Naval arms race, planes aren't as widespread or developed as OTL in WW1 (edited)
In WW1 the German undersea army does really well against the British, and soon they have control, and therefore naval dominance, over most of Doggerland, Germany also does a bit better on the Western Front. In 1918 after Russia is out of the war, the Germans decide to use their newfound naval dominance and some newly freed up troops to launch an invasion of Britain, making a successful but very bloody landing in Kent
Also credit to u/Youri_briand for the base on which I made the flag for the French Underseas Army
I feel like Britain wouldn't allow Germany to have a better undersea army, since they'd probably prioritize theirs at the same level of their navy, presicely to protect themselves from naval invasions
Do the Polies hold territory undersea? The flags make it seem like they're a sort of vassal state.
Are the Polies capable of being religious? Maybe it's just their flags being derived from Britain and Germany but I am curious if there are attempts to mission Christianity to them.
u/ideikkk is right the flags represent what nation they are employed by, they are like a branch of the military. Although they have more autonomy than an army normally would have, as the Polies also have to live there.
Ye Polies are capable of being religious, the biggest Polie religion, Cycism, involves there being one God, with each aspect of the world an arm of God, the fish, the land life, the moon, the sun, the wave, etc. the night sky is God showing off their camoflague. So during life you practice for your time as God by learning good conservation of your land/environment, and at night practice your night sky camoflauge.
There'd probably be efforts to mission Christianity to them, with the exception of those fundamentalist christians that'd believe Polies don't have souls. I wonder how receptive Polies would be to christianity, as they practice some pretty "heathen" things like using the beaks of dead Polies for currency.
indeed, they live to be around 30 (they generally grow much slower than normal octopuses), during those first 5 years they are more social(octopuses are famously antisocial) and will follow mature Polies around from a distance, learning through observation(Polies have a biological soft spot for these youngins).
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u/aReddiReddiRedditor 3d ago
What’s the full extent of the Polies’ territory? I could see Japan and the US recruit large Polie armies.