“Two dozen--and yet you killed all but one?" The provost arched a brow and set her quill down again as if unwilling to record a falsehood.
"Dear lady, I killed them from youngest child to oldest woman, and when I was done I blunted three axes dismembering their corpses. I am Jorg of Ancrath--I burned ten thousand in Gelleth and didn't think it too many.”
― Mark Lawrence, Emperor of Thorns
Join the newsletter if you would like to receive new dev diaries, webshop discounts and other goodies from Kaiser Cat Cinema.
What if the Americas had been settled in the Dark Ages?
In American Kingdoms, American history is re-imagined as an Arthurian medieval epic – an age defined not by musket and cannon, but by knightly honor and courtly intrigue. After gathering up some sketches and paintings I have been working on in secret, I'm very proud to release them in our first ever American Kingdoms-themed dev diary!
A medieval tapestry depicting the Battle of Bunker Hill
At its core, the 'American Kingdoms' project is about laying down a new garden for us to play in with the World Of and Documentary series. Me and Day the Editor have long been dreaming of a lore we could write from the ground up, and a medieval American setting feels just right for the channel. 'Medieval America' is one of those great 'what ifs' that is not explored nearly enough on YouTube.
The Wiki Writing Project and Writer's Contest
As we are building American Kingdoms from the ground up, we have a lot more leeway to experiment with a community-driven universe. I am planning on launching American Kingdoms with a public wiki. This will allow anyone to add their own lords, characters, and nations to the world.
The larger lore hierarchy will be resolved through the feudal system: the highest-level demesne (kingdoms, duchies, regions) will be written out by the KCC crew and Patreons, but below that level anyone can imagine their own lords and holdings.
To kick things off, I want to launch the project with a writing contest when the trailer is done. This will be our first foray into making our story more community-driven. Traditionally, we have pooled lore from the Kaiserreich rework documents — now, we intend to write our own and invite anyone who would like to participate to our public wiki project. I am still working on the tech, so it's a project that we intend to roll out slowly over 2025.
A Crusader Knight and natives from the Cheyenne tribe fight during the Siege of Mount Rushmore.
Some of my early concept art exploring the Native Americans in AK. Keen eyes will notice the return of my classic 'World Of' image template, where a small lore piece is written directly on the art as I work on it.
A Closer Look at the Factions
Right now, I am drawing up concepts for three 'World Of' videos, depicting some of the larger factions in the worldbuilding project.
It is known I love me some good project posters. The key art for 'World of American Kingdoms: The Union' is also available as an art print on the webshop.
• The Union: The titular American Kingdoms — 13 outremer British colony kingdoms that declared independence in 1477. Now, they exist as a loose federation of duchies and realms under the different states. In American Kingdoms, the various states take on more of the cultural traits of their settler nations — imagine fierce Viking states in the North, gallant Hispanic and French settlers in the South.
"I venture, your Grace, that the Union is not American, not holy, and barely a Union at that!"
– Speaker of the House, Lord Evermore of New Kent
• The Redcloaks: Perfidious Albion is never far away, of course. Across the ocean, the British Emperor plots to regain his lost territories, and European influence on the continent remains strong. The Redcloaks’ power is not always overt, however. Among the European-aligned Southern kingdoms — and inside The Thirteen themselves — many still hold secret loyalties to the Emperor across the sea...
"This King of Britain, the Red Lion of London, crushes his enemies in France and the Low Countries. The Hundred Years War has ended, and all of France kneels to his demesne. The Danes, the Norse — all jewels in his growing crown. Now, he calls himself King of Kings — Emperor.
We should do well to fear him."
– Lord Liam Crowter, Duke of Massachusetts
• The Natives: The tribes of the American Continent were pushed beyond the Appalachian Mountains after a series of devastating wars with the British, French, and Spanish in the early medieval period. Now, they have adopted Western armorworking, horse riding, and have begun pushing back with increased ferocity against the European invaders.
"We were always first. First to build a nation. First to heed the will of the people. First to follow the elders. My forefathers would have us live in peace, to kowtow to these European invaders while they nibble and chip away at our land.
Luckily, I am not my forefathers."
– Hastiin of Najavo Nation, 'the Orator', at the Congress of Tribes
• The Deep South and Wild West: Beyond even the furthest reaches of American crusaders — beyond the Rocky Mountains — lie lands even stranger, shrouded in mystery. Legends say a Dragon Emperor reigns on the Western Sea — a great empire arrived to American shores by way of a treasure fleet...
"So consumed we are with our little wars and petty rivalries, my lords. Yet ours is but a toehold in a continent vast beyond comprehension. I have seen the lands west of the Rockies. I have drunk tea with the Moors who settled there, rode horses with the tribes of the Plains. Even further South and West, things even stranger. A Dragon Emperor in California who arrived by ships larger than we have ever engineered. Empires of Aztec and Inca, deep in the jungles and deserts of Mexico..."
– Ser Bedivere Franklin, addressing the Lord's Congress
Quick Q&A
To close things off, here is a quick round of questions and answers around the Discord
• What native factions will be covered?
-> Initially, I am making art for the Najavo and Cherokee, but we have refs for the Tingit and Calusa as well
• Will there be Chinese California, Aztecs, Moors, Muslim nations?
-> The idea is to create a 'medieval pastische' - all cultures and nations of the 1400s meeting on the American continent via settlements, fiefdoms, or entire duchies. So the answer would be: Yes, yes to all of it and more! I want Samurai fighting European knights in the Rocky Mountains, cavalry steppe archers duking it out with the Ming Chinese, and so forth.
• When will the writing contest and wiki release?
-> 'Soon +2 weeks'? 😅 The plan is to release the writing contest and open the wiki together with the project announcement trailer. However, there is a ton of work left to do for that trailer, so keep an eye on our newsletter for updates on the project
The Chairman's Desk: Personal notes, tarriffs and health update
Things are pretty good, actually.
I've recently added one of those 'spine supporting' matrasses to my supine desk setup, and my pain levels are at an acceptable level now. If things get worse, we will need to start the rounds of pain-killing spinal steroid injections (not looking forward to that). Despite that, the neurologist team agreed that I should try and hold off on spinal fusion surgery as long as possible. I am 33 now, and those surgeries are best done beyond 40 due to complications that arise when spinal implants degenerate with age. They say the current generation of implants last about 25 years, and there are risks of other complications as well.
In Kaiserreich Documentary 9 China, Flame wrote a line that stuck with me. 'It was not so much improvement as it was a tacit acceptance of the status quo.' That's pretty much where I am right now, I guess. I can't say I am happy about being a chronic pain patient at 33, and this will continue to complicate every facet of my life, but things are good enough where I can work and live a relatively normal life now. In the range of 'broke my spine' related problems, that is a huge privilege.
We've made some incredible progress on the American Kingdoms project, and it's something I am incredibly excited about. I think, if we can stick the course, this is going to be a huge part of the channel in the future. Of course, we have a big and massive Trump-sized problem on the horizon as well. As you all know, the Trump administration is slapping tarriffs on European imports to the United States. As an art collective that survives primarily on handling such exports, this could pretty much nuke us. Right now, we are facing some drops in revenue, but nothing earth-shattering... yet.
All eyes remain on Flagmaker & Print - I think I've said before that this project has single-handedly saved the channel. Because of the huge costs of making videos with original art, animation, voice acting, I do not see a path to KCC being able to pay me a living wage at our current size and setup. FMP has luckily covered those bases - sales of custom flags are now triple those of Kaiser Cat Cinema, and at a fraction of the marketing cost. That is an extremely privileged position to be in, as it frees up time for me to work on more creative endeavours.
That's it for now, thanks to everyone for reading the dev diary! If you haven't already, make sure to sign up to the newsletter and connect with Kaiser Cat Cinema on every platform via https://kaisercatcinema.com/connect
Regards,
Vincent
P.S: I'll leave you with some unused concept art - the first depicting King Washington as a religious icon, the second his son, Liam Washington, as the 'arrogant prince' who may be a pov character in the WoAK series.
I haven't fuly figured it out yet, but there's a few interesting things we can do with character presentaitons here. Think of medieval aesthetic things like tarot cards, stained glas window, as well as religious iconography. To be continued!