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Description
This one is a bit different than everything else I've done. Inspired by this: [link] and this:[link]

The World is surrounded by rectangular walls of Diamond. Just beyond the Eastern wall, the Sun (carried by a giant rode, made of unknown material comes through doors (yes, literal doors made of something Scientists claim to be an unknown type of wood, that can sustain huge amounts of heat) that are a hundred miles wide and tall (the Sun just barely fits through). At the end of the Sun's day it goes through similar doors at the western end of the world. At night, the Stars (about 500 miles above the surface of the world) turn on, and the Moon appears. Radiocarbon dating shows that the world is 10,000 years (give or take a century). Science clearly suspects that a intelligent being created the world, though many scientists have views differing with religions regarding its nature.

For the first half of that time, humanity was confined to Afro-Eurasia, and was limited to hunter-gatherer status. Civilization arose in Mesopotamia, and slightly later in Egypt, Yndia (India), and Cathay (China). Since the World is flat, the first humans in the Columbias (Americas) did not come from Siberia. For the next couple of Millenia, history followed roughly the same course as in our world (though Satyrs, Centaurs, and other wild creatures of Antiquity existed), with the Roman Empire rising and falling on schedule. One interesting difference, was that in about 600 B.C., a group of Egyptians and Greeks successfully survived a voyage to the Western continents, and settled a new land named Atlantis. A few of them managed to come back to Greece, but only once, so the myth that Atlantis sunk was created. The Atlanteans have dark brownish skin like Yndians, but piercing blue eyes like northern Europeans. The Atlanteans killed off most of the Native Dog-headed people (though to the North some still live). Atlantis became technologically stagnant (its horses and centuars died off), and its population developed a monotheistic religion worshipping the Sea and the Sun.
In 1501, a man named Columbus (a massive coincidence) discovered the Islands of the Bird People (frequent enemies of Atlantis), and few decades the Spanish (recently having finished their reconquista) conquered Atlantis. The English and French also got into colonizing North Columbia. South Columbia was a bit more difficult to colonize, because it had no native humans or other humanoid creatures. But with substantial imports of West African slaves, Spain and Portugal were able to bring the workers they needed to south Columbia (today, the majority of the populations of South Columbia are black).
Western Europe spread and conquered much of the world. Russia never formed, and the lands it would've conquered stayed in one Khanate or another. The Turks never became so prominent in Anatolia, and the Byzantines survived (by modern times, they've stopped calling themselves 'Romans'). Yndia was not colonized by a single power, but was divided between the English and the Portuguese. The Arabs reunited in the 1700, and 1800s, and remained off and on at war with Persia and France (colonizing large bits of West Africa). The Industrial revolution kicked off in England. Germany finally united in 1880, but had no colonial empire. The Khanates of Tartary and Serica formed a Buddhist Theocracy. The Islands of Zippangu (Japan) industrialized in the late 1800s. In 1920, Germany and Zippangu begin their Global War to conquer the World. Germany was defeated, and divided in 1940, while Zippangu (which had 'freed' many of the European colonies in South-East Asia, and Southern Cathay from the Tartar grasp) negotiated a peace with the Western Powers (without a round world, the Zippangunese didn't have to worry about Columbia or America coming at them from their east).
The current world is steeped in the conflict between the Western democracies, now headed by the United States of Columbia (less populous and more conservative than in our world), and the Twin 'Republic' of Tartary and Serica. The Nations of the West have even made an unholy alliance with the Zippangunese. A Nuclear arms race is now in its 7th decade. Both Columbian and Tartar scientists race to see which side can uncover the secrets of the world first (both have used rockets to reach the roof of the world, which exists 2000 miles up).

Despite renewed crusades in the 1700s, and no Protestant reformation, this world is more religiously tolerant. Most people believe the 'big five' religions to be true-Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Atlanteanism and Buddhism. Buddhism has been let into the club of Western Monotheisms, because both the Tartars, and the Zippangunese, have altered it to fit with the other religions (the Buddha was the Messiah, apparently, and he taught of just one god). Most people are disturbed by Hinduism, with its many gods, and seemingly unnatural view of a world which was clearly created by one god.

Description
This one is a bit different than everything else I've done. Inspired by this: [link] and this:[link]

The World is surrounded by rectangular walls of Diamond. Just beyond the Eastern wall, the Sun (carried by a giant rode, made of unknown material comes through doors (yes, literal doors made of something Scientists claim to be an unknown type of wood, that can sustain huge amounts of heat) that are a hundred miles wide and tall (the Sun just barely fits through). At the end of the Sun's day it goes through similar doors at the western end of the world. At night, the Stars (about 500 miles above the surface of the world) turn on, and the Moon appears. Radiocarbon dating shows that the world is 10,000 years (give or take a century). Science clearly suspects that a intelligent being created the world, though many scientists have views differing with religions regarding its nature.

For the first half of that time, humanity was confined to Afro-Eurasia, and was limited to hunter-gatherer status. Civilization arose in Mesopotamia, and slightly later in Egypt, Yndia (India), and Cathay (China). Since the World is flat, the first humans in the Columbias (Americas) did not come from Siberia. For the next couple of Millenia, history followed roughly the same course as in our world (though Satyrs, Centaurs, and other wild creatures of Antiquity existed), with the Roman Empire rising and falling on schedule. One interesting difference, was that in about 600 B.C., a group of Egyptians and Greeks successfully survived a voyage to the Western continents, and settled a new land named Atlantis. A few of them managed to come back to Greece, but only once, so the myth that Atlantis sunk was created. The Atlanteans have dark brownish skin like Yndians, but piercing blue eyes like northern Europeans. The Atlanteans killed off most of the Native Dog-headed people (though to the North some still live). Atlantis became technologically stagnant (its horses and centuars died off), and its population developed a monotheistic religion worshipping the Sea and the Sun.
In 1501, a man named Columbus (a massive coincidence) discovered the Islands of the Bird People (frequent enemies of Atlantis), and few decades the Spanish (recently having finished their reconquista) conquered Atlantis. The English and French also got into colonizing North Columbia. South Columbia was a bit more difficult to colonize, because it had no native humans or other humanoid creatures. But with substantial imports of West African slaves, Spain and Portugal were able to bring the workers they needed to south Columbia (today, the majority of the populations of South Columbia are black).
Western Europe spread and conquered much of the world. Russia never formed, and the lands it would've conquered stayed in one Khanate or another. The Turks never became so prominent in Anatolia, and the Byzantines survived (by modern times, they've stopped calling themselves 'Romans'). Yndia was not colonized by a single power, but was divided between the English and the Portuguese. The Arabs reunited in the 1700, and 1800s, and remained off and on at war with Persia and France (colonizing large bits of West Africa). The Industrial revolution kicked off in England. Germany finally united in 1880, but had no colonial empire. The Khanates of Tartary and Serica formed a Buddhist Theocracy. The Islands of Zippangu (Japan) industrialized in the late 1800s. In 1920, Germany and Zippangu begin their Global War to conquer the World. Germany was defeated, and divided in 1940, while Zippangu (which had 'freed' many of the European colonies in South-East Asia, and Southern Cathay from the Tartar grasp) negotiated a peace with the Western Powers (without a round world, the Zippangunese didn't have to worry about Columbia or America coming at them from their east).
The current world is steeped in the conflict between the Western democracies, now headed by the United States of Columbia (less populous and more conservative than in our world), and the Twin 'Republic' of Tartary and Serica. The Nations of the West have even made an unholy alliance with the Zippangunese. A Nuclear arms race is now in its 7th decade. Both Columbian and Tartar scientists race to see which side can uncover the secrets of the world first (both have used rockets to reach the roof of the world, which exists 2000 miles up).

Despite renewed crusades in the 1700s, and no Protestant reformation, this world is more religiously tolerant. Most people believe the 'big five' religions to be true-Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Atlanteanism and Buddhism. Buddhism has been let into the club of Western Monotheisms, because both the Tartars, and the Zippangunese, have altered it to fit with the other religions (the Buddha was the Messiah, apparently, and he taught of just one god). Most people are disturbed by Hinduism, with its many gods, and seemingly unnatural view of a world which was clearly created by one god.